Whereupon the inhabitants of Biarritz met in the open
air, on the eighth of May, to the number of one hundred and fifty;
approved of the conduct of the Baillie in rejecting Arnauld, made a
subscription, and gave all power to their lawyers to defend the cause of
the pure race against Etienne Arnauld--"that stranger," who, having
married a girl of Cagot blood, ought also to be expelled from the holy
places. This lawsuit was carried through all the local courts, and ended
by an appeal to the highest court in Paris; where a decision was given
against Basque superstitions; and Etienne Arnauld was thenceforward
entitled to enter the gallery of the church.
Of course, the inhabitants of Biarritz were all the more ferocious for
having been conquered; and, four years later, a carpenter, named Miguel
Legaret, suspected of Cagot descent, having placed himself in the church
among other people, was dragged out by the abbe and two of the jurets of
the parish. Legaret defended himself with a sharp knife at the time, and
went to law afterwards; the end of which was, that the abbe and his two
accomplices were condemned to a public confession of penitence, to be
uttered while on their knees at the church door, just after high-mass.
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