"According to the order of the gracious Lord Marshal," said the priest, bowing profoundly, "We set fire yesterday to the village, which had furnished provisions to the rebels, when they had quartered themselves there; we then set out five hundred men strong, and three hundred soldiers marched at the same time, with a hundred dragoons on the other side of the river. The wretched, burned out creatures ran howling into the wood and we pursued our way whilst we saw about a hundred rebels flying before us. Behind the wood we joined the royal troops and surrounded the vineyards on three sides near Nages. Some Camisards showed themselves sideways, who, however, after a few shots disappeared, We now advanced on the right, the soldiers on the left, in between the mountains; we fell among the brambles, and--as if fire was vomited forth from all sides, balls flew in among us without our being able to see any one, we hesitate, we halt. Now the villains in the mountains spring to their feet yelling and psalm-singing bellow down upon us, together with hissing balls; we defend ourselves and put our hopes in the royal troops, but the superiority is too great, our people fall, we are compelled to retreat. Difficult enough it was to retire from the mountains, the greater part of our men remain lying there: arriving on the plain, there we beheld the military also beaten and taking flight." "Defeated!" screamed the Marshal. "They are most likely following us," replied the priest. "The volunteers," said the Intendant, "have apparently not been properly supported, as it has often happened already, and how shall the citizen bear up if the soldier takes flight?" The Marshal, his face crimsoned, would have retorted angrily, when some officers, covered in dust and bewildered, entered hastily. "The rebels, Lord Marshal," said a young captain, "are seen before the gates of Nismes; Cavalier has played us a fine trick this time; our informers enticed us among the vineyards, the volunteers did not unite with us as had been agreed upon and we are entirely routed. Cavalier knows how to dispose of his men like an old soldier. "Lord Marshal," exclaimed a veteran colonel entering the room, "the foe is without! and the fearful Catinat has, through retribution, as he calls it, reduced three catholic villages to ashes, and with his own hands set fire to the churches." Some prisoners were brought in, among whom there was a child of twelve years of age. "What means this lad?" exclaimed the Marshal. "He is a brother of Cavalier," replied the old colonel, "we had already made this dangerous leader prisoner, we had taken possession of a bridge and he could not rejoin his people, when this brat, this boy here, rallied the rebels, harangued them, brandished his sword in his outstretched hand, fell upon us, retook the bridge, made his brother free, but became himself our prisoner."