INSURRECTION OF THE CAMISARDS.
The poor peasants, wool-carders, and neatherds of the Cevennes, formed
only a small and insignificant section of the great body of men who
were about the same time engaged in different countries of Europe in
vindicating the cause of civil and religious liberty. For this cause,
a comparative handful of people in the Low Countries, occupying the
Dutch United Provinces, had banded themselves together to resist the
armies of Spain, then the most powerful monarchy in the world. The
struggle had also for some time been in progress in England and
Scotland, where it culminated in the Revolution of 1688; and it was
still raging in the Vaudois valleys of Piedmont.
The object contended for in all these cases was the same. It was the
vindication of human freedom against royal and sacerdotal despotism.
It could only have been the direst necessity that drove a poor,
scattered, unarmed peasantry, such as the people of the Cevennes, to
take up arms against so powerful a sovereign as Louis XIV. Their
passive resistance had lasted for fifteen long years, during which
many of them had seen their kindred racked, hanged, or sent to the
galleys; and at length their patience was exhausted, and the
inevitable outburst took place. Yet they were at any moment ready to
lay down their arms and return to their allegiance, provided only a
reasonable degree of liberty of worship were assured to them. This,
however, their misguided and bigoted monarch, would not tolerate; for
he had sworn that no persons were to be suffered in his dominions save
those who were of "the King's religion."
The circumstances accompanying the outbreak of the Protestant
peasantry in the Cevennes in many respects resembled those which
attended the rising of the Scotch Covenanters in 1679. Both were
occasioned by the persistent attempts of men in power to enforce a
particular form of religion at the point of the sword. The resisters
of the policy were in both cases Calvinists;[37] and they were alike
indomitable and obstinate in their assertion of the rights of
conscience. They held that religion was a matter between man and his
God, and not between man and his sovereign or the Pope. The peasantry
in both cases persevered in their own form of worship. In Languedoc,
the mountaineers of the Cevennes held their assemblies in "The
Desert;" and in Scotland, the "hill-folk" of the West held their
meetings on the muirs. In the one country as in the other, the
monarchy sent out soldiers as their missionaries--Louis XIV. employing
the dragoons of Louvois and Baville, and Charles II. those of
Claverhouse and Dalzell. These failing, new instruments of torture
were invented for their "conversion." But the people, in both cases,
continued alike stubborn in their adherence to their own simple and,
as some thought, uncouth form of faith.
[Footnote 37: Whether it be that Calvinism is eclectic as
regards races and individuals, or that it has (as is most
probably the case) a powerful formative influence upon
individual character, certain it is that the Calvinists of
all countries have presented the strongest possible
resemblance to each other--the Calvinists of Geneva and
Holland, the Huguenots of France, the Covenanters of
Scotland, and the Puritans of Old and New England, seeming,
as it were, to be but members of the same family. It is
curious to speculate on the influence which the religion of
Calvin--himself a Frenchman--might have exercised on the
history of France, as well as on the individual character of
Frenchmen, had the balance of forces carried the nation
bodily over to Protestantism (as was very nearly the case)
towards the end of the sixteenth century. Heinrich Heine has
expressed the opinion that the western races contain a large
proportion of men for whom the moral principle of Judaism has
a strong elective affinity; and in the sixteenth and
seventeenth centuries, the Old Testament certainly seems to
have exercised a much more powerful influence on the minds of
religious reformers than the New. "The Jews," says Heine,
"were the Germans of the East, and nowadays the Protestants
in German countries (England, Scotland, America, Germany,
Holland) are nothing more nor less than ancient Oriental
Jews."]
The French Calvinist peasantry, like the Scotch, were great in their
preachers and their prophets. Both devoted themselves with enthusiasm
to psalmody, insomuch that "psalm-singers" was their nickname in both
countries. The one had their Clement Marot by heart, the other their
Sternhold and Hopkins. Huguenot prisoners in chains sang psalms in
their dungeons, galley slaves sang them as they plied at the oar,
fugitives in the halting-places of their flight, the condemned as they
marched to the gallows, and the Camisards as they rushed into battle.
It was said of the Covenanters that "they lived praying and preaching,
and they died praying and fighting;" and the same might have been said
of the Huguenot peasantry of the Cevennes.
The immediate cause of the outbreak of the insurrection in both
countries was also similar. In the one case, it was the cruelty of the
archpriest Chayla, the inventor of a new machine of torture called
"the Squeezers,"[38] and in the other the cruelty of Archbishop
Sharpe, the inventor of that horrible instrument called "the Iron
Boot," that excited the fury of the people; and the murder of the one
by Seguier and his band at Pont-de-Montvert, as of the other by
Balfour of Burley and his companions on Magus Muir, proved the signal
for a general insurrection of the peasantry in both countries. Both
acts were of like atrocity; but they corresponded in character with
the cruelties which had provoked them. Insurrections, like
revolutions, are not made of rose-water. In such cases, action and
reaction are equal; the violence of the oppressors usually finding its
counterpart in the violence of the oppressed.
[Footnote 38: The instrument is thus described by Cavalier,
in his "Memoirs of the Wars of the Cevennes," London, 1726:
"This inhuman man had invented a rack (more cruel, if it be
possible, than that usually made use of) to torment these
poor unfortunate gentlemen and ladies; which was a beam he
caused to be split in two, with vices at each end. Every
morning he would send for these poor people, in order to
examine them, and if they refused to confess what he desired,
he caused their legs to be put in the slit of the beam, and
there squeezed them till the bones cracked," &c., &c. (p.
35).]
The insurrection of the French peasantry proved by far the most
determined and protracted of the two; arising probably from the more
difficult character of the mountain districts which they occupied and
the quicker military instincts of the people, as well as because
several of their early leaders and organizers were veteran soldiers
who had served in many campaigns. The Scotch insurgents were
suppressed by the English army under the Duke of Monmouth in less than
two months after the original outbreak, though their cause eventually
triumphed in the Revolution of 1688; whereas the peasantry of the
Cevennes, though deprived of all extraneous help, continued to
maintain a heroic struggle for several years, but were under the
necessity of at last succumbing to the overpowering military force of
Louis XIV., after which the Huguenots of France continued to be
stamped out of sight, and apparently out of existence, for nearly a
century.
* * * * *
In the preceding chapter, we left the archpriest Chayla a corpse at
the feet of his murderers. Several of the soldiers found in the
chateau were also killed, as well as the cook and house-steward, who
had helped to torture the prisoners. But one of the domestics, and a
soldier, who had treated them with kindness, were, at their
intercession, pardoned and set at liberty. The corpses were brought
together in the garden, and Seguier and his companions, kneeling round
them--a grim and ghastly sight--sang psalms until daybreak, the
uncouth harmony mingling with the crackling of the flames of the
dwelling overhead, and the sullen roar of the river rushing under the
neighbouring bridge.
When the grey of morning appeared, the men rose from their knees,
emerged from the garden, crossed the bridge, and marched up the main
street of the village. The inhabitants had barricaded themselves in
their houses, being in a state of great fear lest they should be
implicated in the murder of the archpriest. But Seguier and his
followers made no further halt in Pont-de-Montvert, but passed along,
still singing psalms, towards the hamlet of Frugeres, a little further
up the valley of the Tarn.
Seguier has been characterised as "the Danton of the Cevennes." This
fierce and iron-willed man was of great stature--bony and
dark-visaged, without upper teeth, his hair hanging loose over his
shoulders--and of a wild and mystic appearance, occasioned probably by
the fits of ecstasy to which he was subject, and the wandering life he
had for so many years led as a prophet-preacher in the Desert. This
terrible man had resolved upon a general massacre of the priests, and
he now threw himself upon Frugeres for the purpose of carrying out the
enterprise begun by him at Pont-de-Montvert. The cure of the hamlet,
who had already heard of Chayla's murder, fled from his house at sound
of the approaching psalm-singers, and took refuge in an adjoining
rye-field. He was speedily tracked thither, and brought down by a
musket-ball; and a list of twenty of his parishioners, whom he had
denounced to the archpriest, was found under his cassock.
From Frugeres the prophet and his band marched on to St. Maurice de
Ventalong, so called because of the winds which at certain seasons
blow so furiously along the narrow valley in which it is situated; but
the prior of the convent, having been warned of the outbreak, had
already mounted his horse and taken to flight. Here Seguier was
informed of the approach of a body of militia who were on his trail;
but he avoided them by taking refuge on a neighbouring mountain-side,
where he spent the night with his companions in a thicket.
Next morning, at daybreak, he descended the mountain, crossed the
track of his pursuers, and directed himself upon St. Andre de Lanceze.
The whole country was by this time in a state of alarm; and the cure
of the place, being on the outlook, mounted the clock-tower and rang
the tocsin. But his parishioners having joined the insurgents, the
cure was pursued, captured in the belfry, and thrown from its highest
window. The insurgents then proceeded to gut the church, pull down the
crosses, and destroy all the emblems of Romanism on which they could
lay their hands.
Seguier and his band next hurried across the mountains towards the
south, having learnt that the cures of the neighbourhood had assembled
at St. Germain to assist at the obsequies of the archpriest Chayla,
whose body had been brought thither from Pont-de-Montvert on the
morning after his murder. When Seguier was informed that the town and
country militia were in force in the place, he turned aside and went
in another direction. The cures, however, having heard that Seguier
was in the neighbourhood, fled panic-stricken, some to the chateau of
Portes, others to St. Andre, while a number of them did not halt until
they had found shelter within the walls of Alais, some twenty miles
distant.
Thus four days passed. On the fifth night Seguier appeared before the
chateau of Ladeveze, and demanded the arms which had been deposited
there at the time of the disarmament of the peasantry. The owner
replied by a volley of musketry, which killed and wounded several of
the insurgents, at the same time ringing the alarm-bell. Seguier,
furious at this resistance, at once burst open the gates, and ordered
a general massacre of the household. This accomplished, he ransacked
the place of its arms and ammunition, and before leaving set the
castle on fire, the flames throwing a lurid glare over the surrounding
country. Seguier's band then descended the mountain on which the
chateau is situated, and made for the north in the direction of
Cassagnas, arriving at the elevated plateau of Font-Morte a little
before daybreak.
In the meantime, Baville, the intendant of the province, was hastening
to Pont-de-Montvert to put down the insurrection and avenge the death
of the archpriest. The whole country was roused. Troops were
dispatched in hot haste from Alais; the militia were assembled from
all quarters and marched upon the disturbed district. The force was
placed under the orders of Captain Poul, an old soldier of fortune,
who had distinguished himself in the German wars, and in the recent
crusade against the Italian Vaudois. It was because of the individual
prowess which Captain Poul had displayed in his last campaign, that,
at the peace of Ryswick, Baville requested that he should be attached
to the army of Languedoc, and employed in putting down the insurgents
of the Cevennes.
Captain Poul was hastening with his troops to Florac when, having been
informed of the direction in which Seguier and his band had gone, he
turned aside at Barre, and after about an hour's march eastward, he
came up with them at Font-Morte. They suddenly started up from amongst
the broom where they had lain down to sleep, and, firing off their
guns upon the advancing host, without offering any further resistance,
fled in all directions. Poul and his men spurred after them, cutting
down the fugitives. Coming up with Seguier, who was vainly trying to
rally his men, Poul took him prisoner with several others, and they
were forthwith chained and marched to Florac. As they proceeded along
the road, Poul said to Seguier, "Well, wretch! now I have got you, how
do you expect to be treated after the crimes you have committed?" "As
I would myself have treated you, had I taken you prisoner," was the
reply.
Seguier stood before his judges calm and fearless. "What is your
name?" he was asked. "Pierre Seguier." "Why do they call you Esprit?"
"Because the Spirit of God is in me." "Your abode?" "In the Desert,
and shortly in heaven." "Ask pardon of the King!" "We have no other
King but the Eternal." "Have you no feeling of remorse for your
crimes?" "My soul is as a garden full of shady groves and of peaceful
fountains."
Seguier was condemned to have his hands cut off at the wrist, and he
burnt alive at Pont-de-Montvert. Nouvel, another of the prisoners, was
broken alive at Ladeveze, and Bonnet, a third, was hanged at St.
Andre. They all suffered without flinching. Seguier's last words,
spoken amidst the flames, were, "Brethren, wait, and hope in the
Eternal. The desolate Carmel shall yet revive, and the solitary
Lebanon shall blossom as the rose!" Thus perished the grim,
unflinching prophet of Magistavols, the terrible avenger of the
cruelties of Chayla, the earliest leader in the insurrection of the
Camisards!
It is not exactly known how or when the insurgents were first called
Camisards. They called themselves by no other name than "The Children of
God" (_Enfants de Dieu_); but their enemies variously nicknamed them
"The Barbets," "The Vagabonds," "The Assemblers," "The Psalm-singers,"
"The Fanatics," and lastly, "The Camisards." This name is said to have
been given them because of the common blouse or camisole which they
wore--their only uniform. Others say that it arose from their wearing a
white shirt, or camise, over their dress, to enable them to distinguish
each other in their night attacks; and that this was not the case, is
partly countenanced by the fact that in the course of the insurrection a
body of peasant royalists took the field, who designated themselves the
"_White_ Camisards," in contradistinction from the others. Others say
the word is derived from _camis_, signifying a roadrunner. But whatever
the origin of the word may be, the Camisards was the name most commonly
applied to the insurgents, and by which they continue to be known in
local history.
* * * * *
Captain Poul vigorously followed up the blow delivered at Font-Morte.
He apprehended all suspected persons in the Upper Cevennes, and sent
them before the judges at Florac. Unable to capture the insurgents who
had escaped, he seized their parents, their relations, and families,
and these were condemned to various punishments. But what had become
of the insurgents themselves? Knowing that they had nothing but death
to expect, if taken, they hid themselves in caves known only to the
inhabitants of the district, and so secretly that Poul thought they
had succeeded in making their escape from France. The Intendant
Baville arrived at the same conclusion, and he congratulated himself
accordingly on the final suppression of the outbreak. Leaving sundry
detachments of troops posted in the principal villages, he returned to
Alais, and invited the fugitive priests at once to return to their
respective parishes.
After remaining in concealment for several days, the surviving
insurgents met one night to consult as to the steps they were to take,
with a view to their personal safety. They had by this time been
joined by several sympathizers, amongst others by three veteran
soldiers--Laporte, Esperandieu, and Rastelet--and by young Cavalier,
who had just returned from Geneva, where he had been in exile, and was
now ready to share in the dangers of his compatriots. The greater
number of those present were in favour of bidding a final adieu to
France, and escaping across the frontier into Switzerland, considering
that the chances of their offering any successful resistance to their
oppressors, were altogether hopeless. But against this craven course
Laporte raised his voice.
"Brethren," said he, "why depart into the land of the stranger? Have
we not a country of our own, the country of our fathers? It is, you
say, a country of slavery and death! Well! Free it! and deliver your
oppressed brethren. Never say, 'What can we do? we are few in number,
and without arms!' The God of armies shall be our strength. Let us
sing aloud the psalm of battles, and from the Lozere even to the sea
Israel will arise! As for arms, have we not our hatchets? These will
bring us muskets! Brethren, there is only one course worthy to be
pursued. It is to live for our country; and, if need be, to die for
it. Better die by the sword than by the rack or the gallows!"
From this moment, not another word was said of flight. With one voice,
the assembly cried to the speaker, "Be our chief! It is the will of
the Eternal!" "The Eternal be the witness of your promises," replied
Laporte; "I consent to be your chief!" He assumed forthwith the title
of "Colonel of the Children of God," and named his camp "The camp of
the Eternal!"
Laporte belonged to an old Huguenot family of the village of
Massoubeyran, near Anduze. They were respectable peasants, some of
whom lived by farming and others by trade. Old John Laporte had four
sons, of whom the eldest succeeded his father as a small farmer and
cattle-breeder, occupying the family dwelling at Massoubeyran, still
known there as the house of "Laporte-Roland." It contains a secret
retreat, opening from a corner of the floor, called the "Cachette de
Roland," in which the celebrated chief of this name, son of the
owner, was accustomed to take refuge; and in this cottage, the old
Bible of Roland's father, as well as the halbert of Roland himself,
continue to be religiously preserved.
Two of Laporte's brothers were Protestant ministers. One of them was
the last pastor of Collet-de-Deze in the Cevennes. Banished because of
his faith, he fled from France at the Revocation, joined the army of
the Prince of Orange in Holland, and came over with him to England as
chaplain of one of the French regiments which landed at Torbay in
1688. Another brother, also a pastor, remained in the Cevennes,
preaching to the people in the Desert, though at the daily risk of his
life, and after about ten years' labour in this vocation, he was
apprehended, taken prisoner to Montpellier, and strangled on the
Peyrou in the year 1696.
The fourth brother was the Laporte whom we have just described in
undertaking the leadership of the hunted insurgents remaining in the
Upper Cevennes. He had served as a soldier in the King's armies, and
at the peace of Ryswick returned to his native village, the year after
his elder brother had suffered martyrdom at Montpellier. He settled
for a time at Collet-de-Deze, from which his other brother had been
expelled, and there he carried on the trade of an ironworker and
blacksmith. He was a great, brown, brawny man, of vehement piety, a
constant frequenter of the meetings in the Desert, and a mighty
psalm-singer--one of those strong, massive, ardent-natured men who so
powerfully draw others after them, and in times of revolution exercise
a sort of popular royalty amongst the masses. The oppression which had
raged so furiously in the district excited his utmost indignation,
and when he sought out the despairing insurgents in the mountains,
and found that they were contemplating flight, he at once gave
utterance to the few burning words we have cited, and fixed their
determination to strike at least another blow for the liberty of their
country and their religion.
The same evening on which Laporte assumed the leadership (about the
beginning of August, 1702) he made a descent on three Roman Catholic
villages in the neighbourhood of the meeting-place, and obtained
possession of a small stock of powder and balls. When it became known
that the insurgents were again drawing together, others joined them.
Amongst these were Castonet, a forest-ranger of the Aigoal mountain
district in the west, who brought with him some twelve recruits from
the country near Vebron. Shortly after, there arrived from Vauvert the
soldier Catinet, bringing with him twenty more. Next came young
Cavalier, from Ribaute, with another band, armed with muskets which
they had seized from the prior of St. Martin, with whom they had been
deposited.
Meanwhile Laporte's nephew, young Roland, was running from village to
village in the Vaunage, holding assemblies and rousing the people to
come to the help of their distressed brethren in the mountains. Roland
was a young man of bright intelligence, gifted with much of the
preaching power of his family. His eloquence was of a martial sort,
for he had been bred a soldier, and though young, had already fought
in many battles. He was everywhere received with open arms in the
Vaunage.
"My brethren," said he, "the cause of God and the deliverance of
Israel is at stake. Follow us to the mountains. No country is better
suited for war--we have the hill-tops for camps, gorges for
ambuscades, woods to rally in, caves to hide in, and, in case of
flight, secret tracts trodden only by the mountain goat. All the
people there are your brethren, who will throw open their cabins to
you, and share their bread and milk and the flesh of their sheep with
you, while the forests will supply you with chestnuts. And then, what
is there to fear? Did not God nourish his chosen people with manna in
the desert? And does He not renew his miracles day by day? Will not
his Spirit descend upon his afflicted children? He consoles us, He
strengthens us, He calls us to arms, He will cause his angels to march
before us! As for me, I am an old soldier, and will do my duty!"[39]
[Footnote 39: Brueys, "Histoire de Fanatisme;" Peyrat,
"Histoire des Pasteurs du Desert."]
These stirring words evoked an enthusiastic response. Numbers of the
people thus addressed by Roland declared themselves ready to follow
him at once. But instead of taking with him all who were willing to
join the standard of the insurgents, he directed them to enrol and
organize themselves, and await his speedy return; selecting for the
present only such as were in his opinion likely to make efficient
soldiers, and with these he rejoined his uncle in the mountains.
The number of the insurgents was thus raised to about a hundred and
fifty--a very small body of men, contemptible in point of numbers
compared with the overwhelming forces by which they were opposed, but
all animated by a determined spirit, and commanded by fearless and
indomitable leaders. The band was divided into three brigades of fifty
each; Laporte taking the command of the companions of Seguier; the
new-comers being divided into two bodies of like number, who elected
Roland and Castanet as their respective chiefs.
Laporte occupied the last days of August in drilling his troops, and
familiarising them with the mountain district which was to be the
scene of their operations. While thus engaged, he received an urgent
message from the Protestant herdsmen of the hill-country of Vebron,
whose cattle, sheep, and goats a band of royalist militia, under
Colonel Miral, had captured, and were driving northward towards
Florac. Laporte immediately ran to their help, and posted himself to
intercept them at the bridge of Tarnon, which they must cross. On the
militia coming up, the Camisards fell upon them furiously, on which
they took to flight, and the cattle were driven back in triumph to the
villages.
Laporte then led his victorious troops towards Collet, the village in
which his brother had been pastor. The temple in which he ministered
was still standing--the only one in the Cevennes that had not been
demolished, the Seigneur of the place intending to convert it into a
hospital. Collet was at present occupied by a company of fusiliers,
commanded by Captain Cabrieres. On nearing the place, Laporte wrote to
this officer, under an assumed name, intimating that a religious
assembly was to be held that night in a certain wood in the
neighbourhood. The captain at once marched thither with his men, on
which Laporte entered the village, and reopened the temple, which had
continued unoccupied since the day on which his brother had gone into
exile. All that night Laporte sang psalms, preached, and prayed by
turns, solemnly invoking the help of the God of battles in this holy
war in which he was engaged for the liberation of his country. Shortly
before daybreak, Laporte and his companions retired from the temple,
and after setting fire to the Roman Catholic church, and the houses of
the consul, the captain, and the cure, he left the village, and
proceeded in a northerly direction.
That same morning, Captain Poul arrived at the neighbouring valley of
St. Germain, for the purpose of superintending the demolition of
certain Protestant dwellings, and then he heard of Laporte's midnight
expedition. He immediately hastened to Collet, assembled all the
troops he could muster, and put himself on the track of the Camisards.
After a hot march of about two hours in the direction of Coudouloux,
Poul discerned Laporte and his band encamped on a lofty height, from
the scarped foot of which a sloping grove of chestnuts descended into
the wide grassy plain, known as the "Champ Domergue."
The chestnut grove had in ancient times been one of the sacred places
of the Druids, who celebrated their mysterious rites in its recesses,
while the adjoining mountains were said to have been the honoured
haunts of certain of the divinities of ancient Gaul. It was therefore
regarded as a sort of sacred place, and this circumstance was probably
not without its influence in rendering it one of the most frequent
resorts of the hunted Protestants in their midnight assemblies, as
well as because it occupied a central position between the villages of
St. Frezal, St. Andeol, Deze, and Violas. Laporte had now come hither
with his companions to pray, and they were so engaged when the scouts
on the look-out announced the approach of the enemy.
Poul halted his men to take breath, while Laporte held a little
council of war. What was to be done? Laporte himself was in favour of
accepting battle on the spot, while several of his lieutenants advised
immediate flight into the mountains. On the other hand, the young and
impetuous Cavalier, who was there, supported the opinion of his chief,
and urged an immediate attack; and an attack was determined on
accordingly.
The little band descended from their vantage-ground on the hill, and
came down into the chestnut wood, singing the sixty-eighth Psalm--"Let
God arise, let his enemies be scattered." The following is the song
itself, in the words of Marot. When the Huguenots sang it, each
soldier became a lion in courage.
"Que Dieu se montre seulement
Et l'on verra dans un moment
Abandonner la place;
Le camp des ennemies epars,
Epouvante de toutes parts,
Fuira devant sa face.
On verra tout ce camp s'enfuir,
Comme l'on voit s'evanouir;
Une epaisse fumee;
Comme la cire fond au feu,
Ainsi des mechants devant
Dieu, La force est consumee.
L'Eternel est notre recours;
Nous obtenons par son secours,
Plus d'une deliverance.
C'est Lui qui fut notre support,
Et qui tient les clefs de la mort,
Lui seul en sa puissance.
A nous defendre toujours prompt,
Il frappe le superbe front
De la troupe ennemie;
On verra tomber sous ses coups
Ceux qui provoquent son courroux
Par leur mechante vie."
This was the "Marseillaise" of the Camisards, their war-song in many
battles, sung by them as a _pas de charge_ to the music of Goudimal.
Poul, seeing them approach from under cover of the wood, charged them
at once, shouting to his men, "Charge, kill, kill the Barbets!"[40]
But "the Barbets," though they were only as one to three of their
assailants, bravely held their ground. Those who had muskets kept up a
fusillade, whilst a body of scythemen in the centre repulsed Poul, who
attacked them with the bayonet. Several of these terrible scythemen
were, however, slain, and three were taken prisoners.
[Footnote 40: The "Barbets" (or "Water-dogs") was the
nickname by which the Vaudois were called, against whom Poul
had formerly been employed in the Italian valleys.]
Laporte, finding that he could not drive Poul back, retreated slowly
into the wood, keeping up a running fire, and reascended the hill,
whither Poul durst not follow him. The Royalist leader was satisfied
with remaining master of the hard-fought field, on which many of his
soldiers lay dead, together with a captain of militia.
The Camisard chiefs then separated, Laporte and his band taking a
westerly direction. The Royalists, having received considerable
reinforcements, hastened from different directions to intercept him, but
he slipped through their fingers, and descended to Pont-de-Montvert,
from whence he threw himself upon the villages situated near the sources
of the western Gardon. At the same time, to distract the attention of
the Royalists, the other Camisard leaders descended, the one towards the
south, and the other towards the east, disarming the Roman Catholics,
carrying off their arms, and spreading consternation wherever they went.
Meanwhile, Count Broglie, Captain Poul, Colonel Miral, and the
commanders of the soldiers and militia all over the Cevennes, were
hunting the Protestants and their families wherever found, pillaging
their houses, driving away their cattle, and burning their huts; and
it was evident that the war on both sides was fast drifting into one
of reprisal and revenge. Brigands, belonging to neither side,
organized themselves in bodies, and robbed Protestants and Catholics
with equal impartiality.
One effect of this state of things was rapidly to increase the numbers
of the disaffected. The dwellings of many of the Protestants having
been destroyed, such of the homeless fugitives as could bear arms fled
into the mountains to join the Camisards, whose numbers were thus
augmented, notwithstanding the measures taken for their extermination.
Laporte was at last tracked by his indefatigable enemy, Captain Poul,
who burned to wipe out the disgrace which he conceived himself to have
suffered at Champ-Domergue. Information was conveyed to him that
Laporte and his band were in the neighbourhood of Molezon on the
western Gardon, and that they intended to hold a field-meeting there
on Sunday, the 22nd of October.
Poul made his dispositions accordingly. Dividing his force into two
bodies, he fell upon the insurgents impetuously from two sides, taking
them completely by surprise. They hastily put themselves in order of
battle, but their muskets, wet with rain, would not fire, and Laporte
hastened with his men to seek the shelter of a cliff near at hand.
While in the act of springing from one rock to another, he was seen to
stagger and fall. He had been shot dead by a musket bullet, and his
career was thus brought to a sudden close. His followers at once fled
in all directions.
Poul cut off Laporte's head, as well as the heads of the other
Camisards who had been killed, and sent them in two baskets to Count
Broglie. Next day the heads were exposed on the bridge of Anduze; the
day after on the castle wall of St. Hypolite; after which these
ghastly trophies of Poul's victory were sent to Montpellier to be
permanently exposed on the Peyrou.
Such was the end of Laporte, the second leader of the Camisards.
Seguier, the first, had been chief for only six days; Laporte, the
second, for only about two months. Again Baville supposed the
pacification of the Cevennes to be complete. He imagined that Poul, in
cutting off Laporte's head, had decapitated the insurrection. But the
Camisard ranks had never been so full as now, swelled as they were by
the persecutions of the Royalists, who, by demolishing the homes of
the peasantry, had in a measure forced them into the arms of the
insurgents. Nor were they ever better supplied with leaders, even
though Laporte had fallen. No sooner did his death become known, than
the "Children of God" held a solemn assembly in the mountains, at
which Roland, Castanet, Salomon, Abraham, and young Cavalier were
present; and after lamenting the death of their chief, they with one
accord elected Laporte's nephew, Roland, as his successor.
* * * * *
A few words as to the associates of Roland, whose family and origin
have already been described. Andre Castanet of Massavaque, in the
Upper Cevennes, had been a goatherd in his youth, after which he
worked at his father's trade of a wool-carder. An avowed Huguenot, he
was, shortly after the peace of Ryswick, hunted out of the country
because of his attending the meetings in the Desert; but in 1700 he
returned to preach and to prophesy, acting also as a forest-ranger in
the Aigoal Mountains. Of all the chiefs he was the greatest
controversialist, and in his capacity of preacher he distinguished
himself from his companions by wearing a wig. There must have been
something comical in his appearance, for Brueys describes him as a
little, squat, bandy-legged man, presenting "the figure of a little
bear." But it was an enemy who drew the picture.
Next there was Salomon Conderc, also a wool-carder, a native of the
hamlet of Mazelrode, south of the mountain of Bouges. For twenty years
the Condercs, father and son, had been zealous worshippers in the
Desert--Salomon having acted by turns as Bible-reader, precentor,
preacher, and prophet. We have already referred to the gift of
prophesying. All the leaders of the Camisards were prophets. Elie
Marion, in his "Theatre Sacre de Cevennes," thus describes the
influence of the prophets on the Camisard War:--
"We were without strength and without counsel," says he; "but our
inspirations were our succour and our support. They elected our
leaders, and conducted them; they were our military discipline. It was
they who raised us, even weakness itself, to put a strong bridle upon
an army of more than twenty thousand picked soldiers. It was they who
banished sorrow from our hearts in the midst of the greatest peril, as
well as in the deserts and the mountain fastnesses, when cold and
famine oppressed us. Our heaviest crosses were but lightsome burdens,
for this intimate communion that God allowed us to have with Him bore
up and consoled us; it was our safety and our happiness."
Many of the Condercs had suffered for their faith. The archpriest
Chayla had persecuted them grievously. One of their sisters was seized
by the soldiery and carried off to be immured in a convent at Mende,
but was rescued on the way by Salomon and his brother Jacques. Of the
two, Salomon, though deformed, had the greatest gift in prophesying,
and hence the choice of him as a leader.
Abraham Mazel belonged to the same hamlet as Conderc. They were both
of the same age--about twenty-five--of the same trade, and they were
as inseparable as brothers. They had both been engaged with Seguier's
band in the midnight attack on Pont-de-Montvert, and were alike
committed to the desperate enterprise they had taken in hand. The
tribe of Mazel abounds in the Cevennes, and they had already given
many martyrs to the cause. Some emigrated to America, some were sent
to the galleys; Oliver Mazel, the preacher, was hanged at Montpellier
in 1690, Jacques Mazel was a refugee in London in 1701, and in all the
combats of the Cevennes there were Mazels leading as well as
following.
Nicholas Joany, of Genouillac, was an old soldier, who had seen much
service, having been for some time quartermaster of the regiment of
Orleans. Among other veterans who served with the Camisards, were
Esperandieu and Rastelet, two old sub-officers, and Catinat and
Ravenel, two thorough soldiers. Of these Catinat achieved the greatest
notoriety. His proper name was Mauriel--Abdias Mauriel; but having
served as a dragoon under Marshal Catinat in Italy, he conceived such
an admiration for that general, and was so constantly eulogizing him,
that his comrades gave him the nickname of Catinat, which he continued
to bear all through the Camisard war.
But the most distinguished of all the Camisard chiefs, next to Roland,
was the youthful John Cavalier, peasant boy, baker's apprentice, and
eventually insurgent leader, who, after baffling and repeatedly
defeating the armies of Louis XIV., ended his remarkable career as
governor of Jersey and major-general in the British service.
Cavalier was a native of Ribaute, a village on the Gardon, a little
below Anduze. His parents were persons in humble circumstances, as may
be inferred from the fact that when John was of sufficient age he was
sent into the mountains to herd cattle, and when a little older he was
placed apprentice to a baker at Anduze.
His father, though a Protestant at heart, to avoid persecution,
pretended to be converted to Romanism, and attended Mass. But his
mother, a fervent Calvinist, refused to conform, and diligently
trained her sons in her own views. She was a regular attender of
meetings in the Desert, to which she also took her children.
Cavalier relates that on one occasion, when a very little fellow, he
went with her to an assembly which was conducted by Claude Brousson;
and when he afterwards heard that many of the people had been
apprehended for attending it, of whom some were hanged and others sent
to the galleys, the account so shocked him that he felt he would then
have avenged them if he had possessed the power.
As the boy grew up, and witnessed the increasing cruelty with which
conformity was enforced, he determined to quit the country; and,
accompanied by twelve other young men, he succeeded in reaching Geneva
after a toilsome journey of eight days. He had not been at Geneva more
than two months, when--heart-sore, solitary, his eyes constantly
turned towards his dear Cevennes--he accidentally heard that his
father and mother had been thrown into prison because of his
flight--his father at Carcassone, and his mother in the dreadful tower
of Constance, near Aiguesmortes, one of the most notorious prisons of
the Huguenots.
He at once determined to return, in the hope of being able to get them
set at liberty. On his reaching Ribaute, to his surprise he found them
already released, on condition of attending Mass. As his presence in
his father's house might only serve to bring fresh trouble upon
them--he himself having no intention of conforming--he went up for
refuge into the mountains of the Cevennes.
The young Cavalier was present at the midnight meeting on the Bouges,
at which it was determined to slay the archpriest Chayla. He implored
leave to accompany the band; but he was declared to be too young for
such an enterprise, being a boy of only sixteen, so he was left behind
with his friends.
Being virtually an outlaw, Cavalier afterwards joined the band of
Laporte, under whom he served as lieutenant during his short career.
At his death the insurrection assumed larger proportions, and recruits
flocked apace to the standard of Roland, Laporte's successor.
Harvest-work over, the youths of the Lower Cevennes hastened to join
him, armed only with bills and hatchets. The people of the Vaunage
more than fulfilled their promise to Roland, and sent him five hundred
men. Cavalier also brought with him from Ribaute a further number of
recruits, and by the end of autumn the Camisards under arms, such as
they were, amounted to over a thousand men.
Roland, unable to provide quarters or commissariat for so large a
number, divided them into five bodies, and sent them into their
respective cantonments (so to speak) for the winter. Roland himself
occupied the district known as the Lower Cevennes, comprising the
Gardonnenque and the mountain district situated between the rivers
Vidourle and the western Gardon. That part of the Upper Cevennes,
which extends between the Anduze branch of the Gardon and the river
Tarn, was in like manner occupied by a force commanded by Abraham
Hazel and Solomon Conderc, while Andrew Castanet led the people of the
western Cevennes, comprising the mountain region of the Aigoal and the
Esperou, near the sources of the Gardon d'Anduze and the Tarnon. The
rugged mountain district of the Lozere, in which the Tarn, the Ceze,
and the Alais branch of the Gardon have their origin, was placed under
the command of Joany. And, finally, the more open country towards the
south, extending from Anduze to the sea-coast, including the districts
around Alais, Uzes, Nismes, as well as the populous valley of the
Vaunage, was placed under the direction of young Cavalier, though he
had scarcely yet completed his seventeenth year.
These chiefs were all elected by their followers, who chose them, not
because of any military ability they might possess, but entirely
because of their "gifts" as preachers and "prophets." Though Roland
and Joany had been soldiers, they were also preachers, as were
Castanet, Abraham, and Salomon; and young Cavalier had already given
remarkable indications of the prophetic gift. Hence, when it became
the duty of the band to which he belonged to select a chief, they
passed over the old soldiers, Esperandieu, Raslet, Catinat, and
Ravenel, and pitched upon the young baker lad of Ribaute, not because
he could fight, but because he could preach; and the old soldiers
cheerfully submitted themselves to his leadership.
The portrait of this remarkable Camisard chief represents him as a
little handsome youth, fair and ruddy complexioned, with lively and
prominent blue eyes, and a large head, from whence his long fair hair
hung floating over his shoulders. His companions recognised in him a
supposed striking resemblance to the scriptural portrait of David, the
famous shepherd of Israel.
The Camisard legions, spread as they now were over the entire Cevennes,
and embracing Lower Languedoc as far as the sea, were for the most part
occupied during the winter of 1702-3 in organizing themselves, obtaining
arms, and increasing their forces. The respective districts which they
occupied were so many recruiting-grounds, and by the end of the season
they had enrolled nearly three thousand men. They were still, however,
very badly armed. Their weapons included fowling-pieces, old matchlocks,
muskets taken from the militia, pistols, sabres, scythes, hatchets,
billhooks, and even ploughshares. They were very short of powder, and
what they had was mostly bought surreptitiously from the King's
soldiers, or by messengers sent for the purpose to Nismes and Avignon.
But Roland, finding that such sources of supply could not be depended
upon, resolved to manufacture his own powder.
A commissariat was also established, and the most spacious caves in
the most sequestered places were sought out and converted into
magazines, hospitals, granaries, cellars, arsenals, and powder
factories. Thus Mialet, with its extensive caves, was the
head-quarters of Roland; Bouquet and the caves at Euzet, of Cavalier;
Cassagnacs and the caves at Magistavols, of Salomon; and so on with
the others. Each chief had his respective canton, his granary, his
magazine, and his arsenal. To each retreat was attached a special body
of tradesmen--millers, bakers, shoemakers, tailors, armourers, and
other mechanics; and each had its special guards and sentinels.
We have already referred to the peculiar geological features of the
Cevennes, and to the limestone strata which embraces the whole
granitic platform of the southern border almost like a frame. As is
almost invariably the case in such formations, large caves, occasioned
by the constant dripping of water, are of frequent occurrence; and
those of the Cevennes, which are in many places of great extent,
constituted a peculiar feature in the Camisard insurrection. There is
one of such caves in the neighbourhood of the Protestant town of
Ganges, on the river Herault, which often served as a refuge for the
Huguenots, though it is now scarcely penetrable because of the heavy
falls of stone from the roof. This cavern has two entrances, one from
the river Herault, the other from the Mendesse, and it extends under
the entire mountain, which separates the two rivers. It is still known
as the "Camisards' Grotto." There are numerous others of a like
character all over the district; but as those of Mialet were of
special importance--Mialet, "the Metropolis of the Insurrection,"
being the head-quarters of Roland--it will be sufficient if we briefly
describe a visit paid to them in the month of June, 1870.
* * * * *
The town of Anduze is the little capital of the Gardonnenque, a
district which has always been exclusively Protestant. Even at the
present day, of the 5,200 inhabitants of Anduze, 4,600 belong to that
faith; and these include the principal proprietors, cultivators, and
manufacturers of the town and neighbourhood. During the wars of
religion, Anduze was one of the Huguenot strongholds. After the death
of Henry IV. the district continued to be held by the Duc de Rohan,
the ruins of whose castle are still to be seen on the summit of a
pyramidal hill on the north of the town. Anduze is jammed in between
the precipitous mountain of St. Julien, which rises behind it, and the
river Gardon, along which a modern quay-wall extends, forming a
pleasant promenade as well as a barrier against the furious torrents
which rush down from the mountains in winter.
A little above the town, the river passes through a rocky gorge formed
by the rugged grey cliffs of Peyremale on the one bank and St. Julien
on the other. The bare precipitous rocks rise up on either side like
two cyclopean towers, flanking the gateway of the Cevennes. The gorge
is so narrow at bottom that there is room only for the river running
in its rocky bed below, and a roadway along either bank--that on the
eastern side having been partly formed by blasting out the cliff which
overhangs it.
After crossing the five-arched bridge which spans the Gardon, the road
proceeds along the eastern bank, up the valley towards Mialet. It
being market-day at Anduze, well-clad peasants were flocking into the
town, some in their little pony-carts, others with their baskets or
bundles of produce, and each had his "Bon jour, messieurs!" for us as
we passed. So long as the road held along the bottom of the valley,
passing through the scattered hamlets and villages north of the town,
our little springless cart got along cleverly enough. But after we had
entered the narrower valley higher up, and the cultivated ground
became confined to a little strip along either bank, then the mountain
barriers seemed to rise in front of us and on all sides, and the road
became winding, steep, and difficult.
A few miles up the valley, the little hamlet of Massoubeyran,
consisting of a group of peasant cottages--one of which was the
birthplace of Roland, the Camisard chief--was seen on a hill-side to
the right; and about two miles further on, at a bend of the road, we
came in sight of the village of Mialet, with its whitewashed,
flat-roofed cottages--forming a little group of peasants' houses lying
in the hollow of the hills. The principal building in it is the
Protestant temple, which continues to be frequented by the
inhabitants; the _Annuaire Protestant_ for 1868-70, stating the
Protestant population of the district to be 1,325. Strange to say, the
present pastor, M. Seguier, bears the name of the first leader of the
Camisard insurrection; and one of the leading members of the
consistory, M. Laporte, is a lineal descendant of the second and third
leaders.
From its secluded and secure position among the hills, as well as
because of its proximity to the great Temelac road constructed by
Baville, which passed from Anduze by St. Jean-de-Gard into the Upper
Cevennes, Mialet was well situated as the head-quarters of the
Camisard chief. But it was principally because of the numerous
limestone caves abounding in the locality, which afforded a ready
hiding-place for the inhabitants in the event of the enemies'
approach, as well as because they were capable of being adapted for
the purpose of magazines, stores, and hospitals, that Mialet became of
so much importance as the citadel of the insurgents. One of such
caverns or grottoes is still to be seen about a mile below Mialet, of
extraordinary magnitude. It extends under the hill which rises up on
the right-hand side of the road, and is entered from behind, nearly
at the summit. The entrance is narrow and difficult, but the interior
is large and spacious, widening out in some places into dome-shaped
chambers, with stalactites hanging from the roof. The whole extent of
this cavern cannot be much less than a quarter of a mile, judging from
the time it took to explore it and to return from the furthest point
in the interior to the entrance. The existence of this place had been
forgotten until a few years ago, when it was rediscovered by a man of
Anduze, who succeeded in entering it, but, being unable to find his
way out, he remained there for three days without food, until the
alarm was given and his friends came to his rescue and delivered him.
Immediately behind the village of Mialet, under the side of the hill,
is another large cavern, with other grottoes branching out of it,
capable, on an emergency, of accommodating the whole population. This
was used by Roland as his principal magazine. But perhaps the most
interesting of these caves is the one used as a hospital for the sick
and wounded. It is situated about a mile above Mialet, in a limestone
cliff almost overhanging the river. The approach to it is steep and
difficult, up a footpath cut in the face of the rock. At length a
little platform is reached, about a hundred feet above the level of
the river, behind which is a low wall extending across the entrance to
the cavern. This wall is pierced with two openings, intended for two
culverins, one of which commanded the road leading down the pass, and
the other the road up the valley from the direction of the village.
The outer vault is large and roomy, and extends back into a lofty
dome-shaped cavern about forty feet high, behind which a long tortuous
vault extends for several hundred feet. The place is quite dry, and
sufficiently spacious to accommodate a large number of persons; and
there can be no doubt as to the uses to which it was applied during
the wars of the Cevennes.
The person who guided us to the cave was an ordinary working man of
the village--apparently a blacksmith--a well-informed, intelligent
person--who left his smithy, opposite the Protestant temple at which
our pony-cart drew up, to show us over the place; and he took pride in
relating the traditions which continue to be handed down from father
to son relating to the great Camisard war of the Cevennes.