The next day dawned bright and fair with still no speck in the blue sky toward which the great mountains lifted their heads, and with the bright sun over all--over vineyards full of their ripening grapes, over meadows in which the cattle stood under the shadows of the chestnut trees that dotted them at intervals--lighting up, too, the cool dark woods that clothed the slopes. Also it peered into old and dusty houses, shining in on the ancient furniture and vessels that generation after generation had prized and polished regularly and been proud of.
It shone, too, into another spot--the principal chamber of the Hôtel de Ville, where on this bright July morning were assembled all the representatives of law and order in the province, Baville at their head.
He was seated now in the presidential chair of this apartment, which served as the debating room for all things connected with the municipal affairs of the town; on either side of him sat his colleagues, the field marshal being on his left hand, the bishop of the diocese, which was a newly created one, on his right. Also the mayor was there and de Peyre, several Catholic priests, and half a dozen monks of various orders who had followed in Julien's train, they being sent down by the De Maintenon because of their gifts of preaching. For, true to her colours, the unproclaimed queen pretended on all occasions that the cruelties which were practised in the south were repugnant to her, and that it was by listening to the word of God alone, as expounded by eminent churchmen chosen by herself, that she trusted to witness the conversion of the heretics. Yet, if all written records on the subject are true, it was she who had first spurred on Louvois to give the order to "saccagez les hérétiques," and had, after his death, persuaded Chamillart, Bossuet, and Le Dieudonné himself to continue the Holy Crusade in the same manner.
Whether it was because Baville meant upon this occasion that there should be no doubt in Julien's mind as to who was the absolute chief here and representative of the king, the field marshal having already on their meeting overnight uttered some very decided opinions upon what steps should at once be taken in Languedoc for the stamping out of heresy, or whether it was from his determination to make an altogether splendid figure among the ecclesiastics and handsomely apparelled officers, he himself presented a dazzling appearance on the occasion. His costume was now entirely of white satin, the gold lilies being stamped upon it at various intervals and in squares; his hat, which he wore upon his head as the king's Intendant, was also white and fringed with gold; his sword was gold-handled and sheathed. Also his satin gloves were tasselled with gold thread, while, above all, he wore the justaucorps à brevet, or nobles' close coat. Upon his face--a handsome one, showing no traces of the fierce determination of his character--there sat this morning an easy look such as he might have worn had he been assisting at the fiançailles of some grand siegneur of Languedoc, instead of at a council of war, bloodshed, and extermination. He had long since learned that not only the face, but also the whole deportment of a diplomatist should be a mask and not a glass in which men could read.
"Here," he said, taking up a paper as he spoke, and glancing his eye around upon all who sat near him, "is a report of what has been done of late by these attroupés from the hills, dating from their first murmurings. It is best I recite them. You," and he looked at Julien, "will then know against what you have to contend."
"Splendeur de Dieu!" the great swashbuckler exclaimed, using one of his most magnificent oaths, "let me but get at them and will make them sing something else than their accursed Calvinistic canticles, I warrant you. Read, your Excellency, read."
The fringed glove of his Excellency flattened out the paper, the gloved finger was placed upon a line, and Baville began.
"Three months ago Adolphe Canivet was hung upon the bridge at Florac. His crime was, that he, a heretic, has blasphemed the king, also Madame De Maintenon." Baville raised his hat as he mentioned these august personages. Then, having replaced it, he continued: "Four nights afterward, Canivet's body was removed from the lamp; the next morning in its place was found the body of a dog, hung by the neck. Around that dog's neck was a label, and on it written, 'Thus will the dog Baville hang.' You laugh, monseigneur," the Intendant said, glancing at Julien and looking, for him, a little ruffled. "You forget, perhaps, that the 'dog Baville' represents the king here."
"I forget nothing," said Julien, "neither do I laugh. Go on. Later, I promise you, I will even remember the dog."
"From that time the so-called Protestants braved us in every way," Baville continued. "In spite of all our care, they have left the country in great numbers, some getting across to Savoy, some escaping by the sea, many fleeing into the mountains. Also they refuse to enter the churches to hear Mass, preferring to hold meetings in the mountains and woods."