He Declared, In The Name Of
God, That The Time For Submission Had Gone By, And They Must Betake
Themselves To Arms For The Deliverance Of Their Brethren And The
Destruction Of The Priests.
The next night, 24th July 1702, a sound disturbed the Inspector of
Missions as he sat in his prison-house at Pont de Montvert:
The voices of
many men upraised in psalmody drew nearer and nearer through the town. It
was ten at night; he had his court about him, priests, soldiers, and
servants, to the number of twelve or fifteen; and now dreading the
insolence of a conventicle below his very windows, he ordered forth his
soldiers to report. But the psalm-singers were already at his door,
fifty strong, led by the inspired Seguier, and breathing death. To their
summons, the archpriest made answer like a stout old persecutor, and bade
his garrison fire upon the mob. One Camisard (for, according to some, it
was in this night's work that they came by the name) fell at this
discharge: his comrades burst in the door with hatchets and a beam of
wood, overran the lower story of the house, set free the prisoners, and
finding one of them in the vine, a sort of Scavenger's Daughter of the
place and period, redoubled in fury against Du Chayla, and sought by
repeated assaults to carry the upper floors. But he, on his side, had
given absolution to his men, and they bravely held the staircase.
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