The last night of the year 1532 had passed away, and first of 1533 was beginning. In every house relations and friends were greeting the new year, which the reformed hoped would be better than all that had gone before. The family congratulations being over, they went to church. Bocquet was again preaching at the Gray Friar's monastery, where many evangelicals attended; but the monk had hardly finished, when numbers of his hearers quitted the chapel and hurried eagerly along the Rue de Rive to the Croix d'Or. There were many curious persons among them, who, knowing that the council had prohibited Froment's preaching, were all the more desirous of hearing him. In a moment the hall was filled, then the stairs and passage ... and at last the street in front of the house. Froment arrived with a few friends, and seeing the crowd, observed: 'The streets are so full, that it is quite a crush.' He tried however to make his way through the mass, and his friends assisted him; but do what he would, all his exertions were ineffectual. Was all this unforeseen, or was it premeditated by some of the huguenots? Were these energetic men determined at last to bring the evangelist from his narrow schoolroom and force him to preach in public? Is there not some truth in Sister Jeanne's statement that, on the evening before, they had desired to make him preach in the large area of the Madeleine? And may we not believe, that as they did not succeed then, they now desired to compensate themselves by taking a still larger space and making the reformer preach in the open air? These suppositions appear probable, but there is no decided evidence in their favour. At all events, the crowd recognized Froment, and saw that he could not reach the usual place of his ministrations. Those who were in the street perceived that if the evangelist succeeded in entering the Croix d'Or, they would be left outside, which was not agreeable to them. One man shouted out: 'To the Molard,' and in a short time the cry became general: 'To the Molard, to the Molard.'[604] [Sidenote: FROMENT AT THE MOLARD.] The Molard was situated in the most populous quarter of the city, near the lake and the Rhone. It was a large square, about 200 yards from the Croix d'Or. Froment hesitated, but the crowd, getting into motion, carried him along with them towards the south-west corner of the square, where the fish market is still held. The fishwomen were there with their fresh wares displayed on their stalls. The huguenots, finding no other pulpit, took one of these stalls, and invited Froment to get on it. He was determined, like his master Farel, to preach the truth in every place.