July 26, 2025 • 47 mins
Dumass Celebrated Crimes isnt a series designed for the faint-hearted. The novelist pulls no punches in his graphic depiction of a tumultuous era, sometimes distorting facts and levelling unfounded accusations. Its a riveting read intended for discerning, seasoned readers who can appreciate and account for the authors dramatic liberties. As per the publishers note.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Chapter six of Celebrated Crimes, Volume two, The Massacres of
the South. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings
are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer,
please visit LibriVox dot org. Recording by John vanstan Savannah, Georgia.
Celebrated Crimes, Volume two, The Massacres of the South by
(00:23):
Alexander Dumas, Chapter six, at length, Louis the fourteenth, bowed
beneath the weight of a reign of sixty years, was
summoned in his turn to appear before God, from whom,
as some said, he looked for reward and others for pardon.
But Memes that city with the heart of fire was quiet,
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like the wounded who have lost the best part of
their blood. She thought only with the egotism of a convalescent,
of being left in peace to regain the strength which
had become exhausted to the terrible wounds which Montrevelle and
the Duke of Berwick had dealt her for sixty years.
Pettia ambition had taken the place of sublime self sacrifice,
and disputes about etiquette succeeded mortal combats. Then the philosophic
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era dawned, and the sarcasms of the encyclopedist withered, the
monarchical intolerance of Louis the fourteenth and Charles the ninth.
Thereupon the Protestants resumed their preaching, baptized their children, and
buried their dead. Commerce flourished once more, and the two
religions live side by side, one concealing under a peaceful
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exterior the memory of its martyrs, the other the memory
of its triumphs. Such was the mood on which the
blood red orb of the sun of eighty nine rose.
The Protestants greeted it with cries of joy, and indeed
the promised liberty gave them back their country, their civil rights,
and the status of French citizens. Nevertheless, whatever were the
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hopes of one party or the fears of the other,
nothing had as yet occurred to disturb the prevailing tranquility. When,
on the nineteenth and twentieth of July seventeen eighty nine,
a body of troops was formed in the capital of
La Guard, which was to bear the name of the
Nimes Militia. The resolution which authorizes act was passed by
the citizens of the three orders, sitting in the Hall
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of the Palace. It was as follows. Article ten. The
Nimes legions shall consist of a colonel, a lieutenant colonel,
a major, a lieutenant major, and a judant, twenty four captains,
twenty four lieutenants, seventy two sergeants, seventy two corporals, and
eleven hundred and fifty two privates, in all thirteen hundred
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and forty nine men, forming eighty companies. Article eleven. The
place of general assembly shall be the Esplanade. Article twelve.
The eighty companies shall be attached to the four quarters
of the town mentioned below Visa vill Place de la Hotel,
de Ville, Place de la Maison, Carree, Place Saint Jean,
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and Place de Chateau. Article thirteen. The companies, as they
are formed by the Permanent Council, shall each choose its
own captain, lieutenant, sergeants and corporals, and from the date
of his nomination the captain shall have a seat on
the Permanent Council. The names militia was deliberately formed upon
certain lines which brought Catholics and Protestants closely together as
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allies with weapons in their hands. But they stood over
a mine which was bound to explode some day, as
the slightest friction between the two parties would produce a spark.
This state of concealed enmity lasted for nearly a year,
being augmented by political antipathies. For the Protestants, almost to
a man, were Republicans and n Catholics Royalists. In the interval,
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that is to say, towards January seventeen ninety, a Catholic
named Francois Froment was entrusted by the Marquis de Faucault
with the task of raising, organizing, and commanding a Royalist
party in the South. Thus we learned from one of
his own letters to the Marquis, which was printed in
Paris in eighteen six seventeen, he describes his mode of
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action in the following words, it is not difficult to
understand that, being faithful to my religion and my King,
and shocked at the seditious ideas which were disseminated on
all sides, I should try to inspire others with the
same spirit with which I myself was animated. So during
the year seventeen eighty nine I published several articles in
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which I exposed the dangers which threatened Altar and throne.
Struck with the justice of my criticisms, my countrymen displayed
the most zealous ardor in their efforts to restore to
the King the full exercise of all his rights. Being
anxious to take advantage of this favorable state of feeling,
and thinking that it would be dangerous to hold communication
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with the ministers of Louis the sixteenth, who were watched
by the conspirators, I went secretly the Turin to solicit
the approbation and support of the French princes there, and
a consultation which was held just after my arrival. I
showed them that if they would arm not only the
partisans of the Throne, but those of the Altar, and
advance the interests of religion while advancing the interests of royalty,
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it would be easy to save both. My plan had
for sole object to bind a party together and give it,
as far as I was able, breadth and stability. As
the revolutionists placed their chief dependence on force, I felt
that they could only be met by force. For then,
as now I was convinced of this great truth, that
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one strong passion can only be overcome by another stronger,
and that therefore Republican fanaticism could only be driven out
by religious zeal. The princes, being convinced of the correctness
of my reasoning and the efficacy of my remedies, promised
me the arms and supplies necessary to stem the tide
of faction, and the Comte d'Artois gave me letters of
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recommendation to the chief nobles in Upper Languidoc, that I
might concert measures with them, For the nobles in that
part of the country had assembled at too lifeuse to
deliberate on the best way of inducing the other orders
to unite in restoring to the Catholic religion its useful influence,
to the laws their power, and to the King his
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liberty and authority. On my return to Languadoc, I went
from town to town in order to meet those gentlemen
to whom the Comte d'Artois had written, among whom were
many of the most influential royalists and some members of
the States of Parliament. Having decided on a general plan
and agreed on a method of carrying on secret correspondence
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with each other, I went to Nemes to wait for
the assistance which I had been promised from Turin but
which I never received. While waiting, I devoted myself to
awakening and sustaining the zeal of the inhabitants who had
my suggestion. On the twentieth April, passed a resolution which
was signed by five thousand inhabitants. This resolution, which was
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at once a religious and political manifesto, was drafted by
the eyes Allah Monsieur Fromense Secretary, and it lay for
signature in his office. Many of the Catholics signed it
without even reading it, for there was a short paragraph
prefixed to the document which contained all the information they
seemed to desire. Gentlemen, the aspirations of a great number
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of our Catholic and patriotic fellow citizens are expressed in
the resolution which we have the honor of laying before you.
They felt that under present circumstances, such a resolution was necessary,
and they feel convinced that if you give it your support,
as they do not doubt you will, knowing your patriotism,
your religious zeal, and your love for our Auguste Sovereign,
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it will conduce to the happiness of France, the maintenance
of the true religion and the rightful authority of the King.
We are gentlemen, with respect your very humble and obedient servants.
The President and Commissioners of the Catholic Assembly of Nimes,
signed Fromant Commissioner Lapierre Folache, President Lea Belieu, Commissioner, Favre Commissioner,
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Melchion Commissioner, Roban Commissioner Vigna Commissioner. At the same time,
a number of pamphlets entitled Pierre Roman to the Catholics
of Nimes were distributed to the people in the streets, containing,
among other attacks on the Protestants, the following passages. If
the door to high positions in civil and military honors
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were closed to the Protestants, and a powerful tribunal established
at Nimes to see that this rule were strictly kept,
you would soon see Protestantism disappear. The Protestants demand to
share all the privileges which you enjoy. But if you
grant them this, their one thought will then be to
dispossess you entirely, and they will soon succeed. Like ungrateful vipers,
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who in a torpid state were harmless, they will, when
warmed by your benefits, turn and kill you. They are
your boor enemies. Your fathers only escaped as by a
miracle from their blood stained hands. Have you not often
heard of the cruelties practiced on them? It was a
slight thing when the Protestants inflicted death alone, unaccompanied by
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the most horrible tortures, such as they were, such they are,
it may easily be imagined that such attacks soon embittered
minds already disposed to find new causes for the old hatred.
And besides, the Catholics did not long confine themselves to
resolutions and pamphlets. Froment, who had already got himself appointed
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Receiver general of the Chapter and captain of one of
the Catholic companies, insisted on being present at the installation
of the town council, and brought his company with him,
armed with pitchforks, in spite of the express prohibition of
the Colonel of the legion. These forks were terrible weapons
and had been fabricated in a particular form for the
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Catholics of nimes, Uza and Alais. But and his company
paid no attention to the prohibition, and this disobedience made
a great impression on the Protestants, who began to divine
the hostility of their adversaries. And it is very possible that,
if the new Town Council had not shut their eyes
to this act of insubordination, civil war might have burst
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forth in memes that very day. The next day, at
roll call, a sergeant of another company, one Alienne, a
cooper by trade, taunted one of the men with having
carried a pitchfork the day before in disobedience to orders.
He replied that the mayor had permitted him to carry it. Alienne,
not believing this, proposed to some of the men to
go with him to the mayor's and ask if it
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were true. When they saw monshour Margharita, he said that
he had permitted nothing of the kind, and sent the
delinquent to prison. Half an hour later. However, he gave
orders for his release. As soon as he was free,
he set off to find his comrades and told them
what had occurred. They, considering that an insult to one
was an insult to the whole company, determined on having
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satisfaction at once, So about eleven o'clock PM, they went
to the Cooper's house, carrying with them a gallows and
ropes ready greased, but quietly as they approached Alienne heard
them for his door being bolted from within, had to
be forced. Looking out of the window, he saw a
great crowd, and as he suspected that his life was
in danger, he got out of a back window into
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the yard and so escaped. The militia, being thus disappointed,
wreaked their vengeance on some passing Protestants, whose unlucky stars
had led them that way. These they knocked about and
even stabbed one of them three times with a knife.
On the twenty second April seventeen ninety, the Royalists, that
is to say, the Catholics, assumed the white cockade, although
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it was no longer the national emblem, and on the
first May, some of the militia, who had planted a
may pole at the mayor's door, were invited to lunch
with him. On the second, the company, which was on
guard at the mayor's official resident, shouted several times during
the day long live the King. Up with the cross
and down with the black throats. This was the name
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which they had given to the Calvinists. Three cheers for
the white cockade. Before we are done, it will be
red with the blood of the Protestants. However, on the
fifth of May they ceased to wear it, replacing it
by a scarlet tuft, which in their patois they called
the red poof, which was immediately adopted as the Catholic emblem.
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Each day as it passed brought forth fresh brawls and provocations.
Libels were invented by the Capuchins and spread abroad by
three of their number. Meetings were held every day, and
at last became so numerous that the town authorities called
in the aid of the militia dragoons to disperse them. Now,
these gatherings consisted chiefly of those tillers of the soil,
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who are called Chebbets from a provincial word Kebe, which
means onion, and they could easily be recognized as Catholics
by their red poof, which they wore both in and
out of uniform. On the other hand, the dragoons were
all Protestants. However, these latter were so very gentle in
their admonitions that although the two parties found themselves, so
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to speak, constantly face to face and armed for several days,
the meetings were dispersed without bloodshed. But this was exactly
what the Kbbets did not want, so they began to
insult the dragoons and turned them into ridicule. Consequently, one morning,
they gathered together in great numbers, mounted on asses, and
with drawn swords, began to patrol the city. At the
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same time, the lower classes, who were nearly all Catholics,
joined the burlesque patrols, and complaining loudly of the dragoons,
some saying that their horses had trampled on their children
and others that they had frightened their wives. The Protestants
contradicted them. Both parties grew angry. Swords were half drawn
when the municipal authorities came on the scene, and instead
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of apprehending the ring leaders forbade the dragoons to patrol
the town anymore, ordering them in future to do nothing
more than send twenty men every day to mount guard
at the episcopal palace, and to undertake no other duty
except that the express request of the town council. Although
it was expected that the dragoons would revolt against such
a humiliation, they submitted, which was a great disappointment to
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the Kibets, who had been longing for a chance to
indulge in new outrages. For all that the Catholics did
not consider themselves beaten, they felt sure of being able
to find some other way of driving their quarry to bay. Sunday,
the thirteenth of June arrived. This day had been selected
by the Catholics for a great demonstration. Towards ten o'clock
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in the morning, some companies wearing the red tuft, under
pretext of going to mass, marched through the city, armed
and uttering threats. The few dragoons, on the other hand,
who were on guard at the palace, had not even
a sentinel posted and had only five muskets in the
guard house. At two o'clock p m. There was a
meeting held in the Jacobin Church consisting almost exclusively of
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militia wearing the red tuft. The mayor pronounced a panegyric
on those who wore it, and was followed by Pierre Froment,
who explained his mission in much the same words as
those quoted above. He then ordered a cask of wine
to be broached and distributed among the cabets, and told
them to walk about the streets in threes, and to
disarm all the dragoons whom they might meet away from
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their post. About six o'clock in the evening, a red
tuft volunteer presented himself at the gate of the palace
and ordered the porter to sweep the courtyard, saying that
the volunteers were going to get up a ball for
the dragoons. After this piece of bravado, he went away,
and in a few moments a note arrived couched in
the following terms. The bishop's porter is warned to let
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no dragoon on horse or on foot enter or leave
the palace this evening, on pain of death. Thirteenth June
seventeen ninety This note being brought to the lieutenant, he
came out and reminded the volunteer that nobody but the
town authorities could give orders to the servants at the palace.
The volunteer gave an insolent answer. The lieutenant advised him
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to go away quietly, threatening if he did not to
put him out by force. This altercation attracted a great
many of the red tufts from outside, while the dragoons,
hearing the noise, came down into the yard. The quarrel
became more lively. Stones were thrown, the call to arms
was heard, and in a few moments about forty cabets,
who were prowling around in the neighborhood of the palace
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rushed into the yard carrying guns and swords. The lieutenant,
who had only about a dozen dragoons at his back,
ordered the bugle to sound to recall those who had
gone out. The volunteers threw themselves upon the bugler, dragged
his instrument from his hands and broke it to pieces.
Then several shots were fired by the militia. The dragoons
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returned them, and a regular battle began. The lieutenant soon
saw that this was no mere street row, but a
deliberate rising planned beforehand, and realizing that very serious consequences
were likely to ensue, he sent a dragoon to the
town hall by a back way to give notice to
the authorities. Monsieur to Saint Paul, Major of the Nimes Legion,
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hearing some noise outside, opened his window and found the
whole city in a tumult. People were running in every
direction and shouting as they ran that the dragoons were
being killed at the palace. The Major rushed out into
the streets at once, gathered together a dozen to fifteen
patriotic citizens without weapons, then hurried to the town hall.
There he found two officials of the town and begged
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them to go at once to the place de la Vesche.
Escorted by the First Company, which was on guard at
the town hall, they agreed and set off on the way.
Several shots were fired at them, but no one was hit.
When they arrived at the square, the cabets fired a
volley of them, with the same negative result. Up the
three principal streets which led to the palace, numerous red
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tufts were hurrying. The first Company took possession of the
ends of the streets, and, being fired at, returned the fire,
repulsing the assailants and clearing the square with the loss
of one of their men, while several of the retreating
cabets were wounded. While this struggle was going on at
the palace, the spirit of murder broke loose in the town.
At the gate of Madeleine, Monsieur de Jelabert's house was
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broken into by the red tufts. The unfortunate old man
came out to meet them and asked what they wanted.
Your life and the lives of all the other dogs
of Protestants, was the reply, whereupon he was seized and
dragged through the streets. Fifteen insurgeons hacking at him with
their swords. At last he managed to escape from their hands,
but died two days later of the wounds. Another old
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man named Ashtrook, who was bowed beneath the weight of
seventy two years and whose white hair covered his shoulders,
was met as he was on his way to the
gate of Karm. Being recognized as a Protestant. He received
five wounds from some of the famous pitchforks belonging to
the company of Froment. He fell, but the assassins picked
him up and throwing him into the moat, amused themselves
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by flinging stones at him, till one of them, with
more humanity than his fellows, put a bullet through his head.
Three electors, Monteur Masador from near Beaucaire, Monsheur of Vialla
from the Canton of LaSalle, and Monsieur Poische of the
same place, were attacked by red tufts on their way home,
and all three seriously wounded. The captain, who had been
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in command of the detachment on guard at the electoral assembly,
was returning to his quarters accompanied by a sergeant and
three volunteers of his own company when they were stopped
on the Petit corps by Froment, commonly called Damblays, who
pressing the barrel of a pistol to the captain's breast,
said stand, you rascal, and give up your arms. At
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the same time, the red tufts, seizing the captain from
behind by the hair, pulled him down. Foment Fi fired
his pistol but missed. As he fell. The captain drew
his sword, but it was torn from his hands and
he received a cut from Fomen's sword. Upon this, the
captain made a great effort, and, getting one of his
arms free, drew a pistol from his pocket, drove back.
His assassins fired at Fromen and missed him. One of
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the men by his side was wounded and disarmed. A
patrol of the Regiment of Guienne, attached to which was
Monsheur Boudin, a dragoon officer, was passing the Chalciere Monsheur
Boudon was attacked by a band of red tufts, and
his cask and his musket carried off. Several shots were
fired at him, but none of them hit him. The
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patrol surrounded him to save him, but as he had
received two bayonet wounds, he desired revenge and breaking through
his protectors darted forward to regain possession of his musket
and was killed in a moment. One of his fingers
was cut off to get at a diamond ring which
he wore. His pockets were rifled of his purse and watch,
and his body was thrown into the moat. Meantime, the
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Place de Recolas, the Corps, the Place de Carmes, the
Grand Rue and Rue de Notre Dame de Espanada were
filled with men armed with guns, pitchforks and swords. They
had all come from Frohman's house, which overlooked that part
of names called Les Calquiere, and the entrance to which
was on the ramparts near the Dominican towers. The three
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leaders of the insurrection, fromet, Flache and des Combier, took
possession of these towers, which formed a part of the
old castle. From this position, the Catholics could sweep the
entire quay of LEAs Calciere and the steps of the
Salle de Spectacla with their guns. And if it should
turn out that the insurrection they had excited did not
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attain the dimensions they expected, nor gain such enthusiastic adherents,
it would be quite feasible for them to defend themselves
in such a position until relief came. These arrangements were
either the result of long meditation or were the inspiration
of some clever strategists. The fact is that everything leads
one to believe that it was a plan which had
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been formed with great care. For the rapidity with which
all the approaches to the fortress were lined with a
double row of militiamen, all wearing the red tuft, the
care which was taken to place the most eager, next,
the barracks in which the park of artillery was stationed,
and lastly, the manner in which the approach to the
citadel was barred by an entire company, this being the
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only place where the patriots could procure arms. Combined to
prove that this plan was the result of much forethought,
For while it appeared to be only defensive, it enabled
the insurrectionists to attack without much danger. It caused others
to believe that they had been first attacked. It was
successfully carried out before the citizens were armed, and until
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then only a part of the foot guard and the
twelve dragoons at the palace had offered any resistance to
the conspirators. The red flag round which in case of
civil war all good citizens were expected to gather, and
which was kept at the town hall, and which should
have been brought out at the first shot, was now
loudly called for. The Abbe de Belmont a Cannon, a
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vicar general and municipal official, was persuaded almost forced to
become standard bearer, as being the most likely on account
of his ecclesiastical position, to all rebels who had taken
up arms in the name of religion. The Abbey himself
gives the following account of the manner in which he
fulfilled this mandate. About seven o'clock in the evening, I
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was engaged with Moncheur's partier and Ferrand in auditing accounts
when we heard a noise in the court, and going
out on the lobby, we saw several dragoons coming upstairs,
amongst whom was Monsieur Paris. They told us that fighting
was going on in the place de la Vesche, because
someone or other had brought a note to the porter
ordering him to admit no more dragoons to the palace
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on pain of death. At this point I interrupted their
story by asking why the gates had not been closed
and the bearer of the letter arrested. But they replied
to me that if it had not been possible. Thereupon,
Moncheurs Fernd and Pontiers put on their scarves and went out.
A few instants later, several dragoons, amongst whom I recognized
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none but Moncheurs Leson de Pott, Paris Junior and Boudon,
accompanied by a great number of the militia, entered, demanding
that the red flag should be brought out. They tried
to open the door of the council hall, and finding
it locked, they called upon me for the key. I
asked that one of the attendants should be sent for,
but they were all out. Then I went to the
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hall porter to see if he knew where the key was.
He said, Monsieur Berding had taken it. Meanwhile, just as
the volunteers were about to force an entrance, someone ran
up with the key. The door was opened and the
red flag seized and forced into my hands. I was
then dragged down into the courtyard, and from thence to
the square. It was all in vain to tell them
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that they ought first to get authority, and to represent
to them that I was no suitable standard bearer on
account of my ession, but they would not listen to
any objections, saying that my life depended upon my obedience,
and that my profession would overawe the disturbers of the
public peace. So I went on, followed by a detachment
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of the Guienne Regiment, part of the first company of
the Legion, and several dragoons. A young man with fixed
bayonet kept always at my side. Rage was depicted on
the faces of all those who accompanied me, and they
indulged in oaths and threats, to which I paid no attention.
In passing through the Rue de gref they complained that
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I did not carry the red flag high enough nor
unfurl it fully. When we got to the guard house
at the Crown Gate, the guard turned out and the
officer was commanded to follow us with his men. He
replied that he could not do that without a written
order from a member of the town council. Thereupon, those
around me told me I must write such an order,
but I asked for a pen and ink. Everybody was
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furious because I had none with me. So offensive were
the remark indulged in by the volunteers, and some soldiers
of the Guiana Regiment, and so threatening their gestures that
I grew alarmed. I was hustled and even received several blows,
but at length Monsieur de Boudon brought me paper and
a pen, and I wrote, I require the troops to
assist us to maintain order by force if necessary. Upon this,
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the officer consented to accompany us. We had hardly taken
half a dozen steps when they all began to ask
what had become of the order I had just written,
for it could not be found. They surrounded me, saying
that I had not written it at all, and I
was on the point of being trampled under foot when
a militiaman found it all crumpled up in his pocket.
The threats grew louder, and once more it was because
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I did not carry the flag high enough, everyone insisting
that I was quite tall enough to display it to
better advantage. However, at this point the militiamen with the
red tufts made their appearance, a few armed with muskets,
but the greater number with swords. Shots were exchanged, and
the soldiers of the Line and the National Guard arranged
themselves in battle order in a kind of recess and
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desired me to go forward alone, which I refused to
do because I should have been between two fires. Upon this, curses,
threats and blows reached their height. I was dragged out
before the troops and struck with the butt ends of
their muskets and the flat of their swords until I advanced.
One blow that I received between the shoulders filled my
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mouth with blood. All this time, those of the opposite
party were coming nearer than those with whom I was
continued to yell at me to go on. I went
on until I met them. I besought them to retire,
even throwing myself at their feet, but all persuasion was
in vain. They swept me along with them, making me
enter by the Carmelite gate, where they took the flag
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from me and allowed me to enter the house of
a woman whose name I have never known. I was
spitting such a quantity of blood that she took pity
on me and brought me everything she could think of
as likely to do me good. And as soon as
I was a little revived, I asked to be shown
the way to Monsieur Pontier's. While Abbe de Belmont was
carrying the red flag, the militia forced the town councilors
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to proclaim martial law. This had just been done when
word was brought that the first red flag had been
carried off. So Monsieur Ferrand de Missul got out another, and,
followed by a considerable escort, took the same road as
his colleague Abbe de Belmont. When he arrived at the calquires,
the red tufts, who still adorned the ramparts and towers,
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began to fire upon the procession, and one of the
militia was disabled. The escort retreated, but Monsieur Farrand advanced
alone to the Carmelite gate. Like Monsieur de Belmont, and
like him, he too was taken prisoner. He was brought
to the tower, where he found from it in a fury,
declaring that the council had not kept its promise, having
sent no relief, and having delayed to give up the
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citadel to him. The escort, however, had only retreated in
order to seek help. They rushed tumultuously to the barracks, and,
finding the Regiment of Guienne drawn up in marching order
in command of Lieutenant Colonel Bonn, they asked him to
follow them, but he refused without a written order from
a town councilor. Upon this, an old corporal shouted, brave
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soldiers of Guienne, the country is in danger. Let us
not delay to do our duty. Yes, yes, cried the soldiers,
let us march. The lieutenant colonel, no longer daring to resist,
gave the word of command, and they set off for
the esplanade. As they came near the rampart, with drums beating,
the firing ceased. But as night was coming on, the
newcomers did not dare to risk attacking, and moreover, the
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silence of the guns led them to think that the
rebels had given up their enterprise. Having remained an hour
in the square, the troops returned to their quarters, and
the patriots went to pass the night in an enclosure
on the Montpellier road. It almost seemed as if the
Catholics were beginning to recognize the futility of their plot,
for although they had appealed to fanaticism forced the town
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council to do their will, sc scattered gold lavishly and
made wine flow. Out of eighteen companies, only three had
joined them. Fifteen companies, said Monsieur Alquiere in his report,
to the National Assembly. Although they had adopted the red Tuft,
took no part in the struggle and did not add
to the number of crimes committed either on that day
(30:18):
or during the days that followed. But although the Catholics
gained few partisans among their fellow citizens, they felt certain
that people from the country would rally to their aid.
But about ten o'clock in the evening, the rebel ring leaders,
seeing that no help arrived from that quarter, either, resolved
to apply a stimulus to those without. Consequently, Froment wrote
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the following letter to Monsieur de Bonzal, under Commandant of
the Province of Languedoc, who was living at Lunel Sir.
Up to the present, all my demands that the Catholic
companies should be put under arms have been of no avail.
In spite of the order that you gave at my request,
the officials of the municipality were of opinion that it
(31:00):
would be more prudent to delay the distribution of the
muskets until after the meeting of the electoral Assembly. This day,
the Protestant dragoons have attacked and killed several of our
unarmed Catholics, and you may imagine the confusion and alarm
that prevail in the town. As a good citizen and
a true patriot, I entreat you to send an order
to the regiment of Royal Dragoons to repair at once,
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to Nemes, to restore tranquility and put down all who
break the peace. The town council does not meet. None
of them dares to leave his house, And if you
receive no requisition from them just now, it is because
they go in terror of their lives, in fear to
appear openly. Two red flags have been carried about the streets,
and municipal officers without guards have been obliged to take
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refuge in patriotic houses. Although I am only a private citizen,
I take the liberty of asking for aid from you,
knowing that the Protestants have sent to Lavanage and La
Guardonique to ask you for reinforcements and the arrival of fanatics,
when these districts would expose all good patriots to slaughter.
(32:05):
Knowing as I do of your kindness and justice, I
have full trust that my prayer will receive your favorable attention.
Fromant Captain of Company Number thirty nine, June thirteenth, seventeen
ninety eleven o'clock p m. Unfortunately for the Catholic party,
Duprey and Leutade, to whom his letter was entrusted for delivery,
(32:25):
and for whom passports were made out as being employed
on business connected with the King and the State, were
arrested at Fahad, and their despatches allaid before the electoral assembly.
Many other letters of the same kind were also intercepted,
and the red tufts went about the town saying that
the Catholics of Nimes were being massacred. The priest of Corbesac,
(32:46):
among others, was shown a letter saying that a Capuchin
monk had been murdered and that the Catholics were in
need of help. The agents who brought this letter to
him wanted him to put his name to it, that
they might show it everywhere, but they were met by
a positive refusal. At bouillarg and Manduel, the tocsin was sounded.
The two villages joined forces, and with weapons in their hands,
(33:08):
marched along the road from Beaucaire to Nimes. At the
bridge of Court, the villagers of Redressant and Margherita joined them.
Thus reinforced, they were able to bar the way to
all who passed, and subject them to examination. If a
man could show he was a Catholic, he was allowed
to proceed. But the Protestants were murdered then and there.
(33:29):
We may remind our readers that the Cadets de Lacroix
pursued the same method in seventeen o four. Meantime, Descombier
Froment and Folachets remained masters of the ramparts and the tower,
and when very early one morning their forces were augmented
by the insurgents from the villages, about two hundred men,
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they took advantage of their strength to force a way
into the house of a certain Tehran, from which it
was easy to effect an entrance to the Jacobin monastery,
and from there to the tower a joint, so that
their line now extended from the gate at the bridge
of Calcire to that at the end of College Street.
From daylight to dusk, all the patriots who came within
range were fired at, whether they were armed or not.
(34:13):
On the fourteenth June, at four o'clock in the morning,
that part of the legion which was against the Catholics
gathered together in the square of the Esplanade, where they
were joined by the patriots from the adjacent towns and villages,
who came in in small parties till they formed quite
an army. At five a m Monsieur de Saint Pons,
knowing that the windows of the Capuchin monastery commanded the
(34:35):
position taken up by the patriots, went there with a
company and searched the house thoroughly and also the amphitheater,
but found nothing suspicious in either. Immediately after, news was
heard of the massacres that had taken place during the night.
The country house belonging to Monsieur and Mademoiselle Nogier had
been broken into, the furniture destroyed, the owners killed in
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their beds, and an old man of seventy who lived
with them, cut to pieces with a scythe A young
fellow of fifteen named Peya, in passing near the guard
placed at the Ponte Fiell, had been asked by a
red tuft if he were a Catholic or Protestant. On
his replying he was Protestant, he was shot dead on
the spot. That was like killing a lamb, said a
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comrade to the murderer. Pooh, He said, he I have
taken a vow to kill four Protestants, and he may
pass for one Montour Margra, an old man of eighty two,
head of one of the most respected families in the neighborhood,
tried to escape from his house along with his son,
his daughter in law, two grandchildren, and two servants, but
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the carriage was stopped, and while the rebels were murdering
him and his son, the mother and her two children
succeeded in escaping to an inn, whither the assassins pursued them. Fortunately, however,
the two fugitives, having a start, reached the inn a
few minutes before their pursuers, and the innkeeper had enough
presence of mind to conceal them and open the garden
gate by which he said they had escaped. The Catholics,
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believing him, scattered over the country to look for them,
and during their absence the mother and children were rescued
by the mounted patrol. The exasperation of the Protestants rose
higher and higher as reports of these murders came in
one by one, till that last the desire for vengeance
could no longer be repressed, and they were clamorously insisting
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on being led against the ramparts and the towers. When
without warning, a heavy fusillade began from the windows and
clock tower of the Capuchin monastery Monsieur Massin. A municipal
officer was killed on the spot, a sapper fatally wounded,
and twenty five of the national guard wounded more or
less severely. The Protestants immediately rushed towards the monastery in
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a disorderly mass, but the superior, instead of ordering the
gates to be opened, appeared at the window above the
entrance and, addressing the assailants as the violists of the vial,
asked them what they wanted at the monastery. We want
to destroy it. We want to pull it down till
not one stone rests upon another, they replied. Upon this,
the reverend father ordered the alarm bells to be rung,
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and from the mouths of bronze issued the call for help.
But before it could arrive, the door was burst in
with hatchets, and five Capuchins and several of the militia
who wore the red tuft were killed, while all the
other occupants of the monastery ran away, taking refuge in
the house of a Protestant called Paulan. During this attack,
the church was respected a man from Saumier, however, stole
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a pix which he found in the sacristy, but as
soon as his comrades perceived this, he was arrested and
sent to prison. In the monastery itself, however, the doors
were broken in, the furniture smashed, the library and the
dispensary wrecked. The sacristy itself was not spared, its presses
being broken into, its chest destroyed, and two monstrances broken,
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but nothing further was touched. The storehouses and the small
cloth factory connected with the monastery remained intact like the church.
But still the towers held out, and it was round
them that the real fighting took place. The resistance offered
from within being all the more obstinate that the besieged
expected relief from moment to moment, not knowing that their
(38:09):
letters had been intercepted by the enemy. On every side.
The rattling of shot was heard from the Esplanada, from
the windows, from the roofs, but very little effect was
produced by the Protestants, for Descombier had told his men
to put their caps with the red tufts on the
top of the wall to attract the bullets while they
fired from the side meantime, the conspirators, in order to
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get a better command of the besiegers, reopened a passage
which had been long walled up between the Tower du
Pad and the tower of the Dominicans, and Descombier, accompanied
by thirty men, came to the door of the monastery
nearest the fortifications and demanded the key of another door,
which led to that part of the ramparts, which was
opposite the Place de Karm, where the National Guards were stationed.
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In spite of the remonstrances of the monks, who saw
that it would expose them to great danger, the doors
were opened and froemen hastened to occupy every post of vantage,
and the battle began in that quarter, too, becoming fiercer
as the conspirators remarked that every minute brought the Protestants
reinforcements from Guardonique and Lavonage. The firing began at ten
(39:15):
o'clock in the morning, and at four o'clock in the afternoon.
It was going on with unabated fury. At four o'clock, however,
a servant carrying a flag of truce appeared. He brought
a letter from Descombier, Fremont and Folacher, who styled themselves
Captains commanding the Towers of the Castle. It was couched
in the following words to the Commandant of the Troops
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of the Line, with the request that the contents be
communicated to the militia stationed in the esplanade. Sir, we
have just been informed that you are anxious for peace.
We also desire it, and have never done anything to
break it. If those who have caused the frightful confusion
which at present prevails in the city are willing to
bring it to an end, we offered to forget the
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past and to live with them as brother. We remain
with all the frankness and loyalty of patriots and Frenchmen,
your humble servants, the captains of the Legion of Names,
in command of the Towers of the Castle, Froment Descombier Feleche, Nimes,
the fourteenth June seventeen ninety four p m. On the
(40:18):
receipt of this letter, the city Herald was sent to
the towers to offer the rebels terms of capitulation. The
three captains in command came out to discuss the terms
with the commissioners of the electoral body. They were armed
and followed by a great number of adherents. However, as
the negotiators desired peace before all things, they proposed that
the three chiefs should surrender and place themselves in the
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hands of the electoral Assembly, this offer being refused, the
electoral commissioners withdrew and the rebels retired behind their fortifications.
About five o'clock in the evening, just as the negotiations
were broken off, Monsieur Aubris, an artillery captain who had
been sent with two hundred men to the depot of
field artillery in the country, returned, and with six pieces
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of ordnance, determined to make a breach in the tower
occupied by the conspirators and from which they were firing
in safety. Yet the soldiers, who had no cover. At
six o'clock the guns being mounted, their thunder began, first
drowning the noise of the musketry and then silencing it
all together. For the cannon balls did their work quickly,
and before long the tower threatened to fall. Thereupon, the
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electoral commissioners ordered the firing to cease for a moment,
in the hope that now the danger had become so
imminent the leaders would accept the conditions which they had refused.
One hour before, and not desiring to drive them to desperation,
the commissioners advanced again down College Street, preceded by a bugler,
and the captains were once more summoned to a parley
(41:46):
Froment and Descombier came out to meet them, and, seeing
the condition of the tower, they agreed to lay down
their arms and send them for the palace, while they
themselves would proceed to the Electoral Assembly and place themselves
under its protection. These proposals being accepted, the commissioners waved
their hats as a sign that the treaty was concluded.
(42:07):
At that instant, three shots were fired from the ramparts,
and cries of treachery treachery were heard on every side.
The Catholic chiefs returned to the tower, while the Protestants,
believing that the commissioners were being assassinated, reopened the cannonade,
but finding that it took too long to complete, the breach,
ladders were brought, the walls scaled, and the towers carried
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by assault. Some of the Catholics were killed. The others
gained Fromen's house, where, encouraged by him, they tried to
organize a resistance, but the assailants despite the oncoming darkness,
attacked the place with such fury that doors and windows
were shattered in an instant. Froment and his brother Pierre
tried to escape by a narrow staircase which led to
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the roof, but before they reached it, Pierre was wounded
in the hip and fell, But Froment reached the roof
and sprang upon an adjacent housetop, and climbing from roof
to roof, reached the college, and, getting into it by
a garret window, took refuge in a large room which
was always unoccupied at night, being used during the day
as a study. Foment remained hidden there until eleven o'clock,
(43:11):
it being then completely dark, he got out of the window,
crossed the city, gained the open country, and, walking all night,
concealed himself during the day in the house of a Catholic.
The next night he set off again and reached the coast,
where he embarked on board a vessel for Italy in
order to report to those who had sent him the
disastrous results of his enterprise. For three whole days the
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carnage lasted. The Protestants, losing all control over themselves, carried
on the work of death, not only without pity, but
with refined cruelty. More than five hundred Catholics lost their
lives before the seventeenth when peace was restored. For a
long time, recriminations went on between Catholics and Protestants, each
party trying to fix on the other responsibility for those
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dreadful three days. But at last Francois Froment put an
end to all doubt on the subject by publishing a
work from which are set forth many of the details
just laid before our readers, as well as the reward
he met with when he reached turn and a meeting
of the French nobles in exile, a resolution was passed
in favor of Monsieur Pierre Froment and his children. Inhabitants
(44:17):
of names, we give a literal reproduction of this historic document. We,
the undersigned French nobles, being convinced that our order was
instituted that it might become the prize of valor and
the encouragement of virtue, do declare that the Chevalier de Guer,
having given us proof of the devotion to their king
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and the love of their country, which have been displayed
by Monsieur Pierre Froment, receiver of the clergy and his
three sons, Matthieu Froment, citizen, Jacques Froment, Canon Francois Froment
advocate inhabitants of names. We shall henceforward regard them and
their descendants as nobles and worthy to enjoy all the
distinctions which belong to the true nobile. Brave citizens who
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perform such distinguished actions as fighting for the restoration of
the monarchy ought to be considered as the equals of
those French chevalier whose ancestors helped to found it. Furthermore,
we do declare that, as soon as circumstances permit, we
shall join together to petition His Majesty to grant to
this family so illustrious through its virtue, all the honors
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and prerogatives which belong to those born noble. We depute
the Marquis de Meran, Comte de Spinchal, the Marquis de
scar Vicomte de Pon, Chevalier de Guerre, and the Marquis
de la Feronnier to go to Monsigneur le Comte d'Artois, Monseigneur,
le duc d'angoulem, Monseigne, le duc de Barille, Monseigneur le
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Prince de Conde, Monseigneur la Duc de Bourbonne, and Monseigneur
le Duc Dengienne, to beg them to put themselves at
our head when we request his Majesty to grant to
Monsieur's Fromant all the distinctions and advantages reserved for the
true nobility at Turin. Twelfth September seventeen ninety the Nobility
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of Languidoc learned of the honors conferred on their countrymen
Monsieur Fromen, and addressed the following letter to him Lorch
July seventh, seventeen ninety two, Monchieur, the nobles of Languidoc
hastened to confirm the resolution adopted in your favor by
the nobles assembled at Turin. They appreciate the zeal and
the courage which have distinguished your conduct and that of
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your family. They have therefore instructed us to assure you
of the pleasure with which they will welcome you among
those nobles who are under the orders of Martial de castries,
and that you are at liberty to repair to Lorche
to assume your proper rank in one of the companies.
We have the honor to be Moncheur your humble and
obedient servants, Comte de toulals l'al trek, marquis de la Janquiere,
(46:55):
et cetera. End of Chapter six, Reading by John Vanstan Savannah, Georgia,
Chapter six of Celebrated Crimes, Volume two, The Massacres of
the South. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings
are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer,
please visit LibriVox dot org. Recording by John vanstan Savannah, Georgia.
Celebrated Crimes, Volume two, The Massacres of the South by
(00:23):
Alexander Dumas, Chapter six, at length, Louis the fourteenth, bowed
beneath the weight of a reign of sixty years, was
summoned in his turn to appear before God, from whom,
as some said, he looked for reward and others for pardon.
But Memes that city with the heart of fire was quiet,
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like the wounded who have lost the best part of
their blood. She thought only with the egotism of a convalescent,
of being left in peace to regain the strength which
had become exhausted to the terrible wounds which Montrevelle and
the Duke of Berwick had dealt her for sixty years.
Pettia ambition had taken the place of sublime self sacrifice,
and disputes about etiquette succeeded mortal combats. Then the philosophic
(01:08):
era dawned, and the sarcasms of the encyclopedist withered, the
monarchical intolerance of Louis the fourteenth and Charles the ninth.
Thereupon the Protestants resumed their preaching, baptized their children, and
buried their dead. Commerce flourished once more, and the two
religions live side by side, one concealing under a peaceful
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exterior the memory of its martyrs, the other the memory
of its triumphs. Such was the mood on which the
blood red orb of the sun of eighty nine rose.
The Protestants greeted it with cries of joy, and indeed
the promised liberty gave them back their country, their civil rights,
and the status of French citizens. Nevertheless, whatever were the
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hopes of one party or the fears of the other,
nothing had as yet occurred to disturb the prevailing tranquility. When,
on the nineteenth and twentieth of July seventeen eighty nine,
a body of troops was formed in the capital of
La Guard, which was to bear the name of the
Nimes Militia. The resolution which authorizes act was passed by
the citizens of the three orders, sitting in the Hall
(02:13):
of the Palace. It was as follows. Article ten. The
Nimes legions shall consist of a colonel, a lieutenant colonel,
a major, a lieutenant major, and a judant, twenty four captains,
twenty four lieutenants, seventy two sergeants, seventy two corporals, and
eleven hundred and fifty two privates, in all thirteen hundred
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and forty nine men, forming eighty companies. Article eleven. The
place of general assembly shall be the Esplanade. Article twelve.
The eighty companies shall be attached to the four quarters
of the town mentioned below Visa vill Place de la Hotel,
de Ville, Place de la Maison, Carree, Place Saint Jean,
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and Place de Chateau. Article thirteen. The companies, as they
are formed by the Permanent Council, shall each choose its
own captain, lieutenant, sergeants and corporals, and from the date
of his nomination the captain shall have a seat on
the Permanent Council. The names militia was deliberately formed upon
certain lines which brought Catholics and Protestants closely together as
(03:17):
allies with weapons in their hands. But they stood over
a mine which was bound to explode some day, as
the slightest friction between the two parties would produce a spark.
This state of concealed enmity lasted for nearly a year,
being augmented by political antipathies. For the Protestants, almost to
a man, were Republicans and n Catholics Royalists. In the interval,
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that is to say, towards January seventeen ninety, a Catholic
named Francois Froment was entrusted by the Marquis de Faucault
with the task of raising, organizing, and commanding a Royalist
party in the South. Thus we learned from one of
his own letters to the Marquis, which was printed in
Paris in eighteen six seventeen, he describes his mode of
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action in the following words, it is not difficult to
understand that, being faithful to my religion and my King,
and shocked at the seditious ideas which were disseminated on
all sides, I should try to inspire others with the
same spirit with which I myself was animated. So during
the year seventeen eighty nine I published several articles in
(04:22):
which I exposed the dangers which threatened Altar and throne.
Struck with the justice of my criticisms, my countrymen displayed
the most zealous ardor in their efforts to restore to
the King the full exercise of all his rights. Being
anxious to take advantage of this favorable state of feeling,
and thinking that it would be dangerous to hold communication
(04:43):
with the ministers of Louis the sixteenth, who were watched
by the conspirators, I went secretly the Turin to solicit
the approbation and support of the French princes there, and
a consultation which was held just after my arrival. I
showed them that if they would arm not only the
partisans of the Throne, but those of the Altar, and
advance the interests of religion while advancing the interests of royalty,
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it would be easy to save both. My plan had
for sole object to bind a party together and give it,
as far as I was able, breadth and stability. As
the revolutionists placed their chief dependence on force, I felt
that they could only be met by force. For then,
as now I was convinced of this great truth, that
(05:27):
one strong passion can only be overcome by another stronger,
and that therefore Republican fanaticism could only be driven out
by religious zeal. The princes, being convinced of the correctness
of my reasoning and the efficacy of my remedies, promised
me the arms and supplies necessary to stem the tide
of faction, and the Comte d'Artois gave me letters of
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recommendation to the chief nobles in Upper Languidoc, that I
might concert measures with them, For the nobles in that
part of the country had assembled at too lifeuse to
deliberate on the best way of inducing the other orders
to unite in restoring to the Catholic religion its useful influence,
to the laws their power, and to the King his
(06:11):
liberty and authority. On my return to Languadoc, I went
from town to town in order to meet those gentlemen
to whom the Comte d'Artois had written, among whom were
many of the most influential royalists and some members of
the States of Parliament. Having decided on a general plan
and agreed on a method of carrying on secret correspondence
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with each other, I went to Nemes to wait for
the assistance which I had been promised from Turin but
which I never received. While waiting, I devoted myself to
awakening and sustaining the zeal of the inhabitants who had
my suggestion. On the twentieth April, passed a resolution which
was signed by five thousand inhabitants. This resolution, which was
(06:55):
at once a religious and political manifesto, was drafted by
the eyes Allah Monsieur Fromense Secretary, and it lay for
signature in his office. Many of the Catholics signed it
without even reading it, for there was a short paragraph
prefixed to the document which contained all the information they
seemed to desire. Gentlemen, the aspirations of a great number
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of our Catholic and patriotic fellow citizens are expressed in
the resolution which we have the honor of laying before you.
They felt that under present circumstances, such a resolution was necessary,
and they feel convinced that if you give it your support,
as they do not doubt you will, knowing your patriotism,
your religious zeal, and your love for our Auguste Sovereign,
(07:40):
it will conduce to the happiness of France, the maintenance
of the true religion and the rightful authority of the King.
We are gentlemen, with respect your very humble and obedient servants.
The President and Commissioners of the Catholic Assembly of Nimes,
signed Fromant Commissioner Lapierre Folache, President Lea Belieu, Commissioner, Favre Commissioner,
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Melchion Commissioner, Roban Commissioner Vigna Commissioner. At the same time,
a number of pamphlets entitled Pierre Roman to the Catholics
of Nimes were distributed to the people in the streets, containing,
among other attacks on the Protestants, the following passages. If
the door to high positions in civil and military honors
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were closed to the Protestants, and a powerful tribunal established
at Nimes to see that this rule were strictly kept,
you would soon see Protestantism disappear. The Protestants demand to
share all the privileges which you enjoy. But if you
grant them this, their one thought will then be to
dispossess you entirely, and they will soon succeed. Like ungrateful vipers,
(08:51):
who in a torpid state were harmless, they will, when
warmed by your benefits, turn and kill you. They are
your boor enemies. Your fathers only escaped as by a
miracle from their blood stained hands. Have you not often
heard of the cruelties practiced on them? It was a
slight thing when the Protestants inflicted death alone, unaccompanied by
(09:13):
the most horrible tortures, such as they were, such they are,
it may easily be imagined that such attacks soon embittered
minds already disposed to find new causes for the old hatred.
And besides, the Catholics did not long confine themselves to
resolutions and pamphlets. Froment, who had already got himself appointed
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Receiver general of the Chapter and captain of one of
the Catholic companies, insisted on being present at the installation
of the town council, and brought his company with him,
armed with pitchforks, in spite of the express prohibition of
the Colonel of the legion. These forks were terrible weapons
and had been fabricated in a particular form for the
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Catholics of nimes, Uza and Alais. But and his company
paid no attention to the prohibition, and this disobedience made
a great impression on the Protestants, who began to divine
the hostility of their adversaries. And it is very possible that,
if the new Town Council had not shut their eyes
to this act of insubordination, civil war might have burst
(10:17):
forth in memes that very day. The next day, at
roll call, a sergeant of another company, one Alienne, a
cooper by trade, taunted one of the men with having
carried a pitchfork the day before in disobedience to orders.
He replied that the mayor had permitted him to carry it. Alienne,
not believing this, proposed to some of the men to
go with him to the mayor's and ask if it
(10:39):
were true. When they saw monshour Margharita, he said that
he had permitted nothing of the kind, and sent the
delinquent to prison. Half an hour later. However, he gave
orders for his release. As soon as he was free,
he set off to find his comrades and told them
what had occurred. They, considering that an insult to one
was an insult to the whole company, determined on having
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satisfaction at once, So about eleven o'clock PM, they went
to the Cooper's house, carrying with them a gallows and
ropes ready greased, but quietly as they approached Alienne heard
them for his door being bolted from within, had to
be forced. Looking out of the window, he saw a
great crowd, and as he suspected that his life was
in danger, he got out of a back window into
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the yard and so escaped. The militia, being thus disappointed,
wreaked their vengeance on some passing Protestants, whose unlucky stars
had led them that way. These they knocked about and
even stabbed one of them three times with a knife.
On the twenty second April seventeen ninety, the Royalists, that
is to say, the Catholics, assumed the white cockade, although
(11:46):
it was no longer the national emblem, and on the
first May, some of the militia, who had planted a
may pole at the mayor's door, were invited to lunch
with him. On the second, the company, which was on
guard at the mayor's official resident, shouted several times during
the day long live the King. Up with the cross
and down with the black throats. This was the name
(12:08):
which they had given to the Calvinists. Three cheers for
the white cockade. Before we are done, it will be
red with the blood of the Protestants. However, on the
fifth of May they ceased to wear it, replacing it
by a scarlet tuft, which in their patois they called
the red poof, which was immediately adopted as the Catholic emblem.
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Each day as it passed brought forth fresh brawls and provocations.
Libels were invented by the Capuchins and spread abroad by
three of their number. Meetings were held every day, and
at last became so numerous that the town authorities called
in the aid of the militia dragoons to disperse them. Now,
these gatherings consisted chiefly of those tillers of the soil,
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who are called Chebbets from a provincial word Kebe, which
means onion, and they could easily be recognized as Catholics
by their red poof, which they wore both in and
out of uniform. On the other hand, the dragoons were
all Protestants. However, these latter were so very gentle in
their admonitions that although the two parties found themselves, so
(13:12):
to speak, constantly face to face and armed for several days,
the meetings were dispersed without bloodshed. But this was exactly
what the Kbbets did not want, so they began to
insult the dragoons and turned them into ridicule. Consequently, one morning,
they gathered together in great numbers, mounted on asses, and
with drawn swords, began to patrol the city. At the
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same time, the lower classes, who were nearly all Catholics,
joined the burlesque patrols, and complaining loudly of the dragoons,
some saying that their horses had trampled on their children
and others that they had frightened their wives. The Protestants
contradicted them. Both parties grew angry. Swords were half drawn
when the municipal authorities came on the scene, and instead
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of apprehending the ring leaders forbade the dragoons to patrol
the town anymore, ordering them in future to do nothing
more than send twenty men every day to mount guard
at the episcopal palace, and to undertake no other duty
except that the express request of the town council. Although
it was expected that the dragoons would revolt against such
a humiliation, they submitted, which was a great disappointment to
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the Kibets, who had been longing for a chance to
indulge in new outrages. For all that the Catholics did
not consider themselves beaten, they felt sure of being able
to find some other way of driving their quarry to bay. Sunday,
the thirteenth of June arrived. This day had been selected
by the Catholics for a great demonstration. Towards ten o'clock
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in the morning, some companies wearing the red tuft, under
pretext of going to mass, marched through the city, armed
and uttering threats. The few dragoons, on the other hand,
who were on guard at the palace, had not even
a sentinel posted and had only five muskets in the
guard house. At two o'clock p m. There was a
meeting held in the Jacobin Church consisting almost exclusively of
(15:06):
militia wearing the red tuft. The mayor pronounced a panegyric
on those who wore it, and was followed by Pierre Froment,
who explained his mission in much the same words as
those quoted above. He then ordered a cask of wine
to be broached and distributed among the cabets, and told
them to walk about the streets in threes, and to
disarm all the dragoons whom they might meet away from
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their post. About six o'clock in the evening, a red
tuft volunteer presented himself at the gate of the palace
and ordered the porter to sweep the courtyard, saying that
the volunteers were going to get up a ball for
the dragoons. After this piece of bravado, he went away,
and in a few moments a note arrived couched in
the following terms. The bishop's porter is warned to let
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no dragoon on horse or on foot enter or leave
the palace this evening, on pain of death. Thirteenth June
seventeen ninety This note being brought to the lieutenant, he
came out and reminded the volunteer that nobody but the
town authorities could give orders to the servants at the palace.
The volunteer gave an insolent answer. The lieutenant advised him
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to go away quietly, threatening if he did not to
put him out by force. This altercation attracted a great
many of the red tufts from outside, while the dragoons,
hearing the noise, came down into the yard. The quarrel
became more lively. Stones were thrown, the call to arms
was heard, and in a few moments about forty cabets,
who were prowling around in the neighborhood of the palace
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rushed into the yard carrying guns and swords. The lieutenant,
who had only about a dozen dragoons at his back,
ordered the bugle to sound to recall those who had
gone out. The volunteers threw themselves upon the bugler, dragged
his instrument from his hands and broke it to pieces.
Then several shots were fired by the militia. The dragoons
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returned them, and a regular battle began. The lieutenant soon
saw that this was no mere street row, but a
deliberate rising planned beforehand, and realizing that very serious consequences
were likely to ensue, he sent a dragoon to the
town hall by a back way to give notice to
the authorities. Monsieur to Saint Paul, Major of the Nimes Legion,
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hearing some noise outside, opened his window and found the
whole city in a tumult. People were running in every
direction and shouting as they ran that the dragoons were
being killed at the palace. The Major rushed out into
the streets at once, gathered together a dozen to fifteen
patriotic citizens without weapons, then hurried to the town hall.
There he found two officials of the town and begged
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them to go at once to the place de la Vesche.
Escorted by the First Company, which was on guard at
the town hall, they agreed and set off on the way.
Several shots were fired at them, but no one was hit.
When they arrived at the square, the cabets fired a
volley of them, with the same negative result. Up the
three principal streets which led to the palace, numerous red
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tufts were hurrying. The first Company took possession of the
ends of the streets, and, being fired at, returned the fire,
repulsing the assailants and clearing the square with the loss
of one of their men, while several of the retreating
cabets were wounded. While this struggle was going on at
the palace, the spirit of murder broke loose in the town.
At the gate of Madeleine, Monsieur de Jelabert's house was
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broken into by the red tufts. The unfortunate old man
came out to meet them and asked what they wanted.
Your life and the lives of all the other dogs
of Protestants, was the reply, whereupon he was seized and
dragged through the streets. Fifteen insurgeons hacking at him with
their swords. At last he managed to escape from their hands,
but died two days later of the wounds. Another old
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man named Ashtrook, who was bowed beneath the weight of
seventy two years and whose white hair covered his shoulders,
was met as he was on his way to the
gate of Karm. Being recognized as a Protestant. He received
five wounds from some of the famous pitchforks belonging to
the company of Froment. He fell, but the assassins picked
him up and throwing him into the moat, amused themselves
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by flinging stones at him, till one of them, with
more humanity than his fellows, put a bullet through his head.
Three electors, Monteur Masador from near Beaucaire, Monsheur of Vialla
from the Canton of LaSalle, and Monsieur Poische of the
same place, were attacked by red tufts on their way home,
and all three seriously wounded. The captain, who had been
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in command of the detachment on guard at the electoral assembly,
was returning to his quarters accompanied by a sergeant and
three volunteers of his own company when they were stopped
on the Petit corps by Froment, commonly called Damblays, who
pressing the barrel of a pistol to the captain's breast,
said stand, you rascal, and give up your arms. At
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the same time, the red tufts, seizing the captain from
behind by the hair, pulled him down. Foment Fi fired
his pistol but missed. As he fell. The captain drew
his sword, but it was torn from his hands and
he received a cut from Fomen's sword. Upon this, the
captain made a great effort, and, getting one of his
arms free, drew a pistol from his pocket, drove back.
His assassins fired at Fromen and missed him. One of
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the men by his side was wounded and disarmed. A
patrol of the Regiment of Guienne, attached to which was
Monsheur Boudin, a dragoon officer, was passing the Chalciere Monsheur
Boudon was attacked by a band of red tufts, and
his cask and his musket carried off. Several shots were
fired at him, but none of them hit him. The
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patrol surrounded him to save him, but as he had
received two bayonet wounds, he desired revenge and breaking through
his protectors darted forward to regain possession of his musket
and was killed in a moment. One of his fingers
was cut off to get at a diamond ring which
he wore. His pockets were rifled of his purse and watch,
and his body was thrown into the moat. Meantime, the
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Place de Recolas, the Corps, the Place de Carmes, the
Grand Rue and Rue de Notre Dame de Espanada were
filled with men armed with guns, pitchforks and swords. They
had all come from Frohman's house, which overlooked that part
of names called Les Calquiere, and the entrance to which
was on the ramparts near the Dominican towers. The three
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leaders of the insurrection, fromet, Flache and des Combier, took
possession of these towers, which formed a part of the
old castle. From this position, the Catholics could sweep the
entire quay of LEAs Calciere and the steps of the
Salle de Spectacla with their guns. And if it should
turn out that the insurrection they had excited did not
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attain the dimensions they expected, nor gain such enthusiastic adherents,
it would be quite feasible for them to defend themselves
in such a position until relief came. These arrangements were
either the result of long meditation or were the inspiration
of some clever strategists. The fact is that everything leads
one to believe that it was a plan which had
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been formed with great care. For the rapidity with which
all the approaches to the fortress were lined with a
double row of militiamen, all wearing the red tuft, the
care which was taken to place the most eager, next,
the barracks in which the park of artillery was stationed,
and lastly, the manner in which the approach to the
citadel was barred by an entire company, this being the
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only place where the patriots could procure arms. Combined to
prove that this plan was the result of much forethought,
For while it appeared to be only defensive, it enabled
the insurrectionists to attack without much danger. It caused others
to believe that they had been first attacked. It was
successfully carried out before the citizens were armed, and until
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then only a part of the foot guard and the
twelve dragoons at the palace had offered any resistance to
the conspirators. The red flag round which in case of
civil war all good citizens were expected to gather, and
which was kept at the town hall, and which should
have been brought out at the first shot, was now
loudly called for. The Abbe de Belmont a Cannon, a
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vicar general and municipal official, was persuaded almost forced to
become standard bearer, as being the most likely on account
of his ecclesiastical position, to all rebels who had taken
up arms in the name of religion. The Abbey himself
gives the following account of the manner in which he
fulfilled this mandate. About seven o'clock in the evening, I
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was engaged with Moncheur's partier and Ferrand in auditing accounts
when we heard a noise in the court, and going
out on the lobby, we saw several dragoons coming upstairs,
amongst whom was Monsieur Paris. They told us that fighting
was going on in the place de la Vesche, because
someone or other had brought a note to the porter
ordering him to admit no more dragoons to the palace
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on pain of death. At this point I interrupted their
story by asking why the gates had not been closed
and the bearer of the letter arrested. But they replied
to me that if it had not been possible. Thereupon,
Moncheurs Fernd and Pontiers put on their scarves and went out.
A few instants later, several dragoons, amongst whom I recognized
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none but Moncheurs Leson de Pott, Paris Junior and Boudon,
accompanied by a great number of the militia, entered, demanding
that the red flag should be brought out. They tried
to open the door of the council hall, and finding
it locked, they called upon me for the key. I
asked that one of the attendants should be sent for,
but they were all out. Then I went to the
(24:31):
hall porter to see if he knew where the key was.
He said, Monsieur Berding had taken it. Meanwhile, just as
the volunteers were about to force an entrance, someone ran
up with the key. The door was opened and the
red flag seized and forced into my hands. I was
then dragged down into the courtyard, and from thence to
the square. It was all in vain to tell them
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that they ought first to get authority, and to represent
to them that I was no suitable standard bearer on
account of my ession, but they would not listen to
any objections, saying that my life depended upon my obedience,
and that my profession would overawe the disturbers of the
public peace. So I went on, followed by a detachment
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of the Guienne Regiment, part of the first company of
the Legion, and several dragoons. A young man with fixed
bayonet kept always at my side. Rage was depicted on
the faces of all those who accompanied me, and they
indulged in oaths and threats, to which I paid no attention.
In passing through the Rue de gref they complained that
(25:33):
I did not carry the red flag high enough nor
unfurl it fully. When we got to the guard house
at the Crown Gate, the guard turned out and the
officer was commanded to follow us with his men. He
replied that he could not do that without a written
order from a member of the town council. Thereupon, those
around me told me I must write such an order,
but I asked for a pen and ink. Everybody was
(25:56):
furious because I had none with me. So offensive were
the remark indulged in by the volunteers, and some soldiers
of the Guiana Regiment, and so threatening their gestures that
I grew alarmed. I was hustled and even received several blows,
but at length Monsieur de Boudon brought me paper and
a pen, and I wrote, I require the troops to
assist us to maintain order by force if necessary. Upon this,
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the officer consented to accompany us. We had hardly taken
half a dozen steps when they all began to ask
what had become of the order I had just written,
for it could not be found. They surrounded me, saying
that I had not written it at all, and I
was on the point of being trampled under foot when
a militiaman found it all crumpled up in his pocket.
The threats grew louder, and once more it was because
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I did not carry the flag high enough, everyone insisting
that I was quite tall enough to display it to
better advantage. However, at this point the militiamen with the
red tufts made their appearance, a few armed with muskets,
but the greater number with swords. Shots were exchanged, and
the soldiers of the Line and the National Guard arranged
themselves in battle order in a kind of recess and
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desired me to go forward alone, which I refused to
do because I should have been between two fires. Upon this, curses,
threats and blows reached their height. I was dragged out
before the troops and struck with the butt ends of
their muskets and the flat of their swords until I advanced.
One blow that I received between the shoulders filled my
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mouth with blood. All this time, those of the opposite
party were coming nearer than those with whom I was
continued to yell at me to go on. I went
on until I met them. I besought them to retire,
even throwing myself at their feet, but all persuasion was
in vain. They swept me along with them, making me
enter by the Carmelite gate, where they took the flag
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from me and allowed me to enter the house of
a woman whose name I have never known. I was
spitting such a quantity of blood that she took pity
on me and brought me everything she could think of
as likely to do me good. And as soon as
I was a little revived, I asked to be shown
the way to Monsieur Pontier's. While Abbe de Belmont was
carrying the red flag, the militia forced the town councilors
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to proclaim martial law. This had just been done when
word was brought that the first red flag had been
carried off. So Monsieur Ferrand de Missul got out another, and,
followed by a considerable escort, took the same road as
his colleague Abbe de Belmont. When he arrived at the calquires,
the red tufts, who still adorned the ramparts and towers,
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began to fire upon the procession, and one of the
militia was disabled. The escort retreated, but Monsieur Farrand advanced
alone to the Carmelite gate. Like Monsieur de Belmont, and
like him, he too was taken prisoner. He was brought
to the tower, where he found from it in a fury,
declaring that the council had not kept its promise, having
sent no relief, and having delayed to give up the
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citadel to him. The escort, however, had only retreated in
order to seek help. They rushed tumultuously to the barracks, and,
finding the Regiment of Guienne drawn up in marching order
in command of Lieutenant Colonel Bonn, they asked him to
follow them, but he refused without a written order from
a town councilor. Upon this, an old corporal shouted, brave
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soldiers of Guienne, the country is in danger. Let us
not delay to do our duty. Yes, yes, cried the soldiers,
let us march. The lieutenant colonel, no longer daring to resist,
gave the word of command, and they set off for
the esplanade. As they came near the rampart, with drums beating,
the firing ceased. But as night was coming on, the
newcomers did not dare to risk attacking, and moreover, the
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silence of the guns led them to think that the
rebels had given up their enterprise. Having remained an hour
in the square, the troops returned to their quarters, and
the patriots went to pass the night in an enclosure
on the Montpellier road. It almost seemed as if the
Catholics were beginning to recognize the futility of their plot,
for although they had appealed to fanaticism forced the town
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council to do their will, sc scattered gold lavishly and
made wine flow. Out of eighteen companies, only three had
joined them. Fifteen companies, said Monsieur Alquiere in his report,
to the National Assembly. Although they had adopted the red Tuft,
took no part in the struggle and did not add
to the number of crimes committed either on that day
(30:18):
or during the days that followed. But although the Catholics
gained few partisans among their fellow citizens, they felt certain
that people from the country would rally to their aid.
But about ten o'clock in the evening, the rebel ring leaders,
seeing that no help arrived from that quarter, either, resolved
to apply a stimulus to those without. Consequently, Froment wrote
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the following letter to Monsieur de Bonzal, under Commandant of
the Province of Languedoc, who was living at Lunel Sir.
Up to the present, all my demands that the Catholic
companies should be put under arms have been of no avail.
In spite of the order that you gave at my request,
the officials of the municipality were of opinion that it
(31:00):
would be more prudent to delay the distribution of the
muskets until after the meeting of the electoral Assembly. This day,
the Protestant dragoons have attacked and killed several of our
unarmed Catholics, and you may imagine the confusion and alarm
that prevail in the town. As a good citizen and
a true patriot, I entreat you to send an order
to the regiment of Royal Dragoons to repair at once,
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to Nemes, to restore tranquility and put down all who
break the peace. The town council does not meet. None
of them dares to leave his house, And if you
receive no requisition from them just now, it is because
they go in terror of their lives, in fear to
appear openly. Two red flags have been carried about the streets,
and municipal officers without guards have been obliged to take
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refuge in patriotic houses. Although I am only a private citizen,
I take the liberty of asking for aid from you,
knowing that the Protestants have sent to Lavanage and La
Guardonique to ask you for reinforcements and the arrival of fanatics,
when these districts would expose all good patriots to slaughter.
(32:05):
Knowing as I do of your kindness and justice, I
have full trust that my prayer will receive your favorable attention.
Fromant Captain of Company Number thirty nine, June thirteenth, seventeen
ninety eleven o'clock p m. Unfortunately for the Catholic party,
Duprey and Leutade, to whom his letter was entrusted for delivery,
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and for whom passports were made out as being employed
on business connected with the King and the State, were
arrested at Fahad, and their despatches allaid before the electoral assembly.
Many other letters of the same kind were also intercepted,
and the red tufts went about the town saying that
the Catholics of Nimes were being massacred. The priest of Corbesac,
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among others, was shown a letter saying that a Capuchin
monk had been murdered and that the Catholics were in
need of help. The agents who brought this letter to
him wanted him to put his name to it, that
they might show it everywhere, but they were met by
a positive refusal. At bouillarg and Manduel, the tocsin was sounded.
The two villages joined forces, and with weapons in their hands,
(33:08):
marched along the road from Beaucaire to Nimes. At the
bridge of Court, the villagers of Redressant and Margherita joined them.
Thus reinforced, they were able to bar the way to
all who passed, and subject them to examination. If a
man could show he was a Catholic, he was allowed
to proceed. But the Protestants were murdered then and there.
(33:29):
We may remind our readers that the Cadets de Lacroix
pursued the same method in seventeen o four. Meantime, Descombier
Froment and Folachets remained masters of the ramparts and the tower,
and when very early one morning their forces were augmented
by the insurgents from the villages, about two hundred men,
(33:50):
they took advantage of their strength to force a way
into the house of a certain Tehran, from which it
was easy to effect an entrance to the Jacobin monastery,
and from there to the tower a joint, so that
their line now extended from the gate at the bridge
of Calcire to that at the end of College Street.
From daylight to dusk, all the patriots who came within
range were fired at, whether they were armed or not.
(34:13):
On the fourteenth June, at four o'clock in the morning,
that part of the legion which was against the Catholics
gathered together in the square of the Esplanade, where they
were joined by the patriots from the adjacent towns and villages,
who came in in small parties till they formed quite
an army. At five a m Monsieur de Saint Pons,
knowing that the windows of the Capuchin monastery commanded the
(34:35):
position taken up by the patriots, went there with a
company and searched the house thoroughly and also the amphitheater,
but found nothing suspicious in either. Immediately after, news was
heard of the massacres that had taken place during the night.
The country house belonging to Monsieur and Mademoiselle Nogier had
been broken into, the furniture destroyed, the owners killed in
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their beds, and an old man of seventy who lived
with them, cut to pieces with a scythe A young
fellow of fifteen named Peya, in passing near the guard
placed at the Ponte Fiell, had been asked by a
red tuft if he were a Catholic or Protestant. On
his replying he was Protestant, he was shot dead on
the spot. That was like killing a lamb, said a
(35:18):
comrade to the murderer. Pooh, He said, he I have
taken a vow to kill four Protestants, and he may
pass for one Montour Margra, an old man of eighty two,
head of one of the most respected families in the neighborhood,
tried to escape from his house along with his son,
his daughter in law, two grandchildren, and two servants, but
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the carriage was stopped, and while the rebels were murdering
him and his son, the mother and her two children
succeeded in escaping to an inn, whither the assassins pursued them. Fortunately, however,
the two fugitives, having a start, reached the inn a
few minutes before their pursuers, and the innkeeper had enough
presence of mind to conceal them and open the garden
gate by which he said they had escaped. The Catholics,
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believing him, scattered over the country to look for them,
and during their absence the mother and children were rescued
by the mounted patrol. The exasperation of the Protestants rose
higher and higher as reports of these murders came in
one by one, till that last the desire for vengeance
could no longer be repressed, and they were clamorously insisting
(36:21):
on being led against the ramparts and the towers. When
without warning, a heavy fusillade began from the windows and
clock tower of the Capuchin monastery Monsieur Massin. A municipal
officer was killed on the spot, a sapper fatally wounded,
and twenty five of the national guard wounded more or
less severely. The Protestants immediately rushed towards the monastery in
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a disorderly mass, but the superior, instead of ordering the
gates to be opened, appeared at the window above the
entrance and, addressing the assailants as the violists of the vial,
asked them what they wanted at the monastery. We want
to destroy it. We want to pull it down till
not one stone rests upon another, they replied. Upon this,
the reverend father ordered the alarm bells to be rung,
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and from the mouths of bronze issued the call for help.
But before it could arrive, the door was burst in
with hatchets, and five Capuchins and several of the militia
who wore the red tuft were killed, while all the
other occupants of the monastery ran away, taking refuge in
the house of a Protestant called Paulan. During this attack,
the church was respected a man from Saumier, however, stole
(37:27):
a pix which he found in the sacristy, but as
soon as his comrades perceived this, he was arrested and
sent to prison. In the monastery itself, however, the doors
were broken in, the furniture smashed, the library and the
dispensary wrecked. The sacristy itself was not spared, its presses
being broken into, its chest destroyed, and two monstrances broken,
(37:48):
but nothing further was touched. The storehouses and the small
cloth factory connected with the monastery remained intact like the church.
But still the towers held out, and it was round
them that the real fighting took place. The resistance offered
from within being all the more obstinate that the besieged
expected relief from moment to moment, not knowing that their
(38:09):
letters had been intercepted by the enemy. On every side.
The rattling of shot was heard from the Esplanada, from
the windows, from the roofs, but very little effect was
produced by the Protestants, for Descombier had told his men
to put their caps with the red tufts on the
top of the wall to attract the bullets while they
fired from the side meantime, the conspirators, in order to
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get a better command of the besiegers, reopened a passage
which had been long walled up between the Tower du
Pad and the tower of the Dominicans, and Descombier, accompanied
by thirty men, came to the door of the monastery
nearest the fortifications and demanded the key of another door,
which led to that part of the ramparts, which was
opposite the Place de Karm, where the National Guards were stationed.
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In spite of the remonstrances of the monks, who saw
that it would expose them to great danger, the doors
were opened and froemen hastened to occupy every post of vantage,
and the battle began in that quarter, too, becoming fiercer
as the conspirators remarked that every minute brought the Protestants
reinforcements from Guardonique and Lavonage. The firing began at ten
(39:15):
o'clock in the morning, and at four o'clock in the afternoon.
It was going on with unabated fury. At four o'clock, however,
a servant carrying a flag of truce appeared. He brought
a letter from Descombier, Fremont and Folacher, who styled themselves
Captains commanding the Towers of the Castle. It was couched
in the following words to the Commandant of the Troops
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of the Line, with the request that the contents be
communicated to the militia stationed in the esplanade. Sir, we
have just been informed that you are anxious for peace.
We also desire it, and have never done anything to
break it. If those who have caused the frightful confusion
which at present prevails in the city are willing to
bring it to an end, we offered to forget the
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past and to live with them as brother. We remain
with all the frankness and loyalty of patriots and Frenchmen,
your humble servants, the captains of the Legion of Names,
in command of the Towers of the Castle, Froment Descombier Feleche, Nimes,
the fourteenth June seventeen ninety four p m. On the
(40:18):
receipt of this letter, the city Herald was sent to
the towers to offer the rebels terms of capitulation. The
three captains in command came out to discuss the terms
with the commissioners of the electoral body. They were armed
and followed by a great number of adherents. However, as
the negotiators desired peace before all things, they proposed that
the three chiefs should surrender and place themselves in the
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hands of the electoral Assembly, this offer being refused, the
electoral commissioners withdrew and the rebels retired behind their fortifications.
About five o'clock in the evening, just as the negotiations
were broken off, Monsieur Aubris, an artillery captain who had
been sent with two hundred men to the depot of
field artillery in the country, returned, and with six pieces
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of ordnance, determined to make a breach in the tower
occupied by the conspirators and from which they were firing
in safety. Yet the soldiers, who had no cover. At
six o'clock the guns being mounted, their thunder began, first
drowning the noise of the musketry and then silencing it
all together. For the cannon balls did their work quickly,
and before long the tower threatened to fall. Thereupon, the
(41:23):
electoral commissioners ordered the firing to cease for a moment,
in the hope that now the danger had become so
imminent the leaders would accept the conditions which they had refused.
One hour before, and not desiring to drive them to desperation,
the commissioners advanced again down College Street, preceded by a bugler,
and the captains were once more summoned to a parley
(41:46):
Froment and Descombier came out to meet them, and, seeing
the condition of the tower, they agreed to lay down
their arms and send them for the palace, while they
themselves would proceed to the Electoral Assembly and place themselves
under its protection. These proposals being accepted, the commissioners waved
their hats as a sign that the treaty was concluded.
(42:07):
At that instant, three shots were fired from the ramparts,
and cries of treachery treachery were heard on every side.
The Catholic chiefs returned to the tower, while the Protestants,
believing that the commissioners were being assassinated, reopened the cannonade,
but finding that it took too long to complete, the breach,
ladders were brought, the walls scaled, and the towers carried
(42:28):
by assault. Some of the Catholics were killed. The others
gained Fromen's house, where, encouraged by him, they tried to
organize a resistance, but the assailants despite the oncoming darkness,
attacked the place with such fury that doors and windows
were shattered in an instant. Froment and his brother Pierre
tried to escape by a narrow staircase which led to
(42:48):
the roof, but before they reached it, Pierre was wounded
in the hip and fell, But Froment reached the roof
and sprang upon an adjacent housetop, and climbing from roof
to roof, reached the college, and, getting into it by
a garret window, took refuge in a large room which
was always unoccupied at night, being used during the day
as a study. Foment remained hidden there until eleven o'clock,
(43:11):
it being then completely dark, he got out of the window,
crossed the city, gained the open country, and, walking all night,
concealed himself during the day in the house of a Catholic.
The next night he set off again and reached the coast,
where he embarked on board a vessel for Italy in
order to report to those who had sent him the
disastrous results of his enterprise. For three whole days the
(43:33):
carnage lasted. The Protestants, losing all control over themselves, carried
on the work of death, not only without pity, but
with refined cruelty. More than five hundred Catholics lost their
lives before the seventeenth when peace was restored. For a
long time, recriminations went on between Catholics and Protestants, each
party trying to fix on the other responsibility for those
(43:55):
dreadful three days. But at last Francois Froment put an
end to all doubt on the subject by publishing a
work from which are set forth many of the details
just laid before our readers, as well as the reward
he met with when he reached turn and a meeting
of the French nobles in exile, a resolution was passed
in favor of Monsieur Pierre Froment and his children. Inhabitants
(44:17):
of names, we give a literal reproduction of this historic document. We,
the undersigned French nobles, being convinced that our order was
instituted that it might become the prize of valor and
the encouragement of virtue, do declare that the Chevalier de Guer,
having given us proof of the devotion to their king
(44:37):
and the love of their country, which have been displayed
by Monsieur Pierre Froment, receiver of the clergy and his
three sons, Matthieu Froment, citizen, Jacques Froment, Canon Francois Froment
advocate inhabitants of names. We shall henceforward regard them and
their descendants as nobles and worthy to enjoy all the
distinctions which belong to the true nobile. Brave citizens who
(45:02):
perform such distinguished actions as fighting for the restoration of
the monarchy ought to be considered as the equals of
those French chevalier whose ancestors helped to found it. Furthermore,
we do declare that, as soon as circumstances permit, we
shall join together to petition His Majesty to grant to
this family so illustrious through its virtue, all the honors
(45:24):
and prerogatives which belong to those born noble. We depute
the Marquis de Meran, Comte de Spinchal, the Marquis de
scar Vicomte de Pon, Chevalier de Guerre, and the Marquis
de la Feronnier to go to Monsigneur le Comte d'Artois, Monseigneur,
le duc d'angoulem, Monseigne, le duc de Barille, Monseigneur le
(45:48):
Prince de Conde, Monseigneur la Duc de Bourbonne, and Monseigneur
le Duc Dengienne, to beg them to put themselves at
our head when we request his Majesty to grant to
Monsieur's Fromant all the distinctions and advantages reserved for the
true nobility at Turin. Twelfth September seventeen ninety the Nobility
(46:09):
of Languidoc learned of the honors conferred on their countrymen
Monsieur Fromen, and addressed the following letter to him Lorch
July seventh, seventeen ninety two, Monchieur, the nobles of Languidoc
hastened to confirm the resolution adopted in your favor by
the nobles assembled at Turin. They appreciate the zeal and
the courage which have distinguished your conduct and that of
(46:31):
your family. They have therefore instructed us to assure you
of the pleasure with which they will welcome you among
those nobles who are under the orders of Martial de castries,
and that you are at liberty to repair to Lorche
to assume your proper rank in one of the companies.
We have the honor to be Moncheur your humble and
obedient servants, Comte de toulals l'al trek, marquis de la Janquiere,
(46:55):
et cetera. End of Chapter six, Reading by John Vanstan Savannah, Georgia,
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