out for a dozen loaves that he might judge how his men were going to be
fed; not finding them white enough, he complained to M. Vincel, whom he
sent for, and who promised that in future the bread should be of a better
quality. Having received this assurance, Cavalier gave orders that the
loaves in hand should be distributed for that day, but probably fearing
poison, he first made M. de Vincel and his clerks taste them in his
presence. These duties accomplished, he visited in person all the gates
of the town, placed guards and posted sentinels at all the entrances and
along all the avenues, the most advanced being three-quarters of a league
from the town. Besides this, he placed guards in the streets, and a
sentinel at each door of the house he occupied; in addition, thirty
guards always slept outside the door of his bedroom, and these
accompanied him as an escort when he went out; not that he was afraid,
for he was not of a mistrustful character, but that he thought it politic
to give people an exalted idea of his importance. As to his soldiers,
they were billeted on the inhabitants, and received each as daily rations
a pound of meat, a quart of wine, and two and a half pounds of bread.

The same day a convocation was held on the site of the old meeting-house
which had been destroyed by the Catholics. It was a very numerous
assembly, 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,