to which crowds of people came from all parts; but on the
following days it was still more numerous; for, as the news spread,
people ran with great eagerness to hear the preaching of the word of
which they had been so long deprived. D'Aygaliers tells us in his Memoirs
that--"No one could help being touched to see a whole people just escaped
from fire and sword, coming together in multitudes to mingle their tears
and sighs. So famished were they for the manna divine, that they were
like people coming out of a besieged city, after a long and cruel famine,
to whom peace has brought food in abundance, and who, first devouring it
with their eyes, then throw themselves on it, devouring it bodily--meat,
bread, and fruit--as it comes to hand. So it was with the unfortunate
inhabitants of La Vannage, and even of places more distant still. They
saw their brethren assembling in the meadows and at the gates of
Calvisson, gathering in crowds and pressing round anyone who started
singing a psalm, until at last four or five thousand persons, singing,
weeping, and praying, were gathered together, and remained there all day,
supplicating God with a devotion that went to every heart and made a deep
impression. All night the same things went on; nothing was to be heard
but preaching, singing, praying, and prophesying."

But if it was a time of joy for the Protestants, it was a time of
humiliation for the Catholics. "Certainly," says a contemporary
historian, "it was a very surprising thing, and quite a novelty, to see
in a province like Languedoc, where so many troops were quartered, such a
large number of villains--all murderers, incendiaries, and guilty of
sacrilege--gathered together in one place by permission of those in
command of the troops; tolerated in their eccentricities, fed at the
public expense, flattered by everyone, and courteously, received by
people sent specially to meet them."

One of those who was most indignant at this state of things was M. de
Baville. He was so eager to put an end to it that he went to see the
governor, and told him the scandal was becoming too great in his opinion:
the assemblies ought to be put an end to by allowing the troops to fall
upon them and disperse them; but the governor thought quite otherwise,
and told Baville that to act according to his advice would be to set fire
to the province again and to scatter for ever people whom they had got
together with such difficulty. In any case,