It was on Saturday that the white flag was hoisted at Nimes. The next
day a crowd of Catholic peasants from the environs marched into the
city, to await the arrival of the Royalist army from Beaucaire.
Excitement was at fever heat, the desire of revenge filled every breast,
the hereditary hatred which had slumbered during the Empire again awoke
stronger than ever. Here I may pause to say that in the account which
follows of the events which took place about this time, I can only
guarantee the facts and not the dates: I relate everything as it
happened; but the day on which it happened may sometimes have escaped my
memory, for it is easier to recollect a murder to which one has been an
eye-witness, than to recall the exact date on which it happened.
The garrison of Nimes was composed of one battalion of the 13th Regiment
of the line, and another battalion of the 79th Regiment, which not being
up to its full war-strength had been sent to Nimes to complete its
numbers by enlistment. But after the battle of Waterloo the citizens had
tried to induce the soldiers to desert, so that of the two battalions,
even counting the officers, only about two hundred men remained.
When the news of the proclamation of Napoleon II reached Nimes,
Brigadier-General Malmont, commandant of the department, had him
proclaimed in the city without any disturbance being caused thereby. It
was not until some days later that a report began to be circulated that
a royal army was gathering at Beaucaire, and that the populace would
take advantage of its arrival to indulge in excesses. In the face of
this two-fold danger, General Malmont had ordered the regular troops,
and a part of the National Guard of the Hundred Days, to be drawn up
under arms in the rear of the barracks upon an eminence on which he had
mounted five pieces of ordnance. This disposition was maintained for two
days and a night, but as the populace remained quiet, the troops
returned to the barracks and the Guards to their homes.
But on Monday a concourse of people, who had heard that the army from
Beaucaire would arrive the next day, made a hostile demonstration before
the barracks, demanding with shouts and threats that the five cannons
should be handed over to them. The general and the officers who were
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
was that the troops, before marching out, should lay down their arms.
The messenger also intimated that if the offer he had brought were not
quickly accepted--say within two hours--the time for capitulation would
have gone by, and that he would not be answerable for what the people
might then do in their fury. The general accepted the conditions as
amended, and the envoy disappeared.
When the troops heard of the agreement, that they should be disarmed
before being allowed to leave the town, their first impulse was to
refuse to lay down their weapons before a rabble which had run away from
a few musket shots; but the general succeeded in soothing their sense of
humiliation and winning their consent by representing to them that there
could be nothing dishonourable in an action which prevented the children
of a common fatherland from shedding each other's blood.
The gendarmerie, according to one article of the treaty, were to close
in at, the rear of the evacuating column; and thus hinder the populace
from molesting the troops of which it was composed. This was the only
concession obtained in return for the abandoned arms, and the farce in
question was already drawn up in field order, apparently waiting to
escort the troops out of the city.
At four o'clock P.M. the troops got ready, each company stacking its
arms in the courtyard before: marching out; but hardly had forty or
fifty men passed the gates than fire was opened on them at such close
range that half of them were killed or disabled at the first volley.
Upon this, those who were still within the walls closed the courtyard
gates, thus cutting off all chance of retreat from their comrades. In
the event; however, it turned out that several of the latter contrived
to escape with their lives and that they lost nothing through being
prevented from returning; for as soon as the mob saw that ten or twelve
of their victims had slipped through their hands they made a furious
attack on the barracks, burst in the gates, and scaled the walls with
such rapidity, that the soldiers had no time to repossess themselves of
their muskets, and even had they succeeded in seizing them they would
have been of little use, as ammunition was totally wanting. The barracks
being thus carried by assault, a horrible massacre ensued, which lasted
for three hours. Some of the wretched men, being hunted from room to
room, jumped out of the first window they could reach, without stopping
to measure its height from the ground, and were either impaled on the
bayonets held in readiness below, or, falling on the pavement, broke
their limbs and were pitilessly despatched.
The gendarmes, who had really been called out to protect the retreat of
the garrison, seemed to imagine they were there to witness a judicial
execution, and stood immovable and impassive while these horrid deeds
went on before their eyes. But the penalty of this indifference was
swiftly exacted, for as soon as the soldiers were all done with, the
mob, finding their thirst for blood still unslacked, turned on the
gendarmes, the greater number of whom were wounded, while all lost their
horses, and some their lives.
The populace was still engaged at its bloody task when news came that
the army from Beaucaire was within sight of the town, and the murderers,
hastening to despatch some of the wounded who still showed signs of
life, went forth to meet the long expected reinforcements.
Only those who saw the advancing army with their own eyes can form any
idea of its condition and appearance, the first corps excepted. This
corps was commanded by M. de Barre, who had put himself at its head with
the noble purpose of preventing, as far as he could, massacre and
pillage. In this he was seconded by the officers under him, who were
actuated by the same philanthropic motives as their general in
identifying themselves with the corps. Owing to their exertions, the men
advanced in fairly regular order, and good discipline was maintained.
All the men carried muskets.
But the first corps was only a kind of vanguard to the second, which was
the real army, and a wonderful thing to see and hear. Never were brought
together before or since so many different kinds of howl, so many
threats of death, so many rags; so many odd weapons, from the matchlock
of the time of the Michelade to the steel-tipped goad of the bullock
drovers of La Camargue, so that when the Nimes mob; which in all
conscience was howling and ragged enough, rushed out to offer a
brotherly welcome to the strangers, its first feeling was one of
astonishment and dismay as it caught sight of the motley crew which held
out to it the right hand of fellowship.
The new-comers soon showed that it was through necessity and not choice
that their outer man presented such a disreputable appearance; for they
were hardly well within the gates before demanding that the houses of
the members of the old Protestant National Guard should be pointed out
to them.
This being done, they promptly proceeded to exact from each household a
musket, a coat, a complete kit, or a sum of money, according to their
humour, so that before evening those who had arrived naked and penniless
were provided with complete uniforms and had money in their pockets.
These exactions were levied under the name of a contribution, but before
the day was ended naked and undisguised pillage began.
Someone asserted that during the assault on the barracks a certain
individual had fired out of a certain house on the assailants. The
indignant people now rushed to the house indicated, and soon left
nothing of it in existence but its walls. A little later it was clearly
proved that the individual accused was quite innocent of the crime laid
to his charge.
The house of a rich merchant lay in the path of the advancing army. A
cry arose that the owner was a Bonapartist, and nothing more was needed.
The house was broken into and pillaged, and the furniture thrown out of
the windows.
Two days later it turned out that not only was the merchant no
Bonapartist, but that his son had been one of those who had accompanied
the Duc d'Angouleme to Cette when he left the country. The pillagers
excused themselves by saying they had been misled by a resemblance
between two names, and this excuse, as far as appears, was accepted as
valid by the authorities.
It was not long before the populace of Nimes began to think they might
as well follow the example set them by their brothers from Beaucaire. In
twenty-four hours free companies were formed, headed by Trestaillons,
Trupheny, Graffan, and Morinet. These bands arrogated to themselves the
title of National Guard, and then what took place at Marseilles in the
excitement of the moment was repeated at Nimes with deliberation and
method, inspired by hate and the desire of vengeance. A revolt broke out
which followed the ordinary course: first pillage, then fire, then
murder, laid waste the city.
M V______'s house, which stood in the middle of the town, was sacked and
then burnt to the ground, without a hand being raised to prevent the
crime.
M T______'s house, on the road to Montpellier, was sacked and wrecked
and a bonfire made of the furniture, round which the crowd danced; as if
it had been an occasion of public rejoicing. Then cries were raised for
the proprietor, that he might be killed, and as he could not be found
the baffled fury of the mob vented itself on the dead. A child three
months buried was dragged from its grave, drawn by the feet through the
sewers and wayside puddles, and then flung on a dung-heap; and, strange
to say, while incendiarism and sacrilege thus ran riot, the mayor of the
place slept so sound that when he awoke he was "quite astonished," to
use his own expression, to hear what had taken place during the night.
This expedition completed, the same company which had brought this
expedition to a successful issue next turned their attention to a small
country house occupied by a widow, whom I had often begged to take
refuge with us. But, secure in her insignificance, she had always
declined our offers, preferring to live solitary and retired in her own
home. But the freebooters sought her out, burst in her doors, drove her
away with blows and insults, destroyed her house and burnt her
furniture. They then proceeded to the vault in which lay the remains of
her family, dragged them out of their coffins and scattered them about
the fields. The next day the poor woman-ventured back, collected the
desecrated remains with pious care, and replaced them in the vault. But
this was counted to her as a crime; the company returned, once more cast
forth the contents of the coffins, and threatened to kill her should she
dare to touch them again. She was often seen in the days that followed
shedding bitter tears and watching over the sacred relics as they lay
exposed on the ground.
The name of this widow was Pepin, and the scene of the sacrilege was a
small enclosure on the hill of the Moulins-a-Vent.
Meantime the people in the Faubourg des Bourgades had invented a new
sort of game, or rather, had resolved to vary the serious business of
the drama that was being enacted by the introduction of comic scenes.
They had possessed themselves of a number of beetles such as washerwomen
use, and hammered in long nails, the points of which projected an inch
on the other side in the form of a fleur-de-lis. Every Protestant who
fell into their hands, no matter what his age or rank, was stamped with
the bloody emblem, serious wounds being inflicted in many cases.
Murders were now becoming common. Amongst other names of victims
mentioned were Loriol, Bigot, Dumas, Lhermet, Heritier, Domaison, Combe,
Clairon, Begomet, Poujas, Imbert, Vigal, Pourchet, Vignole. Details more
or less shocking came to light as to the manner in which the murderers
went to work. A man called Dalbos was in the custody of two armed men;
some others came to consult with them. Dalbos appealed for mercy to the
new-comers. It was granted, but as he turned to go he was shot dead.
Another of the name of Rambert tried to escape by disguising himself as
a woman, but was recognised and shot down a few yards outside his own
door. A gunner called Saussine was walking in all security along the
road to Uzes, pipe in mouth, when he was met by five men belonging to
Trestaillon's company, who surrounded him and stabbed him to the heart
with their knives. The elder of two brothers named Chivas ran across
some fields to take shelter in a country house called Rouviere, which,
unknown to him, had been occupied by some of the new National Guard.
These met him on the threshold and shot him dead.
Rant was seized in his own house and shot. Clos was met by a company,
and seeing Trestaillons, with whom he had always been friends, in its
ranks, he went up to him and held out his hand; whereupon Trestaillons
drew a pistol from his belt and blew his brains out. Calandre being
chased down the rue des Soeurs-Grises, sought shelter in a tavern, but
was forced to come out, and was killed with sabres. Courbet was sent to
prison under the escort of some men, but these changed their minds on
the way as to his punishment, halted, and shot him dead in the middle of
the street.
A wine merchant called Cabanot, who was flying from Trestaillons, ran
into a house in which there was a venerable priest called Cure Bonhomme.
When the cut-throat rushed in, all covered with blood, the priest
advanced and stopped him, crying:
"What will happen, unhappy man, when you come to the confessional with
blood-stained hands?"
"Pooh!" replied Trestaillons, "you must put on your wide gown; the
sleeves are large enough to let everything pass."
To the short account given above of so many murders I will add the
narrative of one to which I was an eye-witness, and which made the most
terrible impression on me of, anything in my experience.
It was midnight. I was working beside my wife's bed; she was just
becoming drowsy, when a noise in the distance caught our attention. It
gradually became more distinct, and drums began to beat the 'generale'
in every direction. Hiding my own alarm for fear of increasing hers, I
answered my wife, who was asking what new thing was about to happen,
that it was probably troops marching in or out of garrison. But soon
reports of firearms, accompanied by an uproar with which we were so
familiar that we could no longer mistake its meaning, were heard
outside. Opening my window, I heard bloodcurdling imprecations, mixed
with cries of "Long live the king!" going on. Not being able to remain
any longer in this uncertainty, I woke a captain who lived in the same
house. He rose, took his arms, and we went out together, directing our
course towards the point whence the shouts seemed to come. The moon
shone so bright that we could see everything almost as distinctly as in
broad daylight.
A concourse of people was hurrying towards the Cours yelling like
madmen; the greater number of them, half naked, armed with muskets,
swords, knives, and clubs, and swearing to exterminate everything, waved
their weapons above the heads of men who had evidently been torn from
their houses and brought to the square to be put to death. The rest of
the crowd had, like ourselves, been drawn thither by curiosity, and were
asking what was going on. "Murder is abroad," was the answer; "several
people have been killed in the environs, and the patrol has been fired
on." While this questioning was going on the noise continued to
increase. As I had really no business to be on a spot where such things
were going on, and feeling that my place was at my wife's side, to
reassure her for the present and to watch over her should the rioters
come our way, I said good-bye to the captain, who went on to the
barracks, and took the road back to the suburb in which I lived.
I was not more than fifty steps from our house when I heard loud talking
behind me, and, turning, saw gun barrels glittering in the moonlight. As
the speakers seemed to be rapidly approaching me, I kept close in the
shadow of the houses till I reached my own door, which I laid softly to
behind me, leaving myself a chink by which I could peep out and watch
the movements of the group which was drawing near. Suddenly I felt
something touch my hand; it was a great Corsican dog, which was turned
loose at night, and was so fierce that it was a great protection to our
house. I felt glad to have it at my side, for in case of a struggle it
would be no despicable ally.
Those approaching turned out to be three armed men leading a fourth,
disarmed and a prisoner. They all stopped just opposite my door, which I
gently closed and locked, but as I still wished to see what they were
about, I slipped into the garden, which lay towards the street, still
followed by my dog. Contrary to his habit, and as if he understood the
danger, he gave a low whine instead of his usual savage growl. I climbed
into a fig tree the branches of which overhung the street, and, hidden
by the leaves, and resting my hands on the top of the wall, I leaned far
enough forward to see what the men were about.
They were still on the same spot, but there was a change in their
positions. The prisoner was now kneeling with clasped hands before the
cut-throats, begging for his life for the sake of his wife and children,
in heartrending accents, to which his executioners replied in mocking
tones, "We have got you at last into our hands, have we? You dog of a
Bonapartist, why do you not call on your emperor to come and help you
out of this scrape?" The unfortunate man's entreaties became more
pitiful and their mocking replies more pitiless. They levelled their
muskets at him several times, and then lowered them, saying; "Devil take
it, we won't shoot yet; let us give him time to see death coming," till
at last the poor wretch, seeing there was no hope of mercy, begged to be
put out of his misery.
Drops of sweat stood on my forehead. I felt my pockets to see if I had
nothing on me which I could use as a weapon, but I had not even a knife.
I looked at my dog; he was lying flat at the foot of the tree, and
appeared to be a prey to the most abject terror. The prisoner continued
his supplications, and the assassins their threats and mockery. I
climbed quietly down out of the fig tree, intending to fetch my pistols.
My dog followed me with his eyes, which seemed to be the only living
things about him. Just as my foot touched the ground a double report
rang out, and my dog gave a plaintive and prolonged howl. Feeling that
all was over, and that no weapons could be of any use, I climbed up
again into my perch and looked out. The poor wretch was lying face
downwards writhing in his blood; the assassins were reloading their
muskets as they walked away.
Being anxious to see if it was too late to help the man whom I had not
been able to save, I went out into the street and bent over him. He was
bloody, disfigured, dying, but was yet alive, uttering dismal groans. I
tried to lift him up, but soon saw that the wounds which he had received
from bullets fired at close range were both mortal, one being in the
head, and the other in the loins. Just then a patrol, of the National
Guard turned round the corner of the street. This, instead of being a
relief, awoke me to a sense of my danger, and feeling I could do nothing
for the wounded man, for the death rattle had already begun, I entered
my house, half shut the door, and listened.
"Qui vive?" asked the corporal.
"Idiot!" said someone else, "to ask 'Qui vive?' of a dead man!"
"He is not dead," said a third voice; "listen to him singing"; and
indeed the poor fellow in his agony was giving utterance to dreadful
groans.
"Someone has tickled him well," said a fourth, "but what does it matter?
We had better finish the job."
Five or six musket shots followed, and the groans ceased.
The name of the man who had just expired was Louis Lichaire; it was not
against him, but against his nephew, that the assassins had had a
grudge, but finding the nephew out when they burst into the house, and a
victim being indispensable, they had torn the uncle from the arms of his
wife, and, dragging him towards the citadel, had killed him as I have
just related.
Very early next morning I sent to three commissioners of police, one
after the other, for permission to have the corpse carried to the
hospital, but these gentlemen were either not up or had already gone
out, so that it was not until eleven o'clock and after repeated
applications that they condescended to give me the needed authorisation.
Thanks to this delay, the whole town came to see the body of the
unfortunate man. Indeed, the day which followed a massacre was always
kept as a holiday, everyone leaving his work undone and coming out to
stare at the slaughtered victims. In this case, a man wishing to amuse
the crowd took his pipe out of his mouth and put it between the teeth of
the corpse--a joke which had a marvellous success, those present
shrieking with laughter.
Many murders had been committed during the night; the companies had
scoured the streets singing some doggerel, which one of the bloody
wretches, being in poetic vein, had composed, the chorus of which was:
"Our work's well done,
We spare none!"
Seventeen fatal outrages were committed, and yet neither the reports of
the firearms nor the cries of the victims broke the peaceful slumbers of
M. le Prefet and M. le Commissaire General de la Police. But if the
civil authorities slept, General Lagarde, who had shortly before come to
town to take command of the city in the name of the king, was awake. He
had sprung from his bed at the first shot, dressed himself, and made a
round of the posts; then sure that everything was in order, he had
formed patrols of chasseurs, and had himself, accompanied by two
officers only, gone wherever he heard cries for help. But in spite of
the strictness of his orders the small number of troops at his
disposition delayed the success of his efforts, and it was not until
three o'clock in the morning that he succeeded in securing Trestaillons.
When this man was taken he was dressed as usual in the uniform of the
National Guard, with a cocked hat and captain's epaulets. General
Lagarde ordered the gens d'armes who made the capture to deprive him of
his sword and carbine, but it was only after a long struggle that they
could carry out this order, for Trestaillons protested that he would
only give up his carbine with his life. However, he was at last obliged
to yield to numbers, and when disarmed was removed to the barracks; but
as there could be no peace in the town as long as he was in it, the
general sent him to the citadel of Montpellier next morning before it
was light.
The disorders did not, however, cease at once. At eight o'clock A.M.
they were still going on, the mob seeming to be animated by the spirit
of Trestaillons, for while the soldiers were occupied in a distant
quarter of the town a score of men broke into the house of a certain
Scipion Chabrier, who had remained hidden from his enemies for a long
time, but who had lately returned home on the strength of the
proclamations published by General Lagarde when he assumed the position
of commandant of the town. He had indeed been sure that the disturbances
in Nimes were over, when they burst out with redoubled fury on the 16th
of October; on the morning of the 17th he was working quietly at home at
his trade of a silk weaver, when, alarmed by the shouts of a parcel of
cut-throats outside his house, he tried to escape. He succeeded in
reaching the "Coupe d'Or," but the ruffians followed him, and the first
who came up thrust him through the thigh with his bayonet. In
consequence of this wound he fell from top to bottom of the staircase,
was seized and dragged to the stables, where the assassins left him for
dead, with seven wounds in his body.
This was, however, the only murder committed that day in the town,
thanks to the vigilance and courage of General Lagarde.
The next day a considerable crowd gathered, and a noisy deputation went
to General Lagarde's quarters and insolently demanded that Trestaillons
should be set at liberty. The general ordered them to disperse, but no
attention was paid to this command, whereupon he ordered his soldiers to
charge, and in a moment force accomplished what long-continued
persuasion had failed to effect. Several of the ringleaders were
arrested and taken to prison.
Thus, as we shall see, the struggle assumed a new phase: resistance to
the royal power was made in the name of the royal power, and both those
who broke or those who tried to maintain the public peace used the same
cry, "Long live the king!"
The firm attitude assumed by General Lagarde restored Nimes to a state
of superficial peace, beneath which, however, the old enmities were
fermenting. An occult power, which betrayed itself by a kind of passive
resistance, neutralised the effect of the measures taken by the military
commandant. He soon became cognisant of the fact that the essence of
this sanguinary political strife was an hereditary religious animosity,
and in order to strike a last blow at this, he resolved, after having
received permission from the king, to grant the general request of the
Protestants by reopening their places of worship, which had been closed
for more than four months, and allowing the public exercise of the
Protestant religion, which had been entirely suspended in the city for
the same length of time.
Formerly there had been six Protestant pastors resident in Nimes, but
four of them, had fled; the two who remained were MM. Juillerat and
Olivier Desmonts, the first a young man, twenty-eight years of age, the
second an old man of seventy.
The entire weight of the ministry had fallen during this period of
proscription on M. Juillerat, who had accepted the task and religiously
fulfilled it. It seemed as if a special providence had miraculously
protected him in the midst of the many perils which beset his path.
Although the other pastor, M. Desmonts, was president of the Consistory,
his life was in much less danger; for, first, he had reached an age
which almost everywhere commands respect, and then he had a son who was
a lieutenant in, one of the royal corps levied at Beaucaire, who
protected him by his name when he could not do so by his presence. M.
Desmonts had therefore little cause for anxiety as to his safety either
in the streets of Nimes or on the road between that and his country
house.
But, as we have said, it was not so with M. Juillerat. Being young and
active, and having an unfaltering trust in God, on him alone devolved
all the sacred duties of his office, from the visitation of the sick and
dying to the baptism of the newly born. These latter were often brought
to him at night to be baptized, and he consented, though unwillingly, to
make this concession, feeling that if he insisted on the performance of
the rite by day he would compromise not only his own safety but that of
others. In all that concerned him personally, such as consoling the
dying or caring for the wounded, he acted quite openly, and no danger
that he encountered on his way ever caused him to flinch from the path
of duty.
One day, as M. Juillerat was passing through the rue des Barquettes on
his way to the prefecture to transact some business connected with his
ministry, he saw several men lying in wait in a blind alley by which he
had to pass. They had their guns pointed at him. He continued his way
with tranquil step and such an air of resignation that the assassins
were overawed, and lowered their weapons as he approached, without
firing a single shot. When M. Juillerat reached the prefecture, thinking
that the prefect ought to be aware of everything connected with the
public order, he related this incident to M. d'Arbaud-Jouques, but the
latter did not think the affair of enough importance to require any
investigation.
It was, as will be seen, a difficult enterprise to open once again the
Protestant places of worship, which had been so long closed, in present
circumstances, and in face of the fact that the civil authorities
regarded such a step with disfavour, but General Lagarde was one of
those determined characters who always act up to their convictions.
Moreover, to prepare people's minds for this stroke of religious policy,
he relied on the help of the Duc d'Angouleme, who in the course of a
tour through the South was almost immediately expected at Nimes.
On the 5th of November the prince made his entry into the city, and
having read the reports of the general to the King Louis XVIII, and
having received positive injunctions from his uncle to pacify the
unhappy provinces which he was about to visit, he arrived full of the
desire to displays whether he felt it or not, a perfect impartiality; so
when the delegates from the Consistory were presented to him, not only
did he receive them most graciously, but he was the first to speak of
the interests of their faith, assuring them that it was only a few days
since he had learned with much regret that their religious services had
been; suspended since the 16th of July. The delegates replied that in
such a time of agitation the closing of their places of worship was, a
measure of prudence which they had felt ought to be borne, and which had
been borne, with resignation. The prince expressed his approval of this
attitude with regard to the past, but said that his presence was a
guarantee for the future, and that on Thursday the 9th inst. the two
meeting-houses should be reopened and restored to their proper use. The
Protestants were alarmed at, having a favour accorded to them which was
much more than they would have dared to ask and for which they were
hardly prepared. But the prince reassured them by saying that all
needful measures would be taken to provide against any breach of the
public peace, and at the same time invited M. Desmonts, president, and
M. Roland-Lacoste, member of the Consistory, to dine with him.
The next deputation to arrive was a Catholic one, and its object was to
ask that Trestaillons might be set at liberty. The prince was so
indignant at this request that his only answer was to turn his back on
those who proffered it.
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.
This continued resistance to the re-establishment of public worship on
the part of those who most eagerly desired it enabled the general at
last to realise the extent of the danger which would be incurred by the
carrying out of this measure, and he at once took all possible
precautions. Under the pretext that he was going to-have a general
review, he brought the entire civil and military forces of Nimes under
his authority, determined, if necessary, to use the one to suppress the
other. As early as eight o'clock in the morning a guard of gens d'armes
was stationed at the doors of the meeting-house, while other members of
the same force took up their positions in the adjacent streets. On the
other hand, the Consistory had decided that the doors were to be opened
an hour sooner than usual, that the bells were not to be rung, and that
the organ should be silent.
These precautions had both a good and a bad side. The gens d'armes at
the door of the meetinghouse gave if not a promise of security at least
a promise of support, but they showed to the citizens of the other party
what was about to be done; so before nine o'clock groups of Catholics
began to form, and as it happened to be Sunday the inhabitants of the
neighbouring villages arriving constantly by twos and threes soon united
these groups into a little army. Thus the streets leading to the church
being thronged, the Protestants who pushed their way through were
greeted with insulting remarks, and even the president of the
Consistory, whose white, hair and dignified expression had no effect
upon the mob, heard the people round him saying, "These brigands of
Protestants are going again to their temple, but we shall soon give them
enough of it."
The anger of the populace soon grows hot; between the first bubble and
the boiling-point the interval is short. Threats spoken in a low voice
were soon succeeded by noisy objurgations. Women, children, and men
brake out into yells, "Down with the broilers!" (for this was one of the
names by which the Protestants were designated). "Down with the
broilers! We do not want to see them using our churches: let them give
us back our churches; let them give us back our churches, and go to the
desert. Out with them! Out with them! To the desert! To the desert!"
As the crowd did not go beyond words, however insulting, and as the
Protestants were long inured to much worse things, they plodded along to
their meeting-house, humble and silent, and went in, undeterred by the
displeasure they aroused, whereupon the service commenced.
But some Catholics went in with them, and soon the same shouts which had
been heard without were heard also within. The general, however, was on
the alert, and as soon as the shouts arose inside the gens d'armes
entered the church and arrested those who had caused the disturbance.
The crowds tried to rescue them on their way to prison, but the general
appeared at the head of imposing forces, at the sight of which they
desisted. An apparent cam succeeded the tumult, and the public worship
went on without further interruption.
The general, misled by appearances, went off himself to attend a
military mass, and at eleven o'clock returned to his quarters for lunch.
His absence was immediately perceived and taken advantage of. In the:
twinkling of an eye, the crowds, which had dispersed, gathered together
in even greater numbers and the Protestants, seeing themselves once more
in danger, shut the doors from within, while the gens d'armes guarded
them without. The populace pressed so closely round the gens d'armes,
and assumed such a threatening attitude, that fearing he and his men
would not be able to hold their own in such a throng, the captain
ordered M. Delbose, one of his officers, to ride off and warn the
general. He forced his way through the crowd with great trouble, and
went off at a gallop. On seeing this, the people felt there was no time
to be lost; they knew of what kind the general was, and that he would be
on the spot in a quarter of an hour. A large crowd is invincible through
its numbers; it has only to press forward, and everything gives way,
men, wood, iron. At this moment the crowd, swayed by a common impulse,
swept forward, the gens d'armes and their horses were crushed against
the wall, doors gave way, and instantly with a tremendous roar a living
wave flooded the church. Cries of terror and frightful imprecations were
heard on all sides, everyone made a weapon of whatever came to hand,
chairs and benches were hurled about, the disorder was at its height; it
seemed as if the days of the Michelade and the Bagarre were about to
return, when suddenly the news of a terrible event was spread abroad,
and assailants and assailed paused in horror. General Lagarde had just
been assassinated.
As the crowd had foreseen, no sooner did the messenger deliver his
message than the general sprang on his horse, and, being too brave, or
perhaps too scornful, to fear such foes, he waited for no escort, but,
accompanied by two or three officers, set off at full gallop towards the
scene of the tumult. He had passed through the narrow streets which led
to the meeting-house by pushing the crowd aside with his horse's chest,
when, just as he got out into the open square, a young man named
Boisson, a sergeant in the Nimes National Guard, came up and seemed to
wish to speak to him. The general seeing a man in uniform, bent down
without a thought of danger to listen to what he had to say, whereupon
Boisson drew a pistol out and fired at him. The ball broke the
collar-bone and lodged in the neck behind the carotid artery, and the
general fell from his horse.
The news of this crime had a strange and unexpected effect; however
excited and frenzied the crowd was, it instantly realised the
consequences of this act. It was no longer like the murder of Marshal
Brune at Avignon or General Ramel at Toulouse, an act of vengeance on a
favourite of Napoleon, but open and armed rebellion against the king. It
was not a simple murder, it was high treason.
A feeling of the utmost terror spread through the town; only a few
fanatics went on howling in the church, which the Protestants, fearing
still greater disasters, had by this time resolved to abandon. The first
to come out was President Olivier Desmonts, accompanied by M.
Vallongues, who had only just arrived in the city, but who had
immediately hurried to the spot at the call of duty.
M Juillerat, his two children in his arms, walked behind them, followed
by all the other worshippers. At first the crowd, threatening and
ireful, hooted and threw stones at them, but at the voice of the mayor
and the dignified aspect of the president they allowed them to pass.
During this strange retreat over eighty Protestants were wounded, but
not fatally, except a young girl called Jeannette Cornilliere, who had
been so beaten and ill-used that she died of her injuries a few days
later.
In spite of the momentary slackening of energy which followed the
assassination of General Lagarde, the Catholics did not remain long in a
state of total inaction. During the rest of the day the excited populace
seemed as if shaken by an earthquake. About six o'clock in the evening,
some of the most desperate characters in the town possessed themselves
of a hatchet, and, taking their way to the Protestant church, smashed
the doors, tore the pastors' gowns, rifled the poor-box, and pulled the
books to pieces. A detachment of troops arrived just in time to prevent
their setting the building on fire.
The next day passed more quietly. This time the disorders were of too
important a nature for the prefect to ignore, as he had ignored so many
bloody acts in the past; so in due time a full report was laid before
the king. It became know the same evening that General Lagarde was still
living, and that those around him hoped that the wound would not prove
mortal. Dr. Delpech, who had been summoned from Montpellier, had
succeeded in extracting the bullet, and though he spoke no word of hope,
he did not expressly declare that the case was hopeless.
Two days later everything in the town had assumed its ordinary aspect,
and on the 21st of November the king issued the following edict:--
"Louis, by the grace of God, King of France and of Navarre,
"To all those to whom these presents shall come, greeting:
"An abominable crime has cast a stain on Our city of Nimes. A seditious
mob has dared to oppose the opening of the Protestant place of worship,
in contempt of the constitutional charter, which while it recognises the
Catholic religion as the religion of the State, guarantees to the other
religious bodies protection and freedom of worship. Our military
commandant, whilst trying to disperse these crowds by gentle means
before having resort to force, was shot down, and his assassin has till
now successfully evaded the arm of the law. If such an outrage were to
remain unpunished, the maintenance of good government and public order
would be impossible, and Our ministers would be guilty of neglecting the
law.
"Wherefore We have ordered and do order as follows:
"Art. 1. Proceedings shall be commenced without delay by Our attorney,
and the attorney-general, against the perpetrator of the murderous
attack on the person of Sieur Lagarde, and against the authors,
instigators, and accomplices of the insurrection which took place in the
city of Nimes on the 12th of the present month.
"Art. 2. A sufficient number of troops shall be quartered in the said
city, and shall remain there at the cost of the inhabitants, until the
assassin and his accomplices have been produced before a court of law.
"Art. 3. All those citizens whose names are not entitled to be on the
roll of the National Guard shall be disarmed.
"Our Keeper of the Seals, Our Minister of War, Our Minister of the
Interior, and Our Minister of Police, are entrusted with the execution
of this edict.
"Given at Paris at Our Castle of the Tuileries on the 21st of November
in the year of grace 1815, and of Our reign the 21st.
"(Signed) Louis"
Boissin was acquitted.
This was the last crime committed in the South, and it led fortunately
to no reprisals.
Three months after the murderous attempt to which he had so nearly
fallen a victim, General Lagarde left Nimes with the rank of ambassador,
and was succeeded as prefect by M. d'Argont.
During the firm, just, and independent administration of the latter, the
disarming of the citizens decreed by the royal edict was carried out
without bloodshed.
Through his influence, MM. Chabot-Latour, Saint-Aulaire, and Lascour
were elected to the Chamber of Deputies in place of MM. De Calviere, De
Vogue, and De Trinquelade.
And down to the present time the name of M. d'Argont is held in
veneration at Nimes, as if he had only quitted the city yesterday.
----