eard cursing and
complaining all night through. Ravanel, Villas, and Jonquet were
confined together, and passed the night singing and praying.

The next day, the 22nd April, 1705, they were taken from the prison and
drawn to the place of execution in two carts, being unable to walk, on
account of the severe torture to which they had been subjected, and which
had crushed the bones of their legs. A single pile of wood had been
prepared for Catinat and Ravanel, who were to be burnt together; they
were in one cart, and Villas and Jonquet, for whom two wheels had been
prepared, were in the other.

The first operation was to bind Catinat and Ravanel back to back to the
same stake, care being taken to place Catinat with his face to windward,
so that his agony might last longer, and then the pile was lit under
Ravanel.

As had been foreseen, this precaution gave great pleasure to those people
who took delight in witnessing executions. The wind being rather high,
blew the flames away from Catinat, so that at first the fire burnt his
legs only--a circumstance which, the author of the History of the
Camisards tells us, aroused Catinat's impatience. Ravanel, however, bore
everything to the end with the greatest heroism, only pausing in his
singing to address words of encouragement to his companion in suffering,
whom he could not see, but whose groans and curses he could hear; he
would then return to his psalms, which he continued to sing until his
voice was stifled in the flames. Just as he expired, Jonquet was removed
from the wheel, and carried, his broken limbs dangling, to the burning
pile, on which he was thrown. From the midst of the flames his voice was
heard saying, "Courage, Catinat; we shall soon meet in heaven." A few
moments later, the stake, being burnt through at the base, broke, and
Catinat falling into the flames, was quickly suffocated. That this
accident had not been forseen and prevented by proper precautions caused
great displeasure to spectators who found that the three-quarter of an
hour which the spectacle had lasted was much too brief a time.

Villas lived three hours longer on his wheel, and expired without having
uttered a single complaint.

Two days later, there was another trial, at which six persons were
condemned to death and one to the galleys; these were the two Alisons, in
whose house Villas, Ravanel, and Jonquet had been found; Alegre, who was
accused of having concealed Catinat, and of