but upon a matter which concerns the welfare of the State. I therefore
beg you to put out of your mind the dislike which you have to me and
mine, and I do this the more earnestly that your dislike can only have
been caused by the fact that our religion is different from yours--a
thing which could neither have been foreseen nor prevented. My entreaty
is that you do not try to set M. le marechal against the course which I
have proposed to him, which I am convinced would bring the disorders in
our province to an end, stop the occurrence of the many unfortunate
events which I am sure you look on with regret, and spare you much
trouble and embarrassment."

The intendant was much touched by this calm speech, and above all by the
confidence which M. d'Aygaliers had shown him, and replied that he had
only offered opposition to the plan of pacification because he believed
it to be impracticable. M. d'Aygaliers then warmly pressed him to try it
before rejecting it for ever, and in the end M. de Baville withdrew his
opposition.

M, d'Aygaliers hastened to the marechal, who finding himself no longer
alone in his favourable opinion, made no further delay, but told the
baron to call together that very day all the people whom he thought
suitable for the required service, and desired that they should be
presented to him the next morning before he set out for Nimes.

The next day, instead of the fifty men whom the marachal had thought
could be gathered together, d'Aygaliers came to him followed by eighty,
who were almost all of good and many of noble family. The meeting took
place, by the wish of the baron, in the courtyard of the episcopal
palace. "This palace," says the baron in his Memoirs, "which was of
great magnificence, surrounded by terraced gardens and superbly