ave driven a great many of them to join the insurgents. In
taking this step they were also impelled by the desire to avoid
imprisonment or removal from their homes, which were the remedies chosen
to keep them in the old faith. This being the case, he thinks that the
best means of putting an end to this state of things would be to take
measures exactly the contrary of those which produced it, such as putting
an end to the persecutions and permitting a certain number of those of
the Reformed religion to bear arms, that they might go to the rebels and
tell them that far from approving of their actions the Protestants as a
whole wished to bring them back to the right way by setting them a good
example, or to fight against them in order to show the king and France,
at the risk of their lives, that they disapproved of the conduct of their
co-religionists, and that the priests had been in the wrong in writing to
the court that all those of the Reformed religion were in favour of
revolt."

D'Aygaliers hoped that the court would adopt this plan; for if they did,
one of two things must happen: either the Camisards, by refusing to
accept the terms offered to them, would make themselves odious to their
brethren (for d'Aygaliers intended to take with him on his mission of
persuasion only men of high reputation among the Reformers, who would be
repelled by the Camisards if they refused to submit), or else; by laying
down their arms and submitting, they would restore peace to the South of
France, obtain liberty of worship, set free their brethren from the
prisons and galleys, and come to the help of the king in his war against
the allied powers, by supplying him in a moment with a large body of
disciplined troops ready to take the field against his enemies; for not
only would the Camisards, if they were supplied with officers, be
available for this purpose, but also those troops which were at the
moment employed in hunting down the Camisards would be set free for this
important duty.

This proposition was so clear and promised to produce such useful
results, that although the prejudice against the Reformers was very
strong, Baron d'Aygaliers found supporters who were at once intelligent
and genuine in the Duke de Chevreuse and the Duke de Montfort, his son.
These two gentlemen brought about a meeting between the baron and
Chamillard, and the latter presented him to the Marechal de Villars, to
whom he showed his petition, begging hi