knowledge, coolness, and courage.

This new chief, whose superiors were soon to become his lieutenants, was
the famous Jean Cavalier.

Jean Cavalier was then a young man of twenty-three, of less than medium
height, but of great strength. His face was oval, with regular features,
his eyes sparkling and beautiful; he had long chestnut hair falling on
his shoulders, and an expression of remarkable sweetness. He was born in
1680 at Ribaute, a village in the diocese of Alais, where his father had
rented a small farm, which he gave up when his son was about fifteen,
coming to live at the farm of St. Andeol, near Mende.

Young Cavalier, who was only a peasant and the son of a peasant, began
life as a shepherd at the Sieur de Lacombe's, a citizen of Vezenobre, but
as the lonely life dissatisfied a young man who was eager for pleasure,
Jean gave it up, and apprenticed himself to a baker of Anduze.

There he developed a great love for everything connected with the
military; he spent all his free time watching the soldiers at their
drill, and soon became intimate with some of them, amongst others with a
fencing-master who gave him lessons, and a dragoon who taught him to
ride.

On a certain Sunday, as he was taking a walk with his sweetheart on his
arm, the young girl was insulted by a dragoon of the Marquis de Florae's
regiment. Jean boxed the dragoon's ears, who drew his sword. Cavalier
seized a sword from one of the bystanders, but the combatants were
prevented from fighting by Jean's friends. Hearing of the quarrel, an
officer hurried up: it was the Marquis de Florae himself, captain of the