It also happened that a Jesuit high in authority, named Pere Coston, preached with such success that the Protestants, not wishing to be beaten, but desirous of giving word for word, summoned to their aid the Rev.Jeremie Ferrier, of Alais, who at the moment was regarded as the most eloquent preacher they had.

Needless to say, Alais was situated in the mountains, that inexhaustible source of Huguenot eloquence.

At once the controversial spirit was aroused; it did not as yet amount to war, but still less could it be called peace: people were no longer assassinated, but they were anathematised; the body was safe, but the soul was consigned to damnation: the days as they passed were used by both sides to keep their hand in, in readiness for the moment when the massacres should again begin..