Cailles (the name they mostly went by) at that
time consisted of five persons—Le Brun de
Castellane, Sieur de Caille, his mother, his son,
and two daughters. He had lost his wife, Judith
le Gouche, six years previously, as well as two
sons who had died in their infancy. Isaac, the
eldest and only surviving son, was twenty-one
years of age when they all left France. They
were accompanied in their emigration by a
Protestant minister, Bernard, young De Caille's
tutor, as well as by several domestics.

In December, 1689, Louis the Fourteenth
completed his work of intolerance by an edict
of spoliation, which made over to their nearest
relations the property of the Calvinist emigres.
At that date the De Caille family included only
four members, one of the daughters having died
in 1686. A few months after the edict of
spoliation, the grandmother also died.

Amongst the relations of the De Cailles who
remained in Provence, preferring the abjuration
of their faith to exile, four presented themselves
to claim what their nearest kin had been
stripped of. Their names should be remembered,
both because they all played a part in
subsequent events, and because they were not
all actuated by motives of mere selfishness.
They were the Dame Rolland, born Anne le
Gouche, own sister to the late Dame de Caille,
and wife of a Sieur Rolland, Avocat-Général to
the Parlement of Dauphiné—she was therefore
aunt to young Isaac de Caille; a Dame Tardivi,
related to the Sieur de Caille, the wife of a
king's counsel at the Court of Grasse (a town
not far distant from Manosque); a Sieur Jean
Pousset, of Cadenet; and a Sieur de Muges.
This last pretended to represent a trustee on
behalf of the rights of the exiled family.

A decree of the Parlement of Provence, dated
June 30th, 1680, nonsuited De Muges, adjudged
to the Dame Tardivi for the greater part, and
to Pousset for the rest, the property coming
from the father's side, amounting to an income
of about twelve thousand livres (francs) a year
—in those days a considerable sum—and
assigning to the Dame Rolland the maternal
property, valued at two thousand five hundred
livres per annum.

On the 15th of February, 1696, Isaac de
Caille, Sieur de Rougon, Le Brun de Castellane's
last surviving son, died at Vevay of a
maladie de langueur—a general weakness or
wasting away. The unhappy father, after being
thus deprived of the last hope of seeing his
name continued, acquainted his relations in
Provence with his sad bereavement. The Dame
Rolland, who, awaiting better times for her
nephew, had taken care of his little property,
now disposed of it, in favour of the poor
inmates of the Charité of Manosque. The deed of
gift, dated December 5th, 1698, which gratified
that community with the Sieur de Caille's
residence and an annual income of eight hundred
livres, assigned the Sieur de Caille de Rougon's
death as her motive for doing so.

Let us now pass on to the month of March,
1699, at which time M. de Vauvray, intendant
of the navy at Toulon, was waited on by a
certain Abbé Renoux, accompanied by an individual
whose appearance was by no means prepossessing.
This latter professed to be the son of the
Sieur de Caille, and related the following story:
His father, the Sieur de Caille, having taken an
aversion to him in consequence of his inaptitude
for study, and especially for his inclination to
the Catholic religion, had ill treated him to such
an extent that he was obliged to run away from
the paternal mansion. Brought back to
Lausanne repeatedly, by friends or relations of the
family, he nevertheless contrived to effect his
escape, in consequence of which he was kept so
close a prisoner, night and day, that, but for a
servant-maid's assistance, he would never have
been able to break loose from captivity. On
that occasion, his father being asleep, he took
forty louis d'or from his pocket, and ran away
as fast as his legs could carry him.

Feeling constantly a strong desire to enter
into the true religion, he, De Caille, junior—
this individual added—resolved to go to
Provence. On his way there, he had been first
arrested by Savoyard soldiers, and compelled to
enlist, and was then taken prisoner by a French
corps, commanded by M. de Catinat.
Presented to the maréchal as the young De Caille,
he stated his intentions, told his adventures,
and received from him a passport for France.

"Once arrived at Nice," the individual con-
tinued, "I engaged in the militia of Provence.
One day, when on guard at the governor's
house, I saw a maître d'hôtel carrying a silver
bowl engraved with the arms of my family,
which my father had been obliged to sell,
together with the rest of his plate, in order to
cover the expenses of our flight to Switzerland.
The remembrance of that sad event afflicted me
sorely. I was unable to restrain my tears; and
as they inquired the cause of my grief, 'I have
good reason for sorrow' I replied, showing my
seal, on which the same arms were engraved.
The Chevalier de la Fare, then in command at
Nice, hearing of the incident, sent for me, and
made me tell my story. From that day, he
treated me with distinction."

M. de Vauvray, interested in the adventure,
put a few questions to this supposed young De
Caille. He inquired, for instance, what motive
had induced to make such a mystery of his real
name and position ever since his arrival in
Provence. For, from the Nice affair up to the
present time, there was a gap in young De
Caille's history. His explanation was that,
wishing to revisit his native town, he had gone
secretly to Manosque, where one of his nurses
had recognised him; but that, knowing the
severity of the laws, and not yet having abjured
Protestantism, he was afraid of being taken for
a Huguenot spy. His desire of embracing the
Catholic religion, which grew stronger and
stronger every day, was the sole cause which
induced him to open his mouth.

From all this, M. de Vauvray could make
out one thing clearly namely, that here was
an opportunity of gaining a convert. Now,