While this was going on, the third band expected at the Molard, that headed by Canon Veigy, had assembled in the upper part of the city. The immobility of the reformers, who did not leave Baudichon's house, fretted the canon and those whom he commanded. 'They keep themselves still as hares,' he said: 'we must compel them to leave their form.' This they prepared to do. It had been decided, as we have said, by Moine and his friends, the chiefs of the movement, that they should surround and set fire to Baudichon's house, so that the heretics should be stifled, burnt, driven out, and dispersed. In the opinion of some it was a capital idea of the huguenots to shut themselves up in one house, for by this means a single match would suffice to get rid of them.... But the plan of fire-raising was not to everybody's taste. 'It cannot be done without great mischief,' said the wiser heads; 'the whole street might be burnt down.'... The barbarous plan had, however, been resolved on, and its execution entrusted to Canon Veigy's corps. It was a churchman who had been charged with the cruel duty. 'Canon de Veigy was to pass through the narrow street of the Trois Rois,[680] behind the Rhone, set fire to Baudichon's house, and drive _the others_ into the street, so that they could escape nowhere.'[681] The canon's band was preparing to descend into the city to perform its task, when some catholics, running to the hôtel-de-ville, announced the defeat of the troops from St. Gervais. 'We may expect a similar encounter,' said the canon and his subordinates; and being not at all eager to measure weapons with the captain-general, they resolved to join the crowd on the Molard, by passing to the east, in order to be out of the reach of Philippe's attack, and to have a reinforcement to burn the huguenots. Changing their direction, they descended by the Rue Verdaine. When they arrived at the Molard, they were very ill received. Everybody reproached them, calling them cowards and traitors. The priest-party were 'greatly astonished and vexed because they had not set fire to the house, as had been agreed upon.'[682] [Sidenote: HUGUENOTS ON THE DEFENSIVE.]