So famished were they for the manna divine, that they were like people coming out of a besieged city, after a long and cruel famine, to whom peace has brought food in abundance, and who, first devouring it with their eyes, then throw themselves on it, devouring it bodily--meat, bread, and fruit--as it comes to hand.

So it was with the unfortunate inhabitants of La Vannage, and even of places more distant still.

They saw their brethren assembling in the meadows and at the gates of Calvisson, gathering in crowds and pressing round anyone who started singing a psalm, until at last four or five thousand persons, singing, weeping, and praying, were gathered together, and remained there all day, supplicating God with a devotion that went to every heart and made a deep impression.

All night the same things went on; nothing was to be heard but preaching, singing, praying, and prophesying." But if it was a time of joy for the Protestants, it was a time of humiliation for the Catholics.

"Certainly," says a contemporary historian, "it was a very surprising thing, and quite a novelty, to see in a province like Languedoc, where so many troops were quartered, such a large number of villains--all murderers, incendiaries, and guilty of sacrilege--gathered together in one place by permission of those in command of the troops; tolerated in their eccentricities, fed at the public expense, flattered by everyone, and courteously, received by people sent specially to meet them." One of those who was most indignant at this state of things was M.de Baville.