The conduct of the baron toward the deputy of the marshal, the Duke of Vitry, had been generally approved by the nobility of the neighbourhood. A very small number of gentlemen had submitted to the orders of the governor. Master Isnard, established in a hostelry of La Ciotat, had despatched a messenger to Marseilles for the purpose of informing the marshal of the lively resistance he had encountered upon the subject of the census of arms. The citizens generally ranged themselves on the side of the nobility and the clergy, who defended Provençal rights and privileges. The three estates--the holy clergy, the illustrious nobility, and the Provençal republic and communities, as Cæsar de Nostradamus names them in his history of Provence--sustained themselves against a common enemy, which is to say, against any governor who attacked their privileges, or, in the opinion of the Proven-çals, was unworthy of governing their country. Nevertheless, transient divisions occurred between the nobility and the citizens when particular interests became involved. Master Isnard had arrived in La Ciotat at a time when some feeling of resentment against Raimond V. was being manifested. One of the consuls of the town, Master Talebard-Talebardon, sustained in the name of the citizens a lawsuit against the baron, upon the subject of certain fishing-nets, which he claimed the lord of Anbiez had laid without legal right in a bay outside his privilege, and thereby was injuring the interests of the town. Although the inhabitants of La Ciotat had, on many occasions, found aid and support from the baron, although at the last descent of the pirates he had, at the head of his own household servants, fought valiantly, and almost saved the city, the gratitude of the citizens did not extend to an absolute submission to the will of Raimond V. The consul Talebard-Talebardon, a personal enemy of the baron, always exaggerating the faults of this nobleman, had so envenomed the question, that great disaffection was already being manifested among the citizens. Arriving at this time, Master Isnard excited these dissensions, fanned the fire, and spoke at length of his cruel reception at Maison-Forte. Although he was not of the country, he succeeded in making the outrage done him appear as a question between the nobility and the citizens. The recorder induced the consuls to withdraw within the limits of their dignity, and, instead of continuing the amicable negotiations already initiated, to insist upon the baron’s appearance before the tribunal of overseers. This malevolent disposition once gaining ground, the malcontents did not stop there. They forgot the real services that Raimond V. had rendered to the city, his generous hospitality, the good that he was doing in the neighbourhood, to remember that he was abusive, hotheaded, and always ready to lift his rod.