Nevertheless, the president again expressed his doubts and fears.

“I will answer with my head,” said the general, “that nothing happens.”  Still the president counselled prudence, asking that only one place of worship at first be opened, and to this the general gave his consent.

This continued resistance to the re-establishment of public worship on the part of those who most eagerly desired it enabled the general at last to realise the extent of the danger which would be incurred by the carrying out of this measure, and he at once took all possible precautions.  Under the pretext that he was going to-have a general review, he brought the entire civil and military forces of Nimes under his authority, determined, if necessary, to use the one to suppress the other.  As early as eight o’clock in the morning a guard of gens d’armes was stationed at the doors of the meeting-house, while other members of the same force took up their positions in the adjacent streets.  On the other hand, the Consistory had decided that the doors were to be opened an hour sooner than usual, that the bells were not to be rung, and that the organ should be silent.

These precautions had both a good and a bad side.  The gens d’armes at the door of the meetinghouse gave if not a promise of security at least a promise of support, but they showed to the citizens of the other party what was about to be done; so before nine o’clock groups of Catholics began to form, and as it happened to be Sunday the inhabitants of the neighbouring villages arriving constantly by twos and threes soon united these groups into a little army.  Thus the streets leading to the church being thronged, the Protestants who pushed their way through were greeted with insulting remarks, and even the president of the Consistory, whose white, hair and dignified expression had no effect upon the mob, heard the people round him saying, “These brigands of Protestants are going again to their temple, but we shall soon give them enough of it.”

The anger of the populace soon grows hot; between the first bubble and the boiling-point the interval is short.  Threats spoken in a low voice were soon succeeded by noisy objurgations.  Women, children, and men brake out into yells, “Down with the broilers!” (for this was one of the names by which the Protestants were designated).  “Down with the broilers!  We do not want to see them using our churches:  let them give us back our churches; let them give us back our churches, and go to the desert.  Out with them!  Out with them!  To the desert!  To the desert!”

As the crowd did not go beyond words, however insulting, and as the Protestants were long inured to much worse things, they plodded along to their meeting-house, humble and silent, and went in, undeterred by the displeasure they aroused, whereupon the service commenced.