When Louis XIV. was King of France, that country was Catholic, as it is
still, but in the mountainous region called the Cevennes more than half
the people were Protestants. At first the King consented that these
Protestant people should live in quiet, and worship as they pleased; but
in those days men were not tolerant in matters of religion, as they are
now, and so after a while King Louis made up his mind that he would
compel all his people to believe alike. The Protestants of the Cevennes
were required to become Catholics. When they refused, soldiers were sent
to compel them, and great cruelties were practiced.
When this persecution had lasted for nearly thirty years, a body of
young men who were gathered together in the High Cevennes resolved to
defend themselves by force.
Among these young men was one, a mere boy, named Jean Cavalier. This
boy, without knowing it, had military genius of a very high order, and
when it became evident that he and his comrades could not long hold out
against the large bodies of regular troops sent against them, he
suggested a plan which in the end proved to be so good that for years
the poor peasants were able to maintain war against all the armies that
King Louis could send.
Cavalier's plan was to make uprisings in several places at once, so that
the King's officers could not tell in which way to turn. As he and his
comrades knew the country well, and had friends to tell them of the
enemy's movements, they could nearly always know when it was safe to
attack, and when they must hide in the woods.
One Sunday, Cavalier, who was a preacher as well as a soldier, held
services in his camp in the woods, and all the Protestant peasants in
the neighborhood attended. The Governor of Alais, whose name was De la
Hay, thought this a good opportunity not only to defeat Cavalier's small
force, but also to catch the Protestant women and children in the act of
attending a Protestant service, the punishment for which was death. He
collected a force of about six hundred men and marched toward the wood,
where he knew he should outnumber the peasants three or four to one. He
had a mule loaded with ropes, declaring that he was going to hang all of
the rebels at once.
When news of their coming was brought to the peasants, they sent away
all the women and children, and began to discuss the situation. They had
no commander, for although Cavalier had led them generally, he had no
authority to do so. On this occasion many thought it best to retreat at
once, as there were less than two hundred of them; but Cavalier declared
that if they would follow him, he would lead them to a place where
victory might be won. They consented, and he advanced to a point on the
road where he could shelter his men. Quickly disposing them in line of
battle behind some defenses, he awaited the coming of the enemy.
De la Hay, being overconfident because of his superior numbers,
blundered at the outset. Instead of attacking first with his infantry,
he placed his horsemen in front, and ordered an assault. Cavalier was
quick to take advantage of this blunder. He ordered only a few of his
men to fire, and this drew a volley from the advancing horsemen, which
did little damage to the sheltered troops, but emptied the horsemen's
weapons. Instantly Cavalier ordered a charge and a volley, and the
horsemen, with empty pistols, gave way. Cavalier pursued hotly, giving
the enemy no time to rally. A re-enforcement coming up, tried to check
Cavalier's charge, but so violent was the onset that these fresh troops
gave way in their turn, and the chase ended only when the King's men had
shut themselves up in the fortified towns.
When the battle was over it was decided unanimously to make Cavalier the
commander. He refused, however, unless they would also give him power to
enforce obedience, and his troops at once voted to make his authority
absolute, even in questions of life and death. According to the best
authorities, Cavalier was only seventeen years old when this absolute
command was conferred upon him.
On one occasion Cavalier attacked a party of forty men who were marching
through the country to re-enforce a distant post, and killed most of
them. While searching the dead bodies, he found in the pocket of the
commanding officer an order signed by Count Broglio, the King's
Lieutenant, directing all military officers and town authorities to
lodge and feed the party on their march. No sooner had the boy soldier
read this paper than he resolved to turn it to his own advantage.
The castle of Servas, near Alais, had long been a source of trouble to
Cavalier. It was a strong place, built upon a steep hill, and was so
difficult of approach that it would have been madness to try to take it
by force.
[Illustration: CAVALIER PERSONATING THE LIEUTENANT OF THE COUNT
BROGLIO.]
When he found the order referred to, he resolved to pretend that he was
the commander of the detachment which he had just destroyed. Dressing
himself in the dead officer's clothes, he ordered his men to put on the
clothing of the other dead royalists. Then he took six of his best men,
with their own Camisard uniforms on, and bound them with ropes, to
represent prisoners. One of them had been wounded in the arm, and his
bloody sleeve helped the stratagem. Putting these six men at the head of
his troop, with a guard of their disguised comrades over them, he
marched toward the castle. There he declared himself to be Count
Broglio's lieutenant, and said that he had met a company of the Barbets,
or Camisards, and had defeated them, taking six prisoners; that he was
afraid to keep these prisoners in the village overnight lest their
friends should rescue them; and that he wished to lodge them in the
castle for safety. When the Governor of the castle heard this story, and
saw the order of Count Broglio, he was completely imposed upon. He
ordered the prisoners to be brought into the castle, and invited
Cavalier to be his guest there for the night. Taking two of his officers
with him, Cavalier went into the castle to sup with the Governor. During
supper several of his soldiers, who were encamped just outside, went
into the castle upon pretense of getting wine or bread, and at a signal
from Cavalier they overpowered the sentinels, and threw the gates open.
The rest of the troop rushed in at once, and before the garrison could
seize their arms, the boy commander was master of the fortress.
Failing to overcome him by force or strategy, Cavalier's foes fell back
upon the hope of starving him during the winter. But in indulging this
hope they forgot that the crown and glory of his work in the field had
been his wonderful fertility of resource. He knew quite as well as they
did that he must live all winter in the woods, so he gave his whole mind
to the question of how to do it.
He began during the harvest to make his preparations. He explored all
the caves in the mountains, and selected the best ones for use as
store-houses, taking care to have them in all parts of the mountains, so
that if cut off from one he could draw upon another. In these caves he
stored quantities of grain and other provisions, and whenever he needed
meal, some of his men, who were millers, would carry grain to some
lonely country mill and grind it.
To prevent this, the King's officers ordered that all the country mills
should be rendered unfit for use, but before this could be done,
Cavalier directed some of his men, who were skilled machinists, to
disable two or three of the mills by carrying away the important parts
of their machinery and storing them in his caves. Then, when he wanted
meal, his machinists had only to replace the machinery in some disabled
mill, and remove it again after his millers had done the necessary
grinding. His bakers made use of farmers' ovens to bake bread in, and
when the King's soldiers, hearing of this, destroyed the ovens, Cavalier
sent his masons--for he had all sorts of craftsmen in his ranks--to
rebuild them.
Having two powder-makers with him, he collected salt-petre, burned
willow twigs for charcoal, and made all the powder he needed, in his
caves. For bullets he melted down the leaden weights of windows, and
when this source of supply failed, he melted down pewter vessels and
used pewter bullets--a fact which gave rise to the belief that he used
poisoned balls. Finally, in a dyer's establishment, he had the good luck
to find two great leaden kettles, weighing more than seven hundred
quintals, which, he says, "I caused immediately to be carried into the
magazines with as much diligence and care as if they had been silver."
Chiefly by Cavalier's energy and military skill, the war was kept up
against fearful odds for years, and finally the young soldier succeeded
in making a treaty of peace in which perfect liberty of conscience and
worship--which was all they had been fighting for--was guaranteed to the
Protestants of the Cevennes. His friends rejected this treaty, however,
and Cavalier soon afterward went to Holland, where he was given command
of a regiment in the English service. His career in arms was a brilliant
one--so brilliant that the British made him a General, and Governor of
the island of Jersey; but he nowhere showed greater genius or manifested
higher soldierly qualities than during the time when he was the Boy
Commander of the Camisards.
[Illustration: "THEY WERE ACTUALLY STUCK AGAINST THE PERPENDICULAR WALL
OF ROCK."]