having from her bed first witnessed the murder of all her family, was at
last stabbed to the heart, though the butchers might have reflected that
it was hardly worth while thus to anticipate the arrival of Death, who
according to the laws of nature must have been already at hand.

The massacre finished, the fanatics spread over the castle, supplying
themselves with arms and under-linen, being badly in need of the latter;
for when they left their homes they had expected soon to return, and had
taken nothing with them. They also carried off the copper kitchen
utensils, intending to turn them into bullets. Finally, they seized on a
sum of 5000 francs, the marriage-portion of M. de Laveze's sister, who
was just about to be married, and thus laid the foundation of a war fund.

The news of these two bloody events soon reached not only Nimes but all
the countryside, and roused the authorities to action. M. le Comte de
Broglie crossed the Upper Cevennes, and marched down to the bridge of
Montvert, followed by several companies of fusiliers. From another
direction M. le Comte de Peyre brought thirty-two cavalry and three
hundred and fifty infantry, having enlisted them at Marvejols, La
Canourgue, Chiac, and Serverette. M. de St. Paul, Abbe Duchayla's
brother, and the Marquis Duchayla, his nephew, brought eighty horsemen
from the family estates. The Count of Morangiez rode in from St. Auban
and Malzieu with two companies of cavalry, and the town of Mende by order
of its bishop despatched its nobles at the head of three companies of
fifty men each.

But the mountains had swallowed up the fanatics, and nothing was ever
known of their fate, except that from time to time a peasant would relate
that in crossing the Cevennes he had heard at dawn or dusk, on mountain
peak or from valley depths, the sound going up to heaven of songs of