quartered in the town, hearing of the tumult, repaired at once to the
barracks, but soon came out again, and approaching the crowd tried to
persuade it to disperse, to which the only answer they received was a
shower of bullets. Convinced by this, as he was well acquainted with the
character of the people with whom he had to deal, that the struggle had
begun in earnest and must be fought out to the bitter end, the general
retreated with his officers, step by step, to the barracks, and having
got inside the gates, closed and bolted them.

He then decided that it was his duty to repulse force by force, for
everyone was determined to defend, at no matter what cost, a position
which, from the first moment of revolt, was fraught with such peril. So,
without waiting for orders, the soldiers, seeing that some of their
windows had been broken by shots from without, returned the fire, and,
being better marksmen than the townspeople, soon laid many low. Upon
this the alarmed crowd retired out of musket range, and entrenched
themselves in some neighbouring houses.

About nine o'clock in the evening, a man bearing something resembling a
white flag approached the walls and asked to speak to the general. He
brought a message inquiring on what terms the troops would consent to
evacuate Nimes. The general sent back word that the conditions were,
that the troops should be allowed to march out fully armed and with all
their baggage; the five guns alone would be left behind. When the forces
reached a certain valley outside the city they would halt, that the men
might be supplied with means sufficient to enable them either to rejoin
the regiments to which they belonged, or to return to their own homes.

At two o'clock A. M. the same envoy returned, and announced to the
general that the conditions had been accepted with one alteration, which