The next day the duke, accompanied by General Lagarde, left for
Montpellier; and as it was on the latter that the Protestants placed
their sole reliance for the maintenance of those rights guaranteed for
the future by the word of the prince, they hesitated to take any new step
in his absence, and let the 9th of November go by without attempting to
resume public worship, preferring to wait for the return of their
protector, which took place on Saturday evening the 11th of November.

When the general got back, his first thought was to ask if the commands
of the prince had been carried out, and when he heard that they had not,
without waiting to hear a word in justification of the delay, he sent a
positive order to the president of the Consistory to open both places of
worship the next morning.

Upon this, the president carrying self-abnegation and prudence to their
extreme limits, went to the general's quarters, and having warmly thanked
him, laid before him the dangers to which he would expose himself by
running counter to the opinions of those who had had their own way in the
city for the last four months. But General Lagarde brushed all these
considerations aside: he had received an order from the prince, and to a
man of his military cast of mind no course was open but to carry that
order out.

Nevertheless, the president again expressed his doubts and fears.

"I will answer with my head," said the general, "that nothing happens."
Still the president counselled prudence, asking that only one place of
worship at first be opened, and to this the general gave his consent.