Massacres of the South (1551-1815): Celebrated CrimesDumas, Alexandre
History
Massacres of the South (1551-1815): Celebrated Crimes
Dumas, Alexandre
Crime
Castanet was condemned to be broken on the wheel. As he was about to be
led to execution, Abbe Tremondy, the cure of Notre-Dame, and Abbe
Plomet, canon of the cathedral, came to his cell to make a last effort
to convert him, but he refused to speak. They therefore went on before,
and awaited him on the scaffold. There they appeared to inspire Castanet
with more horror than the instruments of torture, and while he addressed
the executioner as “brother,” he called out to the priests, “Go away out
of my sight, imps from the bottomless pit! What are you doing here, you
accursed tempters? I will die in the religion in which I was born. Leave
me alone, ye hypocrites, leave me alone!” But the two abbes were
unmoved, and Castanet expired cursing, not the executioner but the two
priests, whose presence during his death-agony disturbed his soul,
turning it away from things which should have filled it.
Valette was sentenced to be hanged, and was executed on the same day as
Castanet.
In spite of the admissions wrung from Castanet in March, nearly a month
passed without any sign of fresh intrigues or any attempt at rebellion.
But on the 17th of April, about seven o’clock in the evening, M. de
Baville received intelligence that several Camisards had lately returned
from abroad, and were in hiding somewhere, though their retreat was not
known. This information was laid before the Duke of Berwick, and he and
M. de Baville ordered certain houses to be searched, whose owners were
in their opinion likely to have given refuge to the malcontents. At
midnight all the forces which they could collect were divided into
twelve detachments, composed of archers and soldiers, and at the head of
each detachment was placed a man that could be depended upon. Dumayne,
the king’s lieutenant, assigned to each the districts they were to
search, and they all set out at once from the town hall, at half-past
twelve, marching in silence, and separating at signs from their leaders,
so anxious were they to make no noise. At first all their efforts were
of no avail, several houses being searched without any result; but at
length Jausserand, the diocesan provost, having entered one of the
houses which he and Villa, captain of the town troops, had had assigned
to them, they found three men sleeping on mattresses laid on the floor.
The provost roused them by asking them who they were, whence they came,
and what they were doing at Montpellier, and as they, still half asleep,
did not reply quite promptly, he ordered them to dress and follow him.
These three men were Flessiere, Gaillard, and Jean-Louis. Flessiere was
a deserter from the Fimarcon regiment: he it was who knew most about the
plot. Gaillard had formerly served in the Hainault regiment; and
Jean-Louis, commonly called “the Genevois,” was a deserter from the
Courten regiment.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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