y did not pursue their
vengeance any further. They then went into the open country and meeting
Pierre and Jean Bernard, uncle and nephew, one aged forty-five and the
other ten, seized on them both, and putting a pistol into the hands of
the child, forced him to shoot his uncle. In the meantime the boy's
father had come up, and him they tried to constrain to shoot his son; but
finding that no threats had any effect, they ended by killing both, one
by the sword, the other by the bayonet.

"The reason why they put an end to father and son so quickly was that
they had noticed three young girls of Bagnols going towards a grove of
mulberry trees, where they were raising silk-worms. The men followed
them, and as it was broad daylight and the girls were therefore not
afraid, they soon came up with them. Having first violated them, they
hung them by the feet to a tree, and put them to death in a horrible
manner."

All this took place in the reign of Louis the Great, and for the greater
glory of the Catholic religion.

History has preserved the names of the five wretches who perpetrated
these crimes: they were Pierre Vigneau, Antoine Rey, Jean d'Hugon,
Guillaume, and Gontanille.

CHAPTER III

Such crimes, of which we have only described a few, inspired horror in
the breasts of those who were neither maddened by fanaticism nor devoured
by the desire of vengeance. One of these, a Protestant, Baron
d'Aygaliers, without stopping to consider what means he had at his
command or what measures were the best to take to accomplish his object,
resolved to devote his life to the pacification of the Cevennes. The
first thing to be considered was, that if the Camisards were ever
entirely destroyed by means of Catholic troops directed by de Baville, de
Julien, and de Montrevel, the Protestants, and especially the Protestant
nobles who had never borne arms, would be regarded as cowards, who had
been prevented by fear of death or persecution from openly taking the
part of the Huguenots: He was therefore convinced that the only course to
pursue was to get, his co-religionists to put an end to the struggle
themselves, as the one way of pleasing His Majesty and of showing him how
groundless were the suspicions aroused in the minds of men by the
Catholic clergy.

This plan presented, especially to Baron d'Aygaliers, two apparently
insurmountable difficulties, for it could only be carried out by inducing
the king to relax his rigor