[to be continued.]
[THE BOY COMMANDER OF THE CAMISARDS.]
BY GEORGE CARY EGGLESTON.
When Louis XIV. was King of France, that country was Catholic, as it is still, but in the mountainous region called the Cevennes more than half the people were Protestants. At first the King consented that these Protestant people should live in quiet, and worship as they pleased; but in those days men were not tolerant in matters of religion, as they are now, and so after a while King Louis made up his mind that he would compel all his people to believe alike. The Protestants of the Cevennes were required to become Catholics. When they refused, soldiers were sent to compel them, and great cruelties were practiced.
When this persecution had lasted for nearly thirty years, a body of young men who were gathered together in the High Cevennes resolved to defend themselves by force.
Among these young men was one, a mere boy, named Jean Cavalier. This boy, without knowing it, had military genius of a very high order, and when it became evident that he and his comrades could not long hold out against the large bodies of regular troops sent against them, he suggested a plan which in the end proved to be so good that for years the poor peasants were able to maintain war against all the armies that King Louis could send.
Cavalier's plan was to make uprisings in several places at once, so that the King's officers could not tell in which way to turn. As he and his comrades knew the country well, and had friends to tell them of the enemy's movements, they could nearly always know when it was safe to attack, and when they must hide in the woods.
One Sunday, Cavalier, who was a preacher as well as a soldier, held services in his camp in the woods, and all the Protestant peasants in the neighborhood attended. The Governor of Alais, whose name was De la Hay, thought this a good opportunity not only to defeat Cavalier's small force, but also to catch the Protestant women and children in the act of attending a Protestant service, the punishment for which was death. He collected a force of about six hundred men and marched toward the wood, where he knew he should outnumber the peasants three or four to one. He had a mule loaded with ropes, declaring that he was going to hang all of the rebels at once.
When news of their coming was brought to the peasants, they sent away all the women and children, and began to discuss the situation. They had no commander, for although Cavalier had led them generally, he had no authority to do so. On this occasion many thought it best to retreat at once, as there were less than two hundred of them; but Cavalier declared that if they would follow him, he would lead them to a place where victory might be won. They consented, and he advanced to a point on the road where he could shelter his men. Quickly disposing them in line of battle behind some defenses, he awaited the coming of the enemy.
De la Hay, being overconfident because of his superior numbers, blundered at the outset. Instead of attacking first with his infantry, he placed his horsemen in front, and ordered an assault. Cavalier was quick to take advantage of this blunder. He ordered only a few of his men to fire, and this drew a volley from the advancing horsemen, which did little damage to the sheltered troops, but emptied the horsemen's weapons. Instantly Cavalier ordered a charge and a volley, and the horsemen, with empty pistols, gave way. Cavalier pursued hotly, giving the enemy no time to rally. A re-enforcement coming up, tried to check Cavalier's charge, but so violent was the onset that these fresh troops gave way in their turn, and the chase ended only when the King's men had shut themselves up in the fortified towns.
When the battle was over it was decided unanimously to make Cavalier the commander. He refused, however, unless they would also give him power to enforce obedience, and his troops at once voted to make his authority absolute, even in questions of life and death. According to the best authorities, Cavalier was only seventeen years old when this absolute command was conferred upon him.
On one occasion Cavalier attacked a party of forty men who were marching through the country to re-enforce a distant post, and killed most of them. While searching the dead bodies, he found in the pocket of the commanding officer an order signed by Count Broglio, the King's Lieutenant, directing all military officers and town authorities to lodge and feed the party on their march. No sooner had the boy soldier read this paper than he resolved to turn it to his own advantage.
The castle of Servas, near Alais, had long been a source of trouble to Cavalier. It was a strong place, built upon a steep hill, and was so difficult of approach that it would have been madness to try to take it by force.
CAVALIER PERSONATING THE LIEUTENANT OF THE COUNT BROGLIO.
When he found the order referred to, he resolved to pretend that he was the commander of the detachment which he had just destroyed. Dressing himself in the dead officer's clothes, he ordered his men to put on the clothing of the other dead royalists. Then he took six of his best men, with their own Camisard uniforms on, and bound them with ropes, to represent prisoners. One of them had been wounded in the arm, and his bloody sleeve helped the stratagem. Putting these six men at the head of his troop, with a guard of their disguised comrades over them, he marched toward the castle. There he declared himself to be Count Broglio's lieutenant, and said that he had met a company of the Barbets, or Camisards, and had defeated them, taking six prisoners; that he was afraid to keep these prisoners in the village overnight lest their friends should rescue them; and that he wished to lodge them in the castle for safety. When the Governor of the castle heard this story, and saw the order of Count Broglio, he was completely imposed upon. He ordered the prisoners to be brought into the castle, and invited Cavalier to be his guest there for the night. Taking two of his officers with him, Cavalier went into the castle to sup with the Governor. During supper several of his soldiers, who were encamped just outside, went into the castle upon pretense of getting wine or bread, and at a signal from Cavalier they overpowered the sentinels, and threw the gates open. The rest of the troop rushed in at once, and before the garrison could seize their arms, the boy commander was master of the fortress.
Failing to overcome him by force or strategy, Cavalier's foes fell back upon the hope of starving him during the winter. But in indulging this hope they forgot that the crown and glory of his work in the field had been his wonderful fertility of resource. He knew quite as well as they did that he must live all winter in the woods, so he gave his whole mind to the question of how to do it.
He began during the harvest to make his preparations. He explored all the caves in the mountains, and selected the best ones for use as store-houses, taking care to have them in all parts of the mountains, so that if cut off from one he could draw upon another. In these caves he stored quantities of grain and other provisions, and whenever he needed meal, some of his men, who were millers, would carry grain to some lonely country mill and grind it.
To prevent this, the King's officers ordered that all the country mills should be rendered unfit for use, but before this could be done, Cavalier directed some of his men, who were skilled machinists, to disable two or three of the mills by carrying away the important parts of their machinery and storing them in his caves. Then, when he wanted meal, his machinists had only to replace the machinery in some disabled mill, and remove it again after his millers had done the necessary grinding. His bakers made use of farmers' ovens to bake bread in, and when the King's soldiers, hearing of this, destroyed the ovens, Cavalier sent his masons—for he had all sorts of craftsmen in his ranks—to rebuild them.
Having two powder-makers with him, he collected salt-petre, burned willow twigs for charcoal, and made all the powder he needed, in his caves. For bullets he melted down the leaden weights of windows, and when this source of supply failed, he melted down pewter vessels and used pewter bullets—a fact which gave rise to the belief that he used poisoned balls. Finally, in a dyer's establishment, he had the good luck to find two great leaden kettles, weighing more than seven hundred quintals, which, he says, "I caused immediately to be carried into the magazines with as much diligence and care as if they had been silver."
Chiefly by Cavalier's energy and military skill, the war was kept up against fearful odds for years, and finally the young soldier succeeded in making a treaty of peace in which perfect liberty of conscience and worship—which was all they had been fighting for—was guaranteed to the Protestants of the Cevennes. His friends rejected this treaty, however, and Cavalier soon afterward went to Holland, where he was given command of a regiment in the English service. His career in arms was a brilliant one—so brilliant that the British made him a General, and Governor of the island of Jersey; but he nowhere showed greater genius or manifested higher soldierly qualities than during the time when he was the Boy Commander of the Camisards.
"THEY WERE ACTUALLY STUCK AGAINST THE PERPENDICULAR WALL OF ROCK."