He made a halt-near Pierredon to gather together the remnant of his troops, and truly it was but a remnant which remained.

Of those who came back the greater number were without weapons, for they had thrown them away in their flight.
Many were incapacitated for service by their wounds; and lastly, the cavalry could hardly be said to exist any longer, as the few men who survived had been obliged to abandon their horses, in order to get across the high ditches which were their only cover from the dragoons during the flight.
Meantime the royalists were very active, and Cavalier felt that it would be imprudent to remain long at Pierredon, so setting out during the night, and crossing the Gardon, he buried himself in the forest of Hieuzet, whither he hoped his enemies would not venture to follow him.
And in fact the first two days were quiet, and his troops benefited greatly by the rest, especially as they were able to draw stores of all kinds--wheat, hay, arms, and ammunition--from an immense cave which the Camisards had used for a long time as a magazine and arsenal.

Cavalier now also employed it as a hospital, and had the wounded carried there, that their wounds might receive attention.
Unfortunately, Cavalier was soon obliged to quit the forest, in spite of his hopes of being left in peace; for one day on his way back from a visit to the wounded in the cave, whose existence was a secret, he came across a hundred miquelets who had penetrated thus far, and who would have taken him prisoner if he had not, with his, accustomed presence of mind and courage, sprung from a rock twenty feet high.

The miquelets fired at him, but no bullet reached him.

Cavalier rejoined his troops, but fearing to attract the rest of the royalists to the place,--retreated to some distance from the cave, as it was of the utmost importance that it should not be discovered, since it contained all his resources.
Cavalier had now reached one of those moments when Fortune, tired of conferring favours, turns her back on the favourite.