at his disposal. Some distance
away, another chief, named Joanny, had four hundred; Larose, to whom
Castanet had transferred his command, found himself at the head of three
hundred; Boizeau de Rochegude was followed by one hundred, Saltet de
Soustel by two hundred, Louis Coste by fifty, and Catinat by forty, so
that, in spite of the victory of Montrevel and the negotiations of M. de
Villars, the Camisards still formed an effective force of eighteen
hundred and ninety men, not to speak of many single troopers who owned no
commander but acted each for himself, and were none the less mischievous
for that. All these troops, except these latter, obeyed Roland, who
since the defection of Cavalier had been recognised as generalissimo of
the forces. M. de Villars thought if he could separate Roland from his
troops as he had separated Cavalier, his plans would be more easy to
carry out.

So he made use of every means within his reach to gain over Roland, and
as soon as one plan failed he tried another. At one moment he was almost
sure of obtaining his object by the help of a certain Jourdan de Mianet,
a great friend of his, who offered his services as an intermediary, but
who failed like all the others, receiving from Roland a positive refusal,
so that it became evident that resort must be had to other means than
those of persuasion. A sum of 100 Louis had already been set on Roland's
head: this sum was now doubled.

Three days afterwards, a young man from Uzes, by name Malarte, in whom
Roland had every confidence, wrote to M. de Paratte that the Camisard
general intended to pass the night of the 14th of August at the chateau
Castelnau.

De Paratte immediately made his dispositions, and ordered Lacoste-Badie,
at the head of two companies of dragoons, and all the officers at Uzes
who were well mounted, to hold themselves in readiness to start on an
expedition at eight o'clock in the evening, but not revealing its object
to them till the time came. At eight o'clock, having been told what they
had to do, they set off at such a pace that they came in sight of the
chateau within an hour, and were obliged to halt and conceal themselves,
lest they should appear too soon, before Roland had retired for the
night. But they need not have been afraid; the Camisard chief, who was
accustomed to rely on all his men as on himself, had gone to bed without
any suspicion, having full confidence in the vigilance of one of his
officers, nam