explained above, the former could only find shelter in the plain, while
the latter used the Cevennes as a stronghold.

It was about this time that the peace, which was called, as we have said,
"the insecurely seated," was concluded. Two years later this name was
justified by the Massacre of St. Bartholomew.

When this event took place, the South, strange as it may seem, looked on:
in Nimes both Catholics and Protestants, stained with the other's blood,
faced each other, hand on hilt, but without drawing weapon. It was as if
they were curious to see how the Parisians would get through. The
massacre had one result, however, the union of the principal cities of
the South and West: Montpellier, Uzes, Montauban, and La Rochelle, with
Nimes at their head, formed a civil and military league to last, as is
declared in the Act of Federation, until God should raise up a sovereign
to be the defender of the Protestant faith. In the year 1775 the
Protestants of the South began to turn their eyes towards Henri IV as the
coming defender.

At that date Nimes, setting an example to the other cities of the League,
deepened her moats, blew up her suburbs, and added to the height of her
ramparts. Night and day the work of perfecting the means of defence went
on; the guard at every gate was doubled, and knowing how often a city had
been taken by surprise, not a hole through which a Papist could creep was
left in the fortifications. In dread of what the future might bring,
Nimes even committed sacrilege against the past, and partly demolished
the Temple of Diana and mutilated the amphitheatre--of which one gigantic
stone was sufficient to form a section of the wall. During one truce the
crops were sown, during another they were garnered in, and so things went
on while the reign of the Mignons lasted. At length the prince raised up