s, but that they
were destined to the triumph and not to the desecration of religion, and
that he would only give them up with his life. With these words, he
dismissed the envoys, barring his doors behind them.

But while this parley was going on the conspirators had approached the
chateau, and thus received the valiant answer to their demands sooner
than M. de Laveze had counted on. Resolving not to leave him time to
take defensive measures, they dashed at the house, and by standing on
each other's shoulders reached the room in which M. de Laveze and his
entire family had taken refuge. In an instant the door was forced, and
the fanatics, still reeking with the life-blood of Abbe Duchayla, began
again their work of death. No one was spared; neither the master of the
house, nor his brother, nor his uncle, nor his sister, who knelt to the
assassins in vain; even his old mother, who was eighty years of age,
having from her bed first witnessed the murder of all her family, was at
last stabbed to the heart, though the butchers might have reflected that
it was hardly worth while thus to anticipate the arrival of Death, who
according to the laws of nature must have been already at hand.

The massacre finished, the fanatics spread over the castle, supplying
themselves with arms and under-linen, being badly in need of the latter;
for when they left their homes they had expected soon to return, and had
taken nothing with them. They also carried off the copper kitchen
utensils, intending to turn them into bullets. Finally, they seized on a
sum of 5000 francs, the marriage-portion of M. de Laveze's sister, who
was just about to be married, and thus laid the foundation of a war fund.

The news of these two bloody events soon reached not only Nimes but all
the countryside, and roused the authorities to action. M. le Comte de
Broglie crossed the Upper Cevennes, and marched down to the bridge of
Montvert, followed by several companies of fusiliers. From another
direction M. le Comte de Peyre brought thirty-two cavalry and three
hundred and fifty infantry, having enlisted them at Marvejols, La
Canourgue, Chiac, and Serverette. M. de St. Paul, Abbe Duchayla's
brother, and the Marquis Duchayla, his nephew, brought eighty horsemen
from the family estates. The Count of Morangiez rode in from St. Auban
and Malzieu with two companies of cavalry, and the town of Mende by order
of its bishop despatched its nobles at the head of three