This was not the only presage of the danger that threatened them; the shouts of the catholics, increasing in violence, reached even there. They looked at each other with astonishment and even with alarm. 'What fury!' they said; 'how large a number against so few!' And some of them added: 'If God be not for us, we are undone.' But others, changing the words, answered: '_If God be for us, who can be against us?_' De la Maisonneuve was the firmest. Possessing a quick and even violent temper, an enthusiast for liberty and truth, he was at this solemn hour calm, thoughtful, and christianlike. No one was more exposed than he: his house was to be as it were the battle-field; but forgetful of self, he went up to such as were dejected and said: 'We must show our magnanimity, even should they drive us to despair. The wicked are already erecting triumphal arches ... in the air. God does not look to numbers, be they great or small, but to the cause for which they fight. If we are under the banner of Jesus, God will be a wall of brass to us.' These words encouraged such as were shaken, and gave joy to their afflicted hearts; and scarcely had Baudichon uttered them than those who stood round him fell on their knees and bowed before the Lord. One of them prayed: 'O God, thou givest the rein to the wicked only so far as is necessary to try us. Stop them, therefore, and restrain them, lest they hurt us. Change the hearts of our enemies, and look only to the cause for which we are going to fight.' This simple prayer availed more than a _Salve Regina_. Rising from their knees, the friends of the Reform stretched out their hands and said: 'We swear to die in God's cause, and to keep faith and loyalty with one another.' And, like the martyrs of the early ages, they waited for the blow with which they were threatened, because they refused to abandon the Gospel which God was then restoring to Christendom.