One day the exiles perceived a carpenter belonging to a little village called Cauvisson approaching their place of refuge.  He desired to speak to M. Nicolas de Calviere, seigneur de St. Cosme, and brother of the president, who was known to be a very enterprising man.  To him the carpenter, whose name was Maduron, made the following proposition: 

In the moat of Nimes, close to the Gate of the Carmelites, there was a grating through which the waters from the fountain found vent.  Maduron offered to file through the bars of this grating in such a manner that some fine night it could be lifted out so as to allow a band of armed Protestants to gain access to the city.  Nicolas de Calviere approving of this plan, desired that it should be carried out at once; but the carpenter pointed out that it would be necessary to wait for stormy weather, when the waters swollen by the rain would by their noise drown the sound of the file.  This precaution was doubly necessary as the box of the sentry was almost exactly above the grating.  M. de Calviere tried to make Maduron give way; but the latter, who was risking more than anyone else, was firm.  So whether they liked it or not, de Calviere and the rest had to await his good pleasure.

Some days later rainy weather set in, and as usual the fountain became fuller; Maduron seeing that the favourable moment had arrived, glided at night into the moat and applied his file, a friend of his who was hidden on the ramparts above pulling a cord attached to Maduron’s arm every time the sentinel, in pacing his narrow round, approached the spot.  Before break of day the work was well begun.  Maduron then obliterated all traces of his file by daubing the bars with mud and wax, and withdrew.  For three consecutive nights he returned to his task, taking the same precautions, and before the fourth was at an end he found that by means of a slight effort the grating could be removed.  That was all that was needed, so he gave notice to Messire Nicolas de Calviere that the moment had arrived.

Everything was favourable to the undertaking:  as there was no moon, the next night was chosen to carry out the plan, and as soon as it was dark Messire Nicolas de Calviere set out with his men, who, slipping down into the moat without noise, crossed, the water being up to their belts, climbed up the other side, and crept along at the foot of the wall till they reached the grating without being perceived.  There Maduron was waiting, and as soon as he caught sight of them he gave a slight blow to the loose bars; which fell, and the whole party entered the drain, led by de Calviere, and soon found themselves at the farther end—­that is to say, in the Place de la Fontaine.  They immediately formed into companies twenty strong, four of which hastened to the principal gates, while the others patrolled the streets shouting, “The city taken!  Down with the Papists!  A new world!” Hearing this, the Protestants in the city recognised their