Neither was he a Provencal; he came from Puy-en-Velay.

He had formerly been a muleteer on those rugged heights which surround his native town; then a soldier without going to war--war had perhaps made him more human; after that he had kept a drink-shop in Paris.

In Avignon he had been a vendor of madder.
He collected three hundred men, carried the gates of the town, left half of his troop to guard them, and with the remainder marched upon the Church of the Cordeliers, preceded by two pieces of cannon.

These he stationed in front of the church and fired them into it at random.

The assassins fled like a flock of frightened birds, leaving some few dead upon the church steps.