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 by God, whom the Huguenots had waited for so long, appeared; Henri IV ascended the, throne.
But once seated, Henri found himself in the same difficulty as had confronted Octavius fifteen centuries earlier, and which confronted Louis Philippe three centuries later--that is to say, having been raised to sovereign power by a party which was not in the majority, he soon found himself obliged to separate from this party and to abjure his religious beliefs, as others have abjured or will yet abjure their political beliefs; consequently, just as Octavius had his Antony, and Louis Philippe was to have his Lafayette, Henri IV was to have his Biron.