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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Huguenots in France, by Samuel Smiles
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The Huguenots in France
+
+Author: Samuel Smiles
+
+Release Date: September 4, 2008 [EBook #26524]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE HUGUENOTS IN FRANCE ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Eric Hutton, Christine P. Travers and the
+Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+
+
+
+[Transcriber's note: Obvious printer's errors have been corrected, all
+other inconsistencies are as in the original. The author's spelling
+has been maintained.]
+
+
+
+
+THE HUGUENOTS IN FRANCE
+
+
+By Dr. SAMUEL SMILES
+
+Author of "Self Help"
+
+
+
+
+LONDON
+
+GEORGE ROUTLEDGE AND SONS, LIMITED
+
+BROADWAY HOUSE, LUDGATE HILL
+
+MDCCCCIII
+
+
+LONDON AND COUNTY PRINTING WORKS,
+
+BAZAAR BUILDINGS, LONDON, W.C.
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS.
+
+
+THE HUGUENOTS IN FRANCE AFTER THE REVOCATION OF THE EDICT OF NANTES.
+
+  CHAPTER                                                         PAGE
+
+     I. REVOCATION OF THE EDICT OF NANTES........................... 1
+
+    II. EFFECTS OF THE REVOCATION--CHURCH IN THE DESERT............ 12
+
+   III. CLAUDE BROUSSON, THE HUGUENOT ADVOCATE..................... 30
+
+    IV. CLAUDE BROUSSON, PASTOR AND MARTYR......................... 50
+
+     V. OUTBREAK IN LANGUEDOC...................................... 75
+
+    VI. INSURRECTION OF THE CAMISARDS.............................. 99
+
+   VII. EXPLOITS OF CAVALIER...................................... 130
+
+  VIII. END OF THE CAMISARD INSURRECTION.......................... 166
+
+    IX. GALLEY-SLAVES FOR THE FAITH............................... 190
+
+     X. ANTOINE COURT............................................. 205
+
+    XI. REORGANIZATION OF THE CHURCH IN THE DESERT................ 218
+
+   XII. THE CHURCH IN THE DESERT--PAUL RABAUT..................... 235
+
+  XIII. END OF THE PERSECUTIONS--THE FRENCH REVOLUTION............ 253
+
+
+MEMOIRS OF DISTINGUISHED HUGUENOT REFUGEES.
+
+     I. STORY OF SAMUEL DE PÉCHELS................................ 285
+
+    II. CAPTAIN RAPIN, AUTHOR OF THE "HISTORY OF ENGLAND"......... 316
+
+   III. CAPTAIN RIOU, R.N......................................... 368
+
+
+A VISIT TO THE COUNTRY OF THE VAUDOIS.
+
+     I. INTRODUCTORY--EARLY PERSECUTIONS OF THE VAUDOIS........... 383
+
+    II. THE VALLEY OF THE ROMANCHE--BRIANÇON...................... 401
+
+   III. VAL LOUISE--HISTORY OF FELIX NEFF......................... 420
+
+    IV. THE VAUDOIS MOUNTAIN-REFUGE OF DORMILHOUSE................ 437
+
+     V. GUILLESTRE AND THE VALLEY OF QUEYRAS...................... 455
+
+    VI. THE VALLEY OF THE PELICE -- LA TOUR -- ANGROGNA -- THE
+        PRA DE TOUR............................................... 472
+
+   VII. THE GLORIOUS RETURN: AN EPISODE IN THE HISTORY OF THE
+        ITALIAN VAUDOIS........................................... 493
+
+
+MAPS.
+
+
+                                         PAGE
+
+  THE COUNTRY OF THE CEVENNES...................................... 98
+
+  "THE COUNTRY OF FELIX NEFF" (Dauphiny).......................... 382
+
+  THE VALLEY OF LUSERNE........................................... 472
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE.
+
+
+In preparing this edition for the press, I have ventured to add three
+short memoirs of distinguished Huguenot Refugees and their
+descendants.
+
+Though the greatest number of Huguenots banished from France at the
+Revocation of the Edict of Nantes were merchants and manufacturers,
+who transferred their skill and arts to England, which was not then a
+manufacturing country; a large number of nobles and gentry emigrated
+to this and other countries, leaving their possessions to be
+confiscated by the French king.
+
+The greater number of the nobles entered the armies of the countries
+in which they took refuge. In Holland, they joined the army of the
+Prince of Orange, afterwards William III., King of England. After
+driving the armies of Louis XIV. out of Ireland, they met the French
+at Ramilies, Blenheim, and Malplacquet, and other battles in the Low
+Countries. A Huguenot engineer directed the operations at the siege of
+Namur, which ended in its capture. Another conducted the siege of
+Lille, which was also taken.
+
+But perhaps the greatest number of Huguenot nobles entered the
+Prussian service. Their descendants revisited France on more than one
+occasion. They overran the northern and eastern parts of France in
+1814 and 1815; and last of all they vanquished the descendants of
+their former persecutors at Sedan in 1870. Sedan was, prior to the
+Revocation of the Edict of Nantes, the renowned seat of Protestant
+learning; while now it is known as the scene of the greatest military
+catastrophe which has occurred in modern history.
+
+The Prime Minister of France, M. Jules Simon, not long ago recorded
+the fateful effects of Louis XIV.'s religious intolerance. In
+discussing the perpetual ecclesiastical questions which still disturb
+France, he recalled the fact that not less than eighty of the German
+staff in the late war were representatives of Protestant families,
+driven from France by the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes.
+
+The first of the appended memoirs is that of Samuel de Péchels, a
+noble of Languedoc, who, after enduring great privations, reached
+England through Jamaica, and served as a lieutenant in Ireland under
+William III. Many of his descendants have been distinguished soldiers
+in the service of England. The second is Captain Rapin, who served
+faithfully in Ireland, and was called away to be tutor to the young
+Duke of Portland. He afterwards spent his time at Wesel on the Rhine,
+where he wrote his "History of England." The third is Captain Riou,
+"the gallant and the good," who was killed at the battle of
+Copenhagen. These memoirs might be multiplied to any extent; but those
+given are enough to show the good work which the Huguenots and their
+descendants have done in the service of England.
+
+
+
+
+INTRODUCTION.
+
+
+Six years since, I published a book entitled _The Huguenots: their
+Settlements, Churches, and Industries, in England and Ireland_. Its
+object was to give an account of the causes which led to the large
+migrations of foreign Protestants from Flanders and France into
+England, and to describe their effects upon English industry as well
+as English history.
+
+It was necessary to give a brief _résumé_ of the history of the
+Reformation in France down to the dispersion of the Huguenots, and the
+suppression of the Protestant religion by Louis XIV. under the terms
+of the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes.
+
+Under that Act, the profession of Protestantism was proclaimed to be
+illegal, and subject to the severest penalties. Hence, many of the
+French Protestants who refused to be "converted," and had the means of
+emigrating, were under the necessity of leaving France and
+endeavouring to find personal freedom and religious liberty elsewhere.
+
+The refugees found protection in various countries. The principal
+portion of the emigrants from Languedoc and the south-eastern
+provinces of France crossed the frontier into Switzerland, and settled
+there, or afterwards proceeded into the states of Prussia, Holland,
+and Denmark, as well as into England and Ireland. The chief number of
+emigrants from the northern and western seaboard provinces of France,
+emigrated directly into England, Ireland, America, and the Cape of
+Good Hope. In my previous work, I endeavoured to give as accurate a
+description as was possible of the emigrants who settled in England
+and Ireland, to which, the American editor of the work (the Hon. G. P.
+Disosway) has added an account of those who settled in the United
+States of America.
+
+But besides the Huguenots who contrived to escape from Franco during
+the dragonnades which preceded and the persecutions which followed the
+Revocation of the Edict of Nantes, there was still a very large number
+of Huguenots remaining in France who had not the means wherewith to
+fly from their country. These were the poorer people, the peasants,
+the small farmers, the small manufacturers, many of whom were spoiled
+of their goods for the very purpose of preventing them from
+emigrating. They were consequently under the necessity of remaining in
+their native country, whether they changed their religion by force or
+not. It is to give an account of these people, as a supplement to my
+former book, that the present work is written.
+
+It is impossible to fix precisely the number of the Huguenots who
+left France to avoid the cruelties of Louis XIV., as well as of those
+who perforce remained to endure them. It shakes one's faith in history
+to observe the contradictory statements published with regard to
+French political or religious facts, even of recent date. A general
+impression has long prevailed that there was a Massacre of St.
+Bartholemew in Paris in the year 1572; but even that has recently been
+denied, or softened down into a mere political squabble. It is not,
+however, possible to deny the fact that there was a Revocation of the
+Edict of Nantes in 1685, though it has been vindicated as a noble act
+of legislation, worthy even of the reputation and character of Louis
+the Great.
+
+No two writers agree as to the number of French citizens who were
+driven from their country by the Revocation. A learned Roman Catholic,
+Mr. Charles Butler, states that only 50,000 persons "retired" from
+France; whereas M. Capefigue, equally opposed to the Reformation, who
+consulted the population tables of the period (although the intendants
+made their returns as small as possible in order to avoid the reproach
+of negligence), calculates the emigration at 230,000 souls, namely,
+1,580 ministers, 2,300 elders, 15,000 gentlemen, the remainder
+consisting almost entirely of traders and artisans.
+
+These returns, quoted by M. Capefigue, were made only a few years
+after the Revocation, although the emigration continued without
+intermission for many years later. M. Charles Coquerel says that
+whatever horror may be felt for the Massacre of St. Bartholomew of
+1572, the persecutions which preceded and followed the Act of
+Revocation in 1685, "kept France under a perpetual St. Bartholomew for
+about sixty years." During that time it is believed that more than
+1,000,000 Frenchmen either left the kingdom, or were killed,
+imprisoned, or sent to the galleys in their efforts to escape.
+
+The Intendant of Saintonge, a King's officer, not likely to exaggerate
+the number of emigrants, reported in 1698, long before the emigration
+had ceased, that his province had lost 100,000 Reformers. Languedoc
+suffered far more; whilst Boulainvilliers reports that besides the
+emigrants who succeeded in making their escape, the province lost not
+fewer than 100,000 persons by premature death, the sword,
+strangulation, and the wheel.
+
+The number of French emigrants who resorted to England may be inferred
+from the fact that at the beginning of last century there were not
+fewer than _thirty-five_ French Protestant churches in London alone,
+at a time when the population of the metropolis was not one-fourth of
+what it is now; while there were other large French settlements at
+Canterbury, Norwich, Southampton, Bristol, Exeter, &c., as well as at
+Dublin, Lisburn, Portarlington, and other towns in Ireland.
+
+Then, with respect to the much larger number of Protestants who
+remained in France after the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes, there
+is the same difference of opinion. A deputation of Huguenot pastors
+and elders, who waited upon the Duc de Noailles in 1682 informed him
+that there were then 1,800,000 Protestant _families_ in France. Thirty
+years after that date, Louis XIV. proclaimed that there were no
+Protestants whatever in France; that Protestantism had been entirely
+suppressed, and that any one found professing that faith must be
+considered as a "relapsed heretic," and sentenced to imprisonment, the
+galleys, or the other punishments to which Protestants were then
+subject.
+
+After an interval of about seventy-five years, during which
+Protestantism (though suppressed by the law) contrived to lead a sort
+of underground life--the Protestants meeting by night, and sometimes
+by day, in caves, valleys, moors, woods, old quarries, hollow beds of
+rivers, or, as they themselves called it, "in the Desert"--they at
+length contrived to lift their heads into the light of day, and then
+Rabaut St. Etienne stood up in the Constituent Assembly at Paris, in
+1787, and claimed the rights of his Protestant fellow-countrymen--the
+rights of "2,000,000 useful citizens." Louis XVI. granted them an
+Edict of Tolerance, about a hundred years after Louis XIV. had revoked
+the Edict of Nantes; but the measure proved too late for the King, and
+too late for France, which had already been sacrificed to the
+intolerance of Louis XIV. and his Jesuit advisers.
+
+After all the sufferings of France--after the cruelties to which her
+people have been subjected by the tyranny of her monarchs and the
+intolerance of her priests,--it is doubtful whether she has yet learnt
+wisdom from her experience and trials. France was brought to ruin a
+century ago by the Jesuits who held the entire education of the
+country in their hands. They have again recovered their ground, and
+the Congreganistes are now what the Jesuits were before. The
+Sans-Culottes of 1793 were the pupils of the priests; so were the
+Communists of 1871.[1] M. Edgar Quinet has recently said to his
+countrymen: "The Jesuitical and clerical spirit which has sneaked in
+among you and all your affairs has ruined you. It has corrupted the
+spring of life; it has delivered you over to the enemy.... Is this to
+last for ever? For heaven's sake spare us at least the sight of a
+Jesuits' Republic as the coronation of our century."
+
+         [Footnote 1: M. Simiot's speech before the National Assembly,
+         16th March, 1873.]
+
+In the midst of these prophecies of ruin, we have M. Veuillot frankly
+avowing his Ultramontane policy in the _Univers_. He is quite willing
+to go back to the old burnings, hangings, and quarterings, to prevent
+any freedom of opinion about religious matters. "For my part," he
+says, "I frankly avow my regret not only that John Huss was not burnt
+sooner, but that Luther was not burnt too. And I regret further that
+there has not been some prince sufficiently pious and politic to have
+made a crusade against the Protestants."
+
+M. Veuillot is perhaps entitled to some respect for boldly speaking
+out what he means and thinks. There are many amongst ourselves who
+mean the same thing, without having the courage to say so--who hate
+the Reformation quite as much as M. Veuillot does, and would like to
+see the principles of free examination and individual liberty torn up
+root and branch.
+
+With respect to the proposed crusade against Protestantism, it will be
+seen from the following work what the "pious and politic" Louis XIV.
+attempted, and how very inefficient his measures eventually proved in
+putting down Protestantism, or in extending Catholicism. Louis XIV.
+found it easier to make martyrs than apostates; and discovered that
+hanging, banishment, the galleys, and the sword were not amongst the
+most successful of "converters."
+
+The history of the Huguenots during the time of their submergence as
+an "underground church" is scarcely treated in the general histories
+of France. Courtly writers blot them out of history as Louis XIV.
+desired to blot them out of France. Most histories of France published
+in England contain little notice of them. Those who desire to pursue
+the subject further, will obtain abundant information, more
+particularly from the following works:--
+
+ELIE BÉNOÎT: _Histoire de l'Édit de Nantes._ CHARLES COQUEREL:
+_Histoire des Églises du Désert._ NAPOLEON PEYRAT: _Histoire des
+Pasteurs du Désert._ ANTOINE COURT: _Histoire des Troubles de
+Cevennes._ EDMUND HUGHES: _Histoire de la Restauration du
+Protestantisme en France au xviii. Siècle._ A. BONNEMÈRE: _Histoire
+des Camisardes._ ADOLPHE MICHEL: _Louvois et Les Protestantes._
+ATHANASE COQUEREL FILS; _Les Forçats pour La Foi, &c., &c._
+
+It remains to be added that part of this work--viz., the "Wars of the
+Camisards," and the "Journey in the Country of the Vaudois"--originally
+appeared in _Good Words_.
+
+                                                  S.S.
+
+LONDON, _October_, 1873.
+
+
+
+
+THE HUGUENOTS IN FRANCE.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+REVOCATION OF THE EDICT OF NANTES.
+
+
+The Revocation of the Edict of Nantes was signed by Louis XIV. of
+France, on the 18th of October, 1685, and published four days
+afterwards.
+
+Although the Revocation was the personal act of the King, it was
+nevertheless a popular measure, approved by the Catholic Church of
+France, and by the great body of the French people.
+
+The King had solemnly sworn, at the beginning of his reign, to
+maintain, the tolerating Edict of Henry IV.--the Huguenots being
+amongst the most industrious, enterprising, and loyal of his subjects.
+But the advocacy of the King's then Catholic mistress, Madame de
+Maintenon, and of his Jesuit Confessor, Père la Chaise, overcame his
+scruples, and the deed of Revocation of the Edict was at length signed
+and published.
+
+The aged Chancellor, Le Tellier, was so overjoyed at the measure, that
+on affixing the great seal of France to the deed, he exclaimed, in the
+words of Simeon, "Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace,
+for mine eyes have seen the salvation."
+
+Three months later, the great Bossuet, the eagle of Meaux, preached
+the funeral sermon of Le Tellier; in the course of which he testified
+to the immense joy of the Church at the Revocation of the Edict. "Let
+us," said he, "expand our hearts in praises of the piety of Louis. Let
+our acclamations ascend to heaven, and let us say to this new
+Constantine, this new Theodosius, this new Marcian, this new
+Charlemagne, what the thirty-six fathers formerly said in the Council
+of Chalcedon: 'You have affirmed the faith, you have exterminated the
+heretics; it is a work worthy of your reign, whose proper character it
+is. Thanks to you, heresy is no more. God alone can have worked this
+marvel. King of heaven, preserve the King of earth: it is the prayer
+of the Church, it is the prayer of the Bishops.'"[2]
+
+         [Footnote 2: Bossuet, "Oraison Funèbre du Chancelier
+         Letellier."]
+
+Madame de Maintenon also received the praises of the Church. "All good
+people," said the Abbé de Choisy, "the Pope, the bishops, and all the
+clergy, rejoice at the victory of Madame de Maintenon." Madame enjoyed
+the surname of Director of the Affairs of the Clergy; and it was said
+by the ladies of St. Cyr (an institution founded by her), that "the
+cardinals and the bishops knew no other way of approaching the King
+save through her."
+
+It is generally believed that her price for obtaining the King's
+consent to the Act of Revocation, was the withdrawal by the clergy of
+their opposition to her marriage with the King; and that the two were
+privately united by the Archbishop of Paris at Versailles, a few days
+after, in the presence of Père la Chaise and two more witnesses. But
+Louis XIV. never publicly recognised De Maintenon as his wife--never
+rescued her from the ignominious position in which she originally
+stood related to him.
+
+People at court all spoke with immense praises of the King's
+intentions with respect to destroying the Huguenots. "Killing them
+off" was a matter of badinage with the courtiers. Madame de Maintenon
+wrote to the Duc de Noailles, "The soldiers are killing numbers of the
+fanatics--they hope soon to free Languedoc of them."
+
+That picquante letter-writer, Madame de Sévigné, often referred to the
+Huguenots. She seems to have classed them with criminals or wild
+beasts. When residing in Low Brittany during a revolt against the
+Gabelle, a friend wrote to her, "How dull you must be!" "No," replied
+Madame de Sévigné, "we are not so dull--hanging is quite a refreshment
+to me! They have just taken twenty-four or thirty of these men, and
+are going to throw them off."
+
+A few days after the Edict had been revoked, she wrote to her cousin
+Bussy, at Paris: "You have doubtless seen the Edict by which the King
+revokes that of Nantes. There is nothing so fine as that which it
+contains, and never has any King done, or ever will do, a more
+memorable act." Bussy replied to her: "I immensely admire the conduct
+of the King in destroying the Huguenots. The wars which have been
+waged against them, and the St. Bartholomew, have given some
+reputation to the sect. His Majesty has gradually undermined it; and
+the edict he has just published, maintained by the dragoons and by
+Bourdaloue,[3] will soon give them the _coup de grâce_."
+
+         [Footnote 3: Bourdaloue had just been sent from the Jesuit
+         Church of St. Louis at Paris, to Montpellier, to aid the
+         dragoons in converting the Protestants, and bringing them
+         back to the Church.]
+
+In a future letter to Count Bussy, Madame de Sévigné informed him of
+"a dreadfully fatiguing journey which her son-in-law M. de Grignan had
+made in the mountains of Dauphiny, to pursue and punish the miserable
+Huguenots, who issued from their holes, and vanished like ghosts to
+avoid extermination."
+
+De Baville, however, the Lieutenant of Languedoc, kept her in good
+heart. In one of his letters, he said, "I have this morning condemned
+seventy-six of these wretches (Huguenots), and sent them to the
+galleys." All this was very pleasant to Madame de Sévigné.
+
+Madame de Scuderi, also, more moderately rejoiced in the Act of
+Revocation. "The King," she wrote to Bussy, "has worked great marvels
+against the Huguenots; and the authority which he has employed to
+unite them to the Church will be most salutary to themselves and to
+their children, who will be educated in the purity of the faith; all
+this will bring upon him the benedictions of Heaven."
+
+Even the French Academy, though originally founded by a Huguenot,
+publicly approved the deed of Revocation. In a discourse uttered
+before it, the Abbé Tallemand exclaimed, when speaking of the Huguenot
+temple at Charenton, which had just been destroyed by the mob, "Happy
+ruins, the finest trophy France ever beheld!" La Fontaine described
+heresy as now "reduced to the last gasp." Thomas Corneille also
+eulogized the zeal of the King in "throttling the Reformation."
+Barbier D'Aucourt heedlessly, but truly, compared the emigration of
+the Protestants "to the departure of the Israelites from Egypt." The
+Academy afterwards proposed, as the subject of a poem, the Revocation
+of the Edict of Nantes, and Fontenelle had the fortune, good or bad,
+of winning the prize.
+
+The philosophic La Bruyère contributed a maxim in praise of the
+Revocation. Quinault wrote a poem on the subject; and Madame
+Deshoulières felt inspired to sing "The Destruction of Heresy." The
+Abbé de Rancé spoke of the whole affair as a prodigy: "The Temple of
+Charenton destroyed, and no exercise of Protestantism, within the
+kingdom; it is a kind of miracle, such as we had never hoped to have
+seen in our day."
+
+The Revocation was popular with the lower class, who went about
+sacking and pulling down the Protestant churches. They also tracked
+the Huguenots and their pastors, where they found them evading or
+breaking the Edict of Revocation; thus earning the praises of the
+Church and the fines offered by the King for their apprehension. The
+provosts and sheriffs of Paris represented the popular feeling, by
+erecting a brazen statue of the King who had rooted out heresy; and
+they struck and distributed medals in honour of the great event.
+
+The Revocation was also popular with the dragoons. In order to
+"convert" the Protestants, the dragoons were unduly billeted upon
+them. As both officers and soldiers were then very badly paid, they
+were thereby enabled to live at free quarters. They treated everything
+in the houses they occupied as if it were their own, and an assignment
+of billets was little loss than the consignment of the premises to the
+military, to use for their own purposes, during the time they occupied
+them.[4]
+
+         [Footnote 4: Sir John Reresby's Travels and Memoirs.]
+
+The Revocation was also approved by those who wished to buy land
+cheap. As the Huguenots were prevented holding their estates unless
+they conformed to the Catholic religion, and as many estates were
+accordingly confiscated and sold, land speculators, as well as grand
+seigneurs who wished to increase their estates, were constantly on the
+look-out for good bargains. Even before the Revocation, when the
+Huguenots were selling their land in order to leave the country,
+Madame de Maintenon wrote to her nephew, for whom she had obtained
+from the King a grant of 800,000 francs, "I beg of you carefully to
+use the money you are about to receive. Estates in Poitou may be got
+for nothing; the desolation of the Huguenots will drive them to sell
+more. You may easily acquire extensive possessions in Poitou."
+
+The Revocation was especially gratifying to the French Catholic
+Church. The Pope, of course, approved of it. _Te Deums_ were sung at
+Rome in thanksgiving for the forced conversion of the Huguenots. Pope
+Innocent XI. sent a brief to Louis XIV., in which he promised him the
+unanimous praises of the Church, "Amongst all the proofs," said he,
+"which your Majesty has given of natural piety, not the least
+brilliant is the zeal, truly worthy of the most Christian King, which
+has induced you to revoke all the ordinances issued in favour of the
+heretics of your kingdom."[5]
+
+         [Footnote 5: Pope Innocent XI.'s Letter of November 13th,
+         1685.]
+
+The Jesuits were especially elated by the Revocation. It had been
+brought about by the intrigues of their party, acting on the King's
+mind through Madame de Maintenon and Père la Chaise. It enabled them
+to fill their schools and nunneries with the children of Protestants,
+who were compelled by law to pay for their education by Jesuit
+priests. To furnish the required accommodation, nearly the whole of
+the Protestant temples that had not been pulled down were made over
+to the Jesuits, to be converted into monastic schools and nunneries.
+Even Bossuet, the "last father of the Church," shared in the spoils of
+the Huguenots. A few days after the Edict had been revoked, Bossuet
+applied for the materials of the temples of Nauteuil and Morcerf,
+situated in his diocese; and his Majesty ordered that they should be
+granted to him.[6]
+
+         [Footnote 6: "Louvois et les Protestants," par Adolphe
+         Michel, p. 286.]
+
+Now that Protestantism had been put down, and the officers of Louis
+announced from all parts of the kingdom that the Huguenots were
+becoming converted by thousands, there was nothing but a clear course
+before the Jesuits in France. For their religion was now the favoured
+religion of the State.
+
+It is true there were the Jansenists--declared to be heretical by the
+Popes, and distinguished for their opposition to the doctrines and
+moral teaching of the Jesuits--who were suffering from a persecution
+which then drove some of the members of Port Royal into exile, and
+eventually destroyed them. But even the Jansenists approved the
+persecution of the Protestants. The great Arnault, their most
+illustrious interpreter, though in exile in the Low Countries,
+declared that though the means which Louis XIV. had employed had been
+"rather violent, they had in nowise been unjust."
+
+But Protestantism being declared destroyed, and Jansenism being in
+disgrace, there was virtually no legal religion in France but
+one--that of the Roman Catholic Church. Atheism, it is true, was
+tolerated, but then Atheism was not a religion. The Atheists did not,
+like the Protestants, set up rival churches, or appoint rival
+ministers, and seek to draw people to their assemblies. The Atheists,
+though they tacitly approved the religion of the King, had no
+opposition to offer to it--only neglect, and perhaps concealed
+contempt.
+
+Hence it followed that the Court and the clergy had far more
+toleration for Atheism than for either Protestantism or Jansenism. It
+is authentically related that Louis XIV. on one occasion objected to
+the appointment of a representative on a foreign mission on account of
+the person being supposed to be a Jansenist; but on its being
+discovered that the nominee was only an Atheist, the objection was at
+once withdrawn.[7]
+
+         [Footnote 7: _Quarterly Review._]
+
+At the time of the Revocation, when the King and the Catholic Church
+were resolved to tolerate no religion other than itself, the Church
+had never seemed so powerful in France. It had a strong hold upon the
+minds of the people. It was powerful in its leaders and its great
+preachers; in fact, France has never, either before or since,
+exhibited such an array of preaching genius as Bossuet, Bourdaloue,
+Fléchier, and Massillon.
+
+Yet the uncontrolled and enormously increased power conferred upon the
+French Church at that time, most probably proved its greatest
+calamity. Less than a hundred years after the Revocation, the Church
+had lost its influence over the people, and was despised. The Deists
+and Atheists, sprung from the Church's bosom, were in the ascendant;
+and Voltaire, Rousseau, Diderot, and Mirabeau, were regarded as
+greater men than either Bossuet, Bourdaloue, Fléchier, or Massillon.
+
+Not one of the clergy we have named, powerful orators though they
+were, ever ventured to call in question the cruelties with which the
+King sought to compel the Protestants to embrace the dogmas of their
+Church. There were no doubt many Catholics who deplored the force
+practised on the Huguenots; but they were greatly in the minority,
+and had no power to make their opposition felt. Some of them
+considered it an impious sacrilege to compel the Protestants to take
+the Catholic sacrament--to force them to accept the host, which
+Catholics believed to be the veritable body of Christ, but which the
+Huguenots could only accept as bread, over which some function had
+been performed by the priests, in whose miraculous power of conversion
+they did not believe.
+
+Fénélon took this view of the forcible course employed by the Jesuits;
+but he was in disgrace as a Jansenist, and what he wrote on the
+subject remained for a long time unknown, and was only first published
+in 1825. The Duc de Saint-Simon, also a Jansenist, took the same view,
+which he embodied in his "Memoirs;" but these were kept secret by his
+family, and were not published for nearly a century after his death.
+
+Thus the Catholic Church remained triumphant. The Revocation was
+apparently approved by all, excepting the Huguenots. The King was
+flattered by the perpetual conversions reported to be going on
+throughout the country--five thousand persons in one place, ten
+thousand in another, who had abjured and taken the communion--at once,
+and sometimes "instantly."
+
+"The King," says Saint-Simon, "congratulated himself on his power and
+his piety. He believed himself to have renewed the days of the
+preaching of the Apostles, and attributed to himself all the honour.
+The Bishops wrote panegyrics of him; the Jesuits made the pulpits
+resound with his praises.... He swallowed their poison in deep
+draughts."[8]
+
+         [Footnote 8: "Memoirs of the Duke of Saint-Simon," translated
+         by Bayle St. John, vol. III. p 250.]
+
+Louis XIV. lived for thirty years after the Edict of Nantes had been
+revoked. He had therefore the fullest opportunity of observing the
+results of the policy he had pursued. He died in the hands of the
+Jesuits, his body covered with relics of the true cross. Madame de
+Maintenon, the "famous and fatal witch," as Saint-Simon called her,
+abandoned him at last; and the King died, lamented by no one.
+
+He had banished, or destroyed, during-his reign, about a million of
+his subjects, and those who remained did not respect him. Many
+regarded him as a self-conceited tyrant, who sought to save his own
+soul by inflicting penance on the backs of others. He loaded his
+kingdom with debt, and overwhelmed his people with taxes. He destroyed
+the industry of France, which had been mainly supported by the
+Huguenots. Towards the end of his life he became generally hated; and
+while his heart was conveyed to the Grand Jesuits, his body, which was
+buried at St. Denis, was hurried to the grave accompanied by the
+execrations of the people.
+
+Yet the Church remained faithful to him to the last. The great
+Massillon preached his funeral sermon; though the message was draped
+in the livery of the Court. "How far," said he, "did Louis XIV. carry
+his zeal for the Church, that virtue of sovereigns who have received
+power and the sword only that they may be props of the altar and
+defenders of its doctrine! Specious reasons of State! In vain did you
+oppose to Louis the timid views of human wisdom, the body of the
+monarchy enfeebled by the flight of so many citizens, the course of
+trade slackened, either by the deprivation of their industry, or by
+the furtive removal of their wealth! Dangers fortify his zeal. The
+work of God fears not man. He believes even that he strengthens his
+throne by overthrowing that of error. The profane temples are
+destroyed, the pulpits of seduction are cast down. The prophets of
+falsehood are torn from their flocks. At the first blow dealt to it by
+Louis, heresy falls, disappears, and is reduced either to hide itself
+in the obscurity whence it issued, or to cross the seas, and to bear
+with it into foreign lands its false gods, its bitterness, and its
+rage."[9]
+
+         [Footnote 9: Funeral Oration on Louis XIV.]
+
+Whatever may have been the temper which the Huguenots displayed when
+they were driven from France by persecution, they certainly carried
+with them something far more valuable than rage. They carried with
+them their virtue, piety, industry, and valour, which proved the
+source of wealth, spirit, freedom, and character, in all those
+countries--Holland, Prussia, England, and America--in which these
+noble exiles took refuge.
+
+We shall next see whether the Huguenots had any occasion for
+entertaining the "rage" which the great Massillon attributed to them.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+EFFECTS OF THE REVOCATION.
+
+
+The Revocation struck with civil death the entire Protestant
+population of France. All the liberty of conscience which they had
+enjoyed under the Edict of Nantes, was swept away by the act of the
+King. They were deprived of every right and privilege; their social
+life was destroyed; their callings were proscribed; their property was
+liable to be confiscated at any moment; and they were subjected to
+mean, detestable, and outrageous cruelties.
+
+From the day of the Revocation, the relation of Louis XIV. to his
+Huguenot subjects was that of the Tyrant and his Victims. The only
+resource which remained to the latter was that of flying from their
+native country; and an immense number of persons took the opportunity
+of escaping from France.
+
+The Edict of Revocation proclaimed that the Huguenot subjects of
+France must thenceforward be of "the King's religion;" and the order
+was promulgated throughout the kingdom. The Prime Minister, Louvois,
+wrote to the provincial governors, "His Majesty desires that the
+severest rigour shall be shown to those who will not conform to His
+Religion, and those who seek the foolish glory of wishing to be the
+last, must be pushed to the utmost extremity."
+
+The Huguenots were forbidden, under the penalty of death, to worship
+publicly after their own religious forms. They were also forbidden,
+under the penalty of being sent to the galleys for life, to worship
+privately in their own homes. If they were overheard singing their
+favourite psalms, they were liable to fine, imprisonment, or the
+galleys. They were compelled to hang out flags from their houses on
+the days of Catholic processions; but they were forbidden, under a
+heavy penalty, to look out of their windows when the Corpus Domini was
+borne along the streets.
+
+The Huguenots were rigidly forbidden to instruct their children in
+their own faith. They were commanded to send them to the priest to be
+baptized and brought up in the Roman Catholic faith, under the penalty
+of five hundred livres fine in each case. The boys were educated in
+Jesuit schools, the girls in nunneries, the parents being compelled to
+pay the required expenses; and where the parents were too poor to pay,
+the children were at once transferred to the general hospitals. A
+decree of the King, published in December, 1685, ordered that every
+child of _five years_ and upwards was to be taken possession of by the
+authorities, and removed from its Protestant parents. This decree
+often proved a sentence of death, not only to the child, but to its
+parents.
+
+The whole of the Protestant temples throughout France were subject to
+demolition. The expelled pastors were compelled to evacuate the
+country within fifteen days. If, in the meantime, they were found
+performing their functions, they were liable to be sent to the galleys
+for life. If they undertook to marry Protestants, the marriages were
+declared illegal, and the children bastards. If, after the expiry of
+the fifteen days, they were found lingering in France, the pastors
+were then liable to the penalty of death.
+
+Protestants could neither be born, nor live, nor die, without state
+and priestly interference. Protestant _sages-femmes_ were not
+permitted to exercise their functions; Protestant doctors were
+prohibited from practising; Protestant surgeons and apothecaries were
+suppressed; Protestant advocates, notaries, and lawyers were
+interdicted; Protestants could not teach, and all their schools,
+public and private, were put down. Protestants were no longer employed
+by the Government in affairs of finance, as collectors of taxes, or
+even as labourers on the public roads, or in any other office. Even
+Protestant grocers were forbidden to exercise their calling.
+
+There must be no Protestant librarians, booksellers, or printers.
+There was, indeed, a general raid upon Protestant literature all over
+France. All Bibles, Testaments, and books of religious instruction,
+were collected and publicly burnt. There were bonfires in almost every
+town. At Metz, it occupied a whole day to burn the Protestant books
+which had been seized, handed over to the clergy, and condemned to be
+destroyed.
+
+Protestants were even forbidden to hire out horses, and Protestant
+grooms were forbidden to give riding lessons. Protestant domestics
+were forbidden to hire themselves as servants, and Protestant
+mistresses were forbidden to hire them under heavy penalties. If they
+engaged Protestant servants, they were liable to be sent to the
+galleys for life. They were even prevented employing "new converts."
+
+Artisans were forbidden to work without certificates that their
+religion was Catholic. Protestant apprenticeships were suppressed.
+Protestant washerwomen were excluded from their washing-places on the
+river. In fact, there was scarcely a degradation that could be
+invented, or an insult that could be perpetrated, that was not
+practised upon those poor Huguenots who refused to be of "the King's
+religion."
+
+Even when Protestants were about to take refuge in death, their
+troubles were not over. The priests had the power of forcing their way
+into the dying man's house, where they presented themselves at his
+bedside, and offered him conversion and the viaticum. If the dying man
+refused these, he was liable to be seized after death, dragged from
+the house, pulled along the streets naked, and buried in a ditch, or
+thrown upon a dunghill.[10]
+
+         [Footnote 10: Such was, in fact, the end of a man so
+         distinguished as M. Paul Chenevix, Councillor of the Court of
+         Metz, who died in 1686, the year after the Revocation.
+         Although of the age of eighty, and so illustrious for his
+         learning, his dead body was dragged along the streets on a
+         hurdle and thrown upon a dunghill. See "Huguenot Refugees and
+         their Descendants," under the name _Chenevix_. The present
+         Archbishop of Dublin is descended from his brother Philip
+         Chenevix, who settled in England shortly after the
+         Revocation.]
+
+For several years before the Revocation, while the persecutions of the
+Huguenots had been increasing, many had realised their means, and fled
+abroad into Switzerland, Germany, Holland, and England. But after the
+Revocation, emigration from France was strictly forbidden, under
+penalty of confiscation of the whole goods and property of the
+emigrant. Any person found attempting to leave the country, was liable
+to the seizure of all that belonged to him, and to perpetual
+imprisonment at the galleys; one half the amount realised by the sale
+of the property being paid to the informers, who thus became the most
+active agents of the Government. The Act also ordered that all landed
+proprietors who had left France before the Revocation, should return
+within four months, under penalty of confiscation of all their
+property.
+
+Amongst those of the King's subjects who were the most ready to obey
+his orders were some of the old Huguenot noble families, such as the
+members of the houses of Bouillon, Coligny, Rohan, Tremouille, Sully,
+and La Force. These great vassals, whom a turbulent feudalism had
+probably in the first instance induced to embrace Protestantism, were
+now found ready to change their profession of religion in servile
+obedience to the monarch.
+
+The lesser nobility were more faithful and consistent. Many of them
+abandoned their estates and fled across the frontier, rather than live
+a daily lie to God by forswearing the religion of their conscience.
+Others of this class, on whom religion sat more lightly, as the only
+means of saving their property from confiscation, pretended to be
+converted to Roman Catholicism; though, we shall find, that these "new
+converts," as they were called, were treated with as much suspicion on
+the one side as they were regarded with contempt on the other.
+
+There were also the Huguenot manufacturers, merchants, and employers of
+labour, of whom a large number closed their workshops and factories,
+sold off their goods, converted everything into cash, at whatever
+sacrifice, and fled across the frontier into Switzerland--either
+settling there, or passing through it on their way to Germany, Holland,
+or England.
+
+It was necessary to stop this emigration, which was rapidly
+diminishing the population, and steadily impoverishing the country. It
+was indeed a terrible thing for Frenchmen, to tear themselves away
+from their country--Frenchmen, who have always clung so close to
+their soil that they have rarely been able to form colonies of
+emigration elsewhere--it was breaking so many living fibres to leave
+France, to quit the homes of their fathers, their firesides, their
+kin, and their race. Yet, in a multitude of cases, they were compelled
+to tear themselves by the roots out of the France they so loved.
+
+Yet it was so very easy for them to remain. The King merely required
+them to be "converted." He held that loyalty required them to be of
+"his religion." On the 19th of October, 1685, the day after he had
+signed the Act of Revocation, La Reynée, lieutenant of the police of
+Paris, issued a notice to the Huguenot tradespeople and
+working-classes, requiring them to be converted instantly. Many of
+them were terrified, and conformed accordingly. Next day, another
+notice was issued to the Huguenot bourgeois, requiring them to
+assemble on the following day for the purpose of publicly making a
+declaration of their conversion.
+
+The result of those measures was to make hypocrites rather than
+believers, and they took effect upon the weakest and least-principled
+persons. The strongest, most independent, and high-minded of the
+Huguenots, who would _not_ be hypocrites, resolved passively to resist
+them, and if they could not be allowed to exercise freedom of
+conscience in their own country, they determined to seek it elsewhere.
+Hence the large increase in the emigration from all parts of France
+immediately after the Act of Revocation had been proclaimed.[11] All
+the roads leading to the frontier or the sea-coast streamed with
+fugitives. They went in various forms and guises--sometimes in bodies
+of armed men, at other times in solitary parties, travelling at night
+and sleeping in the woods by day. They went as beggars, travelling
+merchants, sellers of beads and chaplets, gipsies, soldiers,
+shepherds, women with their faces dyed and sometimes dressed in men's
+clothes, and in all manner of disguises.
+
+         [Footnote 11: It is believed that 400,000 emigrants left
+         France through religious persecution during the twenty years
+         previous to the Revocation, and that 600,000 escaped during
+         the twenty years after that event. M. Charles Coquerel
+         estimates the number of Protestants in France at that time to
+         have been two millions of _men_ ("Églises du Désert," i. 497)
+         The number of Protestant pastors was about one thousand--of
+         whom six hundred went into exile, one hundred were executed
+         or sent to the galleys, and the rest are supposed to have
+         accepted pensions as "new converts."]
+
+To prevent this extensive emigration, more violent measures were
+adopted. Every road out of France was posted with guards. The towns,
+highways, bridges, and ferries, were all watched; and heavy rewards
+were promised to those who would stop and bring back the fugitives.
+Many were taken, loaded with irons, and dispatched by the most public
+roads through France--as a sight to be seen by other Protestants--to
+the galleys at Marseilles, Brest, and other ports. As they went along
+they were subject to every sort of indignity in the towns and villages
+through which they passed. They were hooted, stoned, spit upon, and
+loaded with insult.
+
+Many others went by sea, in French as well as in foreign ships. Though
+the sailors of France were prohibited the exercise of the reformed
+religion, under the penalty of fines, corporal punishment, and seizure
+of the vessels where the worship was allowed, yet many of the
+emigrants contrived to get away by the help of French ship captains,
+masters of sloops, fishing-boats, and coast pilots--who most probably
+sympathized with the views of those who wished to fly their country
+rather than become hypocrites and forswear their religion. A large
+number of emigrants, who went hurriedly off to sea in little boats,
+must have been drowned, as they were never afterwards heard of.
+
+There were also many English ships that appeared off the coast to take
+the flying Huguenots away by night. They also escaped in foreign ships
+taking in their cargoes in the western harbours. They got cooped up in
+casks or wine barraques, with holes for breathing places; others
+contrived to get surreptitiously into the hold, and stowed themselves
+away among the goods. When it became known to the Government that many
+Protestants were escaping in this way, provision was made to meet the
+case; and a Royal Order was issued that, before any ship was allowed
+to set sail for a foreign port, the hold should be fumigated with
+deadly gas, so that any hidden Huguenot who could not otherwise be
+detected, might thus be suffocated![12]
+
+         [Footnote 12: We refer to "The Huguenots: their Settlements,
+         Churches, and Industries in England and Ireland," where a
+         great many incidents are given relative to the escape of
+         refugees by land and sea, which need not here be repeated.]
+
+In the meantime, however, numerous efforts were being made to convert
+the Huguenots. The King, his ministers, the dragoons, the bishops, and
+clergy used all due diligence. "Everybody is now missionary," said the
+fascinating Madame de Sévigné; "each has his mission--above all the
+magistrates and governors of provinces, _helped by the dragoons_. It
+is the grandest and finest thing that has ever been imagined and
+executed."[13]
+
+         [Footnote 13: Letter to the President de Moulceau, November
+         24th, 1685.]
+
+The conversions effected by the dragoons were much more sudden than
+those effected by the priests. Sometimes a hundred or more persons
+were converted by a single troop within an hour. In this way Murillac
+converted thousands of persons in a week. The regiment of Ashfeld
+converted the whole province of Poitou in a month.
+
+De Noailles was very successful in his conversions. He converted
+Nismes in twenty-four hours; the day after he converted Montpellier;
+and he promised in a few weeks to deliver all Lower Languedoc from the
+leprosy of heresy. In one of his dispatches soon after the Revocation,
+he boasted that he had converted 350 nobility and gentry, 54
+ministers, and 25,000 individuals of various classes.
+
+The quickness of the conversions effected by the dragoons is easily to
+be accounted for. The principal cause was the free quartering of
+soldiers in the houses of the Protestants. The soldiers knew what was
+the object for which they were thus quartered. They lived freely in
+all ways. They drank, swore, shouted, beat the heretics, insulted
+their women, and subjected them to every imaginable outrage and
+insult.
+
+One of their methods of making converts was borrowed from the
+persecutions of the Vaudois. It consisted in forcing the feet of the
+intended converts into boots full of boiling grease, or they would
+hang them up by the feet, sometimes forgetting to cut them down until
+they were dead. They would also force them to drink water perpetually,
+or make them sit under a slow dripping upon their heads until they
+died of madness. Sometimes they placed burning coals in their hands,
+or used an instrument of torture resembling that known in Scotland as
+the thumbscrews.[14] Many of their attempts at conversion were
+accompanied by details too hideous to be recorded.
+
+         [Footnote 14: Thumbscrews were used in the reign of James II.
+         Louis and James borrowed from each other the means of
+         converting heretics; but whether the origin of the thumbscrew
+         be French or Scotch is not known.]
+
+Of those who would not be converted, the prisons were kept full. They
+were kept there without the usual allowance of straw, and almost
+without food. In winter they had no fire, and at night no lamp. Though
+ill, they had no doctors. Besides the gaoler, their only visitors were
+priests and monks, entreating them to make abjuration. Of course many
+died in prison--feeble women, and aged and infirm men. In the society
+of obscene criminals, with whom many were imprisoned, they prayed for
+speedy deliverance by death, and death often came to their help.
+
+More agreeable, but still more insulting, methods of conversion were
+also attempted. Louis tried to bribe the pastors by offering them an
+increase of annual pay beyond their former stipends. If there were a
+Protestant judge or advocate, Louvois at once endeavoured to bribe him
+over. For instance, there was a heretical syndic of Strasbourg, to
+whom Louvois wrote, "Will you be converted? I will give you 6,000
+livres of pension.--Will you not? I will dismiss you."
+
+Of course many of the efforts made to convert the Huguenots proved
+successful. The orders of the Prime Minister, the free quarters
+afforded to the dragoons, the preachings and threatenings of the
+clergy, all contributed to terrify the Protestants. The fear of being
+sent to the galleys for life--the threat of losing the whole of one's
+goods and property--the alarm of seeing one's household broken up, the
+children seized by the priests and sent to the nearest monkery or
+nunnery for maintenance and education--all these considerations
+doubtless had their effect in increasing the number of conversions.
+
+Persecution is not easy to bear. To have all the powers and
+authorities employed against one's life, interests, and faith, is
+what few can persistently oppose. And torture, whether it be slow or
+sudden, is what many persons, by reason of their physical capacity,
+have not the power to resist. Even the slow torment of dragoons
+quartered in the houses of the heretics--their noise and shoutings,
+their drinking and roistering, the insults and outrages they were
+allowed to practise--was sufficient to compel many at once to declare
+themselves to be converted.
+
+Indeed, pain is, of all things, one of the most terrible of
+converters. One of the prisoners condemned to the galleys, when he saw
+the tortures which the victims about him had to endure by night and by
+day, said that sufferings such as these were "enough to make one
+conform to Buddhism or Mahommedanism as well as to Popery"; and
+doubtless it was force and suffering which converted the Huguenots,
+far more than love of the King or love of the Pope.
+
+By all these means--forcible, threatening, insulting, and
+bribing--employed for the conversion of the Huguenots, the Catholics
+boasted that in the space of three months they had received an
+accession of five hundred thousand new converts to the Church of Rome.
+
+But the "new converts" did not gain much by their change. They were
+forced to attend mass, but remained suspected. Even the dragoons who
+converted them, called them dastards and deniers of their faith. They
+tried, if they could, to avoid confession, but confess they must.
+There was the fine, confiscation of goods, and imprisonment at the
+priest's back.
+
+Places were set apart for them in the churches, where they were penned
+up like lepers. A person was stationed at the door with a roll of
+their names, to which they were obliged to answer. During the service,
+the most prominent among them were made to carry the lights, the holy
+water, the incense, and such things, which to Huguenots were an
+abomination. They were also required to partake of the Host, which
+Protestants regarded as an awful mockery of the glorious Godhead.
+
+The Duc de Saint-Simon, in his memoirs, after referring to the unmanly
+cruelties practised by Louis XIV. on the Huguenots, "without the
+slightest pretext or necessity," characterizes this forced
+participation in the Eucharist as sacrilegious and blasphemous folly,
+notwithstanding that nearly all the bishops lent themselves to the
+practice. "From simulated abjuration," he says, "they [the Huguenots]
+are dragged to endorse what they do not believe in, and to receive the
+divine body of the Saint of saints whilst remaining persuaded that
+they are only eating bread which they ought to abhor. Such is the
+general abomination born of flattery and cruelty. From torture to
+abjuration, and from that to the communion, there were only
+twenty-four hours' distance; and the executioners were the conductors
+of the converts, and their witnesses. Those who in the end appeared to
+have become reconciled, when more at leisure did not fail, by their
+flight or their behaviour, to contradict their pretended
+conversion."[15]
+
+         [Footnote 15: "Memoirs of the Duke of Saint-Simon," Bayle St.
+         John's Translation, iii. 259.]
+
+Indeed, many of the new converts, finding life in France to be all but
+intolerable, determined to follow the example of the Huguenots who had
+already fled, and took the first opportunity of disposing of their
+goods and leaving the country. One of the first things they did on
+reaching a foreign soil, was to attend a congregation of their
+brethren, and make "reconnaisances," or acknowledgment of their
+repentance for having attended mass and pretended to be converted to
+the Roman Catholic Church.[16] At one of the sittings of the
+Threadneedle Street Huguenot Church in London, held in May, 1687--two
+years after the Revocation--not fewer than 497 members were again
+received into the Church which, by force, they had pretended to
+abandon.
+
+         [Footnote 16: See "The Huguenots: their Settlements, &c., in
+         England and Ireland," chap. xvi.]
+
+Not many pastors abjured. A few who yielded in the first instance
+through terror and stupor, almost invariably returned to their ancient
+faith. They were offered considerable pensions if they would conform
+and become Catholics. The King promised to augment their income by
+one-third, and if they became advocates or doctors in law, to dispense
+with their three years' study, and with the right of diploma.
+
+At length, most of the pastors had left the country. About seven
+hundred had gone into Switzerland, Holland, Prussia, England, and
+elsewhere. A few remained going about to meetings of the peasantry, at
+the daily risk of death; for every pastor taken was hung. A reward of
+5,500 livres was promised to whoever should take a pastor, or cause
+him to be taken. The punishment of death was also pronounced against
+all persons who should be discovered attending such meetings.
+
+Nevertheless, meetings of the Protestants continued to be held, with
+pastors or without. They were, for the most part, held at night,
+amidst the ruins of their pulled-down temples. But this exposed them
+to great danger, for spies were on the alert to inform upon them and
+have them apprehended.
+
+At length they selected more sheltered places in remote quarters,
+where they met for prayer and praise, often resorting thither from
+great distances. They were, however, often surprised, cut to pieces by
+the dragoons, who hung part of the prisoners on the neighbouring
+trees, and took the others to prison, from whence they were sent to
+the galleys, or hung on the nearest public gibbet.
+
+Fulcran Rey was one of the most celebrated of the early victims. He
+was a native of Nismes, twenty-four years old. He had just completed
+his theological studies; but there were neither synods to receive him
+to pastoral ordination, nor temples for him to preach in. The only
+reward he could earn by proceeding on his mission was death, yet he
+determined to preach. The first assemblies he joined were in the
+neighbourhood of Nismes, where his addresses were interrupted by
+assaults of the dragoons. The dangers to his co-religionaries were too
+great in the neighbourhood of this populous town; and he next went to
+Castres and the Vaunage; after which he accepted an invitation to
+proceed into the less populous districts of the Cevennes.
+
+He felt the presentiment of death upon him in accepting the
+invitation; but he went, leaving behind him a letter to his father,
+saying that he was willing, if necessary, to give his life for the
+cause of truth. "Oh! what happiness it would give me," he said, "if I
+might be found amongst the number of those whom the Lord has reserved
+to announce his praise and to die for his cause!"
+
+His apostolate was short but glorious. He went from village to village
+in the Cevennes, collected the old worshippers together, prayed and
+preached to them, encouraging all to suffer in the name of Christ. He
+remained at this work for about six weeks, when a spy who accompanied
+him--one whom he had regarded as sincere a Huguenot as himself--informed
+against him for the royal reward, and delivered him over to the
+dragoons.
+
+Rey was at first thrown into prison at Anduze, when, after a brief
+examination by the local judge, he was entrusted to thirty soldiers,
+to be conveyed to Alais. There he was subjected to further
+examination, avowing that he had preached wherever he had found
+faithful people ready to hear him. At Nismes, he was told that he had
+broken the law, in preaching contrary to the King's will. "I obey the
+law of the King of kings," he replied; "it is right that I should obey
+God rather than man. Do with me what you will; I am ready to die."
+
+The priests, the judges, and other persons of influence endeavoured to
+induce him to change his opinions. Promises of great favours were
+offered him if he would abjure; and when the intendant Baville
+informed him of the frightful death before him if he refused, he
+replied, "My life is not of value to me, provided I gain Christ." He
+remained firm. He was ordered to be put to the torture. He was still
+unshaken. Then he was delivered over to the executioner. "I am
+treated," he said, "more mildly than my Saviour."
+
+On his way to the place of execution, two monks walked by his side to
+induce him to relent, and to help him to die. "Let me alone," he said,
+"you annoy me with your consolations." On coming in sight of the
+gallows at Beaucaire, he cried, "Courage, courage! the end of my
+journey is at hand. I see before me the ladder which leads to
+heaven."
+
+The monks wished to mount the ladder with him. "Return," said he, "I
+have no need of your help. I have assistance enough from God to take
+the last step of my journey." When he reached the upper platform, he
+was about, before dying, to make public his confession of faith. But
+the authorities had arranged beforehand that this should be prevented.
+When he opened his mouth, a roll of military drums muffled his voice.
+His radiant look and gestures spoke for him. A few minutes more, and
+he was dead; and when the paleness of death spread over his face, it
+still bore the reflex of joy and peace in which he had expired. "There
+is a veritable martyr," said many even of the Catholics who were
+witnesses of his death.
+
+It was thought that the public hanging of a pastor would put a stop to
+all further ministrations among the Huguenots. But the sight of the
+bodies of their brethren hung on the nearest trees, and the heads of
+their pastors rolling on the scaffold, did not deter them from
+continuing to hold religious meetings in solitary places, more
+especially in Languedoc, Viverais, and the provinces in the south-east
+of France.
+
+Between the year 1686, when Fulcran Rey was hanged at Beaucaire, and
+the year 1698, when Claude Brousson was hanged at Montpellier, not
+fewer than seventeen pastors were publicly executed; namely, three at
+Nismes, two at St. Hippolyte and Marsillargues in the Cevennes, and
+twelve on the Peyrou at Montpellier--the public place on which
+Protestant Christians in the South of France were then principally
+executed.
+
+There has been some discussion lately as to the massacre of the
+Huguenots about a century before this period. It has been held that
+the St. Bartholomew Massacre was only a political squabble, begun by
+the Huguenots, in which they got the worst of it. The number of
+persons killed on the occasion has been reduced to a very small
+number. It has been doubted whether the Pope had anything to do with
+the medal struck at Rome, bearing the motto _Ugonottorum Strages_
+("Massacre of the Huguenots"), with the Pope's head on one side, and
+an angel on the other pursuing and slaying a band of flying heretics.
+
+Whatever may be said of the massacre of St. Bartholomew, there can be
+no mistake about the persecutions which preceded and followed the
+Revocation of the Edict of Nantes. They were continued for more than
+half a century, and had the effect of driving from France about a
+million of the best, most vigorous, and industrious of Frenchmen. In
+the single province of Languedoc, not less than a hundred thousand
+persons (according to Boulainvilliers) were destroyed by premature
+death, one-tenth of whom perished by fire, strangulation, or the
+wheel.
+
+It could not be said that Louis XIV. and the priests were destroying
+France and tearing its flesh, and that Frenchmen did not know it. The
+proclamations, edicts and laws published against the Huguenots were
+known to all Frenchmen. Bénoît[17] gives a list of three hundred and
+thirty-three issued by Louis XIV. during the ten years subsequent to
+the Revocation, and they were continued, as we shall find, during the
+succeeding reign.
+
+         [Footnote 17: "Histoire de l'Édit de Nantes," par Elie
+         Bénoît.]
+
+"We have," says M. Charles Coquerel, "a horror of St. Bartholomew!
+Will foreigners believe it, that France observed a code of laws framed
+in the same infernal spirit, which maintained _a perpetual St.
+Bartholomew's day in this country for about sixty years_! If they
+cannot call us the most barbarous of people, their judgment will be
+well founded in pronouncing us the most inconsistent."[18]
+
+         [Footnote 18: "Histoire des Églises du Désert," par Charles
+         Coquerel, i. 498.]
+
+M. De Félice, however, will not believe that the Revocation of the
+Edict of Nantes was popular in France. He takes a much more patriotic
+view of the French people. He cannot believe them to have been
+wilfully guilty of the barbarities which the French Government
+committed upon the Huguenots. It was the King, the priests, and the
+courtiers only! But he forgets that these upper barbarians were
+supported by the soldiers and the people everywhere. He adds, however,
+that if the Revocation _were_ popular, "it would be the most
+overwhelming accusation against the Church of Rome, that it had thus
+educated and fashioned France."[19] There is, however, no doubt
+whatever that the Jesuits, during the long period that they had the
+exclusive education of the country in their hands, _did_ thus fashion
+France; for, in 1793, the people educated by them treated King,
+Jesuits, priests, and aristocracy, in precisely the same manner that
+they had treated the Huguenots about a century before.
+
+         [Footnote 19: De Felice's "History of the Protestants of
+         France," book iii. sect. 17.]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+CLAUDE BROUSSON, THE HUGUENOT ADVOCATE.
+
+
+To give an account in detail of the varieties of cruelty inflicted on
+the Huguenots, and of the agonies to which they were subjected for
+many years before and after the passing of the Act of Revocation,
+would occupy too much space, besides being tedious through the mere
+repetition of like horrors. But in order to condense such an account,
+we think it will be more interesting if we endeavour to give a brief
+history of the state of France at that time, in connection with the
+biography of one of the most celebrated Huguenots of his period, both
+in his life, his piety, his trials, and his endurance--that of Claude
+Brousson, the advocate, the pastor, and the martyr of Languedoc.
+
+Claude Brousson was born at Nismes in 1647. He was designed by his
+parents for the profession of the law, and prosecuted his studies at
+the college of his native town, where he graduated as Doctor of Laws.
+
+He commenced his professional career about the time when Louis XIV.
+began to issue his oppressive edicts against the Huguenots. Protestant
+advocates were not yet forbidden to practise, but they already
+laboured under many disabilities. He continued, however, for some time
+to exercise his profession, with much ability, at Castres,
+Castelnaudry, and Toulouse. He was frequently employed in defending
+Protestant pastors, and in contesting the measures for suppressing
+their congregations and levelling their churches under existing
+edicts, some time before the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes had
+been finally resolved upon.
+
+Thus, in 1682, he was engaged in disputing the process instituted
+against the ministers and elders of the church at Nismes, with the
+view of obtaining an order for the demolition of the remaining
+Protestant temple of that city.[20] The pretext for suppressing this
+church was, that a servant girl from the country, being a Catholic,
+had attended worship and received the sacrament from the hands of M.
+Peyrol, one of the ministers.
+
+         [Footnote 20: John Locke passed through Nismes about this
+         time. "The Protestants at Nismes," he said, "have now but one
+         temple, the other being pulled down by the King's order about
+         four years since. The Protestants had built themselves an
+         hospital for the sick, but that is taken from them; a chamber
+         in it is left for the sick, but never used, because the
+         priests trouble them when there. Notwithstanding these
+         discouragements [this was in 1676, _before_ the Revocation],
+         I do not find many go over; one of them told me, when I asked
+         them the question, that the Papists did nothing but by force
+         or by money."--KING'S _Life of Locke_, i. 100.]
+
+Brousson defended the case, observing, at the conclusion of his
+speech, that the number of Protestants was very great at Nismes; that
+the ministers could not be personally acquainted with all the people,
+and especially with occasional visitors and strangers; that the
+ministers were quite unacquainted with the girl, or that she professed
+the Roman Catholic religion: "facts which rendered it probable that
+she was sent to the temple for the purpose of furnishing an occasion
+for the prosecution." Sentence was for the present suspended.
+
+Another process was instituted during the same year for the
+suppression of the Protestant church at Uzes, and another for the
+demolition of the large Protestant temple at Montpellier. The pretext
+for destroying the latter was of a singular character.
+
+A Protestant pastor, M. Paulet, had been bribed into embracing the
+Roman Catholic religion, in reward for which he was appointed
+counsellor to the Presidial Court of Montpellier. But his wife and one
+of his daughters refused to apostatize with him. The daughter, though
+only between ten and eleven years old, was sent to a convent at
+Teirargues, where, after enduring considerable persecution, she
+persisted in her steadfastness, and was released after a twelvemonth's
+confinement. Five years later she was again seized and sent to another
+convent; but, continuing immovable against the entreaties and threats
+of the abbess and confessor, she was again set at liberty.
+
+An apostate priest, however, who had many years before renounced the
+Protestant faith, and become director and confessor of the nuns at
+Teirargues, forged two documents; the one to show that while at the
+convent, Mdlle. Paulet had consented to embrace the Catholic religion,
+and the other containing her formal abjuration. It was alleged that
+her abjuration had been signified to Isaac Dubourdieu, of Montpellier,
+one of the most distinguished pastors of the French Church; but that,
+nevertheless, he had admitted her to the sacrament. This, if true, was
+contrary to law; upon which the Catholic clergy laid information
+against the pastor and the young lady before the Parliament of
+Toulouse, when they obtained sentence of imprisonment against the
+former, and the penance of _amende honorable_ against the latter.
+
+The demolition of temples was the usual consequence of convictions
+like these. The Duc de Noailles, lieutenant-general of the province,
+entered the city on the 16th of October, 1682, accompanied by a strong
+military force; and at a sitting of the Assembly of the States which
+shortly followed, the question of demolishing the Protestant temple at
+Montpellier was brought under consideration. Four of the Protestant
+pastors and several of the elders had before waited upon De Noailles
+to claim a respite until they should have submitted their cause to the
+King in Council.
+
+The request having been refused, one of the deputation protested
+against the illegality of the proceedings, and had the temerity to ask
+his excellency whether he was aware that there were eighteen hundred
+thousand Protestant families in France? Upon which the Duke, turning
+to the officer of his guard, said, "Whilst we wait to see what will
+become of these eighteen hundred thousand Protestant families, will
+you please conduct these gentlemen to the citadel?"[21]
+
+         [Footnote 21: When released from prison, Gaultier escaped to
+         Berlin and became minister of a large Protestant congregation
+         there. Isaac Dubourdieu escaped to England, and was appointed
+         one of the ministers of the Savoy Church in London.]
+
+The great temple of Montpellier was destroyed immediately on receipt
+of the King's royal mandate. It required the destruction of the place
+within twenty-four hours; "but you will give me pleasure," added the
+King, in a letter to De Noailles, "if you accomplish it in two."
+
+It was, perhaps, scarcely necessary, after the temple had been
+destroyed, to make any effort to justify these high-handed
+proceedings. But Mdlle. Paulet, on whose pretended conversion to
+Catholicism the proceedings had been instituted, was now requested to
+admit the authenticity of the documents. She was still imprisoned in
+Toulouse; and although entreated and threatened by turns to admit
+their truth, she steadfastly denied their genuineness, and asking for
+a pen, she wrote under each of them, "I affirm that the above
+signature was not written by my hand.--Isabeau de Paulet."
+
+Of course the documents were forged; but they had answered their
+purpose. The Protestant temple of Montpellier lay in ruins, and
+Isabeau de Paulet was recommitted to prison. On hearing of this
+incident, Brousson remarked, "This is what is called instituting a
+process against persons _after_ they have been condemned"--a sort of
+"Jedwood justice."
+
+The repetition of these cases of persecution--the demolition of their
+churches, and the suppression of their worship--led the Protestants of
+the Cevennes, Viverais, and Dauphiny to combine for the purpose of
+endeavouring to stem the torrent of injustice. With this object, a
+meeting of twenty-eight deputies took place in the house of Brousson,
+at Toulouse, in the month of May, 1683. As the Assembly of the States
+were about to take steps to demolish the Protestant temple at
+Montauban and other towns in the south, and as Brousson was the
+well-known advocate of the persecuted, the deputies were able to meet
+at his house to conduct their deliberations, without exciting the
+jealousy of the priests and the vigilance of the police.
+
+What the meeting of Protestant deputies recommended to their brethren
+was embodied in a measure, which was afterwards known as "The
+Project." The chief objects of the project were to exhort the
+Protestant people to sincere conversion, and the exhibition of the
+good life which such conversion implies; constant prayer to the Holy
+Spirit to enable them to remain steadfast in their profession and in
+the reading and meditation of the Scriptures; encouragements to them
+to hold together as congregations for the purpose of united worship;
+"submitting themselves unto the common instructions and to the yoke of
+Christ, in all places wheresoever He shall have established the true
+discipline, although the edicts of earthly magistrates be contrary
+thereto."
+
+At the same time, Brousson drew up a petition to the Sovereign, humbly
+requesting him to grant permission to the Huguenots to worship God in
+peace after their consciences, copies of which were sent to Louvois
+and the other ministers of State. On this and other petitions,
+Brousson observes, "Surely all the world and posterity will be
+surprised, that so many respectful petitions, so many complaints of
+injuries, and so many solid reasons urged for their removal, produced
+no good result whatever in favour of the Protestants."
+
+The members of the churches which had been interdicted, and whose
+temples had been demolished, were accordingly invited to assemble in
+private, in the neighbouring fields or woods--not in public places,
+nor around the ruins of their ancient temples--for the purpose of
+worshipping God, exciting each other to piety by prayer and singing,
+receiving instruction, and celebrating the Lord's Supper.
+
+Various meetings were accordingly held, in the following month of
+July, in the Cevennes and Viverais. At St. Hypolite, where the temple
+of the Protestants had been destroyed, about four thousand persons met
+in a field near the town, when the minister preached to them from the
+text--"Render unto Cæsar the things which are Cæsar's, and unto God
+the things which are God's." The meeting was conducted with the utmost
+solemnity; and a Catholic priest who was present, on giving
+information to the Bishop of Nismes of the transaction, admitted that
+the preacher had advanced nothing but what the bishop himself might
+have spoken.
+
+The dragoons were at once sent to St. Hypolite to put an end to these
+meetings, and to "convert" the Protestants. The town was almost wholly
+Protestant. The troops were quartered in numbers in every house; and
+the people soon became "new converts."
+
+The losses sustained by the inhabitants of the Cevennes from this
+forced quartering of the troops upon them--and Anduze, Sauvé, St.
+Germain, Vigan, and Ganges were as full of them as St. Hypolite--may
+be inferred from the items charged upon the inhabitants of St.
+Hypolite alone[22]:--
+
+  To the regiment of Montpezat, for a billet for
+     sixty-five days                             50,000 livres.
+  To the three companies of Red Dragoons,
+     for ninety-five days                        30,000    "
+  To three companies of Villeneuve's Dragoons,
+     for thirty days                              6,000    "
+  To three companies of the Blue Dragoons of
+     Languedoc, for three months and nine days   37,000    "
+  To a company of Cravates (troopers) for
+     fourteen days                                1,400    "
+  To the transport of three hundred and nine
+     companies of cavalry and infantry           10,000    "
+  To provisions for the troops                   60,000    "
+  To damage sustained by the destruction done
+     by the soldiers, of furniture, and losses
+     by the seizure of property, &c.             50,000    "
+                                               ----------
+                                          Total 244,400
+
+         [Footnote 22: Claude Brousson, "Apologie du Projet des
+         Réformés."]
+
+Meetings of the persecuted were also held, under the terms of "The
+Project," in Viverais and Dauphiny. These meetings having been
+repeated for several weeks, the priests of the respective districts
+called upon their bishops for help to put down this heretical display.
+The Bishop of Valence (Daniel de Cosmac) accordingly informed them
+that he had taken the necessary steps, and that he had been apprised
+that twenty thousand soldiers were now on their march to the South to
+put down the Protestant movement.
+
+On their arrival, the troops were scattered over the country, to watch
+and suppress any meetings that might be held. The first took place on
+the 8th of August, at Chateaudouble, a manufacturing village in Drome.
+The assembly was surprised by a troop of dragoons; but most of the
+congregation contrived to escape. Those who were taken were hung upon
+the nearest trees.
+
+Another meeting was held about a fortnight later at Bezaudun, which
+was attended by many persons from Bourdeaux, a village about half a
+league distant. While the meeting was at prayer, intelligence was
+brought that the dragoons had entered Bourdeaux, and that it was a
+scene of general pillage. The Bourdeaux villagers at once set out for
+the protection of their families. The troopers met them, and suddenly
+fell upon them. A few of the villagers were armed, but the principal
+part defended themselves with stones. Of course they were overpowered;
+many were killed by the sword, and those taken prisoners were
+immediately hanged.
+
+A few, who took to flight, sheltered themselves in a barn, where the
+soldiers found them, set fire to the place, and murdered them as they
+endeavoured to escape from the flames. One young man was taken
+prisoner, David Chamier,[23] son of an advocate, and related to some
+of the most eminent Protestants in France. He was taken to the
+neighbouring town of Montelimar, and, after a summary trial, he was
+condemned to be broken to death upon the wheel. The sentence was
+executed before his father's door; but the young man bore his
+frightful tortures with astonishing courage.
+
+         [Footnote 23: The grandfather of this Chamier drew up for
+         Henry IV. the celebrated Edict of Nantes. The greater number
+         of the Chamiers left France. Several were ministers in London
+         and Maryland, U.S. Captain Chamier is descended from the
+         family.]
+
+The contumacious attitude of the Protestants after so many reports had
+reached Louis XIV. of their entire "conversion," induced him to take
+more active measures for their suppression. He appointed Marshal
+Saint-Ruth commander of the district--a man who was a stranger to
+mercy, who breathed only carnage, and who, because of his ferocity,
+was known as "The Scourge of the Heretics."
+
+Daniel de Cosmac, Bishop of Valence, had now the help of Saint-Ruth
+and his twenty thousand troops. The instructions Saint-Ruth received
+from Louvois were these: "Amnesty has no longer any place for the
+Viverais, who continue in rebellion after having been informed of the
+King's gracious designs. In one word, you are to cause such a
+desolation in that country that its example may restrain all other
+Huguenots, and may teach them how dangerous it is to rebel against the
+King."
+
+This was a work quite congenial to Saint-Ruth[24]--rushing about the
+country, scourging, slaughtering, laying waste, and suppressing the
+assemblies--his soldiers rushing upon their victims with cries of
+"Death or the Mass!"
+
+         [Footnote 24: Saint-Ruth was afterwards, in 1691, sent to
+         Ireland to take the command of the army fighting for James
+         II. against William III. There, Saint-Ruth had soldiers, many
+         of them Huguenots banished from France, to contend with; and
+         he was accordingly somewhat less successful than in Viverais,
+         where his opponents were mostly peasants and workmen, armed
+         (where armed at all) with stones picked from the roads.
+         Saint-Ruth and his garrison were driven from Athlone, where a
+         Huguenot soldier was the first to mount the breach. The army
+         of William III., though eight thousand fewer in number,
+         followed Saint-Ruth and his Irish army to the field of
+         Aughrim. His host was there drawn up in an almost impregnable
+         position--along the heights of Kilcommeden, with the Castle
+         of Aughrim on his left wing, a deep bog on his right, and
+         another bog of about two miles extending along the front, and
+         apparently completely protecting the Irish encampment.
+         Nevertheless, the English and Huguenot army under Ginckle,
+         bravely attacked it, forced the pass to the camp, and routed
+         the army of Saint-Ruth, who himself was killed by a
+         cannon-ball. The principal share of this victory was
+         attributed to the gallant conduct of the three regiments of
+         Huguenot horse, under the command of the Marquess de Ruvigny
+         (himself a banished Huguenot nobleman) who, in consequence of
+         his services, was raised to the Irish peerage, under the
+         title of Earl of Galway.]
+
+Tracking the Protestants in this way was like "a hunt in a great
+enclosure." When the soldiers found a meeting of the people going on,
+they shot them down at once, though unarmed. If they were unable to
+fly, they met death upon their knees. Antoine Court recounts meetings
+in which as many as between three and four hundred persons, old men,
+women, and children, were shot dead on the spot.
+
+De Cosmac, the bishop, was very active in the midst of these
+massacres. When he went out to convert the people, he first began by
+sending out Saint-Ruth with the dragoons. Afterwards he himself
+followed to give instructions for their "conversion," partly through
+favours, partly by money. "My efforts," he himself admitted, "were not
+always without success; yet I must avow that the fear of the dragoons,
+and of their being quartered in the houses of the heretics,
+contributed much more to their conversion than anything that I did."
+
+The same course was followed throughout the Cevennes. It would be a
+simple record of cruelty to describe in detail the military
+proceedings there: the dispersion of meetings; the hanging of persons
+found attending them; the breaking upon the wheel of the pastors
+captured, amidst horrible tortures; the destruction of dwellings and
+of the household goods which they contained. But let us take the
+single instance of Homel, formerly pastor of the church at Soyon.
+
+Homel was taken prisoner, and found guilty of preaching to his flock
+after his temple had been destroyed. For this offence he was sentenced
+to be broken to death upon the wheel. To receive this punishment he
+was conducted to Tournon, in Viverais, where the Jesuits had a
+college. He first received forty blows of the iron bar, after which he
+was left to languish with his bones broken, for forty hours, until he
+died. During his torments, he said: "I count myself happy that I can
+die in my Master's service. What! did my glorious Redeemer descend
+from heaven and suffer an ignominious death for my salvation, and
+shall I, to prolong a miserable life, deny my blessed Saviour and
+abandon his people?" While his bones were being broken on the wheel,
+he said to his wife: "Farewell, once more, my beloved spouse! Though
+you witness my bones broken to shivers, yet is my soul filled with
+inexpressible joy." After life was finally extinct, his heart was
+taken to Chalençon to be publicly exhibited, and his body was exposed
+in like manner at Beauchatel.
+
+De Noailles, the governor, when referring in one of his dispatches to
+the heroism displayed by the tortured prisoners, said: "These wretches
+go to the wheel with the firm assurance of dying martyrs, and ask no
+other favour than that of dying quickly. They request pardon of the
+soldiers, but there is not one of them that will ask pardon of the
+King."
+
+To return to Claude Brousson. After his eloquent defence of the
+Huguenots of Montauban--the result of which, of course, was that the
+church was ordered to be demolished--and the institution of processes
+for the demolition of fourteen more Protestant temples, Brousson at
+last became aware that the fury of the Catholics and the King was not
+to be satisfied until they had utterly crushed the religion which he
+served.
+
+Brousson was repeatedly offered the office of counsellor of
+Parliament, equivalent to the office of judge, if he would prove an
+apostate; but the conscience of Brousson was not one that could be
+bought. He also found that his office of defender of the doomed
+Huguenots could not be maintained without personal danger, whilst (as
+events proved) his defence was of no avail to them; and he resolved,
+with much regret, to give up his profession for a time, and retire for
+safety and rest to his native town of Nismes.
+
+He resided there, however, only about four months. Saint-Ruth and De
+Noailles were now overawing Upper Languedoc with their troops. The
+Protestants of Nismes had taken no part in "The Project;" their
+remaining temple was still open. But they got up a respectful petition
+to the King, imploring his consideration of their case. Roman
+Catholics and Protestants, they said, had so many interests in common,
+that the ruin of the one must have the effect of ruining the
+other,--the flourishing manufactures of the province, which were
+mostly followed by the Protestants, being now rapidly proceeding to
+ruin. They, therefore, implored his Majesty to grant them permission
+to prosecute their employments unmolested on account of their
+religious profession; and lastly, they conjured the King, by his
+piety, by his paternal clemency, and by every law of equity, to grant
+them freedom of religious worship.
+
+It was of no use. The hearts of the King, his clergy, and his
+ministers, were all hardened against them. A copy of the above
+petition was presented by two ministers of Nismes and several
+influential gentlemen of Lower Languedoc to the Duke de Noailles, the
+governor of the province. He treated the deputation with contempt, and
+their petition with scorn. Writing to Louvois, the King's prime
+minister, De Noailles said: "Astonished at the effrontery of these
+wretched persons, I did not hesitate to send them all prisoners to the
+Citadel of St. Esprit (in the Cevennes), telling them that if there
+had been _petites maisons_[25] enough in Languedoc I should not have
+sent them there."
+
+         [Footnote 25: The prisons of Languedoc were already crowded
+         with Protestants, and hundreds had been sent to the galleys
+         at Marseilles.]
+
+Nismes was now placed under the same ban as Vivarais, and denounced as
+"insurrectionary." To quell the pretended revolt, as well as to
+capture certain persons who were supposed to have been accessory to
+the framing of the petition, a detachment of four hundred dragoons was
+ordered into the place. One of those to be apprehended was Claude
+Brousson. Hundreds of persons knew of his abode in the city, but
+notwithstanding the public proclamation (which he himself heard from
+the window of the house where he was staying), and the reward offered
+for his apprehension, no one attempted to betray him.
+
+After remaining in the city for three days, he adopted a disguised
+dress, passed out of the Crown Gate, and in the course of a few days
+found a safe retreat in Switzerland.
+
+Peyrol and Icard, two of the Protestant ministers whom the dragoons
+were ordered to apprehend, also escaped into Switzerland, Peyrol
+settling at Lausanne, and Icard becoming the minister of a Huguenot
+church in Holland. But although the ministers had escaped, all the
+property they had left behind them was confiscated to the Crown.
+Hideous effigies of them were prepared and hung on gibbets in the
+market-place of Nismes by the public executioner, the magistrates and
+dragoons attending the sham proceeding with the usual ceremony.
+
+At Lausanne, where Claude Brousson settled for a time, he first
+attempted to occupy himself as a lawyer; but this he shortly gave up
+to devote himself to the help of the persecuted Huguenots. Like Jurieu
+and others in Holland, who flooded Europe with accounts of the hideous
+cruelties of Louis XIV. and his myrmidons the clergy and dragoons, he
+composed and published a work, addressed to the Roman Catholic party
+as well as to the Protestants of all countries, entitled, "The State
+of the Reformed Church of France." He afterwards composed a series of
+letters specially addressed to the Roman Catholic clergy of France.
+
+But expostulation was of no use. With each succeeding year the
+persecution became more bitter, until at length, in 1685, the Edict
+was revoked. In September of that year Brousson learnt that the
+Protestant church of his native city had been suppressed, and their
+temple given over to a society of female converters; that the wives
+and daughters of the Protestants who refused to abjure their faith had
+been seized and imprisoned in nunneries and religious seminaries; and
+that three hundred of their husbands and fathers were chained together
+and sent off in one day for confinement in the galleys at Marseilles.
+
+The number of Huguenots resorting to Switzerland being so great,[26]
+and they often came so destitute, that a committee was formed at
+Lausanne to assist the emigrants, and facilitate their settlement in
+the canton, or enable them to proceed elsewhere. Brousson was from the
+first an energetic member of this committee. Part of their work was to
+visit the Protestant states of the north, and find out places to which
+the emigrants might be forwarded, as well as to collect subscriptions
+for their conveyance.
+
+         [Footnote 26: Within about three weeks no fewer than
+         seventeen thousand five hundred French emigrants passed into
+         Lausanne. Two hundred Protestant ministers fled to
+         Switzerland, the greater number of whom settled in Lausanne,
+         until they could journey elsewhere.]
+
+In November 1685, a month after the Revocation, Brousson and La Porte
+set out for Berlin with this object. La Porte was one of the ministers
+of the Cevennes, who had fled before a sentence of death pronounced
+against him for having been concerned in "The Project." At Berlin they
+were received very cordially by the Elector of Brandenburg, who had
+already given great assistance to the Huguenot emigrants, and
+expressed himself as willing to do all that he could for their
+protection. Brousson and La Porte here met the Rev. David Ancillon,
+who had been for thirty-three years pastor at Metz,[27] and was now
+pastor of the Elector at Berlin; Gaultier, banished from Montpellier;
+and Abbadie, banished from Saumur--all ministers of the Huguenot
+Church there; with a large number of banished ministers and emigrant
+Protestants from all the provinces of France.
+
+         [Footnote 27: Ancillon was an eminently learned man. His
+         library was one of the choicest that had ever been collected,
+         and on his expulsion from Metz it was pillaged by the
+         Jesuits. Metz, now part of German Lorraine, was probably not
+         so ferociously dragooned as other places. Yet the inhabitants
+         were under the apprehension that the massacre of St.
+         Bartholomew was about to be repeated upon them on Christmas
+         Day, 1685, the soldiers of the garrison having been kept
+         under arms all night. The Protestant churches were all pulled
+         down, the ministers were expelled, and many of their people
+         followed them into Germany. There were numerous Protestant
+         soldiers in the Metz garrison, and the order of the King was
+         that, like the rest of his subjects, they should become
+         converted. Many of the officers resigned and entered the
+         service of William of Orange, and many of the soldiers
+         deserted. The bribe offered for the conversion of privates
+         was as follows: Common soldiers and dragoons, two pistoles
+         per head; troopers, three pistoles per head. The Protestants
+         of Alsace were differently treated. They constituted a
+         majority of the population; Alsace and Strasbourg having only
+         recently been seized by Louis XIV. It was therefore necessary
+         to be cautious in that quarter; for violence would speedily
+         have raised a revolution in the province which would have
+         driven them over to Germany, whose language they spoke.
+         Louvois could therefore only proceed by bribing; and he was
+         successful in buying over some of the most popular and
+         influential men.]
+
+The Elector suggested to Brousson that while at Berlin he should
+compose a summary account of the condition of the French Protestants,
+such as should excite the interest and evoke the help of the
+Protestant rulers and people of the northern States. This was done by
+Brousson, and the volume was published, entitled "Letters of the
+Protestants of France who have abandoned all for the cause of the
+Gospel, to other Protestants; with a particular Letter addressed to
+Protestant Kings, Electors, Rulers, and Magistrates." The Elector
+circulated this volume, accompanying it with a letter written in his
+name, to all the princes of the Continent professing the Augsburg
+Confession; and it was thus mainly owing to the Elector's intercession
+that the Huguenots obtained the privilege of establishing
+congregations in several of the states of Germany, as well as in
+Sweden and Denmark.
+
+Brousson remained nearly five months at Berlin, after which he
+departed for Holland to note the progress of the emigration in that
+country, and there he met a large number of his countrymen. Nearly two
+hundred and fifty Huguenot ministers had taken refuge in Holland;
+there were many merchants and manufacturers who had set up their
+branches of industry in the country; and there were many soldiers who
+had entered the service of William of Orange. While in Holland,
+Brousson resided principally with his brother, a banished Huguenot,
+who had settled at Amsterdam as a merchant.
+
+Having accomplished all that he could for his Huguenot brethren in
+exile, Brousson returned to Lausanne, where he continued his former
+labours. He bethought him very much of the Protestants still remaining
+in France, wandering like sheep without shepherds, deprived of
+guidance, books, and worship--the prey of ravenous wolves,--and it
+occurred to him whether the Protestant pastors had done right in
+leaving their flocks, even though by so doing they had secured the
+safety of their own lives. Accordingly, in 1686, he wrote and
+published a "Letter to the Pastors of France at present in Protestant
+States, concerning the Desolation of their own Churches, and their own
+Exile."
+
+In this letter he says:--"If, instead of retiring before your
+persecutors, you had remained in the country; if you had taken refuge
+in forests and caverns; if you had gone from place to place, risking
+your lives to instruct and rally the people, until the first shock of
+the enemy was past; and had you even courageously exposed yourselves
+to martyrdom--as in fact those have done who have endeavoured to
+perform your duties in your absence--perhaps the examples of
+constancy, or zeal, or of piety you had discovered, might have
+animated your flocks, revived their courage, and arrested the fury of
+your enemies." He accordingly exhorted the Protestant ministers who
+had left France to return to their flocks at all hazards.
+
+This advice, if acted on, was virtually condemning the pastors to
+death. Brousson was not a pastor. Would _he_ like to return to France
+at the daily risk of the rack and the gibbet? The Protestant ministers
+in exile defended themselves. Bénoît, then residing in Germany,
+replied in a "History and Apology for the Retreat of the Pastors."
+Another, who did not give his name, treated Brousson's censure as that
+of a fanatic, who meddled with matters beyond his vocation. "You who
+condemn the pastors for not returning to France at the risk of their
+lives," said he, "_why do you not first return to France yourself?_"
+
+Brousson was as brave as his words. He was not a pastor, but he might
+return to the deserted flocks, and encourage and comfort them. He
+could no longer be happy in his exile at Lausanne. He heard by night
+the groans of the prisoners in the Tower of Constance, and the noise
+of the chains borne by the galley slaves at Toulon and Marseilles. He
+reproached himself as if it were a crime with the repose which he
+enjoyed. Life became insupportable to him and he fell ill. His health
+was even despaired of; but one day he suddenly rose up and said to his
+wife, "I must set out; I will go to console, to relieve, to strengthen
+my brethren, groaning under their oppressions."
+
+His wife threw herself at his feet. "Thou wouldst go to certain
+death," she said; "think of me and thy little children." She implored
+him again and again to remain. He loved his wife and children, but he
+thought a higher duty called him away from them. When his friends told
+him that he would be taken prisoner and hung, he said, "When God
+permits his servants to die for the Gospel, they preach louder from
+the grave than they did during life." He remained unshaken. He would
+go to the help of the oppressed with the love of a brother, the faith
+of an apostle, and the courage of a martyr.
+
+Brousson knew the danger of the office he was about to undertake.
+There had, as we have seen, been numerous attempts made to gather the
+Protestant people together, and to administer consolation to them by
+public prayers and preaching. The persons who conducted these services
+were not regular pastors, but only private members of their former
+churches. Some of them were very young men, and they were nearly all
+uneducated as regards clerical instruction. One of the most successful
+was Isaac Vidal, a lame young man, a mechanic of Colognac, near St.
+Hypolite, in the Cevennes. His self-imposed ministrations were
+attended by large numbers of people. He preached for only six months
+and then died--a natural death, for nearly all who followed him were
+first tortured and then hung.
+
+We have already referred to Fulcran Rey, who preached for about nine
+months, and was then executed. In the same year were executed
+Meyrueis, by trade a wool-carder, and Rocher, who had been a reader in
+one of the Protestant churches. Emanuel Dalgues, a respectable
+inhabitant of Salle, in the Cevennes, also received the crown of
+martyrdom. Ever since the Revocation of the Edict, he had proclaimed
+the Gospel o'er hill and dale, in woods and caverns, to assemblies of
+the people wherever he could collect them. He was executed in 1687.
+Three other persons--Gransille, Mercier, and Esclopier--who devoted
+themselves to preaching, were transported as slaves to America; and
+David Mazel, a boy twelve years of age, who had a wonderful memory,
+and preached sermons which he had learned by heart, was transported,
+with his father and other frequenters of the assemblies, to the
+Carribee Islands.
+
+At length Brousson collected about him a number of Huguenots willing
+to return with him into France, in order to collect the Protestant
+people together again, to pray with them, and even to preach to them
+if the opportunity occurred. Brousson's companions were these: Francis
+Vivens, formerly a schoolmaster in the Cevennes; Anthony Bertezene, a
+carpenter, brother of a preacher who had recently been condemned to
+death; and seven other persons named Papus, La Pierre, Serein,
+Dombres, Poutant, Boisson, and M. de Bruc, an aged minister, who had
+been formerly pastor of one of the churches in the Cevennes. They
+prepared to enter France in four distinct companies, in the month of
+July, 1689.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+CLAUDE BROUSSON, PASTOR AND MARTYR.
+
+
+Brousson left Lausanne on the 22nd of July, accompanied by his dear
+friend, the Rev. M. de Bruc. The other members of the party had
+preceded them, crossing the frontier at different places. They all
+arrived in safety at their destination, which was in the mountain
+district of the Cevennes. They resorted to the neighbourhood of the
+Aigoual, the centre of a very inaccessible region--wild, cold, but
+full of recesses for hiding and worship. It was also a district
+surrounded by villages, the inhabitants of which were for the most
+part Protestant.
+
+The party soon became diminished in number. The old pastor, De Bruc,
+found himself unequal to the fatigue and privations attending the
+work. He was ill and unable to travel, and was accordingly advised by
+his companions to quit the service and withdraw from the country.
+
+Persecution also destroyed some of them. When it became known that
+assemblies for religious observances were again on foot, an increased
+force of soldiers was sent into the district, and a high price was set
+on the heads of all the preachers that could be apprehended. The
+soldiers scoured the country, and, helped by the paid spies, they
+shortly succeeded in apprehending Boisson and Dombres, at St. Paul's,
+north of Anduze, in the Cevennes. They were both executed at Nismes,
+being first subjected to torture on the rack, by which their limbs
+were entirely dislocated. They were then conveyed to the place of
+execution, praying and singing psalms on the way, and finished their
+course with courage and joy.
+
+When Brousson first went into the Cevennes, he did not undertake to
+preach to the people. He was too modest to assume the position of a
+pastor; he merely undertook, as occasion required, to read the
+Scriptures in Protestant families and in small companies, making his
+remarks and exhortations thereupon. He also transcribed portions of
+his own meditations on the Scriptures, and gave them away for
+distribution from hand to hand amongst the people.
+
+When it was found that his instructions were much appreciated, and
+that numbers of people assembled to hear him read and exhort, he was
+strongly urged to undertake the office of public instructor amongst
+them, especially as their ministers were being constantly diminished
+by execution.
+
+He had been about five months in the Cevennes, and was detained by a
+fall of snow on one of the mountains, where his abode was a sheepcote,
+when the proposal that he should become a preacher was first made to
+him. Vivens was one of those who most strongly supported the appeal
+made to Brousson. He spent many hours in private prayer, seeking the
+approval of God for the course he was about to undertake. Vivens also
+prayed in the several assemblies that Brousson might be confirmed, and
+that God would be pleased to pour upon him his Holy Spirit, and
+strengthen him so that he might become a faithful and successful
+labourer in this great calling.
+
+Brousson at length consented, believing that duty and conscience alike
+called upon him to give the best of his help to the oppressed and
+persecuted Protestants of the mountains. "Brethren," he said to them,
+when they called upon him to administer to them the Holy Sacrament of
+the Eucharist--"Brethren, I look above you, and hear the most High God
+calling me through your mouths to this most responsible and sacred
+office; and I dare not be disobedient to his heavenly call. By the
+grace of God I will comply with your pious desires; dedicate and
+devote myself to the work of the ministry, and spend the remainder of
+my life in unwearied pains and endeavours for promoting God's glory,
+and the consolation of precious souls."
+
+Brousson received his call to the ministry in the Cevennes amidst the
+sound of musketry and grapeshot which spread death among the ranks of
+his brethren. He was continuously tracked by the spies of the Jesuits,
+who sought his apprehension and death; and he was hunted from place to
+place by the troops of the King, who followed him in his wanderings
+into the most wild and inaccessible places.
+
+The perilous character of his new profession was exhibited only a few
+days after his ordination, by the apprehension of Olivier Souverain at
+St. Jean de Gardonenque, for preaching the Gospel to the assemblies.
+He was at once conducted to Montpellier and executed on the 15th of
+January, 1690.
+
+During the same year, Dumas, another preacher in the Cevennes, was
+apprehended and fastened by the troopers across a horse in order to be
+carried to Montpellier. His bowels were so injured and his body so
+crushed by this horrible method of conveyance, that Dumas died before
+he was half way to the customary place of martyrdom.
+
+Then followed the execution of David Quoite, a wandering and hunted
+pastor in the Cevennes for several years. He was broken on the wheel
+at Montpellier, and then hanged. "The punishment," said Louvreleuil,
+his tormentor, "which broke his bones, did not break his hardened
+heart: he died in his heresy." After Quoite, M. Bonnemère, a native of
+the same city, was also tortured and executed in like manner on the
+Peyrou.
+
+All these persons were taken, executed, destroyed, or imprisoned,
+during the first year that Brousson commenced his perilous ministry in
+the Cevennes.
+
+About the same time three women, who had gone about instructing the
+families of the destitute Protestants, reading the Scriptures and
+praying with them, were apprehended by Baville, the King's intendant,
+and punished. Isabeau Redothière, eighteen years of age, and Marie
+Lintarde, about a year younger, both the daughters of peasants, were
+taken before Baville at Nismes.
+
+"What! are you one of the preachers, forsooth?" said he to Redothière.
+"Sir," she replied, "I have exhorted my brethren to be mindful of
+their duty towards God, and when occasion offered, I have sought God
+in prayer for them; and, if your lordship calls that preaching, I have
+been a preacher." "But," said the Intendant, "you know that the King
+has forbidden this." "Yes, my lord," she replied, "I know it very
+well, but the King of kings, the God of heaven and earth, He hath
+commanded it." "You deserve death," replied Baville.
+
+But the Intendant awarded her a severer fate. She was condemned to be
+imprisoned for life in the Tower of Constance, a place echoing with
+the groans of women, most of whom were in chains, perpetually
+imprisoned there for worshipping God according to conscience.
+
+Lintarde was in like manner condemned to imprisonment for life in the
+castle of Sommières, and it is believed she died there. Nothing,
+however, is known of the time when she died. When a woman was taken
+and imprisoned in one of the King's torture-houses, she was given up
+by her friends as lost.
+
+A third woman, taken at the same time, was more mercifully dealt with.
+Anne Montjoye was found assisting at one of the secret assemblies. She
+was solicited in vain to abjure her faith, and being condemned to
+death, was publicly executed.
+
+Shortly after his ordination, Brousson descended from the Upper
+Cevennes, where the hunt for Protestants was becoming very hot, into
+the adjacent valleys and plains. There it was necessary for him to be
+exceedingly cautious. The number of dragoons in Languedoc had been
+increased so as to enable them regularly to patrol the entire
+province, and a price had been set upon Brousson's head, which was
+calculated to quicken their search for the flying pastor.
+
+Brousson was usually kept informed by his Huguenot friends of the
+direction taken by the dragoons in their patrols, and hasty assemblies
+were summoned in their absence. The meetings were held in some secret
+place--some cavern or recess in the rocks. Often they were held at
+night, when a few lanterns were hung on the adjacent trees to give
+light. Sentinels were set in the neighbourhood, and all the adjoining
+roads were watched. After the meeting was over the assemblage
+dispersed in different directions, and Brousson immediately left for
+another district, travelling mostly by night, so as to avoid
+detection. In this manner he usually presided at three or four
+assemblies each week, besides two on the Sabbath day--one early in the
+morning and another at night.
+
+At one of his meetings, held at Boucoiran on the Gardon, about half
+way between Nismes and Anduze, a Protestant nobleman--a _nouveau
+convertis_, who had abjured his religion to retain his estates--was
+present, and stood near the preacher during the service. One of the
+Government spies was present, and gave information. The name of the
+Protestant nobleman was not known. But the Intendant, to strike terror
+into others, seized six of the principal landed proprietors in the
+neighbourhood--though some of them had never attended any of the
+assemblies since the Revocation--and sent two of them to the galleys,
+and the four others to imprisonment for life at Lyons, besides
+confiscating the estates of the whole to the Crown.
+
+Brousson now felt that he was bringing his friends into very great
+trouble, and, out of consideration for them, he began to think of
+again leaving France. The dragoons were practising much cruelty on the
+Protestant population, being quartered in their houses, and at liberty
+to plunder and extort money to any extent. They were also incessantly
+on the look out for the assemblies, being often led by mounted priests
+and spies to places where they had been informed that meetings were
+about to be held. Their principal object, besides hanging the persons
+found attending, was to seize the preachers, more especially Brousson
+and Vivens, believing that the country would be more effectually
+"converted," provided they could be seized and got out of the way.
+
+Brousson, knowing that he might be seized and taken prisoner at any
+moment, had long considered whether he ought to resist the attempts
+made to capture him. He had at first carried a sword, but at length
+ceased to wear it, being resolved entirely to cast himself on
+Providence; and he also instructed all who resorted to his meetings to
+come to them unarmed.
+
+In this respect Brousson differed from Vivens, who thought it right to
+resist force by force; and in the event of any attempt being made to
+capture him, he considered it expedient to be constantly provided with
+arms. Yet he had only once occasion to use them, and it was the first
+and last time. The reward of ten thousand livres being now offered for
+the apprehension of Brousson and Vivens, or five thousand for either,
+an active search was made throughout the province. At length the
+Government found themselves on the track of Vivens. One of his known
+followers, Valderon, having been apprehended and put upon the rack,
+was driven by torture to reveal his place of concealment. A party of
+soldiers went in pursuit, and found Vivens with three other persons,
+concealed in a cave in the neighbourhood of Alais.
+
+Vivens was engaged in prayer when the soldiers came upon him. His hand
+was on his gun in a moment. When asked to surrender he replied with a
+shot, not knowing the number of his opponents. He followed up with two
+other shots, killing a man each time, and then exposing himself, he
+was struck by a volley, and fell dead. The three other persons in the
+cave being in a position to hold the soldiers at defiance for some
+time, were promised their lives if they would surrender. They did so,
+and with the utter want of truth, loyalty, and manliness that
+characterized the persecutors, the promise was belied, and the three
+prisoners were hanged, a few days after, at Alais. Vivens' body was
+taken to the same place. The Intendant sat in judgment upon it, and
+condemned it to be drawn through the streets upon a hurdle and then
+burnt to ashes.
+
+Brousson was becoming exhausted by the fatigues and privations he had
+encountered during his two years' wanderings and preachings in the
+Cevennes; and he not only desired to give the people a relaxation from
+their persecution, but to give himself some absolutely necessary rest.
+He accordingly proceeded to Nismes, his birthplace, where many people
+knew him; and where, if they betrayed him, they might easily have
+earned five thousand livres. But so much faith was kept by the
+Protestants amongst one another, that Brousson felt that his life was
+quite as safe amongst his townspeople as it had been during the last
+two years amongst the mountaineers of the Cevennes.
+
+It soon became known to the priests, and then to the Intendant, that
+Brousson was resident in concealment at Nismes; and great efforts were
+accordingly made for his apprehension. During the search, a letter of
+Brousson's was found in the possession of M. Guion, an aged minister,
+who had returned from Switzerland to resume his ministry, according as
+he might find it practicable. The result of this discovery was, that
+Guion was apprehended, taken before the Intendant, condemned to be
+executed, and sent to Montpellier, where he gave up his life at
+seventy years old--the drums beating, as usual, that nobody might hear
+his last words. The house in which Guion had been taken at Nismes was
+ordered to be razed to the ground, in punishment of the owner who had
+given him shelter.
+
+After spending about a month at Nismes, Brousson was urged by his
+friends to quit the city. He accordingly succeeded in passing through
+the gates, and went to resume his former work. His first assembly was
+held in a commodious place on the Gardon, between Valence, Brignon,
+and St. Maurice, about ten miles distant from Nismes. Although he had
+requested that only the Protestants in the immediate neighbourhood
+should attend the meeting, so as not to excite the apprehensions of
+the authorities, yet a multitude of persons came from Uzes and Nismes,
+augmented by accessions from upwards of thirty villages. The service
+was commenced about ten o'clock, and was not completed until midnight.
+
+The concourse of persons from all quarters had been so great that the
+soldiers could not fail to be informed of it. Accordingly they rode
+towards the place of assemblage late at night, but they did not arrive
+until the meeting had been dissolved. One troop of soldiers took
+ambush in a wood through which the worshippers would return on their
+way back to Uzes. The command had been given to "draw blood from the
+conventicles." On the approach of the people the soldiers fired, and
+killed and wounded several. About forty others wore taken prisoners.
+The men were sent to the galleys for life, and the women were thrown
+into gaol at Carcassone--the Tower of Constance being then too full of
+prisoners.
+
+After this event, the Government became more anxious in their desire
+to capture Brousson. They published far and wide their renewed offer
+of reward for his apprehension. They sent six fresh companies of
+soldiers specially to track him, and examine the woods and search the
+caves between Uzes and Alais. But Brousson's friends took care to
+advise him of the approach of danger, and he sped away to take shelter
+in another quarter. The soldiers were, however, close upon his heels;
+and one morning, in attempting to enter a village for the purpose of
+drying himself--having been exposed to the winter's rain and cold all
+night--he suddenly came upon a detachment of soldiers! He avoided them
+by taking shelter in a thicket, and while there, he observed another
+detachment pass in file, close to where he was concealed. The soldiers
+were divided into four parties, and sent out to search in different
+directions, one of them proceeding to search every house in the
+village into which Brousson had just been about to enter.
+
+The next assembly was held at Sommières, about eight miles west of
+Nismes. The soldiers were too late to disperse the meeting, but they
+watched some of the people on their return. One of these, an old
+woman, who had been observed to leave the place, was shot on entering
+her cottage; and the soldier, observing that she was attempting to
+rise, raised the butt end of his gun and brained her on the spot.
+
+The hunted pastors of the Cevennes were falling off one by one.
+Bernard Saint Paul, a young man, who had for some time exercised the
+office of preacher, was executed in 1692. One of the brothers Du Plans
+was executed in the same year, having been offered his life if he
+would conform to the Catholic religion. In the following year Paul
+Colognac was executed, after being broken to death on the wheel at
+Masselargais, near to which he had held his last assembly. His arms,
+thighs, legs, and feet were severally broken with the iron bar some
+hours before the _coup de grace_, or deathblow, was inflicted.
+Colognac endured his sufferings with heroic fortitude. He was only
+twenty-four. He had commenced to preach at twenty, and laboured at the
+work for only four years.
+
+Brousson's health was fast giving way. Every place that he frequented
+was closely watched, so that he had often to spend the night under the
+hollow of a rock, or under the shelter of a wood, exposed to rain and
+snow,--and sometimes he had even to contend with a wolf for the
+shelter of a cave. Often he was almost perishing for want of food; and
+often he found himself nearly ready to die for want of rest. And yet,
+even in the midst of his greatest perils, his constant thought was of
+the people committed to him, and for whose eternal happiness he
+continued to work.
+
+As he could not visit all who wished to hear him, he wrote out sermons
+that might be read to them. His friend Henry Poutant, one of those who
+originally accompanied him from Switzerland and had not yet been taken
+prisoner by the soldiers, went about holding meetings for prayer, and
+reading to the people the sermons prepared for them by Brousson.
+
+For the purpose of writing out his sermons, Brousson carried about
+with him a small board, which he called his "Wilderness Table." With
+this placed upon his knees, he wrote the sermons, for the most part in
+woods and caves. He copied out seventeen of these sermons, which he
+sent to Louis XIV., to show him that what "he preached in the deserts
+contained nothing but the pure word of God, and that he only exhorted
+the people to obey God and to give glory to Him."
+
+The sermons were afterwards published at Amsterdam, in 1695, under
+the title of "The Mystic Manna of the Desert." One would have expected
+that, under the bitter persecutions which Brousson had suffered during
+so many years, they would have been full of denunciation; on the
+contrary, they were only full of love. His words were only burning
+when he censured his hearers for not remaining faithful to their
+Church and to their God.
+
+At length, the fury of Brousson's enemies so increased, and his health
+was so much impaired, that he again thought of leaving France. His
+lungs were so much injured by constant exposure to cold, and his voice
+had become so much impaired, that he could not preach. He also heard
+that his family, whom he had left at Lausanne, required his
+assistance. His only son was growing up, and needed education. Perhaps
+Brousson had too long neglected those of his own household; though he
+had every confidence in the prudence and thoughtfulness of his wife.
+
+Accordingly, about the end of 1693, Brousson made arrangements for
+leaving the Cevennes. He set out in the beginning of December, and
+arrived at Lausanne about a fortnight later, having been engaged on
+his extraordinary mission of duty and peril for four years and five
+months. He was received like one rescued from the dead. His health was
+so injured, that his wife could scarcely recognise her husband in that
+wan, wasted, and weatherbeaten creature who stood before her. In fact,
+he was a perfect wreck.
+
+He remained about fifteen months in Switzerland, during which he
+preached in the Huguenots' church; wrote out many of his pastoral
+letters and sermons; and, when his health had become restored, he
+again proceeded on his travels into foreign countries. He first went
+into Holland. He had scarcely arrived there, when intelligence reached
+him from Montpellier of the execution, after barbarous torments, of
+his friend Papus,--one of those who had accompanied him into the
+Cevennes to preach the Gospel some six years before. There were now
+very few of the original company left.
+
+On hearing of the martyrdom of Papus, Brousson, in a pastoral letter
+which he addressed to his followers, said: "He must have died some
+day; and as he could not have prolonged his life beyond the term
+appointed, how could his end have been more happy and more glorious?
+His constancy, his sweetness of temper, his patience, his humility,
+his faith, his hope, and his piety, affected even his judges and the
+false pastors who endeavoured to seduce him, as also the soldiers and
+all that witnessed his execution. He could not have preached better
+than he did by his martyrdom; and I doubt not that his death, will
+produce abundance of fruit."
+
+While in Holland, Brousson took the opportunity of having his sermons
+and many of his pastoral letters printed at Amsterdam; after which he
+proceeded to make a visit to his banished Huguenot friends in England.
+He also wished to ascertain from personal inquiry the advisability of
+forwarding an increased number of French emigrants--then resident in
+Switzerland--for settlement in this country. In London, he met many of
+his friends from the South of France--for there were settled there as
+ministers, Graverol of Nismes, Satur of Montauban, four ministers from
+Montpellier for whom he had pleaded in the courts at Toulouse--the two
+Dubourdieus and the two Berthaus--fathers and sons. There were also La
+Coux from Castres, De Joux from Lyons, Roussillon from Montredon,
+Mestayer from St. Quentin, all settled in London as ministers of
+Huguenot churches.
+
+After staying in England for only about a month, Brousson was suddenly
+recalled to Holland to assume the office to which he was appointed
+without solicitation, of preacher to the Walloon church at the Hague.
+Though his office was easy--for he had several colleagues to assist
+him in the duties--and the salary was abundant for his purposes, while
+he was living in the society of his wife and family--Brousson
+nevertheless very soon began to be ill at ease. He still thought of
+the abandoned Huguenots "in the Desert"; without teachers, without
+pastors, without spiritual help of any kind. When he had undertaken
+the work of the ministry, he had vowed that he would devote his time
+and talents to the support and help of the afflicted Church; and now
+he was living at ease in a foreign country, far removed from those to
+whom he considered his services belonged. These thoughts were
+constantly recurring and pressing upon his mind; and at length he
+ceased to have any rest or satisfaction in his new position.
+
+Accordingly, after only about four months' connection with the Church
+at the Hague, Brousson decided to relinquish the charge, and to devote
+himself to the service of the oppressed and afflicted members of his
+native Church in France. The Dutch Government, however, having been
+informed of his perilous and self-sacrificing intention, agreed to
+continue his salary as a pastor of the Walloon Church, and to pay it
+to his wife, who henceforth abode at the Hague.
+
+Brousson determined to enter France from the north, and to visit
+districts that were entirely new to him. For this purpose he put
+himself in charge of a guide. At that time, while the Protestants
+were flying from France, as they continued to do for many years, there
+were numerous persons who acted as guides for those not only flying
+from, but entering the country. Those who guided Protestant pastors on
+their concealed visits to France, were men of great zeal and
+courage--known to be faithful and self-denying--and thoroughly
+acquainted with the country. They knew all the woods, and fords, and
+caves, and places of natural shelter along the route. They made the
+itinerary of the mountains and precipices, of the byways and deserts,
+their study. They also knew of the dwellings of the faithful in the
+towns and villages where Huguenots might find relief and shelter for
+the night. They studied the disguises to be assumed, and were prepared
+with a stock of phrases and answers adapted for every class of
+inquiries.
+
+The guide employed by Brousson was one James Bruman--an old Huguenot
+merchant, banished at the Revocation, and now employed in escorting
+Huguenot preachers back to France, and escorting flying Huguenot men,
+women, and children from it.[28] The pastor and his guide started
+about the end of August, 1695. They proceeded by way of Liége; and
+travelling south, they crossed the forest of Ardennes, and entered
+France near Sedan.
+
+         [Footnote 28: Many of these extraordinary escapes are given
+         in the author's "Huguenots: their Settlements, Churches, and
+         Industries, in England and Ireland."]
+
+Sedan, recently the scene of one of the greatest calamities that has
+ever befallen France, was, about two centuries ago, a very prosperous
+place. It was the seat of a great amount of Protestant learning and
+Protestant industry. One of the four principal Huguenot academies of
+France was situated in that town. It was suppressed in 1681, shortly
+before the Revocation, and its professors, Bayle, Abbadie, Basnage,
+Brazy, and Jurieu, expelled the country. The academy buildings
+themselves had been given over to the Jesuits--the sworn enemies of
+the Huguenots.
+
+At the same time, Sedan had been the seat of great woollen
+manufactures, originally founded by Flemish Protestant families, and
+for the manufacture of arms, implements of husbandry, and all kinds of
+steel and iron articles.[29] At the Revocation, the Protestants packed
+up their tools and property, suddenly escaped across the frontier,
+near which they were, and went and established themselves in the Low
+Countries, where they might pursue their industries in safety. Sedan
+was ruined, and remained so until our own day, when it has begun to
+experience a little prosperity from the tourists desirous of seeing
+the place where the great French Army surrendered.
+
+         [Footnote 29: There were from eighty to ninety establishments
+         for the manufacture of broadcloth in Sedan, giving employment
+         to more than two thousand persons. These, together with the
+         iron and steel manufactures, were entirely ruined at the
+         Revocation, when the whole of the Protestant mechanics went
+         into exile, and settled for the most part in Holland and
+         England.]
+
+When Brousson visited the place, the remaining Protestants resided
+chiefly in the suburban villages of Givonne and Daigny. He visited
+them in their families, and also held several private meetings, after
+which he was induced to preach in a secluded place near Sedan at
+night.
+
+This assembly, however, was reported to the authorities, who
+immediately proceeded to make search for the heretic preacher. A party
+of soldiers, informed by the spies, next morning invested the house in
+which Brousson slept. They first apprehended Bruman, the guide, and
+thought that in him they had secured the pastor. They next rummaged
+the house, in order to find the preacher's books. But Brousson,
+hearing them coming in, hid himself behind the door, which, being
+small, hardly concealed his person.
+
+After setting a guard all round the house, ransacking every room in
+it, and turning everything upside down, they left it; but two of the
+children, seeing Brousson's feet under the door, one of them ran after
+the officer of the party, and exclaimed to him, pointing back, "Here,
+sir, here!" But the officer, not understanding what the child meant,
+went away with his soldiers, and Brousson's life was, for the time,
+saved.
+
+The same evening, Brousson changed his disguise to that of a
+wool-comber, and carrying a parcel on his shoulder, he set out on the
+same evening with another guide. He visited many places in which
+Protestants were to be found--in Champagne, Picardy, Normandy,
+Nevernois, and Burgundy. He also visited several of his friends in the
+neighbourhood of Paris.
+
+We have not many details of his perils and experiences during his
+journey. But the following passage is extracted from a letter
+addressed by him to a friend in Holland: "I assure you that in every
+place through which I passed, I witnessed the poor people truly
+repenting their fault (_i.e._ of having gone to Mass), weeping day and
+night, and imploring the grace and consolations of the Gospel in their
+distress. Their persecutors daily oppress them, and burden them with
+taxes and imposts; but the more discerning of the Roman Catholics
+acknowledge that the cruelties and injustice done towards so many
+innocent persons, draw down misery and distress upon the kingdom. And
+truly it is to be apprehended that God will abandon its inhabitants to
+their wickedness, that he may afterwards pour down his most terrible
+judgments upon that ungrateful and vaunting country, which has
+rejected his truth and despised the day of visitation."
+
+During the twelve months that Brousson was occupied with his perilous
+journey through France, two more of his friends in the Cevennes
+suffered martyrdom--La Porte on the 7th of February, 1696, and Henri
+Guerin on the 22nd of June following. Both were broken alive on the
+wheel before receiving the _coup de grace_.
+
+Towards the close of the year, Brousson arrived at Basle, from whence
+he proceeded to visit his friends throughout the cantons of
+Switzerland, and then he returned to Holland by way of the Rhine, to
+rejoin his family at the Hague.
+
+At that time, the representatives of the Allies were meeting at
+Ryswick the representatives of Louis XIV., who was desirous of peace.
+Brousson and the French refugee ministers resident in Holland
+endeavoured to bring the persecutions of the French Protestants under
+the notice of the Conference. But Louis XIV. would not brook this
+interference. He proposed going on dealing with the heretics in his
+own way. "I do not pretend," he said, "to prescribe to William III.
+rules about his subjects, and I expect the same liberty as to my own."
+
+Finding it impossible to obtain redress for his fellow-countrymen
+under the treaty of Ryswick, which was shortly after concluded,
+Brousson at length prepared to make his third journey into France in
+the month of August 1697. He set out greatly to the regret of his
+wife, who feared it might be his last journey, as indeed it proved to
+be. In a letter which he wrote to console her, from some remote place
+where he was snowed up about the middle of the following December, he
+said: "I cannot at present enter into the details of the work the
+Lord has given me grace to labour in; but it is the source of much
+consolation to a large number of his poor people. It will be expedient
+that you do not mention where I am, lest I should be traced. It may be
+that I cannot for some time write to you; but I walk under the conduct
+of my God, and I repeat that I would not for millions of money that
+the Lord should refuse me the grace which renders it imperative for me
+to labour as I now do in His work."[30]
+
+         [Footnote 30: The following was the portraiture of Brousson,
+         issued to the spies and police: "Brousson is of middle
+         stature, and rather spare, aged forty to forty-two, nose
+         large, complexion dark, hair black, hands well formed."]
+
+When the snow had melted sufficiently to enable Brousson to escape
+from the district of Dauphiny, near the High Alps, where he had been
+concealed, he made his way across the country to the Viverais, where
+he laboured for some time. Here he heard of the martyrdom of the third
+of the brothers Du Plans, broken on the wheel and executed like the
+others on the Peyrou at Montpellier.
+
+During the next nine months, Brousson laboured in the north-eastern
+provinces of Languedoc (more particularly in the Cevennes and
+Viverais), Orange, and Dauphiny. He excited so much interest amongst
+the Protestants, who resorted from a great distance to attend his
+assemblies, that the spies (who were usually pretended Protestants)
+soon knew of his presence in the neighbourhood, and information was at
+once forwarded to the Intendant or his officers.
+
+Persecution was growing very bitter about this time. By orders of the
+bishops the Protestants were led by force to Mass before the dragoons
+with drawn swords, and the shops of merchants who refused to go to
+Mass regularly were ordered to be closed. Their houses were also
+filled with soldiers. "The soldiers or militia," said Brousson to a
+friend in Holland, "frequently commit horrible ravages, breaking open
+the cabinets, removing every article that is saleable, which are often
+purchased by the priests at insignificant prices; the rest they burn
+and break up, after which the soldiers are removed; and when the
+sufferers think themselves restored to peace, fresh billets are
+ordered upon them. Many are consequently induced to go to Mass with
+weeping and lamentation, but a great number remain inflexible, and
+others fly the kingdom."
+
+When it became known that Brousson, in the course of his journeyings,
+had arrived, about the end of August, 1698, in the neighbourhood of
+Nismes, Baville was greatly mortified; and he at once offered a reward
+of six hundred louis d'or for his head. Brousson nevertheless entered
+Nismes, and found refuge amongst his friends. He had, however, the
+imprudence to post there a petition to the King, signed by his own
+hand, which had the effect of at once setting the spies upon his
+track. Leaving the city itself, he took refuge in a house not far from
+it, whither the spies contrived to trace him, and gave the requisite
+information to the Intendant. The house was soon after surrounded by
+soldiers, and was itself entered and completely searched.
+
+Brousson's host had only had time to make him descend into a well,
+which had a niche in the bottom in which he could conceal himself. The
+soldiers looked down the well a dozen times, but could see nothing.
+Brousson was not in the house; he was not in the chimneys; he was not
+in the outhouses. He _must_ be in the well! A soldier went down the
+well to make a personal examination. He was let down close to the
+surface of the water, and felt all about. There was nothing! Feeling
+awfully cold, and wishing to be taken out, he called to his friends,
+"There is nothing here, pull me up." He was pulled up accordingly, and
+Brousson was again saved.
+
+The country about Nismes being beset with spies to track the
+Protestants and prevent their meetings, Brousson determined to go
+westward and visit the scattered people in Rouerge, Pays de Foix, and
+Bigorre, proceeding as far as Bearn, where a remnant of Huguenots
+still lingered, notwithstanding the repeated dragooning to which the
+district had been subjected. It was at Oberon that he fell into the
+hands of a spy, who bore the same name as a Protestant friend to whom
+his letter was addressed. Information was given to the authorities,
+and Brousson was arrested. He made no resistance, and answered at once
+to his name.
+
+When the Judas who had betrayed him went to M. Pénon, the intendant of
+the province, to demand the reward set upon Brousson's head, the
+Intendant replied with indignation, "Wretch! don't you blush to look
+upon the man in whose blood you traffic? Begone! I cannot bear your
+presence!"
+
+Brousson was sent to Pau, where he was imprisoned in the castle of
+Foix, at one time the centre of the Reformation movement in the South
+of France--where Calvin had preached, where Jeanne d'Albret had lived,
+and where Henry IV. had been born.
+
+From Pau, Brousson was sent to Montpellier, escorted by dragoons. At
+Toulouse the party took passage by the canal of Languedoc, which had
+then been shortly open. At Somail, during the night, Brousson saw that
+all the soldiers were asleep. He had but to step on shore to regain
+his liberty; but he had promised to the Intendant of Bearn, who had
+allowed him to go unfettered, that he would not attempt to escape. At
+Agade there was a detachment of a hundred soldiers, ready to convey
+the prisoner to Baville, Intendant of Languedoc. He was imprisoned in
+the citadel of Montpellier, on the 30th October, 1698.
+
+Baville, who knew much of the character of Brousson--his peacefulness,
+his piety, his self-sacrifice, and his noble magnanimity--is said to
+have observed on one occasion, "I would not for a world have to judge
+that man." And yet the time had now arrived when Brousson was to be
+judged and condemned by Baville and the Presidial Court. The trial was
+a farce, because it had been predetermined that Brousson should die.
+He was charged with preaching in France contrary to the King's
+prohibition. This he admitted; but when asked to whom he had
+administered the Sacrament, he positively refused to disclose, because
+he was neither a traitor nor informer to accuse his brethren. He was
+also charged with having conspired to introduce a foreign army into
+France under the command of Marshal Schomberg. This he declared to be
+absolutely false, for he had throughout his career been a man of
+peace, and sought to bring back Christ's followers by peaceful means
+only.
+
+His defence was of no avail. He was condemned to be racked, then to be
+broken on the wheel, and afterwards to be executed. He received the
+sentence without a shudder. He was tied on the rack, but when he
+refused to accuse his brethren he was released from it. Attempts were
+made by several priests and friars to add him to the number of "new
+converts," but these were altogether fruitless. All that remained was
+to execute him finally on the public place of execution--the Peyrou.
+
+The Peyrou is the pride of modern Montpellier. It is the favourite
+promenade of the place, and is one of the finest in Europe. It
+consists of a broad platform elevated high above the rest of the town,
+and commanding extensive views of the surrounding country. In clear
+weather, Mont Ventoux, one of the Alpine summits, may be seen across
+the broad valley of the Rhône on the east, and the peak of Mont
+Canizou in the Pyrenees on the west. Northward stretches the mountain
+range of the Cevennes, the bold Pic de Saint-Loup the advanced
+sentinel of the group; while in the south the prospect is bounded by
+the blue line of the Mediterranean.
+
+The Peyrou is now pleasantly laid out in terraced walks and shady
+groves, with gay parterres of flowers--the upper platform being
+surrounded with a handsome stone balustrade. An equestrian statue of
+Louis XIV. occupies the centre of the area; and a triumphal arch
+stands at the entrance to the promenade, erected to commemorate the
+"glories" of the same monarch, more particularly the Revocation by him
+of the Edict of Nantes--one of the entablatures of the arch displaying
+a hideous figure, intended to represent a Huguenot, lying trampled
+under foot of the "Most Christian King."
+
+The Peyrou was thus laid out and ornamented in the reign of his
+successor, Louis XV., "the Well-beloved," during which the same policy
+for which Louis XIV. was here glorified by an equestrian statue and a
+triumphal arch continued to be persevered in--of imprisoning,
+banishing, hanging, or sending to the galleys such of the citizens of
+France as were not of "the King's religion."
+
+But during the reign of Louis XIV. himself, the Peyrou was anything
+but a pleasure-ground. It was the infamous place of the city--the
+_place de Grève_--a desert, barren, blasted table-land, where
+sometimes half-a-dozen decaying corpses might be seen swinging from
+the gibbets on which they had been hung. It was specially reserved,
+because of its infamy, for the execution of heretics against Rome; and
+here, accordingly, hundreds of Huguenot martyrs--whom power, honour,
+and wealth failed to bribe or to convert--were called upon to seal
+their faith with their blood.
+
+Brousson was executed at this place on the 4th of November, 1698. It
+was towards evening, while the sun was slowly sinking behind the
+western mountains, that an immense multitude assembled on the Peyrou
+to witness the martyrdom of the devoted pastor. Not fewer than twenty
+thousand persons were there, including the principal nobility of the
+city and province, besides many inhabitants of the adjoining mountain
+district of the Cevennes, some of whom had come from a great distance
+to be present. In the centre of the plateau, near where the equestrian
+statue of the great King now stands, was a scaffold, strongly
+surrounded by troops to keep off the crowd. Two battalions, drawn up
+in two lines facing each other, formed an avenue of bayonets between
+the citadel, near at hand, and the place of execution.
+
+A commotion stirred the throng; and the object of the breathless
+interest excited shortly appeared in the person of a middle-sized,
+middle-aged man, spare, grave, and dignified in appearance, dressed in
+the ordinary garb of a pastor, who walked slowly towards the
+scaffold, engaged in earnest prayer, his eyes and hands lifted towards
+heaven. On mounting the platform, he stood forward to say a few last
+words to the people, and give to many of his friends, whom he knew to
+be in the crowd, his parting benediction. But his voice was instantly
+stifled by the roll of twenty drums, which continued to beat a quick
+march until the hideous ceremony was over, and the martyr, Claude
+Brousson, had ceased to live.[31]
+
+         [Footnote 31: The only favour which Brousson's judges showed
+         him at death was as regarded the manner of carrying his
+         sentence into execution. He was condemned to be broken alive
+         on the wheel, and then strangled; whereas by special favour
+         the sentence was commuted into strangulation first and the
+         breaking of his bones afterwards. So that while Brousson's
+         impassive body remained with his persecutors to be broken,
+         his pure unconquered spirit mounted in triumph towards
+         heaven.]
+
+Strange are the vicissitudes of human affairs! Not a hundred years
+passed after this event, before the great grandson of the monarch, at
+whose instance Brousson had laid down his life, appeared upon a
+scaffold in the Place Louis XIV. in Paris, and implored permission to
+say his few last words to the people. In vain! His voice was drowned
+by the drums of Santerre!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+OUTBREAK IN LANGUEDOC.
+
+
+Although the arbitrary measures of the King were felt all over France,
+they nowhere excited more dismay and consternation than in the
+province of Languedoc. This province had always been inhabited by a
+spirited and energetic people, born lovers of liberty. They were among
+the earliest to call in question the despotic authority over mind and
+conscience claimed by the see of Rome. The country is sown with the
+ashes of martyrs. Long before the execution of Brousson, the Peyrou at
+Montpellier had been the Calvary of the South of France.
+
+As early as the twelfth century, the Albigenses, who inhabited the
+district, excited the wrath of the Popes. Simple, sincere believers in
+the Divine providence, they rejected Rome, and took their stand upon
+the individual responsibility of man to God. Count de Foix said to the
+legate of Innocent III.: "As to my religion, the Pope has nothing to
+do with it. Every man's conscience must be free. My father has always
+recommended to me this liberty, and I am content to die for it."
+
+A crusade was waged against the Albigenses, which lasted for a period
+of about sixty years. Armies were concentrated upon Languedoc, and
+after great slaughter the heretics were supposed to be exterminated.
+
+But enough of the people survived to perpetuate the love of liberty in
+their descendants, who continued to exercise a degree of independence
+in matters of religion and politics almost unknown in other parts of
+France. Languedoc was the principal stronghold of the Huguenots in the
+sixteenth and seventeenth centuries; and when, in 1685, Louis XIV.
+revoked the Edict of Nantes, which interdicted freedom of worship
+under penalty of confiscation, banishment, and death, it is not
+surprising that such a policy should have occasioned widespread
+consternation, if not hostility and open resistance.
+
+At the period of the Revocation there were, according to the Intendant
+of the province, not fewer than 250,000 Protestants in Languedoc, and
+these formed the most skilled, industrious, enterprising, and wealthy
+portion of the community. They were the best farmers, vine-dressers,
+manufacturers, and traders. The valley of Vaunage, lying to the
+westward of Nismes, was one of the richest and most highly cultivated
+parts of France. It contained more than sixty temples, its population
+being almost exclusively Protestant; and it was known as "The Little
+Canaan," abounding as it did in corn, and wine, and oil.
+
+The greater part of the commerce of the South of France was conducted
+by the Protestant merchants of Nismes, of whom the Intendant wrote to
+the King in 1699, "If they are still bad Catholics, at any rate they
+have not ceased to be very good traders."
+
+The Marquis d'Aguesseau bore similar testimony to the intelligent
+industry of the Huguenot population. "By an unfortunate fatality,"
+said he, "in nearly every kind of art the most skilful workmen, as
+well as the richest merchants, belong to the pretended reformed
+religion."
+
+The Marquis, who governed Languedoc for many years, was further of
+opinion that the intelligence of the Protestants was in a great
+measure due to the instructions of their pastors. "It is certain,"
+said he, "that one of the things which holds the Huguenots to their
+religion is the amount of information which they receive from their
+instructors, and which it is not thought necessary to give in ours.
+The Huguenots _will_ be instructed, and it is a general complaint
+amongst the new converts not to find in our religion the same mental
+and moral discipline they find in their own."
+
+Baville, the intendant, made an observation to a similar effect in a
+confidential communication which he made to the authorities at Paris
+in 1697, in which he boasted that the Protestants had now all been
+converted, and that there were 198,483 new converts in Languedoc.
+"Generally speaking," he said, "the new converts are much better off,
+being more laborious and industrious than the old Catholics of the
+province. The new converts must not be regarded as Catholics; they
+almost all preserve in their heart their attachment to their former
+religion. They may confess and communicate as much as you will,
+because they are menaced and forced to do so by the secular power. But
+this only leads to sacrilege. To gain them, _their hearts must be
+won_. It is there that religion resides, and it can only be solely
+established by effecting that conquest."
+
+From the number, as well as the wealth and education, of the
+Protestants of Languedoc, it is reasonable to suppose that the
+emigration from this quarter of France should have been very
+considerable during the persecutions which followed the Revocation. Of
+course nearly all the pastors fled, death being their punishment if
+they remained in France. Hence many of the most celebrated French
+preachers in Holland, Germany, and England were pastors banished from
+Languedoc. Claude and Saurin both belonged to the province; and among
+the London preachers were the Dubourdieus, the Bertheaus, Graverol,
+and Pégorier.
+
+It is also interesting to find how many of the distinguished Huguenots
+who settled in England came from Languedoc. The Romillys and Layards
+came from Montpellier; the Saurins from Nismes; the Gaussens from
+Lunel; and the Bosanquets from Caila;[32] besides the Auriols,
+Arnauds, Péchels, De Beauvoirs, Durands, Portals, Boileaus, D'Albiacs,
+D'Oliers, Rious, and Vignoles, all of whom belonged to the Huguenot
+landed gentry of Languedoc, who fled and sacrificed everything rather
+than conform to the religion of Louis XIV.
+
+         [Footnote 32: There are still Gaussens at St. Mamert, in the
+         department of Gard; and some of the Bosanquet family must
+         have remained on their estates or returned to Protestantism,
+         as we find a Bosanquet of Caila broken alive at Nismes,
+         because of his religion, on the 7th September, 1702, after
+         which his corpse was publicly exposed on the Montpellier high
+         road.]
+
+When Brousson was executed at Montpellier, it was believed that
+Protestantism was finally dead. At all events, it was supposed that
+those of the Protestants who remained, without becoming converted,
+were at length reduced to utter powerlessness. It was not believed
+that the smouldering ashes contained any sparks that might yet be
+fanned into flames. The Huguenot landed proprietors, the principal
+manufacturers, the best of the artisans, had left for other countries.
+Protestantism was now entirely without leaders. The very existence of
+Protestantism in any form was denied by the law; and it might perhaps
+reasonably have been expected that, being thus crushed out of sight,
+it would die.
+
+But there still remained another important and vital element--the
+common people--the peasants, the small farmers, the artisans, and
+labouring classes--persons of slender means, for the most part too
+poor to emigrate, and who remained, as it were, rooted to the soil on
+which they had been born. This was especially the case in the
+Cevennes, where, in many of the communes, almost the entire
+inhabitants were Protestants; in others, they formed a large
+proportion of the population; while in all the larger towns and
+villages they were very numerous, as well as widely spread over the
+whole province.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The mountainous district of the Cevennes is the most rugged, broken,
+and elevated region in the South of France. It fills the department of
+Lozère, as well as the greater part of Gard and Herault. The principal
+mountain-chain, about a hundred leagues in length, runs from
+north-east to south-west, and may almost be said to unite the Alps
+with the Pyrenees. From the centre of France the surface rises with a
+gradual slope, forming an inclined plane, which reaches its greatest
+height in the Cevennic chain, several of the summits of which are
+about five thousand five hundred feet above the sea level. Its
+connection with the Alpine range is, however, broken abruptly by the
+deep valley of the Rhône, running nearly due north and south.
+
+The whole of this mountain district maybe regarded as a triangular
+plateau rising gradually from the northwest, and tilted up at its
+south-eastern angle. It is composed for the most part of granite,
+overlapped by strata belonging to the Jurassic-system; and in many
+places, especially in Auvergne, the granitic rocks have been burst
+through by volcanoes, long since extinct, which rise like enormous
+protuberances from the higher parts of the platform. Towards the
+southern border of the district, the limestone strata overlapping the
+granite assume a remarkable development, exhibiting a series of
+flat-topped hills bounded by perpendicular cliffs some six or eight
+hundred feet high.
+
+"These plateaux," says Mr. Scrope, in his interesting account of the
+geology of Central France, "are called 'causses' in the provincial
+dialect, and they have a singularly dreary and desert aspect from the
+monotony of their form and their barren and rocky character. The
+valleys which separate them are rarely of considerable width. Winding,
+narrow, and all but impassable cliff-like glens predominate, giving to
+the Cevennes that peculiarly intricate character which enabled its
+Protestant inhabitants, in the beginning of the last century, to offer
+so stubborn and gallant a resistance to the atrocious persecutions of
+Louis XIV."
+
+Such being the character of this mountain district--rocky, elevated,
+and sterile--the people inhabiting it, though exceedingly industrious,
+are for the most very poor. Sheep-farming is the principal occupation
+of the people of the hill country; and in the summer season, when the
+lower districts are parched with drought, tens of thousands of sheep
+may be seen covering the roads leading to the Upper Cevennes, whither
+they are driven for pasture. There is a comparatively small breadth of
+arable land in the district. The mountains in many places contain only
+soil enough to grow juniper-bushes. There is very little verdure to
+relieve the eye--few turf-clad slopes or earth-covered ledges to
+repay the tillage of the farmer. Even the mountains of lower elevation
+are for the most part stony deserts. Chestnut-trees, it is true, grow
+luxuriantly in the sheltered places, and occasionally scanty crops of
+rye on the lower mountain-sides. Mulberry-trees also thrive in the
+valleys, their leaves being used for the feeding of silkworms, the
+rearing of which forms one of the principal industries of the
+district.
+
+Even in the immediate neighbourhood of Nismes--a rich and beautiful
+town, abounding in Roman remains, which exhibit ample evidences of its
+ancient grandeur--the country is arid, stony, and barren-looking,
+though here the vine, the olive, and the fig-tree, wherever there is
+soil enough, grow luxuriantly in the open air. Indeed, the country
+very much resembles in its character the land of Judea, being rocky,
+parched, and in many places waste, though in others abounding in corn
+and wine and oil. In the interior parts of the district the scenery is
+wild and grand, especially in the valleys lying under the lofty
+mountain of Lozère. But the rocks and stones are everywhere in the
+ascendant.
+
+A few years ago we visited the district; and while proceeding in the
+old-fashioned diligence which runs between Alais and Florac--for the
+district is altogether beyond the reach of railways--a French
+contractor, accompanying a band of Italian miners, whom he was taking
+into the mountains to search for minerals, pointing to the sterile
+rocks, exclaimed to us, "Messieurs, behold the very poorest district
+in France! It contains nothing but juniper-bushes! As for its
+agriculture, it produces nothing; manufactures, nothing; commerce,
+nothing! _Rien, rien, rien!_"
+
+The observation of this French _entrepreneur_ reminds us of an
+anecdote that Telford, the Scotch engineer, used to relate of a
+countryman with reference to his appreciation of Scotch mountain
+beauty. An English artist, enraptured by the scenery of Ben MacDhui,
+was expatiating on its magnificence, and appealed to the native guide
+for confirmation of his news. "I dinna ken aboot the scenery," replied
+the man, "but there's plenty o' big rocks and stanes; an' the kintra's
+awfu' puir." The same observation might doubtless apply to the
+Cevennes. Yet, though the people may be poor, they are not miserable
+or destitute, for they are all well-clad and respectable-looking
+peasants, and there is not a beggar to be seen in the district.
+
+But the one country, as the other, grows strong and brave men. These
+barren mountain districts of the Cevennes have bred a race of heroes;
+and the men are as simple and kind as they are brave. Hospitality is a
+characteristic of the people, which never fails to strike the visitor
+accustomed to the exactions which are so common along the hackneyed
+tourist routes.
+
+As in other parts of France, the peasantry here are laborious almost
+to excess. Robust and hardy, they are distinguished for their
+perseverance against the obstacles which nature constantly opposes to
+them. Out-door industry being suspended in winter, during which they
+are shut up in their cabins for nearly six months by the ice and snow,
+they occupy themselves in preparing their wool for manufacture into
+cloth. The women card, the children spin, the men weave; and each
+cottage is a little manufactory of drugget and serge, which is taken
+to market in spring, and sold in the low-country towns. Such was the
+industry of the Cevennes nearly two hundred years since, and such it
+remains to the present day.
+
+The people are of a contented nature, and bear their poverty with
+cheerfulness and even dignity. While they partake of the ardour and
+strong temper which characterize the inhabitants of the South of
+France, they are probably, on the whole, more grave and staid than
+Frenchmen generally, and are thought to be more urbane and
+intelligent; and though they are unmanageable by force, they are
+remarkably accessible to kindness and moral suasion.
+
+Such, in a few words, are the more prominent characteristics of the
+country and people of the Cevennes.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+When the popular worship of the mountain district of Languedoc--in
+which the Protestants constituted the majority of the population--was
+suppressed, great dismay fell upon the people; but they made no signs
+of resistance to the royal authority. For a time they remained
+comparatively passive, and it was at first thought they were
+indifferent. Their astonished enemies derisively spoke of them as
+displaying "the patience of a Huguenot,"--the words having passed into
+a proverb.
+
+But their persecutors did not know the stuff of which these
+mountaineers were made. They had seen their temples demolished one
+after another, and their pastors banished, leaving them "like poor
+starved sheep looking for the pasture of life." Next they heard that
+such of their pastors as had been apprehended for venturing to
+minister to them in "the Desert" had been taken to Nismes and
+Montpellier and hanged. Then they began to feel excited and indignant.
+For they could not shake off their own belief and embrace another
+man's, even though that man was their king. If Louis XIV. had ordered
+them to believe that two and two make six, they could not possibly
+believe, though they might pretend to do so, that it made any other
+number than four. And so it was with the King's order to them to
+profess a faith which they could not bring their minds to believe in.
+
+These poor people entertained the conviction that they possessed
+certain paramount rights as men. Of these they held the right of
+conscience to be one of the principal. They were willing to give unto
+Cæsar the things that were Cæsar's; but they could not give him those
+which belonged unto God. And if they were forced to make a choice,
+then they must rather disobey their King than the King of kings.
+
+Though deprived of their leaders and pastors, the dispossessed
+Huguenots emerged by degrees from their obscurity, and began to
+recognise each other openly. If their temples were destroyed, there
+remained the woods and fields and mountain pastures, where they might
+still meet and worship God, even though it were in defiance of the
+law. Having taken counsel together, they resolved "not to forsake the
+assembling of themselves together;" and they proceeded, in all the
+Protestant districts in the South of France--in Viverais, Dauphiny,
+and the Cevennes--to hold meetings of the people, mostly by night, for
+worship--in woods, in caves, in rocky gorges, and in hollows of the
+hills. Then began those famous assemblies of "the Desert," which were
+the nightmare of Louvois and the horror of Louis XIV.
+
+When it came to the knowledge of the authorities that such meetings
+were being held, large bodies of troops were sent into the southern
+provinces, with orders to disperse them and apprehend the ringleaders.
+These orders were carried out with much barbarity. Amongst various
+assemblies which were discovered and attacked in the Cevennes, were
+those of Auduze and Vigan, where the soldiers fell upon the
+defenceless people, put the greater number to the sword, and hanged
+upon the nearest trees those who did not succeed in making their
+escape.
+
+The authorities waited to see the effect of these "vigorous measures;"
+but they were egregiously disappointed. The meetings in the Desert
+went on as before, and even increased in number. Then milder means
+were tried. Other meetings were attacked in like manner, and the
+people found attending them taken prisoners. They were then threatened
+with death unless they became converted, and promised to attend Mass.
+They declared that they preferred death. A passion for martyrdom even
+seemed to be spreading amongst the infatuated people!
+
+Then the peasantry began secretly to take up arms for their defence.
+They had thus far been passive in their resistance, and were content
+to brave death provided they could but worship together. At length
+they felt themselves driven in their despair to resist force by
+force--acting, however, in the first place, entirely on the
+defensive--"leaving the issue," to use the words of one of their
+solemn declarations, "to the providence of God."
+
+They began--these poor labourers, herdsmen, and wool-carders--by
+instituting a common fund for the purpose of helping their distressed
+brethren in surrounding districts. They then invited such as were
+disposed to join them to form themselves into companies, so as to be
+prepared to come together and give their assistance as occasion
+required. When meetings in the Desert were held, it became the duty of
+these enrolled men to post themselves as sentinels on the surrounding
+heights, and give notice of the approach of their enemies. They also
+constituted a sort of voluntary police for their respective districts,
+taking notice of the changes of the royal troops, and dispatching
+information by trusty emissaries, intimating the direction of their
+march.
+
+The Intendant, Baville, wrote to Louvois, minister of Louis XIV.
+during the persecutions, expressing his surprise and alarm at the
+apparent evidences of organization amongst the peasantry. "I have just
+learned," said he in one letter,[33] "that last Sunday there was an
+assembly of nearly four hundred men, many of them armed, at the foot
+of the mountain of Lozère. I had thought," he added, "that the great
+lesson taught them at Vigan and Anduze would have restored
+tranquillity to the Cevennes, at least for a time. But, on the
+contrary, the severity of the measures heretofore adopted seems only
+to have had the effect of exasperating and hardening them in their
+iniquitous courses."
+
+         [Footnote 33: October 20, 1686.]
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+As the massacres had failed, the question next arose whether the
+inhabitants might not be driven into exile, and the country entirely
+cleared of them. "They pretend," said Louvois, "to meet in 'the
+Desert;' why not take them at their word, and make the Cevennes
+_really_ a Desert?" But there were difficulties in the way of
+executing this plan. In the first place, the Protestants of Languedoc
+were a quarter of a million in number. And, besides, if they were
+driven out of it, what would become of the industry and the wealth of
+this great province--what of the King's taxes?
+
+The Duke de Noailles advised that it would be necessary to proceed
+with some caution in the matter. "If his Majesty," he wrote to
+Baville, "thinks there is no other remedy than changing the whole
+people of the Cevennes, it would be better to begin by expelling those
+who are not engaged in commerce, who inhabit inaccessible mountain
+districts, where the severity of the climate and the poverty of the
+soil render them rude and barbarous, as in the case of those people
+who recently met at the foot of the Lozère. Should the King consent to
+this course, it will be necessary to send here at least four
+additional battalions of foot to execute his orders."[34]
+
+         [Footnote 34: Noailles to Baville, 29th October, 1686.]
+
+An attempt was made to carry out this measure of deportation of the
+people, but totally failed. With the aid of spies, stimulated by high
+rewards, numerous meetings in the Desert were fallen upon by the
+troops, and those who were not hanged were transported--some to Italy,
+some to Switzerland, and some to America. But transportation had no
+terrors for the people, and the meetings continued to be held as
+before.
+
+Baville then determined to occupy the entire province with troops, and
+to carry out a general disarmament of the population. Eight
+regiments of regular infantry were sent into the Cevennes, and fifty
+regiments of militia were raised throughout the province, forming
+together an army of some forty thousand men. Strong military posts
+were established in the mountains, and new forts and barracks were
+erected at Alais, Anduze, St. Hyppolyte, and Nismes. The
+mountain-roads being almost impassable, many of them mere mule paths,
+Baville had more than a hundred new high-roads and branch-roads
+constructed and made practicable for the passage of troops and
+transport of cannon.
+
+By these means the whole country became strongly occupied, but still
+the meetings in the Desert went on. The peasantry continued to brave
+all risks--of exile, the galleys, the rack, and the gibbet--and
+persevered in their assemblies, until the very ferocity of their
+persecutors became wearied. The people would not be converted either
+by the dragoons or the priests who were stationed amongst them. In the
+dead of the night they would sally forth to their meetings in the
+hills; though their mountains were not too steep, their valleys not
+too secluded, their denies not too impenetrable to protect them from
+pursuit and attack, for they were liable at any moment to be fallen
+upon and put to the sword.
+
+The darkness, the dangers, the awe and mystery attending these
+midnight meetings invested them with an extraordinary degree of
+interest and even fascination. It is not surprising that under such
+circumstances the devotion of these poor people should have run into
+fanaticism and superstition. Singing the psalms of Marot by night,
+under the shadow of echoing rocks, they fancied they heard the sounds
+of heavenly voices filling the air. At other times they would meet
+amidst the ruins of their fallen sanctuaries, and mysterious sounds of
+sobbing and wailing and groaning would seem as if to rise from the
+tombs of their fathers.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Under these distressing circumstances--in the midst of poverty,
+suffering, and terror--a sort of religious hysteria suddenly developed
+itself amongst the people, breaking out and spreading like many other
+forms of disease, and displaying itself chiefly in the most persecuted
+quarters of Dauphiny, Viverais, and the Cevennes. The people had lost
+their pastors; they had not the guidance of sober and intelligent
+persons; and they were left merely to pray and to suffer. The terrible
+raid of the priests against the Protestant books had even deprived
+most of the Huguenots of their Bibles and psalm-books, so that they
+were in a great measure left to profit by their own light, such as it
+was.
+
+The disease to which we refer, had often before been experienced,
+under different forms, amongst uneducated people when afflicted by
+terror and excitement; such, for instance, as the Brotherhood of the
+Flagellants, which followed the attack of the plague in the Middle
+Ages; the Dancing Mania, which followed upon the Black Death; the
+Child's Pilgrimages, the Convulsionaires, the Revival epilepsies and
+swoons, which have so often accompanied fits of religious devotion
+worked up into frenzy; these diseases being merely the result of
+excitement of the senses, which convulse the mind and powerfully
+affect the whole nervous system.
+
+The "prophetic malady," as we may call it, which suddenly broke out
+amongst the poor Huguenots, began with epileptic convulsions. They
+fell to the ground senseless, foamed at the mouth, sobbed, and
+eventually revived so far as to be able to speak and "prophesy," like
+a mesmerised person in a state of _clairvoyance_. The disease spread
+rapidly by the influence of morbid sympathy, which, under the peculiar
+circumstances we have described, exercises an amazing power over human
+minds. Those who spoke with power were considered "inspired." They
+prayed and preached ecstatically, the most inspired of the whole being
+women, boys, and even children.
+
+One of the first "prophets" who appeared was Isabel Vincent, a young
+shepherdess of Crest, in Dauphiny, who could neither read nor write.
+Her usual speech was the patois of her country, but when she became
+inspired she spoke perfectly, and, according to Michelet, with great
+eloquence. "She chanted," he says, "at first the Commandments, then a
+psalm, in a low and fascinating voice. She meditated a moment, then
+began the lamentation of the Church, tortured, exiled, at the galleys,
+in the dungeons: for all those evils she blamed our sins only, and
+called all to penitence. Then, starting anew, she spoke angelically of
+the Divine goodness."
+
+Boucher, the intendant of the province, had her apprehended and
+examined. She would not renounce. "You may take my life," she said,
+"but God will raise up others to speak better things than I have
+done." She was at last imprisoned at Grenoble, and afterwards in the
+Tower of Constance.
+
+As Isabel Vincent had predicted, many prophets followed in her steps,
+but they did not prophesy as divinely as she. They denounced "Woe,
+woe" upon their persecutors. They reviled Babylon as the oppressor of
+the House of Israel. They preached the most violent declamations
+against Rome, drawn from the most lugubrious of the prophets, and
+stirred the minds of their hearers into the most furious indignation.
+
+The rapidity with which the contagion of convulsive prophesying spread
+was extraordinary. The adherents were all of the poorer classes, who
+read nothing but the Bible, and had it nearly by heart. It spread from
+Dauphiny to Viverais, and from thence into the Cevennes. "I have
+seen," said Marshal Villars, "things that I could never have believed
+if they had not passed under my own eyes--an entire city, in which all
+the women and girls, without exception, appeared possessed by the
+devil; they quaked and prophesied publicly in the streets."[35]
+
+         [Footnote 35: "Vie du Maréchal de Villars," i. 125.]
+
+Flottard says there were eight thousand persons in one province who
+had inspiration. All were not, however, equally inspired. There were
+four degrees of ecstasy: first, the being called; next, the
+inspiration; then, the prophesy; and, lastly, the gift, which was the
+inspiration in the highest degree.
+
+All this may appear ludicrous to some. And yet the school of credulity
+is a very wide one. Even in these enlightened times in which we live,
+we hear of tables turning, spelling out words, and "prophesying" in
+their own way. There are even philosophers, men of science, and
+literati who believe in spiritualists that rise on sofas and float
+about in the air, who project themselves suddenly out of one window
+and enter by another, and do many other remarkable things. And though
+our spiritual table-rapping and floating about may seem to be of no
+possible use, the "prophesying" of the Camisards was all but essential
+to the existence of the movement in which they were engaged.
+
+The population became intensely excited by the prevalence of this
+enthusiasm or fanaticism. "When a Huguenot assembly," says Brueys,
+"was appointed, even before daybreak, from all the hamlets round, the
+men, women, boys, girls, and even infants, came in crowds, hurrying
+from their huts, pierced through the woods, leapt over the rocks, and
+flew to the place of appointment."[36]
+
+         [Footnote 36: Brueys, "Histoire du Fanaticisme de Notre
+         Temps."]
+
+Mere force was of no avail against people who supposed themselves to
+be under supernatural influences. The meetings in the Desert,
+accordingly, were attended with increased and increasing fascination,
+and Baville, who had reported to the King the entire pacification and
+conversion of Languedoc, to his dismay found the whole province
+bursting with excitement, which a spark at any moment might fire into
+frenzy. And that spark was shortly afterwards supplied by the
+archpriest Chayla, director of missions at Pont-de-Montvert.
+
+Although it was known that many of the peasantry attended the meetings
+armed, there had as yet been no open outbreak against the royal
+authority in the Cevennes. At Cheilaret, in the Vivarais, there had
+been an encounter between the troops and the peasantry; but the people
+were speedily dispersed, leaving three hundred dead and fifty wounded
+on the field.
+
+The Intendant Baville, after thus pacifying the Vivarais, was
+proceeding on his way back to Montpellier, escorted by some companies
+of dragoons and militia, passing through the Cevennes by one of the
+new roads he had caused to be constructed along the valley of the
+Tarn, by Pont-de-Montvert to Florac. What was his surprise, on passing
+through the village of Pont-de-Montvert, to hear the roll of a drum,
+and shortly after to perceive a column of rustics, some three or four
+hundred in number, advancing as if to give him battle. Baville at once
+drew up his troops and charged the column, which broke and fled into
+an adjoining wood. Some were killed and others taken prisoners, who
+were hanged next day at St. Jean-du-Gard. A reward of five hundred
+louis d'or was advertised for the leader, who was shortly after
+tracked to his hiding-place in a cavern situated between Anduze and
+Alais, and was there shot, but not until after he had killed three
+soldiers with his fusil.
+
+After this event persecution was redoubled throughout the Cevennes.
+The militia ran night and day after the meetings in the Desert. All
+persons found attending them, who could be captured, were either
+killed on the spot or hanged. Two companies of militia were quartered
+in Pont-de-Montvert at the expense of the inhabitants; and they acted
+under the direction of the archpriest Du Chayla. This priest, who was
+a native of the district, had been for some time settled as a
+missionary in Siam engaged in the conversion of Buddhists, and on his
+return to France he was appointed to undertake the conversion of the
+people of the Cevennes to the faith of Rome.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The village of Pont-de-Montvert is situated in the hollow of a deep
+valley formed by the mountain of Lozère on the north, and of Bougès on
+the south, at the point at which two streams, descending from their
+respective summits, flow into the Tarn. The village is separated by
+these streams into three little hamlets, which are joined together by
+the bridge which gives its name to the place. The addition of "Mont
+Vert," however, is a misnomer; for though seated at the foot of a
+steep mountain, it is not green, but sterile, rocky, and verdureless.
+The village is best reached from Florac, from which it is about twenty
+miles distant. The valley runs east and west, and is traversed by a
+tolerably good road, which at the lower part follows the windings of
+the Tarn, and higher up runs in and out along the mountain ledges, at
+every turn presenting new views of the bold, grand, and picturesque
+scenery which characterizes the wilder parts of the Cevennes. Along
+this route the old mule-road is still discernible in some places--a
+difficult, rugged, mountain path, which must have kept the district
+sealed up during the greater part of the year, until Baville
+constructed the new road for the purpose of opening up the country for
+the easier passage of troops and munitions of war.
+
+A few poor hamlets occur at intervals along the road, sometimes
+perched on apparently inaccessible rocks, and at the lower part of the
+valley an occasional château is to be seen, as at Miral, picturesquely
+situated on a height. But the country is too poor by nature--the
+breadth of land in the bottom of the ravine being too narrow and that
+on the mountain ledges too stony and sterile--ever to have enabled it
+to maintain a considerable population. On all sides little is to be
+seen but rocky mountain sides, stony and precipitous, with bold
+mountain peaks extending beyond them far away in the distance.
+
+Pont-de-Montvert is the centre of a series of hamlets, the inhabitants
+of which were in former times almost exclusively Protestant, as they
+are now; and where meetings in the Desert were of the most frequent
+occurrence. Strong detachments of troops were accordingly stationed
+there and at Florac for the purpose of preventing the meetings and
+overawing the population. Besides soldiers, the authorities also
+established missions throughout the Cevennes, and the principal
+inspector of these missions was the archpriest Chayla. The house in
+which he resided at Pont-de-Montvert is still pointed out. It is
+situated near the north end of the bridge over the Tarn; but though
+the lower part of the building remains as it was in his time, the
+upper portion has been for the most part rebuilt.
+
+Chayla was a man of great force of character--zealous, laborious, and
+indefatigable--but pitiless, relentless, and cruel. He had no bowels
+of compassion. He was deaf to all appeals for mercy. With him the
+penalty of non-belief in the faith of Rome was imprisonment, torture,
+death. Eight young priests lived with him, whose labours he directed;
+and great was his annoyance to find that the people would not attend
+his ministrations, but continued to flock after their own
+prophet-preachers in the Desert.
+
+Moral means having failed, he next tried physical. He converted the
+arched cellars of his dwelling into dungeons, where he shut up those
+guilty of contumacy; and day by day he put them to torture. It seems
+like a satire on religion to say that, in his attempt to convert
+souls, this vehement missionary made it one of his principal studies
+to find out what amount of agony the bodies of those who differed from
+him would bear short of actual death. He put hot coals into their
+hands, which they were then made to clench; wrapped round their
+fingers cotton steeped in oil, which was then set on fire; besides
+practising upon them the more ordinary and commonplace tortures. No
+wonder that the archpriest came to be detested by the inhabitants of
+Pont-de-Montvert.
+
+At length, a number of people in the district, in order to get beyond
+reach of Chayla's cruelty, determined to emigrate from France and take
+refuge in Geneva. They assembled one morning secretly, a cavalcade of
+men and women, and set out under the direction of a guide who knew the
+mountain paths towards the east. When they had travelled a few hours,
+they fell into an ambuscade of militia, and were marched back to the
+archpriest's quarters at Pont-de-Montvert. The women were sent to
+Mende to be immured in convents, and the men were imprisoned in the
+archpriest's dungeons. The parents of some of the captives ran to
+throw themselves at his feet, and implored mercy for their sons; but
+Chayla was inexorable. He declared harshly that the prisoners must
+suffer according to the law--that the fugitives must go the galleys,
+and their guide to the gibbet.
+
+On the following Sunday, the 23rd of July, 1702, one of the preaching
+prophets, Pierre Seguier of Magistavols, a hamlet lying to the south
+of Pont-de-Montvert, preached to an assembly on the neighbouring
+mountain of Bougès; and there he declared that the Lord had ordered
+him to take up arms to deliver the captives and exterminate the
+archpriest of Moloch. Another and another preacher followed in the
+same strain, the excited assembly encouraging them by their cries, and
+calling upon them to execute God's vengeance on the persecutors of
+God's people.
+
+That same night Seguier and his companions went round amongst the
+neighbouring hamlets to summon an assemblage of their sworn followers
+for the evening of the following day. They met punctually in the
+Altefage Wood, and under the shadow of three gigantic beech trees, the
+trunks of which were standing but a few years ago, they solemnly swore
+to deliver their companions and destroy the archpriest.
+
+When night fell, a band of fifty determined men marched down the
+mountain towards the bridge, led by Seguier. Twenty of them were armed
+with guns and pistols. The rest carried scythes and hatchets. As they
+approached the village, they sang Marot's version of the
+seventy-fourth Psalm. The archpriest heard the unwonted sound as they
+came marching along. Thinking it was a nocturnal assembly, he cried to
+his soldiers, "Run and see what this means." But the doors of the
+house were already invested by the mountaineers, who shouted out for
+"The prisoners! the prisoners!" "Back, Huguenot canaille!" cried
+Chayla from the window. But they only shouted the louder for "The
+prisoners!"
+
+The archpriest then directed the militia to fire, and one of the
+peasants fell dead. Infuriated, they seized the trunk of a tree, and
+using it as a battering-ram, at once broke in the door. They next
+proceeded to force the entrance to the dungeon, in which they
+succeeded, and called upon the prisoners to come forth. But some of
+them were so crippled by the tortures to which they had been
+subjected, that they could not stand. At sight of their sufferings the
+fury of the assailants increased, and, running up the staircase, they
+called out for the archpriest. "Burn the priest and the satellites of
+Baal!" cried their leader; and heaping together the soldiers' straw
+beds, the chairs, and other combustibles, they set the whole on fire.
+
+Chayla, in the hope of escaping, jumped from a window into the garden,
+and in the fall broke his leg. The peasants discovered him by the
+light of the blazing dwelling. He called for mercy. "No," said
+Seguier, "only such mercy as you have shown to others;" and he struck
+him the first blow.
+
+The others followed. "This for my father," said the next, "whom you
+racked to death!"
+
+"This for my brother," said another, "whom you sent to the galleys!"
+
+"This for my mother, who died of grief!"
+
+This for my sister, my relatives, my friends, in exile, in prison, in
+misery!
+
+And thus blow followed blow, fifty-two in all, half of which would
+probably have been mortal, and the detested Chayla lay a bleeding mass
+at their feet!
+
+[Illustration: Map of the Country of the Cevennes.]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+INSURRECTION OF THE CAMISARDS.
+
+
+The poor peasants, wool-carders, and neatherds of the Cevennes, formed
+only a small and insignificant section of the great body of men who
+were about the same time engaged in different countries of Europe in
+vindicating the cause of civil and religious liberty. For this cause,
+a comparative handful of people in the Low Countries, occupying the
+Dutch United Provinces, had banded themselves together to resist the
+armies of Spain, then the most powerful monarchy in the world. The
+struggle had also for some time been in progress in England and
+Scotland, where it culminated in the Revolution of 1688; and it was
+still raging in the Vaudois valleys of Piedmont.
+
+The object contended for in all these cases was the same. It was the
+vindication of human freedom against royal and sacerdotal despotism.
+It could only have been the direst necessity that drove a poor,
+scattered, unarmed peasantry, such as the people of the Cevennes, to
+take up arms against so powerful a sovereign as Louis XIV. Their
+passive resistance had lasted for fifteen long years, during which
+many of them had seen their kindred racked, hanged, or sent to the
+galleys; and at length their patience was exhausted, and the
+inevitable outburst took place. Yet they were at any moment ready to
+lay down their arms and return to their allegiance, provided only a
+reasonable degree of liberty of worship were assured to them. This,
+however, their misguided and bigoted monarch, would not tolerate; for
+he had sworn that no persons were to be suffered in his dominions save
+those who were of "the King's religion."
+
+The circumstances accompanying the outbreak of the Protestant
+peasantry in the Cevennes in many respects resembled those which
+attended the rising of the Scotch Covenanters in 1679. Both were
+occasioned by the persistent attempts of men in power to enforce a
+particular form of religion at the point of the sword. The resisters
+of the policy were in both cases Calvinists;[37] and they were alike
+indomitable and obstinate in their assertion of the rights of
+conscience. They held that religion was a matter between man and his
+God, and not between man and his sovereign or the Pope. The peasantry
+in both cases persevered in their own form of worship. In Languedoc,
+the mountaineers of the Cevennes held their assemblies in "The
+Desert;" and in Scotland, the "hill-folk" of the West held their
+meetings on the muirs. In the one country as in the other, the
+monarchy sent out soldiers as their missionaries--Louis XIV. employing
+the dragoons of Louvois and Baville, and Charles II. those of
+Claverhouse and Dalzell. These failing, new instruments of torture
+were invented for their "conversion." But the people, in both cases,
+continued alike stubborn in their adherence to their own simple and,
+as some thought, uncouth form of faith.
+
+         [Footnote 37: Whether it be that Calvinism is eclectic as
+         regards races and individuals, or that it has (as is most
+         probably the case) a powerful formative influence upon
+         individual character, certain it is that the Calvinists of
+         all countries have presented the strongest possible
+         resemblance to each other--the Calvinists of Geneva and
+         Holland, the Huguenots of France, the Covenanters of
+         Scotland, and the Puritans of Old and New England, seeming,
+         as it were, to be but members of the same family. It is
+         curious to speculate on the influence which the religion of
+         Calvin--himself a Frenchman--might have exercised on the
+         history of France, as well as on the individual character of
+         Frenchmen, had the balance of forces carried the nation
+         bodily over to Protestantism (as was very nearly the case)
+         towards the end of the sixteenth century. Heinrich Heine has
+         expressed the opinion that the western races contain a large
+         proportion of men for whom the moral principle of Judaism has
+         a strong elective affinity; and in the sixteenth and
+         seventeenth centuries, the Old Testament certainly seems to
+         have exercised a much more powerful influence on the minds of
+         religious reformers than the New. "The Jews," says Heine,
+         "were the Germans of the East, and nowadays the Protestants
+         in German countries (England, Scotland, America, Germany,
+         Holland) are nothing more nor less than ancient Oriental
+         Jews."]
+
+The French Calvinist peasantry, like the Scotch, were great in their
+preachers and their prophets. Both devoted themselves with enthusiasm
+to psalmody, insomuch that "psalm-singers" was their nickname in both
+countries. The one had their Clement Marot by heart, the other their
+Sternhold and Hopkins. Huguenot prisoners in chains sang psalms in
+their dungeons, galley slaves sang them as they plied at the oar,
+fugitives in the halting-places of their flight, the condemned as they
+marched to the gallows, and the Camisards as they rushed into battle.
+It was said of the Covenanters that "they lived praying and preaching,
+and they died praying and fighting;" and the same might have been said
+of the Huguenot peasantry of the Cevennes.
+
+The immediate cause of the outbreak of the insurrection in both
+countries was also similar. In the one case, it was the cruelty of the
+archpriest Chayla, the inventor of a new machine of torture called
+"the Squeezers,"[38] and in the other the cruelty of Archbishop
+Sharpe, the inventor of that horrible instrument called "the Iron
+Boot," that excited the fury of the people; and the murder of the one
+by Seguier and his band at Pont-de-Montvert, as of the other by
+Balfour of Burley and his companions on Magus Muir, proved the signal
+for a general insurrection of the peasantry in both countries. Both
+acts were of like atrocity; but they corresponded in character with
+the cruelties which had provoked them. Insurrections, like
+revolutions, are not made of rose-water. In such cases, action and
+reaction are equal; the violence of the oppressors usually finding its
+counterpart in the violence of the oppressed.
+
+         [Footnote 38: The instrument is thus described by Cavalier,
+         in his "Memoirs of the Wars of the Cevennes," London, 1726:
+         "This inhuman man had invented a rack (more cruel, if it be
+         possible, than that usually made use of) to torment these
+         poor unfortunate gentlemen and ladies; which was a beam he
+         caused to be split in two, with vices at each end. Every
+         morning he would send for these poor people, in order to
+         examine them, and if they refused to confess what he desired,
+         he caused their legs to be put in the slit of the beam, and
+         there squeezed them till the bones cracked," &c., &c. (p.
+         35).]
+
+The insurrection of the French peasantry proved by far the most
+determined and protracted of the two; arising probably from the more
+difficult character of the mountain districts which they occupied and
+the quicker military instincts of the people, as well as because
+several of their early leaders and organizers were veteran soldiers
+who had served in many campaigns. The Scotch insurgents were
+suppressed by the English army under the Duke of Monmouth in less than
+two months after the original outbreak, though their cause eventually
+triumphed in the Revolution of 1688; whereas the peasantry of the
+Cevennes, though deprived of all extraneous help, continued to
+maintain a heroic struggle for several years, but were under the
+necessity of at last succumbing to the overpowering military force of
+Louis XIV., after which the Huguenots of France continued to be
+stamped out of sight, and apparently out of existence, for nearly a
+century.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+In the preceding chapter, we left the archpriest Chayla a corpse at
+the feet of his murderers. Several of the soldiers found in the
+château were also killed, as well as the cook and house-steward, who
+had helped to torture the prisoners. But one of the domestics, and a
+soldier, who had treated them with kindness, were, at their
+intercession, pardoned and set at liberty. The corpses were brought
+together in the garden, and Seguier and his companions, kneeling round
+them--a grim and ghastly sight--sang psalms until daybreak, the
+uncouth harmony mingling with the crackling of the flames of the
+dwelling overhead, and the sullen roar of the river rushing under the
+neighbouring bridge.
+
+When the grey of morning appeared, the men rose from their knees,
+emerged from the garden, crossed the bridge, and marched up the main
+street of the village. The inhabitants had barricaded themselves in
+their houses, being in a state of great fear lest they should be
+implicated in the murder of the archpriest. But Seguier and his
+followers made no further halt in Pont-de-Montvert, but passed along,
+still singing psalms, towards the hamlet of Frugères, a little further
+up the valley of the Tarn.
+
+Seguier has been characterised as "the Danton of the Cevennes." This
+fierce and iron-willed man was of great stature--bony and
+dark-visaged, without upper teeth, his hair hanging loose over his
+shoulders--and of a wild and mystic appearance, occasioned probably by
+the fits of ecstasy to which he was subject, and the wandering life he
+had for so many years led as a prophet-preacher in the Desert. This
+terrible man had resolved upon a general massacre of the priests, and
+he now threw himself upon Frugères for the purpose of carrying out the
+enterprise begun by him at Pont-de-Montvert. The curé of the hamlet,
+who had already heard of Chayla's murder, fled from his house at sound
+of the approaching psalm-singers, and took refuge in an adjoining
+rye-field. He was speedily tracked thither, and brought down by a
+musket-ball; and a list of twenty of his parishioners, whom he had
+denounced to the archpriest, was found under his cassock.
+
+From Frugères the prophet and his band marched on to St. Maurice de
+Ventalong, so called because of the winds which at certain seasons
+blow so furiously along the narrow valley in which it is situated; but
+the prior of the convent, having been warned of the outbreak, had
+already mounted his horse and taken to flight. Here Seguier was
+informed of the approach of a body of militia who were on his trail;
+but he avoided them by taking refuge on a neighbouring mountain-side,
+where he spent the night with his companions in a thicket.
+
+Next morning, at daybreak, he descended the mountain, crossed the
+track of his pursuers, and directed himself upon St. André de Lancèze.
+The whole country was by this time in a state of alarm; and the curé
+of the place, being on the outlook, mounted the clock-tower and rang
+the tocsin. But his parishioners having joined the insurgents, the
+curé was pursued, captured in the belfry, and thrown from its highest
+window. The insurgents then proceeded to gut the church, pull down the
+crosses, and destroy all the emblems of Romanism on which they could
+lay their hands.
+
+Seguier and his band next hurried across the mountains towards the
+south, having learnt that the curés of the neighbourhood had assembled
+at St. Germain to assist at the obsequies of the archpriest Chayla,
+whose body had been brought thither from Pont-de-Montvert on the
+morning after his murder. When Seguier was informed that the town and
+country militia were in force in the place, he turned aside and went
+in another direction. The curés, however, having heard that Seguier
+was in the neighbourhood, fled panic-stricken, some to the château of
+Portes, others to St. André, while a number of them did not halt until
+they had found shelter within the walls of Alais, some twenty miles
+distant.
+
+Thus four days passed. On the fifth night Seguier appeared before the
+château of Ladevèze, and demanded the arms which had been deposited
+there at the time of the disarmament of the peasantry. The owner
+replied by a volley of musketry, which killed and wounded several of
+the insurgents, at the same time ringing the alarm-bell. Seguier,
+furious at this resistance, at once burst open the gates, and ordered
+a general massacre of the household. This accomplished, he ransacked
+the place of its arms and ammunition, and before leaving set the
+castle on fire, the flames throwing a lurid glare over the surrounding
+country. Seguier's band then descended the mountain on which the
+château is situated, and made for the north in the direction of
+Cassagnas, arriving at the elevated plateau of Font-Morte a little
+before daybreak.
+
+In the meantime, Baville, the intendant of the province, was hastening
+to Pont-de-Montvert to put down the insurrection and avenge the death
+of the archpriest. The whole country was roused. Troops were
+dispatched in hot haste from Alais; the militia were assembled from
+all quarters and marched upon the disturbed district. The force was
+placed under the orders of Captain Poul, an old soldier of fortune,
+who had distinguished himself in the German wars, and in the recent
+crusade against the Italian Vaudois. It was because of the individual
+prowess which Captain Poul had displayed in his last campaign, that,
+at the peace of Ryswick, Baville requested that he should be attached
+to the army of Languedoc, and employed in putting down the insurgents
+of the Cevennes.
+
+Captain Poul was hastening with his troops to Florac when, having been
+informed of the direction in which Seguier and his band had gone, he
+turned aside at Barre, and after about an hour's march eastward, he
+came up with them at Font-Morte. They suddenly started up from amongst
+the broom where they had lain down to sleep, and, firing off their
+guns upon the advancing host, without offering any further resistance,
+fled in all directions. Poul and his men spurred after them, cutting
+down the fugitives. Coming up with Seguier, who was vainly trying to
+rally his men, Poul took him prisoner with several others, and they
+were forthwith chained and marched to Florac. As they proceeded along
+the road, Poul said to Seguier, "Well, wretch! now I have got you, how
+do you expect to be treated after the crimes you have committed?" "As
+I would myself have treated you, had I taken you prisoner," was the
+reply.
+
+Seguier stood before his judges calm and fearless. "What is your
+name?" he was asked. "Pierre Seguier." "Why do they call you Esprit?"
+"Because the Spirit of God is in me." "Your abode?" "In the Desert,
+and shortly in heaven." "Ask pardon of the King!" "We have no other
+King but the Eternal." "Have you no feeling of remorse for your
+crimes?" "My soul is as a garden full of shady groves and of peaceful
+fountains."
+
+Seguier was condemned to have his hands cut off at the wrist, and he
+burnt alive at Pont-de-Montvert. Nouvel, another of the prisoners, was
+broken alive at Ladevèze, and Bonnet, a third, was hanged at St.
+André. They all suffered without flinching. Seguier's last words,
+spoken amidst the flames, were, "Brethren, wait, and hope in the
+Eternal. The desolate Carmel shall yet revive, and the solitary
+Lebanon shall blossom as the rose!" Thus perished the grim,
+unflinching prophet of Magistavols, the terrible avenger of the
+cruelties of Chayla, the earliest leader in the insurrection of the
+Camisards!
+
+It is not exactly known how or when the insurgents were first called
+Camisards. They called themselves by no other name than "The Children of
+God" (_Enfants de Dieu_); but their enemies variously nicknamed them
+"The Barbets," "The Vagabonds," "The Assemblers," "The Psalm-singers,"
+"The Fanatics," and lastly, "The Camisards." This name is said to have
+been given them because of the common blouse or camisole which they
+wore--their only uniform. Others say that it arose from their wearing a
+white shirt, or camise, over their dress, to enable them to distinguish
+each other in their night attacks; and that this was not the case, is
+partly countenanced by the fact that in the course of the insurrection a
+body of peasant royalists took the field, who designated themselves the
+"_White_ Camisards," in contradistinction from the others. Others say
+the word is derived from _camis_, signifying a roadrunner. But whatever
+the origin of the word may be, the Camisards was the name most commonly
+applied to the insurgents, and by which they continue to be known in
+local history.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Captain Poul vigorously followed up the blow delivered at Font-Morte.
+He apprehended all suspected persons in the Upper Cevennes, and sent
+them before the judges at Florac. Unable to capture the insurgents who
+had escaped, he seized their parents, their relations, and families,
+and these were condemned to various punishments. But what had become
+of the insurgents themselves? Knowing that they had nothing but death
+to expect, if taken, they hid themselves in caves known only to the
+inhabitants of the district, and so secretly that Poul thought they
+had succeeded in making their escape from France. The Intendant
+Baville arrived at the same conclusion, and he congratulated himself
+accordingly on the final suppression of the outbreak. Leaving sundry
+detachments of troops posted in the principal villages, he returned to
+Alais, and invited the fugitive priests at once to return to their
+respective parishes.
+
+After remaining in concealment for several days, the surviving
+insurgents met one night to consult as to the steps they were to take,
+with a view to their personal safety. They had by this time been
+joined by several sympathizers, amongst others by three veteran
+soldiers--Laporte, Espérandieu, and Rastelet--and by young Cavalier,
+who had just returned from Geneva, where he had been in exile, and was
+now ready to share in the dangers of his compatriots. The greater
+number of those present were in favour of bidding a final adieu to
+France, and escaping across the frontier into Switzerland, considering
+that the chances of their offering any successful resistance to their
+oppressors, were altogether hopeless. But against this craven course
+Laporte raised his voice.
+
+"Brethren," said he, "why depart into the land of the stranger? Have
+we not a country of our own, the country of our fathers? It is, you
+say, a country of slavery and death! Well! Free it! and deliver your
+oppressed brethren. Never say, 'What can we do? we are few in number,
+and without arms!' The God of armies shall be our strength. Let us
+sing aloud the psalm of battles, and from the Lozère even to the sea
+Israel will arise! As for arms, have we not our hatchets? These will
+bring us muskets! Brethren, there is only one course worthy to be
+pursued. It is to live for our country; and, if need be, to die for
+it. Better die by the sword than by the rack or the gallows!"
+
+From this moment, not another word was said of flight. With one voice,
+the assembly cried to the speaker, "Be our chief! It is the will of
+the Eternal!" "The Eternal be the witness of your promises," replied
+Laporte; "I consent to be your chief!" He assumed forthwith the title
+of "Colonel of the Children of God," and named his camp "The camp of
+the Eternal!"
+
+Laporte belonged to an old Huguenot family of the village of
+Massoubeyran, near Anduze. They were respectable peasants, some of
+whom lived by farming and others by trade. Old John Laporte had four
+sons, of whom the eldest succeeded his father as a small farmer and
+cattle-breeder, occupying the family dwelling at Massoubeyran, still
+known there as the house of "Laporte-Roland." It contains a secret
+retreat, opening from a corner of the floor, called the "Cachette de
+Roland," in which the celebrated chief of this name, son of the
+owner, was accustomed to take refuge; and in this cottage, the old
+Bible of Roland's father, as well as the halbert of Roland himself,
+continue to be religiously preserved.
+
+Two of Laporte's brothers were Protestant ministers. One of them was
+the last pastor of Collet-de-Deze in the Cevennes. Banished because of
+his faith, he fled from France at the Revocation, joined the army of
+the Prince of Orange in Holland, and came over with him to England as
+chaplain of one of the French regiments which landed at Torbay in
+1688. Another brother, also a pastor, remained in the Cevennes,
+preaching to the people in the Desert, though at the daily risk of his
+life, and after about ten years' labour in this vocation, he was
+apprehended, taken prisoner to Montpellier, and strangled on the
+Peyrou in the year 1696.
+
+The fourth brother was the Laporte whom we have just described in
+undertaking the leadership of the hunted insurgents remaining in the
+Upper Cevennes. He had served as a soldier in the King's armies, and
+at the peace of Ryswick returned to his native village, the year after
+his elder brother had suffered martyrdom at Montpellier. He settled
+for a time at Collet-de-Deze, from which his other brother had been
+expelled, and there he carried on the trade of an ironworker and
+blacksmith. He was a great, brown, brawny man, of vehement piety, a
+constant frequenter of the meetings in the Desert, and a mighty
+psalm-singer--one of those strong, massive, ardent-natured men who so
+powerfully draw others after them, and in times of revolution exercise
+a sort of popular royalty amongst the masses. The oppression which had
+raged so furiously in the district excited his utmost indignation,
+and when he sought out the despairing insurgents in the mountains,
+and found that they were contemplating flight, he at once gave
+utterance to the few burning words we have cited, and fixed their
+determination to strike at least another blow for the liberty of their
+country and their religion.
+
+The same evening on which Laporte assumed the leadership (about the
+beginning of August, 1702) he made a descent on three Roman Catholic
+villages in the neighbourhood of the meeting-place, and obtained
+possession of a small stock of powder and balls. When it became known
+that the insurgents were again drawing together, others joined them.
+Amongst these were Castonet, a forest-ranger of the Aigoal mountain
+district in the west, who brought with him some twelve recruits from
+the country near Vebron. Shortly after, there arrived from Vauvert the
+soldier Catinet, bringing with him twenty more. Next came young
+Cavalier, from Ribaute, with another band, armed with muskets which
+they had seized from the prior of St. Martin, with whom they had been
+deposited.
+
+Meanwhile Laporte's nephew, young Roland, was running from village to
+village in the Vaunage, holding assemblies and rousing the people to
+come to the help of their distressed brethren in the mountains. Roland
+was a young man of bright intelligence, gifted with much of the
+preaching power of his family. His eloquence was of a martial sort,
+for he had been bred a soldier, and though young, had already fought
+in many battles. He was everywhere received with open arms in the
+Vaunage.
+
+"My brethren," said he, "the cause of God and the deliverance of
+Israel is at stake. Follow us to the mountains. No country is better
+suited for war--we have the hill-tops for camps, gorges for
+ambuscades, woods to rally in, caves to hide in, and, in case of
+flight, secret tracts trodden only by the mountain goat. All the
+people there are your brethren, who will throw open their cabins to
+you, and share their bread and milk and the flesh of their sheep with
+you, while the forests will supply you with chestnuts. And then, what
+is there to fear? Did not God nourish his chosen people with manna in
+the desert? And does He not renew his miracles day by day? Will not
+his Spirit descend upon his afflicted children? He consoles us, He
+strengthens us, He calls us to arms, He will cause his angels to march
+before us! As for me, I am an old soldier, and will do my duty!"[39]
+
+         [Footnote 39: Brueys, "Histoire de Fanatisme;" Peyrat,
+         "Histoire des Pasteurs du Désert."]
+
+These stirring words evoked an enthusiastic response. Numbers of the
+people thus addressed by Roland declared themselves ready to follow
+him at once. But instead of taking with him all who were willing to
+join the standard of the insurgents, he directed them to enrol and
+organize themselves, and await his speedy return; selecting for the
+present only such as were in his opinion likely to make efficient
+soldiers, and with these he rejoined his uncle in the mountains.
+
+The number of the insurgents was thus raised to about a hundred and
+fifty--a very small body of men, contemptible in point of numbers
+compared with the overwhelming forces by which they were opposed, but
+all animated by a determined spirit, and commanded by fearless and
+indomitable leaders. The band was divided into three brigades of fifty
+each; Laporte taking the command of the companions of Seguier; the
+new-comers being divided into two bodies of like number, who elected
+Roland and Castanet as their respective chiefs.
+
+Laporte occupied the last days of August in drilling his troops, and
+familiarising them with the mountain district which was to be the
+scene of their operations. While thus engaged, he received an urgent
+message from the Protestant herdsmen of the hill-country of Vebron,
+whose cattle, sheep, and goats a band of royalist militia, under
+Colonel Miral, had captured, and were driving northward towards
+Florac. Laporte immediately ran to their help, and posted himself to
+intercept them at the bridge of Tarnon, which they must cross. On the
+militia coming up, the Camisards fell upon them furiously, on which
+they took to flight, and the cattle were driven back in triumph to the
+villages.
+
+Laporte then led his victorious troops towards Collet, the village in
+which his brother had been pastor. The temple in which he ministered
+was still standing--the only one in the Cevennes that had not been
+demolished, the Seigneur of the place intending to convert it into a
+hospital. Collet was at present occupied by a company of fusiliers,
+commanded by Captain Cabrières. On nearing the place, Laporte wrote to
+this officer, under an assumed name, intimating that a religious
+assembly was to be held that night in a certain wood in the
+neighbourhood. The captain at once marched thither with his men, on
+which Laporte entered the village, and reopened the temple, which had
+continued unoccupied since the day on which his brother had gone into
+exile. All that night Laporte sang psalms, preached, and prayed by
+turns, solemnly invoking the help of the God of battles in this holy
+war in which he was engaged for the liberation of his country. Shortly
+before daybreak, Laporte and his companions retired from the temple,
+and after setting fire to the Roman Catholic church, and the houses of
+the consul, the captain, and the curé, he left the village, and
+proceeded in a northerly direction.
+
+That same morning, Captain Poul arrived at the neighbouring valley of
+St. Germain, for the purpose of superintending the demolition of
+certain Protestant dwellings, and then he heard of Laporte's midnight
+expedition. He immediately hastened to Collet, assembled all the
+troops he could muster, and put himself on the track of the Camisards.
+After a hot march of about two hours in the direction of Coudouloux,
+Poul discerned Laporte and his band encamped on a lofty height, from
+the scarped foot of which a sloping grove of chestnuts descended into
+the wide grassy plain, known as the "Champ Domergue."
+
+The chestnut grove had in ancient times been one of the sacred places
+of the Druids, who celebrated their mysterious rites in its recesses,
+while the adjoining mountains were said to have been the honoured
+haunts of certain of the divinities of ancient Gaul. It was therefore
+regarded as a sort of sacred place, and this circumstance was probably
+not without its influence in rendering it one of the most frequent
+resorts of the hunted Protestants in their midnight assemblies, as
+well as because it occupied a central position between the villages of
+St. Frézal, St. Andéol, Dèze, and Violas. Laporte had now come hither
+with his companions to pray, and they were so engaged when the scouts
+on the look-out announced the approach of the enemy.
+
+Poul halted his men to take breath, while Laporte held a little
+council of war. What was to be done? Laporte himself was in favour of
+accepting battle on the spot, while several of his lieutenants advised
+immediate flight into the mountains. On the other hand, the young and
+impetuous Cavalier, who was there, supported the opinion of his chief,
+and urged an immediate attack; and an attack was determined on
+accordingly.
+
+The little band descended from their vantage-ground on the hill, and
+came down into the chestnut wood, singing the sixty-eighth Psalm--"Let
+God arise, let his enemies be scattered." The following is the song
+itself, in the words of Marot. When the Huguenots sang it, each
+soldier became a lion in courage.
+
+  "Que Dieu se montre seulement
+   Et l'on verra dans un moment
+     Abandonner la place;
+   Le camp des ennemies épars,
+   Épouvanté de toutes parts,
+     Fuira devant sa face.
+
+   On verra tout ce camp s'enfuir,
+   Comme l'on voit s'évanouir;
+     Une épaisse fumée;
+   Comme la cire fond au feu,
+   Ainsi des méchants devant
+     Dieu, La force est consumée.
+
+   L'Éternel est notre recours;
+   Nous obtenons par son secours,
+     Plus d'une déliverance.
+   C'est Lui qui fut notre support,
+   Et qui tient les clefs de la mort,
+     Lui seul en sa puissance.
+
+   A nous défendre toujours prompt,
+   Il frappe le superbe front
+     De la troupe ennemie;
+   On verra tomber sous ses coups
+   Ceux qui provoquent son courroux
+     Par leur méchante vie."
+
+This was the "Marseillaise" of the Camisards, their war-song in many
+battles, sung by them as a _pas de charge_ to the music of Goudimal.
+Poul, seeing them approach from under cover of the wood, charged them
+at once, shouting to his men, "Charge, kill, kill the Barbets!"[40]
+But "the Barbets," though they were only as one to three of their
+assailants, bravely held their ground. Those who had muskets kept up a
+fusillade, whilst a body of scythemen in the centre repulsed Poul, who
+attacked them with the bayonet. Several of these terrible scythemen
+were, however, slain, and three were taken prisoners.
+
+         [Footnote 40: The "Barbets" (or "Water-dogs") was the
+         nickname by which the Vaudois were called, against whom Poul
+         had formerly been employed in the Italian valleys.]
+
+Laporte, finding that he could not drive Poul back, retreated slowly
+into the wood, keeping up a running fire, and reascended the hill,
+whither Poul durst not follow him. The Royalist leader was satisfied
+with remaining master of the hard-fought field, on which many of his
+soldiers lay dead, together with a captain of militia.
+
+The Camisard chiefs then separated, Laporte and his band taking a
+westerly direction. The Royalists, having received considerable
+reinforcements, hastened from different directions to intercept him, but
+he slipped through their fingers, and descended to Pont-de-Montvert,
+from whence he threw himself upon the villages situated near the sources
+of the western Gardon. At the same time, to distract the attention of
+the Royalists, the other Camisard leaders descended, the one towards the
+south, and the other towards the east, disarming the Roman Catholics,
+carrying off their arms, and spreading consternation wherever they went.
+
+Meanwhile, Count Broglie, Captain Poul, Colonel Miral, and the
+commanders of the soldiers and militia all over the Cevennes, were
+hunting the Protestants and their families wherever found, pillaging
+their houses, driving away their cattle, and burning their huts; and
+it was evident that the war on both sides was fast drifting into one
+of reprisal and revenge. Brigands, belonging to neither side,
+organized themselves in bodies, and robbed Protestants and Catholics
+with equal impartiality.
+
+One effect of this state of things was rapidly to increase the numbers
+of the disaffected. The dwellings of many of the Protestants having
+been destroyed, such of the homeless fugitives as could bear arms fled
+into the mountains to join the Camisards, whose numbers were thus
+augmented, notwithstanding the measures taken for their extermination.
+
+Laporte was at last tracked by his indefatigable enemy, Captain Poul,
+who burned to wipe out the disgrace which he conceived himself to have
+suffered at Champ-Domergue. Information was conveyed to him that
+Laporte and his band were in the neighbourhood of Molezon on the
+western Gardon, and that they intended to hold a field-meeting there
+on Sunday, the 22nd of October.
+
+Poul made his dispositions accordingly. Dividing his force into two
+bodies, he fell upon the insurgents impetuously from two sides, taking
+them completely by surprise. They hastily put themselves in order of
+battle, but their muskets, wet with rain, would not fire, and Laporte
+hastened with his men to seek the shelter of a cliff near at hand.
+While in the act of springing from one rock to another, he was seen to
+stagger and fall. He had been shot dead by a musket bullet, and his
+career was thus brought to a sudden close. His followers at once fled
+in all directions.
+
+Poul cut off Laporte's head, as well as the heads of the other
+Camisards who had been killed, and sent them in two baskets to Count
+Broglie. Next day the heads were exposed on the bridge of Anduze; the
+day after on the castle wall of St. Hypolite; after which these
+ghastly trophies of Poul's victory were sent to Montpellier to be
+permanently exposed on the Peyrou.
+
+Such was the end of Laporte, the second leader of the Camisards.
+Seguier, the first, had been chief for only six days; Laporte, the
+second, for only about two months. Again Baville supposed the
+pacification of the Cevennes to be complete. He imagined that Poul, in
+cutting off Laporte's head, had decapitated the insurrection. But the
+Camisard ranks had never been so full as now, swelled as they were by
+the persecutions of the Royalists, who, by demolishing the homes of
+the peasantry, had in a measure forced them into the arms of the
+insurgents. Nor were they ever better supplied with leaders, even
+though Laporte had fallen. No sooner did his death become known, than
+the "Children of God" held a solemn assembly in the mountains, at
+which Roland, Castanet, Salomon, Abraham, and young Cavalier were
+present; and after lamenting the death of their chief, they with one
+accord elected Laporte's nephew, Roland, as his successor.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+A few words as to the associates of Roland, whose family and origin
+have already been described. André Castanet of Massavaque, in the
+Upper Cevennes, had been a goatherd in his youth, after which he
+worked at his father's trade of a wool-carder. An avowed Huguenot, he
+was, shortly after the peace of Ryswick, hunted out of the country
+because of his attending the meetings in the Desert; but in 1700 he
+returned to preach and to prophesy, acting also as a forest-ranger in
+the Aigoal Mountains. Of all the chiefs he was the greatest
+controversialist, and in his capacity of preacher he distinguished
+himself from his companions by wearing a wig. There must have been
+something comical in his appearance, for Brueys describes him as a
+little, squat, bandy-legged man, presenting "the figure of a little
+bear." But it was an enemy who drew the picture.
+
+Next there was Salomon Conderc, also a wool-carder, a native of the
+hamlet of Mazelrode, south of the mountain of Bougès. For twenty years
+the Condercs, father and son, had been zealous worshippers in the
+Desert--Salomon having acted by turns as Bible-reader, precentor,
+preacher, and prophet. We have already referred to the gift of
+prophesying. All the leaders of the Camisards were prophets. Elie
+Marion, in his "Théâtre Sacré de Cevennes," thus describes the
+influence of the prophets on the Camisard War:--
+
+"We were without strength and without counsel," says he; "but our
+inspirations were our succour and our support. They elected our
+leaders, and conducted them; they were our military discipline. It was
+they who raised us, even weakness itself, to put a strong bridle upon
+an army of more than twenty thousand picked soldiers. It was they who
+banished sorrow from our hearts in the midst of the greatest peril, as
+well as in the deserts and the mountain fastnesses, when cold and
+famine oppressed us. Our heaviest crosses were but lightsome burdens,
+for this intimate communion that God allowed us to have with Him bore
+up and consoled us; it was our safety and our happiness."
+
+Many of the Condercs had suffered for their faith. The archpriest
+Chayla had persecuted them grievously. One of their sisters was seized
+by the soldiery and carried off to be immured in a convent at Mende,
+but was rescued on the way by Salomon and his brother Jacques. Of the
+two, Salomon, though deformed, had the greatest gift in prophesying,
+and hence the choice of him as a leader.
+
+Abraham Mazel belonged to the same hamlet as Conderc. They were both
+of the same age--about twenty-five--of the same trade, and they were
+as inseparable as brothers. They had both been engaged with Seguier's
+band in the midnight attack on Pont-de-Montvert, and were alike
+committed to the desperate enterprise they had taken in hand. The
+tribe of Mazel abounds in the Cevennes, and they had already given
+many martyrs to the cause. Some emigrated to America, some were sent
+to the galleys; Oliver Mazel, the preacher, was hanged at Montpellier
+in 1690, Jacques Mazel was a refugee in London in 1701, and in all the
+combats of the Cevennes there were Mazels leading as well as
+following.
+
+Nicholas Joany, of Genouillac, was an old soldier, who had seen much
+service, having been for some time quartermaster of the regiment of
+Orleans. Among other veterans who served with the Camisards, were
+Espérandieu and Rastelet, two old sub-officers, and Catinat and
+Ravenel, two thorough soldiers. Of these Catinat achieved the greatest
+notoriety. His proper name was Mauriel--Abdias Mauriel; but having
+served as a dragoon under Marshal Catinat in Italy, he conceived such
+an admiration for that general, and was so constantly eulogizing him,
+that his comrades gave him the nickname of Catinat, which he continued
+to bear all through the Camisard war.
+
+But the most distinguished of all the Camisard chiefs, next to Roland,
+was the youthful John Cavalier, peasant boy, baker's apprentice, and
+eventually insurgent leader, who, after baffling and repeatedly
+defeating the armies of Louis XIV., ended his remarkable career as
+governor of Jersey and major-general in the British service.
+
+Cavalier was a native of Ribaute, a village on the Gardon, a little
+below Anduze. His parents were persons in humble circumstances, as may
+be inferred from the fact that when John was of sufficient age he was
+sent into the mountains to herd cattle, and when a little older he was
+placed apprentice to a baker at Anduze.
+
+His father, though a Protestant at heart, to avoid persecution,
+pretended to be converted to Romanism, and attended Mass. But his
+mother, a fervent Calvinist, refused to conform, and diligently
+trained her sons in her own views. She was a regular attender of
+meetings in the Desert, to which she also took her children.
+
+Cavalier relates that on one occasion, when a very little fellow, he
+went with her to an assembly which was conducted by Claude Brousson;
+and when he afterwards heard that many of the people had been
+apprehended for attending it, of whom some were hanged and others sent
+to the galleys, the account so shocked him that he felt he would then
+have avenged them if he had possessed the power.
+
+As the boy grew up, and witnessed the increasing cruelty with which
+conformity was enforced, he determined to quit the country; and,
+accompanied by twelve other young men, he succeeded in reaching Geneva
+after a toilsome journey of eight days. He had not been at Geneva more
+than two months, when--heart-sore, solitary, his eyes constantly
+turned towards his dear Cevennes--he accidentally heard that his
+father and mother had been thrown into prison because of his
+flight--his father at Carcassone, and his mother in the dreadful tower
+of Constance, near Aiguesmortes, one of the most notorious prisons of
+the Huguenots.
+
+He at once determined to return, in the hope of being able to get them
+set at liberty. On his reaching Ribaute, to his surprise he found them
+already released, on condition of attending Mass. As his presence in
+his father's house might only serve to bring fresh trouble upon
+them--he himself having no intention of conforming--he went up for
+refuge into the mountains of the Cevennes.
+
+The young Cavalier was present at the midnight meeting on the Bougès,
+at which it was determined to slay the archpriest Chayla. He implored
+leave to accompany the band; but he was declared to be too young for
+such an enterprise, being a boy of only sixteen, so he was left behind
+with his friends.
+
+Being virtually an outlaw, Cavalier afterwards joined the band of
+Laporte, under whom he served as lieutenant during his short career.
+At his death the insurrection assumed larger proportions, and recruits
+flocked apace to the standard of Roland, Laporte's successor.
+Harvest-work over, the youths of the Lower Cevennes hastened to join
+him, armed only with bills and hatchets. The people of the Vaunage
+more than fulfilled their promise to Roland, and sent him five hundred
+men. Cavalier also brought with him from Ribaute a further number of
+recruits, and by the end of autumn the Camisards under arms, such as
+they were, amounted to over a thousand men.
+
+Roland, unable to provide quarters or commissariat for so large a
+number, divided them into five bodies, and sent them into their
+respective cantonments (so to speak) for the winter. Roland himself
+occupied the district known as the Lower Cevennes, comprising the
+Gardonnenque and the mountain district situated between the rivers
+Vidourle and the western Gardon. That part of the Upper Cevennes,
+which extends between the Anduze branch of the Gardon and the river
+Tarn, was in like manner occupied by a force commanded by Abraham
+Hazel and Solomon Conderc, while Andrew Castanet led the people of the
+western Cevennes, comprising the mountain region of the Aigoal and the
+Esperou, near the sources of the Gardon d'Anduze and the Tarnon. The
+rugged mountain district of the Lozère, in which the Tarn, the Ceze,
+and the Alais branch of the Gardon have their origin, was placed under
+the command of Joany. And, finally, the more open country towards the
+south, extending from Anduze to the sea-coast, including the districts
+around Alais, Uzes, Nismes, as well as the populous valley of the
+Vaunage, was placed under the direction of young Cavalier, though he
+had scarcely yet completed his seventeenth year.
+
+These chiefs were all elected by their followers, who chose them, not
+because of any military ability they might possess, but entirely
+because of their "gifts" as preachers and "prophets." Though Roland
+and Joany had been soldiers, they were also preachers, as were
+Castanet, Abraham, and Salomon; and young Cavalier had already given
+remarkable indications of the prophetic gift. Hence, when it became
+the duty of the band to which he belonged to select a chief, they
+passed over the old soldiers, Espérandieu, Raslet, Catinat, and
+Ravenel, and pitched upon the young baker lad of Ribaute, not because
+he could fight, but because he could preach; and the old soldiers
+cheerfully submitted themselves to his leadership.
+
+The portrait of this remarkable Camisard chief represents him as a
+little handsome youth, fair and ruddy complexioned, with lively and
+prominent blue eyes, and a large head, from whence his long fair hair
+hung floating over his shoulders. His companions recognised in him a
+supposed striking resemblance to the scriptural portrait of David, the
+famous shepherd of Israel.
+
+The Camisard legions, spread as they now were over the entire Cevennes,
+and embracing Lower Languedoc as far as the sea, were for the most part
+occupied during the winter of 1702-3 in organizing themselves, obtaining
+arms, and increasing their forces. The respective districts which they
+occupied were so many recruiting-grounds, and by the end of the season
+they had enrolled nearly three thousand men. They were still, however,
+very badly armed. Their weapons included fowling-pieces, old matchlocks,
+muskets taken from the militia, pistols, sabres, scythes, hatchets,
+billhooks, and even ploughshares. They were very short of powder, and
+what they had was mostly bought surreptitiously from the King's
+soldiers, or by messengers sent for the purpose to Nismes and Avignon.
+But Roland, finding that such sources of supply could not be depended
+upon, resolved to manufacture his own powder.
+
+A commissariat was also established, and the most spacious caves in
+the most sequestered places were sought out and converted into
+magazines, hospitals, granaries, cellars, arsenals, and powder
+factories. Thus Mialet, with its extensive caves, was the
+head-quarters of Roland; Bouquet and the caves at Euzet, of Cavalier;
+Cassagnacs and the caves at Magistavols, of Salomon; and so on with
+the others. Each chief had his respective canton, his granary, his
+magazine, and his arsenal. To each retreat was attached a special body
+of tradesmen--millers, bakers, shoemakers, tailors, armourers, and
+other mechanics; and each had its special guards and sentinels.
+
+We have already referred to the peculiar geological features of the
+Cevennes, and to the limestone strata which embraces the whole
+granitic platform of the southern border almost like a frame. As is
+almost invariably the case in such formations, large caves, occasioned
+by the constant dripping of water, are of frequent occurrence; and
+those of the Cevennes, which are in many places of great extent,
+constituted a peculiar feature in the Camisard insurrection. There is
+one of such caves in the neighbourhood of the Protestant town of
+Ganges, on the river Herault, which often served as a refuge for the
+Huguenots, though it is now scarcely penetrable because of the heavy
+falls of stone from the roof. This cavern has two entrances, one from
+the river Herault, the other from the Mendesse, and it extends under
+the entire mountain, which separates the two rivers. It is still known
+as the "Camisards' Grotto." There are numerous others of a like
+character all over the district; but as those of Mialet were of
+special importance--Mialet, "the Metropolis of the Insurrection,"
+being the head-quarters of Roland--it will be sufficient if we briefly
+describe a visit paid to them in the month of June, 1870.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The town of Anduze is the little capital of the Gardonnenque, a
+district which has always been exclusively Protestant. Even at the
+present day, of the 5,200 inhabitants of Anduze, 4,600 belong to that
+faith; and these include the principal proprietors, cultivators, and
+manufacturers of the town and neighbourhood. During the wars of
+religion, Anduze was one of the Huguenot strongholds. After the death
+of Henry IV. the district continued to be held by the Duc de Rohan,
+the ruins of whose castle are still to be seen on the summit of a
+pyramidal hill on the north of the town. Anduze is jammed in between
+the precipitous mountain of St. Julien, which rises behind it, and the
+river Gardon, along which a modern quay-wall extends, forming a
+pleasant promenade as well as a barrier against the furious torrents
+which rush down from the mountains in winter.
+
+A little above the town, the river passes through a rocky gorge formed
+by the rugged grey cliffs of Peyremale on the one bank and St. Julien
+on the other. The bare precipitous rocks rise up on either side like
+two cyclopean towers, flanking the gateway of the Cevennes. The gorge
+is so narrow at bottom that there is room only for the river running
+in its rocky bed below, and a roadway along either bank--that on the
+eastern side having been partly formed by blasting out the cliff which
+overhangs it.
+
+After crossing the five-arched bridge which spans the Gardon, the road
+proceeds along the eastern bank, up the valley towards Mialet. It
+being market-day at Anduze, well-clad peasants were flocking into the
+town, some in their little pony-carts, others with their baskets or
+bundles of produce, and each had his "Bon jour, messieurs!" for us as
+we passed. So long as the road held along the bottom of the valley,
+passing through the scattered hamlets and villages north of the town,
+our little springless cart got along cleverly enough. But after we had
+entered the narrower valley higher up, and the cultivated ground
+became confined to a little strip along either bank, then the mountain
+barriers seemed to rise in front of us and on all sides, and the road
+became winding, steep, and difficult.
+
+A few miles up the valley, the little hamlet of Massoubeyran,
+consisting of a group of peasant cottages--one of which was the
+birthplace of Roland, the Camisard chief--was seen on a hill-side to
+the right; and about two miles further on, at a bend of the road, we
+came in sight of the village of Mialet, with its whitewashed,
+flat-roofed cottages--forming a little group of peasants' houses lying
+in the hollow of the hills. The principal building in it is the
+Protestant temple, which continues to be frequented by the
+inhabitants; the _Annuaire Protestant_ for 1868-70, stating the
+Protestant population of the district to be 1,325. Strange to say, the
+present pastor, M. Seguier, bears the name of the first leader of the
+Camisard insurrection; and one of the leading members of the
+consistory, M. Laporte, is a lineal descendant of the second and third
+leaders.
+
+From its secluded and secure position among the hills, as well as
+because of its proximity to the great Temelac road constructed by
+Baville, which passed from Anduze by St. Jean-de-Gard into the Upper
+Cevennes, Mialet was well situated as the head-quarters of the
+Camisard chief. But it was principally because of the numerous
+limestone caves abounding in the locality, which afforded a ready
+hiding-place for the inhabitants in the event of the enemies'
+approach, as well as because they were capable of being adapted for
+the purpose of magazines, stores, and hospitals, that Mialet became of
+so much importance as the citadel of the insurgents. One of such
+caverns or grottoes is still to be seen about a mile below Mialet, of
+extraordinary magnitude. It extends under the hill which rises up on
+the right-hand side of the road, and is entered from behind, nearly
+at the summit. The entrance is narrow and difficult, but the interior
+is large and spacious, widening out in some places into dome-shaped
+chambers, with stalactites hanging from the roof. The whole extent of
+this cavern cannot be much less than a quarter of a mile, judging from
+the time it took to explore it and to return from the furthest point
+in the interior to the entrance. The existence of this place had been
+forgotten until a few years ago, when it was rediscovered by a man of
+Anduze, who succeeded in entering it, but, being unable to find his
+way out, he remained there for three days without food, until the
+alarm was given and his friends came to his rescue and delivered him.
+
+Immediately behind the village of Mialet, under the side of the hill,
+is another large cavern, with other grottoes branching out of it,
+capable, on an emergency, of accommodating the whole population. This
+was used by Roland as his principal magazine. But perhaps the most
+interesting of these caves is the one used as a hospital for the sick
+and wounded. It is situated about a mile above Mialet, in a limestone
+cliff almost overhanging the river. The approach to it is steep and
+difficult, up a footpath cut in the face of the rock. At length a
+little platform is reached, about a hundred feet above the level of
+the river, behind which is a low wall extending across the entrance to
+the cavern. This wall is pierced with two openings, intended for two
+culverins, one of which commanded the road leading down the pass, and
+the other the road up the valley from the direction of the village.
+The outer vault is large and roomy, and extends back into a lofty
+dome-shaped cavern about forty feet high, behind which a long tortuous
+vault extends for several hundred feet. The place is quite dry, and
+sufficiently spacious to accommodate a large number of persons; and
+there can be no doubt as to the uses to which it was applied during
+the wars of the Cevennes.
+
+The person who guided us to the cave was an ordinary working man of
+the village--apparently a blacksmith--a well-informed, intelligent
+person--who left his smithy, opposite the Protestant temple at which
+our pony-cart drew up, to show us over the place; and he took pride in
+relating the traditions which continue to be handed down from father
+to son relating to the great Camisard war of the Cevennes.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+EXPLOITS OF CAVALIER.
+
+
+The country round Nismes, which was the scene of so many contests
+between the Royalists and the Camisard insurgents at the beginning of
+last century, presents nearly the same aspect as it did then,
+excepting that it is traversed by railways in several directions. The
+railway to Montpellier on the west, crosses the fertile valley of the
+Vaunage, "the little Canaan," still rich in vineyards as of old. That
+to Alais on the north, proceeds for the most part along the valley of
+the Gardon, the names of the successive stations reminding the passing
+traveller of the embittered contests of which they were the scenes in
+former times: Nozières, Boucoiran, Ners, Vezenobres, and Alais itself,
+now a considerable manufacturing town, and the centre of an important
+coal-mining district.
+
+The country in the neighbourhood of Nismes is by no means picturesque.
+Though undulating, it is barren, arid, and stony. The view from the
+Tour Magne, which is very extensive, is over an apparently skeleton
+landscape, the bare rocks rising on all sides without any covering of
+verdure. In summer the grass is parched and brown. There are few trees
+visible; and these mostly mulberry, which, when, cropped, have a
+blasted look. Yet, wherever soil exists, in the bottoms, the land is
+very productive, yielding olives, grapes, and chestnuts in great
+abundance.
+
+As we ascend the valley of the Gardon, the country becomes more
+undulating and better wooded. The villages and farmhouses have all an
+old-fashioned look; not a modern villa is to be seen. We alight from
+the train at the Ners station--Ners, where Cavalier drove Montrevel's
+army across the river, and near which, at the village of Martinargues,
+he completely defeated the Royalists under Lajonquière. We went to see
+the scene of the battle, some three miles to the south-east, passing
+through a well-tilled country, with the peasants busily at work in the
+fields. From the high ground behind Ners a fine view is obtained of
+the valley of the Gardon, overlooking the junction of its two branches
+descending by Alais and Anduze, the mountains of the Cevennes rising
+up in the distance. To the left is the fertile valley of Beaurivage,
+celebrated in the Pastorals of Florian, who was a native of the
+district.
+
+Descending the hill towards Ners, we were overtaken by an aged peasant
+of the village, with a scythe over his shoulder, returning from his
+morning's work. There was the usual polite greeting and exchange of
+salutations--for the French peasant is by nature polite--and a ready
+opening was afforded for conversation. It turned out that the old man
+had been a soldier of the first empire, and fought under Soult in the
+desperate battle of Toulouse in 1814. He was now nearly eighty, but
+was still able to do a fair day's work in the fields. Inviting us to
+enter his dwelling and partake of his hospitality, he went down to his
+cellar and fetched therefrom a jug of light sparkling wine, of which
+we partook. In answer to an inquiry whether there were any Protestants
+in the neighbourhood, the old man replied that Ners was "all
+Protestant." His grandson, however, who was present, qualified this
+sweeping statement by the remark, _sotto voce_, that many of them were
+"nothing."
+
+The conversation then turned upon the subject of Cavalier and his
+exploits, when our entertainer launched out into a description of the
+battle of Martinargues, in which the Royalists had been "toutes
+abattus." Like most of the Protestant peasantry of the Cevennes, he
+displayed a very familiar acquaintance with the events of the civil
+war, and spoke with enthusiasm and honest pride of the achievements of
+the Camisards.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+We have in previous chapters described the outbreak of the
+insurrection and its spread throughout the Upper Cevennes; and we have
+now rapidly to note its growth and progress to its culmination and
+fall.
+
+While the Camisards were secretly organizing their forces under cover
+of the woods and caves of the mountain districts, the governor of
+Languedoc was indulging in the hope that the insurrection had expired
+with the death of Laporte and the dispersion of his band. But, to his
+immense surprise, the whole country was suddenly covered with
+insurgents, who seemed as if to spring from the earth in all quarters
+simultaneously. Messengers brought him intelligence at the same time
+of risings in the mountains of the Lozère and the Aigoal, in the
+neighbourhoods of Anduze and Alais, and even in the open country about
+Nismes and Calvisson, down almost to the sea-coast.
+
+Wherever the churches had been used as garrisons and depositories of
+arms, they were attacked, stormed, and burnt. Cavalier says he never
+meddled with any church which had not been thus converted into a "den
+of thieves;" but the other leaders were less scrupulous. Salomon and
+Abraham destroyed all the establishments and insignia of their enemies
+on which they could lay hands--crosses, churches, and presbyteries.
+The curé of Saint-Germain said of Castanet in the Aigoal that he was
+"like a raging torrent." Roland and Joany ran from village to village
+ransacking dwellings, châteaux, churches, and collecting arms. Knowing
+every foot of the country, they rapidly passed by mountain tracks from
+one village to another; suddenly appearing in the least-expected
+quarters, while the troops in pursuit of them had passed in other
+directions.
+
+Cavalier had even the hardihood to descend upon the low country, and
+to ransack the Catholic villages in the neighbourhood of Nismes. By
+turns he fought, preached, and sacked churches. About the middle of
+November, 1702, he preached at Aiguevives, a village not far from
+Calvisson, in the Vaunage. Count Broglie, commander of the royal
+troops, hastened from Nismes to intercept him. But pursuing Cavalier
+was like pursuing a shadow; he had already made his escape into the
+mountains. Broglie assembled the inhabitants of the village in the
+church, and demanded to be informed who had been present with the
+Camisard preacher. "All!" was the reply: "we are all guilty." He
+seized the principal persons of the place and sent them to Baville.
+Four were hanged, twelve were sent to the galleys, many more were
+flogged, and a heavy fine was levied on the entire village.
+
+Meanwhile, Cavalier had joined Roland near Mialet, and again descended
+upon the low country, marching through the villages along the valley
+of the Vidourle, carrying off arms and devastating churches. Broglie
+sent two strong bodies of troops to intercept them; but the
+light-footed insurgents had already crossed the Gardon.
+
+A few days later (December 5th), they were lying concealed in the
+forest of Vaquières, in the neighbourhood of Cavalier's head-quarters
+at Euzet. Their retreat having been discovered, a strong force of
+soldiers and militia was directed upon them, under the command of the
+Chevalier Montarnaud (who, being a new convert, wished to show his
+zeal), and Captain Bimard of the Nismes militia.
+
+They took with them a herdsman of the neighbourhood for their guide,
+not knowing that he was a confederate of the Camisards. Leading the
+Royalists into the wood, he guided them along a narrow ravine, and
+hearing no sound of the insurgents, it was supposed that they were
+lying asleep in their camp.
+
+Suddenly three sentinels on the outlook fired off their pieces. At
+this signal Ravenel posted himself at the outlet of the defile, and
+Cavalier and Catinat along its two sides. Raising their war-song, the
+sixty-eighth psalm the Camisards furiously charged the enemy. Captain
+Bimard fell at the first fire. Montarnaud turned and fled with such of
+the soldiers and militia as could follow him; and not many of them
+succeeded in making their escape from the wood.
+
+"After which complete victory," says Cavalier, "we returned to the
+field of battle to give our hearty thanks to Almighty God for his
+extraordinary assistance, and afterwards stripped the corpses of the
+enemy, and secured their arms. We found a purse of one hundred
+pistoles in Captain Bimard's pocket, which was very acceptable, for we
+stood in great need thereof, and expended part of it in buying hats,
+shoes, and stockings for those who wanted them, and with the
+remainder bought six great mule loads of brandy, for our winter's
+supply, from a merchant who was sending it to be sold at Anduze
+market."[41]
+
+         [Footnote 41: "Memoirs of the Wars of the Cevennes," p. 74.]
+
+On the Sunday following, Cavalier held an assembly for public worship
+near Monteze on the Gardon, at which about five hundred persons were
+present. The governor of Alais, being informed of the meeting,
+resolved to put it down with a strong hand; and he set out for the
+purpose at the head of a force of about six hundred horse and foot. A
+mule accompanied him, laden with ropes with which to bind or hang the
+rebels. Cavalier had timely information, from scouts posted on the
+adjoining hills, of the approach of the governor's force, and though
+the number of fighting men in the Camisard assembly was comparatively
+small, they resolved to defend themselves.
+
+Sending away the women and others not bearing arms, Cavalier posted
+his little band behind an old entrenchment on the road along which the
+governor was approaching, and awaited his attack. The horsemen came on
+at the charge; but the Camisards, firing over the top of the
+entrenchment, emptied more than a dozen saddles, and then leaping
+forward, saluted them with a general discharge. At this, the horsemen
+turned and fled, galloping through the foot coming up behind them, and
+throwing them into complete disorder. The Camisards pulled off their
+coats, in order the better to pursue the fugitives.
+
+The Royalists were in full flight, when they were met by a
+reinforcement of two hundred men of Marsilly's regiment of foot. But
+these, too, were suddenly seized by the panic, and turned and fled
+with the rest, the Camisards pursuing them for nearly an hour, in the
+course of which they slew more than a hundred of the enemy. Besides
+the soldiers' clothes, of which they stripped the dead, the Camisards
+made prize of two loads of ammunition and a large quantity of arms,
+which they were very much in need of, and also of the ropes with which
+the governor had intended to hang them.
+
+Emboldened by these successes, Cavalier determined on making an attack
+on the strong castle of Servas, occupying a steep height on the east
+of the forest of Bouquet. Cavalier detested the governor and garrison
+of this place because they too closely watched his movements, and
+overlooked his head-quarters, which were in the adjoining forest; and
+they had, besides, distinguished themselves by the ferocity with which
+they attacked and dispersed recent assemblies in the Desert.
+
+Cavalier was, however, without the means of directly assaulting the
+place, and he waited for an opportunity of entering it, if possible,
+by stratagem. While passing along the road between Alais and Lussan
+one day, he met a detachment of about forty men of the royal army,
+whom he at once attacked, killing a number of them, and putting the
+rest to flight. Among the slain was the commanding officer of the
+party, in whose pockets was found an order signed by Count Broglie
+directing all town-majors and consuls to lodge him and his men along
+their line of march. Cavalier at once determined on making use of this
+order as a key to open the gates of the castle of Servas.
+
+He had twelve of his men dressed up in the clothes of the soldiers who
+had fallen, and six others in their ordinary Camisard dress bound with
+ropes as prisoners of war. Cavalier himself donned the uniform of the
+fallen officer; and thus disguised and well armed, the party moved up
+the steep ascent to the castle. On reaching the outer gate Cavalier
+presented the order of Count Broglie, and requested admittance for the
+purpose of keeping his pretended Camisard prisoners in safe custody
+for the night. He was at once admitted with his party. The governor
+showed him round the ramparts, pointing out the strength of the place,
+and boasting of the punishments he had inflicted on the rebels.
+
+At supper Cavalier's soldiers took care to drop into the room, one by
+one, apparently for orders, and suddenly, on a signal being given, the
+governor and his attendants were seized and bound. At the same time
+the guard outside was attacked and overpowered. The outer gates were
+opened, the Camisards rushed in, the castle was taken, and the
+garrison put to the sword.
+
+Cavalier and his band carried off with them to their magazine at
+Bouquet all the arms, ammunition, and provisions they could find, and
+before leaving they set fire to the castle. There must have been a
+large store of gunpowder in the vaults of the place besides what the
+Camisards carried away, for they had scarcely proceeded a mile on
+their return journey when a tremendous explosion took place, shaking
+the ground like an earthquake, and turning back, they saw the
+battlements of the detested Château Servas hurled into the air.
+
+Shortly after, Roland repeated at Sauvé, a little fortified town hung
+along the side of a rocky hill a few miles to the south of Anduze, the
+stratagem which Cavalier had employed at Servas, and with like
+success. He disarmed the inhabitants, and carried off the arms and
+provisions in the place: and though he released the commandant and
+the soldiers whom he had taken prisoners, he shot a persecuting priest
+and a Capuchin monk, and destroyed all the insignia of Popery in
+Sauvé.
+
+These terrible measures caused a new stampede of the clergy all over
+the Cevennes. The nobles and gentry also left their châteaux, the
+merchants their shops and warehouses, and took refuge in the fortified
+towns. Even the bishops of Mende, Uzes, and Alais barricaded and
+fortified their episcopal palaces, and organized a system of defence
+as if the hordes of Attila had been at their gates.
+
+With each fresh success the Camisards increased in daring, and every
+day the insurrection became more threatening and formidable. It
+already embraced the whole mountain district of the Cevennes, as well
+as a considerable extent of the low country between Nismes and
+Montpellier. The Camisard troops, headed by their chiefs, marched
+through the villages with drums beating in open day, and were
+quartered by billet on the inhabitants in like manner as the royal
+regiments. Roland levied imposts and even tithes throughout his
+district, and compelled the farmers, at the peril of their lives, to
+bring their stores of victual to the "Camp of the Eternal." In the
+midst of all, they held their meetings in the Desert, at which the
+chiefs preached, baptized, and administered the sacrament to their
+flocks.
+
+The constituted authorities seemed paralyzed by the extent of the
+insurrection, and the suddenness with which it spread. The governor of
+the province had so repeatedly reported to his royal master the
+pacification of Languedoc, that when this last and worst outbreak
+occurred he was ashamed to announce it. The peace at Ryswick had set at
+liberty a large force of soldiers, who had now no other occupation than
+to "convert" the Protestants and force them to attend Mass. About five
+hundred thousand men were now under arms for this purpose--occupied as a
+sort of police force, very much to their own degradation as soldiers.
+
+A large body of this otherwise unoccupied army had been placed under
+the direction of Baville for the purpose of suppressing the
+rebellion--an army of veteran horse and foot, whose valour had been
+tried in many hard-fought battles. Surely it was not to be said that
+this immense force could be baffled and defied by a few thousand
+peasants, cowherds, and wool-carders, fighting for what they
+ridiculously called their "rights of conscience!" Baville could not
+believe it; and he accordingly determined again to apply himself more
+vigorously than ever to the suppression of the insurrection, by means
+of the ample forces placed at his disposal.
+
+Again the troops were launched against the insurgents, and again and
+again they were baffled in their attempts to overtake and crush them.
+The soldiers became worn out by forced marches, in running from one
+place to another to disperse assemblies in the Desert. They were
+distracted by the number of places in which the rebels made their
+appearance. Cavalier ran from town to town, making his attacks
+sometimes late at night, sometimes in the early morning; but before
+the troops could come up he had done all the mischief he intended, and
+was perhaps fifty miles distant on another expedition. If the
+Royalists divided themselves into small bodies, they were in danger of
+being overpowered; and if they kept together in large bodies, they
+moved about with difficulty, and could not overtake the insurgents,
+"by reason," said Cavalier, "we could go further in three hours than
+they could in a whole day; regular troops not being used to march
+through woods and mountains as we did."
+
+At length the truth could not be concealed any longer. The States of
+Languedoc were summoned to meet at Montpellier, and there the
+desperate state of affairs was fully revealed. The bishops of the
+principal dioceses could with difficulty attend the meeting, and were
+only enabled to do so by the assistance of strong detachments of
+soldiers--the Camisards being masters of the principal roads. They
+filled the assembly with their lamentations, and declared that they
+had been betrayed by the men in power. At their urgent solicitation,
+thirty-two more companies of Catholic fusiliers and another regiment
+of dragoons were ordered to be immediately embodied in the district.
+The governor also called to his aid an additional regiment of dragoons
+from Rouergue; a battalion of marines from the ships-of-war lying at
+Marseilles and Toulon; a body of Miguelets from Roussillon, accustomed
+to mountain warfare; together with a large body of Irish officers and
+soldiers, part of the Irish Brigade.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+And how did it happen that the self-exiled Irish patriots were now in
+the Cevennes, helping the army of Louis XIV. to massacre the Camisards
+by way of teaching them a better religion? It happened thus: The
+banishment of the Huguenots from France, and their appearance under
+William III. in Ireland to fight at the Boyne and Augrhim, contributed
+to send the Irish Brigade over to France--though it must be confessed
+that the Irish Brigade fought much better for Louis XIV. than they had
+ever done for Ireland.
+
+After the surrender of Limerick in 1691, the principal number of the
+Irish followers of James II. declared their intention of abandoning
+Ireland and serving their sovereign's ally the King of France. The
+Irish historians allege that the number of the brigade at first
+amounted to nearly thirty thousand men.[42] Though, they fought
+bravely for France, and conducted themselves valiantly in many of her
+great battles, they were unfortunately put forward to do a great deal
+of dirty work for Louis XIV. One of the first campaigns they were
+engaged in was in Savoy, under Catinat, in repressing the Vaudois or
+Barbets.
+
+         [Footnote 42: O'Callaghan's "History of the Irish Brigades in
+         the service of France," p. 29.]
+
+The Vaudois peasantry were for the most part unarmed, and their only
+crime was their religion. The regiments of Viscount Clare and Viscount
+Dillon, principally distinguished themselves against the Vaudois. The
+war was one of extermination, in which many of the Barbets were
+killed. Mr. O'Connor states that between the number of the Alpine
+mountaineers cut off, and the extent of devastation and pillage
+committed amongst them by the Irish, Catinat's commission was executed
+with terrible fidelity; the memory of which "has rendered their name
+and nation odious to the Vaudois. Six generations," he remarks, "have
+since passed, away, but neither time nor subsequent calamities have
+obliterated the impression made by the waste and desolation of this
+military incursion."[43] Because of the outrages and destruction
+committed upon the women and children in the valleys in the absence of
+their natural defenders, the Vaudois still speak of the Irish as "the
+foreign assassins."
+
+         [Footnote 43: Ibid., p. 180.]
+
+The Brigade having thus faithfully served Louis XIV. in Piedmont,
+were now occupied in the same work in the Cevennes. The historian of
+the Brigade does not particularise the battles in which they were
+engaged with the Camisards, but merely announces that "on several
+occasions, the Irish appear to have distinguished themselves,
+especially their officers."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+When Cavalier heard of the vast additional forces about to be thrown
+into the Cevennes, he sought to effect a diversion by shifting the
+theatre of war. Marching down towards the low country with about two
+hundred men, he went from village to village in the Vaunage, holding
+assemblies of the people. His whereabouts soon became known to the
+Royalists, and Captain Bonnafoux, of the Calvisson militia, hearing
+that Cavalier was preaching one day at the village of St. Comes,
+hastened to capture him.
+
+Bonnafoux had already distinguished himself in the preceding year, by
+sabring two assemblies surprised by him at Vauvert and Caudiac, and
+his intention now was to serve Cavalier and his followers in like
+manner. Galloping up to the place of meeting, the Captain was
+challenged by the Camisard sentinel; and his answer was to shoot the
+man dead with his pistol. The report alarmed the meeting, then
+occupied in prayer; but rising from their knees, they at once formed
+in line and advanced to meet the foe, who turned and fled at their
+first discharge.
+
+Cavalier next went southward to Caudiac, where he waited for an
+opportunity of surprising Aimargues, and putting to the sword the
+militia, who had long been the scourge of the Protestants in that
+quarter. He entered the latter town on a fair day, and walked about
+amongst the people; but, finding that his intention was known, and
+that his enterprise was not likely to succeed, he turned aside and
+resolved upon another course. But first it was necessary that his
+troops should be supplied with powder and ammunition, of which they
+had run short. So, disguising himself as a merchant, and mounted on a
+horse with capacious saddlebags, he rode off to Nismes, close at hand,
+to buy gunpowder. He left his men in charge of his two lieutenants,
+Ravanel and Catinat, who prophesied to him that during his absence
+they would fight a battle and win a victory.
+
+Count Broglie had been promptly informed by the defeated Captain
+Bonnafoux that the Camisards were in the neighbourhood; and he set out
+in pursuit of them with a strong body of horse and foot. After several
+days' search amongst the vineyards near Nismes and the heathery hills
+about Milhaud, Broglie learnt that the Camisards were to be found at
+Caudiac. But when he reached that place he found the insurgents had
+already left, and taken a northerly direction. Broglie followed their
+track, and on the following day came up with them at a place called
+Mas de Gaffarel, in the Val de Bane, about three miles west of Nismes,
+The Royalists consisted of two hundred militia, commanded by the Count
+and his son, and two troops of dragoons, under Captain la Dourville
+and the redoubtable Captain Poul.
+
+The Camisards had only time to utter a short prayer, and to rise from
+their knees and advance singing their battle psalm, when Poul and his
+dragoons were upon them. Their charge was so furious that Ravanel and
+his men were at first thrown into disorder; but rallying, and bravely
+fighting, they held their ground. Captain Poul was brought to the
+ground by a stone hurled from a sling by a young Vauvert miller named
+Samuelet; Count Broglie himself was wounded by a musket-ball, and many
+of his dragoons lay stretched on the field. Catinat observing the fall
+of Poul, rushed forward, cut off his head with a sweep of his sabre,
+and mounting Poul's horse, almost alone chased the Royalists, now
+flying in all directions. Broglie did not draw breath until he had
+reached the secure shelter of the castle of Bernis.
+
+While these events were in progress, Cavalier was occupied on his
+mission of buying gunpowder in Nismes. He was passing along the
+Esplanade--then, as now, a beautiful promenade--when he observed from
+the excitement of the people, running about hither and thither, that
+something alarming had occurred. On making inquiry he was told that
+"the Barbets" were in the immediate neighbourhood, and it was even
+feared they would enter and sack the city. Shortly after, a trooper
+was observed galloping towards them at full speed along the
+Montpellier Road, without arms or helmet. He was almost out of breath
+when he came up, and could only exclaim that "All is lost! Count
+Broglie and Captain Poul are killed, and the Barbets are pursuing the
+remainder of the royal troops into the city!"
+
+The gates were at once ordered to be shut and barricaded; the
+_générale_ was beaten; the troops and militia were mustered; the
+priests ran about in the streets crying, "We are undone!" Some of the
+Roman Catholics even took shelter in the houses of the Protestants,
+calling upon them to save their lives. But the night passed, and with
+it their alarm, for the Camisards did not make their appearance. Next
+morning a message arrived from Count Broglie, shut up in the castle
+of Bernis, ordering the garrison to come to his relief.
+
+In the meantime, Cavalier, with the assistance of his friends in
+Nismes, had obtained the articles of which he was in need, and
+prepared to set out on his return journey. The governor and his
+detachment were issuing from the western gate as he left, and he
+accompanied them part of the way, still disguised as a merchant, and
+mounted on his horse, with a large portmanteau behind him, and
+saddlebags on either side full of gunpowder and ammunition. The
+Camisard chief mixed with the men, talking with them freely about the
+Barbets and their doings. When he came to the St. Hypolite road he
+turned aside; but they warned him that if he went that way he would
+certainly fall into the hands of the Barbets, and lose not only his
+horse and his merchandise, but his life. Cavalier thanked them for
+their advice, but said he was not afraid of the Barbets, and proceeded
+on his way, shortly rejoining his troop at the appointed rendez-vous.
+
+The Camisards crossed the Gardon by the bridge of St. Nicholas, and
+were proceeding towards their head-quarters at Bouquet, up the left
+bank of the river, when an attempt was made by the Chevalier de St.
+Chaptes, at the head of the militia of the district, to cut off their
+retreat. But Ravanel charged them with such fury as to drive the
+greater part into the Gardon, then swollen by a flood, and those who
+did not escape by swimming were either killed or drowned.
+
+Thus the insurrection seemed to grow, notwithstanding all the measures
+taken to repress it. The number of soldiers stationed in the province
+was from time to time increased; they were scattered in detachments
+all over the country, and the Camisards took care to give them but
+few opportunities of exhibiting their force, and then only when at a
+comparative disadvantage. The Royalists, at their wits' end,
+considered what was next to be done in order to the pacification of
+the country. The simple remedy, they knew, was to allow these poor
+simple people to worship in their own way without molestation. Grant
+them this privilege, and they were at any moment ready to lay down
+their arms, and resume their ordinary peaceful pursuits.
+
+But this was precisely what the King would not allow. To do so would
+be an admission of royal fallibility which neither he nor his advisers
+were prepared to make. To enforce conformity on his subjects, Louis
+XIV. had already driven some half-a-million of the best of them into
+exile, besides the thousands who had perished on gibbets, in dungeons,
+or at the galleys. And was he now to confess, by granting liberty of
+worship to these neatherds, carders, and peasants, that the rigorous
+policy of "the Most Christian King" had been an entire mistake?
+
+It was resolved, therefore, that no such liberty should be granted,
+and that these peasants, like the rest of the King's subjects, were to
+be forced, at the sword's point if necessary, to worship God in _his_
+way, and not in theirs. Viewed in this light, the whole proceeding
+would appear to be a ludicrous absurdity, but for its revolting
+impiety and the abominable cruelties with which it was accompanied.
+Yet the Royalists even blamed themselves for the mercy which they had
+hitherto shown to the Protestant peasantry; and the more virulent
+amongst them urged that the whole of the remaining population that
+would not at once conform to the Church of Rome, should forthwith be
+put to the sword!
+
+Brigadier Julien, an apostate Protestant, who had served under William
+of Orange in Ireland, and afterwards under the Duke of Savoy in
+Piedmont, disappointed with the slowness of his promotion, had taken
+service under Louis XIV., and was now employed as a partizan chief in
+the suppression of his former co-religionists in Languedoc. Like all
+renegades, he was a bitter and furious persecutor; and in the councils
+of Baville his voice was always raised for the extremest measures. He
+would utterly exterminate the insurgents, and, if necessary, reduce
+the country to a desert. "It is not enough," said he, "merely to kill
+those bearing arms; the villages which supply the combatants, and
+which give them shelter and sustenance, ought to be burnt down: thus
+only can the insurrection be suppressed."
+
+In a military point of view Julien was probably right; but the savage
+advice startled even Baville. "Nothing can be easier," said he, "than
+to destroy the towns and villages; but this would be to make a desert
+of one of the finest and most productive districts of Languedoc." Yet
+Baville himself eventually adopted the very policy which he now
+condemned.
+
+In the first place, however, it was determined to pursue and destroy
+Cavalier and his band. Eight hundred men, under the Count de Touman,
+were posted at Uzes; two battalions of the regiment of Hainault, under
+Julien, at Anduze; while Broglie, with a strong body of dragoons and
+militia, commanded the passes at St. Ambrose. These troops occupied,
+as it were, the three sides of a triangle, in the centre of which
+Cavalier was known to be in hiding in the woods of Bouquet. Converging
+upon him simultaneously, they hoped to surround and destroy him.
+
+But the Camisard chief was well advised of their movements. To draw
+them away from his magazines, Cavalier marched boldly to the north,
+and slipping through between the advancing forces, he got into
+Broglie's rear, and set fire to two villages inhabited by Catholics.
+The three bodies at once directed themselves upon the burning
+villages; but when they reached them Cavalier had made his escape, and
+was nowhere to be heard of. For four days they hunted the country
+between the Garden and the Ceze, beating the woods and exploring the
+caves; and then they returned, harassed and vexed, to their respective
+quarters.
+
+While the Royalists were thus occupied, Cavalier fell upon a convoy of
+provisions which Colonel Marsilly was leading to the castle of
+Mendajols, scattered and killed the escort, and carried off the mules
+and their loads to the magazines at Bouquet. During the whole of the
+month of January, the Camisards, notwithstanding the inclemency of the
+weather, were constantly on the move, making their appearance in the
+most unexpected quarters; Roland descending from Mialet on Anduze, and
+rousing Broglie from his slumbers by a midnight fusillade; Castanet
+attacking St. André, and making a bonfire of the contents of the
+church; Joany disarming Genouillac; and Lafleur terrifying the
+villages of the Lozère almost to the gates of Mende.
+
+Although the winters in the South of France, along the shores of the
+Mediterranean, are comparatively mild and genial, it is very different
+in the mountain districts of the interior, where the snow lies thick
+upon the ground, and the rivers are bound up by frost. Cavalier, in
+his Memoirs, describes the straits to which his followers were reduced
+in that inclement season, being "destitute of houses or beds,
+victuals, bread, or money, and left to struggle with hunger, cold,
+snow, misery, and poverty."
+
+     "General Broglie," he continues, "believed and hoped that though
+     he had not been able to destroy us with the sword, yet the
+     insufferable miseries of the winter would do him that good
+     office. Yet God Almighty prevented it through his power, and by
+     unexpected means his Providence ordered the thing so well that at
+     the end of the winter we found ourselves in being, and in a
+     better condition than we expected.... As for our retiring places,
+     we were used in the night-time to go into hamlets or sheepfolds
+     built in or near the woods, and thought ourselves happy when we
+     lighted upon a stone or piece of timber to make our pillows
+     withal, and a little straw or dry leaves to lie upon in our
+     clothes. We did in this condition sleep as gently and soundly as
+     if we had lain upon a down bed. The weather being extremely cold,
+     we had a great occasion for fire; but residing mostly in woods,
+     we used to get great quantity of faggots and kindle them, and so
+     sit round about them and warm ourselves. In this manner we spent
+     a quarter of a year, running up and down, sometimes one way and
+     sometimes another, through great forests and upon high mountains,
+     in deep snow and upon ice. And notwithstanding the sharpness of
+     the weather, the small stock of our provisions, and the marches
+     and counter-marches we were continually obliged to make, and
+     which gave us but seldom the opportunity of washing the only
+     shirt we had upon our back, not one amongst us fell sick. One
+     might have perceived in our visage a complexion as fresh as if we
+     had fed upon the most delicious meats, and at the end of the
+     season we found ourselves in a good disposition heartily to
+     commence the following campaign."[44]
+
+         [Footnote 44: Cavalier's "Memoirs of the Wars of the
+         Cevennes," pp. 111-114.]
+
+The campaign of 1703, the third year of the insurrection, began
+unfavourably for the Camisards. The ill-success of Count Broglie as
+commander of the royal forces in the Cevennes, determined Louis
+XIV.--from whom the true state of affairs could no longer be
+concealed--to supersede him by Marshal Montrevel, one of the ablest of
+his generals. The army of Languedoc was again reinforced by ten
+thousand of the best soldiers of France, drawn from the armies of
+Germany and Italy. It now consisted of three regiments of dragoons and
+twenty-four battalions of foot--of the Irish Brigade, the Miguelets,
+and the Languedoc fusiliers--which, with the local militia,
+constituted an effective force of not less than sixty thousand men!
+
+Such was the irresistible army, commanded by a marshal of France,
+three lieutenant-generals, three major-generals, and three
+brigadier-generals, now stationed in Languedoc, to crush the peasant
+insurrection. No wonder that the Camisard chiefs were alarmed when the
+intelligence reached them of this formidable force having been set in
+motion for their destruction.
+
+The first thing they determined upon was to effect a powerful
+diversion, and to extend, if possible, the area of the insurrection.
+For this purpose, Cavalier, at the head of eight hundred men,
+accompanied by thirty baggage mules, set out in the beginning of
+February, with the object of raising the Viverais, the north-eastern
+quarter of Languedoc, where the Camisards had numerous partizans. The
+snow was lying thick upon the ground when they set out; but the little
+army pushed northward, through Rochegude and Barjac. At the town of
+Vagnas they found their way barred by a body of six hundred militia,
+under the Count de Roure. These they attacked with great fury and
+speedily put to flight.
+
+But behind the Camisarde was a second and much stronger royalist
+force, eighteen hundred men, under Brigadier Julien, who had hastened
+up from Lussan upon Cavalier's track, and now hung upon his rear in
+the forest of Vagnas. Next morning the Camisards accepted battle,
+fought with their usual bravery, but having been trapped into an
+ambuscade, they were overpowered by numbers, and at length broke and
+fled in disorder, leaving behind them their mules, baggage, seven
+drums, and a quantity of arms, with some two hundred dead and
+wounded. Cavalier himself escaped with difficulty, and, after having
+been given up for lost, reached the rendez-vous at Bouquet in a state
+of complete exhaustion, Ravanel and Catinat having preceded him
+thither with, the remains of his broken army.
+
+Roland and Cavalier now altered their tactics. They resolved to avoid
+pitched battles such as that at Vagnas, where they were liable to be
+crushed at a blow, and to divide their forces into small detachments
+constantly on the move, harassing the enemy, interrupting their
+communications, and falling upon detached bodies whenever an
+opportunity for an attack presented itself.
+
+To the surprise of Montrevel, who supposed the Camisards finally
+crushed at Vagnas, the intelligence suddenly reached him of a
+multitude of attacks on fortified posts, burning of châteaux and
+churches, captures of convoys, and defeats of detached bodies of
+Royalists.
+
+Joany attacked Genouillac, cut to pieces the militia who defended it,
+and carried off their arms and ammunition, with other spoils, to the
+camp at Faux-des-Armes. Shortly after, in one of his incursions, he
+captured a convoy of forty mules laden with cloth, wine, and
+provisions for Lent; and, though hotly pursued by a much superior
+force, he succeeded in making his escape into the mountains.
+
+Castanet was not less active in the west--sacking and burning Catholic
+villages, and putting their inhabitants to the sword by way of
+reprisal for similar atrocities committed by the Royalists. At the
+same time, Montrevel pillaged and burned Euzet and St. Jean de
+Ceirarges, villages inhabited by Protestants; and there was not a
+hamlet but was liable at any moment to be sacked and destroyed by one
+or other of the contending parties.
+
+Nor was Roland idle. Being greatly in want of arms and ammunition, as
+well as of shoes and clothes for his men, he collected a considerable
+force, and made a descent, for the purpose of obtaining them, on the
+rich and populous towns of the south; more particularly on the
+manufacturing town of Ganges, where the Camisards had many friends.
+Although Roland, to divert the attention of Montrevel from Ganges,
+sent a detachment of his men into the neighbourhood of Nismes to raise
+the alarm there, it was not long before a large royalist force was
+directed against him.
+
+Hearing that Montrevel was marching upon Ganges, Roland hastily left
+for the north, but was overtaken near Pompignan by the marshal at the
+head of an army of regular horse and foot, including several regiments
+of local militia, Miguelets, marines, and Irish. The Royalists were
+posted in such a manner as to surround the Camisards, who, though they
+fought with their usual impetuosity, and succeeded in breaking through
+the ranks of their enemies, suffered a heavy loss in dead and wounded.
+Roland himself escaped with difficulty, and with his broken forces
+fled through Durfort to his stronghold at Mialet.
+
+After the battle, Marshal Montrevel returned to Ganges, where he
+levied a fine of ten thousand livres on the Protestant population,
+giving up their houses to pillage, and hanging a dozen of those who
+had been the most prominent in abetting the Camisards during their
+recent visit. At the game time, he reported to head-quarters at Paris
+that he had entirely destroyed the rebels, and that Languedoc was now
+"pacified."
+
+Much to his surprise, however, not many weeks elapsed before
+Cavalier, who had been laid up by the small-pox during Roland's
+expedition to Ganges, again appeared in the field, attacking convoys,
+entering the villages and carrying off arms, and spreading terror anew
+to the very gates of Nismes. He returned northwards by the valley of
+the Rhône, driving before him flocks and herds for the provisioning of
+his men, and reached his retreat at Bouquet in safety. Shortly after,
+he issued from it again, and descended upon Ners, where he destroyed a
+detachment of troops under Colonel de Jarnaud; next day he crossed the
+Gardon, and cut up a reinforcement intended for the garrison of
+Sommières; and the day after he was heard of in another place,
+attacking a convoy, and carrying off arms, ammunition, and provisions.
+
+Montrevel was profoundly annoyed at the failure of his efforts thus
+far to suppress the insurrection. It even seemed to increase and
+extend with every new measure taken to crush it. A marshal of France,
+at the head of sixty thousand men, he feared lest he should lose
+credit with his friends at court unless he were able at once to root
+out these miserable cowherds and wool-carders who continued to bid
+defiance to the royal authority which he represented; and he
+determined to exert himself with renewed vigour to exterminate them
+root and branch.
+
+In this state of irritation the intelligence was one day brought to
+the marshal while sitting over his wine after dinner at Nismes, that
+an assembly of Huguenots was engaged in worship in a mill situated on
+the canal outside the Port-des-Carmes. He at once ordered out a
+battalion of foot, marched on the mill, and surrounded it. The
+soldiers burst open the door, and found from two to three hundred
+women, children, and old men engaged in prayer; and proceeded to put
+them to the sword. But the marshal, impatient at the slowness of the
+butchery, ordered the men to desist and to fire the place. This order
+was obeyed, and the building, being for the most part of wood, was
+soon wrapped in flames, from amidst which rose the screams of women
+and children. All who tried to escape were bayoneted, or driven back
+into the burning mill. Every soul perished--all excepting a girl, who
+was rescued by one of Montrevel's servants. But the pitiless marshal
+ordered both the girl and her deliverer to be put to death. The former
+was hanged forthwith, but the lackey's life was spared at the
+intercession of some sisters of mercy accidentally passing the place.
+
+In the same savage and relentless spirit, Montrevel proceeded to
+extirpate the Huguenots wherever found. He caused all suspected
+persons in twenty-two parishes in the diocese of Nismes to be seized
+and carried off. The men were transported to North America, and the
+women and children imprisoned in the fortresses of Roussillon.
+
+But the most ruthless measures were those which were adopted in the
+Upper Cevennes: there nothing short of devastation would satisfy the
+marshal. Thirty-two parishes were completely laid waste; the cattle,
+grain, and produce which they contained were seized and carried into
+the towns of refuge garrisoned by the Royalists--Alais, Anduze,
+Florac, St. Hypolite, and Nismes--so that nothing should be left
+calculated to give sustenance to the rebels. Four hundred and
+sixty-six villages and hamlets were reduced to mere heaps of ashes and
+blackened ruins, and such of their inhabitants as were not slain by
+the soldiery fled with their families into the wilderness.
+
+All the principal villages inhabited by the Protestants were thus
+completely destroyed, together with their mills and barns, and every
+building likely to give them shelter. Mialet was sacked and
+burnt--Roland, still suffering from his wounds, being unable to strike
+a blow in defence of his stronghold. St. Julien was also plundered and
+levelled, and its inhabitants carried captive to Montpellier, where
+the women and children were imprisoned, and the men sent to the
+galleys.
+
+When Cavalier heard of the determination of Montrevel to make a desert
+of the country, he sent word to him that for every Huguenot village
+destroyed he would destroy two inhabited by the Romanists. Thus the
+sacking and burning on the one side was immediately followed by
+increased sacking and burning on the other. The war became one of
+mutual destruction and extermination, and the unfortunate inhabitants
+on both sides were delivered over to all the horrors of civil war.
+
+So far, however, from the Camisards being suppressed, the destruction
+of the dwellings of the Huguenots only served to swell their numbers,
+and they descended from their mountains upon the Catholics of the
+plains in increasing force and redoubled fury. Montlezan was utterly
+destroyed--all but the church, which was strongly barricaded, and
+resisted Cavalier's attempts to enter it. Aurillac, also, was in like
+manner sacked and gutted, and the destroying torrent swept over all
+the towns and villages of the Cevennes.
+
+Cavalier was so ubiquitous, so daring, and often so successful in his
+attacks, that of all the Camisard leaders he was held to be the most
+dangerous, and a high price was accordingly set upon his head by the
+governor. Hence many attempts were made to betray him. He was haunted
+by spies, some of whom even succeeded in obtaining admission to his
+ranks. More than once the spies were detected--it was pretended
+through prophetic influence--and immediately shot. But on one occasion
+Cavalier and his whole force narrowly escaped destruction through the
+betrayal of a pretended follower.
+
+While the Royalists were carrying destruction through the villages of
+the Upper Cevennes, Cavalier, Salomon, and Abraham, in order to divert
+them from their purpose, resolved upon another descent into the low
+country, now comparatively ungarrisoned. With this object they
+gathered together some fifteen hundred men, and descended from the
+mountains by Collet, intending to cross the Gardon at Beaurivage. On
+Sunday, the 29th of April, they halted in the wood of Malaboissière, a
+little north of Mialet, for a day's preaching and worship; and after
+holding three services, which were largely attended, they directed
+their steps to the Tower of Belliot, a deserted farmhouse on the south
+of the present high road between Alais and Anduze.
+
+The house had been built on the ruins of a feudal castle, and took its
+name from one of the old towers still standing. It was surrounded by a
+dry stone wall, forming a court, the entrance to which was closed by
+hurdles. On their arrival at this place late at night, the Camisards
+partook of the supper which had been prepared for them by their
+purveyor on the occasion--a miller of the neighbourhood, named
+Guignon--whose fidelity was assured not only by his apparent piety,
+but by the circumstance that two of his sons belonged to Cavalier's
+band.
+
+No sooner, however, had the Camisards lain down to sleep than the
+miller, possessed by the demon of gold, set out directly for Alais,
+about three miles distant, and, reaching the quarters of Montrevel,
+sold the secret of Cavalier's sleeping-place to the marshal for fifty
+pieces of gold, and together with it the lives of his own sons and
+their fifteen hundred companions.
+
+The marshal forthwith mustered all the available troops in Alais,
+consisting of eight regiments of foot (of which one was Irish) and two
+of dragoons, and set out at once for the Tower of Belliot, taking the
+precaution to set a strict guard upon all the gates, to prevent the
+possibility of any messenger leaving the place to warn Cavalier of his
+approach. The Royalists crept towards the tower in three bodies, so as
+to cut off their retreat in every direction. Meanwhile, the Camisards,
+unapprehensive of danger, lay wrapped in slumber, filling the tower,
+the barns, the stables, and outhouses.
+
+The night was dark, and favoured the Royalists' approach. Suddenly,
+one of their divisions came upon the advanced Camisard sentinels. They
+fired, but were at once cut down. Those behind fled back to the
+sleeping camp, and raised the cry of alarm. Cavalier started up,
+calling his men "to arms," and, followed by about four hundred, he
+precipitated himself on the heads of the advancing columns. Driven
+back, they rallied again, more troops coming up to their support, and
+again they advanced to the attack.
+
+To his dismay, Cavalier found the enemy in overwhelming force,
+enveloping his whole position. By great efforts he held them back
+until some four or five hundred more of his men had joined him, and
+then he gave way and retired behind a ravine or hollow, probably
+forming part of the fosse of the ancient château. Having there rallied
+his followers, he recrossed the ravine to make another desperate
+effort to relieve the remainder of his troop shut up in the tower.
+
+A desperate encounter followed, in the midst of which two of the
+royalist columns, mistaking each other for enemies in the darkness,
+fired into each other and increased the confusion and the carnage. The
+moon rose on this dreadful scene, and revealed to the Royalists the
+smallness of the force opposed to them. The struggle was renewed again
+and again; Cavalier still seeking to relieve those shut up in the
+tower, and the Royalists, now concentrated and in force, to surround
+and destroy him.
+
+At length, after the struggle had lasted for about five hours,
+Cavalier, in order to save the rest of his men, resolved on retiring
+before daybreak; and he succeeded in effecting his retreat without
+being pursued by the enemy.
+
+The three hundred Camisards who continued shut up in the tower refused
+to surrender. They transformed the ruin into a fortress, barricading
+every entrance, and firing from every loophole. When their ammunition
+was expended, they hurled stones, joists, and tiles down upon their
+assailants from the summit of the tower. For four more hours they
+continued to hold out. Cannon were sent for from Alais, to blow in the
+doors; but before they arrived all was over. The place had been set on
+fire by hand grenades, and the imprisoned Camisards, singing psalms
+amidst the flames to their last breath, perished to a man.
+
+This victory cost Montrevel dear. He lost some twelve hundred dead and
+wounded before the fatal Tower of Belliot; whilst Cavalier's loss was
+not less than four hundred dead, of whom a hundred and eighteen were
+found at daybreak along the brink of the ravine. One of these was
+mistaken for the body of Cavalier; on which Montrevel, with
+characteristic barbarity, ordered the head to be cut off and sent to
+_Cavalier's mother_ for identification!
+
+From the slight glimpses we obtain of the _man_ Montrevel in the
+course of these deplorable transactions, there seems to have been
+something ineffably mean and spiteful in his nature. Thus, on another
+occasion, in a fit of rage at having been baffled by the young
+Camisard leader, he dispatched a squadron of dragoons to Ribaute for
+the express purpose of pulling down the house in which Cavalier had
+been born!
+
+A befitting sequel to this sanguinary struggle at the Tower of Belliot
+was the fate of Guignon, the miller, who had betrayed the sleeping
+Camisards to Montrevel. His crime was discovered. The gold was found
+upon him. He was tried, and condemned to death. The Camisards, under
+arms, assembled to see the sentence carried out. They knelt round the
+doomed man, while the prophets by turn prayed for his soul, and
+implored the clemency of the Sovereign Judge. Guignon professed the
+utmost contrition, besought the pardon of his brethren, and sought
+leave to embrace for the last time his two sons--privates in the
+Camisard ranks. The two young men, however, refused the proffered
+embrace with a gesture of apparent disgust; and they looked on, the
+sad and stern spectators of the traitor's punishment.
+
+Again Montrevel thought he had succeeded in crushing the insurrection,
+and that he had cut off its head with that of the Camisard chief. But
+his supposed discovery of the dead body proved an entire mistake; and
+not many days elapsed before Cavalier made his appearance before the
+gates of Alais, and sent in a challenge to the governor to come out
+and fight him. And it is to be observed that by this time a fiercely
+combative spirit, of fighting for fighting's sake, began to show
+itself among the Camisards. Thus, Castanet appeared one day before the
+gates of Meyreuis, where the regiment of Cordes was stationed, and
+challenged the colonel to come out and fight him in the open; but the
+challenge was declined. On another occasion, Cavalier in like manner
+challenged the commander of Vic to bring out thirty of his soldiers
+and fight thirty Camisards. The challenge was accepted, and the battle
+took place; they fought until ten men only remained alive on either
+side, but the Camisards were masters of the field.
+
+Montrevel only redoubled his efforts to exterminate the Camisards. He
+had no other policy. In the summer of 1703 the Pope (Clement XI.) came
+to his assistance, issuing a bull against the rebels as being of "the
+execrable race of the ancient Albigenses," and promising "absolute and
+general remission of sins" to all such as should join the holy militia
+of Louis XIV. in "exterminating the cursed heretics and miscreants,
+enemies alike of God and of Cæsar."
+
+A special force was embodied with this object--the Florentines, or
+"White Camisards"--distinguished by the white cross which they wore in
+front of their hats. They were for the most part composed of
+desperadoes and miscreants, and went about pillaging and burning, with
+so little discrimination between friend and foe, that the Catholics
+themselves implored the marshal to suppress them. These Florentines
+were the perpetrators of such barbarities that Roland determined to
+raise a body of cavalry to hunt them down; and with that object,
+Catinat, the old dragoon, went down to the Camargues--a sort of
+island-prairies lying between the mouths of the Rhône--where the Arabs
+had left a hardy breed of horses; and there he purchased some two
+hundred steeds wherewith to mount the Camisard horse, to the command
+of which Catinat was himself appointed.
+
+It is unnecessary to particularise the variety of combats, of
+marchings and countermarchings, which occurred during the progress of
+the insurrection. Between the contending parties, the country was
+reduced to a desert. Tillage ceased, for there was no certainty of the
+cultivator reaping the crop; more likely it would be carried off or
+burnt by the conflicting armies. Beggars and vagabonds wandered about
+robbing and plundering without regard to party or religion; and social
+security was entirely at an end.
+
+Meanwhile, Montrevel still called for more troops. Of the twenty
+battalions already entrusted to him, more than one-third had perished;
+and still the insurrection was not suppressed. He hoped, however, that
+the work was now accomplished; and, looking to the wasted condition of
+the country, that the famine and cold of the winter of 1703-4 would
+complete the destruction of such of the rebels as still survived.
+
+During the winter, however, the Camisard chiefs had not only been able
+to keep their forces together, but to lay up a considerable store of
+provisions and ammunition, principally by captures from the enemy; and
+in the following spring they were in a position to take the field in
+even greater force than ever. They, indeed, opened the campaign by
+gaining two important victories over the Royalists; but though they
+were their greatest, they were also nearly their last.
+
+The battle of Martinargues was the Cannæ of the Camisards. It was
+fought near the village of that name, not far from Ners, early in the
+spring of 1704. The campaign had been opened by the Florentines, who,
+now that they had made a desert of the Upper Cevennes, were burning
+and ravaging the Protestant villages of the plain. Cavalier had put
+himself on their track, and pursued and punished them so severely,
+that in their distress they called upon Montrevel to help them,
+informing him of the whereabouts of the Camisards.
+
+A strong royalist force of horse and foot was immediately sent in
+pursuit, under the command of Brigadier Lajonquière. He first marched
+upon the Protestant village of Lascours, where Cavalier had passed the
+previous night. The brigadier severely punished the inhabitants for
+sheltering the Camisards, putting to death four persons, two of them
+girls, whom he suspected to be Cavalier's prophetesses. On the people
+refusing to indicate the direction in which the Camisards had gone, he
+gave the village up to plunder, and the soldiers passed several hours
+ransacking the place, in the course of which they broke open and
+pillaged the wine-cellars.
+
+Meanwhile, Cavalier and his men had proceeded in a northerly
+direction, along the right bank of the little river Droude, one of the
+affluents of the Gardon. A messenger from Lascours overtook him,
+telling him of the outrages committed on the inhabitants of the
+village; and shortly after, the inhabitants of Lascours themselves
+came up--men, women, and children, who had been driven from their
+pillaged homes by the royalist soldiery. Cavalier was enraged at the
+recital of their woes; and though his force was not one-sixth the
+strength of the enemy, he determined to meet their advance and give
+them battle.
+
+Placing the poor people of Lascours in safety, the Camisard leader
+took up his position on a rising ground at the head of a little valley
+close to the village of Martinargues. Cavalier himself occupied the
+centre, his front being covered by a brook running in the hollow of a
+ravine. Ravanel and Catinat, with a small body of men, were posted
+along the two sides of the valley, screened by brushwood. The
+approaching Royalists, seeing before them only the feeble force of
+Cavalier, looked upon his capture as certain.
+
+"See!" cried Lajonquière, "at last we have hold of the Barbets we have
+been so long looking for!" With his dragoons in the centre, flanked by
+the grenadiers and foot, the Royalists advanced with confidence to the
+charge. At the first volley, the Camisards prostrated themselves, and
+the bullets went over their heads. Thinking they had fallen before his
+fusillade, the commander ordered his men to cross the ravine and fall
+upon the remnant with the bayonet. Instantly, however, Cavalier's men
+started to their feet, and smote the assailants with a deadly volley,
+bringing down men and horses. At the same moment, the two wings, until
+then concealed, fired down upon the Royalists and completed their
+confusion. The Camisards, then raising their battle-psalm, rushed
+forward and charged the enemy. The grenadiers resisted stoutly, but
+after a few minutes the entire body--dragoons, grenadiers, marines,
+and Irish--fled down the valley towards the Gardon, and the greater
+number of those who were not killed were drowned, Lajonquière himself
+escaping with difficulty.
+
+In this battle perished a colonel, a major, thirty-three captains and
+lieutenants, and four hundred and fifty men, while Cavalier's loss was
+only about twenty killed and wounded. A great booty was picked up on
+the field, of gold, silver, jewels, ornamented swords, magnificent
+uniforms, scarfs, and clothing, besides horses, as well as the plunder
+brought from Lascours.
+
+The opening of the Lascours wine-cellars proved the ruin of the
+Royalists, for many of the men were so drunk that they were unable
+either to fight or fly. After returning thanks to God on the
+battle-field, Cavalier conducted the rejoicing people of Lascours back
+to their village, and proceeded to his head-quarters at Bouquet with
+his booty and his trophies.
+
+Another encounter shortly followed at the Bridge of Salindres, about
+midway between Auduze and St. Jean du Gard, in which Roland inflicted
+an equally decisive defeat on a force commanded by Brigadier Lalande.
+Informed of the approach of the Royalists, Roland posted his little
+army in the narrow, precipitous, and rocky valley, along the bottom of
+which runs the river Gardon. Dividing his men into three bodies, he
+posted one on the bridge, another in ambuscade at the entrance to the
+defile, and a third on the summit of the precipice overhanging the
+road.
+
+The Royalists had scarcely advanced to the attack of the bridge, when
+the concealed Camisards rushed out and assailed their rear, while
+those stationed above hurled down rocks and stones, which threw them
+into complete disorder. They at once broke and fled, rushing down to
+the river, into which they threw themselves; and but for Roland's
+neglect in guarding the steep footpath leading to the ford at the
+mill, the whole body would have been destroyed. As it was, they
+suffered heavy loss, the general himself escaping with difficulty,
+leaving his white-plumed hat behind him in the hands of the Camisards.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+END OF THE CAMISARD INSURRECTION.
+
+
+The insurrection in the Cevennes had continued for more than two
+years, when at length it began to excite serious uneasiness at
+Versailles. It was felt to be a source of weakness as well as danger
+to France, then at war with Portugal, England, and Savoy. What
+increased the alarm of the French Government was the fact that the
+insurgents were anxiously looking abroad for help, and endeavouring to
+excite the Protestant governments of the North to strike a blow in
+their behalf.
+
+England and Holland had been especially appealed to. Large numbers of
+Huguenot soldiers were then serving in the English army; and it was
+suggested that if they could effect a landing on the coast of
+Languedoc, and co-operate with the Camisards, it would at the same
+time help the cause of religious liberty, and operate as a powerful
+diversion in favour of the confederate armies, then engaged with the
+armies of France in the Low Countries and on the Rhine.
+
+In order to ascertain the feasibility of the proposed landing, and the
+condition of the Camisard insurgents, the ministry of Queen Anne sent
+the Marquis de Miremont, a Huguenot refugee in England, on a mission
+to the Cevennes; and he succeeded in reaching the insurgent camp at
+St. Felix, where he met Roland and the other leaders, and arranged
+with them for the descent of a body of Huguenot soldiers on the coast.
+
+In the month of September, 1703, the English fleet was descried in the
+Gulf of Lyons, off Aiguesmortes, making signals, which, however, were
+not answered. Marshal Montrevel had been warned of the intended
+invasion; and, summoning troops from all quarters, he so effectually
+guarded the coast, that a landing was found impracticable. Though
+Cavalier was near at hand, he was unable at any point to communicate
+with the English ships; and after lying off for a few days, they
+spread their sails, and the disheartened Camisards saw their intended
+liberators disappear in the distance.
+
+The ministers of Louis XIV. were greatly alarmed by this event. The
+invasion had been frustrated for the time, but the English fleet might
+return, and eventually succeed in effecting a landing. The danger,
+therefore, had to be provided against, and at once. It became clear,
+even to Louis XIV. himself, that the system of terror and coercion
+which had heretofore been exclusively employed against the insurgents,
+had proved a total failure. It was accordingly determined to employ
+some other means, if possible, of bringing this dangerous insurrection
+to an end. In pursuance of this object, Montrevel, to his intense
+mortification, was recalled, and the celebrated Marshal Villars, the
+victor of Hochstadt and Friedlingen, was appointed in his stead, with
+full powers to undertake and carry out the pacification of Languedoc.
+
+Villars reached Nismes towards the end of August, 1704; but before his
+arrival, Montrevel at last succeeded in settling accounts with
+Cavalier, and wiped out many old scores by inflicting upon him the
+severest defeat the Camisard arms had yet received. It was his first
+victory over Cavalier, and his last.
+
+Cavalier's recent successes had made him careless. Having so often
+overcome the royal troops against great odds, he began to think
+himself invincible, and to despise his enemy. His success at
+Martinargues had the effect of greatly increasing his troops; and he
+made a descent upon the low country in the spring of 1704, at the head
+of about a thousand foot and two hundred horse.
+
+Appearing before Bouciran, which he entered without resistance, he
+demolished the fortifications, and proceeded southwards to St. Géniès,
+which he attacked and took, carrying away horses, mules, and arms.
+Next day he marched still southward to Caveirac, only about three
+miles east of Nismes.
+
+Montrevel designedly published his intention of taking leave of his
+government on a certain day, and proceeding to Montpellier with only a
+very slender force--pretending to send the remainder to Beaucaire, in
+the opposite direction, for the purpose of escorting Villars, his
+successor, into the city. His object in doing this was to deceive the
+Camisard leader, and to draw him into a trap.
+
+The intelligence became known to Cavalier, who now watched the
+Montpellier road, for the purpose of inflicting a parting blow upon
+his often-baffled enemy. Instead, however, of Montrevel setting out
+for Montpellier with a small force, he mustered almost the entire
+troops belonging to the garrison of Nismes--over six thousand horse
+and foot--and determined to overwhelm Cavalier, who lay in his way.
+Montrevel divided his force into several bodies, and so disposed them
+as completely to surround the comparatively small Camisard force,
+near Langlade. The first encounter was with the royalist regiment of
+Firmarcon, which Cavalier completely routed; but while pursuing them
+too keenly, the Camisards were assailed in flank by a strong body of
+foot posted in vineyards along the road, and driven back upon the main
+body. The Camisards now discovered that a still stronger battalion was
+stationed in their rear; and, indeed, wherever they turned, they saw
+the Royalists posted in force. There was no alternative but cutting
+their way through the enemy; and Cavalier, putting himself at the head
+of his men, led the way, sword in hand.
+
+A terrible struggle ensued, and the Camisards at last reached the
+bridge at Rosni; but there, too, the Royalists were found blocking the
+road, and crowding the heights on either side. Cavalier, to avoid
+recognition, threw off his uniform, and assumed the guise of a simple
+Camisard. Again he sought to force his way through the masses of the
+enemy. His advance was a series of hand-to-hand fights, extending over
+some six miles, and the struggle lasted for nearly the entire day.
+More than a thousand dead strewed the roads, of whom one half were
+Camisards. The Royalists took five drums, sixty-two horses, and four
+mules laden with provisions, but not one prisoner.
+
+When Villars reached Nismes and heard of this battle, he went to see
+the field, and expressed his admiration at the skill and valour of the
+Camisard chief. "Here is a man," said he, "of no education, without
+any experience in the art of war, who has conducted himself under the
+most difficult and delicate circumstances as if he had been a great
+general. Truly, to fight such a battle were worthy of Cæsar!"
+
+Indeed, the conduct of Cavalier in this struggle so impressed Marshal
+Villars, that he determined, if possible, to gain him over, together
+with his brave followers, to the ranks of the royal army. Villars was
+no bigot, but a humane and honourable man, and a thorough soldier. He
+deplored the continuance of this atrocious war, and proceeded to take
+immediate steps to bring it, if possible, to a satisfactory
+conclusion.
+
+In the meantime, however, the defeat of the Camisards had been
+followed by other reverses. During the absence of Cavalier in the
+South, the royalist general Lalande, at the head of five thousand
+troops, fell upon the joint forces of Roland and Joany at Brenoux, and
+completely defeated them. The same general lay in wait for the return
+of Cavalier with his broken forces, to his retreat near Euzet; and on
+his coming up, the Royalists, in overpowering numbers, fell upon the
+dispirited Camisards, and inflicted upon them another heavy loss.
+
+But a greater calamity, if possible, was the discovery and capture of
+Cavalier's magazines in the caverns near Euzet. The royalist soldiers,
+having observed an old woman frequently leaving the village for the
+adjoining wood with a full basket and returning with an empty one,
+suspected her of succouring the rebels, arrested her, and took her
+before the general. When questioned at first she would confess
+nothing; on which she was ordered forthwith to be hanged. When taken
+to the gibbet in the market-place, however, the old woman's resolution
+gave way, and she entreated to be taken back to the general, when she
+would confess everything. She then acknowledged that she had the care
+of an hospital in the adjoining wood, and that her daily errands had
+been thither. She was promised pardon if she led the soldiers at once
+to the place; and she did so, a battalion following at her heels.
+
+Advancing into the wood, the old woman led the soldiers to the mouth
+of a cavern, into which she pointed, and the men entered. The first
+sight that met their eyes was a number of sick and wounded Camisards
+lying upon couches along ledges cut in the rock. They were immediately
+put to death. Entering further into the cavern, the soldiers were
+surprised to find in an inner vault an immense magazine of grain,
+flour, chestnuts, beans, barrels of wine and brandy; farther in,
+stores of drugs, ointment, dressings, and hospital furnishings; and
+finally, an arsenal containing a large store of sabres, muskets,
+pistols, and gunpowder, together with the materials for making it; all
+of which the Royalists seized and carried off.
+
+Lalande, before leaving Euzet, inflicted upon it a terrible
+punishment. He gave it up to pillage, then burnt it to the ground, and
+put the inhabitants to the sword--all but the old woman, who was left
+alone amidst the corpses and ashes of the ruined village. Lalande
+returned in triumph to Alais, some of his soldiers displaying on the
+points of their bayonets the ears of the slain Camisards.
+
+Other reverses followed in quick succession. Salomon was attacked near
+Pont-de-Montvert, the birthplace of the insurrection, and lost some
+eight hundred of his men. His magazines at Magistavols were also
+discovered and ransacked, containing, amongst other stores, twenty
+oxen and a hundred sheep.
+
+Thus, in four combats, the Camisards lost nearly half their forces,
+together with a large part of their arms, ammunition, and provisions.
+The country occupied by them had been ravaged and reduced to a state
+of desert, and there seemed but little prospect of their again being
+able to make head against their enemies.
+
+The loss of life during the last year of the insurrection had been
+frightful. Some twenty thousand men had perished--eight thousand
+soldiers, four thousand of the Roman Catholic population, and from
+seven to eight thousand Protestants.
+
+Villars had no sooner entered upon the functions of his office than he
+set himself to remedy this dreadful state of things. He was encouraged
+in his wise intentions by the Baron D'Aigalliers, a Protestant
+nobleman of high standing and great influence, who had emigrated into
+England at the Revocation, but had since returned. This nobleman
+entertained the ardent desire of reconciling the King with his
+Protestant subjects; and he was encouraged by the French Court to
+endeavour to bring the rebels of the Cevennes to terms.
+
+One of the first things Villars did, was to proceed on a journey
+through the devastated districts; and he could not fail to be
+horrified at the sight of the villages in ruins, the wasted vineyards,
+the untilled fields, and the deserted homesteads which met his eyes on
+every side. Wherever he went, he gave it out that he was ready to
+pardon all persons--rebels as well as their chiefs--who should lay
+down their arms and submit to the royal clemency; but that, if they
+continued obstinate and refused to submit, he would proceed against
+them to the last extremity. He even offered to put arms in the hands
+of such of the Protestant population as would co-operate with him in
+suppressing the insurrection.
+
+In the meantime, the defeated Camisards under Roland were reorganizing
+their forces, and preparing again to take the field. They were
+unwilling to submit themselves to the professed clemency of Villars,
+without some sufficient guarantee that their religious rights--in
+defence of which they had taken up arms--would be respected. Roland
+was already establishing new magazines in place of those which had
+been destroyed; he was again recruiting his brigades from the
+Protestant communes, and many of those who had recovered from their
+wounds again rallied under his standard.
+
+At this juncture, D'Aigalliers suggested to Villars that a negotiation
+should be opened directly with the Camisard chiefs to induce them to
+lay down their arms. Roland refused to listen to any overtures; but
+Cavalier was more accessible, and expressed himself willing to
+negotiate for peace provided his religion was respected and
+recognised.
+
+And Cavalier was right. He saw clearly that longer resistance was
+futile, that it could only end in increased devastation and
+destruction; and he was wise in endeavouring to secure the best
+possible terms under the circumstances for his suffering
+co-religionists. Roland, who refused all such overtures, was the more
+uncompromising and tenacious of purpose; but Cavalier, notwithstanding
+his extreme youth, was by far the more practical and politic of the
+two.
+
+There is no doubt also that Cavalier had begun to weary of the
+struggle. He became depressed and sad, and even after a victory he
+would kneel down amidst the dead and wounded, and pray to God that He
+would turn the heart of the King to mercy, and help to re-establish
+the ancient temples throughout the land.
+
+An interview with Cavalier was eventually arranged by Lalande. The
+brigadier invited him to a conference, guaranteeing him safe conduct,
+and intimating that if he refused the meeting, he would be regarded as
+the enemy of peace, and held responsible before God and man for all
+future bloodshed. Cavalier replied to Lalande's invitation, accepting
+the interview, indicating the place and the time of meeting.
+
+Catinat, the Camisard general of horse, was the bearer of Cavalier's
+letter, and he rode on to Alais to deliver it, arrayed in magnificent
+costume. Lalande was at table when Catinat was shown in to him.
+Observing the strange uniform and fierce look of the intruder, the
+brigadier asked who he was. "Catinat!" was the reply. "What," cried
+Lalande, "are you the Catinat who killed so many people in Beaucaire?"
+"Yes, it is I," said Catinat, "and I only endeavoured to do my duty."
+"You are hardy, indeed, to dare to show yourself before me." "I have
+come," said the Camisard, "in good faith, persuaded that you are an
+honest man, and on the assurance of my brother Cavalier that you would
+do me no harm. I come to deliver you his letter." And so saying, he
+handed it to the brigadier. Hastily perusing the letter, Lalande said,
+"Go back to Cavalier, and tell him that in two hours I shall be at the
+Bridge of Avène with only ten officers and thirty dragoons."
+
+The interview took place at the time appointed, on the bridge over the
+Avène, a few miles south of Alais. Cavalier arrived, attended by three
+hundred foot and sixty Camisard dragoons. When the two chiefs
+recognised each other, they halted their escorts, dismounted, and,
+followed by some officers, proceeded on foot to meet each other.
+
+Lalande had brought with him Cavalier's younger brother, who had been
+for some time a prisoner, and presented him, saying, "The King gives
+him to you in token of his merciful intentions." The brothers, who
+had not met since their mother's death, embraced and wept. Cavalier
+thanked the general; and then, leaving their officers, the two went on
+one side, and conferred together alone.
+
+"The King," said Lalande, "wishes, in the exercise of his clemency, to
+terminate this war amongst his subjects; what are your terms and your
+demands?" "They consist of three things," replied Cavalier: "liberty
+of worship; the deliverance of our brethren who are in prison and at
+the galleys; and, if the first condition be refused, then free
+permission to leave France." "How many persons would wish to leave the
+kingdom?" asked Lalande. "Ten thousand of various ages and both
+sexes." "Ten thousand! It is impossible! Leave might possibly be
+granted for two, but certainly not for ten." "Then," said Cavalier,
+"if the King will not allow us to leave the kingdom, he will at least
+re-establish our ancient edicts and privileges?"
+
+Lalande promised to report the result of the conference to the
+marshal, though he expressed a doubt whether he could agree to the
+terms proposed. The brigadier took leave of Cavalier by expressing the
+desire to be of service to him at any time; but he made a gross and
+indelicate mistake in offering his purse to the Camisard chief. "No,
+no!" said Cavalier, rejecting it with a look of contempt, "I wish for
+none of your gold, but only for religious liberty, or, if that be
+refused, for a safe conduct out of the kingdom."
+
+Lalande then asked to be taken up to the Camisard troop, who had been
+watching the proceedings of their leader with great interest. Coming
+up to them in the ranks, he said, "Here is a purse of a hundred louis
+with which to drink the King's health." Their reply was like their
+leader's, "We want no money, but liberty of conscience." "It is not
+in my power to grant you that," said the general, "but you will do
+well to submit to the King's will." "We are ready," said they, "to
+obey his orders, provided he grants our just demands; but if not, we
+are prepared to die arms in hand." And thus ended this memorable
+interview, which lasted for about two hours; Lalande and his followers
+returning to Alais, while Cavalier went with his troop in the
+direction of Vezenobres.
+
+Cavalier's enemies say that in the course of his interview with
+Lalande he was offered honours, rewards, and promotion, if he would
+enter the King's service; and it is added that Cavalier was tempted by
+these offers, and thereby proved false to his cause and followers. But
+it is more probable that Cavalier was sincere in his desire to come to
+fair terms with the King, observing the impossibility, under the
+circumstances, of prolonging the struggle against the royal armies
+with any reasonable prospect of success. If Cavalier were really
+bribed by any such promises of promotion, at all events such promises
+were never fulfilled; nor did the French monarch reward him in any way
+for his endeavours to bring the Camisard insurrection to an end.
+
+It was characteristic of Roland to hold aloof from these negotiations,
+and refuse to come to any terms whatever with "Baal." As if to
+separate himself entirely from Cavalier, he withdrew into the Upper
+Cevennes to resume the war. At the very time that Cavalier was holding
+the conference with the royalist general at the Bridge of the Avène,
+Roland and Joany, with a body of horse and foot, waylaid the Count de
+Tournou at the plateau of Font-morte--the place where Seguier, the
+first Camisard leader, had been defeated and captured--and suddenly
+fell upon the Royalists, putting them to flight.
+
+A rich booty fell into the hands of the Camisards, part of which
+consisted of the quarter's rental of the confiscated estate of Salgas,
+in the possession of the King's collector, Viala, whom the royalist
+troops were escorting to St. Jean de Gard. The collector, who had made
+himself notorious for his cruelty, was put to death after frightful
+torment, and his son and nephew were also shot. So far, therefore, as
+Roland and his associates were concerned, there appeared to be no
+intention of surrender or compromise; and Villars was under the
+necessity of prosecuting the war against them to the last extremity.
+
+In the meantime, Cavalier was hailed throughout the low country as the
+pacificator of Languedoc. The people on both sides had become heartily
+sick of the war, and were glad to be rid of it on any terms that
+promised peace and security for the future. At the invitation of
+Marshal Villars, Cavalier proceeded towards Nismes, and his march from
+town to town was one continuous ovation. He was eagerly welcomed by
+the population; and his men were hospitably entertained by the
+garrisons of the places through which they passed. Every liberty was
+allowed him; and not a day passed without a religious meeting being
+held, accompanied with public preaching, praying, and psalm-singing.
+At length Cavalier and his little army approached the neighbourhood of
+Nismes, where his arrival was anticipated with extraordinary interest.
+
+The beautiful old city had witnessed many strange sights; but probably
+the entry of the young Camisard chief was one of the most remarkable
+of all. This herd-boy and baker's apprentice of the Cevennes, after
+holding at bay the armies of France for nearly three years, had come
+to negotiate a treaty of peace with its most famous general. Leaving
+the greater part of his cavalry and the whole of his infantry at St.
+Césaire, a few miles from Nismes, Cavalier rode towards the town
+attended by eighteen horsemen commanded by Catinat. On approaching the
+southern gate, he found an immense multitude waiting his arrival. "He
+could not have been more royally welcomed," said the priest of St.
+Germain, "had he been a king."
+
+Cavalier rode at the head of his troop gaily attired; for fine dress
+was one of the weaknesses of the Camisard chiefs. He wore a
+tight-fitting doeskin coat ornamented with gold lace, scarlet
+breeches, a muslin cravat, and a large beaver with a white plume; his
+long fair hair hanging over his shoulders. Catinat rode by his side on
+a high-mettled charger, attracting all eyes by his fine figure, his
+martial air, and his magnificent costume. Cavalier's faithful friend,
+Daniel Billard, rode on his left; and behind followed his little
+brother in military uniform, between the Baron d'Aigalliers and
+Lacombe, the agents for peace.
+
+The cavalcade advanced through the dense crowd, which could with
+difficulty be kept back, past the Roman Amphitheatre, and along the
+Rue St. Antoine, to the Garden of the Récollets, a Franciscan convent,
+nearly opposite the elegant Roman temple known as the Maison
+Carrée.[45] Alighting from his horse at the gate, and stationing his
+guard there under the charge of Catinat, Cavalier entered the garden,
+and was conducted to Marshal Villars, with whom was Baville, intendant
+of the province; Baron Sandricourt, governor of Nismes; General
+Lalande, and other dignitaries. Cavalier looked such a mere boy, that
+Villars at first could scarcely believe that it was the celebrated
+Camisard chief who stood before him. The marshal, however, advanced
+several steps, and addressed some complimentary words to Cavalier, to
+which he respectfully replied.
+
+         [Footnote 45: The Nismes Theatre now occupies part of the
+         Jardin des Récollets.]
+
+The conference then began and proceeded, though not without frequent
+interruptions from Baville, who had so long regarded Cavalier as a
+despicable rebel, that he could scarcely brook the idea of the King's
+marshal treating with him on anything like equal terms. But the
+marshal checked the intendant by reminding him that he had no
+authority to interfere in a matter which the King had solely entrusted
+to himself. Then turning to Cavalier, he asked him to state his
+conditions for a treaty of peace.
+
+Cavalier has set forth in his memoirs the details of the conditions
+proposed by him, and which he alleges were afterwards duly agreed to
+and signed by Villars and Baville, on the 17th of May, 1704, on the
+part of the King. The first condition was liberty of conscience, with
+the privilege of holding religious assemblies in country places. This
+was agreed to, subject to the Protestant temples not being rebuilt.
+The second--that all Protestants in prison or at the galleys should be
+set at liberty within six weeks from the date of the treaty--was also
+agreed to. The third--that all who had left the kingdom on account of
+their religion should have liberty to return, and be restored to their
+estates and privileges--was agreed to, subject to their taking the
+oath of allegiance. The fourth--as to the re-establishment of the
+parliament of Languedoc on its ancient footing--was promised
+consideration. The fifth and sixth--that the province should be free
+from capitation tax for ten years, and that the Protestants should
+hold Montpellier, Cette, Perpignan, and Aiguesmortes, as cautionary
+towns--were refused. The seventh--that those inhabitants of the
+Cevennes whose houses had been burnt during the civil war should pay
+no imposts for seven years--was granted. And the eighth--that Cavalier
+should raise a regiment of dragoons to serve the King in Portugal--was
+also granted.
+
+These conditions are said to have been agreed to on the distinct
+understanding that the insurrection should forthwith cease, and that
+all persons in arms against the King should lay them down and submit
+themselves to his majesty's clemency.
+
+The terms having been generally agreed to, Cavalier respectfully took
+his leave of the marshal, and returned to his comrades at the gate.
+But Catinat and the Camisard guard had disappeared. The conference had
+lasted two hours, during which Cavalier's general of horse had become
+tired of waiting, and gone with his companions to refresh himself at
+the sign of the Golden Cup. On his way thither, he witched the world
+of Nismes with his noble horsemanship, making his charger bound and
+prance and curvet, greatly to the delight of the immense crowd that
+followed him.
+
+On the return of the Camisard guard to the Récollets, Cavalier mounted
+his horse, and, escorted by them, proceeded to the Hôtel de la Poste,
+where he rested. In the evening, he came out on the Esplanade, and
+walked freely amidst the crowd, amongst whom were many ladies, eager
+to see the Camisard hero, and happy if they could but hear him speak,
+or touch his dress. He then went to visit the mother of Daniel, his
+favourite prophet, a native of Nismes, whose father and brother were
+both prisoners because of their religion. Returning to the hotel,
+Cavalier mustered his guard, and set out for Calvisson, followed by
+hundreds of people, singing together as they passed through the town
+gate the 133rd Psalm--"Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for
+brethren to dwell together in unity!"
+
+Cavalier remained with his companions at Calvisson for eight days,
+during which he enjoyed the most perfect freedom of action. He held
+public religious services daily, at first amidst the ruins of the
+demolished Protestant temple, and afterwards, when the space was
+insufficient, in the open plain outside the town walls. People came
+from all quarters to attend them--from the Vaunage, from Sommières,
+from Lunel, from Nismes, and even from Montpellier. As many as forty
+thousand persons are said to have resorted to the services during
+Cavalier's sojourn at Calvisson. The plains resounded with preaching
+and psalmody from morning until evening, sometimes until late at
+night, by torchlight.
+
+These meetings were a great cause of offence to the more bigoted of
+the Roman Catholics, who saw in them the triumph of their enemies.
+They muttered audibly against the policy of Villars, who was
+tolerating if not encouraging heretics--worthy, in their estimation,
+only of perdition. Fléchier, Bishop of Nismes, was full of
+lamentations on the subject, and did not scruple to proclaim that war,
+with all its horrors, was even more tolerable than such a peace as
+this.
+
+Unhappily, the peace proved only of short duration, and Cavalier's
+anticipations of unity and brotherly love were not destined to be
+fulfilled. Whether Roland was jealous of the popularity achieved by
+Cavalier, or suspected treachery on the part of the Royalists, or
+whether he still believed in the ability of his followers to conquer
+religious liberty and compel the re-establishment of the ancient
+edicts by the sword, does not clearly appear. At all events, he
+refused to be committed in any way by what Cavalier had done; and when
+the treaty entered into with Villars was submitted to Roland for
+approval, he refused to sign it. A quarrel had almost occurred between
+the chiefs, and hot words passed between them. But Cavalier controlled
+himself, and still hoped to persuade Roland to adopt a practicable
+course, and bring the unhappy war to a conclusion.
+
+It was at length agreed between them that a further effort should be
+made to induce Villars to grant more liberal terms, particularly with
+respect to the rebuilding of the Protestant temples; and Cavalier
+consented that Salomon should accompany him to an interview with the
+marshal, and endeavour to obtain such a modification of the treaty as
+should meet Roland's views. Accordingly, another meeting shortly after
+took place in the Garden of the Récollets at Nismes, Cavalier leaving
+it to Salomon to be the spokesman on the occasion.
+
+But Salomon proved as uncompromising as his chief. He stated his
+_ultimatum_ bluntly and firmly--re-establishment of the Edict of
+Nantes, and complete liberty of conscience. On no other terms, he
+said, would the Camisards lay down their arms. Villars was courtly and
+polite as usual, but he was as firm as Salomon. He would adhere to the
+terms that had been agreed to, but could not comply with the
+conditions proposed. The discussion lasted for two hours, and at
+length became stormy and threatening on the part of Salomon, on which
+the marshal turned on his heel and left the apartment.
+
+Cavalier's followers had not yet been informed of the conditions of
+the treaty into which he had entered with Villars, but they had been
+led to believe that the Edict was to be re-established and liberty of
+worship restored. Their suspicions had already been roused by the
+hints thrown out by Ravanel, who was as obdurate as Roland in his
+refusal to lay down his arms until the Edict had been re-established.
+
+While Cavalier was still at Nismes, on his second mission to Villars,
+accompanied by Salomon, Ravanel, who had been left in charge of the
+troop at Calvisson, assembled the men, and told them he feared they
+were being betrayed--that they were to be refused this free exercise
+of their religion in temples of their own, but were to be required to
+embark as King's soldiers on shipboard, perhaps to perish at sea.
+"Brethren," said he, "let us cling by our own native land, and live
+and die for the Eternal." The men enthusiastically applauded the stern
+resolve of Ravanel, and awaited with increasing impatience the return
+of the negotiating chief.
+
+On Cavalier's return to his men, he found, to his dismay, that instead
+of being welcomed back with the usual cordiality, they were drawn up
+in arms under Ravanel, and received him in silence, with angry and
+scowling looks. He upbraided Ravanel for such a reception, on which
+the storm immediately burst. "What is the treaty, then," cried
+Ravanel, "that thou hast made with this marshal?"
+
+Cavalier, embarrassed, evaded the inquiry; but Ravanel, encouraged by
+his men, proceeded to press for the information. "Well," said
+Cavalier, "it is arranged that we shall go to serve in Portugal."
+There was at once a violent outburst from the ranks. "Traitor! coward!
+then thou hast sold us! But we shall have no peace--no peace without
+our temples."
+
+At sound of the loud commotion and shouting, Vincel, the King's
+commissioner, who remained at Calvisson pending the negotiations, came
+running up, and the men in their rage would have torn him to pieces,
+but Cavalier threw himself in their way, exclaiming, "Back, men! Do
+him no harm, kill me instead." His voice, his gesture, arrested the
+Camisards, and Vincel turned and fled for his life.
+
+Ravanel then ordered the _générale_ to be beaten. The men drew up in
+their ranks, and putting himself at their head, Ravanel marched them
+out of Calvisson by the northern gate. Cavalier, humiliated and
+downcast, followed the troop--their leader no more. He could not part
+with them thus--the men he had so often led to victory, and who had
+followed him so devotedly--but hung upon their rear, hoping they would
+yet relent and return to him as their chief.
+
+Catinat, his general of horse, observing Cavalier following the men,
+turned upon him. "Whither wouldst thou go, traitor?" cried Catinat.
+What! Catinat, of all others, to prove unfaithful? Yet it was so!
+Catinat even, presented his pistol at his former chief, but he did not
+fire.
+
+Cavalier would not yet turn back. He hung upon the skirts of the
+column, entreating, supplicating, adjuring the men, by all their
+former love for him, to turn, and follow him. But they sternly marched
+on, scarcely even deigning to answer him. Ravanel endeavoured to drive
+him back by reproaches, which at length so irritated Cavalier, that he
+drew his sword, and they were about to rush at each other, when one
+of the prophets ran between them and prevented bloodshed.
+
+Cavalier did not desist from following them for several miles, until
+at length, on reaching St. Estève, the men were appealed to as to whom
+they would follow, and they declared themselves for Ravanel. Cavalier
+made a last appeal to their allegiance, and called out, "Let those who
+love me, follow me!" About forty of his old adherents detached
+themselves from the ranks, and followed Cavalier in the direction of
+Nismes. But the principal body remained with Ravanel, who, waving his
+sabre in the air, and shouting, "Vive l'Épée de l'Éternel!" turned his
+men's faces northward and marched on to rejoin Roland in the Upper
+Cevennes.
+
+Cavalier was completely prostrated by the desertion of his followers.
+He did not know where next to turn. He could not rejoin the Camisard
+camp nor enter the villages of the Cevennes, and he was ashamed to
+approach Villars, lest he should be charged with deceiving him. But he
+sent a letter to the marshal, informing him of the failure of his
+negotiations, the continued revolt of the Camisards, and their
+rejection of him as their chief. Villars, however, was gentle and
+generous; he was persuaded that Cavalier had acted loyally and in good
+faith throughout, and he sent a message by the Baron d'Aigalliers,
+urgently inviting him to return to Nismes and arrange as to the
+future. Cavalier accordingly set out forthwith, accompanied by his
+brother and the prophet Daniel, and escorted by the ten horsemen and
+thirty foot who still remained faithful to his person.
+
+It is not necessary further to pursue the history of Cavalier.
+Suffice it to say that, at the request of Marshal Villars, he
+proceeded to Paris, where he had an unsatisfactory interview with
+Louis XIV.; that fearing an intention on the part of the Roman
+Catholic party to make him a prisoner, he fled across the frontier
+into Switzerland; that he eventually reached England, and entered the
+English army, with the rank of Colonel; that he raised a regiment of
+refugee Frenchmen, consisting principally of his Camisard followers,
+at the head of whom he fought most valiantly at the battle of Almanza;
+that he was afterwards appointed governor of Jersey, and died a
+major-general in the British service in the year 1740, greatly
+respected by all who knew him.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Although Cavalier failed in carrying the treaty into effect, so far as
+he was concerned, his secession at this juncture proved a deathblow to
+the insurrection. The remaining Camisard leaders endeavoured in vain
+to incite that enthusiasm amongst their followers which had so often
+before led them to victory. The men felt that they were fighting
+without hope, and as it were with halters round their necks. Many of
+them began to think that Cavalier had been justified in seeking to
+secure the best terms practicable; and they dropped off, by tens and
+fifties, to join their former leader, whose head-quarters for some
+time continued to be at Vallabergue, an island in the Rhône a little
+above Beaucaire.
+
+The insurgents were also in a great measure disarmed by Marshal
+Villars, who continued to pursue a policy of clemency, and at the same
+time of severity. He offered a free pardon to all who surrendered
+themselves, but threatened death to all who continued to resist the
+royal troops. In sign of his clemency, he ordered the gibbets which
+had for some years stood _en permanence_ in all the villages of the
+Cevennes, to be removed; and he went from town to town, urging all
+well-disposed people, of both religions, to co-operate with him in
+putting an end to the dreadful civil war that had so long desolated
+the province.
+
+Moved by the marshal's eloquent appeals, the principal towns along the
+Gardon and the Vidourle appointed deputies to proceed in a body to the
+camp of Roland, and induce him if possible to accept the proffered
+amnesty. They waited upon him accordingly at his camp of St. Felix and
+told him their errand. But his answer was to order them at once to
+leave the place on pain of death.
+
+Villars himself sent messengers to Roland--amongst others the Baron
+d'Aigalliers--offering to guarantee that no one should be molested on
+account of his religion, provided he and his men would lay down their
+arms; but Roland remained inflexible--nothing short of complete
+religious liberty would induce him to surrender.
+
+Roland and Joany were still at the head of about a thousand men in the
+Upper Cevennes. Pont-de-Montvert was at the time occupied by a body of
+Miguelets, whom they determined if possible to destroy. Dividing their
+army into three bodies, they proceeded to assail simultaneously the
+three quarters of which the village is composed. But the commander of
+the Miguelets, informed of Roland's intention, was prepared to receive
+him. One of the Camisard wings was attacked at the same time in front
+and rear, thrown into confusion and defeated; and the other wings were
+driven back with heavy loss.
+
+This was Roland's last battle. About a month later--in August,
+1704--while a body of Camisards occupied the Château of Castelnau, not
+far from Ners, the place was suddenly surrounded at night by a body of
+royalist dragoons. The alarm was raised, and Roland, half-dressed,
+threw himself on horseback and fled. He was pursued, overtaken, and
+brought to a stand in a wood, where, setting his back to a tree he
+defended himself bravely for a time against overpowering numbers, but
+was at last shot through the heart by a dragoon, and the Camisard
+chief lay dead upon the ground.
+
+The insurrection did not long survive the death of Roland. The other
+chiefs wandered about from place to place with their followers, but
+they had lost heart and hope, and avoided further encounters with the
+royal forces. One after another of them surrendered. Castanet and
+Catinat both laid down their arms, and were allowed to leave France
+for Switzerland, accompanied by twenty-two of their men. Joany also
+surrendered with forty-six of his followers.
+
+One by one the other chiefs laid down their arms--all excepting
+Abraham and Ravanel, who preferred liberty and misery at home to peace
+and exile abroad. They continued for some time to wander about in the
+Upper Cevennes, hiding in the woods by day and sleeping in caves by
+night--hunted, deserted, and miserable. And thus at last was Languedoc
+pacified; and at the beginning of January, 1705, Marshal Villars
+returned to Versailles to receive the congratulations and honours of
+the King.
+
+Several futile attempts were afterwards made by the banished leaders
+to rekindle the insurrection from its embers, Catinat and Castanet,
+wearied of their inaction at Geneva, stole back across the frontier
+and rejoined Ravanel in the Cevennes; but their rashness cost them
+their lives. They were all captured and condemned to death. Castanet
+and Salomon were broken alive on the wheel on the Peyrou at
+Montpellier, and Catinat, Ravanel, with several others, were burnt
+alive on the Place de la Beaucaire at Nismes.
+
+The last to perish were Abraham and Joany. The one was shot while
+holding the royal troops at bay, firing upon them from the roof of a
+cottage at Mas-de-Couteau; the other was captured in the mountains
+near the source of the Tarn. He was on his way to prison, tied behind
+a trooper, like Rob Roy in Scott's novel, when, suddenly freeing
+himself from his bonds while crossing the bridge of Pont-de-Montvert,
+he slid from the horse, and leapt over the parapet into the Tarn. The
+soldiers at once opened fire upon the fugitive, and he fell, pierced
+with many balls, and was carried away in the torrent. And thus
+Pont-de-Montvert, which had seen the beginning, also saw the end of
+the insurrection.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+GALLEY-SLAVES FOR THE FAITH.
+
+
+After the death of the last of the Camisard leaders, there was no
+further effort at revolt. The Huguenots seemed to be entirely put
+down, and Protestantism completely destroyed. There was no longer any
+resistance nor protest. If there were any Huguenots who had not become
+Catholics, they remained mute. Force had at last succeeded in stifling
+them.
+
+A profound quiet reigned for a time throughout France. The country had
+become a circle, closely watched by armed men--by dragoons, infantry,
+archers, and coastguards--beyond which the Huguenots could not escape
+without running the risk of the prison, the galley, or the gibbet.
+
+The intendants throughout the kingdom flattered Louis XIV., and Louis
+XIV. flattered himself, that the Huguenots had either been converted,
+extirpated, or expelled the kingdom. The King had medals struck,
+announcing the "_extinction of heresy_." A proclamation to this effect
+was also published by the King, dated the 8th of March, 1715,
+declaring the entire conversion of the French Huguenots, and
+sentencing those who, after that date, relapsed from Catholicism to
+Protestantism, to all the penalties of heresy.
+
+What, then, had become of the Huguenots? They were for the moment
+prostrate, but their life had not gone out of them. Many were no doubt
+"converted." They had not strength to resist the pains and penalties
+threatened by the State if they refused. They accordingly attended
+Mass, and assisted in ceremonies which at heart they detested. Though
+they blushed at their apostasy, they were too much broken down and
+weary of oppression and suffering to attempt to be free.
+
+But though many Huguenots pretended to be "converted," the greater
+number silently refrained. They held their peace and bided their time.
+Meanwhile, however, they were subject to all the annoyances of
+persecution. Persecution had seized them from the day of their birth,
+and never relaxed its hold until the day of their death. Every
+new-born child must be taken to the priest to be baptized. When the
+children had grown into boys and girls, they must go to school and be
+educated, also by the priest. If their parents refused to send them,
+the children were forcibly seized, taken away, and brought up in the
+Jesuit schools and nunneries. And lastly, when grown up into young men
+and women, they must be married by the priest, or their offspring be
+declared illegitimate.
+
+The Huguenots refused to conform to all this. Nevertheless, it was by
+no means easy to continue to refuse obeying the priest. The priest was
+well served with spies, though the principal spy in every parish was
+himself. There were also numerous other professional spies--besides
+idlers, mischief-makers, and "good-natured friends." In time of peace,
+also, soldiers were usually employed in performing the disgraceful
+duty of acting as spies upon the Huguenots.
+
+The Huguenot was ordered to attend Mass under the penalty of fine and
+imprisonment. Supposing he refused, because he did not believe that
+the priest had the miraculous power of converting bread and wine into
+something the very opposite. The priest insisted that he did possess
+this power, and that he was supported by the State in demanding that
+the Huguenot _must_ come and worship his transubstantiation of bread
+into flesh and wine into blood. "I do not believe it," said the
+Huguenot. "But I _order_ you to come, for Louis XIV. has proclaimed
+you to be a converted Catholic, and if you refuse you will be at once
+subject to all the penalties of heresy." It was certainly very
+difficult to argue with a priest who had the hangman at his back, or
+with the King who had his hundred thousand dragoons. And so, perhaps,
+the threatened Huguenot went to Mass, and pretended to believe all
+that the priest had said about his miraculous powers.
+
+But many resolutely continued to refuse, willing to incur the last and
+heaviest penalties. Then it came to be seen that Protestantism,
+although, declared defunct by the King's edict, had not in fact expired,
+but was merely reposing for a time in order to make a fresh start
+forward. The Huguenots who still remained in France, whether as "new
+converts" or as "obstinate heretics," at length began to emerge from
+their obscurity. They met together in caves and solitary places--in deep
+and rocky gorges--in valleys among the mountains--where they prayed
+together, sang together their songs of David, and took counsel one with
+another.
+
+At length, from private meetings for prayer, religious assemblies
+began to be held in the Desert, and preachers made their appearance.
+The spies spread about the country informed the intendants. The
+meetings were often surprised by the military. Sometimes the soldiers
+would come upon them suddenly, and fire into the crowd of men, women,
+and children. On some occasions a hundred persons or more would be
+killed upon the spot. Of those taken prisoners, the preachers were
+hanged or broken on the wheel, the women were sent to prison, and the
+children, to nunneries, while the men were sent to be galley-slaves
+for life.[46]
+
+         [Footnote 46: In the Viverais and elsewhere they sang the
+         song of the persecuted Church:--
+
+                "Nos filles dans les monastères,
+                 Nos prisonniers dans les cachots.
+             Nos martyrs dont le sang se répand à grands flots,
+                 Nos confesseurs sur les galères,
+                 Nos malades persécutés,
+             Nos mourants exposés à plus d'une furie,
+                 Nos morts traînés à la voierie,
+                 Te disent (ô Dieu!) nos calamités."]
+
+The persecutions to which Huguenot women and children were exposed
+caused a sudden enlargement of all the prisons and nunneries in
+France. Many of the old castles were fitted up as gaols, and even
+their dungeons were used for the incorrigible heretics. One of the
+worst of these was the Tour de Constance in the town of Aiguesmortes,
+which is to this day remembered with horror as the principal dungeon
+of the Huguenot women.
+
+The town of Aiguesmortes is situated in the department of Gard, close
+to the Mediterranean, whose waters wash into the salt marshes and
+lagunes by which it is surrounded. It was erected in the thirteenth
+century for Philip the Bold, and is still interesting as an example of
+the ancient feudal fortress. The fosse has since been filled up, on
+account of the malaria produced by the stagnant water which it
+contained.
+
+The place is approached by a long causeway raised above the marsh, and
+the entrance to the tower is spanned by an ancient gatehouse. In
+advance of the tower, to the north, in an angle of the wall, is a
+single, large round tower, which served as a citadel. It is sixty-six
+feet in diameter and ninety feet high, surmounted by a lighthouse
+turret of thirty-four feet. It consists of two large vaulted
+apartments, the staircase from the one to the other being built within
+the wall itself, which is about eighteen feet thick. The upper chamber
+is dimly lighted by narrow chinks through the walls. The lowest of the
+apartments is the dungeon, which is almost without light and air. In
+the centre of the floor is a hole connected with a reservoir of water
+below.
+
+This Tour de Constance continued to be the principal prison for
+Huguenot women in France for a period of about a hundred years. It was
+always horribly unhealthy; and to be condemned to this dungeon was
+considered almost as certain though a slower death than to be
+condemned to the gallows. Sixteen Huguenot women confined there in
+1686 died within five months. Most of them were the wives of merchants
+of Nismes, or of men of property in the district. When the prisoners
+died off, the dungeon was at once filled up again with more victims,
+and it was rarely, if ever, empty, down to a period within only a few
+years before the outbreak of the French Revolution.
+
+The punishment of the men found attending religious meetings, and
+taken prisoners by the soldiers, was to be sentenced to the galleys,
+mostly for life. They were usually collected in large numbers, and
+sent to the seaports attached together by chains. They were sent
+openly, sometimes through the entire length of the kingdom, by way of
+a show. The object was to teach the horrible delinquency of professing
+Protestantism; for it could not be to show the greater beautifulness
+and mercifulness of Catholicism.
+
+The punishment of the Chain varied in degree. Sometimes it was more
+cruel than at other times. This depended upon the drivers of the
+prisoners. Marteilhe describes the punishment during his conveyance
+from Havre to Marseilles in the winter of 1712.[47] The Chain to which
+he belonged did not reach Marseilles until the 17th January, 1713. The
+season was bitterly cold; but that made no difference in the treatment
+of Huguenot prisoners.
+
+         [Footnote 47: "Autobiography of a French Protestant condemned
+         to the Galleys because of his Religion." Rotterdam, 1757.
+         (Since reprinted by the Religious Tract Society.)]
+
+The Chain consisted of a file of prisoners, chained one to another in
+various ways. On this occasion, each pair was fastened by the neck
+with a thick chain three feet long, in the middle of which was a round
+ring. After being thus chained, the pairs were placed in file, couple
+behind couple, when another long thick chain was passed through the
+rings, thus running along the centre of the gang, and the whole were
+thus doubly-chained together. There were no less than four hundred
+prisoners in the chain described by Marteilhe. The number had,
+however, greatly fallen off through deaths by barbarous treatment
+before it reached Marseilles.
+
+It must, however, be added, that the whole gang did not consist of
+Huguenots, but only a part of it--the Huguenots being distinguished by
+their red jackets. The rest consisted of murderers, thieves,
+deserters, and criminals of various sorts.
+
+The difficulty which the prisoners had in marching along the roads was
+very great; the weight of chain which each member had to carry being
+no less than one hundred and fifty pounds. The lodging they had at
+night was of the worst description. While at Paris, the galley-slaves
+were quartered in the Château de la Tournelle, which was under the
+spiritual direction of the Jesuits. The gaol consisted of a large
+cellar or dungeon, fitted with huge beams of oak fixed close to the
+floor. Thick iron collars were attached by iron chains to the beams.
+The collar being placed round the prisoner's neck, it was closed and
+riveted upon an anvil with heavy blows of a hammer.
+
+Twenty men in pairs were thus chained to each beam. The dungeon was so
+large that five hundred men could thus be fastened up. They could not
+sleep lying at full length, nor could they sleep sitting or standing
+up straight; the beam to which they were chained being too high in the
+one case and too low in the other. The torture which they endured,
+therefore, is scarcely to be described. The prisoners were kept there
+until a sufficient number could be collected to set out in a great
+chain for Marseilles.
+
+When they arrived at the first stage out of Paris, at Charenton, after
+a heavy day's fatigue, their lodging was no better than before. A
+stable was found in which they were chained up in such a way that they
+could with difficulty sit down, and then only on a dung-heap. After
+they had lain there for a few hours, the prisoners' chains were taken
+off, and they were turned out into the spacious courtyard of the inn,
+where they were ordered to strip off their clothes, put them down at
+their feet, and march over to the other side of the courtyard.
+
+The object of this proceeding was to search the pockets of the
+prisoners, examine their clothes, and find whether they contained any
+knives, files, or other tools which might be used for cutting the
+chains. All money and other valuables or necessaries that the clothes
+contained were at the same time taken away.
+
+The night was cold and frosty, with a keen north wind blowing; and
+after the prisoners had been exposed to it for about half an hour,
+their bodies became so benumbed that they could scarcely move across
+the yard to where their clothes were lying. Next morning it was found
+that eighteen of the unfortunates were happily released by death.
+
+It is not necessary to describe the tortures endured by the
+galley-slaves to the end of their journey. One little circumstance
+may, however, be mentioned. While marching towards the coast, the
+exhausted Huguenots, weary and worn out by the heaviness of their
+chains, were accustomed to stretch out their little wooden cups for a
+drop of water to the inhabitants of the villages through which they
+passed. The women, whom they mostly addressed, answered their
+entreaties with the bitterest spite. "Away, away!" they cried; "you
+are going where you will have _water enough_!"
+
+When the gang or chain reached the port at which the prisoners were to
+be confined, they were drafted on board the different galleys. These
+were for the most part stationed at Toulon, but there were also other
+galleys in which Huguenots were imprisoned--at Marseilles, Dunkirk,
+Brest, St. Malo, and Bordeaux. Let us briefly describe the galley of
+those days.
+
+The royal galley was about a hundred and fifty feet long and forty feet
+broad, and was capable of containing about five hundred men. It had
+fifty benches for rowers, twenty-five on each side. Between these two
+rows of benches was the raised middle gallery, commonly called the waist
+of the ship, four feet high and about three or four feet broad. The oars
+were fifty feet long, of which thirty-seven feet were outside the ship
+and thirteen within. Six men worked at each oar, all chained to the same
+bench. They had to row in unison, otherwise they would be heavily struck
+by the return rowers both before and behind them. They were under the
+constant command of the _comite_ or galley-slave-driver, who struck all
+about him with his long whip in urging them to work. To enable his
+strokes to _tell_, the men sat naked while they rowed.[48] Their dress
+was always insufficient, summer and winter--the lower part of their
+bodies being covered with a short red jacket and a sort of apron, for
+their manacles prevented them wearing any other dress.
+
+         [Footnote 48: Le comite ou chef de chiourme, aidé de deux
+         _sous-comites_, allait et venait sans cesse sur le coursier,
+         frappant les forçats à coup de nerfs de boeuf, comme un
+         cocher ses chevaux. Pour rendre les coups plus sensible et
+         pour économiser les vêtements, _les galériens étaient nus_
+         quand ils ramaient.--ATHANASE COQUEREL FILS. _Les Forçats
+         pour la Foi_, 64.]
+
+The chain which bound each rower to his bench was fastened to his leg,
+and was of such a length as to enable his feet to come and go whilst
+rowing. At night, the galley-slave slept where he sat--on the bench on
+which he had been rowing all day. There was no room for him to lie
+down. He never quitted his bench except for the hospital or the grave;
+yet some of the Huguenot rowers contrived to live upon their benches
+for thirty or forty years!
+
+During all these years they toiled in their chains in a hell of foul
+and disgusting utterance, for they were mixed up with thieves and the
+worst of criminals. They ate the bread and drank the waters of
+bitterness. They seemed to be forsaken by the world. They had no one
+to love them, for most had left their families behind them at home, or
+perhaps in convents or prisons. They lived under the constant threats
+of their keepers, who lashed them to make them row harder, who lashed
+them to make them sit up, or lashed them to make them lie down. The
+Chevalier Langeron, captain of _La Palme_, of which Marteilhe was at
+first a rower, used to call the _comite_ to him and say, "Go and
+refresh the backs of these Huguenots with a salad of strokes of the
+whip." For the captain, it seems, "held the most Jesuitical
+sentiments," and hated his Huguenot prisoners far worse than his
+thieves or his murderers.[49]
+
+         [Footnote 49: "The Autobiography of a French Protestant,"
+         68.]
+
+And yet, at any moment, a word spoken would have made these Huguenots
+free. The Catholic priests frequently visited the galleys and
+entreated them to become converted. If "converted," and the Huguenots
+would only declare that they believed in the miraculous powers of the
+clergy, their chains would fall away from their limbs at once; and
+they would have been restored to the world, to their families, and to
+liberty! And who would not have declared themselves "converted,"
+rather than endure these horrible punishments? Yet by far the greater
+number of the Huguenots did not. They could not be hypocrites. They
+would not lie to God. Rather than do this, they had the heroism--some
+will call it the obstinacy--to remain galley-slaves for life!
+
+Many of the galley-slaves did not survive their torture long. Men of
+all ages and conditions, accustomed to indoor life, could not bear the
+exposure to the sun, rain, and snow, which the punishment of the
+galley-slave involved. The old men and the young soon succumbed and
+died. Middle-aged men survived the longest. But there was always a
+change going on. When the numbers of a galley became thinned by death,
+there were other Huguenots ready to be sent on board--perhaps waiting
+in some inland prison until another "Great Chain" could be made up for
+the seaports, to go on board the galley-ships, to be manacled,
+tortured, and killed off as before.
+
+Such was the treatment of the galley-slaves in time of peace. But the
+galleys were also war-ships. They carried large numbers of armed men
+on board. Sometimes they scoured the Mediterranean, and protected
+French merchant-ships against the Sallee rovers. At other times they
+were engaged in the English channel, attacking Dutch and English
+ships, sometimes picking up a prize, at other times in actual
+sea-fight.
+
+When the service required, they were compelled to row incessantly
+night and day, without rest, save in the last extremity; and they were
+treated as if, on the first opportunity, in sight of the enemy, they
+would revolt and betray the ship; hence they were constantly watched
+by the soldiers on board, and if any commotion appeared amongst them,
+they were shot down without ceremony, and their bodies thrown into the
+sea. Loaded cannons were also placed at the end of the benches of
+rowers, so as to shoot them down in case of necessity.
+
+Whenever an enemy's ship came up, the galley-slaves were covered over
+with a linen screen, so as to prevent them giving signals to the
+enemy. When an action occurred, they were particularly exposed to
+danger, for the rowers and their oars were the first to be shot
+at--just as the boiler or screw of a war-steamer would be shot at
+now--in order to disable the ship. The galley-slaves thus suffered
+much more from the enemy's shot than the other armed men of the ship.
+The rowers benches were often filled with dead, before the soldiers
+and mariners on board had been touched.
+
+Marteilhe, while a galley-slave on board _La Palme_, was engaged in an
+adventure which had nearly cost him his life. Four French galleys,
+after cruising along the English coast from Dover to the Downs, got
+sight of a fleet of thirty-five merchant vessels on their way from the
+Texel to the Thames, under the protection of one small English
+frigate. The commanders of the galleys, taking counsel together,
+determined to attack the frigate (which they thought themselves easily
+able to master), and so capture the entire English fleet.
+
+The captain of the frigate, when he saw the galleys approach him,
+ordered the merchantmen to crowd sail and make for the Thames, the
+mouth of which they had nearly reached. He then sailed down upon the
+galleys, determined to sacrifice his ship if necessary for the safety
+of his charge. The galleys fired into him, but he returned never a
+shot. The captain of the galley in which Marteilhe was, said, "Oh, he
+is coming to surrender!" The frigate was so near that the French
+musqueteers were already firing full upon her. All of a sudden the
+frigate tacked and veered round as if about to fly from the galleys.
+The Frenchmen called out that the English were cowards in thus trying
+to avoid the battle. If they did not surrender at once, they would
+sink the frigate!
+
+The English captain took no notice. The frigate then turned her stern
+towards the galley, as if to give the Frenchmen an opportunity of
+boarding her. The French commander ordered the galley at once to run
+at the enemy's stern, and the crew to board the frigate. The rush was
+made; the galley-slaves, urged by blows of the whip, rowing with great
+force. The galley was suddenly nearing the stern of the frigate, when
+by a clever stroke of the helm the ship moved to one side, and the
+galley, missing it, rushed past. All the oars on that side were
+suddenly broken off, and the galley was placed immediately under the
+broadside of the enemy.
+
+Then began the English part of the game. The French galley was seized
+with grappling irons and hooked on to the English broadside. The men
+on board the galley were as exposed as if they had been upon a raft or
+a bridge. The frigate's guns, which were charged with grapeshot, were
+discharged full upon them, and a frightful carnage ensued. The English
+also threw hand grenades, which went down amongst the rowers and
+killed many. They next boarded the galley, and cut to pieces all the
+armed men they could lay hold of, only sparing the convicts, who could
+make no attempt at defence.
+
+The English captain then threw off the galley, which he had broadsided
+and disarmed, in order to look after the merchantmen, which some of
+the other galleys had gone to intercept on their way to the mouth of
+the Thames. Some of the ships had already been captured; but the
+commanders of the galleys, seeing their fellow-commodores flying
+signals of distress, let go their prey, and concentrated their attack
+upon the frigate. This they surrounded, and after a very hard struggle
+the frigate was captured, but not until the English captain had
+ascertained that all the fleet of which he had been in charge had
+entered the Thames and were safe.
+
+In the above encounter with the English frigate Marteilhe had nearly
+lost his life. The bench on which he was seated, with five other
+slaves, was opposite one of the loaded guns of the frigate. He saw
+that it must be discharged directly upon them. His fellows tried to
+lie down flat, while Marteilhe himself stood up. He saw the gunner
+with his lighted match approach the touchhole; then he lifted up his
+heart to God; the next moment he was lying stunned and prostrate in
+the centre of the galley, as far as the chain would allow him to
+reach. He was lying across the body of the lieutenant, who was killed.
+A long time passed, during which the fight was still going on, and
+then Marteilhe came to himself, towards dark. Most of his
+fellow-slaves were killed. He himself was bleeding from a large open
+wound on his shoulder, another on his knee, and a third in his
+stomach. Of the eighteen men around him he was the only one that
+escaped, with his three wounds.
+
+The dead were all thrown into the sea. The men were about to throw
+Marteilhe after them, but while attempting to release him from his
+chain, they touched the wound upon his knee, and he groaned heavily.
+They let him remain where he lay. Shortly after, he was taken down to
+the bottom of the hold with the other men, where he long lay amongst
+the wounded and dying. At length he recovered from his wounds, and was
+again returned to his bench, to re-enter the horrible life of a
+galley-slave.
+
+There was another mean and unmanly cruelty, connected with this
+galley-slave service, which was practised only upon the Huguenots. If
+an assassin or other criminal received a wound in the service of the
+state while engaged in battle, he was at once restored to his
+liberty; but if a Huguenot was wounded, he was never released. He was
+returned to his bench and chained as before; the wounds he had
+received being only so many additional tortures to be borne by him in
+the course of his punishment.
+
+Marteilhe, as we have already stated, was disembarked when he had
+sufficiently recovered, and marched through the entire length of
+France, enchained with other malefactors. On his arrival at
+Marseilles, he was placed on board the galley _Grand Réale_, where he
+remained until peace was declared between England and France by the
+Treaty of Utrecht.[50]
+
+         [Footnote 50: "Autobiography of a French Protestant,"
+         112-21.]
+
+Queen Anne of England, at the instigation of the Marquis de Rochegade,
+then made an effort to obtain the liberation of Protestants serving at
+the galleys; and at length, out of seven hundred and forty-two
+Huguenots who were then enslaved, a hundred and thirty-six were
+liberated, of whom Marteilhe was one. He was thus enabled to get rid
+of his inhuman countrymen, and to spend the remainder of his life in
+Holland and England, where Protestants were free.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+ANTOINE COURT
+
+
+Almost at the very time that Louis XIV. was lying on his death-bed at
+Versailles, a young man conceived the idea of re-establishing
+Protestantism in France! Louis XIV. had tried to enter heaven by
+superstition and cruelty. On his death-bed he began to doubt whether
+he "had not carried his authority too far."[51] But the Jesuits tried
+to make death easy for him, covering his body with relics of the true
+cross.
+
+         [Footnote 51: Saint-Simon and Dangeau.]
+
+Very different was the position of the young man who tried to undo all
+that Louis XIV., under the influence of his mistress De Maintenon, and
+his Jesuit confessor, Père la Chase,[52] had been trying all his life
+to accomplish. He was an intelligent youth, the son of Huguenot
+parents in Viverais, of comparatively poor and humble condition. He
+was, however, full of energy, activity, and a zealous disposition for
+work. Observing the tendency which Protestantism had, while bereft of
+its pastors, to run into gloomy forms of fanaticism, Antoine Court
+conceived the idea of reviving the pastorate, and restoring the
+proscribed Protestant Church of France. It was a bold idea, but the
+result proved that Antoine Court was justified in entertaining it.
+
+         [Footnote 52: Amongst the many satires and epigrams with
+         which Louis XIV. was pursued to the grave, the following
+         epitaph may be given:--
+
+           "Ci gist le mari de Thérèse
+           De la Montespan le Mignon,
+           L'esclave de la Maintenon,
+           Le valet du père La Chaise."
+
+         At the death of Louis XIV., Voltaire, an _élève_ of the
+         Jesuits, was appropriately coming into notice. At the age of
+         about twenty he was thrown into the Bastille; for having
+         written a satire on Louis XIV., of which the following is an
+         extract:--
+
+           "J'ai vu sous l'habit d'une femme
+             Un démon nous donner la loi;
+           Elle sacrifia son Dieu, sa foi, son âme,
+           Pour séduire l'esprit d'un trop crédule roi.
+
+             *       *       *       *       *
+
+             J'ai vu l'hypocrite honoré:
+           J'ai vu, c'est dire tout, le jésuite adoré:
+             J'ai vu ces maux sous le règne funeste
+           D'un prince que jadis la colère céleste
+           Accorda, par vengeance, à nos désirs ardens:
+             J'ai vu ces maux, et je n'ai pas vingt ans."
+
+         Voltaire denied having written this satire.]
+
+Louis XIV. died in August, 1715. During that very month, Court
+summoned together a small number of Huguenots to consider his
+suggestions. The meeting was held at daybreak, in an empty quarry near
+Nismes, which has already been mentioned in the course of this
+history. But it may here be necessary to inform the reader of the
+early life of this enthusiastic young man.
+
+Antoine Court was born at Villeneuve de Berg, in Viverais, in the year
+1696. Religious persecution was then at its height; assemblies were
+vigorously put down; and all pastors taken prisoners were hanged on
+the Peyrou at Montpellier. Court was only four years old when his
+father died, and his mother resolved, if the boy lived, to train him
+up so that he might consecrate himself to the service of God. He was
+still very young while the Camisard war was in progress, but he heard
+a great deal about it, and vividly remembered all that he heard.
+
+Antoine Court, like many Protestant children, was compelled to attend
+a Jesuit school in his neighbourhood. Though but a boy he abhorred the
+Mass. With Protestants the Mass was then the symbol of persecution; it
+was identified with the Revocation of the Edict--the dragonnades, the
+galleys, the prisons, the nunneries, the monkeries, and the Jesuits.
+The Mass was not a matter of knowledge, but of fear, of terror, and of
+hereditary hatred.
+
+At school, the other boys were most bitter against Court, because he
+was the son of a Huguenot. Every sort of mischief was practised upon
+him, for little boys are generally among the greatest of persecutors.
+Court was stoned, worried, railed at, laughed at, spit at. When
+leaving school, the boys called after him "He, he! the eldest son of
+Calvin!" They sometimes pursued him with clamour and volleys of stones
+to the door of his house, collecting in their riotous procession all
+the other Catholic boys of the place. Sometimes they forced him into
+church whilst the Mass was being celebrated. In fact, the boy's hatred
+of the Mass and of Catholicism grew daily more and more vehement.
+
+All these persecutions, together with reading some of the books which
+came under his notice at home, confirmed his aversion to the
+Jesuitical school to which he had been sent. At the same time he
+became desirous of attending the secret assemblies, which he knew were
+being held in the neighbourhood. One day, when his mother set out to
+attend one of them, the boy set out to follow her. She discovered him,
+and demanded whither he was going. "I follow you, mother," said he,
+"and I wish you to permit me to go where you go. I know that you go to
+pray to God, and will you refuse me the favour of going to do so with
+you?"
+
+She shed tears at his words, told him of the danger of attending the
+assembly, and strongly exhorted him to secrecy; but she allowed him to
+accompany her. He was at that time too little and weak to walk the
+whole way to the meeting; but other worshippers coming up, they took
+the boy on their shoulders and carried him along with them.
+
+At the age of seventeen, Court began to read the Bible at the
+assemblies. One day, in a moment of sudden excitement, common enough
+at secret meetings, he undertook to address the assembly. What he said
+was received with much approval, and he was encouraged to go on
+preaching. He soon became famous among the mountaineers, and was
+regarded as a young man capable of accomplishing great things.
+
+As he grew older, he at length determined to devote his life to
+preaching and ministering to the forsaken and afflicted Protestants.
+It was a noble, self-denying work, the only earthly reward for which
+was labour, difficulty, and danger. His mother was in great trouble,
+for Antoine was her only remaining son. She did not, however, press
+him to change his resolution. Court quoted to her the text, "Whoever
+loves father and mother more than me, is not worthy of me." After
+this, she only saw in her son a victim consecrated, like another
+Abraham, to the Divine service.
+
+After arriving at his decision, Court proceeded to visit the Huguenots
+in Low Languedoc, passing by Uzes to Nismes, and preaching wherever he
+could draw assemblies of the people together. His success during this
+rapid excursion induced him to visit Dauphiny. There he met Brunel,
+another preacher, with knapsack on his back, running from place to
+place in order to avoid spies, priests, and soldiers. The two were
+equally full of ardour, and they went together preaching in many
+places, and duly encouraging each other.
+
+From Dauphiny, Court directed his steps to Marseilles, where the royal
+galleys stationed there contained about three hundred Huguenot
+galley-slaves. He penetrated these horrible floating prisons, without
+being detected, and even contrived to organize amongst them a regular
+system of secret worship. Then he returned to Nismes, and from thence
+went through the Cevennes and the Viverais, preaching to people who
+had never met for Protestant worship since the termination of the wars
+of the Camisards. To elude the spies, who began to make hot search for
+him, because of the enthusiasm which he excited, Court contrived to be
+always on the move, and to appear daily in some fresh locality.
+
+The constant fatigue which he underwent undermined his health, and he
+was compelled to remain for a time inactive at the mineral waters of
+Euzet. This retirement proved useful. He began to think over what
+might be done to revivify the Protestant religion in France. Remember
+that he was at that time only nineteen years of age! It might be
+thought presumptuous in a youth, comparatively uninstructed, even to
+dream of such a subject. The instruments of earthly power--King, Pope,
+bishops, priests, soldiers, and spies--were all arrayed against him.
+He had nothing to oppose to them but truth, uprightness, conscience,
+and indefatigable zeal for labour.
+
+When Court had last met the few Protestant preachers who survived in
+Languedoc, they were very undecided about taking up his scheme. They
+had met at Nismes to take the sacrament in the house of a friend.
+There were Bombonnoux (an old Camisard), Crotte, Corteiz, Brunel, and
+Court. Without coming to any decision, they separated, some going to
+Switzerland, and others to the South and West of France. It now rested
+with Court, during his sickness, to study and endeavour to arrange the
+method of reorganization of the Church.
+
+The Huguenots who remained in France were then divided into three
+classes--the "new converts," who professed Catholicism while hating
+it; the lovers of the ancient Protestant faith, who still clung to it;
+and, lastly, the more ignorant, who still clung to prophesying and
+inspiration. These last had done the Protestant Church much injury,
+for the intelligent classes generally regarded them as but mere
+fanatics.
+
+Court found it would be requisite to keep the latter within the
+leading-strings of spiritual instruction, and to encourage the "new
+converts" to return to the church of their fathers by the
+re-establishment of some efficient pastoral service. He therefore
+urged that religious assemblies must be continued, and that discipline
+must be established by the appointment of elders, presbyteries, and
+synods, and also by the training up of a body of young pastors to
+preach amongst the people, and discipline them according to the rules
+of the Protestant Church. Nearly thirty years had passed since it had
+been disorganized by the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes, so that
+synods, presbyteries, and the training of preachers had become almost
+forgotten.
+
+The first synod was convened by Court, and held in the abandoned
+quarry near Nismes, above referred to, in the very same month in which
+Louis XIV. breathed his last. It was a very small beginning. Two or
+three laymen and a few preachers[53] were present, the whole meeting
+numbering only nine persons. The place in which the meeting was held
+had often before been used as a secret place of worship by the
+Huguenots. Religious meetings held there had often been dispersed by
+the dragoons, and there was scarcely a stone in it that had not been
+splashed by Huguenot blood. And now, after Protestantism had been
+"finally suppressed," Antoine Court assembled his first synod to
+re-establish the proscribed religion!
+
+         [Footnote 53: Edmund Hughes says the preachers were probably
+         Rouviere (or Crotte), Jean Huc, Jean Vesson, Etienne Arnaud,
+         and Durand.]
+
+The first meeting took place on the 21st of August, 1715, at daybreak.
+After prayer, Court, as moderator, explained his method of
+reorganization, which was approved. The first elders were appointed
+from amongst those present. A series of rules and regulations was
+resolved upon and ordered to be spread over the entire province. The
+preachers were then charged to go forth, to stir up the people and
+endeavour to bring back the "new converts."
+
+They lost no time in carrying out their mission. The first districts
+in which they were appointed to work were those of Mende, Alais,
+Viviers, Uzes, Nismes, and Montpellier, in Languedoc--districts which,
+fifteen years before, had been the scenes of the Camisard war. There,
+in unknown valleys, on hillsides, on the mountains, in the midst of
+hostile towns and villages, the missionaries sought out the huts, the
+farms, and the dwellings of the scattered, concealed, and
+half-frightened Huguenots. Amidst the open threats of the magistrates
+and others in office, and the fear of the still more hateful priests
+and spies, they went from house to house, and prayed, preached,
+advised, and endeavoured to awaken the zeal of their old allies of the
+"Religion."
+
+The preachers were for the most part poor, and some of them were
+labouring men. They were mostly natives of Languedoc. Jean Vesson, a
+cooper by trade, had in his youth been "inspired," and prophesied in
+his ecstasy. Mazelet, now an elderly man, had formerly been celebrated
+among the Camisards, and preached with great success before the
+soldiers of Roland. At forty he was not able to read or write; but
+having been forced to fly into Switzerland, he picked up some
+education at Geneva, and had studied divinity under a fellow-exile.
+
+Bombonnoux had been a brigadier in the troop of Cavalier. After his
+chief's defection he resolved to continue the war to the end, by
+preaching, if not by fighting. He had been taken prisoner and
+imprisoned at Montpellier, in 1705. Two of his Camisard friends were
+first put upon the rack, and then, while still living, thrown upon a
+pile and burnt to death before his eyes. But the horrible character of
+the punishment did not terrify him. He contrived to escape from prison
+at Montpellier, and then went about convoking assemblies and preaching
+to the people as before.
+
+Besides these, there were Huc, Corteiz, Durand, Arnaud, Brunel, and
+Rouviere or Crotte, who all went about from place to place, convoking
+assemblies and preaching. There were also some local preachers, as
+they might be called--old men who could not move far from home--who
+worked at their looms or trades, sometimes tilling the ground by day,
+and preaching at night. Amongst these were Monteil, Guillot, and
+Bonnard, all more than sixty years of age.
+
+Court, because of his youth and energy, seems to have been among the
+most active of the preachers. One day, near St. Hypolite, a chief
+centre of the Huguenot population, he convoked an assembly on a
+mountain side, the largest that had taken place for many years. The
+priests of the parish gave information to the authorities; and the
+governor of Alais offered a reward of fifty pistoles to anyone who
+would apprehend and deliver up to him the young preacher. Troops were
+sent into the district; upon which Court descended from the mountains
+towards the towns of Low Languedoc, and shortly after he arrived at
+Nismes.
+
+At Nismes, Court first met Jacques Roger, who afterwards proved of
+great assistance to him in his work. Roger had long been an exile in
+Wurtemburg. He was originally a native of Boissieres, in Languedoc,
+and when a young man was compelled to quit France with his parents,
+who were Huguenots. His heart, however, continued to draw him towards
+his native country, although it had treated himself and his family so
+cruelly.
+
+As Roger grew older, he determined to return to France, with the
+object of helping his friends of the "Religion." A plan had occurred
+to him, like that which Antoine Court was now endeavouring to carry
+into effect. The joy with which Roger encountered Court at Nismes, and
+learnt his plans, may therefore be conceived. The result was, that
+Roger undertook to "awaken" the Protestants of Dauphiny, and to
+endeavour to accomplish there what Court was already gradually
+effecting in Languedoc. Roger held his first synod in Dauphiny in
+August, 1716, at which seven preachers and several elders or _anciens_
+assisted.
+
+In the meantime Antoine Court again set out to visit the churches
+which had been reconstructed along the banks of the Gardon. He had
+been suffering from intermittent fever, and started on his journey
+before he was sufficiently recovered. Having no horse, he walked on
+foot, mostly by night, along the least known by-paths, stopping here
+and there upon his way. At length he became so enfeebled and ill as to
+be unable to walk further. He then induced two men to carry him. By
+crossing their hands over each other, they took him up between them,
+and carried him along on this improvised chair.
+
+Court found a temporary lodging with a friend. But no sooner had he
+laid himself down to sleep, than the alarm was raised that he must get
+up and fly. A spy had been observed watching the house. Court rose,
+put on his clothes, and though suffering great pain, started afresh.
+The night was dark and rainy. By turns shivering with cold and in an
+access of fever, he wandered alone for hours across the country,
+towards the house of another friend, where he at last found shelter.
+Such were the common experiences of these wandering, devoted,
+proscribed, and heroic ministers of the Gospel.
+
+Their labours were not carried on without encountering other and
+greater dangers. Now that the Protestants were becoming organized, it
+was not so necessary to incite them to public worship. They even
+required to be restrained, so that they might not too suddenly awaken
+the suspicion or excite the opposition of the authorities. Thus, at
+the beginning of 1717, the preacher Vesson held an open assembly near
+Anduze. It was surprised by the troops; and seventy-two persons made
+prisoners, of whom the men were sent to the galleys for life, and the
+women imprisoned in the Tour de Constance. Vesson was on this occasion
+reprimanded by the synod, for having exposed his brethren to
+unnecessary danger.
+
+While there was the danger of loss of liberty to the people, there was
+the danger of loss of life to the pastors who were bold enough to
+minister to their religious necessities. Etienne Arnaud having
+preached to an assembly near Alais, was taken prisoner by the
+soldiers. They took him to Montpellier, where he was judged,
+condemned, and sent back to Alais to be hanged. This brave young man
+gave up his life with great courage and resignation. His death caused
+much sorrow amongst the Protestants, but it had no effect in
+dissuading the preachers and pastors from the work they had taken in
+hand. There were many to take the place of Arnaud. Young Bètrine
+offered himself to the synod, and was accepted.
+
+Scripture readers were also appointed, to read the Bible at meetings
+which preachers were not able to attend. There was, however, a great
+want of Bibles amongst the Protestants. One of the first things done
+by the young King Louis XV.--the "Well-beloved" of the Jesuits--on his
+ascending the throne, was to issue a proclamation ordering the seizure
+of Bibles, Testaments, Psalm-books, and other religious works used by
+the Protestants. And though so many books had already been seized and
+burnt in the reign of Louis XIV., immense piles were again collected
+and given to the flames by the executioners.
+
+"Our need of books is very great," wrote Court to a friend abroad; and
+the same statement was repeated in many of his letters. His principal
+need was of Bibles and Testaments; for every Huguenot knew the greater
+part of the Psalms by heart. When a Testament was obtained, it was
+lent about, and for the most part learnt off. The labour was divided
+in this way. One person, sometimes a boy or girl, of good memory,
+would undertake to learn one or more chapters in the Gospels, another
+a certain number in the Epistles, until at last a large portion of the
+book was committed to memory, and could be recited at the meetings of
+the assemblies. And thus also it happened, that the conversation of
+the people, as well as the sermons of their preachers, gradually
+assumed a strongly biblical form.
+
+Strong appeals were made to foreign Protestants to supply the people
+with books. The refugees who had settled in Switzerland, Holland, and
+England sent the Huguenots remaining in France considerable help in
+this way. They sent many Testaments and Psalm-books, together with
+catechisms for the young, and many devotional works written by French
+divines residing in Holland and England--by Drelincourt, Saurin,
+Claude and others. These were sent safely across the frontier in
+bales, put into the hands of colporteurs, and circulated amongst the
+Protestants all over the South of France. The printing press of Geneva
+was also put in requisition; and Court had many of his sermons printed
+there and distributed amongst the people.
+
+Until this time, Court had merely acted as a preacher; and it was now
+determined to ordain and consecrate him as a pastor. The ceremony,
+though, comparatively unceremonious, was very touching. A large number
+of Protestants in the Vaunage assembled on the night of the 21st
+November, 1718, and, after prayer, Court rose and spoke for some time
+of the responsible duties of the ministry, and of the necessity and
+advantages of preaching. He thanked God for having raised up ministers
+to serve the Church when so many of her enemies were seeking for her
+ruin. He finally asked the whole assembly to pray for grace to enable
+him to fulfil with renewed zeal the duties to which, he was about to
+be called, together with all the virtues needed for success. At these
+touching words the assembled hearers shed tears. Then Corteiz, the old
+pastor, drew near to Court, now upon his knees, and placing a Bible
+upon his head, in the name of Jesus Christ, and with the authority of
+the synod, gave him power to exercise all the functions of the
+ministry. Cries of joy were heard on all sides. Then, after further
+prayer, the assembly broke up in the darkness of the night.
+
+The plague which broke out in 1720 helped the progress of the new
+Church. The Protestants thought the plague had been sent as a
+punishment for their backsliding. Piety increased, and assemblies in
+the Desert were more largely attended than before. The intendants
+ceased to interfere with them, and the soldiers were kept strictly
+within their cantonments. More preachers were licensed, and more
+elders were elected. Many new churches were set up throughout
+Languedoc; and the department of the Lozère, in the Cevennes, became
+again almost entirely Protestant. Roger and Villeveyre were almost
+equally successful in Dauphiny; and Saintonge, Normandy, and Poitou
+were also beginning to maintain a connection with the Protestant
+churches of Languedoc.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+
+REORGANIZATION OF THE CHURCH IN THE DESERT.
+
+
+The organization of the Church in the Desert is one of the most
+curious things in history. Secret meetings of the Huguenots had long
+been held in France. They were began several years before the Act of
+Revocation was proclaimed, when the dragonnades were on foot, and
+while the Protestant temples were being demolished by the Government.
+The Huguenots then arranged to meet and hold their worship in retired
+places.
+
+As the meetings were at first held, for the most part, in Languedoc,
+and as much of that province, especially in the district of the
+Cevennes, is really waste and desert land, the meetings were at first
+called "Assemblies in the Desert," and for nearly a hundred years they
+retained that name.
+
+When Court began to reorganize the Protestant Church in France,
+shortly after the Camisard war, meetings in the Desert had become
+almost unknown. There were occasional prayer-meetings, at which
+chapters of the Bible were read or recited by those who remembered
+them, and psalms were sung; but there were few or no meetings at which
+pastors presided. Court, however, resolved not only to revive the
+meetings of the Church in the Desert, but to reconstitute the
+congregations, and restore the system of governing them according to
+the methods of the Huguenot Church.
+
+The first thing done in reconstituting a congregation, was to appoint
+certain well-known religious men, as _anciens_ or elders. These were
+very important officers. They formed the church in the first instance;
+for where there were no elders, there was no church. They were members
+of the _consistoire_ or presbytery. They looked after the flock,
+visited them in their families, made collections, named the pastors,
+and maintained peace, order, and discipline amongst the people. Though
+first nominated by the pastors, they were elected by the congregation;
+and the reason for their election was their known ability, zeal, and
+piety.
+
+The elder was always present at the assemblies, though the minister
+was absent. He prevented the members from succumbing to temptation and
+falling away; he censured scandal; he kept up the flame of religious
+zeal, and encouraged the failing and helpless; he distributed amongst
+the poorest the collections made and intrusted to him by the Church.
+
+We have said that part of the duty of the elders was to censure
+scandal amongst the members. If their conduct was not considered
+becoming the Christian life, they were not visited by the pastors and
+were not allowed to attend the assemblies, until they had declared
+their determination to lead a better life. What a punishment for
+infraction of discipline! to be debarred attending an assembly, for
+being present at which, the pastor, if detected, might be hanged, and
+the penitent member sent to the galleys for life![54]
+
+         [Footnote 54: C. Coquerel, "Église du Désert," i. 105.]
+
+The elders summoned the assemblies. They gave the word to a few
+friends, and these spread the notice about amongst the rest. The news
+soon became known, and in the course of a day or two, the members of
+the congregation, though living perhaps in distant villages, would be
+duly informed of the time and place of the intended meeting. It was
+usually held at night,--in some secret place--in a cave, a hollow in
+the woods, a ravine, or an abandoned farmstead.
+
+Men, women, and even children were taken thither, after one, two, or
+sometimes three leagues' walking. The meetings were always full of
+danger, for spies were lurking about. Catholic priests were constant
+informers; and soldiers were never far distant. But besides the
+difficulties of spies and soldiers, the meetings were often dispersed
+by the rain in summer, or by the snow in winter.
+
+After the Camisard war, and before the appearance of Court, these
+meetings rarely numbered more than a hundred persons. But Court and
+his fellow-pastors often held meetings at which more than two thousand
+people were present. On one occasion, not less than four thousand
+persons attended an assembly in Lower Languedoc.
+
+When the meetings were held by day, they were carefully guarded and
+watched by sentinels on the look-out, especially in those places near
+which garrisons were stationed. The fleetest of the young men were
+chosen for this purpose. They watched the garrison exits, and when the
+soldiers made a sortie, the sentinels communicated by signal from hill
+to hill, thus giving warning to the meeting to disperse. But the
+assemblies were mostly held at night; and even then the sentinels were
+carefully posted about, but not at so great a distance.
+
+The chief of the whole organization was the pastor. First, there were
+the members entitled to church, privileges; next the _anciens_; and
+lastly the pastors. As in Presbyterianism, so in Huguenot Calvinism,
+its form of government was republican. The organization was based upon
+the people who elected their elders; then upon the elders who selected
+and recommended the pastors; and lastly upon the whole congregation of
+members, elders, and pastors (represented in synods), who maintained
+the entire organization of the Church.
+
+There were three grades of service in the rank of pastor--first
+students, next preachers, and lastly pastors. Wonderful that there
+should have been students of a profession, to follow which was almost
+equal to a sentence of death! But there were plenty of young
+enthusiasts ready to brave martyrdom in the service of the proscribed
+Church. Sometimes it was even necessary to restrain them in their
+applications.
+
+Court once wrote to Pierre Durand, at a time when the latter was
+restoring order and organization in Viverais: "Sound and examine well
+the persons offering themselves for your approval, before permitting
+them to enter on this glorious employment. Secure good, virtuous men,
+full of zeal for the cause of truth. It is piety only that inspires
+nobility and greatness of soul. Piety sustains us under the most
+extreme dangers, and triumphs over the severest obstacles. The good
+conscience always marches forward with its head erect."
+
+When the character of the young applicants was approved, their studies
+then proceeded, like everything else connected with the proscribed
+religion, in secret. The students followed the professor and pastor in
+his wanderings over the country, passing long nights in marching,
+sometimes hiding in caves by day, or sleeping under the stars by
+night, passing from meeting to meeting, always with death looming
+before them.
+
+"I have often pitched my professor's chair," said Court, "in a torrent
+underneath a rock. The sky was our roof, and the leafy branches thrown
+out from the crevices in the rock overhead, were our canopy. There I
+and my students would remain for about eight days; it was our hall,
+our lecture-room, and our study. To make the most of our time, and to
+practise the students properly, I gave them a text of Scripture to
+discuss before me--say the first eleven verses of the fifth chapter of
+Luke. I would afterwards propose to them some point of doctrine, some
+passage of Scripture, some moral precept, or sometimes I gave them
+some difficult passages to reconcile. After the whole had stated their
+views upon the question under discussion, I asked the youngest if he
+had anything to state against the arguments advanced; then the others
+were asked in turn; and after they had finished, I stated the views
+which I considered most just and correct. When the more advanced
+students were required to preach, they mounted a particular place,
+where a pole had been set across some rocks in the ravine, and which
+for the time served for a pulpit. And when they had delivered
+themselves, the others were requested by turns to express themselves
+freely upon the subject of the sermon which they had heard."
+
+When the _proposant_ or probationer was considered sufficiently able
+to preach, he was sent on a mission to visit the churches. Sometimes
+he preached the approved sermons of other pastors; sometimes he
+preached his own sermons, after they had been examined by persons
+appointed by the synod. After a time, if approved by the moderator and
+a committee of the synod, the _proposant_ was licensed to preach. His
+work then resembled that of a pastor; but he could not yet administer
+the sacrament. It was only when he had passed the synod, and been
+appointed by the laying on of hands, that he could exercise the higher
+pastoral functions.
+
+Then, with respect to the maintenance of the pastors and preachers,
+Court recounts, not without pride, that for the ten years between 1713
+and 1723 (excepting the years which he spent at Geneva), he served the
+Huguenot churches without receiving a farthing. His family and friends
+saw to the supply of his private wants. With respect to the others,
+they were supported by collections made at the assemblies; and, as the
+people were nearly all poor, the amount collected was very small. On
+one occasion, three assemblies produced a halfpenny and six
+half-farthings.
+
+But a regular system of collecting moneys was framed by the synods
+(consisting of a meeting of pastors and elders), and out of the common
+fund so raised, emoluments were assigned, first to those preachers who
+were married, and afterwards to those who were single. In either case
+the pay was very small, scarcely sufficient to keep the wolf from the
+door.
+
+The students for the ministry were at first educated by Court and
+trained to preach, while he was on his dangerous journeys from one
+assembly in the Desert to another. Nor was the supply of preachers
+sufficient to visit the congregations already organized. Court had
+long determined, so soon as the opportunity offered, of starting a
+school for the special education of preachers and pastors, so that the
+work he was engaged in might be more efficiently carried on. He at
+first corresponded with influential French refugees in England and
+Holland with reference to the subject. He wrote to Basnage and Saurin,
+but they received his propositions coolly. He wrote to William Wake,
+then Archbishop of Canterbury, who promised his assistance. At last
+Court resolved to proceed into Switzerland, to stir up the French
+refugees disposed to help him in his labours.
+
+Arrived at Geneva, Court sought out M. Pictet, to whom he explained
+the state of affairs in France. It had been rumoured amongst the
+foreign Protestants that fanaticism and "inspiration" were now in the
+ascendant among the Protestants of France. Court showed that this was
+entirely a mistake, and that all which the proscribed Huguenots in
+France wanted, was a supply of properly educated pastors. The friends
+of true religion, and the enemies of fanaticism, ought therefore to
+come to their help and supply them with that of which they stood most
+in need. If they would find teachers, Court would undertake to supply
+them with congregations. And Huguenot congregations were rapidly
+increasing, not only in Languedoc and Dauphiny, but in Normandy,
+Picardy, Poitou, Saintonge, Bearn, and the other provinces.
+
+At length the subject became matured. It was not found desirable to
+establish the proposed school at Geneva, that city being closely
+watched by France, and frequently under the censure of its government
+for giving shelter to refugee Frenchmen. It was eventually determined
+that the college for the education of preachers should begin at
+Lausanne. It was accordingly commenced in the year 1726, and
+established under the superintendence of M. Duplan.
+
+A committee of refugees called the "Society of Help for the Afflicted
+Faithful," was formed at Lausanne to collect subscriptions for the
+maintenance of the preachers, the pastors, and the seminary. These
+were in the first place received from Huguenots settled in
+Switzerland, afterwards increased by subscriptions obtained from
+refugees settled in Holland, Germany, and England. The King of England
+subscribed five hundred guineas yearly. Duplan was an indefatigable
+agent. In fourteen years he collected fourteen thousand pounds. By
+these efforts the number of students was gradually increased. They
+came from all parts of France, but chiefly from Languedoc. Between
+1726 (the year in which it was started) and 1753, ninety students had
+passed through the seminary.
+
+When the students had passed the range of study appointed by the
+professors, they returned from Switzerland to France to enter upon the
+work of their lives. They had passed the school for martyrdom, and
+were ready to preach to the assemblies--they had paved their way to
+the scaffold!
+
+The preachers always went abroad with their lives in their hands. They
+travelled mostly by night, shunning the open highways, and selecting
+abandoned routes, often sheep-paths across the hills, to reach the
+scene of their next meeting. The trace of their steps is still marked
+upon the soil of the Cevennes, the people of the country still
+speaking of the solitary routes taken by their instructors when
+passing from parish to parish, to preach to their fathers.
+
+They were dressed, for disguise, in various ways; sometimes as
+peasants, as workmen, or as shepherds. On one occasion, Court and
+Duplan travelled the country disguised as officers! The police heard
+of it, and ordered their immediate arrest, pointing out the town and
+the very house where they were to be taken. But the preachers escaped,
+and assumed a new dress.
+
+When living near Nismes, Court was one day seated under a tree
+composing a sermon, when a party of soldiers, hearing that he was in
+the neighbourhood, came within sight. Court climbed up into the tree,
+where he remained concealed among the branches, and thus contrived to
+escape their search.
+
+On another occasion, he was staying with a friend, in whose house he
+had slept during the previous night. A detachment of troops suddenly
+surrounded the house, and the officer knocked loudly at the door.
+Court made his friend go at once to bed pretending to be ill, while he
+himself cowered down in the narrow space between the bed and the wall.
+His wife slowly answered the door, which the soldiers were threatening
+to blow open. They entered, rummaged the house, opened all the chests
+and closets, sounded the walls, examined the sick man's room, and
+found nothing!
+
+Court himself, as well as the other pastors, worked very hard. On one
+occasion, Court made a round of visits in Lower Languedoc and in the
+Cevennes, at first alone, and afterwards accompanied by a young
+preacher. In the space of two months and a few days he visited
+thirty-one churches, holding assemblies, preaching, and administering
+the sacrament, during which he travelled over three hundred miles. The
+weather did not matter to the pastors--rain nor snow, wind nor storm,
+never hindered them. They took the road and braved all. Even sickness
+often failed to stay them. Sickness might weaken but did not overthrow
+them.
+
+The spies and police so abounded throughout the country, and were so
+active, that they knew all the houses in which the preachers might
+take refuge. A list of these was prepared and placed in the hands of
+the intendant of the province.[55] If preachers were found in them,
+both the shelterers and the sheltered knew what they had to expect.
+The whole property and goods of the former were confiscated and they
+were sent to the galleys for life; and the latter were first tortured
+by the rack, and then hanged. The houses in which preachers were found
+were almost invariably burnt down.
+
+         [Footnote 55: It has since been published in the "Bulletin de
+         la Société du Protestantisme Français."]
+
+Notwithstanding the great secrecy with which the whole organization
+proceeded, preachers were frequently apprehended, assemblies were
+often surprised, and many persons were imprisoned and sent to the
+galleys for life. Each village had its chief spy--the priest; and
+beneath the priest there were a number of other spies--spies for
+money, spies for cruelty, spies for revenge.
+
+Was an assembly of Huguenots about to be held? A spy, perhaps a
+traitor, would make it known. The priest's order was sufficient for
+the captain of the nearest troop of soldiers to proceed to disperse
+it. They marched and surrounded the assembly. A sound of volley-firing
+was heard. The soldiers shot down, hanged, or made prisoners of the
+unlawful worshippers. Punishments were sudden, and inquiry was never
+made into them, however brutal. There was the fire for Bibles,
+Testaments, and psalm-books; galleys for men; prisons and convents for
+women; and gibbets for preachers.
+
+In 1720 a large number of prisoners were captured in the famous old
+quarry near Nismes, long the seat of secret Protestant worship. But
+the troops surrounded the meeting suddenly, and the whole were taken.
+The women were sent for life to the Tour de Constance, and the men,
+chained in gangs, were sent all through France to La Rochelle, to be
+imprisoned in the galleys there. The ambassador of England made
+intercession for the prisoners, and their sentence was commuted into
+one of perpetual banishment from France. They were accordingly
+transported to New Orleans on the Mississippi, to populate the rising
+French colony in that quarter of North America.
+
+Thus crimes abounded, and cruelty when practised upon Huguenots was
+never investigated. The seizure and violation of women was common.
+Fathers knew the probable consequence when their daughters were
+seized. The daughter of a Huguenot was seized at Uzes, in 1733, when
+the father immediately died of grief. Two sisters were seized at the
+same place to be "converted," and their immediate relations were
+thrown into gaol in the meantime. This was a common proceeding. The
+Tour de Constance was always filling, and kept full.
+
+The dying were tortured. If they refused the viaticum they were
+treated as "damned persons." When Jean de Molènes of Cahors died,
+making a profession of Protestantism, his body was denounced as
+damned, and it was abandoned without sepulture. A woman who addressed
+some words of consolation to Joseph Martin when dying was condemned to
+pay a fine of six thousand livres, and be imprisoned in the castle of
+Beauregard; and as for Martin, his memory was declared to be damned
+for ever. Many such outrages to the living and dead were constantly
+occurring.[56] Gaolers were accustomed to earn money by exhibiting the
+corpses of Huguenot women at fairs, inviting those who paid for
+admission, to walk up and "see the corpse of a damned person."[57]
+
+         [Footnote 56: Edmund Hughes, "Histoire de la Restauration du
+         Protestantisme en France," ii. 94.]
+
+         [Footnote 57: Bénoît, "Edit de Nantes," v. 987.]
+
+Notwithstanding all these cruelties, Protestantism was making
+considerable progress, both in Languedoc and Dauphiny. In reorganizing
+the Church, the whole country had been divided into districts, and
+preachers and pastors endeavoured to visit the whole of their members
+with as much regularity as possible. Thus Languedoc was divided into
+seven districts, and to each of those a _proposant_ or probationary
+preacher was appointed. The presbyteries and synods met regularly and
+secretly in a cave, or the hollow bed of a river, or among the
+mountains. They cheered each other up, though their progress was
+usually over the bodies of their dead friends.
+
+For any pastor or preacher to be apprehended, was, of course, certain
+death. Thus, out of thirteen Huguenots who were found worshipping in a
+private apartment at Montpellier, in 1723, Vesson, the pastor, and
+Bonicel and Antoine Comte, his assistants, were at once condemned and
+hanged on the Peyrou, the other ten persons being imprisoned or sent
+to the galleys for life.
+
+Shortly after, Huc, the aged pastor, was taken prisoner in the
+Cevennes, brought to Montpellier, and hanged in the same place. A
+reward of a thousand livres was offered by Bernage, the intendant, for
+the heads of the remaining preachers, the fatal list comprising the
+names of Court, Cortez, Durand, Rouviere, Bombonnoux, and others. The
+names of these "others" were not mentioned, not being yet thought
+worthy of the gibbet.
+
+And yet it was at this time that the Bishop of Alais made an appeal to
+the government against the toleration shown to the Huguenots! In 1723,
+he sent a long memorial to Paris, alleging that Catholicism was
+suffering a serious injury; that not only had the "new converts"
+withdrawn themselves from the Catholic Church, but that the old
+Catholics themselves were resorting to the Huguenot assemblies; that
+sometimes their meetings numbered from three to four thousand persons;
+that their psalms were sometimes overheard in the surrounding
+villages; that the churches were becoming deserted, the curés in some
+parishes not being able to find a single Catholic to serve at Mass;
+that the Protestants had ceased to send their children to school, and
+were baptized and married without the intervention of the Church.
+
+In consequence of these representations, the then Regent, the Duke of
+Bourbon, sent down an urgent order to the authorities to carry out the
+law--to prevent meetings, under penalty of death to preachers, and
+imprisonment at the galleys to all who attended them, ordering that
+the people should be _forced_ to go to church and the children to
+school, and reviving generally the severe laws against Protestantism
+issued by Louis XIV. The result was that many of the assemblies were
+shortly after attacked and dispersed, many persons were made prisoners
+and sent to the galleys, and many more preachers were apprehended,
+racked, and hanged.
+
+Repeated attempts were made to apprehend Antoine Court, as being the
+soul of the renewed Protestant organization. A heavy reward was
+offered for his head. The spies and police hunted after him in all
+directions. Houses where he was supposed to be concealed were
+surrounded by soldiers at night, and every hole and corner in them
+ransacked. Three houses were searched in one night. Court sometimes
+escaped with great difficulty. On one occasion he remained concealed
+for more than twenty hours under a heap of manure. His friends
+endeavoured to persuade him to leave the country until the activity of
+the search for him had passed.
+
+Since the year 1722, Court had undertaken new responsibilities. He had
+become married, and was now the father of three children. He had
+married a young Huguenot woman of Uzes. He first met her in her
+father's house, while he was in hiding from the spies. While he was
+engaged in his pastoral work his wife and family continued to live at
+Uzes. Court was never seen in her company, but could only visit his
+family secretly. The woman was known to be of estimable character, but
+it gave rise to suspicions that she had three children without a known
+father. The spies were endeavouring to unravel the secret, tempted by
+the heavy reward offered for Court's head.
+
+One day the new commandant of the town, passing before the door of the
+house where Court's wife lived, stopped, and, pointing to the house,
+put some questions to the neighbours. Court was informed of this, and
+immediately supposed that his house had become known, that his wife
+and family had been discovered and would be apprehended. He at once
+made arrangements for having them removed to Geneva. They reached that
+city in safety, in the month of April, 1729.
+
+Shortly after, Court, still wandering and preaching about Languedoc,
+became seriously ill. He feared for his wife, he feared for his
+family, and conceived the design of joining them in Switzerland. A few
+months later, exhausted by his labours and continued illness, he left
+Languedoc and journeyed by slow stages to Geneva. He was still a young
+man, only thirty-three; but he had worked excessively hard during the
+last dozen years. Since the age of fourteen, in fact, he had
+evangelized Languedoc.
+
+Shortly before Court left France for Switzerland, the preacher,
+Alexandre Roussel, was, in the year 1728, added to the number of
+martyrs. He was only twenty-six years of age. The occasion on which he
+was made prisoner was while attending an assembly near Vigan. The
+whole of the people had departed, and Roussel was the last to leave
+the meeting. He was taken to Montpellier, and imprisoned in the
+citadel, which had before held so many Huguenot pastors. He was asked
+to abjure, and offered a handsome bribe if he would become a Catholic.
+He refused to deny his faith, and was sentenced to die. When Antoine
+Court went to offer consolation to his mother, she replied, "If my son
+had given way I should have been greatly distressed; but as he died
+with constancy, I thank God for strengthening him to perform this last
+work in his service."
+
+Court did not leave his brethren in France without the expostulations
+of his friends. They alleged that his affection for his wife and
+family had cooled his zeal for God's service. Duplan and Cortez
+expostulated with him; and the churches of Languedoc, which he himself
+had established, called upon him to return to his duties amongst them.
+
+But Court did not attend to their request. His determination was for
+the present unshaken. He had a long arrears of work to do in quiet. He
+had money to raise for the support of the suffering Church of France,
+and for the proper maintenance of the college for students, preachers,
+and pastors. He had to help the refugees, who still continued to leave
+France for Switzerland, and to write letters and rouse the Protestant
+kingdoms of the north, as Brousson had done before him some thirty
+years ago.
+
+The city of Berne was very generous in its treatment of Court and the
+Huguenots generally. The Bernish Government allotted Court a pension
+of five hundred livres a-year--for he was without the means of
+supporting his family--all his own and his wife's property having been
+seized and sequestrated in France. Court preached with great success
+in the principal towns of Switzerland, more particularly at Berne, and
+afterwards at Lausanne, where he spent the rest of his days.
+
+Though he worked there more peacefully, he laboured as continuously as
+ever in the service of the Huguenot churches. He composed addresses to
+them; he educated preachers and pastors for them; and one of his
+principal works, while at Lausanne, was to compose a history of the
+Huguenots in France subsequent to the Revocation of the Edict of
+Nantes.
+
+What he had done for the reorganization of the Huguenot Church in
+France may be thus briefly stated. Court had begun his work in 1715,
+at which time there was no settled congregation in the South of
+France. The Huguenots were only ministered to by occasional wandering
+pastors. In 1729, the year in which Court finally left France, there
+were in Lower Languedoc 29 organized, though secretly governed,
+churches; in Upper Languedoc, 11; in the Cevennes, 18; in the Lozère
+12; and in Viverais, 42 churches. There were now over 200,000
+recognised Protestants in Languedoc alone. The ancient discipline had
+been restored; 120 churches had been organized; a seminary for the
+education of preachers and pastors had been established; and
+Protestantism was extending in Dauphiny, Bearn, Saintonge,[58] and
+other quarters.
+
+         [Footnote 58: In 1726, a deputation from Guyenne, Royergue,
+         and Poitou, appeared before the Languedoc synod, requesting
+         preachers and pastors to be sent to them. The synod agreed to
+         send Maroger as preacher. Bètrine (the first of the Lausanne
+         students) and Grail were afterwards sent to join him.
+         Protestantism was also reawakening in Saintonge and Picardy,
+         and pastors from Languedoc journeyed there to administer the
+         sacrament. Preachers were afterwards sent to join them, to
+         awaken the people, and reorganize the congregations.]
+
+Such were, in a great measure, the results of the labours of Antoine
+Court and his assistants during the previous fifteen years.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+
+THE CHURCH IN THE DESERT, 1730-62--PAUL RABAUT.
+
+
+The persecutions of the Huguenots increased at one time and relaxed at
+another. When France was at war, and the soldiers were fighting in
+Flanders or on the Rhine, the bishops became furious, and complained
+bitterly to the government of the toleration shown to the Protestants.
+The reason was that there were no regiments at liberty to pursue the
+Huguenots and disperse their meetings in the Desert. When the soldiers
+returned from the wars, persecution began again.
+
+It usually began with the seizing and burning of books. The
+book-burning days were considered amongst the great days of fête.
+
+One day in June, 1730, the Intendant of Languedoc visited Nismes,
+escorted by four battalions of troops. On arriving, the principal
+Catholics were selected, and placed as commissaries to watch the
+houses of the suspected Huguenots. At night, while the inhabitants
+slept, the troops turned out, and the commissaries pointed out the
+Huguenot houses to be searched. The inmates were knocked up, the
+soldiers entered, the houses were rummaged, and all the books that
+could be found were taken to the Hôtel de Ville.
+
+A few days after a great _auto-da-fé_ was held. The entire Catholic
+population turned out. There were the four battalions of troops, the
+gendarmes, the Catholic priests, and the chief dignitaries; and in
+their presence all the Huguenot books were destroyed. They were thrown
+into a pile on the usual place of execution, and the hangman set fire
+to this great mass of Bibles, psalm-books, catechisms, and
+sermons.[59] The officers laughed, the priests sneered, the multitude
+cheered. These bonfires were of frequent occurrence in all the towns
+of Languedoc.
+
+         [Footnote 59: E. Hughes, "Histoire de la Restauration, du
+         Protestantisme en France," ii. 96.]
+
+But if the priests hated the printed word, still more did they hate
+the spoken word. They did not like the Bible, but they hated the
+preachers. Fines, _auto-da-fés_, condemnation to the galleys, seizures
+of women and girls, and profanation of the dead, were tolerable
+punishments, but there was nothing like hanging a preacher. "Nothing,"
+said Saint-Florentin to the commandant of La Devese, "can produce more
+impression than hanging a preacher; and it is very desirable that you
+should immediately take steps to arrest one of them."
+
+The commandant obeyed orders, and apprehended Pierre Durand. He was on
+his way to baptize the child of one of his congregation, who lived on
+a farm in Viverais. An apparent peasant, who seemed to be waiting his
+approach, offered to conduct him to the farm. Durand followed him. The
+peasant proved to be a soldier in disguise. He led Durand directly
+into the midst of his troop. There he was bound and carried off to
+Montpellier.
+
+Durand was executed at the old place--the Peyrou--the soldiers
+beating their drums to stifle his voice while he prayed. His corpse
+was laid beside that of Alexandre Roussel, under the rampart of the
+fortress of Montpellier. Durand was the last of the preachers in
+France who had attended the synod of 1715. They had all been executed,
+excepting only Antoine Court, who was safe in Switzerland.
+
+The priests were not so successful with Claris, the preacher, who
+contrived to escape their clutches. Claris had just reached France on
+his return from the seminary at Lausanne. He had taken shelter for the
+night with a Protestant friend at Foissac, near Uzes. Scarcely had he
+fallen asleep, when the soldiers, informed by the spies, entered his
+chamber, bound him, and marched him off on foot by night, to Alais. He
+was thrown into gaol, and was afterwards judged and condemned to
+death. His friends in Alais, however, secretly contrived to get an
+iron chisel passed to him in prison. He raised the stone of a chamber
+which communicated with his dungeon, descended to the ground, and
+silently leapt the wall. He was saved.
+
+Pastors and preachers continued to be tracked and hunted with renewed
+ardour in Saintonge, Poitou, Gascony, and Dauphiny. "The Chase," as it
+was called, was better organized than it had been for twenty years
+previously. The Catholic clergy, however, continued to complain. The
+chase, they said, was not productive enough! The hangings of pastors
+were too few. The curates of the Cevennes thus addressed the
+intendants: "You do not perform your duty: you are neither active
+enough nor pitiless enough;"[60] and they requested the government to
+adopt more vigorous measures.
+
+         [Footnote 60: E. Hughes, ii. 99. Coquerel, "L'Église dans le
+         Désert," i. 258.]
+
+The intendants, who were thus accused, insisted that they _had_ done
+their duty. They had hanged all the Huguenot preachers that the
+priests and their spies had discovered and brought to them. They had
+also offered increased rewards for the preachers' heads. If
+Protestantism counted so large a number of adherents, _they_ were
+surely not to blame for that! Had the priests themselves done _their_
+duty? Thus the intendants and the curés reproached each other by
+turns.
+
+And yet the pastors and preachers had not been spared. They had been
+hanged without mercy. They knew they were in the peril of constant
+death. "I have slept fifteen days in a meadow," wrote Cortez, the
+pastor, "and I write this under a tree." Morel, the preacher, when
+attending an assembly, was fired at by the soldiers and died of his
+wounds. Pierre Dortial was also taken prisoner when holding an
+assembly. The host with whom he lived was condemned to the galleys for
+life; the arrondissement in which the assembly had been held was
+compelled to pay a fine of three thousand livres; and Dortial himself
+was sentenced to be hanged. When the aged preacher was informed of his
+sentence he exclaimed: "What an honour for me, oh my God! to have been
+chosen from so many others to suffer death because of my constancy to
+the truth." He was executed at Nismes, and died with courage.
+
+In 1742 France was at war, and the Huguenots enjoyed a certain amount
+of liberty. The edicts against them were by no means revoked; their
+execution was merely suspended. The provinces were stripped of troops,
+and the clergy could no longer call upon them to scatter the meetings
+in the Desert. Hence the assemblies increased. The people began to
+think that the commandants of the provinces had received orders to
+shut their eyes, and see nothing of the proceedings of the Huguenots.
+
+At a meeting held in a valley between Calvisson and Langlade, in
+Languedoc, no fewer than ten thousand persons openly met for worship.
+No troops appeared. There was no alarm nor surprise. Everything passed
+in perfect quiet. In many other places, public worship was celebrated,
+the sacrament was administered, children were baptized, and marriages
+were celebrated in the open day.[61]
+
+         [Footnote 61: Although marriages by the pastors had long been
+         declared illegal, they nevertheless married and baptized in
+         the Desert. After 1730, the number of Protestant marriages
+         greatly multiplied, though it was known that the issue of
+         such marriages were declared, by the laws of France to be
+         illegal. Many of the Protestants of Dauphiny went across the
+         frontier into Switzerland, principally to Geneva, and were
+         there married.]
+
+The Catholics again urgently complained to the government of the
+increasing number of Huguenot meetings. The Bishop of Poitiers
+complained that in certain parishes of his diocese there was not now a
+single Catholic. Low Poitou contained thirty Protestant churches,
+divided into twelve arrondissements, and each arrondissement contained
+about seven thousand members. The Procureur-Général of Normandy said,
+"All this country is full of Huguenots." But the government had at
+present no troops to spare, and the Catholic bishops and clergy must
+necessarily wait until the war with the English and the Austrians had
+come to an end.
+
+Antoine Court paid a short visit to Languedoc in 1744, to reconcile a
+difference which had arisen in the Church through the irregular
+conduct of Pastor Boyer. Court was received with great enthusiasm, and
+when Boyer was re-established in his position as pastor, after making
+his submission to the synod, a convocation of Huguenots was held near
+Sauzet, at which thousands of people were present. Court remained for
+about a month in France, preaching almost daily to immense audiences.
+At Nismes, he preached at the famous place for Huguenot meetings--in
+the old quarry, about three miles from the town. There were about
+twenty thousand persons present, ranged, as in an amphitheatre, along
+the sides of the quarry. It was a most impressive sight. Peasants and
+gentlemen mixed together. Even the "beau monde" of Nismes was present.
+Everybody thought that there was now an end of the persecution.[62]
+
+         [Footnote 62: Of the preachers about this time (1740-4) the
+         best known were Morel, Foriel, Mauvillon, Voulaud, Corteiz,
+         Peyrot, Roux, Gauch, Coste, Dugnière, Blachon, Gabriac,
+         Déjours, Rabaut, Gibert, Mignault, Désubas, Dubesset, Pradel,
+         Morin, Defferre, Loire, Pradon,--with many more. Defferre
+         restored Protestantism in Berne. Loire (a native of St. Omer,
+         and formerly a Catholic), Viala, Préneuf, and Prudon, were
+         the apostles of Normandy, Rouergue, Guyenne, and Poitou.]
+
+In the meantime the clergy continued to show signs of increasing
+irritation. They complained, denounced, and threatened. Various
+calumnies were invented respecting the Huguenots. The priests of
+Dauphiny gave out that Roger, the pastor, had read an edict purporting
+to be signed by Louis XV. granting complete toleration to the
+Huguenots! The report was entirely without foundation, and Roger
+indignantly denied that he had read any such edict. But the report
+reached the ears of the King, then before Ypres with his army; on
+which he issued a proclamation announcing that the rumour publicly
+circulated that it was his intention to tolerate the Huguenots was
+absolutely false.
+
+No sooner had the war terminated, and the army returned to France,
+than the persecutions recommenced as hotly as ever. The citizens of
+Nismes, for having recently encouraged the Huguenots and attended
+Court's great meeting, were heavily fined. All the existing laws for
+the repression and destruction of Protestantism were enforced.
+Suspected persons were apprehended and imprisoned without trial. A new
+"hunt" was set on foot for preachers. There were now plenty of
+soldiers at liberty to suppress the meetings in the Desert, and they
+were ordered into the infested quarters. In a word, persecution was
+let loose all over France. Nor was it without the usual results. It
+was very hot in Dauphiny. There a detachment of horse police,
+accompanied by regular troops and a hangman, ran through the province
+early in 1745, spreading terror everywhere. One of their exploits was
+to seize a sick old Huguenot, drag him from his bed, and force him
+towards prison. He died upon the road.
+
+In February, it was ascertained that the Huguenots met for worship in
+a certain cavern. The owner of the estate on which the cavern was
+situated, though unaware of the meetings, was fined a thousand crowns,
+and imprisoned for a year in the Castle of Cret.
+
+Next month, Louis Ranc, a pastor, was seized at Livron while baptizing
+an infant, taken to Die, and hanged. He had scarcely breathed his
+last, when the hangman cut the cord, hewed off the head, and made a
+young Protestant draw the corpse along the streets of Die.
+
+In the month of April, 1745, Jacques Roger, the old friend and
+coadjutor of Court--the apostle of Dauphiny as Court had been of
+Languedoc--was taken prisoner and conducted to Grenoble. Roger was
+then eighty years old, worn out with privation and hard work. He was
+condemned to death. He professed his joy at being still able to seal
+with his blood the truths he had so often proclaimed. On his way to
+the scaffold, he sang aloud the fifty-first Psalm. He was executed in
+the Place du Breuil. After he had hung for twenty-four hours, his body
+was taken down, dragged along the streets of Grenoble, and thrown into
+the Isère.
+
+At Grenoble also, in the same year, seven persons were condemned to
+the galleys. A young woman was publicly whipped at the same place for
+attending a Huguenot meeting. Seven students and pastors who could not
+be found, were hanged in effigy. Four houses were demolished for
+having served as asylums for preachers. Fines were levied on all
+sides, and punishments of various kinds were awarded to many hundred
+persons. Thus persecution ran riot in Dauphiny in the years 1745 and
+1746.
+
+In Languedoc it was the same. The prisons and the galleys were always
+kept full. Dragoons were quartered in the Huguenot villages, and by
+this means the inhabitants were soon ruined. The soldiers pillaged the
+houses, destroyed the furniture, tore up the linen, drank all the
+wine, and, when they were in good humour, followed the cattle, swine,
+and fowl, and killed them off sword in hand. Montauban, an old
+Huguenot town, was thus ruined in the course of a very few months.
+
+One day, in a Languedoc village, a soldier seized a young girl with a
+foul intention. She cried aloud, and the villagers came to her rescue.
+The dragoons turned out in a body, and fired upon the people. An old
+man was shot dead, a number of the villagers were taken prisoners,
+and, with their hands tied to the horses' tails, were conducted for
+punishment to Montauban.
+
+All the towns and villages in Upper Languedoc were treated with the
+same cruelty. Nismes was fined over and over again. Viverais was
+treated with the usual severity. M. Désubas, the pastor, was taken
+prisoner there, and conducted to Vernoux. As the soldiers led him
+through the country to prison, the villagers came out in crowds to see
+him pass. Many followed the pastor, thinking they might be able to
+induce the magistrates of Vernoux to liberate him. The villagers were
+no sooner cooped up in a mass in the chief street of the town, than
+they were suddenly fired upon by the soldiers. Thirty persons were
+killed on the spot, more than two hundred were wounded, and many
+afterwards died of their wounds.
+
+Désubas, the pastor, was conducted to Nismes, and from Nismes to
+Montpellier. While on his way to death at Montpellier, some of his
+peasant friends, who lived along the road, determined to rescue him.
+But when Paul Rabaut heard of the proposed attempt, he ran to the
+place where the people had assembled and held them back. He was
+opposed to all resistance to the governing power, and thought it
+possible, by patience and righteousness, to live down all this
+horrible persecution.
+
+Désubas was judged, and, as usual, condemned to death. Though it was
+winter time, he was led to his punishment almost naked; his legs
+uncovered, and only in thin linen vest over his body. Arrived at the
+gallows, his books and papers were burnt before his eyes, and he was
+then delivered over to the executioner. A Jesuit presented a crucifix
+for him to kiss, but he turned his head to one side, raised his eyes
+upwards, and was then hanged.
+
+The same persecution prevailed over the greater part of France. In
+Saintonge, Elie Vivien, the preacher, was taken prisoner, and hanged
+at La Rochelle. His body remained for twenty-four hours on the
+gallows. It was then placed upon a forked gibbet, where it hung until
+the bones were picked clean by the crows and bleached by the wind and
+the sun.[63]
+
+         [Footnote 63: E. Hughes, "Histoire de la Restauration," &c.,
+         ii. 202.]
+
+The same series of persecutions went on from one year to another. It
+was a miserable monotony of cruelty. There was hanging for the
+pastors; the galleys for men attending meetings in the Desert; the
+prisons and convents for women and children. Wherever it was found
+that persons had been married by the Huguenot pastors, they were haled
+before the magistrate, fined and imprisoned, and told that they had
+been merely living in concubinage, and that their children were
+illegitimate.
+
+Sometimes it was thought that the persecutors would relent. France was
+again engaged in a disastrous war with England and Austria; and it was
+feared that England would endeavour to stir up a rebellion amongst the
+Huguenots. But the pastors met in a general synod, and passed
+resolutions assuring the government of their loyalty to the King,[64]
+and of their devotion to the laws of France!
+
+         [Footnote 64: On the 1st of November, 1746, the ministers of
+         Languedoc met in haste, and wrote to the Intendant, Le Nain:
+         "Monseigneur, nous n'avons aucune connaissance de ces gens
+         qu'on appelle émissaires, et qu'on dit être envoyés des pays
+         étrangers pour solliciter les Protestants à la révolte. Nous
+         avons exhorté, et nous nous proposons d'exhorter encore dans
+         toutes les occasions, nos troupeaux à la soumission au
+         souverain et à la patience dans les afflictions, et de nous
+         écarter jamais de la pratique de ce précepte: Craignez Dieu
+         et honorez le roi."]
+
+Their "loyalty" proved of no use. The towns of Languedoc were as
+heavily fined as before, for attending meetings in the Desert.[65]
+Children were, as usual, taken away from their parents and placed in
+Jesuit convents. Le Nain apprehended Jean Desjours, and had him hanged
+at Montpellier, on the ground that he had accompanied the peasants
+who, as above recited, went into Vernoux after the martyr Désubas.
+
+         [Footnote 65: Près de Saint-Ambroix (Cevennes) se tint un
+         jour une assemblée. Survint un détachement. Les femmes et les
+         filles furent dépouillées, violées, et quelques hommes furent
+         blessés.--E. HUGHES, _Histoire de la Restauration, &c._, ii.
+         212.]
+
+The Catholics would not even allow Protestant corpses to be buried in
+peace. At Levaur a well-known Huguenot died. Two of his friends went
+to dig a grave for him by night; they were observed by spies and
+informed against. By dint of money and entreaties, however, the
+friends succeeded in getting the dead man buried. The populace,
+stirred up by the White Penitents (monks), opened the grave, took out
+the corpse, sawed the head from the body, and prepared to commit
+further outrages, when the police interfered, and buried the body
+again, in consideration of the large sum that had been paid to the
+authorities for its interment.
+
+The populace were always wild for an exhibition of cruelty. In
+Provence, a Protestant named Montague died, and was secretly interred.
+The Catholics having discovered the place where he was buried
+determined to disinter him. The grave was opened, and the corpse taken
+out. A cord was attached to the neck, and the body was hauled through
+the village to the music of a tambourine and flageolet. At every step
+it was kicked or mauled by the crowd who accompanied it. Under the
+kicks the corpse burst. The furious brutes then took out the entrails
+and attached them to poles, going through the village crying, "Who
+wants preachings? Who wants preachings?"[66]
+
+         [Footnote 66: Antoine Court, "Mémoire Historique," 140.]
+
+To such a pitch of brutality had the kings of France and their
+instigators, the Jesuits--who, since the Revocation of the Edict, had
+nearly the whole education of the country in their hands--reduced the
+people; from whom they were themselves, however, to suffer almost an
+equal amount of indignity.
+
+In the midst of these hangings and cruelties, the bishops again
+complained bitterly of the tolerance granted to the Huguenots. M. de
+Montclus, Bishop of Alais, urged "that the true cause of all the evils
+that afflict the country was the relaxation of the laws against heresy
+by the magistrates, that they gave themselves no trouble to persecute
+the Protestants, and that their further emigration from the kingdom
+was no more to be feared than formerly." It was, they alleged, a great
+danger to the country that there should be in it two millions of men
+allowed to live without church and outside the law.[67]
+
+         [Footnote 67: See "Memorial of General Assembly of Clergy to
+         the King," in _Collection des procès-verbaux_, 345.]
+
+The afflicted Church at this time had many misfortunes to contend
+with. In 1748, the noble, self-denying, indefatigable Claris died--one
+of the few Protestant pastors who died in his bed. In 1750, the
+eloquent young preacher, François Benezet,[68] was taken and hanged at
+Montpellier. Meetings in the Desert were more vigorously attacked and
+dispersed, and when surrounded by the soldiers, most persons were
+shot; the others were taken prisoners.
+
+         [Footnote 68: The King granted 480 livres of reward to the
+         spy who detected Benezet and procured his apprehension by the
+         soldiers.]
+
+The Huguenot pastors repeatedly addressed Louis XV. and his ministers,
+appealing to them for protection as loyal subjects. In 1750 they
+addressed the King in a new memorial, respectfully representing that
+their meetings for public worship, sacraments, baptisms, and
+marriages, were matters of conscience. They added: "Your troops pursue
+us in the deserts as if we were wild beasts; our property is
+confiscated; our children are torn from us; we are condemned to the
+galleys; and although our ministers continually exhort us to discharge
+our duty as good citizens and faithful subjects, a price is set upon
+their heads, and when they are taken, they are cruelly executed." But
+Louis XV. and his ministers gave no greater heed to this petition than
+they had done to those which had preceded it.
+
+After occasional relays the Catholic persecutions again broke out. In
+1752 there was a considerable emigration in consequence of a new
+intendant having been appointed to Languedoc. The Catholics called
+upon him to put in force the powers of the law. New brooms sweep
+clean. The Intendant proceeded to carry out the law with such ferocity
+as to excite great terror throughout the province. Meetings were
+surrounded; prisoners taken and sent to the galleys; and all the gaols
+and convents were filled with women and children.
+
+The emigration began again. Many hundred persons went to Holland; and
+a still larger number went to settle with their compatriots as silk
+and poplin weavers in Dublin. The Intendant of Languedoc tried to stop
+their flight. The roads were again watched as before. All the outlets
+from the kingdom were closed by the royalist troops. Many of the
+intending emigrants were made prisoners. They were spoiled of
+everything, robbed of their money, and thrown into gaol. Nevertheless,
+another large troop started, passed through Switzerland, and reached
+Ireland at the end of the year.
+
+At the same time, emigration was going on from Normandy and Poitou,
+where persecution was compelling the people to fly from their own
+shores and take refuge in England. This religious emigration of 1752
+was, however, almost the last which took place from France. Though the
+persecutions were drawing to an end, they had not yet come to a close.
+
+In 1754, the young pastor Tessier (called Lafage), had just returned
+from Lausanne, where he had been pursuing his studies for three years.
+He had been tracked by a spy to a certain house, where he had spent
+the night. Next morning the house was surrounded by soldiers. Tessier
+tried to escape by getting out of a top window and running along the
+roofs of the adjoining houses. A soldier saw him escaping and shot at
+him. He was severely wounded in the arm. He was captured, taken before
+the Intendant of Languedoc, condemned, and hanged in the course of the
+same day.
+
+Religious meetings also continued to be surrounded, and were treated
+in the usual brutal manner. For instance, an assembly was held in
+Lower Languedoc on the 8th of August, 1756, for the purpose of
+ordaining to the ministry three young men who had arrived from
+Lausanne, where they had been educated. A number of pastors were
+present, and as many as from ten to twelve thousand men, women, and
+children were there from the surrounding country. The congregation was
+singing a psalm, when a detachment of soldiers approached. The people
+saw them; the singing ceased; the pastors urging patience and
+submission. The soldiers fired; every shot told; and the crowd fled in
+all directions. The meeting was thus dispersed, leaving the
+murderers--in other words, the gallant soldiers--masters of the field;
+a long track of blood remaining to mark the site on which the
+prayer-meeting had been held.
+
+It is not necessary to recount further cruelties and tortures.
+Assemblies surrounded and people shot; preachers seized and hanged;
+men sent to the galleys; women sent to the Tour de Constance; children
+carried off to the convents--such was the horrible ministry of torture
+in France. When Court heard of the re-inflictions of some old form of
+torture--"Alas," said he, "there is nothing new under the sun. In all
+times, the storm of persecution has cleansed the threshing-floor of
+the Lord."
+
+And yet, notwithstanding all the bitterness of the persecution, the
+number of Protestants increased. It is difficult to determine their
+numbers. Their apologists said they amounted to three millions;[69]
+their detractors that they did not amount to four hundred thousand.
+The number of itinerant pastors, however, steadily grew. In 1756 there
+were 48 pastors at work, with 22 probationary preachers and students.
+In 1763 there were 62 pastors, 35 preachers, and 15 students.
+
+         [Footnote 69: Ripert de Monclar, procureur-général, writing
+         in 1755, says: "According to the jurisprudence of this
+         kingdom, there are no French Protestants, and yet, according
+         to the truth of facts, there are three millions. These
+         imaginary beings fill the towns, provinces, and rural
+         districts, and the capital alone contains sixty thousand of
+         them."]
+
+Then followed the death of Antoine Court himself in Switzerland--after
+watching over the education and training of preachers at the Lausanne
+Seminary. Feeling his powers beginning to fail, he had left Lausanne,
+and resided at Timonex. There, assisted by his son Court de Gébelin,
+Professor of Logic at the College, he conducted an immense
+correspondence with French Protestants at home and abroad.
+
+Court's wife died in 1755, to his irreparable loss. His "Rachel,"
+during his many years of peril, had been his constant friend and
+consoler. Unable, after her death, to live at Timonex, so full of
+cruel recollections, Court returned to Lausanne. He did not long
+survive his wife's death. While engaged in writing the history of the
+Reformed Church of France, he was taken ill. His history of the
+Camisards was sent to press, and he lived to revise the first
+proof-sheets. But he did not survive to see the book published. He
+died on the 15th June, 1760, in the sixty-fourth year of his age.
+
+From the time of Court's death--indeed from the time that Court left
+France to settle at Lausanne--Paul Rabaut continued to be looked upon
+as the leader and director of the proscribed Huguenot Church. Rabaut
+originally belonged to Bedarieux in Languedoc. He was a great friend
+of Pradel's. Rabaut served the Church at Nismes, and Pradel at Uzes.
+Both spent two years at Lausanne in 1744-5. Court entertained the
+highest affection for Rabaut, and regarded him as his successor. And
+indeed he nobly continued the work which Court had begun.
+
+Besides being zealous, studious, and pious, Rabaut was firm, active,
+shrewd, and gentle. He stood strongly upon moral force. Once, when the
+Huguenots had become more than usually provoked by the persecutions
+practised on them, they determined to appear armed at the assemblies.
+Rabaut peremptorily forbade it. If they persevered, he would forsake
+their meetings. He prevailed, and they came armed only with their
+Bibles.
+
+The directness of Rabaut's character, the nobility of his sentiments,
+the austerity of his life, and his heroic courage, evidently destined
+him as the head of the work which Court had begun. Antoine Court! Paul
+Rabaut! The one restored Protestantism in France, the other rooted and
+established it.
+
+Rabaut's enthusiasm may be gathered from the following extract of a
+letter which he wrote to a friend at Geneva: "When I fix my attention
+upon the divine fire with which, I will not say Jesus Christ and the
+Apostles, but the Reformed and their immediate successors, burned for
+the salvation of souls, it seems to me that, in comparison with them,
+we are ice. Their immense works astound me, and at the same time cover
+me with confusion. What would I not give to resemble them in
+everything laudable!"
+
+Rabaut had the same privations, perils, and difficulties to undergo as
+the rest of the pastors in the Desert. He had to assume all sorts of
+names and disguises while he travelled through the country, in order
+to preach at the appointed places. He went by the names of M. Paul, M.
+Denis, M. Pastourel, and M. Theophile; and he travelled under the
+disguises of a common labourer, a trader, a journeyman, and a baker.
+
+He was condemned to death, as a pastor who preached in defiance of the
+law; but his disguises were so well prepared, and the people for whom
+he ministered were so faithful to him, that the priests and other
+spies never succeeded in apprehending him. Singularly enough, he was
+in all other respects in favour of the recognition of legal authority,
+and strongly urged his brethren never to adopt any means whatever of
+forcibly resisting the King's orders.
+
+Many of the military commanders were becoming disgusted with the
+despicable and cowardly business which the priests called upon them to
+do. Thus, on one occasion, a number of Protestants had assembled at
+the house of Paul Rabaut at Nismes, and, while they were on their
+knees, the door was suddenly burst open, when a man, muffled up,
+presented himself, and throwing open his cloak, discovered the
+military commandant of the town. "My friends," he said, "you have Paul
+Rabaut with you; in a quarter of an hour I shall be here with my
+soldiers, accompanied by Father ----, who has just laid the
+information against you." When the soldiers arrived, headed by the
+commandant and the father, of course no Paul Rabaut was to be found.
+
+"For more than thirty years," says one of Paul Rabaut's biographers,
+"caverns and huts, whence he was unearthed like a wild animal, were
+his only habitation. For a long time he dwelt in a safe hiding-place
+that one of his faithful guides had provided for him, under a pile of
+stones and thorn-bushes. It was discovered at length by a shepherd,
+and such was the wretchedness of his condition, that, when he was
+forced to abandon the place, he still regretted this retreat, which
+was more fit for savage beasts than men."
+
+Yet this hut of piled stones was for some time the centre of
+Protestant affairs in France. All the faithful instinctively turned to
+Rabaut when assailed by fresh difficulties and persecutions, and acted
+on his advice. He obtained the respect even of the Catholics
+themselves, because it was known that he was a friend of peace, and
+opposed to all risings and rebellions amongst his people.
+
+Once he had the courage to present a petition to the Marquis de
+Paulmy, Minister of War, when changing horses at a post-house between
+Nismes and Montpellier. Rabaut introduced himself by name, and the
+Marquis knew that it was the proscribed pastor who stood before him.
+He might have arrested and hanged Rabaut on the spot; but, impressed
+by the noble bearing of the pastor, he accepted the petition, and
+promised to lay it before the king.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII
+
+END OF THE PERSECUTIONS--THE FRENCH REVOLUTION.
+
+
+In the year 1762, the execution of an unknown Protestant at Toulouse
+made an extraordinary noise in Europe. Protestant pastors had so often
+been executed, that the punishment had ceased to be a novelty.
+Sometimes they were simply hanged; at other times they were racked,
+and then hanged; and lastly, they were racked, had their larger bones
+broken, and were then hanged. Yet none of the various tortures
+practised on the Protestant pastors had up to that time excited any
+particular sensation in France itself, and still less in Europe.
+
+Cruelty against French Huguenots was so common a thing in those days,
+that few persons who were of any other religion, or of no religion at
+all, cured anything about it. The Protestants were altogether outside
+the law. When a Protestant meeting was discovered and surrounded, and
+men, women, and children were at once shot down, no one could call the
+murderers in question, because the meetings were illegal. The persons
+taken prisoners at the meetings were brought before the magistrates
+and sentenced to punishments even worse than death. They might be sent
+to the galleys, to spend the remainder of their lives amongst
+thieves, murderers, and assassins. Women and children found at such
+meetings might also be sentenced to be imprisoned in the Tour de
+Constance. There were even cases of boys of twelve years old having
+been sent to the galleys for life, because of having accompanied their
+parents to "the Preaching."[70]
+
+         [Footnote 70: Athanase Coquerel, "Les Forçats pour la Foi,"
+         91.]
+
+The same cruelties were at that time practised upon the common people
+generally, whether they were Huguenots or not. The poor creatures,
+whose only pleasure consisted in sometimes hunting a Protestant, were
+so badly off in some districts of France that they even fed upon
+grass. The most distressed districts in France were those in which the
+bishops and clergy were the principal owners of land. They were the
+last to abandon slavery, which continued upon their estates until
+after the Revolution.
+
+All these abominations had grown up in France, because the people had
+begun to lose the sense of individual liberty. Louis XIV. had in his
+time prohibited the people from being of any religion different from
+his own. "His Majesty," said his Prime Minister Louvois, "will not
+suffer any person to remain in his kingdom who shall not be of his
+religion." And Louis XV. continued the delusion. The whole of the
+tyrannical edicts and ordinances of Louis XIV. continued to be
+maintained.
+
+It was not that Louis XIV. and Louis XV. were kings of any virtue or
+religion. Both were men of exceedingly immoral habits. We have
+elsewhere described Louis XIV., but Louis XV., the Well-beloved, was
+perhaps the greatest profligate of the two. Madame de Pompadour, when
+she ceased to be his mistress, became his procuress. This infamous
+woman had the command of the state purse, and she contrived to build
+for the sovereign a harem, called the Parc-aux-Cerfs, in the park of
+Versailles, which cost the country at least a hundred millions of
+francs.[71] The number of young girls taken from Paris to this place
+excited great public discontent; and though morals generally were not
+very high at that time, the debauchery and intemperance of the King
+(for he was almost constantly drunk)[72] contributed to alienate the
+nation, and to foster those feelings of hatred which broke forth
+without restraint in the ensuing reign.
+
+         [Footnote 71: "Madame de Pompadour découvrit que Louis XV.
+         pourrait lui-même s'amuser à faire l'éducation de ces jeunes
+         malheureuses. De petites filles de neuf à douze ans,
+         lorsqu'elles avaient attiré les regards de la police par leur
+         beauté, étaient enlevées à leurs mères par plusieurs
+         artifices, conduites à Versailles, et retenues dans les
+         parties les plus élevées et les plus inaccessibles des petits
+         appartements du roi.... Le nombre des malheureuses qui
+         passèrent successivement à Parc-aux-Cerfs est immense; à leur
+         sortie elles étaient mariées à des hommes vils ou crédules
+         auxquels elles apportaient une bonne dot. Quelques unes
+         conservaient un traitement fort considerable." "Les dépenses
+         du Parc-aux-Cerfs, dit Lacratelle, se payaient avec des
+         acquits du comptant. Il est difficile de les évaluer; mais il
+         ne peut y avoir aucune exagération à affirmer qu'elles
+         coûtèrent plus de 100 millions à l'État. Dans quelques
+         libelles on les porte jusqu'à un milliard."--SISMONDI,
+         _Histoire de Française_, Brussels, 1844, xx. 153-4. The
+         account given by Sismondi of the debauches of this persecutor
+         of the Huguenots is very full. It is _not_ given in the "Old
+         Court Life of France," recently written by a lady.]
+
+         [Footnote 72: Sismondi, xx. 157.]
+
+In the midst of all this public disregard for virtue, a spirit of
+ribaldry and disregard for the sanctions of religion had long been
+making its appearance in the literature of the time. The highest
+speculations which can occupy the attention of man were touched with a
+recklessness and power, a brilliancy of touch and a bitterness of
+satire, which forced the sceptical productions of the day upon the
+notice of all who studied, read, or delighted in literature;--for
+those were the days of Voltaire, Rousseau, Condorcet, and the great
+men of "The Encyclopædia."
+
+While the King indulged in his vicious pleasures, and went reeking
+from his debaucheries to obtain absolution from his confessors, the
+persecution of the Protestants went on as before. Nor was it until
+public opinion (such as it was) was brought to bear upon the hideous
+incongruity that religious persecutions were at once brought summarily
+to an end.
+
+The last executions of Huguenots in France because of their
+Protestantism occurred in 1762. Francis Rochette, a young pastor,
+twenty-six years old, was laid up by sickness at Montauban. He
+recovered sufficiently to proceed to the waters of St. Antonin for the
+recovery of his health, when he was seized, together with his two
+guides or bearers, by the burgess guard of the town of Caussade. The
+three brothers Grenier endeavoured to intercede for them; but the
+mayor of Caussade, proud of his capture, sent the whole of the
+prisoners to gaol.
+
+They were tried by the judges of Toulouse on the 18th of February.
+Rochette was condemned to be hung in his shirt, his head and feet
+uncovered, with a paper pinned on his shirt before and behind, with
+the words written thereon--"_Ministre de la religion prétendue
+réformée._" The three brothers Grenier, who interfered on behalf of
+Rochette, were ordered to have their heads taken off for resisting the
+secular power; and the two guides, who were bearing the sick Rochette
+to St. Antonin for the benefit of the waters, were sent to the galleys
+for life.
+
+Barbarous punishments such as these were so common when Protestants
+were the offenders, that the decision, of the judges did not excite
+any particular sensation. It was only when Jean Calas was shortly
+after executed at Toulouse that an extraordinary sensation was
+produced--and that not because Calas was a Protestant, but because his
+punishment came under the notice of Voltaire, who exposed the inhuman
+cruelty to France, Europe, and the world at large.
+
+The reason why Protestant executions terminated with the death of
+Calas was as follows:--The family of Jean Calas resided at Toulouse,
+then one of the most bigoted cities in France. Toulouse swarmed with
+priests and monks, more Spanish than French in their leanings. They
+were great in relics, processions, and confraternities. While
+"mealy-mouthed" Catholics in other quarters were becoming somewhat
+ashamed of the murders perpetrated during the Massacre of St.
+Bartholomew, and were even disposed to deny them, the more outspoken
+Catholics of Toulouse were even proud of the feat, and publicly
+celebrated the great southern Massacre of St. Bartholomew which took
+place in 1572. The procession then held was one of the finest church
+commemorations in the south; it was followed by bishops, clergy, and
+the people of the neighbourhood, in immense numbers.
+
+Calas was an old man of sixty-four, and reduced to great weakness by a
+paralytic complaint. He and his family were all Protestants excepting
+one son, who had become a Catholic. Another of the sons, however, a
+man of ill-regulated life, dissolute, and involved in pecuniary
+difficulties, committed suicide by hanging himself in an outhouse.
+
+On this, the brotherhood of White Penitents stirred up a great fury
+against the Protestant family in the minds of the populace. The monks
+alleged that Jean Calas had murdered his son because he wished to
+become a Catholic. They gave out that it was a practice of the
+Protestants to keep an executioner to murder their children who wished
+to abjure the reformed faith, and that one of the objects of the
+meetings which they held in the Desert, was to elect this executioner.
+The White Penitents celebrated mass for the suicide's soul; they
+exhibited his figure with a palm branch in his hand, and treated him
+as a martyr.
+
+The public mind became inflamed. A fanatical judge, called David, took
+up the case, and ordered Calas and his whole family to be sent to
+prison. Calas was tried by the court of Toulouse. They tortured the
+whole family to compel them to confess the murder;[73] but they did
+not confess. The court wished to burn the mother, but they ended by
+condemning the paralytic father to be broken alive on the wheel.[74]
+The parliament of Toulouse confirmed the atrocious sentence, and the
+old man perished in torments, declaring to the last his entire
+innocence. The rest of the family were discharged, although if there
+had been any truth in the charge for which Jean Calas was racked to
+death, they must necessarily have been his accomplices, and equally
+liable to punishment.
+
+         [Footnote 73: Sismondi, xx. 328.]
+
+         [Footnote 74: To be broken alive on the wheel was one of the
+         most horrible of tortures, a bequest from ages of violence
+         and barbarism. It was preserved in France mainly for the
+         punishment of Protestants. The prisoner was extended on a St.
+         Andrew's cross, with eight notches cut on it--one below each
+         arm between the elbow and wrist, another between each elbow
+         and the shoulders, one under each thigh, and one under each
+         leg. The executioner, armed with a heavy triangular bar of
+         iron, gave a heavy blow on each of these eight places, and
+         broke the bone. Another blow was given in the pit of the
+         stomach. The mangled victim was lifted from the cross and
+         stretched on a small wheel placed vertically at one of the
+         ends of the cross, his back on the upper part of the wheel,
+         his head and feet hanging down. There the tortured creature
+         hung until he died. Some lingered five or six hours, others
+         much longer. This horrible method of torture was only
+         abolished at the French Revolution in 1790.]
+
+The ruined family left Toulouse and made for Geneva, then the
+head-quarters of Protestants from the South of France. And here it was
+that the murder of Jean Calas and the misfortunes of the Calas family
+came under the notice of Voltaire, then living at Ferney, near Geneva.
+
+In the midst of the persecutions of the Protestants a great many
+changes had been going on in France. Although the clergy had for more
+than a century the sole control of the religious education of the
+people, the people had not become religious. They had become very
+ignorant and very fanatical. The upper classes were anything but
+religious; they were given up for the most part to frivolity and
+libertinage. The examples of their kings had been freely followed.
+Though ready to do honour to the court religion, the higher classes
+did not believe in it. The press was very free for the publication of
+licentious and immoral books, but not for Protestant Bibles. A great
+work was, however, in course of publication, under the editorship of
+D'Alembert and Diderot, to which Voltaire, Rousseau, and others
+contributed, entitled "The Encyclopædia." It was a description of the
+entire circle of human knowledge; but the dominant idea which pervaded
+it was the utter subversion of religion.
+
+The abuses of the Church, its tyranny and cruelty, the ignorance and
+helplessness in which it kept the people, the frivolity and unbelief
+of the clergy themselves, had already condemned it in the minds of the
+nation. The writers in "The Encyclopædia" merely gave expression to
+their views, and the publication of its successive numbers was
+received with rapture. In the midst of the free publication of
+obscene books, there had also appeared, before the execution of Calas,
+the Marquis de Mirabeau's "Ami des Hommes," Rousseau's "Émile," the
+"Contrat Social," with other works, denying religion of all kinds, and
+pointing to the general downfall, which was now fast approaching.
+
+When the Calas family took refuge in Geneva, Voltaire soon heard of
+their story. It was communicated to him by M. de Végobre, a French
+refugee. After he had related it, Voltaire said, "This is a horrible
+story. What has become of the family?" "They arrived in Geneva only
+three days ago." "In Geneva!" said Voltaire; "then let me see them at
+once." Madame Calas soon arrived, told him the whole facts of the
+case, and convinced Voltaire of the entire innocence of the family.
+
+Voltaire was no friend of the Huguenots. He believed the Huguenot
+spirit to be a republican spirit. In his "Siècle de Louis XIV.," when
+treating of the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes, he affirmed that
+the Reformed were the enemies of the State; and though he depicted
+feelingly the cruelties they had suffered, he also stated clearly that
+he thought they had deserved them. Voltaire probably owed his hatred
+of the Protestants to the Jesuits, by whom he was educated. He was
+brought up at the Jesuit College of Louis le Grand, the chief
+persecutor of the Huguenots. Voltaire also owed much of the looseness
+of his principles to his godfather, the Abbé Chateauneuf, grand-prior
+of Vendôme, the Abbé de Chalieu, and others, who educated him in an
+utter contempt for the doctrines they were appointed and paid to
+teach. It was when but a mere youth that Father Lejay, one of
+Voltaire's instructors, predicted that he would yet be the Coryphæus
+of Deism in France.
+
+Nor was Voltaire better pleased with the Swiss Calvinists. He
+encountered some of the most pedantic of them while residing at
+Lausanne and Geneva.[75] At the latter place, he covered with sarcasm
+the "twenty-four periwigs"--the Protestant council of the city. They
+would not allow him to set up a theatre in Geneva, so he determined to
+set up one himself at La Chatelaine, about a mile off, but beyond the
+Genevese frontier. His object, he professed, was "to corrupt the
+pedantic city." The theatre is still standing, though it is now used
+only as a hayloft. The box is preserved from which Voltaire cheered
+the performance of his own and other plays.
+
+         [Footnote 75: While Voltaire lived at Lausanne, one of the
+         baillies (the chief magistrates of the city) said to him:
+         "Monsieur de Voltaire, they say that you have written against
+         the good God: it is very wrong, but I hope He will pardon
+         you.... But, Monsieur de Voltaire, take very good care not to
+         write against their excellencies of Berne, our sovereign
+         lords, for be assured that they will _never_ forgive you."]
+
+But though Voltaire hated Protestantism like every other religion, he
+also hated injustice. It was because of this that he took up the case
+of the Calas family, so soon as he had become satisfied of their
+innocence. But what a difficulty he had to encounter in endeavouring
+to upset the decision of the judges, and the condemnation of Calas by
+the parliament of Toulouse. Moreover, he had to reverse their decision
+against a dead man, and that man a detested Huguenot.
+
+Nevertheless Voltaire took up the case. He wrote letters to his
+friends in all parts of France. He wrote to the sovereigns of Europe.
+He published letters in the newspapers. He addressed the Duke de
+Choiseul, the King's Secretary of State. He appealed to philosophers,
+to men of letters, to ladies of the court, and even to priests and
+bishops, denouncing the sentence pronounced against Calas,--the most
+iniquitous, he said, that any court professing to act in the name of
+justice had ever pronounced. Ferney was visited by many foreigners,
+from Germany, America, England, and Russia; as well as by numerous
+persons of influence in France. To all these he spoke vehemently of
+Calas and his sentence. He gave himself no rest until he had inflamed
+the minds of all men against the horrible injustice.
+
+At length, the case of Calas became known all over France, and in fact
+all over Europe. The press of Paris rang with it. In the boudoirs and
+salons, Calas was the subject of conversation. In the streets, men
+meeting each other would ask, "Have you heard of Calas?" The dead man
+had already become a hero and a martyr!
+
+An important point was next reached. It was decided that the case of
+Calas should be remitted to a special court of judges appointed to
+consider the whole matter. Voltaire himself proceeded to get up the
+case. He prepared and revised the memorials, he revised all the
+pleadings of the advocates, transforming them into brief, conclusive
+arguments, sparkling with wit, reason, and eloquence. The revision of
+the process commenced. The people held their breaths while it
+proceeded.
+
+At length, in the spring of 1766--four years after Calas had been
+broken to death on the wheel--four years after Voltaire had undertaken
+to have the unjust decision of the Toulouse magistrates and parliament
+reversed, the court of judges, after going completely over the
+evidence, pronounced the judgment to have been entirely unfounded!
+
+The decree was accordingly reversed. Jean Calas was declared to have
+been innocent. The man was, however, dead. But in order to compensate
+his family, the ministry granted 36,000 francs to Calas's widow, on
+the express recommendation of the court which reversed the abominable
+sentence.[76]
+
+         [Footnote 76: It may be added that, after the reversal of the
+         sentence, David, the judge who had first condemned Calas,
+         went insane, and died in a madhouse.]
+
+The French people never forgot Voltaire's efforts in this cause.
+Notwithstanding all his offences against morals and religion, Voltaire
+on this occasion acted on his best impulses. Many years after, in
+1778, he visited Paris, where he was received with immense enthusiasm.
+He was followed in the streets wherever he went. One day when passing
+along the Pont Royal, some person asked, "Who is that man the crowd is
+following?" "Ne savez vous pas," answered a common woman, "que c'est
+le sauveur de Calas!" Voltaire was more touched with this simple
+tribute to his fame than with all the adoration of the Parisians.
+
+It was soon found, however, that there were many persons still
+suffering in France from the cruelty of priests and judges; and one of
+these occurred shortly after the death of Calas. One of the ordinary
+practices of the Catholics was to seize the children of Protestants
+and carry them off to some nunnery to be educated at the expense of
+their parents. The priests of Toulouse had obtained a _lettre de
+cachet_ to take away the daughter of a Protestant named Sirven, to
+compel her to change her religion. She was accordingly seized and
+carried off to a nunnery. She manifested such reluctance to embrace
+Catholicism, and she was treated with such cruelty, that she fled from
+the convent in the night, and fell into a well, where she was found
+drowned.
+
+The prejudices of the Catholic bigots being very much excited about
+this time by the case of Calas, blamed the family of Sirven (in the
+same manner as they had done that of Calas) with murdering their
+daughter. Foreseeing that they would be apprehended if they remained,
+the whole family left the city, and set out for Geneva. After they
+left, Sirven was in fact sentenced to death _par contumace_. It was
+about the middle of winter when they set out, and Sirven's wife died
+of cold on the way, amidst the snows of the Jura.
+
+On his arrival at Geneva, Sirven stated his case to Voltaire, who took
+it up as he had done that of Calas. He exerted himself as before.
+Advocates of the highest rank offered to conduct Sirven's case; for
+public opinion had already made considerable progress. Sirven was
+advised to return to Toulouse, and offer himself as a prisoner. He did
+so. The case was tried with the same results as before; the advocates,
+acting under Voltaire's instructions and with his help, succeeded in
+obtaining the judges' unanimous decision that Sirven was innocent of
+the crime for which he had already been sentenced to death.
+
+After this, there were no further executions of Protestants in France.
+But what became of the Huguenots at the galleys, who still continued
+to endure a punishment from day to day, even worse than death
+itself?[77] Although, they were often cut off by fever, starvation,
+and exposure, many of them contrived to live on to a considerable age.
+After the trials of Calas and Sirven, the punishment of the galleys
+was evidently drawing to an end. Only two persons were sent to the
+galleys during the year in which Pastor Rochette was hanged. But a
+circumstance came to light respecting one of the galley-slaves who had
+been liberated in that very year (1762), which had the effect of
+eventually putting an end to the cruelty.
+
+         [Footnote 77: The Huguenots sometimes owed their release from
+         the galleys to money payments made by Protestants (but this
+         was done secretly), the price of a galley-slave being about a
+         thousand crowns; sometimes they owed it to the influence of
+         Protestant princes; but never to the voluntary mercy of the
+         Catholics. In 1742, while France was at war with England, and
+         Prussia was quietly looking on, Antoine Court made an appeal
+         to Frederick the Great, and at his intervention with Louis
+         XV. thirty galley-slaves were liberated. The Margrave of
+         Bayreuth, Culmbach and his wife, the sister of the Great
+         Frederick, afterwards visited the galleys at Toulon, and
+         succeeded in obtaining the liberation of several
+         galley-slaves.]
+
+The punishment was not, however, abolished by Christian feeling, or by
+greater humanity on the part of the Catholics; nor was it abolished
+through the ministers of justice, and still less by the order of the
+King. It was put an end to by the Stage! As Voltaire, the Deist,
+terminated the hanging of Protestants, so did Fenouillot, the player,
+put an end to their serving as galley-slaves. The termination of this
+latter punishment has a curious history attached to it.
+
+It happened that a Huguenot meeting for worship was held in the
+neighbourhood of Nismes, on the first day of January, 1756. The place
+of meeting was called the Lecque,[78] situated immediately north of
+the Tour Magne, from which the greater part of the city has been
+built. It was a favourable place for holding meetings; but it was not
+so favourable for those who wished to escape. The assembly had
+scarcely been constituted by prayer, when the alarm was given that the
+soldiers were upon them! The people fled on all sides. The youngest
+and most agile made their escape by climbing the surrounding rocks.
+
+         [Footnote 78: This secret meeting-place of the Huguenots is
+         well known from the engraved picture of Boze.]
+
+Amongst these, Jean Fabre, a young silk merchant of Nismes, was
+already beyond reach of danger, when he heard that his father had been
+made a prisoner. The old man, who was seventy-eight, could not climb
+as the others had done, and the soldiers had taken him and were
+leading him away. The son, who knew that his father would be sentenced
+to the galleys for life, immediately determined, if possible, to
+rescue him from this horrible fate. He returned to the group of
+soldiers who had his father in charge, and asked them to take him
+prisoner in his place. On their refusal, he seized his father and drew
+him from their grasp, insisting upon them taking himself instead. The
+sergeant in command at first refused to adopt this strange
+substitution; but, conquered at last by the tears and prayers of the
+son, he liberated the aged man and accepted Jean Fabre as his
+prisoner.
+
+Jean Fabre was first imprisoned at Nismes, where he was prevented
+seeing any of his friends, including a certain young lady to whom he
+was about shortly to be married. He was then transferred to
+Montpellier to be judged; where, of course, he was condemned, as he
+expected, to be sent to the galleys for life. With this dreadful
+prospect before him, of separation from all that he loved--from his
+father, for whom he was about to suffer so much; from his betrothed,
+who gave up all hope of ever seeing him again--and having no prospect
+of being relieved from his horrible destiny, his spirits failed, and
+he became seriously ill. But his youth and Christian resignation came
+to his aid, and he finally recovered.
+
+The Protestants of Nismes, and indeed of all Languedoc, were greatly
+moved by the fate of Jean Fabre. The heroism of his devotion to his
+parent soon became known, and the name of the volunteer convict was
+in every mouth. The Duc de Mirepoix, then governor of the province,
+endeavoured to turn the popular feeling to some account. He offered
+pardon to Fabre and Turgis (who had been taken prisoner with him)
+provided Paul Rabaut, the chief pastor of the Desert, a hard-working
+and indefatigable man, would leave France and reside abroad. But
+neither Fabre, nor Rabaut, nor the Huguenots generally, had any
+confidence in the mercy of the Catholics, and the proposal was coldly
+declined.
+
+Fabre was next sent to Toulon under a strong escort of cavalry. He was
+there registered in the class of convicts; his hair was cut close; he
+was clothed in the ignominious dress of the galley-slave, and placed
+in a galley among murderers and criminals, where he was chained to one
+of the worst. The dinner consisted of a porridge of cooked beans and
+black bread. At first he could not touch it, and preferred to suffer
+hunger. A friend of Fabre, who was informed of his starvation, sent
+him some food more savoury and digestible; but his stomach was in such
+a state that he could not eat even that. At length he became
+accustomed to the situation, though the place was a sort of hell, in
+which he was surrounded by criminals in rags, dirt, and vermin, and,
+worst of all, distinguished for their abominable vileness of speech.
+He was shortly after seized with a serious illness, when he was sent
+to the hospital, where he found many Huguenot convicts imprisoned,
+like himself, because of their religion.[79]
+
+         [Footnote 79: Letter of Jean Fabre, in Athanase Coquerel's
+         "Forçats pour la Foi," 201-3.]
+
+Repeated applications were made to Saint-Florentin, the Secretary of
+State, by Fabre's relatives, friends, and fellow Protestants for his
+liberation, but without result. After he had been imprisoned for some
+years, a circumstance happened which more than anything else
+exasperated his sufferings. The young lady to whom he was engaged had
+an offer of marriage made to her by a desirable person, which her
+friends were anxious that she should accept. Her father had been
+struck by paralysis, and was poor and unable to maintain himself as
+well as his daughter. He urged that she should give up Fabre, now
+hopelessly imprisoned for life, and accept her new lover.
+
+Fabre himself was consulted on the subject; his conscience was
+appealed to, and how did he decide? It was only after the bitterest
+struggle, that he determined on liberating his betrothed. He saw no
+prospect of his release, and why should he sacrifice her? Let her no
+longer be bound up with his fearful fate, but be happy with another if
+she could.
+
+The young lady yielded, though not without great misgivings. The day
+for her marriage with her new lover was fixed; but, at the last
+moment, she relented. Her faithfulness and love for the heroic
+galley-slave had never been shaken, and she resolved to remain
+constant to him, to remain unmarried if need be, or to wait for his
+liberation until death!
+
+It is probable that her noble decision determined Fabre and Fabre's
+friends to make a renewed effort for his liberation. At last, after
+having been more than six years a galley-slave, he bethought him of a
+method of obtaining at least a temporary liberty. He proposed--without
+appealing to Saint-Florentin, who was the bitter enemy of the
+Protestants--to get his case made known to the Duc de Choiseul,
+Minister of Marine. This nobleman was a just man, and it had been in a
+great measure through his influence that the judgment of Calas had
+been reconsidered and reversed.
+
+Fabre, while on the rowers' bench, had often met with a M. Johannot, a
+French Protestant, settled at Frankfort-on-Maine, to whom he stated
+his case. It may be mentioned that Huguenot refugees, on their visits
+to France, often visited the Protestant prisoners at the galleys,
+relieved their wants, and made intercession for them with the outside
+world. It may also be incidentally mentioned that this M. Johannot was
+the ancestor of two well-known painters and designers, Alfred and
+Tony, who have been the illustrators of some of our finest artistic
+works.
+
+Johannot made the case of Fabre known to some French officers whom he
+met at Frankfort, interested them greatly in his noble character and
+self-sacrifice, and the result was that before long Fabre obtained,
+directly from the Duc de Choiseul, leave of absence from the position
+of galley-slave. The annoyance of Saint-Florentin, Minister of State,
+was so well-known, that Fabre, on his liberation, was induced to
+conceal himself. Nor could he yet marry his promised wife, as he had
+not been discharged, but was only on leave of absence; and
+Saint-Florentin obstinately refused to reverse the sentence that had
+been pronounced against him.
+
+In the meantime, Fabre's name was becoming celebrated. He had no idea,
+while privately settled at Ganges as a silk stocking maker, that great
+people in France were interesting themselves about his fate. The
+Duchesse de Grammont, sister of the Duc de Choiseul, had heard about
+him from her brother; and the Prince de Beauvau, governor of
+Languedoc, the Duchesse de Villeroy, and many other distinguished
+personages, were celebrating his heroism.
+
+Inquiry was made of the sergeant who had originally apprehended Fabre,
+upon his offering himself in exchange for his father (long since
+dead), and the sergeant confirmed the truth of the noble and generous
+act. At the same time, M. Alison, first consul at Nismes, confirmed
+the statement by three witnesses, in presence of the secretary of the
+Prince de Beauvau. The result was, that Jean Fabre was completely
+exonerated from the charge on account of which he had been sent to the
+galleys. He was now a free man, and at last married the young lady who
+had loved him so long and so devotedly.
+
+One day, to his extreme surprise, Fabre received from the Duc de
+Choiseul a packet containing a drama, in which he found his own
+history related in verse, by Fenouillot de Falbaire. It was entitled
+"The Honest Criminal." Fabre had never been a criminal, except in
+worshipping God according to his conscience, though that had for
+nearly a hundred years been pronounced a crime by the law of France.
+
+The piece, which was of no great merit as a tragedy, was at first
+played before the Duchesse de Villeroy and her friends, with great
+applause, Mdlle. Clairon playing the principal female part.
+Saint-Florentin prohibited the playing of the piece in public,
+protesting to the last against the work and the author. Voltaire
+played it at Ferney, and Queen Marie Antoinette had it played in her
+presence at Versailles. It was not until 1789 that the piece was
+played in the theatres of Paris, when it had a considerable success.
+
+We do not find that any Protestants were sent to be galley-slaves
+after 1762, the year that Calas was executed. A reaction against this
+barbarous method of treating men for differences of opinion seems to
+have set in; or, perhaps, it was because most men were ceasing to
+believe in the miraculous powers of the priests, for which the
+Protestants had so long been hanged and made galley-slaves.
+
+After the liberation of Fabre in 1762, other galley-slaves were
+liberated from time to time. Thus, in the same year, Jean Albiges and
+Jean Barran were liberated after eight years of convict life. They had
+been condemned for assisting at Protestant assemblies. Next year,
+Maurice was liberated; he had been condemned for life for the same
+reason.
+
+While Voltaire had been engaged in the case of Calas he asked the Duc
+de Choiseul for the liberation of a galley-slave. The man for whom he
+interceded, had been a convict twenty years for attending a Protestant
+meeting. Of course, Voltaire cared nothing for his religion, believing
+Catholicism and Protestantism to be only two forms of the same
+superstition. The name of this galley-slave was Claude Chaumont. Like
+nearly all the other convicts he was a working man--a little
+dark-faced shoemaker. Some Protestant friends he had at Geneva
+interceded with Voltaire for his liberation.
+
+On Chaumont's release in 1764, he waited upon his deliverer to thank
+him. "What!" said Voltaire, on first seeing him, "my poor little bit
+of a man, have they put _you_ in the galleys? What could they have
+done with you? The idea of sending a little creature to the
+galley-chain, for no other crime than that of praying to God in bad
+French!"[80] Voltaire ended by handing the impoverished fellow a sum
+of money to set him up in the world again, when he left the house the
+happiest of men.
+
+         [Footnote 80: "Voltaire et les Genevois," par J. Gaberel,
+         74-5.]
+
+We may briefly mention a few of the last of the galley-slaves. Daniel
+Bic and Jean Cabdié, liberated in 1764, for attending religious
+meetings. Both were condemned for life, and had been at the
+galley-chain for ten years.
+
+Jean Pierre Espinas, an attorney, of St. Felix de Châteauneuf, in
+Viverais, who had been condemned for life for having given shelter to
+a pastor, was released in 1765, at the age of sixty-seven, after being
+chained at the galleys for twenty-five years.
+
+Jean Raymond, of Fangères, the father of six children, who had been a
+galley-slave for thirteen years, was liberated in 1767. Alexandre
+Chambon, a labourer, more than eighty years old, condemned for life in
+1741, for attending a religious meeting, was released in 1769, on the
+entreaty of Voltaire, after being a galley-slave for twenty-eight
+years. His friends had forgotten him, and on his release he was
+utterly destitute and miserable.[81]
+
+         [Footnote 81: "Lettres inédites des Voltaire," publiées par
+         Athanase Coquerel fils, 247.]
+
+In 1772, three galley-slaves were liberated from their chains. André
+Guisard, a labourer, aged eighty-two, Jean Roque, and Louis Tregon, of
+the same class, all condemned for life for attending religious
+meetings. They had all been confined at the chain for twenty years.
+
+The two last galley-slaves were liberated in 1775, during the first
+year of the reign of Louis XVI., and close upon the outbreak of the
+French Revolution. They had been quite forgotten, until Court de
+Gébelin, son of Antoine Court, discovered them. When he applied for
+their release to M. de Boyne, Minister of Marine, he answered that
+there were no more Protestant convicts at the galleys; at least, he
+believed so. Shortly after, Turgot succeeded Boyne, and application
+was made to him. He answered that there was no need to recommend such
+objects to him for liberation, as they were liberated already.
+
+On the two old men being told they were released, they burst into
+tears; but were almost afraid of returning to the world which no
+longer knew them. One of them was Antoine Rialle, a tailor of Aoste,
+in Dauphiny, who had been condemned by the parliament of Grenoble to
+the galleys for life "for contravening the edicts of the King
+concerning religion." He was seventy-eight years old, and had been a
+galley-slave for thirty years.
+
+The other, Paul Achard, had been a shoemaker of Châtillon, also in
+Dauphiny. He was condemned to be a galley-slave for life by the
+parliament of Grenoble, for having given shelter to a pastor. Achard
+had also been confined at the galleys for thirty years.
+
+It is not known when the last Huguenot women were liberated from the
+Tour de Constance, at Aiguesmortes. It would probably be about the
+time when the last Huguenots were liberated from the galleys. An
+affecting picture has been left by an officer who visited the prison
+at the release of the last prisoners. "I accompanied," he says, "the
+Prince de Beauvau (the intendant of Languedoc under Louis XVI.) in a
+survey which he made of the coast. Arriving at Aiguesmortes, at the
+gate of the Tour de Constance, we found at the entrance the principal
+keeper, who conducted us by dark steps through a great gate, which
+opened with an ominous noise, and over which was inscribed a motto
+from Dante--'Lasciate ogni speranza voi che'ntrate.'
+
+"Words fail me to describe the horror with which we regarded a scene
+to which we were so unaccustomed--a frightful and affecting picture,
+in which the interest was heightened by disgust. We beheld a large
+circular apartment, deprived of air and of light, in which fourteen
+females still languished in misery. It was with difficulty that the
+Prince smothered his emotion; and doubtless it was the first time that
+these unfortunate creatures had there witnessed compassion depicted
+upon a human countenance; I still seem to behold the affecting
+apparition. They fell at our feet, bathed in tears, and speechless,
+until, emboldened by our expressions of sympathy, they recounted to us
+their sufferings. Alas! all their crime consisted in having been
+attached to the same religion as Henry IV. The youngest of these
+martyrs was more than fifty years old. She was but _eight_ when first
+imprisoned for having accompanied her mother to hear a religious
+service, and her punishment had continued until now!"[82]
+
+         [Footnote 82: Froissard, "Nismes et ses Environs," ii. 217.]
+
+After the liberation of the last of the galley-slaves there were no
+further apprehensions nor punishments of Protestants. The priests had
+lost their power; and the secular authority no longer obeyed their
+behests. The nation had ceased to believe in them; in some places they
+were laughed at; in others they were detested. They owed this partly
+to their cruelty and intolerance, partly to their luxury and
+self-indulgence amidst the poverty of the people, and partly to the
+sarcasms of the philosophers, who had become more powerful in France
+than themselves. "It is not enough," said Voltaire, "that we prove
+intolerance to be horrible; we must also prove to the French that it
+is ridiculous."
+
+In looking back at the sufferings of the Huguenots remaining in France
+since the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes; at the purity,
+self-denial, honesty, and industry of their lives; at the devotion
+with which they adhered to religious duty and the worship of God; we
+cannot fail to regard them--labourers and peasants though they
+were--as amongst the truest, greatest, and worthiest heroes of their
+age. When society in France was falling to pieces; when its men and
+women were ceasing to believe in themselves and in each other; when
+the religion of the State had become a mass of abuse, consistent only
+in its cruelty; when the debauchery of its kings[83] had descended
+through the aristocracy to the people, until the whole mass was
+becoming thoroughly corrupt; these poor Huguenots seem to have been
+the only constant and true men, the only men holding to a great idea,
+for which they were willing to die--for they were always ready for
+martyrdom by the rack, the gibbet, or the galleys, rather than forsake
+the worship of God freely and according to conscience.
+
+         [Footnote 83: Such was the dissoluteness of the manners of
+         the court, that no less than 500,000,000 francs of the public
+         debt, or £20,000,000 sterling, had been incurred for expenses
+         too ignominious to bear the light, or even to be named in the
+         public accounts. It appears from an authentic document,
+         quoted in Soulavie's history, that in the sixteen months
+         immediately preceding the death of Louis XV., Madame du Barry
+         (originally a courtesan,) had drawn from the royal treasury
+         no less than 2,450,000 francs, or equal to about £200,000 of
+         our present money. ["Histoire de la Décadence de la Monarchie
+         Française," par Soulavie l'Aîné, iii. 330.] "La corruption,"
+         says Lacretelle, "entrait dans les plus paisibles ménages,
+         dans les familles les plus obscures. Elle [Madame du Barri]
+         était savamment et longtemps combinée par ceux qui servaient
+         les débauches de Louis. Des émissaires étaient employées à
+         séduire des filles qui n'étaient point encore nubiles, à
+         combattre dans de jeunes femmes des principes de pudeur et de
+         fidélité. Amant de grade, il livrait à la prostitution
+         publique celles de ses sujettes qu'il avait prématurement
+         corrompues. Il souffrait que les enfans de ses infâmes
+         plaisirs partageassent la destinée obscure et dangereuse de
+         ceux qu'un père n'avoue point." LACRETELLE, _Histoire de
+         France pendant le xviii Siècle_, iii. 171-173.]
+
+But their persecution was now in a great measure at an end. It is
+true the Protestants were not recognised, but they nevertheless held
+their worship openly, and were not interfered with. When Louis XVI.
+succeeded to the throne in 1774, on the administration of the oath for
+the extermination of heretics denounced by the Church, the Archbishop
+of Toulouse said to him: "It is reserved for you to strike the final
+blow against Calvinism in your dominions. Command the dispersion of
+the schismatic assemblies of the Protestants, exclude the sectarians,
+without distinction, from all offices of the public administration,
+and you will insure among your subjects the unity of the true
+Christian religion."
+
+No attention was paid to this and similar appeals for the restoration
+of intolerance. On the contrary, an Edict of Toleration was issued by
+Louis XVI. in 1787, which, though granting a legal existence to the
+Protestants, nevertheless set forth that "The Catholic, Apostolic, and
+Roman religion alone shall continue to enjoy the right of public
+worship in our realm."
+
+Opinion, however, moved very fast in those days. The Declaration of
+Rights of 1789 overthrew the barriers which debarred the admission of
+Protestants to public offices. On the question of tolerance, Rabaut
+Saint-Etienne, son of Paul Rabaut, who sat in the National Assembly
+for Nismes, insisted on the freedom of the Protestants to worship God
+after their accustomed forms. He said he represented a constituency of
+360,000, of whom 120,000 were Protestants. The penal laws against the
+worship of the Reformed, he said, had never been formally abolished.
+He claimed the rights of Frenchmen for two millions of useful
+citizens. It was not toleration he asked for, _it was liberty_.
+
+"Toleration!" he exclaimed; "sufferance! pardon! clemency! ideas
+supremely unjust towards the Protestants, so long as it is true that
+difference of religion, that difference of opinion, is not a crime!
+Toleration! I demand that toleration should be proscribed in its turn,
+and deemed an iniquitous word, dealing with us as citizens worthy of
+pity, as criminals to whom pardon is to be granted!"[84]
+
+         [Footnote 84: "History of the Protestants of France," by G.
+         de Félice, book v. sect. i.]
+
+The motion before the House was adopted with a modification, and all
+Frenchmen, without distinction of religious opinions, were declared
+admissible to all offices and employments. Four months later, on the
+15th March, 1790, Rabaut Saint-Etienne himself, son of the long
+proscribed pastor of the Desert, was nominated President of the
+Constituent Assembly, succeeding to the chair of the Abbé Montesquieu.
+
+He did not, however, occupy the position long. In the struggles of the
+Convention he took part with the Girondists, and refused to vote for
+the death of Louis XVI. He maintained an obstinate struggle against
+the violence of the Mountain. His arrest was decreed; he was dragged
+before the revolutionary tribunal, and condemned to be executed within
+twenty-four hours.
+
+The horrors of the French Revolution hide the doings of Protestantism
+and Catholicism alike for several years, until Buonaparte came into
+power. He recognised Catholicism as the established religion, and paid
+for the maintenance of the bishops and priests. He also protected
+Protestantism, the members of which were entitled to all the benefits
+secured to the other Christian communions, "with the exception of
+pecuniary subvention."
+
+The comparative liberty which the Protestants of France had enjoyed
+under the Republic and the Empire seemed to be in some peril at the
+restoration of the Bourbons. The more bigoted Roman Catholics of the
+South hailed their return as the precursors of renewed persecution:
+and they raised the cry of "Un Dieu, un Roi, une Foi."
+
+The Protestant mayor of Nismes was publicly insulted, and compelled to
+resign his office. The mob assembled in the streets and sang ferocious
+songs, threatening to "make black puddings of the blood of the
+Calvinists' children."[85] Another St. Bartholomew was even
+threatened; the Protestants began to conceal themselves, and many fled
+for refuge to the Upper Cevennes. Houses were sacked, their inmates
+outraged, and in many cases murdered.
+
+         [Footnote 85: See the Rev. Mark Wilks's "History of the
+         Persecutions endured by the Protestants of the South of
+         France, 1814, 1815, 1816." Longmans, 1821.]
+
+The same scenes occurred in most of the towns and villages of the
+department of Gard; and the authorities seemed to be powerless to
+prevent them. The Protestants at length began to take up arms for
+their defence; the peasantry of the Cevennes brought from their secret
+places the rusty arms which their fathers had wielded more than a
+century before; and another Camisard war seemed imminent.
+
+In the meantime, the subject of the renewed Protestant persecutions in
+the South of France was, in May, 1816, brought under the notice of the
+British House of Commons by Sir Samuel Romilly--himself the descendant
+of a Languedoc Huguenot--in a powerful speech; and although the
+motion was opposed by the Government, there can be little doubt that
+the discussion produced its due effect; for the Bourbon Government,
+itself becoming alarmed, shortly after adopted vigorous measures, and
+the persecution was brought to an end.
+
+Since that time the Protestants of France have remained comparatively
+unmolested. Evidences have not been wanting to show that the
+persecuting spirit of the priest-party has not become extinct. While
+the author was in France in 1870, to visit the scenes of the wars of
+the Camisards, he observed from the papers that a French deputy had
+recently brought a case before the Assembly, in which a Catholic curé
+of Ville-d'Avray refused burial in the public cemetery to the corpse
+of a young English lady, because she was a Protestant, and remitted it
+to the place allotted for criminals and suicides. The body accordingly
+lay for eighteen days in the cabin of the gravedigger, until it could
+be transported to the cemetery of Sèvres, where it was finally
+interred.
+
+But the people of France, as well as the government, have become too
+indifferent about religion generally, to persecute any one on its
+account. The nation is probably even now suffering for its
+indifference, and the spectacle is a sad one. It is only the old, old
+story. The sins of the fathers are being visited on the children.
+Louis XIV. and the French nation of his time sowed the wind, and their
+descendants at the Revolution reaped the whirlwind. And who knows how
+much of the sufferings of France during the last few years may have
+been due to the ferocious intolerance, the abandonment to vicious
+pleasures, the thirst for dominion, and the hunger for "glory," which
+above all others characterized the reign of that monarch who is in
+history miscalled "the Great?"
+
+It will have been noted that the chief scenes of the revival of
+Protestantism described in the preceding pages occurred in Languedoc
+and the South of France, where the chief strength of the Huguenots
+always lay. The Camisard civil war which happened there, was not
+without its influence. The resolute spirit which it had evoked
+survived. The people were purified by suffering, and though they did
+not conquer civil liberty, they continued to live strong, hardy,
+virtuous lives. When Protestantism was at length able to lift up its
+head after so long a period of persecution, it was found that, during
+its long submergence, it had lost neither in numbers, in moral or
+intellectual vigour, nor in industrial power.
+
+To this day the Protestants of Languedoc cherish the memory of their
+wanderings and worshippings in the Desert; and they still occasionally
+hold their meetings in the old frequented places. Not far from Nismes
+are several of these ancient meeting-places of the persecuted, to
+which we have above referred. One of them is about two miles from the
+city, in the bed of a mountain torrent. The worshippers arranged
+themselves along the slopes of the narrow valley, the pastor preaching
+to them from the grassy level in the hollow, while sentinels posted
+on the adjoining heights gave warning of the approach of the enemy.
+Another favourite place of meeting was the hollow of an ancient quarry
+called the Echo, from which the Romans had excavated much of the stone
+used in the building of the city. The congregation seated themselves
+around the craggy sides, the preacher's pulpit being placed in the
+narrow pass leading into the quarry. Notwithstanding all the
+vigilance of the sentinels, many persons of both sexes and various
+ages were often dragged from the Echo to imprisonment or death. Even
+after the persecutions had ceased, these meeting-places continued to
+be frequented by the Protestants of Nismes, and they were sometimes
+attended by five or six thousand persons, and on sacrament days by
+even double that number.
+
+Although the Protestants of Languedoc for the most part belong to the
+National Reformed Church, the independent character of the people has
+led them to embrace Protestantism in other forms. Thus, the
+Evangelical Church is especially strong in the South, whilst the
+Evangelical Methodists number more congregations and worshippers in
+Languedoc than in all the rest of France. There are also in the
+Cevennes several congregations of Moravian Brethren. But perhaps one
+of the most curious and interesting issues of the Camisard war is the
+branch of the Society of Friends still existing in Languedoc--the only
+representatives of that body in France, or indeed on the European
+continent.
+
+When the Protestant peasants of the Cevennes took up arms and
+determined to resist force by force, there were several influential
+men amongst them who kept back and refused to join them. They held
+that the Gospel they professed did not warrant them in taking up arms
+and fighting, even against the enemies who plundered and persecuted
+them. And when they saw the excesses into which the Camisards were led
+by the war of retaliation on which they had entered, they were the
+more confirmed in their view that the attitude which the rebels had
+assumed, was inconsistent with the Christian religion.
+
+After the war had ceased, these people continued to associate
+together, maintaining a faithful testimony against war, refusing to
+take oaths, and recognising silent worship, without dependence on
+human acquirements. They were not aware of the existence of a similar
+body in England and America until the period of the French Revolution,
+when some intercourse began to take place between them.
+
+In 1807, Stephen Grellet, an American Friend, of French origin,
+visited Languedoc, and held many religious meetings in the towns and
+villages of the Lower Cevennes, which were not only attended by the
+Friends of Congenies, St. Hypolite, Granges, St. Grilles, Fontane's,
+Vauvert, Quissac, and other places in the neighbourhood of Nismes, but
+by the inhabitants at large, Roman Catholics as well as Protestants.
+At that time, as now, Congenies was regarded as the centre of the
+district principally inhabited by the Friends, and there they possess
+a large and commodious meeting-house, built for the purpose of
+worship.
+
+At the time of Stephen Grellet's visit, he especially mentioned Louis
+Majolier as "a father and a pillar" amongst the little flock.[86] And
+it may not be unworthy to note that the daughter of the same Louis
+Majolier is at the present time one of the most acceptable female
+preachers of the Society of Friends in England.
+
+         [Footnote 86: "Life of Stephen Grellet," third edition.
+         London, 1870.]
+
+It may also be mentioned, in passing, that there still exist amongst
+the Vosges mountains the remnants of an ancient sect--the Anabaptists
+of Munster--who hold views in many respects similar to those of the
+Friends. Amongst other things, they testify against war as
+unchristian, and refuse under any circumstances to carry arms. Rather
+than do so, they have at different times suffered imprisonment,
+persecution, and even death. The republic of 1793 respected their
+scruples, and did not require the Anabaptists to fight in the ranks,
+but employed them as pioneers and drivers, while Napoleon made them
+look after the wounded on the field of battle, and attend to the
+waggon train and ambulances.[87] And we understand that they continue
+to be similarly employed down to the present time.
+
+         [Footnote 87: Michel, "Les Anabaptistes des Vosges." Paris,
+         1862.]
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+It forms no part of our subject to discuss the present state of the
+French Protestant Church. It has lost no part of its activity during
+the recent political changes. Although its clergy had for some time
+been supported by the State, they had not met in public synod until
+June, 1872, after an interval of more than two hundred years. During
+that period many things had become changed. Rationalism had invaded
+Evangelicalism. Without a synod, or a settled faith, the Protestant
+churches were only so many separate congregations, often representing
+merely individual interests. In fact, the old Huguenot Church required
+reorganization; and great results are expected from the proceedings
+adopted at the recently held synod of the French Protestant
+Church.[88]
+
+         [Footnote 88: The best account of the proceedings at this
+         synod is given in _Blackwood's Magazine_ for January, 1873.]
+
+With respect to the French Catholic Church, its relative position to
+the Protestants remains the same as before. But it has no longer the
+power to persecute. The Gallican Church has been replaced by the
+Ultramontane Church, but its impulses are no kindlier, though it has
+become "Infallible."
+
+The principal movement of the Catholic priests of late years has been
+to get up appearances of the Virgin. The Virgin appears, usually, to
+a child or two, and pilgrimages are immediately got up to the scene of
+her visit. By getting up religious movements of this kind, the priests
+and their followers believe that France will yet be helped towards the
+_Revanche_, which she is said to long for.
+
+But pilgrimages will not make men; and if France wishes to be free,
+she will have to adopt some other methods. Bismarck will never be put
+down by pilgrimages. It was a sad saying of Father Hyacinthe at
+Geneva, that "France is bound to two influences--Superstition and
+Irreligion."
+
+
+
+
+MEMOIRS OF DISTINGUISHED HUGUENOT REFUGEES.
+
+
+
+
+I.
+
+STORY OF SAMUEL DE PÉCHELS.
+
+
+When Louis XIV. revoked the Edict of Nantes, he issued a number of
+decrees or edicts for the purpose of stamping out Protestantism in
+France. Each decree had the effect of an Act of Parliament. Louis
+combined in himself the entire powers of the State. The King's word
+was law. "_L'état c'est Moi_" was his maxim.
+
+The Decrees which Louis issued were tyrannical, brutal, and cowardly.
+Some were even ludicrous in their inhumanity. Thus Protestant grooms
+were forbidden to give riding-lessons; Protestant barbers were
+forbidden to cut hair; Protestant washerwomen were forbidden to wash
+clothes; Protestant servants were forbidden to serve either Roman
+Catholic or Protestant mistresses. They must all be "converted." A
+profession of the Roman Catholic faith was required from simple
+artisans--from shoemakers, tailors, masons, carpenters, and
+such-like--before they were permitted to labour at their respective
+callings.
+
+The cruelty went further. Protestants were forbidden to be employed as
+librarians and printers. They could not even be employed as labourers
+upon the King's highway. They could not serve in any public office
+whatever. They were excluded from the collection of the taxes, and
+from all government departments. Protestant apothecaries must shut up
+their shops. Protestant advocates were forbidden to plead before the
+courts. Protestant doctors were forbidden to practise medicine and
+surgery. The _sages-femmes_ must necessarily be of the Roman Catholic
+religion.
+
+The cruelty was extended to the family. Protestant parents were
+forbidden to instruct their children in their own faith. They were
+enjoined, under a heavy penalty, to have their children baptized by
+the Roman Catholic priest, and brought up in the Roman Catholic
+religion. When the law was disobeyed, the priests were empowered to
+seize and carry off the children, and educate them, at the expense of
+the parents, in monasteries and nunneries.
+
+Then, as regards the profession of the Protestant religion:--It was
+decreed by the King, that all the Protestant temples in France should
+be demolished, or converted to other uses. Protestant pastors were
+ordered to quit the country within fifteen days after the date of the
+Revocation of the Edict of Nantes. If found in the country after that
+period, they were condemned to death. A reward of five thousand five
+hundred livres was offered for the apprehension of any Protestant
+pastor. When apprehended he was hung. Protestant worship was
+altogether prohibited. If any Protestants were found singing psalms,
+or engaged in prayer, in their own houses, they were liable to have
+their entire property confiscated, and to be sent to the galleys for
+life.
+
+These monstrous decrees were carried into effect--at a time when
+France reigned supreme in the domain of intellect, poetry, and the
+arts--in the days of Racine, Corneille, Molière--of Bossuet,
+Bourdaloue, and Fénélon. Louis XIV. had the soldier, the hangman, and
+the priest at his command; but they all failed him. They could
+imprison, they could torture, they could kill, they could make the
+Protestants galley-slaves; they could burn their Bibles, and deprive
+them of everything that they valued; but the impregnable rights of
+conscience defied them.
+
+The only thing left for the Protestants was to fly from France in all
+directions. They took refuge in Switzerland, Germany, Holland, and
+England. The flight from France had begun before the Revocation of the
+Edict of Nantes, but after that act the flight rapidly increased. Not
+less than a million of persons are supposed to have escaped from
+France in consequence of the Revocation.
+
+Steps were, however, taken by the King to stop the emigration. He
+issued a decree ordering that the property and goods of all those
+Protestants who had already escaped should be confiscated to the
+Crown, unless they returned within three months from the date of the
+Revocation. Then, with respect to the Protestants who remained in
+France, he decreed that all French_men_ found attempting to escape
+were to be sent to the galleys for life; and that all French_women_
+found attempting to escape were to be imprisoned for life. The spies
+who denounced the fugitive Protestants were rewarded by the
+apportionment of half their goods.
+
+This decree was not, however, considered sufficiently severe, and it
+was shortly after followed by another, proclaiming that any captured
+fugitives, as well as any person found acting as their guide, should
+be condemned to death. Another royal decree was issued respecting
+those fugitives who attempted to escape by sea. It was to the effect,
+that before any ship was allowed to set sail for a foreign port, the
+hold should be fumigated with a deadly gas, so that any hidden
+Huguenot who could not otherwise be detected, might be suffocated to
+death.
+
+These measures, however, did not seem to have the effect of
+"converting" the French Protestants. The Dragonnades were next
+resorted to. Louis XIV. was pleased to call the dragoons his Booted
+Missionaries, _ses missionnaires bottés_. The dragonnades are said to
+have been the invention of Michel de Marillac, whose name will
+doubtless descend to infamous notoriety, like those of Catherine de
+Médicis, the Guises, and the authors of the Massacre of St.
+Bartholomew.
+
+Yet there was not much genius displayed in the invention of the
+Dragonnades. It merely consisted in this: whenever it was found that a
+town abounded with Huguenots, the dragoons, hussars, and troops of
+various kinds were poured into it, and quartered on the inhabitants.
+Twenty, thirty, or forty were quartered together, according to the
+size of the house. They occupied every room; they beat their drums and
+blew their trumpets; they smoked, drank, and swore, without any regard
+to the infirm, the sick, or the dying, until the inmates were
+"converted."
+
+The whole army of France was let loose upon the Huguenots. They had
+been beaten out of Holland by the Dutch Calvinists; and they could now
+fearlessly take their revenge out of their unarmed Huguenot
+fellow-countrymen. Whenever they quartered themselves in a dwelling,
+it was, for the time being, their own. They rummaged the cellars,
+drank the wines, ordered the best of everything, pillaged the house,
+and treated everybody who belonged to it as a slave. The Huguenots
+were not only compelled to provide for the entertainment of their
+guests, but to pay them their wages. The superior officers were paid
+fifteen francs a day, the lieutenants nine francs, and the common
+soldiers three francs. If the money was not paid, the household
+furniture, the horses and cows, and all the other articles that could
+be seized, were publicly sold.
+
+No wonder that so many Huguenots were "converted" by the dragoons.
+Forty thousand persons were converted in Poitou. The regiment of
+Asfeld was the instrument of their conversion. A company and a half of
+dragoons occupied the house of a single lady at Poitiers until she was
+converted to the Roman Catholic faith. What bravery!
+
+The Huguenots of Languedoc were amongst the most obstinate of all.
+They refused to be converted by the priests; and then Louis XIV.
+determined to dragonnade them. About sixty thousand troops were
+concentrated on the province. Noailles, the governor, shortly after
+wrote to the King that he had converted the city of Nismes in
+twenty-four hours. Twenty thousand converts had been made in
+Montauban; and he promised that by the end of the month there would be
+no more Huguenots left in Languedoc.
+
+Many persons were doubtless converted by force, or by the fear of
+being dragonnaded; but there were also many more who were ready to run
+all risks rather than abjure their faith. Of those who abjured, the
+greater number took the first opportunity of flying from France, by
+land or by sea, and taking refuge in Switzerland, Germany, Holland, or
+England. Many instances might be given of the heroic fortitude with
+which the Huguenots bore the brutality of their enemies; but, for the
+present, it may be sufficient to mention the case of the De Péchels of
+Montauban.
+
+The citizens of Montauban had been terribly treated before and after
+the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes. The town had been one of the
+principal Huguenot places of refuge in France. Hence its population
+was principally Protestant. Its university had been shut up. Its
+churches had been levelled to the ground. Its professors and pastors
+had been banished from France. And now it was to be dragonnaded.
+
+The town was filled with troops, who were quartered on the
+Protestants. One of the burgesses called upon the Intendant, threw
+himself at his feet, and prayed to be delivered from the dragoons. "On
+one condition only!" replied Dubois, "that you become a Catholic." "I
+cannot," said the townsman, "because, if the Sultan quartered twenty
+janissaries on me, I might, for the same reason, be forced to become a
+Turk."
+
+Although many of the townsmen pretended to be converted, the
+Protestant chiefs held firm to their convictions, and resisted all
+persuasions, promises, and threats, to induce them to abjure their
+religion. Amongst them were Samuel de Péchels de la Boissonade and the
+Marquise de Sabonnières, his wife, who, in the midst of many trials
+and sorrows, preferred to do their duty to every other consideration.
+
+The family of De Péchels had long been settled at Montauban. Being
+regarded as among the heads of the Protestant party in Montauban, they
+were marked out by the King's ministers for the most vigorous
+treatment. When the troops entered the town on the 20th of August,
+1685, they treated the inhabitants as if the town had been taken by
+assault. The officers and soldiers vied with each other in committing
+acts of violence. They were sanctioned by the magistrate, who
+authorised their excesses, in conformity with the King's will. Tumult
+and disorder prevailed everywhere. Houses were broken into. Persons of
+the reformed religion, without regard to age, sex, or condition, were
+treated with indignity. They were sworn at, threatened, and beaten.
+Their families were turned out of doors. Every room in the house was
+entered and ransacked of its plate, silk, linen, and clothes. When the
+furniture was too heavy to be carried away, it was demolished. The
+mirrors were slashed with swords, or shot at with pistols. In short,
+so far as regarded their household possessions, the greater number of
+the Protestants were completely ruined.
+
+Samuel de Péchels de la Boissonade had no fewer than thirty-eight
+dragoons and fusiliers quartered upon him. It was intended at first to
+quarter these troopers on Roupeiroux, the King's adjutant; but having
+promptly changed his religion to avoid the horrors of the dragonnade,
+they were removed to the house of De Péchels, and he was ordered by
+Chevalier Duc, their commander, to pay down the money which he had
+failed to get from Roupeiroux, during the days that the troopers
+should have occupied his house. De Péchels has himself told the story
+of his sufferings, and we proceed to quote his own words:--
+
+"Soon after," he says, "my house was filled with officers, troopers,
+and their horses, who took possession of every room with such
+unfeeling harshness that I could not reserve a single one for the use
+of my family; nor could I make these unfeeling wretches listen to my
+declaration that I was ready to give up all that I possessed without
+resistance. Doors were broken open, boxes and cupboards forced. They
+liked better to carry off what belonged to me in this violent manner
+than to take the keys which my wife and I, standing on either side,
+continued to offer. The granaries served for the reception of their
+horses among the grain and meal, which the wretches, with the greatest
+barbarity, made them trample underfoot. The very bread destined for my
+little children, like the rest, was contemptuously trodden down by the
+horses.
+
+"Nothing could stop the brutality of these madmen. I was thrust out
+into the street with my wife, now very near her confinement, and four
+very young children, taking nothing with me but a little cradle and a
+small supply of linen, for the babe whose birth was almost momentarily
+expected. The street being full of people, diverted at seeing us thus
+exposed, we were delayed some moments near the door, during which we
+were pitilessly drenched by the troopers, who amused themselves at the
+windows with emptying upon our heads pitchers of water, to add to
+their enjoyment of our sad condition.
+
+"From this moment I gave up both house and goods to be plundered,
+without having in view any place of refuge but the street, ill suited,
+it must be owned, for such a purpose, and especially so to a woman
+expecting her confinement hourly, and to little children of too tender
+an age to make their own way--some of them, indeed, being unable to
+walk or speak--and having no hope but in the mercy of God and His
+gracious protection."
+
+De Péchels proceeded to the house of Marshal Boufflers, commander of
+the district, thinking it probable that a man of honour, such as he
+was supposed to be, would discourage such barbarities, and place the
+dragoons under some sort of military control. But no! The Marshal
+could not be found. He carefully kept out of the way of all Protestant
+complainants. De Péchels, however, met Chevalier Duc, who commanded
+the soldiers that had turned him out of his house. In answer to the
+expostulations of De Péchels, the Chevalier gave him to understand
+that the same treatment would be continued unless he "changed his
+religion." "Then," answered De Péchels, "by God's help I never will."
+
+At length, when De Péchels' house had been thoroughly stripped, and
+the dragoons had decamped elsewhere, he received an order to return,
+in order to entertain another detachment of soldiers. The criminal
+judge, who had possession of the keys, entered the house, and found it
+in extreme disorder. "I was obliged to remain in it," says De Péchels,
+"amidst dirt and vermin, in obedience to the Intendant's orders,
+reiterated in the strictest manner by the criminal judge, that I
+should await the arrival of a fresh party of lodgers, who accordingly
+came on the day following."
+
+The new party consisted of six soldiers of the regiment of fusiliers,
+who called themselves simply "missionaries," as distinct from the
+"booted missionaries" who had just left. They were savage at not
+finding anything to plunder, their predecessors having removed
+everything in the shape of booty. The fusiliers were shortly followed
+by six soldiers of Dampier's regiment, who were still more ferocious.
+They gave De Péchels and his wife no peace day or night; they kept the
+house in a constant uproar; swore and sang obscene songs, and carried
+their insolence to the utmost pitch. At length De Péchels was forced
+to quit the house, on account of his wife, who was near the time of
+her confinement. These are his own words:--
+
+"For a long time we were wandering through the streets, no one daring
+to offer us an asylum, as the ordinance of the Intendant imposed a
+fine of four or five hundred livres[89] upon any one who should
+receive Protestants into their houses. My mother's house had long been
+filled with soldiers, as well as that of my sister De Darassus; and
+not knowing where to go, I suffered great agony of mind for fear my
+poor wife should give birth to her infant in the street. In this
+lamentable plight, the good providence of God led us to the house of
+Mdlle. de Guarrison, my wife's sister, from whence, most fortunately,
+a large number of soldiers, with their officers, were issuing. They
+had occupied it for some time, and had allowed the family no rest. Now
+they were changing their quarters, to continue their lawless mission
+in some country town. The stillness of the house after their departure
+induced us to enter it at once, and hardly had my wife accepted the
+bed Mdlle. de Guarrison offered her, than she was happily delivered of
+a daughter, blessed be God, who never leaves Himself without a witness
+to those who fear His name.
+
+         [Footnote 89: The French livre was worth three francs, or
+         about two shillings and sixpence English money.]
+
+"That same evening a great number of soldiers arrived, and took up
+their quarters in M. de Guarrison's house, and two days after, this
+burden was augmented by the addition of a colonel, a captain, and two
+lieutenants, with a large company of soldiers and several servants,
+all of whom conducted themselves with a degree of violence scarcely to
+be described. They had no regard for the owners of the house, but
+robbed them with impunity. They had no pity for my poor wife, weak and
+ill as she was; nor for the helpless children, who suffered much under
+these miserable conditions.
+
+"Officers, soldiers, and servants pillaged the house with odious
+rivalry, took possession of all the rooms, drove out the owners, and
+obliged the poor sick woman (by their continual threats and abominable
+conduct) to get up and try to retire to some other place. She crept
+into the courtyard, where, with her infant, she was detained in the
+cold for a long time by the soldiers, who would not allow her to quit
+the premises. At length, however, my poor wife got into the street,
+still, however, guarded by soldiers, who would not allow her to go out
+of their sight, or to speak with any one. She complained to the
+Intendant of their cruel ways, but instead of procuring her any
+relief, he aggravated her affliction, ordering the soldiers to keep
+strict watch over her, never to leave her, and to inform him with what
+persons she found a refuge, that he might make them pay the penalty."
+
+De Péchels' wife was thus under the necessity of sleeping, with her
+babe and her children, in the street. After all was quiet, they sought
+for a door-step, and lay down for the night under the stars.
+
+Madame de Péchels at length found temporary shelter. Mademoiselle de
+Delada, a friend of the Intendant, touched by the poor woman's sad
+condition, implored the magistrate's permission to give her refuge;
+and being a well-known Roman Catholic, she was at length permitted to
+take Madame de Péchels and her babe into her house, but on condition
+that four soldiers should still keep her in view. She remained there
+for a short time, until she was able to leave her bed, when she was
+privily removed to a country house belonging to Mademoiselle de
+Delada, not far from the town of Montauban.
+
+To return to Samuel de Péchels. His house was still overflowing with
+soldiers. They proceeded to wreck what was left of his household
+effects; they carried off and sold his papers and his library, which
+was considerable. Some of the soldiers of Dampier's regiment carried
+off in a sack a pair of brass chimney dogs, the shovel and tongs, a
+grate, and some iron spits, the wretched remains of his household
+furniture. They proceeded to lay waste his farms and carry off his
+cattle, selling the latter by public auction in the square. They next
+pulled down his house, and sold the materials. After this, ten
+soldiers were quartered in a neighbouring tavern, at De Péchels'
+expense. Not being able to pay the expenses, the Intendant sent some
+archers to him to say that he would be carried off to prison unless
+he changed his religion. To that proposal he answered, as before, that
+"by the help of God he would never make that change, and that he was
+quite prepared to go to any place to which his merciful Saviour might
+lead him."
+
+He was accordingly taken, into custody, and placed, for a time, in the
+Royal Château. On the same day, his sister De Darassus was committed
+to prison. Still holding steadfast by his faith, De Péchels was, after
+a month's imprisonment at Montauban, removed to the prison of Cahors,
+where he was put into the lowest dungeon. "By the grace of my
+Saviour," said he, "I strengthened myself more in my determination to
+die rather than renounce the truth."
+
+After lying for more than three months in the dampest mould of the
+lowest dungeon in the prison of Cahors, and being still found
+immovable in his faith, De Péchels was ordered to be taken to the
+citadel of Montpellier, to wait there until he could be transported to
+America. His wife, the Marquise de Sabonnières, having heard of his
+condemnation (though he was never tried), determined to see him before
+he left France for ever. The road from Cahors to Montpellier did not
+pass through Montauban, but a few miles to the east of it. Having
+spent the night in prayer to God, that He might endow her with
+firmness to sustain the trials of a scene, which was as heroic in her
+as it was touching to those who witnessed it, she went forth in the
+morning to wait along the roadside for the arrival of the illustrious
+body of prisoners, who were on their way, some to the galleys, some to
+banishment, some to imprisonment, and some to death.
+
+At length the glorious band arrived. They were chained two and two.
+They were for the most part ladies and gentlemen who had refused to
+abjure their religion. Among them were M. Desparvés, a gentleman from
+the neighbourhood of Laitoure, old and blind, led by his wife; M. de
+la Rességuerie, of Montauban, and many more. Madame de Péchels
+implored leave of the guard who conducted the prisoners to have an
+interview with her husband. It was granted. She had been supplied with
+the fortitude for which she had so ardently and piously prayed to God
+during the whole of the past night. It seemed as if some supernatural
+power had prompted the discourse with her husband, which softened the
+hearts of those who, up to that time, had appeared inaccessible to the
+sentiments of humanity. The superintendent allowed the noble couple to
+pray together; after which they were separated without the least
+weakness betraying itself on the part of Madame de Péchels, who
+remained unmoved, whilst all the bystanders were melted into tears.
+The procession of guards and prisoners then went on its way.
+
+The trials of Madame de Péchels were not yet ended. Though she had
+parted with her husband, who was now on his way to banishment, she had
+still the children with her; and, cruellest torture of all! these were
+now to be torn from her. One evening a devoted friend came to inform
+her that a body of men were to arrive next morning and take her
+children, even the baby from her breast, and immure them in a convent.
+She was also informed that she herself was to be seized and
+imprisoned.
+
+The intelligence fell like a thunderbolt upon the tender mother. What
+was she to do? Was she to abjure her religion? She prayed for help
+from God. Part of the night was thus spent before she could make up
+her mind to part from her innocent children, who were to be brought up
+in a religion at variance with her own. In any case, a separation was
+necessary. Could she not fly, like so many other Protestant women, and
+live in hopes of better days to come? It was better to fly from France
+than encounter the horrors of a French prison. Before she parted with
+her children she embraced them while they slept; she withdrew a few
+steps to tear herself from them, and again she came back to bid them a
+last farewell!
+
+At length, urged by the person who was about to give her a refuge in
+his house, she consented to follow him. The man was a weaver by trade,
+and all day long he carried on his work in the only room which he
+possessed. Madame de Péchels passed the day in a recess, concealed by
+the bed of her entertainers, and in the evening she came out, and the
+good people supplied her with what was necessary. She passed six
+months in this retreat, without any one knowing what had become of
+her. It was thought that she had taken refuge in some foreign country.
+
+Numbers of ladies had already been able to make their escape. The
+frontier was strictly guarded by troops, police, and armed peasantry.
+The high-roads as well as the byways were patrolled day and night, and
+all the bridges were strongly guarded. But the fugitives avoided the
+frequented routes. They travelled at night, and hid themselves during
+the day. There were Protestant guides who knew every pathway leading
+out of France, through forests, wastes, or mountain paths, where no
+patrols were on the watch; and they thus succeeded in leading
+thousands of refugee Protestants across the frontier. And thus it was
+that Madame de Péchels was at length enabled, with the help of a
+guide, to reach Geneva, one of the great refuges of the Huguenots.
+
+On arrival there she felt the loss of her children more than ever.
+She offered to the guide who had conducted her all the money that she
+possessed to bring her one or other of her children. The eldest girl,
+then nine or ten years old, was communicated with, but having already
+tasted the pleasure of being her own mistress, she refused the
+proposal to fly into Switzerland to join her mother. Her son Jacob was
+next communicated with. He was seven years old. He was greatly moved
+at the name of his mother, and he earnestly entreated to be taken to
+where she was. The guide at once proceeded to fulfil his engagement.
+The boy fled with him from France, passing for his son. The way was
+long--some five hundred miles. The journey occupied them about three
+weeks. They rested during the day, and travelled at night. They
+avoided every danger, and at length the faithful guide was able to
+place the loving son in the arms of his noble and affectionate mother.
+
+Samuel de Péchels was condemned to banishment without the shadow of a
+trial. He could not be dragooned into denying his faith, and he was
+therefore imprisoned, preparatory to his expulsion from France. "I was
+told," he said, "by the Sieur Raoul, Roqueton (or chief archer) to the
+Intendant of Montauban, that if I would not change my religion, he had
+orders from the King and the Intendant to convey me to the citadel of
+Montpellier, from thence to be immediately shipped for America. My
+reply was, that I was ready to go forthwith whithersoever it was God's
+pleasure to lead me, and that assuredly, by God's help, I would make
+no change in my religion."
+
+After five months' imprisonment at Cahors, he was taken out and
+marched, as already related, to the citadel of Montpellier. The
+citadel adjoins the Peyrou, a lofty platform of rock, which commands
+a splendid panoramic view of the surrounding country. It is now laid
+out as a pleasure-ground, though it was then the principal
+hanging-place of the Languedoc Protestants. Brousson, and many other
+faithful pastors of the "Church in the Desert," laid down their lives
+there. Half-a-dozen decaying corpses might sometimes be seen swinging
+from the gibbets on which the ministers had been hung.
+
+A more bitter fate was, however, reserved for De Péchels. After about
+a month's imprisonment in the citadel, he was removed to Aiguesmortes,
+under the charge of several mounted archers and foot soldiers. He was
+accompanied by fourteen Protestant ladies and gentlemen, on their way
+to perpetual imprisonment, to the galleys, or to banishment.
+Aiguesmortes was the principal fortified dungeon in the south of
+France, used for the imprisonment of Huguenots who refused to be
+converted. It is situated close to the Mediterranean, and is
+surrounded by lagunes and salt marshes. It is a most unhealthy place;
+and imprisonment at Aiguesmortes was considered a slower but not a
+less certain death than hanging. Sixteen Huguenot women were confined
+there in 1686, and the whole of them died within five months. When the
+prisoners died off, the place was at once filled again. The castle of
+Aiguesmortes was thus used as a prison for nearly a hundred years.
+
+De Péchels gives the following account of his journey from Montpellier
+to Aiguesmortes:--"Mounted on asses, harnessed in the meanest manner,
+without stirrups, and with wretched ropes for halters, we entered
+Aiguesmortes, and were there locked up in the Tower of Constance, with
+thirty other male prisoners and twenty women and girls, who had also
+been brought hither, tied two and two. The men were placed in an
+upper apartment of the tower, and the women and girls below, so that
+we could hear each other pray to God and sing His praises with a loud
+voice."
+
+De Péchels did not long remain a prisoner at Aiguesmortes. He was
+shortly after put on board a king's ship bound for Marseilles. He was
+very ill during the voyage, suffering from seasickness and continual
+fainting fits. On reaching Marseilles he was confined in the hospital
+prison used for common felons and galley-slaves. It was called the
+Chamber of Darkness, because of its want of light. The single
+apartment contained two hundred and thirty prisoners. Some of them
+were chained together, two and two; others, three and three. The
+miserable palliasses on which they slept had been much worn by the
+galley-slaves, who had used them during their illnesses. The women
+were separated from the men by a linen cloth attached to the ceiling,
+which was drawn across every evening, and formed the only partition
+between them.
+
+As may easily be supposed, the condition of the prisoners was
+frightful. The swearing of the common felons was mixed with the
+prayers of the Huguenots. The guards walked about all night to keep
+watch and ward over them. They fell upon any who assembled and knelt
+together, separating them and swearing at them, and mercilessly
+ill-treating them, men and women alike. "But all their strictness and
+rage," says De Péchels, "could not prevent one from seeing always, in
+different parts of the dungeon, little groups upon their knees,
+imploring the mercy of God and singing His praises, whilst others kept
+near the guards so as to hinder them from interfering with the little
+bands of worshippers."
+
+At length the time arrived for the embarkation of the Huguenots for
+America. On the 18th of September, 1687, De Péchels, with fifty-eight
+men and twenty-one women, was put on board a _flûte_ called the
+_Mary_--the French _flûte_ consisting of a heavy narrow-sterned
+vessel, called in England a "pink." De Péchels was carefully separated
+from all with whom he had formed habits of intimacy, and whose
+presence near him would doubtless have helped him to bear the
+bitterness of his fate. On the same day, ninety prisoners of both
+sexes were embarked in another ship, named the _Concord_, bound for
+the same destination. The two vessels set sail in the first place for
+Toulon, in order to obtain an escort of two ships-of-war.
+
+The voyage was very disastrous. Three hours after the squadron had
+left Toulon, the _Mary_ was nearly dashed against a rock, owing to the
+roughness of the weather. Three days after, a frightful storm arose,
+and dashed the prisoners against each other. All were sick; indeed, De
+Péchels' malady lasted during the entire voyage. The squadron first
+cast anchor amongst the Formentera Islands, off the coast of Spain,
+where they took in water. On the next day they anchored in the Straits
+of Gibraltar for the same purpose. They next sailed for Cadiz, but a
+strong west wind having set in, the ship was forced back to the road
+of Gibraltar. After waiting there for three days they again started,
+under the shelter of a Dutch fleet of eighteen sail, "which," says De
+Péchels, "providentially saved us from falling into the hands of the
+Algerine corsairs, some of whom had appeared in sight, and from whose
+hands God, in His great mercy, delivered us." As if the Algerine
+corsairs would have treated the Huguenots worse than their own king
+was now treating them. The Algerine corsairs would have sold them into
+slavery; whilst the French king was transporting them to America for
+the same purpose.
+
+At length the squadron reached Cadiz roads. Many ships were
+there--English as well as Dutch. When the foreigners heard of the
+state and misfortunes of the Huguenots on board the French ships, they
+came to visit them in their anchoring ground, and were profuse in
+their charity to the prisoners for conscience' sake confined in the
+two French vessels. "God, who never leaves Himself without witness,
+brought us consolation and relief from this town, where superstition
+and bigotry reign in their fullest force." As it was in De Péchels'
+day, so it is now.
+
+At length the French squadron set sail for America. The voyage was
+tedious and miserable. There were about a hundred and thirty prisoners
+on board. Seventy of them were sick felons, chained with heavy irons.
+Being useless for the French galleys, they were now being transported
+to America, to be sold as slaves. The imprisoned Huguenots--men and
+women--were fifty-nine in number. They were crammed into a part of the
+ship that could scarcely hold them. They could not stand upright; nor
+could they lie down. They had to lie upon each other. The den was
+moreover very dark, the only light that entered it being through the
+narrow hatchway; and even this was often closed. The wonder is that
+they were not suffocated outright.
+
+The burning heat of the sun shining on the deck above them, the
+never-ceasing fire of the kitchen, which was situated alongside their
+place of confinement, created such a stifling heat, that the prisoners
+had to take off their shirts to relieve their agony. The horrid stench
+arising from so many persons being crowded together, and the entire
+want of the means of cleanliness, caused the inmates to become covered
+with vermin. They were also tormented by the intolerable thirst which
+no means were taken to allay. Their feeding was horrible; for they
+must be kept alive in some way, in order that the intentions of their
+gracious sovereign might be carried into effect. One day they had
+stinking salt beef; the next, cod fish half boiled; then peas as hard
+as when they were put into the pot; and at other times, dried cod
+fish, or rank cheese. These things, together with the violent motion
+of the sea, occasioned severe sickness, from which many of the
+sufferers were relieved by death. This deplorable voyage extended over
+five months. Here is De Péchels' account of the sufferings of the
+prisoners, written in his own words:--
+
+"The intense and suffocating heat, the horrible odour, the maddening
+swarm of vermin that devoured us, the incessant thirst and wretched
+fare, sufficed not to satisfy our overseers. They sometimes struck us
+rudely, and very often threw down sea-water upon us, when they saw us
+engaged in prayer and praise to God. The common talk of these enemies
+of the truth was how they would hang, when they came to America, every
+man who would not go to mass, and how they would deliver the women to
+the natives. But far from being frightened at these threats, or even
+moved by all the barbarities of which we were the victims, many of us
+felt a secret joy that we were chosen to suffer for the holy name of
+Jesus, who strengthened us with a willingness to die for His sake. For
+myself, these menaces had been so often repeated during my
+imprisonments, that they had become familiar; insomuch that, far from
+being shaken by them any more than by the sufferings to which it had
+pleased my Saviour to call me, I considered them as transient things,
+not worthy to be weighed against the glory to come, and such as would
+procure me a weight of glory supremely excellent. 'Blessed are they
+who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom
+of heaven.'"
+
+On the 2nd of January, 1688, the island of San Domingo came in sight.
+It was for the most part inhabited by savages. The French had a
+settlement on the west coast of the island, and the Spaniards occupied
+the eastern part. Dense forests separated the two settlements. The
+_Mary_ coasted along the island, and afterwards made sail for
+Guadaloupe, another colony belonging to the French. The ship seemed as
+yet to have had no proper destination, for, four days later, the
+_Mary_ weighed her anchor, and sailed to St. Christopher, another
+island partly belonging to the French. "It was well situated," says De
+Péchels, "as may readily be believed, when I add that it possessed a
+colony of Jesuits--an order which never selects a bad situation. The
+Jesuits here are very rich and in high repute. Two of the fraternity,
+having come on board, were received by the crew with every
+demonstration of respect; and on their retirement, three guns were
+fired as a mark of honour to the distinguished visitors."
+
+The Huguenots were still under hatches,--weary, longing, wretched, and
+miserable. They were most anxious to be put on shore--anywhere, even
+among savages. But the _Mary_ had not yet arrived at her destination.
+She again set sail, and passed St. Kitts, St. Eustace, St. Croix,
+Porto Rico, and at length again reached San Domingo. The ship dropped
+anchor before Port au Prince, the residence of the governor. The
+galley-slaves were disembarked and sold. Some of the Huguenots were
+also sold for slaves, though De Péchels was not among them. The rest
+were transferred to the _Maria_, a king's ship, commanded by M. de
+Beauguay, who treated the prisoners with much humanity. The ship then
+set sail for Léogane, another part of the colony, where the remaining
+Huguenots were disembarked. They were quartered on the inhabitants at
+the pleasure of the governor.
+
+De Péchels says that he passed his time at this place in tranquillity,
+waiting till it might please God to afford him an opportunity of
+escaping from his troubles. He visited the inhabitants, especially
+those of his own religious persuasion--a circumstance which gave much
+umbrage to the Dominican monks. They ordered some of the bigots among
+their parishioners to lodge a complaint against him with the governor,
+to the effect that he was hindering his fellow-prisoners from becoming
+Roman Catholics, and preventing those who had become so from going to
+mass. He accordingly received a verbal command from M. Dumas, the
+King's lieutenant, to repair immediately to Avache (probably La
+Vache), an island about a hundred leagues distant from Léogane. He was
+accordingly despatched by ship to Avache, which he reached on the 8th
+of June. He was put in charge of Captain Laurans, a renowned
+freebooter, and was specially lodged under his roof. The captain was
+ordered never to lose sight of his prisoner.
+
+De Péchels suffered much at this place in consequence of the intense
+heat, and the insects, mosquitoes, and horrible flies by which he was
+surrounded. "And yet," he says, "God in His great mercy willed that in
+this very place I should find the means of escaping from my exile, and
+making my way to the English island of Jamaica. On the 13th of August
+a little shallop of that generous nation, in its course from the
+island of St. Thomas to Jamaica, stopped at Avache to water and take
+provisions. Two months already had I watched for such an opportunity,
+and now that God had presented me with this, I thought it should not
+be neglected. So fully was I persuaded of this, that without
+reflecting upon the smallness of the shallop, I put myself on board
+with victuals for four days, although assured that the passage would
+only occupy three. But instead of performing the passage in three
+days, as we had thought, it was ten days before we made the island,
+during the whole of which time I was constantly unwell from bad
+weather and consequent seasickness. During the last three days I
+suffered also from hunger, my provisions being spent, with the
+exception of some little wretched food, salt and smoky, which the
+sailors eat to keep themselves from starving. God, in His great
+compassion, preserved me from all dangers, and brought me happily to
+Jamaica, where, however, I thought to leave my bones."
+
+The voyage was followed by a serious illness. De Péchels was obliged
+to take to his bed, where he lay for fifteen days prostrated by fever,
+accompanied by incessant pains in his head. After the fever had left
+him, he could neither walk nor stand. By slow degrees his strength
+returned. He was at length able to walk; and he then began to make
+arrangements for setting out for England. On the 1st of October he
+embarked on board an English vessel bound for London. During his
+voyage north he suffered from cold, as much as he had before suffered
+from heat. At length the coast of England was sighted. Two days after,
+the ship reached the Downs; and on the 22nd of December it was borne
+up the Thames by the tide, to within about seven miles from London
+Bridge. There the ship stopped to discharge part of her cargo; and De
+Péchels, having taken his place on board a small sloop for the great
+city, arrived there at ten o'clock the same night.
+
+On arrival in London, De Péchels proceeded to make inquiry amongst his
+Huguenot friends--who had by that time reached England in great
+numbers--for his wife, his children, his mother, and his sisters.
+Alas! what disappointment! He found no wife, no child, nor any
+relation ready to welcome him. His wife, however, was living at
+Geneva, with their only son; for the youngest had died at Montauban
+during De Péchels' exile. His daughters were still at Montauban--the
+eldest in a convent. His mother and youngest sister were both in
+prison--the one at Moissac, the other at Auvillard. A message was,
+however, sent to Madame de Péchels, that her husband was now in
+England, and longing to meet her.
+
+It was long before the message reached Madame de Péchels; and still
+longer before she could join her husband in London. While at Geneva,
+she had maintained herself and her son by the work of her hands. On
+receiving the message she immediately set out, but her voyage could
+not fail to be one of hardship to a person in her reduced
+circumstances. We are not informed how she and her son contrived to
+travel the long distance of eight hundred miles (by way of the Rhine
+and Holland) from Geneva to London; but at length she reached the
+English capital, when she had the mortification to find that her
+husband was not there, but had left London for Ireland only four days
+before. During the absence of her husband, Madame de Péchels, whose
+courage never abandoned her, chose rather to stoop to the most
+toilsome labours than to have recourse to the charity of the
+government, of which many, less self-helping, or perhaps more
+necessitous, did not scruple to take advantage.
+
+We must now revert to the circumstances under which De Péchels left
+London for Ireland. At the time when he arrived in England, the
+country was in the throes of a Revolution. Only a month before,
+William of Orange had landed at Torbay, with a large body of troops,
+a considerable proportion of which consisted of Huguenot officers and
+soldiers. There were three strong regiments of Huguenot infantry, and
+a complete squadron of Huguenot cavalry. Marshal Schomberg, next in
+command to William of Orange, was a banished Huguenot; and many of his
+principal officers were French.
+
+James II. had so distinctly shown his disposition to carry back the
+nation to the Roman Catholic religion, that the Prince of Orange, on
+his landing at Torbay, was hailed as the deliverer of England. His
+troops advanced direct upon London. He was daily joined by fresh
+adherents; by the gentry, officers, and soldiers. There was scarcely a
+show of resistance; and when he entered London, James was getting on
+board a smack in the Thames, and slinking ignominiously out of his
+kingdom. Towards the end of June, 1689, William and Mary were
+proclaimed King and Queen of Great Britain; and they were solemnly
+crowned at Westminster about three months after.
+
+But James II. had not yet been got rid of. In the spring of 1689 he
+landed at Kinsale, in Ireland, with substantial help obtained from the
+French king. Before many weeks had elapsed, forty thousand Irish stood
+in arms to support his cause. It was clear that William III. must
+fight for his throne, and that Ireland was to be the battle-field. He
+accordingly called his forces together again--for the greater part had
+been disbanded--when he prepared to take the field in person. Four
+Huguenot regiments were at once raised, three infantry regiments, and
+one cavalry regiment. The cavalry regiment was raised by Marshal
+Schomberg, its colonel. It was composed of French gentlemen, privates
+as well as officers. De Péchels was offered a commission in the
+regiment, which he cheerfully accepted. He assumed the name of his
+barony, La Boissonade, as was common in those days; and he acted as
+lieutenant in the company of La Fontain.
+
+The regiment, when completed, was at once despatched to the north of
+Ireland to join the little army of about ten thousand Protestants, who
+had already laid siege to and taken the fortified town of
+Carrickfergus. Schomberg's regiment embarked from Chester, on Monday,
+the 25th of August, 1689; and on the following Saturday the squadron
+arrived in Belfast Lough. The troopers were landed a little to the
+west of Carrickfergus, and marched along the road towards Belfast,
+which is still known as "Troopers' Lane." Next day the Duke moved on
+in pursuit of the enemy. The regiment passed through Belfast, which
+was then a very small place. It consisted of a few streets of thatched
+cottages, grouped around what is now known as the High Street of
+Belfast. Schomberg's regiment joined the infantry and the
+Enniskilleners, who were encamped in a wood on the west of the town.
+
+Next morning the little army started in pursuit of the enemy, who,
+though in much greater numbers, fled before them, laying waste the
+country. At night Schomberg's troops encamped at Lisburn; on the
+following day at Dromore; on the third at Brickclay (this must be
+Loughbrickland); and then on to Newry. All the villages they passed
+were either burnt or burning. At length they heard that James's Irish
+army was at Newry, and that the Duke of Berwick (James's natural son)
+was in possession of the town with a strong body of horse. But before
+Schomberg could reach the place the Duke of Berwick had evacuated it,
+leaving the town in flames. The Duke had fled with such haste that he
+had left some of his baggage behind him, and thrown his cannon into
+the river. Schomberg ordered his cavalry to advance rapidly upon
+Dundalk, in order to prevent the town from sharing the same fate as
+Newry. This forced march took the enemy by surprise. They suddenly
+abandoned Dundalk, without burning it, and never paused until they had
+reached the entrenched camp of King James.
+
+The weather had now become cold, dreary, and rainy. Provisions were
+scarcely to be had. The people of Dundalk were themselves starving.
+Strong bodies of cavalry foraged the country, but were able to find
+next to nothing in the shape of food for themselves, or corn for their
+horses. The ships from England, laden with provisions which ought to
+have arrived at Belfast, were forced back by contrary winds. Thus the
+army was becoming rapidly famished. Disease soon made its appearance,
+and carried off the men by hundreds. Schomberg's camp, outside
+Dundalk, was situated by the side of a marsh--a most unwholesome
+position; but the marsh protected him from the enemy, who were not far
+off. The rain and snow continued; the men and the horses were
+perpetually drenched; and scouring winds blew across the camp. Ague,
+dysentery, and fever everywhere prevailed. Dalrymple has recorded that
+of fifteen thousand men who belonged to Schomberg's army, not less
+than eight thousand perished. Under these circumstances, the greatly
+reduced force broke up from their cantonments and went into winter
+quarters. Schomberg's cavalry regiment was stationed at Lurgan, then a
+small village, which happily had not been burnt. De Péchels was one of
+those who had been sick in camp, and was disabled from pursuing the
+campaign further. After remaining for some weeks at Lurgan, he
+obtained leave from the Duke of Schomberg to return to London. And
+there, after the lapse of four years, he found and embraced his
+beloved and noble wife.
+
+De Péchels continued invalided, and was unable to rejoin the army of
+King William. "After some stay in London," he says, in the memoir from
+which the above extracts are made, "it was the King's pleasure to
+exempt from further service certain officers specified by name, and to
+assign them a pension. Through a kind Providence I was included in the
+number. When I had lived in London on the pension which it had pleased
+the king to allow those officers who were no longer in a position to
+serve him, until the 1st of August, 1692, I then left that city, in
+company with my wife and son, to remove into Ireland, whither my
+pension was transferred."
+
+De Péchels accordingly arrived in Dublin, where he spent the rest of
+his days in peace and quiet. He lived to experience the truth of the
+promise "that every one that hath forsaken houses, or brethren, or
+sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands for my
+name's sake, shall receive an hundredfold, and shall inherit
+everlasting life." De Péchels died in 1732, at a ripe old age, in his
+eighty-seventh year, and was interred in the Huguenot cemetery in the
+neighbourhood of Dublin.
+
+And what of the children left by De Péchels at Montauban? The two
+daughters who were torn from their mother's care, and immured in a
+convent, were brought up in the Roman Catholic faith. The little boy,
+who was also taken from her, died shortly after. The daughters
+accordingly secured the possession of the family estates. The eldest
+married M. de Cahuzac, and the youngest, who was taken as a babe from
+her mother's breast, married M. de St. Sardos; and the descendants of
+the latter still possess La Boissonade, which exists as an old château
+near Montauban.
+
+It was left for Jacob de Péchels, the only son of Samuel de Péchels
+and his wife, the Marquise de Sabonnières, to build up the family
+fortunes in England. Following the military instincts of the French,
+he entered the English army at an early age. His name was entered
+"Pechell" in his War Office commission. Probably this change of name
+originated in the disposition of the naturalised Huguenots to adopt
+names of an English sound rather than to retain their French names.
+Numerous instances of this have already been given.[90] Jacob Pechell
+was a gallant officer. He rose in the army, step by step. He fought
+through the wars in the Low Countries, under Marlborough and Ligonier,
+the latter being a Huguenot like himself. He rose through the various
+grades of ensign, lieutenant, captain, and major, until he attained
+the rank of colonel of the 16th regiment. Colonel Pechell married an
+Irish heiress, Jane Elizabeth Boyd, descended from the Earls of
+Kilmarnock. By her he had three sons and a daughter. Samuel, the
+eldest, studied law, and became a Master in Chancery. George and Paul
+obedient to their military instincts, entered the army, and became
+distinguished officers. George was killed at Carthagena, and it was
+left for Paul to maintain the fortunes of the family.
+
+         [Footnote 90: In "The Huguenots in England and Ireland," 319,
+         323, last edition.]
+
+In those days the exiled Huguenots and their descendants lived very
+much together. They married into each other's families. The richer
+helped the poorer. There were distinguished French social circles,
+where, though their country was forbidden them, they delighted to
+speak in their own language. Like many others, the Pechells
+intermarried with Huguenot families. Thus Samuel Pechell married the
+daughter of François Gaultier, Esq., and his sister Mary married
+Brigadier-General Cailland, of Aston Rowant.
+
+Among the distinguished French nobles in London was the Marquis de
+Montandre, descended from the De la Rochefoucaulds, one of the
+greatest families in France. De Montandre was a field-marshal in the
+English army, having rendered important services in the Spanish war.
+His wife was daughter of Baron de Spanheim, Ambassador Extraordinary
+for the King of Prussia, and descended from another Protestant
+refugee. The field-marshal left his fortune to his wife, and when she
+died, she left Samuel Pechell, Master in Chancery, her sole executor
+and residuary legatee. The sum of money to which he became entitled on
+her decease amounted to upwards of £40,000. But Mr. Pechell, from a
+highly sensitive conscience--such as is rarely equalled--did not feel
+himself perfectly justified in acquiring so large a fortune until he
+knew that there were no relations of the testatrix in existence, whose
+claim to inherit the property might be greater than his own. He
+therefore collected all her effects, and put them into Chancery, in
+order that those who could make good their claims by kindred to the
+Marchioness might do so before the Chancellor. Accordingly, one family
+from Berlin and another from Geneva appeared, and claimed, and
+obtained the inheritance. These relations, in acknowledgment of the
+kindness and honesty of Mr. Pechell, resolved on presenting him with a
+set of Sèvres china, which was at that time beyond all price in value.
+It could only be had as a great favour from the manufactory at Sèvres,
+and was only purchased by, or presented to, crowned heads.[91]
+
+         [Footnote 91: This china is now at Castle Goring, and, with
+         the whole of the family documents, is in the possession of
+         the Dowager Lady Burrell.]
+
+Paul Pechell, who had entered the army, became a distinguished
+officer, and rose to the rank of general. In 1797 he was created a
+baronet, and married Mary, the only daughter and heiress of Thomas
+Brooke, Esq., of Pagglesham, Essex. His eldest son, Sir Thomas, was a
+major-general in the army, and was for some time M.P. for Downton. The
+second son, Augustus, was appointed Receiver-General of the Post
+Office in 1785, and of the Customs in 1790. Many of his descendants
+still survive, and the baronetcy reverted to his second son. He was
+succeeded by his two sons, one of whom became rear-admiral, and the
+other vice-admiral. The latter, Sir George Richard Brooke Pechell,
+entered the Royal Navy in 1803, and served with distinction in several
+engagements. After the peace, he represented the important borough of
+Brighton in Parliament for twenty-four years. He married the daughter
+and coheir of Cecil, Lord Zouche, and added Castle Goring to part of
+the ancient possessions of the Bisshopp family, which she inherited at
+her father's death.
+
+William Cecil Pechell, the only son of Sir George, again following the
+military instincts of his race, entered the army, and became captain
+of the 77th regiment, with which he served during the Crimean war. He
+fell leading on his men to repel an attack made by the Russians on the
+advanced trenches before Sebastopol, on the 3rd of September, 1855. He
+was beloved and deeply lamented by all who knew him; and sorrow at his
+loss was expressed by the Queen, by the Commander-in-Chief, by the
+whole of the light division, and by the mayor and principal
+inhabitants of Brighton. A statue of Captain Pechell, by Noble, was
+erected by public subscription, and now stands in the Pavilion at
+Brighton.
+
+
+
+
+II.
+
+CAPTAIN RAPIN,
+
+AUTHOR OF THE "HISTORY OF ENGLAND."
+
+
+When Louis XIV. revoked the Edict of Nantes, he expelled from France
+nearly all his subjects who would not conform to the Roman Catholic
+religion. He drove out the manufacturers, who were for the most part
+Protestants, and thus destroyed the manufacturing supremacy of France.
+He expelled Protestants of every class--advocates, judges, doctors,
+artists, scientists, teachers, and professors. And, last of all, he
+expelled the Protestant soldiers and sailors.
+
+According to Vauban, 12,000 tried soldiers, 9,000 sailors, and 600
+officers left France, and entered into foreign service. Some went to
+England, some to Holland, and some to Prussia. Those who took refuge
+in Holland entered the service of William, Prince of Orange. Most of
+them accompanied him to Torbay in 1688. They fought against the armies
+of Louis XIV. at the Boyne, at Athlone, and at Aughrim, and finally
+drove the French out of Ireland.
+
+The sailors also did good service under the flags of England and
+Holland. They distinguished themselves at the sea-fight off La Hogue,
+where the English and Dutch fleets annihilated the expedition
+prepared by Louis XIV. for a descent upon England.
+
+The expatriated French soldiers occasionally revisited the country of
+their birth, not as friends, but as enemies. They encountered the
+armies of Louis XIV. in all the battles of the Low Countries. They
+fought at Ramilies, Blenheim, and Malplacquet. A Huguenot engineer
+directed the operations at the siege of Namur, which ended in the
+capture of the fortress. Another Huguenot engineer conducted the
+operations at Lisle, which was also taken by the allied forces. While
+there, a flying party, consisting chiefly of French Huguenots,
+penetrated as far as the neighbourhood of Paris, when they nearly
+succeeded in carrying off the Dauphin.
+
+The Huguenot officers who took refuge in Prussia entered the service
+of Frederick William, Elector of Brandenburg. Some were raised to the
+highest offices in his army. Marshal Schomberg was one of the number.
+But when he found that William of Orange was assembling a large force
+in Holland for the purpose of making a descent upon England, he
+requested leave to join him; and his friend Prince Frederick William,
+though with great regret, at length granted him permission to leave
+the Prussian service.
+
+The subject of the following narrative was a French refugee, who
+entered the service of William of Orange. To find the beginning of his
+ancestry, we must reach far back into history. The Rapins were
+supposed to have been driven from the Campagna of Rome during the
+persecutions of Nero. They took refuge in one of the wildest and most
+picturesque valleys of the Alps. In 1250 we find the Rapins
+established near Saint-Jean de la Maurienne, in Savoy, close upon the
+French frontier. Saint-Jean de la Maurienne was so called because of
+the supposed relic of the bones of St. John the Baptist, which had
+been deposited there by a female pilgrim, Sainte Thècle, who was, it
+is supposed, a Rapin by birth. The fief of Chaudane en Valloires was
+the patrimony of the Rapins, which they long continued to hold. In
+1692 the descendants of the family endeavoured to prove, from the
+numerous titles which they possessed, that they had been nobles for
+eight or nine hundred years.
+
+The home of the Rapins was situated in the country of the Vaudois. In
+1375 the Vaudois descended from their mountains and preached the
+gospel in the valleys of Savoy. The Pope appealed to the King of
+France, who sent an army into the district. The Vaudois were crushed.
+Those who remained fled back to the mountains. Nevertheless the
+Reformed religion spread in the district. An Italian priest, Raphaël
+Bordeille, even preached the gospel in the cathedral of Saint-Jean de
+Maurienne. But he was suddenly arrested. He was seized, tried for the
+crime of heresy, and burnt in front of the cathedral on Holy Thursday,
+in Passion Week, 1550.
+
+Though the Rapin family held many high offices in Church and State,
+several of them attached themselves to the Reformed religion. Three
+brothers at length left their home in Savoy, and established
+themselves in France during the reign of Francis I. Without entering
+into their history during the long-continued religious wars which
+devastated the south of France, it may be sufficient to state that two
+of the brothers took an active part under Condé. Antoine de Rapin held
+important commands at Toulouse, at Montauban, at Castres and
+Montpellier. Philibert de Rapin, his younger brother, was one of the
+most valiant and trusted officers of the Reformed party. He was
+selected by the Prince of Condé to carry into Languedoc the treaty of
+peace signed at Longjumeaux on the 20th March, 1568.
+
+Feeling safe under the royal commission, he presented to the
+Parliament at Toulouse the edict with which he was intrusted. He then
+retired to his country house at Grenade, on the outskirts of Toulouse.
+He was there seized like a criminal, brought before the judges, and
+sentenced to be beheaded in three days. The treaty was thus annulled.
+War went on as before. Two years after, the army of Coligny appeared
+before Toulouse. The houses and châteaux of the councillors of
+Parliament were burnt, and on their smoking ruins were affixed the
+significant words, "_Vengeance de Rapin_."
+
+Philibert de Rapin's son Pierre embraced the career of arms almost
+from his boyhood. He served under the Prince of Navarre. He was almost
+as poor as the Prince. One day he asked him for some pistoles to
+replace a horse which had been killed under him in action. The Prince
+replied, "I should like to give you them, but do you see I have only
+three shirts!" Pierre at length became Seigneur and Baron of Manvers,
+though his château was destroyed and burnt during his absence with the
+army. Destructions of the same kind were constantly taking place
+throughout the whole of France. But, to the honour of humanity, it
+must be told that when his château was last destroyed, the Catholic
+gentlemen of the neighbourhood brought their labourers to the place,
+and tilled and sowed his abandoned fields. When Rapin arrived eight
+months later, he was surprised and gratified to find his estate in
+perfect order. This was a touching proof of the esteem with which this
+Protestant gentleman was held by his Catholic neighbours.
+
+Pierre de Rapin died in 1647 at the age of eighty-nine. He left
+twenty-two children by his second wife. His eldest son Jean succeeded
+to the estate of Manvers and to the title of baron. Like his father,
+he was a soldier. He first served under the Prince of Orange, who was
+then a French prince, head of the principality of Orange. He served
+under the King of France in the war with Spain. He was a frank and
+loyal soldier, yet firmly attached to the faith of his fathers. He
+belonged to the old Huguenot phalanx, who, as the Duke de Mayenne
+said, "were always ready for death, from father to son." After the
+wars were over, he gave up the sword for the plough. His château was
+in ruins, and he had to live in a very humble way until his fortunes
+were restored. He used to say that his riches consisted in his four
+sons, who were all worthy of the name they bore.
+
+Jacques de Rapin, Seigneur de Thoyras, was the second son of Pierre de
+Rapin. Thoyras was a little hamlet near Grenade, adjacent to the
+baronial estate of Manvers. Jacques studied the law. He became an
+advocate, and practised with success, for about fifty years, at
+Castres and other cities and towns in the south of France. When the
+Edict of Nantes was revoked, the Protestants were no longer permitted
+to practise the law, and he was compelled to resign his profession. He
+died shortly after, but the authorities would not even allow his
+corpse to be buried in the family vault. They demolished his place of
+interment, and threw his body into a ditch by the side of the road.
+
+In the meantime Paul de Rapin, son of Jean, Baron de Manvers, had
+married the eldest daughter of Jacques, Seigneur de Thoyras. Paul,
+like many of his ancestors, entered the army. He served with
+distinction under the Duke of Luxembourg in Holland, Flanders, and
+Italy, yet he never rose above the rank of captain. On his death in
+1685, his widow and two daughters (being Protestants) were apprehended
+in their château at Manvers, and incarcerated in convents at
+Montpellier and Toulouse. Her sons were also taken away, and placed in
+other convents. They were only liberated after five years'
+confinement.
+
+Madame de Rapin then resolved to quit France entirely. She contrived
+to reach Holland, and established her family at Utrecht. Her
+brother-in-law, Daniel de Rapin, had already escaped from France, and
+achieved the position of colonel in the Dutch service.
+
+Raoul de Cazenove, the author of "Rapin-Thoyras, sa Famille, sa Vie,
+et ses OEuvres," says, "The women of the house of Rapin distinguished
+themselves more than once by like courage. Strengthened and fortified
+by persecutions, the Reformed were willing to die in exile, far from
+their beloved children who had been violently snatched from them, but
+leaving with them a holy heritage of example and of firmness in their
+faith. The pious lessons of their mothers, profoundly engraved on the
+hearts of their daughters, sufficed more than once to save them from
+apostasy, which was rendered all the more easy by the feebleness of
+their youth and the perfidious suggestions by which they were
+surrounded."
+
+We return to Paul de Rapin-Thoyras, second son of Madame de Rapin. He
+was born at Castres in 1661. He received his first lessons at home. He
+learnt the Latin rudiments, but his progress was not such as to
+please his father. He was then sent to the academy at Puylaurens,
+where the Protestant noblesse of the south of France were still
+permitted to send their sons. The celebrated Bayle was educated there.
+But in 1685 the academy of Puylaurens was suppressed, as that of
+Montauban had been a few years before; and then young Rapin was sent
+to Saumur, one of the few remaining schools in France where
+Protestants were allowed to be educated.
+
+Rapin finished his studies and returned home. He wished to enter the
+army, but his father was so much opposed to it, that he at length
+acceded to his desires and commenced the study of the law. He was
+already prepared for being received to the office of advocate, when
+the royal edict was passed which prevented Protestants from practising
+before the courts; and, indeed, prevented them from following any
+profession whatever. Immediately after the death of his father, Paul
+de Rapin, accompanied by his younger brother Solomon, emigrated from
+France and proceeded into England.
+
+It was not without a profound feeling of sadness that Rapin-Thoyras
+left his native country. He left his widowed mother in profound grief,
+arising from the recent death of her husband. She was now exposed to
+persecutions which were bitterer by far than the perils of exile. It
+was at her express wish that Rapin left his native country and
+emigrated to England. And yet it was for France that his fathers had
+shed their blood and laid down their lives. But France now repelled
+the descendants of her noblest sons from her bosom.
+
+Shortly after his arrival in London, Rapin made the acquaintance of
+the Abbé of Denbeck, nephew of the Bishop of Tournay. The Abbé was an
+intimate friend of Rapin's uncle, Pélisson, a man notorious in those
+times for buying up consciences with money. Louis XIV. consecrated to
+this traffic one-third of the benefices which fell to the Crown during
+their vacancy. They were left vacant for the purpose of paying for the
+abjurations of the heretics. Pélisson had the administration of the
+fund. He had been born a Protestant, but he abjured his religion, and
+from a convert he became a converter. Voltaire says of him, in his
+"Siècle de Louis XIV.," "Much more a courtier than a philosopher,
+Pélisson changed his religion and made a fortune."
+
+Pélisson wrote to his friend the Abbé of Denbeck, then in London at
+the court of James II., to look after his nephew Rapin-Thoyras, and
+endeavour to bring him over to the true faith. It is even said that
+Pélisson offered Rapin the priory of Saint-Orens d'Auch if he would
+change his religion. The Abbé did his best. He introduced Rapin to M.
+de Barillon, then ambassador at the English court. James II. was then
+the pensioner of France, and accordingly had many intimate
+transactions with the French ambassador. M. de Barillon received the
+young refugee with great kindness, and, at the recommendation of the
+Abbé and Pélisson, offered to present him to the King. Their object
+was to get Rapin appointed to some public office, and thereby help his
+conversion.
+
+But Rapin fled from the temptation. Though no great theologian, he
+felt it to be wrong to be thus entrapped into a faith which was not
+his own; and without much reasoning about his belief, but merely
+acting from a sense of duty, he left London at once and embarked for
+Holland.
+
+At Utrecht he joined his uncle, Daniel de Rapin, who was in command of
+a company of cadets wholly composed of Huguenot gentlemen and nobles.
+Daniel had left the service of France on the 25th of October, 1685,
+three days after the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes. He was then
+captain of a French regiment in Picardy, but he could no longer,
+without denying his God, serve his country and his King. In fact, he
+was compelled, like all other Protestant officers, to leave France
+unless he would at once conform to the King's faith.
+
+Rapin was admitted to the company of refugee cadets commanded by his
+uncle. He was now twenty-seven years old. His first instincts had been
+military, and now he was about to pursue the profession of arms in his
+adopted country. His first prospects were not brilliant. He was put
+under a course of discipline, his pay amounting to only sixpence a
+day. Indeed, the States-General of Holland were at first unwilling to
+take so large a number of refugee Frenchmen into their service; but on
+the Prince of Orange publicly declaring that he would himself pay the
+expenses of maintaining the military refugees, they hesitated no
+longer, but voted money enough to enrol them in their service.
+
+The Prince of Orange had now a large body of troops at his command. No
+one knew for what purpose they were enrolled. Some thought they were
+intended for an attack upon France in revenge for Louis' devastation
+of Holland a few years before. James II. never dreamt that they were
+intended for a descent upon the coasts of England. Yet he was rapidly
+alienating the loyalty of his subjects by hypocrisy, by infidelity to
+the laws of England, and by unmitigated persecution of those who
+differed from him in religious belief. In this state of affairs
+England looked to the Prince of Orange for help.
+
+William III. was doubly related to the royal family of England. He was
+nephew of Charles I. and son-in-law of James II. His wife was the
+heiress-presumptive to the British throne. Above all, he was a
+Protestant, while James II. was a Roman Catholic. "Here," said the
+Archbishop of Rheims of the latter, "is a good sort of man who has
+lost his three kingdoms for a mass!"
+
+William was at length ready with his troops. Louis XIV. suddenly
+withdrew his army from Flanders and poured them into Germany. William
+seized the opportunity. A fleet of more than six hundred vessels,
+including fifty men-of-war, assembled at Helvoetsluys, near the mouth
+of the Maas. The troops were embarked with great celerity. William
+hoisted his flag with the words emblazoned on it, "The Protestant
+Religion and Liberties of England," and underneath the motto of the
+House of Nassau, _Je maintiendra_--"I will maintain."
+
+The fleet set sail on the 19th October, the English Admiral Herbert
+leading the van, the Prince of Orange commanding the main body of the
+fleet, and the Dutch Vice-Admiral Evertzen bringing up the rear.
+
+The wind was fair. It was the "Protestant wind" that the people of
+England had so long been looking for. In a few hours the strong
+eastern breeze had driven the fleet half across the sea that divides
+the Dutch and English coasts. Then the wind changed. It began to blow
+from the west. The wind increased until it blew a violent tempest. The
+fleet seemed to be in the midst of a cyclone. The ships were blown
+hither and thither, so that in less than two hours the fleet was
+completely dispersed. At daybreak next morning scarce two ships could
+be seen together.
+
+The several ships returned to their rendez-vous at Goeree, in the
+Maas. They returned in a miserable condition--some with their sails
+blown away, some without their bulwarks, some without their masts.
+Many ships were still missing. The horses had suffered severely. They
+had been stowed away in the holds and driven against each other during
+the storm. Many had been suffocated, others had their legs broken, and
+had to be killed when the vessels reached the shore. The banks at
+Goeree were covered with dead horses taken from the ships. Four
+hundred had been lost.
+
+Rapin de Thoyras and M. de Chavernay, commanding two companies of
+French Huguenots, were on board one of the missing ships. The
+frightful tempest had separated them from the fleet. They had been
+driven before the wind as far as the coast of Norway. They thought
+that each moment might be their last. But the sailors were brave, and
+the ship was manageable. After enduring a week's storm the wind at
+last abated. The ship was tacked, and winged its way towards the
+south. At length, after about eight days' absence, they rejoined the
+fleet, which had again assembled in the Maas. There were now only two
+vessels missing, containing four companies of the Holstein regiment,
+and about sixty French Huguenot officers.
+
+In the meantime the Prince of Orange had caused all the damages in the
+combined fleet to be repaired. New horses were embarked, new men were
+added to the army, and new ships were hired for the purpose of
+accommodating them. The men-of-war were also increased. After eleven
+days the fleet was prepared to put to sea again.
+
+On the 1st of November, 1688, the armament started on its second
+voyage for the English coast. The fleet at first steered northward,
+and it was thought to be the Prince's intention to land at the mouth
+of the Humber. But a violent east wind having begun to blow during the
+night, the fleet steered towards the south-eastern coast of England;
+after which the ships shortened sail for fear of accidents.
+
+The same wind that blew the English and Dutch fleet towards the
+Channel, had the effect of keeping King James's fleet in the Thames,
+where they remained anchored at Gunfleet, sixty-one men-of-war, under
+command of Admiral Lord Dartmouth.
+
+On the 3rd of November, the fleet under the Prince of Orange entered
+the English Channel, and lay between Calais and Dover to wait for the
+ships that were behind. "It is easy," says Rapin Thoyras, "to imagine
+what a glorious show the fleet made. Five or six hundred ships in so
+narrow a channel, and both the English and French shores covered with
+numberless spectators, are no common sight. For my part, who was then
+on board the fleet, I own it struck me extremely."
+
+Sunday, the 4th of November, was the Prince's birthday, and it was
+dedicated to devotion. The fleet was then off the Isle of Wight. Sail
+was slackened during the performance of divine service. The fleet then
+sped on its way down-channel, in order that the troops might be landed
+at Dartmouth or Torbay; but during the night the wind freshened, and
+the fleet was carried beyond the desired ports. Soon after, however,
+the wind changed to the south, when the fleet tacked in splendid
+order, and made for the shore in Torbay. The landing was effected with
+such diligence and tranquillity that the whole army was on shore
+before night.
+
+There was no opposition to the landing. King James's army greatly
+outnumbered that of the Prince of Orange. It amounted to about forty
+thousand troops, exclusive of the militia. But the King's forces had
+been sent northward to resist the anticipated landing of the
+delivering army at the mouth of the Humber, so that the south-west of
+England was nearly stripped of troops.
+
+Nor could the King depend upon his forces. The King had already
+outraged and insulted the gallant noblemen and gentlemen who had
+heretofore been the bulwark of his throne. He had imprisoned the
+bishops, dismissed Protestant clergymen from their livings, refused to
+summon a Parliament, and caused terror and dismay throughout England
+and Scotland. He had created discontent throughout the army by his
+dismissal of Protestant officers, and the King now began to fear that
+the common soldiers themselves would fail to serve him in his time of
+need.
+
+His fears proved prophetic. When the army of the Prince of Orange
+advanced from Brixton (where it had landed) to Exeter, and afterwards
+to Salisbury and London, it was joined by noblemen, gentlemen,
+officers, and soldiers. Lord Churchill, afterwards Duke of
+Marlborough, Lord Cornbury, with four regiments of dragoons, passed
+over to the Prince of Orange. The Prince of Denmark, the King's
+son-in-law, deserted him. His councillors abandoned him. His
+mistresses left him. The country was up against him. At length the
+King saw no remedy before him but a precipitate flight.
+
+The account given by Rapin of James's departure from England is
+somewhat ludicrous. The Queen went first. On the night between the 9th
+and 10th of December she crossed the Thames in disguise. She waited
+under the walls of a church at Lambeth until a coach could be got
+ready for her at the nearest inn. She went from thence to Gravesend,
+where she embarked with the Prince of Wales on a small vessel, which
+conveyed them safely to France. The King set out on the following
+night. He entered a small boat at Whitehall, dressed in a plain suit
+and a bob wig, accompanied by a few friends. He threw the Great Seal
+into the water, from whence it was afterwards dragged up by a
+fisherman's net. Before he left, he gave the Earl of Feversham orders
+to disband the army without pay, in order, probably, to create anarchy
+after his flight.
+
+James reached the south shore of the Thames. He travelled, with relays
+of horses, to Emley Ferry, near the Island of Sheppey. He went on
+board the little vessel that was to convey him to a French frigate
+lying in the mouth of the Thames ready to transport him to France. The
+wind blew strong, and the vessel was unable to sail.
+
+The fishermen of the neighbourhood boarded the vessel in which the
+King was. They took him for the chaplain of Sir Edward Hales, one of
+his attendants. They searched the King, and found upon him four
+hundred guineas and several valuable seals and jewels, which they
+seized. A constable was present who knew the King, and he ordered
+restitution of the valuables which had been taken from him. The King
+wished to be gone, but the people by a sort of violence conducted him
+to a public inn in the town of Feversham. He then sent for the Earl of
+Winchelsea, Lord-Lieutenant of the county, who prevailed upon him not
+to leave the kingdom, but to return to London.
+
+And to London he went. The Prince of Orange was by this time at
+Windsor. On the King's arrival in London he was received with
+acclamations, as if he had returned from victory. He resumed
+possession of his palace. He published a proclamation, announcing that
+having been given to understand that divers outrages had been
+committed in various parts of the kingdom, by burning, pulling down,
+and defacing of houses, he commanded all lord-lieutenants, &c., to
+prevent such outrages for the future, and suppress all riotous
+assemblies.
+
+This was his last public act. He was without an army. He had few
+friends. The Dutch Guards arrived in London, and took possession of
+St. James's and Whitehall. The Prince of Orange sent three lords to
+the King to desire his Majesty's departure for Ham--a house belonging
+to the Duchess of Lauderdale; but the King desired them to tell the
+Prince that he wished rather to go to Rochester. The Prince gave his
+consent.
+
+Next morning the King entered his barge, accompanied by four earls,
+six of the Yeomen of his Guard, and about a hundred of the Dutch
+Guard, commanded by a colonel of the regiment. They arrived at
+Gravesend, where the King entered his coach, and proceeded across the
+country to Rochester.
+
+In the meantime, Barillon, the French ambassador, was requested to
+leave England. St. Ledger, a French refugee, was requested to attend
+him and see him embark. While they were on the road St. Ledger could
+not forbear saying to the ambassador, "Sir, had any one told you a
+year ago that a French refugee should be commissioned to see you out
+of England, would you have believed it?" To which the ambassador
+answered, "Sir, cross over with me to Calais, and I will give you an
+answer."
+
+Shortly after, James embarked in a small French ship, which landed him
+safely at Ambleteuse, a few miles north of Boulogne; while the army of
+William marched into London amidst loud congratulations, and William
+himself took possession of the Palace of St. James's, which the
+recreant King had left for his occupation.
+
+James II. fled from England at the end of December, 1688. Louis XIV.
+received him courteously, and entertained him and his family at St.
+Germain and Versailles. But he could scarcely entertain much regard
+for the abdicated monarch. James had left his kingdom in an
+ignominious manner. Though he was at the head of a great fleet and
+army, he had not struck a single blow in defence of his kingly rights
+And now he had come to the court of Louis XIV. to beg for the
+assistance of a French fleet and army to recover his throne.
+
+Though England had rejected James, Ireland was still in his favour.
+The Lord-Deputy Tyrconnel was devoted to him; and the Irish people,
+excepting those of the north, were ready to fight for him. About a
+hundred thousand Irishmen were in arms. Half were soldiers; the rest
+were undrilled Rapparees. James was urged by messengers from Ireland
+to take advantage of this state of affairs. He accordingly begged
+Louis XIV. to send a French army with him into Ireland to help him to
+recover his kingdom.
+
+But the French monarch, who saw before him the prospect of a
+continental war, was unwilling to send a large body of troops out of
+his kingdom. But he did what he could.
+
+He ordered the Brest fleet to be ready. He put on board arms and
+ammunition for ten thousand men. He selected four hundred French
+officers for the purpose of disciplining the Irish levies. Count
+Rosen, a veteran warrior, was placed in command. Over a hundred
+thousand pounds of money was also put on board. When the fleet was
+ready to sail, James took leave of his patron, Louis XIV. "The best
+thing that I can wish you," said the French king, "is that I may never
+see you again in this world."
+
+The fleet sailed from Brest on the 7th of March, 1689, and reached
+Kinsale, in the south of Ireland, four days later. James II. was
+received with the greatest rejoicing. Next day he went on to Cork; he
+was received by the Earl of Tyrconnel, who caused one of the
+magistrates to be executed because he had declared for the Prince of
+Orange.
+
+The news went abroad that the King had landed. He entered Dublin on
+the 24th of March, and was received in a triumphant manner. All Roman
+Catholic Ireland was at his feet. The Protestants in the south were
+disarmed. There was some show of resistance in the north; but no doubt
+was entertained that Enniskillen and Derry, where the Protestants had
+taken refuge, would soon be captured and Protestantism crushed.
+
+The Prince of Orange, who had now been proclaimed King at Westminster,
+found that he must fight for his throne, and that Ireland was to be
+the battle-field. Londonderry was crowded with Protestants, who held
+out for William III. James believed that the place would fall without
+a blow. Count Rosen was of the same opinion. The Irish army proceeded
+northwards without resistance. The country, as far as the walls of
+Derry, was found abandoned by the population. Everything valuable had
+been destroyed by bands of Rapparees. There was great want of food for
+the army.
+
+Nevertheless, James proceeded as far as Derry. Confident of success,
+he approached within a hundred yards of the southern gate, when he was
+received with a shout of "No surrender!" The cannon were fired from
+the nearest bastion. One of James's officers was killed by his side.
+Then he fled. A few days later he was on his way to Dublin,
+accompanied by Count Rosen.
+
+Londonderry, after an heroic contest, was at length relieved. A fleet
+from England, laden with food, broke the boom which had been thrown by
+the Irish army across the entrance to the harbour. The ships reached
+the quay at ten o'clock at night. The whole population were there to
+receive them. The food was unloaded, and the famished people were at
+length fed. Three days after, the Irish army burnt their huts, and
+left the long-beleaguered city. They retreated along the left bunk of
+the Boyne to Strabane.
+
+While the Irish forces were lying there, the news of another disaster
+reached them. The Duke of Berwick lay with a strong detachment of
+Irish troops before Enniskillen. He had already gained some advantage
+over the Protestant colonists, and the command reached him from Dublin
+that he was immediately to attack them. The Irish were five thousand
+in number; the Enniskilleners under three thousand.
+
+An engagement took place at Newton Butler. The Enniskillen horse swept
+the Irish troops before them. Fifteen hundred were put to the sword,
+and four hundred prisoners were taken. Seven pieces of cannon,
+fourteen barrels of powder, and all the drums and colours were left in
+the hands of the victors. The Irish army were then at Strabane, on
+their retreat from Londonderry. They at once struck their tents, threw
+their military stores into the river, and set out in full retreat for
+the south.
+
+In the meantime a French fleet had landed at Bantry Bay, with three
+thousand men on board, and a large convoy of ammunition and
+provisions. William III., on his part, determined, with the consent of
+the English Parliament, to send a force into Ireland to encounter the
+French and Irish forces under King James.
+
+William's troops consisted of English, Scotch, Dutch, and Danes, with
+a large admixture of French Huguenots. There were a regiment of
+Huguenot horse, of eight companies, commanded by the Duke of
+Schomberg, and three regiments of Huguenot foot, commanded by La
+Mellonière, Du Cambon, and La Caillemotte. Schomberg, the old Huguenot
+chief, was put in command of the entire force.
+
+Rapin accompanied the expedition as a cadet. The army assembled at
+Highlake, about sixteen miles from Chester. About ninety vessels of
+all sorts were assembled near the mouth of the Dee. Part of the army
+was embarked on the 12th of August, and set sail for Ireland. About
+ten thousand men, horse and foot, were landed at Bangor, near the
+southern entrance to Belfast Lough. Parties were sent out to scour the
+adjacent country, and to feel for the enemy. This done, the army set
+out for Belfast.
+
+James's forces had abandoned the place, and retired to Carrickfergus,
+some ten miles from Belfast, on the north coast of the Lough.
+Carrickfergus was a fortified town. The castle occupies a strong
+position on a rock overlooking the Lough. The place formed a depôt for
+James's troops, and Schomberg therefore determined to besiege the
+fortress.
+
+Rapin has written an account of William's campaigns in England and
+Ireland; but with becoming modesty he says nothing about his own
+achievements. We must therefore supply the deficiency. Before the
+siege of Carrickfergus, he had been appointed ensign in Lord
+Kingston's regiment. He was helped to this office by his uncle Daniel,
+who accompanied the expedition. Several regiments of Schomberg's army
+were detached from Belfast to Carrickfergus, to commence the siege.
+Among these was Lord Kingston's regiment.
+
+On their approach, the enemy beat a parley. They desired to march out
+with arms and baggage. Schomberg refused, and the siege began. The
+trenches were opened, the batteries were raised, and the cannon
+thundered against the walls of the old town. Several breaches were
+made. The attacks were pursued with great vigour for four days, when a
+general assault was made. The besieged hoisted the white flag. After a
+parley, it was arranged that the Irish should surrender the place, and
+march out with their arms, and as much baggage as they could carry on
+their backs.
+
+Carrickfergus was not taken without considerable loss to the
+besiegers. Lieutenant Briset, of the Flemish Guards, was killed by the
+first shot fired from the castle. The Marquis de Venours was also
+killed while leading the Huguenot regiments to the breach. Rapin
+distinguished himself so much during the siege that he was promoted
+to the rank of lieutenant. He was at the same time transferred to
+another regiment, and served under Lieutenant-General Douglas during
+the rest of the campaign.
+
+More troops having arrived from England, Schomberg marched with his
+augmented army to Lisburn, Drummore, and Loughbrickland. Here the
+Enniskillen Horse joined them, and offered to be the advanced guard of
+the army. The Enniskilleners were a body of irregular horsemen, of
+singularly wild and uncouth appearance. They rode together in a
+confused body, each man being attended by a mounted servant, bearing
+his baggage. The horsemen were each mounted and accoutred after their
+own fashion, without any regular dress, or arms, or mode of attack.
+They only assumed a hasty and confused line when about to rush into
+action. They fell on pell-mell. Yet they were the bravest of the
+brave, and were never deterred from attacking by inequality of
+numbers. They were attended by their favourite preachers, who urged
+them on to deeds of valour, and encouraged them "to purge the land of
+idolatry."
+
+Thus reinforced, Schomberg pushed on to Newry. The Irish were in force
+there, under command of the Duke of Berwick. But although it was a
+very strong place, the Irish abandoned the town, first setting fire to
+it. This news having been brought to Schomberg, he sent a trumpet to
+the Duke of Berwick, acquainting him that if they went on to burn
+towns in that barbarous manner, he would give no quarter. This notice
+seems to have had a good effect, for on quitting Dundalk the
+retreating army did no harm to the town. Schomberg encamped about a
+mile north of Dundalk, in a low, moist ground, where he entrenched his
+army. Count Rosen was then at Drogheda with about twenty thousand
+men, far outnumbering the forces under Schomberg.
+
+About the end of September, King James's army approached the lines of
+Dundalk. They drew up in order of battle. The English officers were
+for attacking the enemy, but Schomberg advised them to refrain. A
+large party of horse appeared within cannon shot, but they made no
+further attempt. In a day or two after James drew off his army to
+Ardee, Count Rosen indignantly exclaiming, "If your Majesty had ten
+kingdoms, you would lose them all." In the meantime, Schomberg
+remained entrenched in his camp. The Enniskilleners nevertheless made
+various excursions, and routed a body of James's troops marching
+towards Sligo.
+
+Great distress fell upon Schomberg's army. The marshy land on which
+they were encamped, the wet and drizzly weather, the scarcity and
+badness of the food, caused a raging sickness to break out. Great
+numbers were swept away by disease. Among the officers who died were
+Sir Edward Deering, of Kent; Colonel Wharton, son of Lord Wharton; Sir
+Thomas Gower and Colonel Hungerford, two young gentlemen of
+distinguished merit. Two thousand soldiers died in the camp. Many
+afterwards perished from cold and hunger. Schomberg at length left the
+camp at Dundalk, and the remains of his army went into winter
+quarters.
+
+Rapin shared all the suffering of the campaign. When the army
+retreated northward, Rapin was sent with a party of soldiers to occupy
+a fortified place between Stranorlar and Donegal. It commanded the
+Pass of Barnes Gap. This is perhaps the most magnificent defile in
+Ireland. It is about four miles long. Huge mountains rise on either
+side. The fortalice occupied by Rapin is now in ruins. It stands on a
+height overlooking the northern end of the pass. It is now called
+Barrack Hill. The Rapparees who lived at the lower end of the Gap were
+accustomed to come down upon the farming population of the lowland
+country on the banks of the rivers Finn and Mourne, and carry off all
+the cattle that they could seize; Rapin was accordingly sent with a
+body of troops to defend the lowland farmers from the Rapparees.
+Besides, it was found necessary to defend the pass against the forces
+of King James, who then occupied Sligo and the neighbouring towns,
+under the command of General Sarsfield.
+
+Schomberg was very much blamed by the English Parliament for having
+effected nothing decisive in Ireland. But what could he do? He had to
+oppose an army more than three times stronger in numbers than his own.
+King William, Rapin says, wrote twice to him, "pressing him to put
+somewhat to the venture." But his army was wasted by disease, and had
+he volunteered an encounter and been defeated, his whole army, and
+consequently all Ireland, would have been lost, for he could not have
+made a regular retreat. "His sure way," says Rapin, "was to preserve
+his army, and that would save Ulster and keep matters entire for
+another year. And therefore, though this conduct of his was blamed by
+some, yet better judges thought that the managing of this campaign as
+he did was one of the greatest parts of his life."
+
+Winter passed. Nothing decisive had been accomplished on either side.
+Part of Ulster was in the hands of William; the remainder of Ireland
+was in the hands of James. Schomberg's army was wasted by famine and
+disease. James made no use of his opportunity to convert his athletic
+peasants into good soldiers. On the contrary, Schomberg recruited his
+old regiments, drilled them constantly, and was ready to take the
+field at the approach of spring.
+
+His first achievement was the capture of Charlemont, midway between
+Armagh and Dungannon. It was one of the strongest forts in the north
+of Ireland. It overlooked the Blackwater, and commanded an important
+pass. It was surrounded by a morass, and approachable only by two
+narrow causeways. When Teague O'Regan, who commanded the fort, was
+summoned to surrender, he replied, "Schomberg is an old rogue, and
+shall not have this castle!" But Caillemotte, with his Huguenot
+regiments, sat down before the fortress, and starved the garrison into
+submission. Captain Francis Rapin, cousin of our hero, was killed
+during the siege.
+
+The armies on both sides were now receiving reinforcements. Louis XIV.
+sent seven thousand two hundred and ninety men of all ranks to the
+help of James, under the command of Count Lauzun. They landed at Cork
+in March, 1689, and marched at once to Dublin. Lauzun described the
+country as a chaos such as he had read of in the Book of Genesis. On
+his arrival at Dublin, Lauzun was appointed Commander-in-Chief of the
+Irish army, and took up his residence in the castle.
+
+On the other hand, Schomberg's forces were recruited by seven thousand
+Danes, under a treaty which William III. had entered into with the
+King of Denmark. New detachments of English and Scotch, of Huguenots,
+Dutch, Flemings, and Brandenburgers, were also added to the allied
+army.
+
+William landed at Carrickfergus on the 14th of June. He passed on to
+Belfast, where he met Schomberg, the Prince of Wurtemberg,
+Major-General Kirk, and other general officers. He then pushed on to
+Lisburn, the head-quarters of his army. He there declared that he
+would not let the grass grow under his feet, but would pursue the war
+with the utmost vigour. He ordered the whole army to assemble at
+Loughbrickland. He found them to consist of sixty-two squadrons of
+cavalry and fifty-two battalions of infantry--in all, thirty-six
+thousand English, Dutch, French, Danes, and Germans, well appointed in
+every respect. Lieutenant-General Douglas commanded the
+advance-guard--to which Rapin belonged--and William III., Schomberg,
+and St. Gravenmore commanded the main body.
+
+William III. had no hesitation in entering at once on the campaign. He
+had been kept too long in London by parliamentary turmoil, by
+intrigues between Whigs and Tories, and sometimes by treachery on both
+sides. But now that he was in the field his spirits returned, and he
+determined to lose not a day in measuring swords with his enemy. He
+had very little time to spare. He must lose or win his crown; though
+his determination was to win. Accordingly he marched southward without
+delay.
+
+William had been in Ireland six days before James knew of his arrival.
+The passes between Newry and Dundalk had been left unguarded--passes
+where a small body of well-disciplined troops might easily have
+checked the advance of William's army. Dundalk was abandoned. Ardee
+was abandoned. The Irish army were drawn up in a strong position on
+the south of the Boyne to arrest the progress of the invading army.
+James had all the advantages that nature could give him. He had a deep
+river in front, a morass on his left, and the narrow bridge of Slane
+on his right. Behind was a rising ground stretching along the whole of
+the field. In the rear lay the church and village of Donore, and the
+Pass of Duleek. Drogheda lay towards the mouth of the river, where the
+green and white flags of Ireland and France were flying, emblazoned
+with the harp and the lilies.
+
+William never halted until he reached the summit of a rising ground
+overlooking the beautiful valley of the Boyne. It is about the most
+fertile ground in Ireland. As he looked from east to west, William
+said to one of his staff, "Behold a land worth fighting for!" Rapin
+was there, and has told the story of the crossing of the Boyne. He
+says that the forces of King James, lying on the other side of the
+river, amounted to about the same number as those under King William.
+They included more than seven thousand veteran French soldiers. There
+was a splendid body of Irish horse, and about twenty thousand Irish
+foot.
+
+James's officers were opposed to a battle; they wished to wait for the
+large fleet and the additional forces promised by Louis XIV. But James
+resolved to maintain his position, and thought that he might have one
+fair battle for his crown. "But," says Rapin, "notwithstanding all his
+advantages--the deep river in front, the morass on his right, and the
+rising ground behind him--he ordered a ship to be prepared for him at
+Waterford, that in case of a defeat he might secure his retreat to
+France."
+
+On the morning of the 30th of June, William ordered his whole army to
+move by break of day by three lines towards the river, about three
+miles distant. The King marched in front. By nine o'clock they were
+within two miles of Drogheda. Observing a hill east of the enemy, the
+King rode up to view the enemy's camp. He found it to lie all along
+the river in two lines. Here he had a long consultation with his
+leading officers. He then rode to the pass at Old Bridge, within
+musket-shot of the ford; next he rode westward, so as to take a full
+view of the enemy's camp. He fixed the place where his batteries were
+to be planted, and decided upon the spot where his army was to cross
+the river on the following day.
+
+The Irish on the other side of the river had not been unobservant of
+the King's movements. They could see him riding up and down the banks,
+for they were not sixty yards apart. The Duke of Berwick, the Viceroy
+Tyrconnel, General Sarsfield, and other officers were carefully
+watching his movements. While the army was marching up the river-side,
+William dismounted and sat down upon a rising ground to partake of
+some refreshments, for he had been on horseback since early dawn.
+During this time a party of Irish horse on the other side brought
+forward two field-pieces through a ploughed field, and planted them
+behind a hedge. They took their sight and fired. The first shot killed
+a man and two horses close by the King. William immediately mounted
+his horse. The second gun was not so well aimed. The shot struck the
+water, but rising _en ricochet_, it slanted on the King's right
+shoulder, took a piece out of his coat, and tore the skin and the
+flesh. William rode away stooping in his saddle. The Earl of Coningsby
+put a handkerchief over the wound, but William said "there was no
+necessity, the bullet should have come nearer."
+
+The enemy, seeing the discomfiture of the King's party, and that he
+rode away wounded, spread abroad the news that he was killed. "They
+immediately," says Rapin, "set up a shout all over their camp, and
+drew down several squadrons of their horse upon a plain towards the
+river, as if they meant to pass and pursue the English army. Nay, the
+report of the King's death flew presently to Dublin, and from thence
+spread as far as Paris, where the people were encouraged to express
+their joy by bonfires and illuminations." In the meantime William
+returned to his tent, where he had his wound dressed, and again
+mounted and showed himself to the whole army, in order to dissipate
+their apprehensions. He remained on horseback until nine at night,
+though he had been up since one o'clock in the morning.
+
+William then called a council of war, and declared his resolution of
+forcing the river next day. Schomberg opposed this, but finding the
+King determined, he urged that a strong body of horse and foot should
+be sent to Slane bridge that night, so as to be able to cross the
+bridge and get between the enemy and the Pass of Duleek, which lay
+behind King James's army. This advice, if followed, might perhaps have
+ended the war in one campaign. Such is Rapin's opinion. The proposal
+was, however, rejected; and it was determined to cross the river in
+force on the following morning. William inspected the troops at
+midnight. He rode along the whole army by torchlight, and after giving
+out the password "Westminster," he returned to his tent for a few
+hours' sleep.
+
+The shades of night lay still over that sleeping host. The stars
+looked down in peace on these sixty thousand brethren of the same
+human family, ready to rise with the sun and imbrue their hands in
+each other's blood. Tyrannical factions and warring creeds had set
+them at enmity with each other, and turned the sweetness and joy of
+their nature into gall and bitterness. The night was quiet. The murmur
+of the river fell faintly on the ear. A few trembling lights gleamed
+through the dark from the distant watchtowers of Drogheda. The only
+sounds that rose from the vast host that lay encamped in the valley of
+the Boyne were the challenges of the sentinels to each other as they
+paced their midnight rounds.
+
+The sun rose clear and beautiful. It was the first day of July--a day
+for ever memorable in the history of Ireland as well as England. The
+_générale_ was beat in the camp of William before daybreak, and as
+soon as the sun was up the battle began. Lieutenant-General Douglas
+marched towards the right with six battalions of foot, accompanied by
+Count Schomberg (son of the Marshal) with twenty-four squadrons of
+horse. They crossed the river below the bridge of Slane, and though
+opposed by the Irish, they drove them back and pressed them on towards
+Duleek.
+
+When it was supposed that the left wing had crossed the Boyne, the
+Dutch Blue Guards, beating a march till they reached the river's edge,
+went in eight or ten abreast, the water reaching above their girdles.
+When they had gained the centre of the stream they were saluted with a
+tremendous fire from the Irish foot, protected by the breastworks,
+lanes, and hedges on the farther side of the river. Nevertheless they
+pushed on, formed in two lines, and drove the Irish before them.
+Several Irish battalions were brought to bear upon them, but without
+effect. Then a body of Irish cavalry assailed them, but still they
+held their ground.
+
+William, seeing his troops hardly pressed, sent across two Huguenot
+regiments and one English regiment to their assistance. But a regiment
+of Irish dragoons, at the moment of their reaching the shore, fell
+upon their flank, broke their ranks, and put many of them to the
+sword. Colonel Caillemotte, leader of the Huguenots, received a mortal
+wound. He was laid on a litter and carried to the rear. As he met his
+men coming up to the help of their comrades, he called out, "A la
+gloire, mes enfants! à la gloire!" A squadron of Danish horse forded
+the river, but the Irish dragoons, in one of their dashing charges,
+broke and defeated them, and drove them across the river in great
+confusion.
+
+Duke Schomberg, who was in command of the centre, seeing that the day
+was going against King William, and that the French Huguenots were
+fighting without their leader, crossed the river and put himself at
+their head. Pointing to the Frenchmen in James's ranks, he cried out
+to his men, "Allons, messieurs, voilà vos persécuteurs!" The words
+were scarcely out of his mouth when a troop of James's guards,
+returning full speed to their main body, fell furiously upon the Duke
+and inflicted two sword cuts upon his head. The regiment of Cambon
+began at once to fire upon the enemy, but by a miss shot they hit the
+Duke. "They shot the Duke," says Rapin, "through the neck, of which he
+instantly died, and M. Foubert, alighting to receive him, was shot in
+the arm."
+
+The critical moment had arrived. The centre of William's army was in
+confusion. Their leaders, Schomberg and Caillemotte, were killed. The
+men were waiting for orders. They were exposed to the galling fire of
+the Irish infantry and cavalry. King James was in the rear on the hill
+of Dunmore surrounded by his French body-guard. He was looking down
+upon the field of battle, viewing now here, now there. It is even said
+that when he saw the Irish dragoons routing the cavalry and riding
+down the broken infantry of William, he exclaimed, "Spare! oh, spare
+my English subjects!"
+
+The firing had now lasted uninterruptedly for more than an hour, when
+William seized the opportunity of turning the tide of battle against
+his spiritless adversary. Putting himself at the head of the left
+wing, he crossed the Boyne by a dangerous and difficult ford a little
+lower down the river; his cavalry for the most part swimming across
+the tide. The ford had been left unguarded, and the whole soon reached
+the opposite bank in safety. But even there the horse which William
+rode sank in a bog, and he was forced to alight until the horse was
+got out. He was helped to remount, for the wound in his shoulder was
+very painful. So soon as the troops were got into sufficient order,
+William drew his sword, though his wound made it uneasy for him to
+wield it. He then marched on towards the enemy.
+
+When the Irish saw themselves menaced by William's left wing, they
+halted, and retired towards Dunmore. But gaining courage, they faced
+about and fell upon the English horse. They gave way. The King then
+rode up to the Enniskilleners, and asked, "What they would do for
+him?" Not knowing him, the men were about to shoot him, thinking him
+to be one of the enemy. But when their chief officer told them that it
+was the King who wanted their help, they at once declared their
+intention of following him. They marched forward and received the
+enemy's fire. The Dutch troops came up, at the head of whom William
+placed himself. "In this place," says Rapin, "Duke Schomberg's
+regiment of horse, composed of French Protestants, and strengthened by
+an unusual number of officers, behaved with undaunted resolution, like
+men who fought for a nation amongst whom themselves and their friends
+had found shelter against the persecution of France."
+
+Ginckel's troops now arrived on the scene; but they were overpowered
+by the Irish horse, and forced to give way. Sir Albert Cunningham's
+and Colonel Levison's dragoons then came up, and enabled Ginckel's
+troops to rally; and the Irish were driven up the hill, after an
+hour's hard fighting. James's lieutenant-general, Hamilton, was taken
+prisoner and brought before the King. He was asked "Whether the Irish
+would fight any more?" "Yes," he answered; "upon my honour I believe
+they will." The Irish slowly gave way, their dragoons charging again
+and again, to cover the retreat of the foot. At Dunmore they made a
+gallant stand, driving back the troops of William several times. The
+farmstead of Sheephouse was taken and retaken again and again.
+
+At last the Irish troops slowly retreated up the hill. The French
+troops had scarcely been engaged. Sarsfield implored James to put
+himself at their head, and make a last fight for his crown. Six
+thousand fresh men coming into action, when the army of William was
+exhausted by fatigue, might have changed the fortune of the day. But
+James would not face the enemy. He put himself at the head of the
+French troops and Sarsfield's regiment--the first occasion on which he
+had led during the day--and set out for Dublin, leaving the rest of
+his army to shift for themselves.
+
+The Irish army now poured through the Pass of Duleek. They were
+pursued by Count Schomberg at the head of the left wing of William's
+army. The pursuit lasted several miles beyond the village of Duleek,
+when the Count was recalled by express orders of the King. The Irish
+army retreated in good order, and they reached Dublin in safety. James
+was the first to carry thither the news of his defeat. On reaching
+Dublin Castle, he was received by Lady Tyrconnel, the wife of the
+Viceroy. "Madam," said he, "your countrymen can run well." "Not quite
+so well as your Majesty," was her retort, "for I see that you have won
+the race."
+
+The opinion of the Irish soldiers may be understood from their saying,
+after their defeat, "Change generals, and we will fight the battle
+over again." "James had no royal quality about him," says an able
+Catholic historian; "nature had made him a coward, a monk, and a
+gourmand; and, in spite of the freak of fortune that had placed him on
+a throne, and seemed inclined to keep him there, she vindicated her
+authority, and dropped him ultimately in the niche that suited him--
+
+  'The meanest slave of France's despot lord.'"
+
+William halted on the field that James had occupied in the morning.
+The troops remained under arms all night. The loss of life was not so
+great as was expected. On William's side not more than four hundred
+men were killed; but amongst them were Duke Schomberg, Colonel
+Caillemotte, and Dr. George Walker, the defender of Derry. "King
+James's whole loss in this battle," says Rapin, "was generally
+computed at fifteen hundred men, amongst whom were the Lord Dungan,
+the Lord Carlingford, Sir Neil O'Neil, Colonel Fitzgerald, the Marquis
+d'Hocquincourt, and several prisoners, the chief of whom was
+Lieutenant-General Hamilton, who, to do him justice, behaved with
+great courage, and kept the victory doubtful, until he was taken
+prisoner."
+
+On the following day Drogheda surrendered without resistance. The
+garrison laid down their arms, and departed for Athlone. James stayed
+at Dublin for a night, and on the following morning he started for
+Waterford, causing the bridges to be broken down behind him, for fear
+of being pursued by the allied forces. He then embarked on a
+ship-of-war, and was again conveyed to France.
+
+William's army proceeded slowly to Dublin. The Duke of Ormond entered
+the city two days after the battle of the Boyne, at the head of nine
+troops of horse. On the next day the King, with his whole army,
+marched to Finglas, in the neighbourhood of Dublin; and on the 6th of
+July he entered the city, and proceeded to St. Patrick's Church, to
+return thanks for his victory.
+
+The whole of the Irish army proceeded towards Athlone and Limerick,
+intending to carry on the war behind the Shannon. William sent a body
+of his troops, under Lieutenant-General Douglas, to Athlone, while he
+himself proceeded to reduce and occupy the towns of the South. Rapin
+followed his leader, and hence his next appearance at the siege of
+Athlone.
+
+Rapin conducted himself throughout the Irish campaign as a true soldier.
+He was attentive, accurate, skilful, and brave. He did the work he had
+to do without any fuss; but he _did_ it. Lieutenant-General Douglas,
+under whom he served, soon ascertained his merits, saw through his
+character, and became much attached to him. He promoted him to the rank
+of aide-de-camp, so that he might have this able Frenchman continually
+about his person.
+
+Douglas proceeded westward, with six regiments of horse and ten of
+foot, to reduce Athlone. But the place was by far too strong for so
+small a force to besiege, and still less to take it. Athlone had
+always been a stronghold. For centuries the bridge and castle had
+formed the great highway into Connaught. The Irish town is defended on
+the eastern side by the Shannon, a deep and wide river, almost
+impossible to pass in the face of a hostile army.
+
+Douglas summoned the Irish garrison to surrender. Colonel Richard
+Grace, the gallant old governor, returned a passionate defiance.
+"These are my terms," he said, discharging a pistol at the messenger:
+"when my provisions are consumed, I will defend my trust until I have
+eaten my boots."
+
+Abandoning as indefensible the English part of the town, situated on
+the east side of the Shannon, Grace set fire to it, and retired with
+all his forces to the western side, blowing up an arch of the bridge
+behind him. The English then brought up the few cannon they had with
+them, and commenced battering the walls. The Irish had more cannon,
+and defended themselves with vigour. The besiegers made a breach in
+the castle, but it was too high and too small for an assault.
+"Notwithstanding this," says Rapin, "the firing continued very brisk
+on both sides; but the besiegers having lost Mr. Neilson, their best
+gunner, and the cavalry suffering very much for want of forage; and at
+the same time it being reported that Sarsfield was advancing with
+fifteen thousand men to relieve the place, Douglas held a council of
+war, wherein it was thought fit to raise the siege, which he
+accordingly did on the 25th, having lost near four hundred men before
+the town, the greatest part of whom died of sickness."
+
+Thus, after a week's ineffectual siege, Douglas left Athlone, and made
+all haste to rejoin the army of William, which had already reduced the
+most important towns in the south of Ireland. On the 7th of August he
+rejoined William at Cahirconlish, a few miles west of Limerick. The
+flower of the Irish army was assembled at Limerick. The Duke of
+Berwick and General Sarsfield occupied the city with their forces. The
+French general, Boileau, commanded the garrison. The besieged were
+almost as numerous as the besiegers. William, by garrisoning the towns
+of which he took possession, had reduced his forces to about twenty
+thousand men.
+
+Limerick was fortified by walls, batteries, and ramparts. It was also
+defended by a castle and citadel. It had always been a place of great
+strength. The chivalry of the Anglo-Norman monarch, the Ironsides of
+Cromwell, had been defeated under its walls; and now the victorious
+army of William III. was destined to meet with a similar repulse.
+
+Limerick is situated in an extensive plain, watered by the noble
+Shannon. The river surrounds the town on three sides. Like Athlone,
+the city is divided into the English and Irish towns, connected
+together by a bridge. The English town was much the strongest. It was
+built upon an island, surrounded by morasses, which could at any time
+be flooded on the approach of an enemy. The town was well supplied
+with provisions--all Clare and Galway being open to it, from whence
+it could draw supplies.
+
+Notwithstanding the strength of the fortress, William resolved to
+besiege it. He was ill supplied with cannon, having left his heavy
+artillery at Dublin. He had only a field train with him, which was
+quite insufficient for his purpose. William's advance-guards drove the
+Irish outposts before them; the pioneers cutting down the hedges and
+filling up the ditches, until they came to a narrow pass between two
+bogs, where a considerable body of Irish horse and foot were assembled
+to dispute the pass.
+
+Two field-pieces were brought up, which played with such effect upon
+the Irish horse that they soon quitted their post. At the same time
+Colonel Earle, at the head of the English foot, attacked the Irish who
+were firing through the hedges, so that they also retired after two
+hours' fighting. The Irish were driven to the town walls, and
+William's forces took possession of two important positions,
+Cromwell's fort and the old Chapel. The Danes also occupied an old
+Danish fort, built by their ancestors, of which they were not a little
+proud.
+
+The army being thus posted, a trumpeter was sent, on the 9th of
+August, to summon the garrison to surrender. General Boileau answered,
+that he intended to make a vigorous defence of the town with which his
+Majesty had intrusted him. In the meantime, William had ordered up his
+train of artillery from Dublin. They were on their way to join him,
+when a spy from William's camp went over to the enemy, and informed
+them of the route, the motions, and the strength of the convoy.
+Sarsfield at once set out with a strong body of horse. He passed the
+Shannon in the night, nine miles above Limerick, lurked all day in
+the mountains near Ballyneety, and waited for the approach of the
+convoy.
+
+The men of William's artillery, seeing no enemy, turned out their
+horses to graze, and went to sleep in the full sense of security.
+Sarsfield's body of horse came down upon them, slew or dispersed the
+convoy, and took possession of the cannon. Sarsfield could not,
+however, take the prizes into Limerick. He therefore endeavoured to
+destroy them. Cramming the guns with powder up to their muzzles, and
+burying their mouths deep in the earth, then piling the stores,
+waggons, carriages, and baggage over them, he laid a train and fired
+it, just as Sir John Lanier, with a body of cavalry, was arriving to
+rescue the convoy. The explosion was tremendous, and was heard at the
+camp of William, more than seven miles off. Sarsfield's troops
+returned to Limerick in triumph.
+
+Notwithstanding these grievous discouragements, William resolved to
+persevere. He recovered two of the guns, which remained uninjured. He
+obtained others from Waterford. The trenches were opened on the 17th
+of August. A battery was raised below the fort to the right of the
+trenches. Firing went on on both sides. Several redoubts were taken.
+By the 25th, the trenches were advanced to within thirty paces of the
+ditch near St. John's Gate, and a breach was made in the walls about
+twelve yards wide.
+
+The assault was ordered to take place on the 27th. The English
+grenadiers took the lead, supported by a hundred French officers and
+volunteers. The enemy were dislodged from the covered way and the two
+forts which guarded the breach on each side. The assailants entered
+the breach, but they were not sufficiently supported. The Irish
+rallied. They returned to the charge, helped by the women, who pelted
+the besiegers with stones, broken bottles, and such other missiles as
+came readily to hand. A Brandenburg regiment having assailed and taken
+the Black Battery, it was blown up by an explosion, which killed many
+of the men. In fine, the assault was vigorously repulsed; and
+William's troops retreated to the main body, with a loss of six
+hundred men killed on the spot and as many mortally wounded.
+
+Rapin was severely wounded. A musket shot hit him in the shoulder, and
+completely disabled him. His brother Solomon was also wounded. His
+younger brother fell dead by his side. They belonged to the "forlorn
+hope," and were volunteers in the assault on the breach. Rapin was
+raised to the rank of captain.
+
+The siege of Limerick was at once raised. The heavy baggage and cannon
+were sent away on the 30th of August, and the next day the army
+decamped and marched towards Clonmel. The King intrusted the command
+of his army to Lieutenant-General Ginckel, and set sail for England
+from Duncannon Fort, near Waterford, on the 5th of September.
+
+The campaign was not yet over. The Earl of Marlborough landed near
+Cork with four thousand men. Reinforced by four thousand Danes and
+French Huguenots, he shortly succeeded in taking the fortified towns
+of Cork and Kinsale. After garrisoning these places the Earl returned
+to England.
+
+General Ginckel went into winter quarters at Mullingar, in Westmeath.
+The French troops, under command of Count Lauzun, went into Galway.
+Lauzun shortly after returned to France, and St. Ruth was sent over to
+take command of the French and Irish army. But they hung about Galway
+doing nothing. In the meantime Ginckel was carefully preparing for the
+renewal of the campaign. He was reinforced by an excellent body of
+troops from Scotland, commanded by General Mackay. He was also well
+supplied, through the vigilance of William, with all the necessaries
+of war.
+
+Rapin's friend, Colonel Lord Douglas, pressed him to accompany him to
+Flanders as his aide-de-camp; but the wound in his shoulder still
+caused him great pain, and he was forced to decline the appointment.
+Strange to say, his uncle Pélisson--the converter, or rather the
+buyer, of so many Romish converts in France--sent him a present of
+fifty pistoles through his cousin M. de la Bastide, which consoled him
+greatly during his recovery.
+
+General Ginckel broke up his camp at Mullingar at the beginning of
+June, and marched towards Athlone. The Irish had assembled a
+considerable army at Ballymore, about midway between Mullingar and
+Athlone. They had also built a fort there, and intended to dispute the
+passage of Ginckel's army. A sharp engagement took place when his
+forces came up. The Irish were defeated, with the loss of over a
+thousand prisoners and all their baggage.
+
+Ginckel then appeared before Athlone, but the second resistance of the
+besieged was much less successful than the first. St. Ruth, the French
+general, treated the Irish officers and soldiers under his command
+with supercilious contempt. He admitted none of their officers into
+his councils. He was as ignorant of the army which he commanded as of
+the country which he occupied. Nor was he a great general. He had been
+principally occupied in France in hunting and hanging the poor
+Protestants of Dauphiny and the Cevennes. He had never fought a
+pitched battle; and his incapacity led to the defeat of the Irish at
+Athlone, and afterwards at Aughrim.
+
+St. Ruth treated his English adversaries with as much contempt as he
+did his Irish followers. When he heard that the English were about to
+cross the Shannon, he said "it was impossible for them to take the
+town, and be so near with an army to succour it." He added that he
+would give a thousand louis if they _durst_ attempt it. To which
+Sarsfield retorted, "Spare your money and mind your business; for I
+know that no enterprise is too difficult for British courage to
+attempt."
+
+Ginckel took possession of the English town after some resistance,
+when the Irish army retreated to the other side of the Shannon.
+Batteries were planted, pontoons were brought up, and the siege began
+with vigour. Ginckel attempted to get possession of the bridge. One of
+the arches was broken down, on the Connaught side of the river. Under
+cover of a heavy fire, a party of Ginckel's men succeeded in raising a
+plank-work for the purpose of spanning the broken arch. The work was
+nearly completed, when a sergeant and ten bold Scots belonging to
+Maxwell's Brigade on the Irish side, pushed on to the bridge; but they
+were all slain. A second brave party was more successful than the
+first. They succeeded in throwing all the planks and beams into the
+river, only two men escaping with their lives.
+
+Ginckel then attempted to repair the broken arch by carrying a close
+gallery on the bridge, in order to fill up the gap with heavy planks.
+All was ready, and an assault was ordered for next day. It was
+resolved to cross the Shannon in three places--one body to cross by
+the narrow ford below the bridge, another by the pontoons above it,
+while the main body was to force the bridge itself. On the morning of
+the intended crossing, the Irish sent a volley of grenades among the
+wooden work of the bridge, when some of the fascines took fire, and
+the whole fabric was soon in a blaze. The smoke blew into the faces of
+the English, and it was found impossible to cross the river that day.
+
+A council of war was held, to debate whether it was advisable to renew
+the attack or to raise the siege and retreat. The cannonade had now
+continued for eight days, and nothing had been gained. Some of the
+officers were for withdrawing, but the majority were in favour of
+making a general assault on the following day--seeing more danger in
+retreating than in advancing. The Duke of Wurtemberg, Major-Generals
+Mackay, Talmash, Ruvigny, Tetleau, and Colonel Cambon urged "that no
+brave action could be performed without hazard; and that the attempt
+was like to be attended with success." Moreover, they proffered
+themselves to be the first to pass the river and attack the enemy.
+
+The assault was therefore agreed upon. The river was then at the
+lowest state at which it had been for years. Next morning, at six
+o'clock--the usual hour for relieving guards--the detachments were led
+down to the river. Captain Sands led the first party of sixty
+grenadiers. They were supported by another strong detachment of
+grenadiers and six battalions of foot. They went into the water twenty
+abreast, clad in armour, and pushed across the ford a little below the
+bridge. The stream was very rapid, and the passage difficult, by
+reason of the great stones which lay at the bottom of the river. The
+guns played over them from the batteries and covered their passage.
+The grenadiers reached the other side amidst the fire and smoke of
+their enemies. They held their ground and made for the bridge. Some of
+them laid planks over the broken arch, and others helped at preparing
+the pontoons. Thus the whole of the English army were able to cross to
+the Irish side of the river. In less than half an hour they were
+masters of the town. The Irish were entirely surprised. They fled in
+all directions, and lost many men. The besiegers did not lose above
+fifty.
+
+St. Ruth, the Irish commander-in-chief, seemed completely idle during
+the assault. It is true he ordered several detachments to drive the
+English from the town after it had been taken; but, remembering that
+the fortifications of Athlone, nearest to his camp, had not been
+razed, and that they were now in possession of the enemy, he recalled
+his troops, and decamped from before Athlone that very night. In a few
+days Ginckel followed him, and inflicted on his army a terrible defeat
+at the battle of Aughrim. With that, however, we have nothing to do at
+present, but proceed to follow the fortunes of Rapin.
+
+Rapin entered Athlone with his regiment, and conducted himself with
+his usual valour. Ginckel remained only a few days in the place, in
+order to repair the fortifications. That done, he set out in pursuit
+of the enemy. He left two regiments in the castle, one of which was
+that to which Rapin belonged. The soldiers, who belonged to different
+nationalities, had many contentions with each other. The officers
+stood upon their order of precedence. The men were disposed to
+quarrel. Aided by a friend, a captain like himself, Rapin endeavoured
+to pacify the men, and to bring the officers to reason. By his kind,
+gentle, and conciliatory manner, he soon succeeded in restoring quiet
+and mutual confidence; and during his stay at Athlone no further
+disturbance occurred among the garrison.
+
+Rapin was ordered to Kilkenny, where he had a similar opportunity of
+displaying his qualities of conciliation. A quarrel had sprung up
+between the chief magistrate of the town and the officers of the
+garrison. Rapin interceded, and by his firmness and moderation he
+reconciled all differences; and, at the same time, he gained the
+respect and admiration of both the disputing parties.
+
+By this time the second siege of Limerick had occurred. Ginckel
+surrounded the city, and battered the walls and fortresses for six
+weeks. The French and Irish armies at length surrendered. Fourteen
+thousand Irish marched out with the honours of war. A large proportion
+of them joined the army of Louis XIV., and were long after known as
+"The Irish Brigade." Although they fought valiantly and honourably in
+many well-known battles, they were first employed in Louis'
+persecution of the Protestants in the Vaudois and Cevennes mountains.
+Their first encounter was with the Camisards, under Cavalier, their
+peasant leader. They gained no glory in that campaign, but a good deal
+of discredit.
+
+In the meantime Ireland had been restored to peace. After the
+surrender of Limerick no further resistance was offered to the arms of
+William III. A considerable body of English troops remained in Ireland
+to garrison the fortresses. Rapin's regiment was stationed at Kinsale,
+and there he rejoined it in 1693. He made the intimate friendship of
+Sir James Waller, the governor of the town. Sir James was a man of
+much intelligence, a keen observer, and an ardent student. By his
+knowledge of political history, he inspired Rapin with a like taste,
+and determined him at a later period in his life to undertake what was
+a real want at the time, an intelligent and readable history of
+England.
+
+Rapin was suddenly recalled to England. He was required to leave his
+regiment and report himself to King William. No reason was given; but
+with his usual obedience to orders he at once set out. He did not
+leave Ireland without regret. He was attached to his numerous Huguenot
+comrades, and he hoped yet to rise to higher guides in the King's
+service. By special favour he was allowed to hand over his company to
+his brother Solomon, who had been wounded at the first siege of
+Limerick. His brother received the promotion which he himself had
+deserved, and afterwards became lieutenant-colonel of dragoons.
+Rapin's fortune led him in quite another direction.
+
+It turned out that, by the recommendation of the Earl of Galway
+(formerly the Marquis de Ruvigny, another French Huguenot), he had
+been recalled to London for the purpose of being appointed governor
+and tutor to Lord Woodstock, son of Bentinck, Earl of Portland, one of
+King William's most devoted servants. Lord Galway was consulted by the
+King as to the best tutor for the son of his friend. He knew of
+Rapin's valour and courage during his campaigns in Ireland; he also
+knew of his discretion, his firmness, and his conciliatory manners, in
+reconciling the men under his charge at Athlone and Kilkenny; and he
+was also satisfied about his thoughtfulness, his delicacy of spirit,
+his grace and his nobleness--for he had been bred a noble, though he
+had first served as a common soldier in the army of William.
+
+The King immediately approved the recommendation of Lord Galway. He
+knew of Rapin's courage at the battle of the Boyne; and he
+remembered--as every true captain does remember--the serious wound he
+had received while accompanying the forlorn hope at the first siege of
+Limerick. Hence the sudden recall of Rapin from Ireland. On his
+arrival in London he was presented to the King, and immediately after
+he entered upon his new function of conducting the education of the
+future Duke of Portland.
+
+Henry, Lord Woodstock, was then about fifteen. Being of delicate
+health, he had hitherto been the object of his father's tender care,
+and it was not without considerable regret that Lord Portland yielded
+to the request of the King and handed over his son to the government
+of M. Rapin. Though of considerable intelligence, the powers of his
+heart were greater than those of his head. Thus Rapin had no
+difficulty in acquiring the esteem and affection of his pupil.
+
+Portland House was then the resort of the most eminent men of the Whig
+party, through whose patriotic assistance the constitution of England
+was placed in the position which it now occupies. Rapin was introduced
+by Lord Woodstock to his friends. Having already mastered the English
+language, he had no difficulty in understanding the conflicting
+opinions of the times. He saw history developing itself before his
+eyes. He heard with his ears the discussions which eventuated in Acts
+of Parliament, confirming the liberties of the English people, the
+liberty of speech, the liberty of writing, the liberty of doing,
+within the limits of the common law.
+
+All this was of great importance to Rapin. It prepared him for writing
+his afterwards famous works, his "History of England," and his
+Dissertation on the Whigs and Tories. Rapin was not only a man of
+great accomplishments, but he had a remarkable aptitude for
+languages. He knew French and English, as well as Italian, Spanish,
+and German. He had an extraordinary memory, and a continuous
+application and perseverance, which enabled him to suck the contents
+of many volumes, and to bring out the facts in future years during the
+preparation of his works. His memory seems to have been of the same
+order as that of Lord Macaulay, who afterwards made use of his works,
+and complimented his predecessor as to their value.
+
+According to the custom of those days, the time arrived when Rapin was
+required to make "the grand tour" with his pupil and friend, Lord
+Woodstock. This was considered the complement of English education
+amongst the highest classes. It was thought necessary that young
+noblemen should come in contact with foreigners, and observe the
+manners and customs of other countries besides their own; and that
+thus they might acquire a sort of cosmopolitan education. Archbishop
+Leighton even considered a journey of this sort as a condition of
+moral perfection. He quoted the words of the Latin poet: "Homo sum, et
+nihil hominem à me alienum puto."
+
+No one could be better fitted than Rapin to accompany the young lord
+on his foreign travels. They went to Holland, Germany, France, Spain,
+and Italy. Rapin diligently improved himself, while instructing his
+friend. He taught him the languages of the countries through which
+they passed; he rendered him familiar with Greek and Latin; he
+rendered him familiar with the principles of mathematics. He also
+studied with him the destinies of peoples and of kings, and pointed
+out to him the Divine will accomplishing itself amidst the destruction
+of empires. Withal he sought to penetrate the young soul of the friend
+committed to his charge with that firmness of belief and piety of
+sentiment which pervaded his own.
+
+It was while in Italy that the Earl of Portland, at the instigation of
+Rapin, requested copies to be made for him of the rarest and most
+precious medals in point of historic interest; and also to purchase
+for him objects of ancient workmanship. Hence Rapin was able to secure
+for him the _Portland Vase_, now in the British Museum, one of the
+most exquisite products of Roman and Etruscan ceramic art.
+
+In 1699, the Earl of Portland was sent by William III. as ambassador
+to the court of Louis XIV., in connection with the negotiations as to
+the Spanish succession. Lord Woodstock attended the embassy, and Rapin
+accompanied him. They were entertained at Versailles. Persecution was
+still going on in France, although about eight hundred thousand
+persons had already left the country. Rapin at one time thought of
+leaving Lord Woodstock for a few days, and making a rapid journey
+south to visit his friends near Toulouse. But the thought of being
+made a prisoner and sent to the galleys for life stayed him, and he
+remained at Versailles until the return of the embassy.
+
+Rapin remained with Lord Woodstock for thirteen years. In the meantime
+he had married, at the Hague, Marie Anne Testart, a refugee from
+Saint-Quentin. Jean Rou describes her as a true helpmeet for him,
+young, beautiful, rich, and withal virtuous, and of the most pleasing
+and gentle temper in the world. Her riches, however, were not great.
+She had merely, like Rapin, rescued some portion of her heritage from
+the devouring claws of her persecutors. Rapin accumulated very little
+capital during his tutorship of Lord Woodstock; but to compensate him,
+the King granted him a pension of £100 a year, payable by the States
+of Holland, until he could secure some better income.
+
+Rapin lived for some time at the Hague. While there he joined a
+society of learned French refugees. Among them were Rotolf de la
+Denèse, Basnage de Beauval, and Jean Rou, secretary to the
+States-General. One of the objects of the little academy was to
+translate the Psalms anew into French verse; but before the version
+was completed, Rapin was under the necessity of leaving the Hague.
+William III., his patron, died in 1701, when his pension was stopped.
+He was promised some remunerative employment, but he was forgotten
+amidst the press of applicants.
+
+At length he removed to the little town of Wesel, on the Lower Rhine,
+in the beginning of May, 1707. He had a wife and four children to
+maintain, and living was much more reasonable at Wesel than at the
+Hague. His wife's modest fortune enabled him to live there to the end
+of his days. Wesel was also a resort of the French refugees--persons
+of learning and taste, though of small means. It was at his modest
+retreat at Wesel that Rapin began to arrange the immense mass of
+documents which he had been accumulating during so many years,
+relating to the history of England. The first work which he published
+was "A Dissertation on the Origin and Nature of the English
+Constitution." It met with great success, and went through many
+editions, besides being translated into nearly all the continental
+languages.
+
+He next proceeded with his great work, "The History of England."
+During his residence in Ireland and England, he had read with great
+interest all books relating to the early history of the Government of
+England. He began with, the history of England after the Norman
+Conquest; but he found that he must begin at the beginning. He studied
+the history of the Anglo-Saxons, but found it "like a vast forest,
+where the traveller, with great difficulty, finds a few narrow paths
+to guide his wandering steps. It was this, however, that inspired him
+with the design of clearing this part of the English history, by
+removing the rubbish, and carrying on the thread so as to give, at
+least, a general knowledge of the earlier history." Then he went back
+to Julius Cæsar's account of his invasion of Britain, for the purpose
+of showing how the Saxons came to send troops into this country, and
+now the conquest which had cost them so much was at last abandoned by
+the Romans. He then proceeded, during his residence in England, with
+his work of reading and writing; but when he came to the reign of
+Henry II. he was about to relinquish his undertaking, when an
+unexpected assistance not only induced him to continue it, but to
+project a much larger history of England than he had at first
+intended.
+
+This unexpected assistance was the publication of Rymer's "Foedera,"
+at the expense of the British Government. The volumes as they came out
+were sent to Rapin by Le Clerc (another refugee), a friend of Lord
+Halifax, who was one of the principal promoters of the publication.
+This book was of infinite value to Rapin in enabling him to proceed
+with his history. He prepared abstracts of seventeen volumes (now in
+the Cottonian collection), to show the relation of the acts narrated
+in Rymer's "Foedera" to the history of England. He was also able to
+compare the facts stated by English historians with, those of the
+neighbouring states, whether they were written in Latin, French,
+Italian, or Spanish.
+
+The work was accomplished with great labour. It occupied seventeen
+years of Rapin's life. The work was published at intervals. The first
+two volumes appeared in November, 1723. During the following year six
+more volumes were published. The ninth and tenth volumes were left in
+manuscript ready for the press. They ended with the coronation of
+William and Mary at Westminster. Besides, he left a large number of
+MSS., which were made use of by the editor of the continuation of
+Rapin's history.
+
+Rapin died at Wesel in 1725, at the age of sixty-four. His work, the
+cause of his fatal illness, was almost his only pleasure. He was worn
+out by hard study and sedentary confinement, and at last death came to
+his rescue. He had struggled all his life against persecution; against
+the difficulties of exile; against the enemy; and though he did not
+die on the field of battle, he died on the breach pen in hand, in work
+and duty, striving to commemorate the independence through which a
+noble people had worked their way to ultimate freedom and liberty. The
+following epitaph was inscribed over his grave:--
+
+  "Ici le casque et la science,
+  L'esprit vif, la solidité,
+  La politesse et la sincérité
+  Ont fait une heureuse alliance,
+  Dont le public a profité."
+
+The first edition of Rapin's history, consisting of ten volumes, was
+published at the Hague by Rogessart. The Rev. David Durand added two
+more volumes to the second edition, principally compiled from the
+memoranda left by Rapin at his death. The twelfth volume concluded the
+reign of William III.
+
+The fourth edition appeared in 1733. Being originally composed and
+published in French, the work was translated into English by Mr. N.
+Tindal, who added numerous notes. Two editions wore published
+simultaneously in London, and a third translation was published some
+sixty years later. The book was attacked by the Jacobite authors, who
+defended the Stuart party against the statements of the author. In
+those fanatical times impartiality was nothing to them. A man must be
+emphatically for the Stuarts, or against them. Yet the work of Rapin
+held its ground, and it long continued to be regarded as the best
+history that had up to that time been written.
+
+The Rapin family are now scattered over the world. Some remain in
+Holland, some have settled in Switzerland, some have returned to
+France, but the greater number are Prussian subjects. James, the only
+son of Rapin, studied at Cleves, then at Antwerp, and at thirty-one he
+was appointed to the important office of Director of the French
+Colonies at Stettin and Stargardt. Charles, Rapin's eldest brother,
+was a captain of infantry in the service of Prussia. Two sons of Louis
+de Rapin were killed in the battles of Smolensko and Leipsic.
+
+Many of the Rapins attained high positions in the military service of
+Prussia. Colonel Philip de Rapin-Thoyras was the head of the family in
+Prussia. He was with the Allied Army in their war of deliverance
+against France in the years 1813, 1814, and 1815. He was consequently
+decorated with the Cross and the Military Medal for his long and
+valued services to the country of his adoption.
+
+The handsome volume by Raoul de Cazenove, entitled "Rapin-Thoyras, sa
+Famille, sa Vie, et ses OEuvres," to which we are indebted for much of
+the above information, is dedicated to this distinguished military
+chief.
+
+
+
+
+III.
+
+CAPTAIN RIOU, R.N.
+
+   "Brave hearts! to Britain's pride
+      Once so faithful and so true,
+    On the deck of fame that died,
+      With the gallant good Riou:
+  Soft sigh the winds of heaven o'er their grave!"
+
+      CAMPBELL'S _Battle of the Baltic_.
+
+
+The words in which Campbell describes Captain Riou in his noble ode
+are nearly identical with those used by Lord Nelson himself when
+alluding to his death in the famous despatch relative to the battle of
+Copenhagen. These few but pregnant words, "the gallant and the good,"
+constitute nearly all the record that exists of the character of this
+distinguished officer, though it is no slight glory to have them
+embalmed in the poetry of Campbell and the despatches of Nelson.
+
+Having had the good fortune, in the course of recent inquiries as to
+the descendants of illustrious Huguenots in England, to become
+acquainted with the principal events in Captain Riou's life, drawn
+from family papers, I now propose to supplement Lord Nelson's brief
+epitome of his character by the following memoir of this distinguished
+seaman.
+
+Captain Riou was descended from the ancient Riou family of Vernoux, in
+Languedoc, of whom early mention is made in French history, several
+members of it having specially distinguished themselves as generals in
+the wars in Spain. Like many other noble families of Languedoc in the
+seventeenth century, the Rious were staunch Huguenots; and when, in
+1685, Louis XIV. determined to stamp out Protestantism in France, and
+revoked the Edict of Nantes, the principal members of the family,
+refusing to conform, left the country, and their estates were
+confiscated by the Crown.
+
+Estienne Riou, heir to the estate at Vernoux, was born after the death
+of his father, who was a man of eminent repute in his neighbourhood;
+and he did not leave France until his eleventh year, when he fled with
+his paternal uncle, Matthew Labrune, across the frontier, and took
+refuge with him at Berne, in Switzerland. There the uncle engaged in
+business as a merchant, while the nephew, when of sufficient age,
+desirous of following the usual career of his family, went into
+Piedmont to join the little Huguenot army from England, then engaged
+in assisting the Duke of Savoy against the armies of the French king.
+Estienne was admitted a cadet in Lord Galway's regiment, then engaged
+in the siege of Casale; and he remained with it for two years, when,
+on the army returning to England, he received an honourable discharge,
+and went back to reside for a time with his bachelor uncle at Berne.
+
+In 1698 both uncle and nephew left Switzerland to settle in London as
+merchants, bringing with them a considerable capital. They exported
+English manufactured goods to the East Indies, Holland, Germany, and
+Italy; and imported large quantities of raw silk, principally from
+Spain and Italy, carrying on their business with uniform probity and
+credit. In course of time Estienne married Magdalen Baudoin, the
+daughter of a refugee gentleman from Touraine,--the members of
+refugee families usually intermarrying for several generations after
+their settlement in England. The issue of this marriage was an only
+son, Stephen Riou, who, like his ancestors, embraced the profession of
+arms, rising to be captain in the Horse Grenadier Guards. He
+afterwards attended the Confederate forces in Flanders as an engineer,
+and on the conclusion of peace, he travelled for nearly four years
+through the principal countries of Europe, accompanying Sir P. Ker
+Porter on his embassy to Constantinople. He afterwards settled,
+married, and had two sons,--Philip, the elder, who entered the Royal
+Artillery, and died senior colonel at Woolwich in 1817; and Edward,
+the second son, who entered the navy--the subject of the present
+memoir.
+
+Edward Riou was born at Mount Ephraim, near Faversham, on the 20th
+November, 1762. The family afterwards removed to London, where Edward
+received his education, partly at the Marylebone Grammar School and
+partly at home, where his father superintended his instruction in
+fortification, and navigation. Though of peculiarly sweet and amiable
+disposition, young Riou displayed remarkable firmness and even
+fearlessness as a boy. He rejoiced at all deeds of noble daring, and
+it was perhaps his love of adventure that early determined his choice
+of a profession; for, even when a very little fellow, he was usually
+styled by the servants and by his playmates, "the noble captain."
+
+Accordingly, when only twelve years old, he went to sea as midshipman
+on board Admiral Pye's ship, the _Harfleur_; from whence, in the
+following year, he was removed to the _Romney_, Captain Keith
+Elphinstone, on the Newfoundland station; and on the return of the
+ship to England in 1776, he had the good fortune to be appointed
+midshipman on board the _Discovery_, Captain Charles Clarke, which
+accompanied Captain Cook in the _Resolution_ in his last voyage round
+the world. Nothing could have been more to the mind of our sailor-boy
+than this voyage of adventure and discovery, in company with the
+greatest navigator of the age.
+
+The _Discovery_ sailed from the Downs on the 18th of June, but had no
+sooner entered the Channel than a storm arose which did considerable
+damage to the ship, which was driven into Portland Roads. At Plymouth,
+the _Discovery_ was joined by the _Resolution_; but as the former had
+to go into harbour for repairs, Captain Cook set sail for the Cape
+alone, leaving orders for Captain Clarke to follow him there. The
+_Discovery_ at length put to sea, and after a stormy voyage joined
+Captain Cook in Table Bay on the 11th of August. Before setting sail
+on the longer voyage, Riou had the felicity of being transferred to
+the _Resolution_, under the command of Captain Cook himself.
+
+It is not necessary that we should describe this celebrated voyage,
+with which every boy is familiar--its storms and hurricanes; the
+landings on islands where the white man's face had never been seen
+before; the visits to the simple natives of Huahine and Otaheite, then
+a little Eden; the perilous coasting along the North American seaboard
+to Behring's Straits, in search of the North-Western passage; and
+finally, the wintering of the ships at Owyhee, where Captain Cook met
+his cruel death, of which young Riou was a horror-struck spectator
+from the deck of the _Resolution_, on the morning of the 14th of
+February, 1779.
+
+After about four years' absence on this voyage, so full of adventure
+and peril, Riou returned to England with the _Resolution_, and was
+shortly after appointed lieutenant of the sloop _Scourge_, Captain
+Knatchbull, Commander, which took part, under Lord Rodney, in the
+bombardment and capture of St. Eustatia. Here Riou was so severely
+wounded in the eye by a splinter that he lost his sight for many
+months. In March, 1782, he was removed to the _Mediator_, forty-four
+guns, commanded by Captain Luttrell, and shared in the glory which
+attached to the officers and crew of that ship through its almost
+unparalleled achievement of the 12th of December of that year.
+
+It was at daybreak that the _Mediator_ sighted five sail of the enemy,
+consisting of the _Ménagère_, thirty-six guns _en flûte_; the
+_Eugène_, thirty-six; and the _Dauphin Royal_, twenty-eight (French);
+in company with the _Alexander_, twenty-eight guns, and another brig,
+fourteen (American), formed in line of battle to receive the
+_Mediator_, which singly bore down upon them. The skilful seamanship
+and dashing gallantry of the English disconcerted the combinations of
+the enemy, and after several hours' fighting two of their vessels fell
+out of the line, and went away, badly crippled, to leeward. About an
+hour later the _Alexander_ was cut off, the _Mediator_ wearing between
+her and her consorts, and in ten minutes she struck. A chase then
+ensued after the larger vessels, and late in the evening the
+_Ménagère_, being raked within pistol shot, hailed for quarter. The
+rest of the squadron escaped, and the gallant _Mediator_, having taken
+possession of her two prizes, set sail with them for England, arriving
+in Cawsand Bay on the 17th of December.
+
+In the year following, Captain Luttrell, having been appointed to the
+_Ganges_, took with him Mr. Riou as second lieutenant. He served in
+this ship until the following summer, when he retired for a time on
+half-pay, devoting himself to study and continental travel until
+March, 1786, when we find him serving under Admiral Elliot as second
+lieutenant of the _Salisbury_. It was about this time that he
+submitted to the Admiralty a plan, doubtless suggested by his voyage
+with Captain Cook, "for the discovery and preservation of a passage
+through the continent of North America, and for the increase of
+commerce to this kingdom." The plan was very favourably received, but
+as war seemed imminent, no steps were then taken to carry it into
+effect.
+
+The young officer had, however, by this time recommended himself for
+promotion by his admirable conduct and his good service; and in the
+spring of 1789 he was appointed to the command of the _Guardian_,
+forty-four guns, armed _en flûte_, which was under orders to take out
+stores and convicts to New South Wales. In a chatty, affectionate letter
+written to his widowed mother, from on shipboard at the Cape while on
+the voyage out, he says,--"I have no expectation, after the promotion
+that took place before I left England, of finding myself master and
+commander on my return." After speculating as to what might happen in
+the meantime while he was so far from home, and expressing an anxiety
+which was but natural on the part of an enterprising young officer eager
+for advancement in his profession, he proceeded,--"Politics must take a
+great turn, I think, by the time of my return. War will likely be begun;
+in that case we may bring a prize in with us. But our foresight is
+short--and mine particularly so. I hardly ever look forward to beyond
+three months. 'Tis in vain to be otherwise, for Providence, which
+directs all things, is inscrutable." And he concluded his letter
+thus,--"Now for Port Jackson. I shall sail to-night if the wind is fair.
+God for ever bless you."
+
+But neither Riou nor the ill-fated _Guardian_ ever reached Port
+Jackson! A fortnight after setting sail from the Cape, while the ship
+was driving through a thick fog (in lat. 44·5, long. 41) a severe
+shock suddenly called Riou to the deck, where an appalling spectacle
+presented itself. The ship had struck upon an iceberg. A body of
+floating ice twice as high as the masthead was on the lee beam, and
+the ship appeared to be entering a sort of cavern in its side. In a
+few minutes the rudder was torn away, a severe leak was sprung, and
+all hands worked for bare life at the pumps. The ship became
+comparatively unmanageable, and masses of overhanging ice threatened
+every moment to overwhelm her. At length, by dint of incessant
+efforts, the ship was extricated from the ice, but the leak gained
+fearfully, and stores, cattle, guns, booms, everything that could be
+cut away, was thrown overboard.
+
+It was all in vain. The ship seemed to be sinking; and despair sat on
+every countenance save that of the young commander. He continued to
+hope even against hope. At length, after forty-eight hours of
+incessant pumping, a cry arose for "the boats," as presenting the only
+chance of safety. Riou pleaded with the men to persevere, and they
+went on bravely again at the pumps. But the dawn of another day
+revealed so fearful a position of affairs that the inevitable
+foundering of the ship seemed to be a matter of minutes rather than
+of hours. The boats were hoisted out, discipline being preserved to
+the last. Riou's servant hastened to him to ask what boat he would
+select to go in, that he himself might take a place beside him. His
+answer was that "he would stay by the ship, save her if he could, and
+if needs be sink with her, but that the people were at liberty to
+consult their own safety." He then sat down and wrote the following
+letter to the Admiralty, giving it in charge to Mr. Clements, the
+master, whose boat was the only one that ever reached land:--
+
+                                   "Her Majesty's Ship _Guardian_,
+                                        "_December, 1789._
+
+     "If any part of the officers or crew of the _Guardian_ should
+     ever survive to reach home, I have only to say that their
+     conduct, after the fatal stroke against an island of ice, was
+     admirable and wonderful in everything that relates to their
+     duties, considered either as private men or in his Majesty's
+     service. As there seems no possibility of my remaining many hours
+     in this world, I beg leave to recommend to the consideration of
+     the Admiralty a sister, to whom, if my conduct or services should
+     be found deserving any memory, favour might be shown, together
+     with a widowed mother.
+
+     "I am, sir, with great respect,
+               "Your ever obedient servant,
+                                        "EDWARD RIOU.
+
+     "PHILIP STEPHENS, ESQ.,
+        "Admiralty."
+
+About half the crew remained with Riou, some because they determined
+to stand by their commander, and others because they could not get
+away in the boats, which, to avoid being overcrowded, had put off in
+haste, for the most part insufficiently stored and provided. The sea,
+still high, continued to make breaches over the ship, and many were
+drowned in their attempts to reach the boats. Those who remained were
+exhausted by fatigue; and, without the most distant hope of life, some
+were mad with despair. A party of these last contrived to break open
+the spirit-room, and found a temporary oblivion in intoxication. "It
+is hardly a time to be a disciplinarian," wrote Riou in his log, which
+continues a valued treasury in his family, "when only a few more hours
+of life seem to present themselves; but this behaviour greatly hurts
+me." This log gives a detailed account, day by day, of the eight
+weeks' heroic fortitude and scientific seamanship which preserved the
+_Guardian_ afloat until she got into the track of ships, and was
+finally towed by Dutch whalers into Table Bay, Cape of Good Hope.
+
+The master's boat, in which were also the purser and chaplain, had by
+a miracle been picked up, and those officers, on their return to
+England, reported to the Admiralty "the total loss of the _Guardian_".
+They also at the same time spoke of Riou's noble conduct in terms of
+such enthusiasm as to awaken general admiration, and occasion the
+greatest regret at his loss. Accordingly, when the Admiralty received
+from his own hand the unexpected intelligence of his safety, his
+widowed mother and only sister had the affectionate sympathy of all
+England. Lord Hood himself, before unknown to the family, hastened to
+their house with the news, calling to the servants as he ran up the
+stairs to "throw off their mourning!" The following was Riou's brief
+letter to his mother, which he found time to scrawl and send off by a
+ship just leaving Table Bay for England as the poor helpless
+_Guardian_ was being towed in:--
+
+                                   "Cape of Good Hope,
+                                        "_February, 22, 1790_.
+
+     "DEAREST,--God has been merciful. I hope you have no fatal
+     accounts of the _Guardian_. I am safe; I am well, notwithstanding
+     you may hear otherwise. Join with me in prayer to that blessed
+     Saviour who hath hung over my ship for two months, and kept thy
+     dear son safe, to be, I hope, thankful for almost a miracle. I
+     can say no more because I am hurried, and the ship sails for
+     England this afternoon.
+
+     "Yours ever and ever,
+                                        "EDWARD RIOU."
+
+Riou remained many months at the Cape trying to patch up the
+_Guardian_, and repair it so as to bring it back to port; but all his
+exertions were fruitless, and in October the Admiralty despatched the
+_Sphinx_ ship-of-war to bring him and the survivors of his crew to
+England, where they landed shortly after. There was, of course, the
+usual court-martial held upon him for the loss of his ship, but it was
+merely a matter of form. At its conclusion he was complimented by the
+Court in the warmest terms; and "as a mark of the high consideration
+in which the magnanimity of his conduct was held, in remaining by his
+ship from an exalted sense of duty when all reasonable prospects of
+saving her were at an end," he received the special thanks of the
+Admiralty, was made commander, and at the same time promoted to the
+rank of post captain.
+
+No record exists of the services of Captain Riou from the date of his
+promotion until 1794, when we find him in command of his Majesty's
+ship _Rose_, assisting in the reduction of Martinique. He was then
+transferred to the _Beaulieu_, and remained cruising in the West
+Indian seas till his health became so injured by the climate that he
+found himself compelled to solicit his recall, and he consequently
+returned to England in the _Theseus_ in the following year. Shortly
+after, in recognition of his distinguished services, he was appointed
+to the command of the royal yacht, the _Princess Augusta_, in which he
+remained until the spring of 1790. So soon as his health was
+sufficiently re-established, he earnestly solicited active employment,
+and he was accordingly appointed to the command of the fine frigate,
+the _Amazon_, thirty-eight guns, whose name afterwards figured so
+prominently in Nelson's famous battle before Copenhagen.
+
+After cruising about in her on various stations, and picking up a few
+prizes, the _Amazon_, early in 1801, was attached to Sir Hyde Parker's
+fleet, destined for the Baltic. The last letter which Riou wrote home
+to his mother was dated Sunday, the 29th March, "at the entrance to
+the Sound;" and in it he said:--"It yet remains in doubt whether we
+are to fight the Danes, or whether they will be our friends." Already,
+however, Nelson was arranging his plan of attack, and on the following
+day, the 30th, the Admiral and all the artillery officers were on
+board the _Amazon_, which proceeded to examine the northern channel
+outside Copenhagen Harbour. It was on this occasion that Riou first
+became known to Nelson, who was struck with admiration at the superior
+discipline and seamanship which were observable on board the frigate
+during the proceedings of that day.
+
+Early in the evening of the 1st of April the signal to prepare for
+action was made; and Lord Nelson, with Riou and Foley, on board the
+_Elephant_--all the other officers having returned to their
+respective ships--arranged the order of battle on the following day.
+What remains to be told of Riou is matter of history. The science and
+skill in navigation which made Nelson intrust to him the last
+soundings, and place under his command the fire-ships which were to
+lead the way on the following morning,--the gallantry with which the
+captain of the _Amazon_ throw himself, _impar congressus_, under the
+fearful fire of the Trekroner battery, to redeem the failure
+threatened by the grounding of the ships of the line,--have all been
+told with a skilful pen, and forms a picture of a great sailor's last
+hours, which is cherished with equal pride in the affections of his
+family and the annals of his country.
+
+Sir Hyde Parker's signal to "leave off action," which Nelson, putting
+his telescope to his blind eye, refused to see, was seen, by Riou and
+reluctantly obeyed. Indeed, nothing but that signal for retreat saved
+the _Amazon_ from destruction, though it did not save its heroic
+commander. As he unwillingly drew off from the destructive fire of the
+battery he mournfully exclaimed, "What will Nelson think of us!" His
+clerk had been killed by his side. He himself had been wounded in the
+head by a splinter, but continued to sit on a gun encouraging his men,
+who were falling in numbers around him. "Come then, my boys," he
+cried, "let us all die together." Scarcely had he uttered the words,
+when a raking shot cut him in two. And thus, in an instant, perished
+the "gallant good Riou," at the early age of thirty-nine.
+
+Riou was a man of the truest and tenderest feelings, yet the bravest
+of the brave. His private correspondence revealed the most endearing
+qualities of mind and heart, while the nobility of his actions was
+heightened by lofty Christian sentiment, and a firm reliance on the
+power and mercy of God. His chivalrous devotion to duty in the face of
+difficulty and danger heightened the affectionate admiration with
+which he was regarded, and his death before Copenhagen was mourned
+almost as a national bereavement. The monument erected to his memory
+in St. Paul's Cathedral represented, however inadequately, the widely
+felt sorrow which pervaded all classes at the early death of this
+heroic officer. "Except it had been Nelson himself," says Southey,
+"the British navy could not have suffered a severer loss."
+
+Captain Riou's only sister married Colonel Lyde Browne, who closed his
+honourable career of twenty-three years' active service in Dublin, on
+July 23rd, 1803. Within two years of her bitter mourning for the death
+of her brother, she had also to mourn for the loss of her husband. He
+was colonel of the 21st Fusiliers. He was hastening to the assistance
+of Lord Kilwarden on the fatal night of Emmett's rebellion, when he
+was basely assassinated. He was buried in the churchyard of St.
+Paul's, Dublin, where his brother officers erected a marble tablet to
+his memory. He left an only daughter, who was married, in 1826, to M.
+G. Benson, Esq., of Lulwyche Hall, Salop. It is through this lady that
+we have been permitted to inspect the family papers relating to the
+life and death of Captain Riou.
+
+
+
+
+A VISIT TO THE COUNTRY OF THE VAUDOIS.
+
+[Illustration: "The country of Felix Neff." (Dauphiny.)]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+INTRODUCTORY.
+
+
+Dauphiny is one of the least visited of all the provinces of France.
+It occupies a remote corner of the empire, lying completely out of the
+track of ordinary tourists. No great road passes through it into
+Italy, the Piedmontese frontier of which it adjoins; and the annual
+streams of English and American travellers accordingly enter that
+kingdom by other routes. Even to Frenchmen, who travel little in their
+own country and still less in others, Dauphiny is very little known;
+and M. Joanne, who has written an excellent Itinerary of the South of
+France, almost takes the credit of having discovered it.
+
+Yet Dauphiny is a province full of interest. Its scenery almost vies
+with that of Switzerland in grandeur, beauty, and wildness. The great
+mountain masses of the Alps do not end in Savoy, but extend through
+the south-eastern parts of France, almost to the mouths of the Rhône.
+Packed closer together than in most parts of Switzerland, the
+mountains of Dauphiny are furrowed by deep valleys, each with its
+rapid stream or torrent at bottom, in some places overhung by
+precipitous rocks, in others hemmed in by green hills, over which are
+seen the distant snowy peaks and glaciers of the loftier mountain
+ranges. Of these, Mont Pelvoux--whose double pyramid can be seen from
+Lyons on a clear day, a hundred miles off--and the Aiguille du Midi,
+are among the larger masses, rising to a height little short of Mont
+Blanc itself.
+
+From the ramparts of Grenoble the panoramic view is of wonderful
+beauty and grandeur, extending along the valleys of the Isère and the
+Drac, and across that of the Romanche. The massive heads of the Grand
+Chartreuse mountains bound the prospect to the north; and the summits
+of the snow-clad Dauphiny Alps on the south and east present a
+combination of bold valley and mountain scenery, the like of which is
+not to be seen in France, if in Europe.
+
+But it is not the scenery, or the geology, or the flora of the
+province, however marvellous these may be, that constitutes the chief
+interest for the traveller through these Dauphiny valleys, so much as
+the human endurance, suffering, and faithfulness of the people who
+have lived in them in past times, and of which so many interesting
+remnants still survive. For Dauphiny forms a principal part of the
+country of the ancient Vaudois or Waldenses--literally, the people
+inhabiting the _Vaux_, or valleys--who for nearly seven hundred years
+bore the heavy brunt of Papal persecution, and are now, after all
+their sufferings, free to worship God according to the dictates of
+their conscience.
+
+The country of the Vaudois is not confined, as is generally supposed,
+to the valleys of Piedmont, but extends over the greater part of
+Dauphiny and Provence. From the main ridge of the Cottian Alps, which,
+divide France from Italy, great mountain spurs are thrown out, which
+run westward as well as eastward, and enclose narrow strips of
+pasturage, cultivable land, and green shelves on the mountain sides,
+where a poor, virtuous, and hard-working race have long contrived to
+earn a scanty subsistence, amidst trials and difficulties of no
+ordinary kind,--the greatest of which, strange to say, have arisen
+from the pure and simple character of the religion they professed.
+
+The tradition which exists among them is, that the early Christian
+missionaries, when travelling from Italy into Gaul by the Roman road
+passing over Mont Genèvre, taught the Gospel in its primitive form to
+the people of the adjoining districts. It is even surmised that St.
+Paul journeyed from Rome into Spain by that route, and may himself
+have imparted to the people of the valleys their first Christian
+instruction. The Italian and Gallic provinces in that quarter were
+certainly Christianized in the second century at the latest, and it is
+known that the early missionaries were in the habit of making frequent
+journeys from the provinces to Rome. Wherefore it is reasonable to
+suppose that the people of the valleys would receive occasional visits
+from the wayfaring teachers who travelled by the mountain passes in
+the immediate neighbourhood of their dwellings.
+
+As years rolled on, and the Church at Rome became rich and allied
+itself with the secular power, it gradually departed more and more
+from its primitive condition,[92] until at length it was scarcely to
+be recognised from the Paganism which it had superseded. The heathen
+gods were replaced by canonised mortals; Venus and Cupid by the Virgin
+and Child; Lares and Penates by images and crucifixes; while incense,
+flowers, tapers, and showy dresses came to be regarded as essential
+parts of the ceremonial of the new religion as they had been of the
+old. Madonnas winked and bled again, as the statues of Juno and Pompey
+had done before; and stones and relics worked miracles as in the time
+of the Augurs.
+
+         [Footnote 92: The ancient Vaudois had a saying, known in
+         other countries--"Religion brought forth wealth, and the
+         daughter devoured the mother;" and another of like meaning,
+         but less known--"When the bishops' croziers became golden,
+         the bishops themselves became Wooden."]
+
+Attempts were made by some of the early bishops to stem this tide of
+innovation. Thus, in the fourth, century, Ambrose, Bishop of Milan,
+and Philastrius, Bishop of Brescia, acknowledging no authority on
+earth as superior to that of the Bible, protested against the
+introduction of images in churches, which they held to be a return to
+Paganism. Four centuries later, Claude, Bishop of Turin, advanced like
+views, and opposed with energy the worship of images, which he
+regarded as absolute idolatry. In the meanwhile, the simple Vaudois,
+shut up in their almost inaccessible valleys, and knowing nothing of
+these innovations, continued to adhere to their original primitive
+form of worship; and it clearly appears, from a passage in the
+writings of St. Ambrose, that, in his time, the superstitions which
+prevailed elsewhere had not at all extended into the mountainous
+regions of his diocese.
+
+The Vaudois Church was never, in the ordinary sense of the word, a
+"Reformed" Church, simply because it had not become corrupted, and did
+not stand in need of "reformation." It was not the Vaudois who left
+the Church, but the Roman Church that left them in search of idols.
+Adhering to their primitive faith, they never recognised the paramount
+authority of the Pope; they never worshipped images, nor used incense,
+nor observed Mass; and when, in the course of time, these corruptions
+became known to them, and they found that the Western Church had
+ceased to be Catholic, and become merely Roman; they openly separated
+from it, as being no longer in conformity with the principles of the
+Gospel as inculcated in the Bible and delivered to them by their
+fathers. Their ancient manuscripts, still extant, attest to the purity
+of their doctrines. They are written, like the Nobla Leyçon, in the
+Romance or Provençal--the earliest of the modern classical languages,
+the language of the troubadours--though now only spoken as a _patois_
+in Dauphiny, Piedmont, Sardinia, the north of Spain, and the Balearic
+Isles.[93]
+
+         [Footnote 93: Sismondi, "Littérature du Midi de l'Europe," i.
+         159.]
+
+If the age counts for anything, the Vaudois are justified in their
+claim to be considered one of the oldest churches in Europe. Long
+before the conquest of England by the Normans, before the time of
+Wallace and Bruce in Scotland, before England had planted its foot in
+Ireland, the Vaudois Church existed. Their remoteness, their poverty,
+and their comparative unimportance as a people, for a long time
+protected them from interference; and for centuries they remained
+unnoticed by Rome. But as the Western Church extended its power, it
+became insatiable for uniformity. It would not tolerate the
+independence which characterized the early churches, but aimed at
+subjecting them to the exclusive authority of Rome.
+
+The Vaudois, however, persisted in repudiating the doctrines and
+formularies of the Pope. When argument failed, the Church called the
+secular arm to its aid, and then began a series of persecutions,
+extending over several centuries, which, for brutality and ferocity,
+are probably unexampled in history. To crush this unoffending but
+faithful people, Rome employed her most irrefragable arguments--the
+curses of Lucius and the horrible cruelties of Innocent--and the
+"Vicar of Christ" bathed the banner of the Cross in a carnage from
+which the wolves of Romulus and the eagles of Cæsar would have turned
+with loathing.
+
+Long before the period of the Reformation, the Vaudois valleys were
+ravaged by fire and sword because of the alleged heresy of the people.
+Luther was not born until 1483; whereas nearly four centuries before,
+the Vaudois were stigmatized as heretics by Rome. As early as 1096, we
+find Pope Urban II. describing Val Louise, one of the Dauphiny
+valleys--then called Vallis Gyrontana, from the torrent of Gyr, which
+flows through it--as "infested with heresy." In 1179, hot persecution
+raged all over Dauphiny, extending to the Albigeois of the South of
+France, as far as Lyons and Toulouse; one of the first martyrs being
+Pierre Waldo, or Waldensis,[94] of Lyons, who was executed for heresy
+by the Archbishop of Lyons in 1180.
+
+         [Footnote 94: It has been surmised by some writers that the
+         Waldenses derived their name from this martyr; but being
+         known as "heretics" long before his time, it is more probable
+         that they gave the name to him than that he did to them.]
+
+Of one of the early persecutions, an ancient writer says: "In the year
+1243, Pope Innocent II. ordered the Bishop of Metz rigorously to
+prosecute the Vaudois, especially because they read the sacred books
+in the vulgar tongue."[95] From time to time, new persecutions were
+ordered, and conducted with ever-increasing ferocity--the scourge, the
+brand, and the sword being employed by turns. In 1486, while Luther
+was still in his cradle, Pope Innocent VIII. issued a bull of
+extermination against the Vaudois, summoning all true Catholics to the
+holy crusade, promising free pardon to all manner of criminals who
+should take part in it, and concluding with the promise of the
+remission of sins to every one who should slay a heretic.[96] The
+consequence was, the assemblage of an immense horde of brigands, who
+were let loose on the valleys of Dauphiny and Piedmont, which they
+ravaged and pillaged, in company with eighteen thousand regular
+troops, jointly furnished by the French king and the Duke of Savoy.
+
+         [Footnote 95: Jean Leger, "Histoire Générale des Églises
+         Évangéliques des Vallées de Piedmont, ou Vaudoises." Leyde,
+         1669. Part ii. 330.]
+
+         [Footnote 96: Leger, ii. 8-20.]
+
+Sometimes the valleys were under the authority of the kings of France,
+sometimes under that of the dukes of Savoy, whose armies alternately
+overran them; but change of masters and change of popes made little
+difference to the Vaudois. It sometimes, however, happened, that the
+persecution waxed hotter on one side of the Cottian Alps, while it
+temporarily relaxed on the other; and on such occasions the French and
+Italian Vaudois were accustomed to cross the mountain passes, and take
+refuge in each others' valleys. But when, as in the above case, the
+kings, soldiers, and brigands, on both sides, simultaneously plied the
+brand and the sword, the times were very troublous indeed for these
+poor hunted people. They had then no alternative but to climb up the
+mountains into the least accessible places, or hide themselves away
+in dens and caverns with their families, until their enemies had
+departed. But they were often, tracked to their hiding-places by their
+persecutors, and suffocated, strangled, or shot--men, women, and
+children. Hence there is scarcely a hiding-place along the
+mountain-sides of Dauphiny but has some tradition connected with it
+relating to those dreadful times. In one, so many women and children
+were suffocated; in another, so many perished of cold and hunger; in a
+third, so many were ruthlessly put to the sword. If these caves of
+Dauphiny had voices, what deeds of horror they could tell!
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+What is known as the Easter massacre of 1655 made an unusual sensation
+in Europe, but especially in England, principally through the attitude
+which Oliver Cromwell assumed in the matter. Persecution had followed
+persecution for nearly four hundred years, and still the Vaudois were
+neither converted nor extirpated. The dukes of Savoy during all that
+time pursued a uniform course of treachery and cruelty towards this
+portion of their subjects. Sometimes the Vaudois, pressed by their
+persecutors, turned upon them, and drove them ignominiously out of
+their valleys. Then the reigning dukes would refrain for a time; and,
+probably needing their help in one or other of the wars in which they
+were constantly engaged, would promise them protection and privileges.
+But such promises were invariably broken; and at some moment when the
+Vaudois were thrown off their guard by his pretended graciousness, the
+duke for the time being would suddenly pounce upon them and carry fire
+and sword through their valleys.
+
+Indeed, the dukes of Savoy seem to have been about the most
+wrong-headed line of despots that ever cursed a people by their rule.
+Their mania was soldiering, though they were oftener beaten than
+victorious. They were thrashed out of Dauphiny by France, thrashed out
+of Geneva by the citizens, thrashed out of the valleys by their own
+peasantry; and still they went on raising armies, making war, and
+massacring their Vaudois subjects. Being devoted servants of the Pope,
+in 1655 they concurred with him in the establishment of a branch of
+the society _De Propaganda Fide_ at Turin, which extended over the
+whole of Piedmont, for the avowed purpose of extirpating the heretics.
+On Palm Sunday, the beginning of Holy Week, the society commenced
+active proceedings. The army of Savoy advanced suddenly upon La Tour,
+and were let loose upon the people. A general massacre began,
+accompanied with shocking brutalities, and continued for more than a
+week. In many hamlets not a cottage was left standing, and such of the
+people as had not been able to fly into the upper valleys were
+indiscriminately put to the sword. And thus was Easter celebrated.
+
+The noise of this dreadful deed rang through Europe, and excited a
+general feeling of horror, especially in England. Cromwell, then at
+the height of his power, offered the fugitive Vaudois an asylum in
+Ireland; but the distance which lay between was too great, and the
+Vaudois asked him to help them in some other way. Forthwith, he
+addressed letters, written by his secretary, John Milton,[97] to the
+principal European powers, calling upon them to join him in putting a
+stop to these horrid barbarities committed upon an unoffending
+people. Cromwell did more. He sent the exiles £2,000 out of his own
+purse; appointed a day of humiliation and a general collection all
+over England, by which some £38,000 were raised; and dispatched Sir
+Samuel Morland as his plenipotentiary to expostulate in person with
+the Duke of Savoy. Moreover, a treaty was on the eve of being signed
+with France; and Cromwell refused to complete it until Cardinal
+Mazarin had undertaken to assist him in getting right done to the
+people of the valleys.
+
+         [Footnote 97: It was at this time that Milton wrote his noble
+         sonnet, beginning--
+
+           "Avenge, O Lord, Thy slaughter'd saints, whose bones
+            Lie scattered on the Alpine mountains cold," &c.]
+
+These energetic measures had their effect. The Vaudois who survived
+the massacre were permitted to return to their devastated homes, under
+the terms of the treaty known as the "Patents of Grace," which was
+only observed, however, so long as Cromwell lived. At the Restoration,
+Charles II. seized the public fund collected for the relief of the
+Vaudois, and refused to remit the annuity arising from the interest
+thereon which Cromwell had assigned to them, declaring that he would
+not pay the debts of a usurper!
+
+After that time, the interest felt in the Vaudois was very much of a
+traditional character. Little was known as to their actual condition,
+or whether the descendants of the primitive Vaudois Church continued
+to exist or not. Though English travellers--amongst others, Addison,
+Smollett, and Sterne--passed through the country in the course of last
+century, they took no note of the people of the valleys. And this
+state of general ignorance as to the district continued down to within
+about the last fifty years, when quite a new interest was imparted to
+the subject through the labours and researches of the late Dr. Gilly,
+Prebendary of Durham.
+
+It happened that that gentleman was present at a meeting of the
+Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, in the year 1820, when a
+very touching letter was read to the board, signed "Frederick Peyrani,
+minister of Pramol," requesting the assistance of the society in
+supplying books to the Vaudois churches of Piedmont, who were
+described as maintaining a very hard struggle with poverty and
+oppression. Dr. Gilly was greatly interested by the reading of this
+letter. Indeed, the subject of it so strongly arrested his attention,
+that he says it "took complete possession of him." He proceeded to
+make search for information about the Vaudois, but could find very
+little that was definite or satisfactory respecting them. Then it was
+that he formed the determination of visiting the valleys and
+ascertaining the actual condition of the people in person.
+
+His visit was made in 1823, and in the course of the following year
+Dr. Gilly published the result in his "Narrative of an Excursion to
+the Mountains of Piedmont." The book excited much interest, not only
+in England, but in other countries; and a movement was shortly after
+set on foot for the relief and assistance of the Vaudois. A committee
+was formed, and a fund was raised--to which the Emperor of Russia and
+the Kings of Prussia and Holland contributed--with the object, in the
+first place, of erecting a hospital for the sick and infirm Vaudois at
+La Tour, in the valley of Luzern. It turned out that the money raised
+was not only sufficient for this purpose, but also to provide schools
+and a college for the education of pastors, which were shortly after
+erected at the same place.
+
+In 1829, Dr. Gilly made a second visit to the Piedmontese valleys,
+partly in order to ascertain how far the aid thus rendered to the poor
+Vaudois had proved effectual, and also to judge in what way certain
+further sums placed at his disposal might best be employed for their
+benefit.[98] It was in the course of his second visit that Dr. Gilly
+became aware of the fact that the Vaudois were not confined to the
+valleys of Piedmont, but that numerous traces of them were also to be
+found on the French side of the Alps, in Dauphiny and Provence. He
+accordingly extended his journey across the Col de la Croix into
+France, and cursorily visited the old Vaudois district of Val
+Fressinières and Val Queyras, of which an account will be given in the
+following chapters. It was while on this journey that Dr. Gilly became
+acquainted with the self-denying labours of the good Felix Neff among
+those poor outlying Christians, with whose life and character he was
+so fascinated that he afterwards wrote and published the memoir of
+Neff, so well known to English readers.
+
+         [Footnote 98: Dr. Gilly's narrative of his second visit to
+         the valleys was published in 1831, under the title of
+         "Waldensian Researches."]
+
+Since that time occasional efforts have been made in aid of the French
+Vaudois, though those on the Italian side have heretofore commanded by
+far the larger share of interest. There have been several reasons for
+this. In the first place, the French valleys are much less accessible;
+the roads through some of the most interesting valleys are so bad that
+they can only be travelled on foot, being scarcely practicable even
+for mules. There is no good hotel accommodation in the district, only
+_auberges_, and these of an indifferent character. The people are also
+more scattered, and even poorer than they are on the Italian side of
+the Alps. Then the climate is much more severe, from the greater
+elevation of the sites of most of the Vaudois villages; so that when
+pastors were induced to settle there, the cold, and sterility, and
+want of domestic accommodation, soon drove them away. It was to the
+rigour of the climate that Felix Neff was eventually compelled to
+succumb.
+
+Yet much has been done of late years for the amelioration of the
+French Vaudois; and among the most zealous workers in their behalf
+have been the Rev. Mr. Freemantle, rector of Claydon, Bucks, and Mr.
+Edward Milsom, the well-known merchant of Lyons. It was in the year
+1851 that the Rev. Mr. Freemantle first visited the Vaudois of
+Dauphiny. His attention was drawn to the subject while editing the
+memoir of a young English clergyman, the Rev. Spencer Thornton, who
+had taken Felix Neff for his model; and he was thereby induced to
+visit the scene of Neff's labours, and to institute a movement on
+behalf of the people of the French valleys, which has issued in the
+erection of schools, churches, and pastors' dwellings in several of
+the most destitute places.
+
+It is curious and interesting to trace the influence of personal
+example on human life and action. As the example of Oberlin in the Ban
+de la Roche inspired Felix Neff to action, so the life of Felix Neff
+inspired that of Spencer Thornton, and eventually led Mr. Freemantle
+to enter upon the work of extending evangelization among the Vaudois.
+In like manner, a young French pastor, M. Bost, also influenced by the
+life and labours of Neff, visited the valleys some years since, and
+wrote a book on the subject, the perusal of which induced Mr. Milsom
+to lend a hand to the work which the young Genevese missionary had
+begun. And thus good example goes on ever propagating itself; and
+though the tombstone may record "Hic jacet" over the crumbling dust of
+the departed, his spirit still lives and works through other
+minds--stimulates them to action, and inspires them with
+hope--"allures to brighter worlds, and leads the way."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+A few words as to the origin of these fragmentary papers. In chalking
+out a summer holiday trip, one likes to get quite away from the
+ordinary round of daily life and business. Half the benefits of such a
+trip consists in getting out of the old ruts, and breathing fresh air
+amidst new surroundings. But this is very difficult if you follow the
+ordinary tourist's track. London goes with you and elbows you on your
+way, accompanied by swarms of commissionaires, guides, and beggars.
+You encounter London people on the Righi, on the Wengern Alp, and
+especially at Chamouni. Think of being asked, as I once was on
+entering the Pavilion at Montanvert, after crossing the Mer de Glace
+from the Mauvais Pas, "Pray, can you tell me what was the price of
+Brighton stock when you left town?"
+
+There is no risk of such rencontres in Dauphiny, whose valleys remain
+in almost as primitive a state as they were hundreds of years ago.
+Accordingly, when my friend Mr. Milsom, above mentioned, invited me to
+accompany him in one of his periodical visits to the country of the
+Vaudois, I embraced the opportunity with pleasure. I was cautioned
+beforehand as to the inferior accommodation provided for travellers
+through the district. Tourists being unknown there, the route is not
+padded and cushioned as it is on all the beaten continental rounds.
+English is not spoken; Bass's pale ale has not yet penetrated into
+Dauphiny; nor do you encounter London tourists carrying their tin
+baths about with them as you do in Switzerland. Only an occasional
+negotiant comes up from Gap or Grenoble, seeking orders in the
+villages, for whom the ordinary auberges suffice.
+
+Where the roads are practicable, an old-fashioned diligence may
+occasionally be seen plodding along, freighted with villagers bound
+for some local market; but the roads are, for the most part, as silent
+as the desert.
+
+Such being the case, the traveller in the valleys must be prepared to
+"rough it" a little. I was directed to bring with me only a light
+knapsack, a pair of stout hob-nailed shoes, a large stock of patience,
+and a small parcel of insect powder. The knapsack and the shoes I
+found exceedingly useful, indeed indispensable; but I had very little
+occasion to draw upon either my stock of patience or insect powder.
+The French are a tidy people, and though their beds, stuffed with
+maize chaff, may be hard, they are tolerably clean. The food provided
+in the auberges is doubtless very different from what one is
+accustomed to at home; but with the help of cheerfulness and a good
+digestion that difficulty too may be got over.
+
+Indeed, among the things that most strikes a traveller through France,
+as characteristic of the people, is the skill with which persons of
+even the poorest classes prepare and serve up food. The French women
+are careful economists and excellent cooks. Nothing is wasted. The
+_pot au feu_ is always kept simmering on the hob, and, with the help
+of a hunch of bread, a good meal may at any time be made from it. Even
+in the humblest auberge, in the least frequented district, the dinner
+served up is of a quality such as can very rarely be had in any
+English public-house, or even in most of our country inns. Cooking
+seems to be one of the lost arts of England, if indeed it ever
+possessed it; and our people are in the habit, through want of
+knowledge, of probably _wasting_ more food than would sustain many
+another nation. But in the great system of National Education that is
+to be, no one dreams of including as a branch of it skill in the
+preparation and economy in the use of human food.
+
+There is another thing that the traveller through France may always
+depend upon, and that is civility. The politeness of even the French
+poor to each other is charming. They respect themselves, and they
+respect each other. I have seen in France what I have not yet seen in
+England--young working men walking out their aged mothers arm in arm
+in the evening, to hear the band play in the "Place," or to take a
+turn on the public promenade. But the French are equally polite to
+strangers. A stranger lady may travel all through the rural districts
+of France, and never encounter a rude look; a stranger gentleman, and
+never receive a rude word. That the French are a self-respecting
+people is also evinced by the fact that they are a sober people.
+Drunkenness is scarcely known in France; and one may travel all
+through it and never witness the degrading sight of a drunken man.
+
+The French are also honest and thrifty, and exceedingly hard-working.
+The industry of the people is unceasing. Indeed it is excessive; for
+they work Sunday and Saturday. Sunday has long ceased to be a Sabbath
+in France. There is no day of rest there. Before the Revolution, the
+saints' days which the Church ordered to be observed so encroached
+upon the hours required for labour, that in course of time Sunday
+became an ordinary working day. And when the Revolution abolished
+saints' days and Sabbath days alike, Sunday work became an established
+practice.
+
+What the so-called friends of the working classes are aiming at in
+England, has already been effected in France. The public museums and
+picture-galleries are open on Sunday. But you look for the working
+people there in vain. They are at work in the factories, whose
+chimneys are smoking as usual; or building houses, or working in the
+fields, or they are engaged in the various departments of labour. The
+government works all go on as usual on Sundays. The railway trains run
+precisely as on week days. In short, the Sunday is secularised, or
+regarded but as a partial holiday.[99]
+
+         [Footnote 99: I find the following under the signature of "An
+         Operative Bricklayer," in the _Times_ of the 30th July, 1867:
+         "I found there were a great number of men in Paris that
+         worked on the buildings who were not residents of the city.
+         The bricklayers are called _limousins_; they come from the
+         old province Le Limousin, where they keep their home, and
+         many of them are landowners. They work in Paris in the summer
+         time; they come up in large numbers, hire a place in Paris,
+         and live together, and by so doing they live cheap. In the
+         winter time, when they cannot work on the buildings, they go
+         back home again and take their savings, and stop there until
+         the spring, which is far better than it is in London; when
+         the men cannot work they are hanging about the streets. It
+         was with regret that I saw so many working on the Sunday
+         desecrating the Sabbath. I inquired why they worked on
+         Sunday; they told me it was to make up the time they lose
+         through wet and other causes. I saw some working with only
+         their trousers and shoes on, with a belt round their waist to
+         keep their trousers up. Their naked back was exposed to the
+         sun, and was as brown as if it had been dyed, and shone as if
+         it had been varnished. I asked if they had any hard-working
+         hearty old men. They answered me "No; the men were completely
+         worn out by the time they reached forty years." That was a
+         clear proof that they work against the laws of nature. I
+         thought to myself--Glory be to you, O Englishmen, you know
+         the Fourth Commandment; you know the value of the seventh
+         day, the day of rest!"]
+
+As you pass through the country on Sundays, as on week-days, you see
+the people toiling in the fields. And as dusk draws on, the dark
+figures may be seen moving about so long as there is light to see by.
+It is the peasants working the land, and it is _their own_. Such is
+the "magical influence of property," said Arthur Young, when he
+observed the same thing.
+
+It is to be feared, however, that the French peasantry are afflicted
+with the disease which Sir Walter Scott called the "earth-hunger;" and
+there is danger of the gravel getting into their souls. Anyhow, their
+continuous devotion to bodily labour, without a seventh day's rest,
+cannot fail to exercise a deteriorating effect upon their physical as
+well as their moral condition; and this we believe it is which gives
+to the men, and especially to the women of the country, the look of a
+prematurely old and overworked race.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+THE VALLEY OF THE ROMANCHE--BRIANÇON.
+
+
+The route from Grenoble to the frontier fortress of Briançon lies for
+the most part up the valley of the Romanche, which presents a variety
+of wild and beautiful scenery. In summer the river is confined within
+comparatively narrow limits; but in autumn and spring it is often a
+furious torrent, flooding the low-lying lands, and forcing for itself
+new channels. The mountain heights which bound it, being composed for
+the most part of schist, mica slate, and talcose slate, large masses
+become detached in winter--split off by the freezing of the water
+behind them--when they descend, on the coming of thaw, in terrible
+avalanches of stone and mud. Sometimes the masses are such as to dam
+up the river and form temporary lakes, until the accumulation of force
+behind bursts the barrier, and a furious flood rushes down the valley.
+By one of such floods, which occurred a few centuries since, through
+the bursting of the hike of St. Laurent in the valley of the Romanche,
+a large part of Grenoble was swept away, and many of the inhabitants
+were drowned.
+
+The valley of the Romanche is no sooner entered, a few miles above
+Grenoble, than the mountains begin to close, the scenery becomes
+wilder, and the fury of the torrent is evinced by the masses of débris
+strewed along its bed. Shortly after passing the picturesque defile
+called L'Étroit, where the river rushes through a deep cleft in the
+rocks, the valley opens out again, and we shortly come in sight of the
+ancient town of Vizille--the most prominent building in which is the
+château of the famous Duc de Lesdiguières, governor of the province in
+the reign of Henry IV., and Constable of France in that of Louis XIII.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Wherever you go in Dauphiny, you come upon the footmarks of this great
+soldier. At Grenoble there is the Constable's palace, now the
+Prefecture; and the beautiful grounds adjoining it, laid out by
+himself, are now the public gardens of the town. Between Grenoble and
+Vizille there is the old road constructed by him, still known as "Le
+chemin du Connétable." At St. Bonnet, in the valley of the Drac,
+formerly an almost exclusively Protestant town, known as "the Geneva
+of the High Alps," you are shown the house in which the Constable was
+born; and a little lower down the same valley, in the commune of
+Glaizil, on a hill overlooking the Drac, stand the ruins of the family
+castle; where the Constable was buried. The people of the commune were
+in the practice of carrying away the bones from the family vault,
+believing them to possess some virtue as relics, until the prefect of
+the High Alps ordered it to be walled up to prevent the entire removal
+of the skeletons.
+
+In the early part of his career, Lesdiguières was one of the most
+trusted chiefs of Henry of Navarre, often leading his Huguenot
+soldiers to victory; capturing town after town, and eventually
+securing possession of the entire province of Dauphiny, of which
+Henry appointed him governor. In that capacity he carried out many
+important public works--made roads, built bridges, erected fourteen
+fortresses, and enlarged and beautified his palace at Grenoble and his
+château at Vizille. He enjoyed great popularity during his life, and
+was known throughout his province as "King of the Mountains." But he
+did not continue staunch either to his party or his faith. As in the
+case of many of the aristocratic leaders of those times, Lesdiguières'
+religion was only skin deep. It was but a party emblem--a flag to
+fight under, not a faith to live by. So, when ambition tempted him,
+and the Constable's baton dangled before his eyes, it cost the old
+soldier but little compunction to abandon the cause which he had so
+brilliantly served in his youth. To secure the prize which he so
+coveted, he made public abjuration of his faith in the church, of St.
+Andrew's at Grenoble in 1622, in the presence of the Marquis de
+Crequi, the minister of Louis XIII., who, immediately after
+Lesdiguières' first mass, presented him with the Constable's baton.
+
+But the Lesdiguières family has long since passed away, and left no
+traces. At the Revolution, the Constable's tomb was burst open, and
+his coffin torn up. His monument was afterwards removed to Gap, which,
+when a Huguenot, he had stormed and ravaged. His château at Vizille
+passed through different hands, until in 1775 it came into the
+possession of the Périer family, to which the celebrated Casimir
+Périer belonged. The great Gothic hall of the château has witnessed
+many strange scenes. In 1623, shortly after his investment as
+Constable, Lesdiguières entertained Louis XIII. and his court there,
+while on his journey into Italy, in the course of which he so
+grievously ravaged the Vaudois villages. In 1788, the Estates of
+Dauphiny met there, and prepared the first bold remonstrance against
+aristocratic privileges, and in favour of popular representation,
+which, in a measure, proved the commencement of the great Revolution.
+And there too, in 1822, Felix Neff preached to large congregations,
+who were so anxious and attentive that he always after spoke of the
+place as his "dear Vizille;" and now, to wind up the vicissitudes of
+the great hall, it is used as a place for the printing of Bandana
+handkerchiefs!
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+When Neff made his flying visits to Vizille, he was temporarily
+stationed at Mens, which was the scene of his first labours in
+Dauphiny. The place lies not far from Vizille, away among the
+mountains towards the south. During the wars of religion, and more
+especially after the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes, Mens became a
+place of refuge for the Protestants, who still form about one-half of
+its population. Although, during the long dark period of religious
+persecution which followed the Revocation, the Protestants of Mens and
+the neighbouring villages did not dare to show themselves, and
+worshipped, if at all, only in their dwellings, in secret, or in "the
+Desert," no sooner did the Revolution set them at liberty than they
+formed themselves again into churches, and appointed pastors; and it
+was to serve them temporarily in that capacity that Felix Neff first
+went amongst them, and laboured there and at Vizille with such good
+effect.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Not far from Mens is a place which has made much more noise in the
+world--no other than La Salette, the scene of the latest Roman
+"miracle." La Salette is one of the side-valleys of the large valley
+of the Drac, which joins the Romanche a few miles above Grenoble.
+There is no village of La Salette, but a commune, which is somewhat
+appropriately called La Salette-Fallavaux, the latter word being from
+_fallax vallis_, or "the lying valley."
+
+About twenty-seven years ago, on the 19th of September, 1846, two
+children belonging to the hamlet of Abladens--the one a girl of
+fourteen, the other a boy of twelve years old--came down from the
+lofty pasturage of Mont Gargas, where they had been herding cattle,
+and told the following strange story. They had seen the Virgin Mary
+descend from heaven with a crucifix suspended from her neck by a gold
+chain, and a hammer and pincers suspended from the chain, but without
+any visible support. The figure sat down upon a large stone, and wept
+so piteously as shortly to fill a large pool with her tears.
+
+When the story was noised abroad, people came from all quarters, and
+went up the mountain to see where the Virgin had sat. The stone was
+soon broken off in chips and carried away as relics, but the fountain
+filled with the tears is still there, tasting very much, like ordinary
+spring water.
+
+Two priests of Grenoble, disgusted at what they believed to be an
+imposition, accused a young person of the neighbourhood, one Mdlle. de
+Lamerlière, as being the real author of the pretended miracle, on
+which she commenced an action against them for defamation of
+character. She brought the celebrated advocate Jules Favre from Paris
+to plead her cause, but the verdict was given in favour of the two
+priests. The "miracle" was an imposture!
+
+Notwithstanding this circumstance, the miracle came to be generally
+believed in the neighbourhood. The number of persons who resorted to
+the place with money in their pockets steadily increased. The question
+was then taken up by the local priests, who vouched for the
+authenticity of the miracle seen by the two children. The miracle was
+next accepted by Rome.[100] A church was built on the spot by means of
+the contributions of the visitors--L'Église de la Salette--and thither
+pilgrims annually resort in great numbers, the more devout climbing
+the hill, from station to station, on their knees. As many as four
+thousand persons of both sexes, and of various ages, have been known
+to climb the hill in one day--on the anniversary of the appearance of
+the apparition--notwithstanding the extreme steepness and difficulties
+of the ascent.
+
+         [Footnote 100: An authorised account was prepared by Cardinal
+         Wiseman for English readers, entitled "Manual of the
+         Association of our Lady of Reconciliation of La Salette," and
+         published as a tract by Burns, 17, Portman Street, in 1853.
+         Since I passed through the country in 1869, the Germans have
+         invaded France, the surrender has occurred at Sedan, the
+         Commune has been defeated at Paris, but Our Lady of La
+         Salette is greater than ever. A temple of enormous dimensions
+         has risen in her honour; the pilgrims number over 100,000
+         yearly, and the sale of the water from the Holy Well, said to
+         have sprung from the Virgin's tears, realises more than
+         £12,000. Since the success of La Salette, the Virgin has been
+         making repeated appearances in France. Her last appearance
+         was in a part of Alsace which is strictly Catholic. The
+         Virgin appeared, as usual, to a boy of the mature age of six,
+         "dressed in black, floating in the air, her hands bound with
+         chains,"--a pretty strong religio-political hint. When a
+         party of the 5th Bavarian Cavalry was posted in Bettweiler,
+         the Virgin ceased to make her appearance.]
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+As a pendant to this story, another may be given of an entirely
+different character, relating to the inhabitants of another commune in
+the same valley, about midway between La Salette and Grenoble. In
+1860, while the discussion about the miracle at La Salette was still
+in progress, the inhabitants of Notre-Dame-de-Comiers, dissatisfied
+with the conduct of their curé, invited M. Fermaud, pastor of the
+Protestant church at Grenoble, to come over and preach to them, as
+they were desirous of embracing Protestantism. The pastor, supposing
+that they were influenced by merely temporary irritation against their
+curé, cautioned the deputation that waited upon him as to the gravity
+of their decision in such a matter, and asked them to reflect further
+upon it.
+
+For several years M. Fermaud continued to maintain the same attitude,
+until, in 1865, a formal petition was delivered to him by the mayor of
+the place, signed by forty-three heads of families, and by nine out of
+the ten members of the council of the commune, urging him to send them
+over a minister of the evangelical religion. Even then he hesitated,
+and recommended the memorialists to appeal to the bishop of the
+diocese for redress of the wrongs of which he knew they complained,
+but in vain, until at length, in the beginning of 1868, with the
+sanction of the consistory of Grenoble a minister was sent over to
+Comiers to perform the first acts of Protestant worship, including
+baptism and marriage; and it was not until October in the same year
+that Pastor Fermaud himself went thither to administer the sacrament
+to the new church.
+
+The service was conducted in the public hall of the commune, and was
+attended by a large number of persons belonging to the town and
+neighbourhood. The local clergy tried in vain to check the movement.
+Quite recently, when the curé entered one of the schools to inscribe
+the names of the children who were to attend their first mass, out of
+fifteen of the proper age eleven answered to the interrogatory of the
+priest, "Monsieur, nous sommes Protestantes." The movement has also
+extended into the neighbouring communes, helped by the zeal of the new
+converts, one of whom is known in the neighbourhood as "Père la
+Bible," and it is possible that before long it may even extend to La
+Salette itself.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The route from Vizille up the valley of the Romanche continues hemmed
+in by rugged mountains, in some places almost overhanging the river.
+At Séchilienne it opens out sufficiently to afford space for a
+terraced garden, amidst which stands a handsome château, flanked by
+two massive towers, commanding a beautiful prospect down the valley.
+The abundant water which rushes down from the mountain behind is
+partly collected in a reservoir, and employed to feed a _jet d'eau_
+which rises in a lofty column under the castle windows. Further up,
+the valley again contracts, until the Gorge de Loiret is passed. The
+road then crosses to the left bank, and used to be continued along it,
+but the terrible torrent of 1868 washed it away for miles, and it has
+not yet been reconstructed. Temporary bridges enable the route to be
+pursued by the old road on the right bank, and after passing through
+several hamlets of little interest, we arrive at length at the
+cultivated plain hemmed in by lofty mountains, in the midst of which
+Bourg d'Oisans lies seated.
+
+This little plain was formerly occupied by the lake of St. Laurent,
+formed by the barrier of rocks and débris which had tumbled down from
+the flank of the Petite Voudène, a precipitous mountain escarpment
+overhanging the river. At this place, the strata are laid completely
+bare, and may be read like a book. For some distance along the valley
+they exhibit the most extraordinary contortions and dislocations,
+impressing the mind with the enormous natural forces that must have
+been at work to occasion such tremendous upheavings and disruptions.
+Elie de Beaumont, the French geologist, who has carefully examined the
+district, says that at the Montagne d'Oisans he found the granite in
+some places resting upon the limestone, cutting through the Calcareous
+beds, rising like a wall and lapping over them.
+
+On arriving at Bourg d'Oisans, we put up at the Hôtel de Milan close
+by the bridge; but though dignified with the name of hotel, it is only
+a common roadside inn. Still, it is tolerably clean, and in summer the
+want of carpets is not missed. The people were civil and attentive,
+their bread wholesome, their pottage and bouilli good--being such fare
+as the people of the locality contrive to live and thrive upon. The
+accommodation of the place is, indeed, quite equal to the demand; for
+very few travellers accustomed to a better style of living pass that
+way. When the landlady was asked if many tourists had passed this
+year, she replied, "Tourists! We rarely see such travellers here. You
+are the first this season, and perhaps you may be the last."
+
+Yet these valleys are well worthy of a visit, and an influx of
+tourists would doubtless have the same effect that it has already had
+in Switzerland and elsewhere, of greatly improving the hotel
+accommodation throughout the district. There are many domestic
+arrangements, costing very little money, but greatly ministering to
+cleanliness and comfort, which might very readily be provided. But the
+people themselves are indifferent to them, and they need the requisite
+stimulus of "pressure from without." One of the most prominent
+defects--common to all the inns of Dauphiny--having been brought
+under the notice of the landlady, she replied, "C'est vrai, monsieur;
+mais--il laisse quelque chose à desirer!" How neatly evaded! The very
+defect was itself an advantage! What would life be--what would hotels
+be--if there were not "something left to be desired!"
+
+The view from the inn at the bridge is really charming. The little
+river which runs down the valley, and becomes lost in the distance, is
+finally fringed with trees--alder, birch, and chestnut. Ridge upon
+ridge of mountain rises up behind on the right hand and the left, the
+lower clothed with patches of green larch, and the upper with dark
+pine. Above all are ranges of jagged and grey rocks, shooting up in
+many places into lofty peaks. The setting sun, shining across the face
+of the mountain opposite, brings out the prominent masses in bold
+relief, while the valley beneath hovers between light and shadow,
+changing almost from one second to another as the sun goes down. In
+the cool of the evening, we walked through the fields across the
+plain, to see the torrent, visible from the village, which rushes from
+the rocky gorge on the mountain-side to join its waters to the
+Romanche. All along the valleys, water abounds--sometimes bounding
+from the heights, in jets, in rivulets, in masses, leaping from rock
+to rock, and reaching the ground only in white clouds of spray, or, as
+in the case of the little river which flows alongside the inn at the
+bridge, bursting directly from the ground in a continuous spring;
+these waterfalls, and streams, and springs being fed all the year
+through by the immense glaciers that fill the hollows of the mountains
+on either side the valley.
+
+Though the scenery of Bourg d'Oisans is not, as its eulogists allege,
+equal to that of Switzerland, it will at least stand a comparison
+with that of Savoy. Its mountains are more precipitous and abrupt, its
+peaks more jagged, and its aspect more savage and wild. The scenery of
+Mont Pelvoux, which is best approached from Bourg d'Oisans, is
+especially grand and sublime, though of a wild and desolate character.
+The road from Bourg d'Oisans to Briançon also presents some
+magnificent scenery; and there is one part of it that is not perhaps
+surpassed even by the famous Via Mala leading up to the Splügen. It is
+about three miles above Bourg d'Oisans, from which we started early
+next morning. There the road leaves the plain and enters the wild
+gorge of Freney, climbing by a steep road up the Rampe des Commières.
+The view from the height when gained is really superb, commanding an
+extremely bold and picturesque valley, hemmed in by mountains. The
+ledges on the hillsides spread out in some places so as to afford
+sufficient breadths for cultivation; occasional hamlets appear amidst
+the fields and pine-woods; and far up, between you and the sky, an
+occasional church spire peeps up, indicating still loftier
+settlements, though how the people contrive to climb up to those
+heights is a wonder to the spectator who views them from below.
+
+The route follows the profile of the mountain, winding in and out
+along its rugged face, scarped and blasted so as to form the road. At
+one place it passes along a gallery about six hundred feet in length,
+cut through a precipitous rock overhanging the river, which dashes,
+roaring and foaming, more than a thousand feet below, through the
+rocky abyss of the Gorge de l'Infernet. Perhaps there is nothing to be
+seen in Switzerland finer of its kind than the succession of charming
+landscapes which meet the eye in descending this pass.
+
+Beyond the village of Freney we enter another defile, so narrow that
+in places there is room only for the river and the road; and in winter
+the river sometimes plays sad havoc with the engineer's constructions.
+Above this gorge, the Romanche is joined by the Ferrand, an impetuous
+torrent which comes down from the glaciers of the Grand Rousses.
+Immediately over their point of confluence, seated on a lofty
+promontory, is the village of Mizoën--a place which, because of the
+outlook it commands, as well as because of its natural strength, was
+one of the places in which the Vaudois were accustomed to take refuge
+in the times of the persecutions. Further on, we pass through another
+gallery in the rock, then across the little green valley of Chambon to
+Le Dauphin, after which the scenery becomes wilder, the valley--here
+called the Combe de Malaval (the "Cursed Valley")--rocky and sterile,
+the only feature to enliven it being the Cascade de la Pisse, which
+falls from a height of over six hundred feet, first in one jet, then
+becomes split by a projecting rock into two, and finally reaches the
+ground in a shower of spray. Shortly after we pass another cascade,
+that of the Riftort, which also joins the Romanche, and marks the
+boundary between the department of the Isère and that of the Hautes
+Alpes, which we now enter.
+
+More waterfalls--the Sau de la Pucelle, which falls from a height of
+some two hundred and fifty feet, resembling the Staubbach--besides
+rivulets without number, running down the mountain-sides like silver
+threads; until we arrive at La Grave, a village about five thousand
+feet above the sea-level, directly opposite the grand glaciers of
+Tabuchet, Pacave, and Vallon, which almost overhang the Romanche,
+descending from the steep slopes of the gigantic Aiguille du Midi, the
+highest mountain in the French Alps,--being over 13,200 feet above
+the level of the sea.
+
+After resting some two hours at La Grave, we proceeded by the two
+tunnels under the hamlet of Ventelong--one of which is 650 and the
+other 1,800 feet long--to the village of Villard d'Arene, which,
+though some five thousand feet above the level of the sea, is so
+surrounded by lofty mountains that for months together the sun never
+shines on it. From thence a gradual ascent leads up to the summit of
+the Col de Lauteret, which divides the valley of the Romanche from
+that of the Guisanne. The pastures along the mountain-side are of the
+richest verdure; and so many rare and beautiful plants are found
+growing there that M. Rousillon has described it as a "very botanical
+Eden." Here Jean Jacques Rousseau delighted to herborize, and here the
+celebrated botanist Mathonnet, originally a customs officer, born at
+the haggard village of Villard d'Arene, which we have just passed,
+cultivated his taste for natural history, and laid the foundations of
+his European reputation. The variety of temperature which exists along
+the mountain-side, from the bottom to the summit, its exposure to the
+full rays of the sun in some places, and its sheltered aspect in
+others, facilitate the growth of an extraordinary variety of beautiful
+plants and wild flowers. In the low grounds meridional plants
+flourish; on the middle slopes those of genial climates; while on the
+summit are found specimens of the flora of Lapland and Greenland. Thus
+almost every variety of flowers is represented in this brilliant
+natural garden--orchids, cruciferæ, leguminæ, rosaceæ, caryophyllæ,
+lilies of various kinds, saxifrages, anemones, ranunculuses, swertia,
+primula, varieties of the sedum, some of which are peculiar to this
+mountain, and are elsewhere unknown.
+
+After passing the Hospice near the summit of the Col, the valley of
+the Guisanne comes in sight, showing a line of bare and rugged
+mountains on the right hand and on the left, with a narrow strip of
+land in the bottom, in many parts strewn with stones carried down by
+the avalanches from the cliffs above. Shortly we come in sight of the
+distant ramparts of Briançon, apparently closing in the valley, the
+snow-clad peak of Monte Viso rising in the distance. Halfway between
+the Col and Briançon we pass through the village of Monestier, where,
+being a saint's day, the bulk of the population are in the street,
+holding festival. The place was originally a Roman station, and the
+people still give indications of their origin, being extremely
+swarthy, black-haired, and large-eyed, evidently much more Italian
+than French.
+
+But though the villagers of Monestier were taking holiday, no one can
+reproach them with idleness. Never was there a more hard-working
+people than the peasantry of these valleys. Every little patch of
+ground that the plough or spade can be got into is turned to account.
+The piles of stone and rock collected by the sides of the fields
+testify to the industry of the people in clearing the soil for
+culture. And their farming is carried on in the face of difficulties
+and discouragements of no ordinary character, for sometimes the soil
+of many of the little farms will be swept away in a night by an
+avalanche of snow in winter or of stones in spring. The wrecks of
+fields are visible all along the valley, especially at its upper part.
+Lower down it widens, and affords greater room for culture; the sides
+of the mountains become better wooded; and, as we approach the
+fortress of Briançon, with its battlements seemingly piled one over
+the other up the mountain-sides, the landscape becomes exceedingly
+bold and picturesque.
+
+When passing the village of Villeneuve la Salle, a few miles from
+Briançon, we were pointed to a spot on the opposite mountain-side,
+over the pathway leading to the Col de l'Echuada, where a cavern was
+discovered a few years since, which, upon examination, was found to
+contain a considerable quantity of human bones. It was one of the
+caves in which the hunted Vaudois were accustomed to take refuge
+during the persecutions; and it continued to be called by the
+peasantry "La Roche armée"--the name being thus perpetuated, though
+the circumstances in which it originated had been forgotten.
+
+The fortress of Briançon, which we entered by a narrow winding roadway
+round the western rampart, is the frontier fortress which guards the
+pass from Italy into France by the road over Mont Genèvre. It must
+always have been a strong place by nature, overlooking as it does the
+valley of the Durance on the one hand, and the mountain road from
+Italy on the other, while the river Clairée, running in a deep defile,
+cuts it off from the high ground to the south and east. The highest
+part of the town is the citadel, or Fort du Château, built upon a peak
+of rock on the site of the ancient castle. It was doubtless the
+nucleus round which the early town became clustered, until it filled
+the lower plateau to the verge of the walls and battlements. There
+being no room for the town to expand, the houses are closely packed
+together and squeezed up, as it were, so as to occupy the smallest
+possible space. The streets are narrow, dark, gloomy, and steep, being
+altogether impassable for carriages. The liveliest sight in the place
+is a stream of pure water, that rushes down an open conduit in the
+middle of the principal street, which is exceedingly steep and narrow.
+The town is sacrificed to the fortifications, which dominate
+everywhere. With the increasing range and power of cannon, they have
+been extended in all directions, until they occupy the flanks of the
+adjoining mountains and many of their summits, so that the original
+castle now forms but a comparatively insignificant part of the
+fortress. The most important part of the population is the
+soldiery--the red-trousered missionaries of "civilisation," according
+to the gospel of Louis Napoleon, published a short time before our
+visit.
+
+Other missionaries, are, however, at work in the town and
+neighbourhood; and both at Briançon and Villeneuve Protestant stations
+have been recently established, under the auspices of the Protestant
+Society of Lyons. In former times, the population of Briançon included
+a large number of Protestants. In the year 1575, three years after the
+massacre of St. Bartholomew, they were so numerous and wealthy as to
+be able to build a handsome temple, almost alongside the cathedral,
+and it still stands there in the street called Rue du Temple, with the
+motto over the entrance, in old French, "Cerches et vos troveres." But
+at the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes, the temple was seized by the
+King and converted into a granary, and the Protestants of the place
+were either executed, banished, or forced to conform to the Papal
+religion. Since then the voice of Protestantism has been mute in
+Briançon until within the last few years, during which a mission has
+been in operation. Some of the leading persons in the town have
+embraced the Reform faith, amongst others the professor of literature
+in the public college; but he had no sooner acknowledged to the
+authorities the fact of his conversion, than he was dismissed from his
+office, though he has since been appointed to a more important
+profession at Nice. The number of members is, however, as yet very
+small, and the mission has to contend with limited means, and to carry
+on its operations in the face of many obstructions and difficulties.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+What are the prospects of the extension of Protestantism in France?
+Various answers have been given to the question. Some think that the
+prevailing dissensions among French Protestants interpose a serious
+barrier in the way of progress. Others, more hopeful, think, that
+these divisions are only the indications of renewed life and vigour,
+of the friction of mind with mind, which evinces earnestness, and
+cannot fail to lead to increased activity and effort. The observations
+of a young Protestant pastor on this point are worth repeating.
+"Protestantism," said he, "is based on individualism: it recognises
+the free action of the human mind; and so long as the mind acts freely
+there will be controversy. The end of controversy is death. True,
+there is much incredulity abroad; but the incredulity is occasioned by
+the incredibilities of Popery. Let the ground once be cleared by free
+inquiry, and our Church will rise up amidst the ruins of superstition
+and unbelief, for man _must_ have religion; only it must be consistent
+with reason on the one hand, and with Divine revelation on the other.
+I for one do not fear the fullest and freest inquiry, having the most
+perfect confidence in the triumph of the truth."
+
+It is alleged by others that the bald form in which Protestantism is
+for the most part presented abroad, is not conformable with the
+"genius" of the men of Celtic and Latin race. However this may be, it
+is too generally the case that where Frenchmen, like Italians and
+Spaniards, throw off Roman Catholicism, they do not stop at rejecting
+its superstitions, but reject religion itself. They find no
+intermediate standpoint in Protestantism, but fly off into the void of
+utter unbelief. The same tendency characterizes them in politics. They
+seem to oscillate between Cæsarism and Red Republicanism; aiming not
+at reform so much as revolution. They are averse to any _via media_.
+When they have tried constitutionalism, they have broken down. So it
+has been with Protestantism, the constitutionalism of Christianity.
+The Huguenots at one time constituted a great power in France; but
+despotism in politics and religion proved too strong for them, and
+they were persecuted, banished, and stamped for a time out of
+existence, or at least out of sight.
+
+Protestantism was more successful in Germany. Was it because it was
+more conformable to the "genius" of its people? When the Germans
+"protested" against the prevailing corruptions in the Church, they did
+not seek to destroy it, but to reform it. They "stood upon the old
+ways," and sought to make them broader, straighter, and purer. They
+have pursued the same course in politics. Cooler and less impulsive
+than their Gallican neighbours, they have avoided revolutions, but are
+constantly seeking reforms. Of this course England itself furnishes a
+notable example.
+
+It is certainly a remarkable fact, that the stronghold of
+Protestantism in France was recently to be found among the population
+of Germanic origin seated along the valley of the Rhine; whereas in
+the western districts Protestantism is split up by the two
+irreconcilable parties of Evangelicals and Rationalists. At the same
+time it should be borne in mind that Alsace did not become part of
+France until the year 1715, and that the Lutherans of that province
+were never exposed to the ferocious persecutions to which the
+Evangelical Protestants of Old France were subjected, before as well
+as after the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes.
+
+In Languedoc, in Dauphiny, and in the southern provinces generally,
+men and women who professed Protestantism were liable to be hanged or
+sent to the galleys, down to nearly the end of the last century. A
+Protestant pastor who exercised his vocation did so at the daily peril
+of his life. Nothing in the shape of a Protestant congregation was
+permitted to exist, and if Protestants worshipped together, it was in
+secret, in caves, in woods, among the hills, or in the "Desert." Yet
+Protestantism nevertheless contrived to exist through this long dark
+period of persecution, and even to increase. And when at length it
+became tolerated, towards the close of the last century, the numbers
+of its adherents appeared surprising to those who had imagined it to
+be altogether extinct.
+
+Indeed, looking at the persistent efforts made by Louis XIV. to
+exterminate the Huguenots, and to the fact that many hundred thousand
+of the best of them emigrated into foreign countries, while an equal
+number are supposed to have perished in prison, on the scaffold, at
+the galleys, and in their attempts to escape, it may almost be
+regarded as matter of wonder that the Église Reformée--the Church of
+the old Huguenots--should at the present day number about a thousand
+congregations, besides the five hundred Lutheran congregations of
+Alsatia, and that the Protestants of France should amount, in the
+whole, to about two millions of souls.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+VAL LOUISE--HISTORY OF FELIX NEFF.
+
+
+Some eight miles south of Briançon, on the road to Fort Dauphin, a
+little river called the Gyronde comes down from the glaciers of Mont
+Pelvoux, and falls into the Durance nearly opposite the village of La
+Bessie. This river flows through Val Louise, the entrance into which
+can be discerned towards the northwest. Near the junction of the
+rivers, the ruins of an embattled wall, with entrenchments, are
+observed extending across the valley of the Durance, a little below
+the narrow pass called the "Pertuis-Rostan," evidently designed to
+close it against an army advancing from the south. The country people
+still call those ruins the "Walls of the Vaudois;"[101] and according
+to tradition a great Vaudois battle was fought there; but of any such
+battle history makes no mention.
+
+         [Footnote 101: A gap in the mountain-wall to the left, nearly
+         over La Bessie, is still known as "La Porte de Hannibal,"
+         through which, it is conjectured, that general led his army.
+         But opinion, which is much divided as to the route he took,
+         is more generally in favour of his marching up the Isère, and
+         passing into Italy by the Little St. Bernard.]
+
+Indeed, so far as can be ascertained, the Vaudois of Dauphiny rarely
+if ever fought battles. They were too few in number, too much
+scattered among the mountains, and too poor and ill-armed, to be able
+to contend against the masses of disciplined soldiery that were
+occasionally sent into the valleys. All that they did was to watch,
+from their mountain look-outs, their enemies' approach, and hide
+themselves in caves; or flee up to the foot of the glaciers till they
+had passed by. The attitude of the French Vaudois was thus for the
+most part passive; and they very rarely, like the Italian Vaudois,
+offered any determined or organized resistance to persecution. Hence
+they have no such heroic story to tell of battles and sieges and
+victories. Their heroism was displayed in patience, steadfastness, and
+long-suffering, rather than in resisting force by force; and they were
+usually ready to endure death in its most frightful forms rather than
+prove false to their faith.
+
+The ancient people of these valleys formed part of the flock of the
+Archbishop of Embrun. But history exhibits him as a very cruel
+shepherd. Thus, in 1335, there appears this remarkable entry in the
+accounts current of the bailli of Embrun: "Item, for persecuting the
+Vaudois, eight sols and thirty deniers of gold," as if the persecution
+of the Vaudois had become a regular department of the public service.
+What was done with the Vaudois when they were seized and tried at
+Embrun further appears from the records of the diocese. In 1348,
+twelve of the inhabitants of Val Louise were strangled at Embrun by
+the public executioner; and in 1393, a hundred and fifty inhabitants
+of the same valley were burned alive at the same place by order of the
+Inquisitor Borelli. But the most fatal of all the events that befell
+the inhabitants of Val Louise was that which occurred about a century
+later, in 1488, when nearly the whole of the remaining population of
+the valley were destroyed in a cavern near the foot of Mont Pelvoux.
+
+This dreadful massacre was perpetrated by a French army, under the
+direction of Albert Catanée, the papal legate. The army had been sent
+into Piedmont with the object of subjugating or destroying the Vaudois
+on the Italian side of the Alps, but had returned discomfited to
+Briançon, unable to effect their object. The legate then determined to
+take his revenge by an assault upon the helpless and unarmed French
+Vaudois, and suddenly directed his soldiers upon the valleys of
+Fressinières and Louise. The inhabitants of the latter valley,
+surprised, and unable to resist an army of some twenty thousand men,
+abandoned their dwellings, and made for the mountains with all haste,
+accompanied by their families, and driving their flocks before them.
+On the slope of Mont Pelvoux, about a third of the way up, there was
+formerly a great cavern, on the combe of Capescure, called La
+Balme-Chapelle--though now nearly worn away by the disintegration of
+the mountain-side--in which the poor hunted people contrived to find
+shelter. They built up the approaches to the cavern, filled the
+entrance with rocks, and considered themselves to be safe. But their
+confidence proved fatal to them. The Count La Palud, who was in
+command of the troops, seeing that it was impossible to force the
+entrance, sent his men up the mountain provided with ropes; and fixing
+them so that they should hang over the mouth of the cavern, a number
+of the soldiers slid down in full equipment, landing on the ledge
+right in front of the concealed Vaudois. Seized with a sudden panic,
+and being unarmed, many of them precipitated themselves over the rocks
+and were killed. The soldiers slaughtered all whom they could reach,
+after which they proceeded to heap up wood at the cavern mouth which
+they set on fire, and thus suffocated the remainder. Perrin says four
+hundred children were afterwards found in the cavern, stifled, in the
+arms of their dead mothers, and that not fewer than three thousand
+persons were thus ruthlessly destroyed. The little property of the
+slaughtered peasants was ordered by the Pope's legate to be divided
+amongst the vagabonds who had carried out his savage orders. The
+population having been thus exterminated, the district was settled
+anew some years later, in the reign of Louis XII., who gave his name
+to the valley; and a number of "good and true Catholics," including
+many goitres and idiots,[102] occupied the dwellings and possessed the
+lands of the slaughtered Vaudois. There is an old saying that "the
+blood of the martyrs is the seed of the Church," but assuredly it does
+not apply to Val Louise, where the primitive Christian Church has been
+completely extinguished.
+
+         [Footnote 102: It has been noted that these unfortunates
+         abound most in the villages occupied by the new settlers.
+         Thus, of the population of the village of St. Crepin, in the
+         valley of the Durance, not fewer than one-tenth are deaf and
+         dumb, with a large proportion of idiots.]
+
+There were other valleys in the same neighbourhood, whither we are now
+wending, where the persecution, though equally ferocious, proved less
+destructive; the inhabitants succeeding in making their escape into
+comparatively inaccessible places in the mountains before they could
+be put to the sword. For instance, in Val Fressinières--also opening
+into the valley of the Durance a little lower down than Val
+Louise--the Vaudois Church has never ceased to exist, and to this day
+the majority of the inhabitants belong to it. From the earliest times
+the people of the valley were distinguished for their "heresy;" and as
+early as the fourteenth century eighty persons of Fressinières and
+the neighbouring valley of Argentières,--willing to be martyrs rather
+than apostates,--were burnt at Embrun because of their religion. In
+the following century (1483) we find ninety-nine informations laid
+before John Lord Archbishop of Embrun against supposed heretics of Val
+Fressinières. The suspected were ordered to wear a cross upon their
+dress, before and behind, and not to appear at church without
+displaying such crosses. But it further appears from the records,
+that, instead of wearing the crosses, most of the persons so informed
+against fled into the mountains and hid themselves away in caves for
+the space of five years.
+
+The nest steps taken by the Archbishop are described in a Latin
+manuscript,[103] of which the following is a translation:--
+
+     "Also, that in consequence of the above, the monk Francis
+     Splireti, of the order of Mendicants, Professor in Theology, was
+     deputed in the quality of Inquisitor of the said valleys; and
+     that in the year 1489, on the 1st of January, knowing that those
+     of Freyssinier had relapsed into infamous heresy, and had not
+     obeyed their orders, nor carried the cross on their dress, but on
+     the contrary had received their excommunicated and banished
+     brethren without delivering them over to the Church, sent to them
+     new citation, to which not having appeared, an adjournment of
+     their condemnation as hardened heretics, when their goods would
+     be confiscated, and themselves handed over the secular power, was
+     made to the 28th of June; but they remaining more obstinate than
+     ever, so much so that no hope remains of bringing them back, all
+     persons were forbidden to hold any communication whatsoever with
+     them without permission of the Church, and it was ordered by the
+     Procureur Fiscal that the aforesaid Inquisitor do proceed,
+     without further notice, to the execution of his office."
+
+         [Footnote 103: This was one of the MSS deposited by Samuel
+         Morland (Oliver Cromwell's ambassador to Piedmont) at
+         Cambridge in 1658, and is quoted by Jean Leger in his History
+         of the Vaudois Churches.]
+
+What the execution of the Inquisitor's office meant, is, alas! but too
+well known. Bonds and imprisonment, scourgings and burnings at Embrun.
+The poor people appealed to the King of France for help against their
+persecutors, but in vain. In 1498 the inhabitants of Fressinières
+appeared by a procurator at Paris, on the occasion of the new
+sovereign, Louis XII., ascending the throne. But as the King was then
+seeking the favour of a divorce from his wife, Anne of Brittany, from
+Pope Alexander VI., he turned a deaf ear to their petition for mercy.
+On the contrary, Louis confirmed all the decisions of the clergy, and
+in return for the divorce which he obtained, he granted to the Pope's
+son, the infamous Cæsar Borgia, that very part of Dauphiny inhabited
+by the Vaudois, together with the title of Duke of Valentinois. They
+had appealed, as it were, to the tiger for mercy, and they were
+referred to the vulture.
+
+The persecution of the people of the valleys thus suffered no
+relaxation, and all that remained for them was flight into the
+mountains, to places where they were most likely to remain unmolested.
+Hence they fled up to the very edge of the glaciers, and formed their
+settlements at almost the farthest limits of vegetation. There the
+barrenness of the soil, the inhospitality of the climate, and the
+comparative inaccessibility of their villages, proved their security.
+Of them it might be truly said, that they "wandered about in
+sheepskins and goat-skins; being destitute, afflicted, tormented (of
+whom the world was not worthy); they wandered in deserts and in
+mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth." Yet the character of
+these poor peasants was altogether irreproachable. Even Louis XII.
+said of them, "Would to God that I were as good a Christian as the
+worst of these people!" The wonder is that, in the face of their
+long-continued persecutions, extending over so many centuries, any
+remnant of the original population of the valleys should have been
+preserved. Long after the time of Louis XII. and Cæsar Borgia, the
+French historian, De Thou (writing in 1556), thus describes the people
+of Val Fressinières: "Notwithstanding their squalidness, it is
+surprising that they are very far from being uncultivated in their
+morals. They almost all understand Latin; and are able to write fairly
+enough. They understand also as much of French as will enable them to
+read the Bible and to sing psalms; nor would you easily find a boy
+among them who, if he were questioned as to the religious opinions
+which they hold in common with the Waldenses, would not be able to
+give from memory a reasonable account of them."[104]
+
+         [Footnote 104: De Thou's History, book xxvii.]
+
+After the promulgation of the Edict of Nantes, the Vaudois enjoyed a
+brief respite from their sufferings. They then erected temples,
+appointed ministers, and worshipped openly. This, however, only lasted
+for a short time, and when the Edict was revoked, and persecution
+began again, in the reign of Louis XIV., their worship was suppressed
+wherever practicable. But though the Vaudois temples were pulled down
+and their ministers banished, the Roman Catholics failed to obtain a
+footing in the valley. Some of the pastors continued to brave the fury
+of the persecutors, and wandered about from place to place among the
+scattered flocks, ministering to them at the peril of their lives.
+Rewards were offered for their apprehension, and a sort of "Hue and
+Cry" was issued by the police, describing their age, and height, and
+features, as if they had been veritable criminals. And when they were
+apprehended they were invariably hanged. As late as 1767 the
+parliament of Grenoble condemned their pastor Berenger to death for
+continuing to preach to congregations in the "Desert."
+
+This religious destitution of the Vaudois continued to exist until a
+comparatively recent period. The people were without either pastors or
+teachers, and religion had become a tradition with them rather than an
+active living faith. Still, though poor and destitute, they held to
+their traditional belief, and refused to conform to the dominant
+religion. And so they continued until within the last forty years,
+when the fact of the existence of these remnants of the ancient
+Vaudois in the valleys of the High Alps came to the knowledge of Felix
+Neff, and he determined to go to their help and devote himself to
+their service.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+One would scarcely expect to find the apostle of the High Alps in the
+person of a young Swiss soldier of artillery. Yet so it was. In his
+boyhood, Neff read Plutarch, which filled his mind with admiration of
+the deeds of the great men of old. While passing through the soldier
+phase of his career the "Memoirs of Oberlin" accidentally came under
+his notice, the perusal of which gave quite a new direction to his
+life. Becoming impressed by religion, his ambition now was to be a
+missionary. Leaving the army, in which he had reached the rank of
+sergeant at nineteen, he proceeded to prepare himself for the
+ministry, and after studying for a time, and passing his preliminary
+examinations, he was, in conformity with the custom of the Geneva
+Church, employed on probation as a lay helper in parochial work. In
+this capacity Neff first went to Mens, in the department of Isère,
+where he officiated in the absence of the regular pastor, as well as
+occasionally at Vizille, for a period of about two years.
+
+It was while residing at Mens that the young missionary first heard of
+the existence of the scattered communities of primitive Christians on
+the High Alps, descendants of the ancient Vaudois; and his mind became
+inflamed with the desire of doing for them what Oberlin had done for
+the poor Protestants of the Ban de la Roche. "I am always dreaming of
+the High Alps," he wrote to a friend, "and I would rather be stationed
+there than under the beautiful sky of Languedoc."
+
+But it was first necessary that he should receive ordination for the
+ministry; and accordingly in 1823, when in his twenty-fifth year, he
+left Mens with that object. He did not, however, seek ordination by
+the National Church of Geneva, which, in his opinion, had in a great
+measure ceased to hold Evangelical truth; but he came over to London,
+at the invitation of Mr. Cook and Mr. Wilks, two Congregational
+ministers, by whom he was duly ordained a minister in the Independent
+Chapel, Poultry.
+
+Shortly after his return to France, Neff, much to his own
+satisfaction, was invited as pastor to the very district in which he
+so much desired to minister--the most destitute in the High Alps.
+Before setting out he wrote in his journal, "To-morrow, with the
+blessing of God, I mean to push for the Alps by the sombre and
+picturesque valley of L'Oisan." After a few days, the young pastor was
+in the scene of his future labours; and he proceeded to explore hamlet
+after hamlet in search of the widely-scattered flock committed to his
+charge, and to arrange his plans for the working of his extensive
+parish.
+
+But it was more than a parish, for it embraced several of the most
+extensive, rugged, and mountainous arrondissements of the High Alps.
+Though the whole number of people in his charge did not amount to more
+than six or seven hundred, they lived at great distances from each
+other, the churches to which he ministered being in some cases as much
+as eighty miles apart, separated by gorges and mountain-passes, for
+the most part impassable in winter. Neff's district extended in one
+direction from Vars to Briançon, and in another from Champsaur in the
+valley of the Drac to San Veran on the slope of Monte Viso, close to
+the Italian frontier. His residence was fixed at La Chalp, above
+Queyras, but as he rarely slept more than three nights in one place,
+he very seldom enjoyed its seclusion.
+
+The labour which Neff imposed upon himself was immense; and it was
+especially in the poorest and most destitute districts that he worked
+the hardest. He disregarded alike the summer's heat and the winter's
+cold. His first visit to Dormilhouse, in Val Fressinières, was made in
+January, when the mountain-paths were blocked with ice and snow; but,
+assembling the young men of the village, he went out with them armed
+with hatchets, and cut steps in the ice to enable the worshippers from
+the lower hamlets to climb up to service in the village church. The
+people who first came to hear him preach at Violens brought wisps of
+straw with them, which they lighted to guide them through the snow,
+while others, who had a greater distance to walk, brought pine
+torches.
+
+Nothing daunted, the valiant soldier, furnished with a stout staff and
+shod with heavy-nailed shoes, covered with linen socks to prevent
+slipping on the snow, would set out with his wallet on his back across
+the Col d'Orcières in winter, in the track of the lynx and the
+chamois, with the snow and sleet beating against his face, to visit
+his people on the other side of the mountain. His patience, his
+perseverance, his sweetness of temper, were unfailing. "Ah!" said one
+unbelieving Thomas of Val Fressinières in his mountain patois, "you
+have come among us like a woman who attempts to kindle a fire with
+green wood; she exhausts her breath in blowing it to keep the little
+flame alive, but the moment she quits it, it is instantly
+extinguished."
+
+Neff nevertheless laboured on with hope, and neither discouragement
+nor obstruction slackened his efforts. And such labours could not fail
+of their effect. He succeeded in inspiring the simple mountaineers
+with his own zeal, he evoked their love, and excited their
+enthusiastic admiration. When he returned to Dormilhouse after a brief
+absence, the whole village would turn out and come down the mountain
+to meet and embrace him. "The rocks, the cascades, nay, the very
+glaciers," he wrote to a friend, "all seemed animated, and presented a
+smiling aspect; the savage country became agreeable and dear to me
+from the moment its inhabitants were my brethren."
+
+Unresting and indefatigable, Neff was always at work. He exhorted the
+people in hovels, held schools in barns in which he taught the
+children, and catechised them in stables. His hand was in every good
+work. He taught the people to sing, he taught them to read, he taught
+them to pray. To be able to speak to them familiarly, he learnt their
+native patois, and laboured at it like a schoolboy. He worked as a
+missionary among savages. The poor mountaineers had been so long
+destitute of instruction, that everything had as it were to be begun
+with them from the beginning. Sharing in their hovels and stables,
+with their squalor and smoke, he taught them how to improve them by
+adding chimneys and windows, and showed how warmth might be obtained
+more healthfully than by huddling together in winter-time with the
+cattle. He taught them manners, and especially greater respect for
+women, inculcating the lesson by his own gentleness and tender
+deference. Out of doors, he showed how they might till the ground to
+greater advantage, and introduced an improved culture of the potato,
+which more than doubled the production. Observing how the pastures of
+Dormilhouse were scorched by the summer sun, he urged the adoption of
+a system of irrigation. The villagers were at first most obstinate in
+their opposition to his plans; but he persevered, laid out a canal,
+and succeeded at last in enlisting a body of workmen, whom he led out,
+pickaxe in hand, himself taking a foremost part in the work; and at
+last the waters were let into the canal amidst joy and triumph. At
+Violens he helped to build and finish the chapel, himself doing
+mason-work, smith-work, and carpenter-work by turns. At Dormilhouse a
+school was needed, and he showed the villagers how to build one;
+preparing the design, and taking part in the erection, until it was
+finished and ready for use. In short, he turned his hand to
+everything--nothing was too high or too low for this noble citizen of
+two worlds. At length, a serious accident almost entirely disabled
+him. While on one of his mountain journeys, he was making a détour
+amongst a mass of rocky débris, to avoid the dangers of an avalanche,
+when he had the misfortune to fall and severely sprain his knee. He
+became laid up for a time, and when able to move, he set out for his
+mother's home at Geneva, in the hope of recovering health and
+strength; for his digestive powers were also by this time seriously
+injured. When he went away, the people of the valleys felt as if they
+should never see him more; and their sorrow at his departure was
+heart-rending. After trying the baths of Plombiéres without effect, he
+proceeded onwards to Geneva, which he reached only to die; and thus
+this good and noble soldier--one of the bravest of earth's
+heroes--passed away to his eternal reward at the early age of
+thirty-one.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The valley of Fressinières--the principle scene of Neff's
+labours--joins the valley of the Durance nearly opposite the little
+hamlet of La Roche. There we leave the high road from Briançon to Fort
+Dauphin, and crossing the river by a timber bridge, ascend the steep
+mountain-side by a mule path, in order to reach the entrance to the
+valley of Fressinières, the level of which is high above that of the
+Durance. Not many years since, the higher valley could only be
+approached from this point by a very difficult mountain-path amidst
+rocks and stones, called the Ladder, or Pas de l'Échelle. It was
+dangerous at all times, and quite impassable in winter. The mule-path
+which has lately been made, though steep, is comparatively easy.
+
+What the old path was, and what were the discomforts of travelling
+through this district in Neff's time, may be appreciated on a perusal
+of the narrative of the young pastor Bost, who in 1840 determined to
+make a sort of pilgrimage to the scenes of his friend's labours some
+seventeen years before. M. Bost, however, rather exaggerates the
+difficulties and discomforts of the valleys than otherwise. He saw no
+beauty nor grandeur in the scenery, only "horrible mountains in a
+state of dissolution" and constantly ready to fall upon the heads of
+massing travellers. He had no eyes for the picturesque though gloomy
+lake of La Roche, but saw only the miserable hamlet itself. He slept
+in the dismal little inn, as doubtless Neff had often done before, and
+was horrified by the multitudinous companions that shared his bed;
+and, tumbling out, he spent the rest of the night on the floor. The
+food was still worse--cold _café noir_, and bread eighteen months old,
+soaked in water before it could be eaten. His breakfast that morning
+made him ill for a week. Then his mounting up the Pas de l'Échelle,
+which he did not climb "without profound emotion," was a great trouble
+to him. Of all this we find not a word in the journals or letters of
+Neff, whose early life as a soldier had perhaps better inured him to
+"roughing it" than the more tender bringing-up of Pastor Bost.
+
+As we rounded the shoulder of the hill, almost directly overlooking
+the ancient Roman town of Rama in the valley of the Durance
+underneath, we shortly came in sight of the little hamlet of Palons, a
+group of "peasants' nests," overhung by rocks, with the one good house
+in it, the comfortable parsonage of the Protestant pastor, situated at
+the very entrance to the valley. Although the peasants' houses which
+constitute the hamlet of Palons are still very poor and miserable, the
+place has been greatly improved since Neff's time, by the erection of
+the parsonage. It was found that the pastors who were successively
+appointed to minister to the poor congregations in the valley very
+soon became unfitted for their work by the hardships to which they
+were exposed; and being without any suitable domestic accommodation,
+one after another of them resigned their charge.
+
+To remedy this defect, a movement was begun in 1852 by the Rev. Mr.
+Freemantle, rector of Claydon, Bucks, assisted by the Foreign Aid
+Society and a few private friends, with the object of providing
+pastors' dwellings, as well as chapels when required, in the more
+destitute places. The movement has already been attended with
+considerable success; and among its first results was the erection in
+1857 of the comfortable parsonage of Palons, the large lower room of
+which also serves the purpose of a chapel. The present incumbent is M.
+Charpiot, of venerable and patriarchal aspect, whose white hairs are a
+crown of glory--a man beloved by his extensive flock, for his parish
+embraces the whole valley, about twelve miles in extent, including the
+four villages of Ribes, Violens, Minsals, and Dormilhouse; other
+pastors having been appointed of late years to the more distant
+stations included in the original widely-scattered charge of Felix
+Neff.
+
+The situation of the parsonage and adjoining grounds at Palons is
+charmingly picturesque. It stands at the entrance to the defile which
+leads into Val Fressinières, having a background of bold rocks
+enclosing a mountain plateau known as the "Camp of Catinat," a
+notorious persecutor of the Vaudois. In front of the parsonage extends
+a green field planted with walnut and other trees, part of which is
+walled off as the burying-ground of the hamlet. Alongside, in a deep
+rocky gully, runs the torrent of the Biasse, leaping from rock to rock
+on its way to the valley of the Durance, far below. This fall, or
+cataract, is not inappropriately named the "Gouffouran," or roaring
+gulf; and its sullen roar is heard all through the night in the
+adjoining parsonage. The whole height of the fall, as it tumbles from
+rock to rock, is about four hundred and fifty feet; and about halfway
+down, the water shoots into a deep, dark cavern, where it becomes
+completely lost to sight.
+
+The inhabitants of the hamlet are a poor hard-working people, pursuing
+their industry after very primitive methods. Part of the Biasse, as it
+issues from the defile, is turned aside here and there to drive little
+fulling-mills of the rudest construction, where the people "waulk" the
+cloth of their own making. In the adjoining narrow fields overhanging
+the Gouffouran, where the ploughs are at work, the oxen are yoked to
+them in the old Roman fashion, the pull being by a bar fixed across
+the animals' foreheads.
+
+In the neighbourhood of Palons, as at various other places in the
+valley, there are numerous caverns which served by turns in early
+times as hiding-places and as churches, and which were not
+unfrequently consecrated by the Vaudois with their blood. One of these
+is still known as the "Glesia," or "Église." Its opening is on the
+crest of a frightful precipice, but its diameter has of late years
+been considerably reduced by the disintegration of the adjoining rock.
+Neff once took Captain Cotton up to see it, and chanted the _Te Deum_
+in the rude temple with great emotion.
+
+Palons is, perhaps, the most genial and fertile spot in the valley; it
+looks like a little oasis in the desert. Indeed, Neff thought the soil
+of the place too rich for the growth of piety. "Palons," said he in
+his journal, "is more fertile than the rest of the valley, and even
+produces wine: the consequence is, that there is less piety here."
+Neff even entertained the theory that the poorer the people the
+greater was their humility and fervour, and the less their selfishness
+and spiritual pride. Thus, he considered "the fertility of the commune
+of Champsaur, and its proximity to the high road and to Gap, great
+stumbling-blocks." The loftiest, coldest, and most barren spots--such
+as San Veran and Dormilhouse--were, in his opinion, by far the most
+promising. Of the former he said, "It is the highest, and consequently
+the most pious, village in the valley of Queyras;" and of the
+inhabitants of the latter he said, "From the first moment of my
+arrival I took them to my heart, and I ardently desired to be unto
+them even as another Oberlin."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+THE VAUDOIS MOUNTAIN-REFUGE OF DORMILHOUSE.
+
+
+The valley of Fressinières could never have maintained a large
+population. Though about twelve miles in extent, it contains a very
+small proportion of arable land--only a narrow strip, of varying
+width, lying in the bottom, with occasional little patches of
+cultivated ground along the mountain-sides, where the soil has settled
+on the ledges, the fields seeming in many cases to hang over
+precipices. At the upper end of the valley, the mountains come down so
+close to the river Biasse that no space is left for cultivation, and
+the slopes are so rocky and abrupt as to be unavailable even for
+pasturage, excepting of goats.
+
+Yet the valley seems never to have been without a population, more or
+less numerous according to the rigour of the religious persecutions
+which prevailed in the neighbourhood. Its comparative inaccessibility,
+its inhospitable climate, and its sterility, combined to render it one
+of the most secure refuges of the Vaudois in the Middle Ages. It could
+neither be easily entered by an armed force, nor permanently occupied
+by them. The scouts on the hills overlooking the Durance could always
+see their enemies approach, and the inhabitants were enabled to take
+refuge in caves in the mountain-sides, or flee to the upper parts of
+the valley, before the soldiers could clamber up the steep Pas de
+l'Échelle, and reach the barricaded defile through which the Biasse
+rushes down the rocky gorge of the Gouffouran. When the invaders
+succeeded in penetrating this barrier, they usually found the hamlets
+deserted and the people fled. They could then only wreak their
+vengeance on the fields, which they laid waste, and on the dwellings,
+which they burned; and when the "brigands" had at length done their
+worst and departed, the poor people crept back to their ruined homes
+to pray, amidst their ashes, for strength to enable them to bear the
+heavy afflictions which they were thus called upon to suffer for
+conscience' sake.
+
+The villages in the lower part of the valley were thus repeatedly
+ravaged and destroyed. But far up, at its extremest point, a difficult
+footpath led, across the face almost of a precipice, which the
+persecutors never ventured to scale, to the hamlet of Dormilhouse,
+seated on a few ledges of rock on a lofty mountain-side, five thousand
+feet above the level of the sea; and this place, which was for
+centuries a mountain fastness of the persecuted, remains a Vaudois
+settlement to this day.
+
+An excursion to this interesting mountain hamlet having been arranged,
+our little party of five persons set out for the place on the morning
+of the 1st of July, under the guidance of Pastor Charpiot. Though the
+morning was fine and warm, yet, as the place of our destination was
+situated well up amongst the clouds, we were warned to provide
+ourselves with umbrellas and waterproofs, nor did the provision prove
+in vain. We were also warned that there was an utter want of
+accommodation for visitors at Dormilhouse, for which we must be
+prepared. The words scratched on the window of the Norwegian inn
+might indeed apply to it: "Here the stranger may find very good
+entertainment--_provided he bring it with him_!" We accordingly
+carried our entertainment with us, in the form of a store of blankets,
+bread, chocolate, and other articles, which, with the traveller's
+knapsacks, were slung across the back of a donkey.
+
+After entering the defile, an open part of the valley was passed,
+amidst which the little river, at present occupying very narrow
+limits, meandered; but it was obvious from the width of the channel
+and the débris widely strewn about, that in winter it is a roaring
+torrent. A little way up we met an old man coming down driving a
+loaded donkey, with whom one of our party, recognising him as an old
+acquaintance, entered into conversation. In answer to an inquiry made
+as to the progress of the good cause in the valley, the old man
+replied very despondingly. "There was," he said, "a great lack of
+faith, of zeal, of earnestness, amongst the rising generation. They
+were too fond of pleasures, too apt to be led away by the fleeting
+vanities of this world." It was only the old story--the complaint of
+the aged against the young. When this old peasant was a boy, his
+elders doubtless thought and said the same of him. The generation
+growing old always think the generation still young in a state of
+degeneracy. So it was forty years since, when Felix Neff was amongst
+them, and so it will be forty years hence. One day Neff met an old man
+near Mens, who recounted to him the story of the persecutions which
+his parents and himself had endured, and he added: "In those times
+there was more zeal than there is now; my father and mother used to
+cross mountains and forests by night, in the worst weather, at the
+risk of their lives, to be present at divine service performed in
+secret; but now we are grown lazy: religious freedom is the deathblow
+to piety."
+
+An hour's walking brought us to the principal hamlet of the commune,
+formerly called Fressinières, but now known as Les Ribes, occupying a
+wooded height on the left bank of the river. The population is partly
+Roman Catholic and partly Protestant. The Roman Catholics have a
+church here, the last in the valley, the two other places of worship
+higher up being Protestant. The principal person of Les Ribes is M.
+Baridon, son of the Joseph Baridon, receiver of the commune, so often
+mentioned with such affection in the journal of Neff. He is the only
+person in the valley whose position and education give him a claim to
+the title of "Monsieur;" and his house contains the only decent
+apartment in the Val Fressinières where pastors and visitors could be
+lodged previous to the erection, by Mr. Freemantle, of the pleasant
+little parsonage at Palons. This apartment in the Baridons' house Neff
+used to call the "Prophet's Chamber."
+
+Half an hour higher up the valley we reached the hamlet of Violens,
+where all the inhabitants are Protestants. It was at this place that
+Neff helped to build and finish the church, for which he designed the
+seats and pulpit, and which he opened and dedicated on the 29th of
+August, 1824, the year before he finally left the neighbourhood.
+Violens is a poor hamlet situated at the bottom of a deep glen, or
+rocky abyss, called La Combe; the narrow valleys of Dauphiny, like
+those of Devon, being usually called combes, doubtless from the same
+original Celtic word _cwm_, signifying a hollow or dingle.
+
+A little above Violens the valley contracts almost to a ravine, until
+we reach the miserable hamlet of Minsals, so shut in by steep crags
+that for nine months of the year it never sees the sun, and during
+several months in winter it lies buried in snow. The hamlet consists
+for the most part of hovels of mud and stone, without windows or
+chimneys, being little better than stables; indeed, in winter time,
+for the sake of warmth, the poor people share them with their cattle.
+How they contrive to scrape a living out of the patches of soil
+rescued from the rocks, or hung upon the precipices on the
+mountain-side, is a wonder.
+
+One of the horrors of this valley consists in the constant state of
+disintegration of the adjoining rocks, which, being of a slaty
+formation, frequently break away in large masses, and are hurled into
+the lower grounds. This, together with the fall of avalanches in
+winter, makes the valley a most perilous place to live in. A little
+above Minsals, only a few years since, a tremendous fall of rock and
+mud swept over nearly the whole of the cultivated ground, since which
+many of the peasantry have had to remove elsewhere. What before was a
+well-tilled meadow, is now only a desolate waste, covered with rocks
+and débris.
+
+Another of the horrors of the place is its liability to floods, which
+come rushing down, from the mountains, and often work sad havoc.
+Sometimes a fall of rocks from the cliffs above dams up the bed of the
+river, when a lake accumulates behind the barrier until it bursts, and
+the torrent swoops down the valley, washing away fields, and bridges,
+and mills, and hovels.
+
+Even the stouter-built dwelling of M. Baridon at Les Ribes was nearly
+carried away by one of such inundations twelve years ago. It stands
+about a hundred yards from the mountain-stream which comes down from
+the Pic de la Séa. One day in summer a storm burst over the mountain,
+and the stream at once became swollen to a torrent. The inmates of the
+dwelling thought the house must eventually be washed away, and gave
+themselves up to prayer. The flood, bearing with it rolling rocks,
+came nearer and nearer, until it reached a few old walnut trees on a
+line with the torrent. A rock of some thirty feet square tumbled
+against one of the trees, which staggered and bent, but held fast and
+stopped the rock. The débris at once rolled upon it into a bank, the
+course of the torrent was turned, and the dwelling and its inmates
+were saved.
+
+Another incident, illustrative of the perils of daily life in Val
+Fressinières, was related to me by Mr. Milsom while passing the scene
+of one of the mud and rock avalanches so common in the valley. Etienne
+Baridon, a member of the same Les Ribes family, an intelligent young
+man, disabled for ordinary work by lameness and deformity, occupied
+himself in teaching the children in the Protestant school at Violens,
+whither he walked daily, accompanied by the pupils from Les Ribes. One
+day, a heavy thunderstorm burst over the valley, and sent down an
+avalanche of mud, débris, and boulders, which rolled quite across the
+valley and extended to the river. The news of the circumstance reached
+Etienne when in school at Violens; the road to Les Ribes was closed;
+and he was accordingly urged to stay over the night with the children.
+But thinking of the anxiety of their parents, he determined to guide
+them back over the fall of rocks if possible. Arrived at the place, he
+found the mass still on the move, rolling slowly down in a ridge of
+from ten to twenty feet high, towards the river. Supported by a stout
+staff; the lame Baridon took first one child and then another upon
+his hump-back; and contrived to carry them across in safety; but while
+making his last journey with the last child, his foot slipped and his
+leg got badly crushed among the still-rolling stones. He was, however,
+able to extricate himself, and reached Les Ribes in safety with all
+the children. "This Etienne," concluded Mr. Milsom, "was really a
+noble fellow, and his poor deformed body covered the soul of a hero."
+
+At length, after a journey of about ten miles up this valley of the
+shadow of death, along which the poor persecuted Vaudois were so often
+hunted, we reached an apparent _cul-de-sac_ amongst the mountains,
+beyond which further progress seemed impracticable. Precipitous rocks,
+with their slopes of débris at foot, closed in the valley all round,
+excepting only the narrow gullet by which we had come; but, following
+the footpath, a way up the mountain-side gradually disclosed itself--a
+zigzag up the face of what seemed to be a sheer precipice--and this we
+were told was the road to Dormilhouse. The zigzag path is known as the
+Tourniquet. The ascent is long, steep, and fatiguing. As we passed up,
+we observed that the precipice contained many narrow ledges upon which
+soil has settled, or to which it has been carried. Some of these are
+very narrow, only a few yards in extent, but wherever there is room
+for a spade to turn, the little patches bear marks of cultivation; and
+these are the fields of the people of Dormilhouse!
+
+Far up the mountain, the footpath crosses in front of a lofty
+cascade--La Pisse du Dormilhouse--which leaps from the summit of the
+precipice, and sometimes dashes over the roadway itself. Looking down
+into the valley from this point, we see the Biasse meandering like a
+thread in the hollow of the mountains, becoming lost to sight in the
+ravine near Minsals. We have now ascended to a great height, and the
+air feels cold and raw. When we left Palons, the sun was shining
+brightly, and its heat was almost oppressive, but now the temperature
+feels wintry. On our way up, rain began to fall; as we ascended the
+Tourniquet the rain became changed to sleet; and at length, on
+reaching the summit of the rising ground from which we first discerned
+the hamlet of Dormilhouse, on the first day of July, the snow was
+falling heavily, and all the neighbouring mountains were clothed in
+the garb of winter.
+
+This, then, is the famous mountain fastness of the Vaudois--their last
+and loftiest and least accessible retreat when hunted from their
+settlements in the lower valleys hundreds of years ago. Driven from
+rock to rock, from Alp to Alp, they clambered up on to this lofty
+mountain-ledge, five thousand feet high, and made good their
+settlement, though at the daily peril of their lives. It was a place
+of refuge, a fortress and citadel of the faithful, where they
+continued to worship God according to conscience during the long dark
+ages of persecution and tyranny. The dangers and terrors of the
+situation are indeed so great, that it never could have been chosen
+even for a hiding-place, much less for a permanent abode, but from the
+direst necessity. What the poor people suffered while establishing
+themselves on these barren mountain heights no one can tell, but they
+contrived at length to make the place their home, and to become inured
+to their hard life, until it became almost a second nature to them.
+
+The hamlet of Dormilhouse is said to have existed for nearly six
+hundred years, during which the religion of its inhabitants has
+remained the same. It has been alleged that the people are the
+descendants of a colony of refugee Lombards; but M. Muston, and others
+well able to judge, after careful inquiry on the spot, have come to
+the conclusion that they bear all the marks of being genuine
+descendants of the ancient Vaudois. In features, dress, habits, names,
+language, and religious doctrine, they have an almost perfect identity
+with the Vaudois of Piedmont at the present day.
+
+Dormilhouse consists of about forty cottages, inhabited by some two
+hundred persons. The cottages are perched "like eagles' nests," one
+tier ranging over another on the rocky ledges of a steep
+mountain-side. There is very little soil capable of cultivation in the
+neighbourhood, but the villagers seek out little patches in the valley
+below and on the mountain shelves, from which they contrive to grow a
+little grain for home use. The place is so elevated and so exposed,
+that in some seasons even rye will not ripen at Dormilhouse, while the
+pasturages are in many places inaccessible to cattle, and scarcely
+safe for sheep.
+
+The principal food of the people is goats' milk and unsifted rye,
+which they bake into cakes in the autumn, and these cakes last them
+the whole year--the grain, if left unbaked, being apt to grow mouldy
+and spoil in so damp an atmosphere. Besides, fuel is so scarce that it
+is necessary to exercise the greatest economy in its use, every stick
+burnt in the village having to be brought from a distance of some
+twelve miles, on the backs of donkeys, by the steep mountain-path
+leading up to the hamlet. Hence, also, the unsavoury means which they
+are under the necessity of adopting to economize warmth in the winter,
+by stabling the cattle with themselves in the cottages. The huts are
+for the most part wretched constructions of stone and mud, from which
+fresh air, comfort, and cleanliness seem to be entirely excluded.
+Excepting that the people are for the most part comfortably dressed,
+in clothing of coarse wool, which they dress and weave themselves,
+their domestic accommodation and manner of living are centuries behind
+the age; and were a stranger suddenly to be set down in the village,
+he could with difficulty be made to believe that he was in the land of
+civilised Frenchmen.
+
+The place is dreary, stern, and desolate-looking even in summer. Thus,
+we entered it with the snow falling on the 1st of July! Few of the
+balmy airs of the sweet South of France breathe here. In the hollow of
+the mountains the heat may be like that of an oven; but here, far up
+on the heights, though the air may be fresh and invigorating at times,
+when the wind blows it often rises to a hurricane. Here the summer
+comes late and departs early. While flowers are blooming in the
+valleys, not a bud or blade of corn is to be seen at Dormilhouse. At
+the season when vegetation is elsewhere at its richest, the dominant
+features of the landscape are barrenness and desolation. The very
+shapes of the mountains are rugged, harsh, and repulsive. Right over
+against the hamlet, separated from it by a deep gully, rises up the
+grim, bare Gramusac, as black as a wall, but along the ledges of
+which, the hunters of Dormilhouse, who are very daring and skilful, do
+not fear to stalk the chamois.
+
+But if the place is thus stern and even appalling in summer, what must
+it be in winter? There is scarcely a habitation in the village that is
+not exposed to the danger of being carried away by avalanches or
+falling rocks. The approach to the mountain is closed by ice and
+snow, while the rocks are all tapestried with icicles. The
+_tourmente_, or snow whirlwind, occasionally swoops up the valley,
+tears the roofs from the huts, and scatters them in destruction.
+
+Here is a passage from Neff's journal, vividly descriptive of winter
+life at Dormilhouse:--
+
+     "The weather has been rigorous in the extreme; the falls of snow
+     are very frequent, and when it becomes a little milder, a general
+     thaw takes place, and our hymns are often sung amid the roar of
+     the avalanches, which, gliding along the smooth face of the
+     glacier, hurl themselves from precipice to precipice, like vast
+     cataracts of silver."
+
+Writing in January, he says:--
+
+     "We have been buried in four feet of snow since of 1st of
+     November. At this very moment a terrible blast is whirling the
+     snow in thick blinding clouds. Travelling is exceedingly
+     difficult and even dangerous among these valleys, particularly in
+     the neighbourhood of Dormilhouse, by reason of the numerous
+     avalanches falling everywhere.... One Sunday evening our scholars
+     and many of the Dormilhouse people, when returning home after the
+     sermon at Violens, narrowly escaped an avalanche. It rolled
+     through a narrow defile between two groups of persons: a few
+     seconds sooner or later, and it would have plunged the flower of
+     our youth into the depths of an unfathomable gorge.... In fact,
+     there are very few habitations in these parts which are not
+     liable to be swept away, for there is not a spot in the narrow
+     corner of the valley which can be considered absolutely safe. But
+     terrible as their situation is, they owe to it their religion,
+     and perhaps their physical existence. If their country had been
+     more secure and more accessible, they would have been
+     exterminated like the inhabitants of Val Louise."
+
+Such is the interesting though desolate mountain hamlet to the service
+of whose hardy inhabitants the brave Felix Neff devoted himself during
+the greater part of his brief missionary career. It was characteristic
+of him to prefer to serve them because their destitution was greater
+than that which existed in any other quarter of his extensive parish;
+and he turned from the grand mountain scenery of Arvieux and his
+comfortable cottage at La Chalp, to spend his winters in the dismal
+hovels and amidst the barren wastes of Dormilhouse.
+
+When Neff first went amongst them, the people were in a state of
+almost total spiritual destitution. They had not had any pastor
+stationed amongst them for nearly a hundred and fifty years. During
+all that time they had been without schools of any kind, and
+generation after generation had grown up and passed away in ignorance.
+Yet with all the inborn tenacity of their race, they had throughout
+refused to conform to the dominant religion. They belonged to the
+Vaudois Church, and repudiated Romanism.
+
+There was probably a Protestant church existing at Dormilhouse
+previous to the Revocation, as is shown by the existence of an ancient
+Vaudois church-bell, which was hid away until of late years, when it
+was dug up and hung in the belfry of the present church. In 1745, the
+Roman Catholics endeavoured to effect a settlement in the place, and
+then erected the existing church, with a residence for the curé. But
+the people, though they were on the best of terms with the curé,
+refused to enter his church. During the twenty years that he
+ministered there, it is said the sole congregation consisted of his
+domestic servant, who assisted him at mass.
+
+The story is still told of the curé bringing up from Les Ribes a large
+bag of apples--an impossible crop at Dormilhouse--by way of tempting
+the children to come to him and receive instruction. But they went
+only so long as the apples lasted, and when they were gone the
+children disappeared. The curé complained that during the whole time
+he had been in the place he had not been able to get a single person
+to cross himself. So, finding he was not likely to be of any use
+there, he petitioned his bishop to be allowed to leave; on which, his
+request being complied with, the church was closed.
+
+This continued until the period of the French Revolution, when
+religious toleration became recognised. The Dormilhouse people then
+took possession of the church. They found in it several dusty images,
+the basin for the holy water, the altar candlesticks, and other
+furniture, just as the curé had left them many years before; and they
+are still preserved as curiosities. The new occupants of the church
+whitewashed the pictures, took down the crosses, dug up the old
+Vaudois bell and hung it up in the belfry, and rang the villagers
+together to celebrate the old worship again. But they were still in
+want of a regular minister until the period when Felix Neff settled
+amongst them. A zealous young preacher, Henry Laget, had before then
+paid them a few visits, and been warmly welcomed; and when, in his
+last address, he told them they would see his face no more, "it
+seemed," said a peasant who related the incident to Neff, "as if a
+gust of wind had extinguished the torch which was to light us in our
+passage by night across the precipice." And even Neff's ministry, as
+we have above seen, only lasted for the short space of about three
+years.
+
+Some years after the death of Neff, another attempt was made by the
+Roman Catholics to establish a mission at Dormilhouse. A priest went
+up from Les Ribes accompanied by a sister of mercy from Gap--"the
+pearl of the diocese," she was called--who hired a room for the
+purpose of commencing a school. To give _éclat_ to their enterprise,
+the Archbishop of Embrun himself went up, clothed in a purple dress,
+riding a white horse, and accompanied by a party of men bearing a
+great red cross, which he caused to be set up at the entrance to the
+village. But when the archbishop appeared, not a single inhabitant
+went out to meet him; they had all assembled in the church to hold a
+prayer-meeting, and it lasted during the whole period of his visit.
+All that he accomplished was to set up the great red cross, after
+which he went down the Tourniquet again; and shortly after, the priest
+and the sister of mercy, finding they could not obtain a footing, also
+left the village. Somehow or other, the red cross which had been set
+up mysteriously disappeared, but how it had been disposed of no one
+would ever reveal. It was lately proposed to commemorate the event of
+the archbishop's visit by the erection of an obelisk on the spot where
+he had set up the red cross; and a tablet, with a suitable
+inscription, was provided for it by the Rev. Mr. Freemantle, of
+Claydon. But when he was told that the site was exposed to the full
+force of the avalanches descending from the upper part of the mountain
+in winter, and would speedily be swept away, the project of the
+memorial pillar was abandoned, and the tablet was inserted, instead,
+in the front wall of the village church, where it reads as follows:--
+
+          À LA GLOIRE DE DIEU
+        DONT DE LES TEMPS ANCIENS
+  ET À TRAVERS LE MARTYR DE LEURS PÈRES
+              A MAINTENU
+            À DORMILHOUSE
+        LA FOI DONNE AUX SAINTS
+    ET LA CONNAISSANCE DE LA PAROLE
+        LES HABITANTS ONT ÉLEVÉ
+              CETTE PIERRE
+               MDCCCLXIV.
+
+Having thus described the village and its history, a few words remain
+to be added as to the visit of our little party of travellers from
+Palons. On reaching the elevated point at which the archbishop had set
+up the red cross, the whole of the huts lay before us, and a little
+way down the mountain-side we discerned the village church,
+distinguished by its little belfry. Leaving on our right the
+Swiss-looking châlet with overhanging roof, in which Neff used to
+lodge with the Baridon-Verdure family while at Dormilhouse, and now
+known as "Felix Neff's house," we made our way down a steep and stony
+footpath towards the school-house adjoining the church, in front of
+which we found the large ash trees, shading both church and school,
+which Neff himself had planted. Arrived at the school-house, we there
+found shelter and accommodation for the night. The schoolroom, fitted
+with its forms and desks, was our parlour, and our bedrooms, furnished
+with the blankets we had brought with us, were in the little chambers
+adjoining.
+
+At eight in the evening the church bell rang for service--the
+summoning bell. The people had been expecting the visit, and turned
+out in full force, so that at nine o'clock, when the last bell rang,
+the church was found filled to the door. Every seat was occupied--by
+men on one side, and by women on the other. The service was conducted
+by Mr. Milsom, the missionary visitor from Lyons, who opened with
+prayer, then gave out the twenty-third Psalm, which was sung to an
+accompaniment on the harmonium; then another prayer, followed by the
+reading of a chapter in the New Testament, was wound up by an address,
+in which the speaker urged the people to their continuance in
+well-doing. In the course of his remarks he said: "Be not discouraged
+because the results of your Labours may appear but small. Work on and
+faint not, and God will give the spiritual increase. Pastors,
+teachers, and colporteurs are too often ready to despond, because the
+fruit does not seem to ripen while they are watching it. But the best
+fruit grows slowly. Think how the Apostles laboured. They were all
+poor men, but men of brave hearts; and they passed away to their rest
+long before the seed which they planted grew up and ripened to
+perfection. Work on then in patience and hope, and be assured that God
+will at length help you."
+
+Mr. Milsom's address was followed by another from the pastor, and then
+by a final prayer and hymn, after which the service was concluded, and
+the villagers dispersed to their respective homes a little after ten
+o'clock. The snow had ceased falling, but the sky was still overcast,
+and the night felt cold and raw, like February rather than July.
+
+The wonder is, that this community of Dormilhouse should cling to
+their mountain eyrie so long after the necessity for their living
+above the clouds has ceased; but it is their home, and they have come
+to love it, and are satisfied to live and die there. Rather than live
+elsewhere, they will walk, as some of them do, twelve miles in the
+early morning, to their work down in the valley of the Durance, and
+twelve miles home again, in the evenings, to their perch on the rocks
+at Dormilhouse.
+
+They are even proud of their mountain home, and would not change it
+for the most smiling vineyard of the plains. They are like a little
+mountain clan--all Baridons, or Michels, or Orcieres, or Bertholons,
+or Arnouds--proud of their descent from the ancient Vaudois. It is
+their boast that a Roman Catholic does not live among them. Once, when
+a young shepherd came up from the valley to pasture his flock in the
+mountains, he fell in love with a maiden of the village, and proposed
+to marry her. "Yes," was the answer, with this condition, that he
+joined the Vaudois Church. And he assented, married the girl, and
+settled for life at Dormilhouse.[105]
+
+         [Footnote 105: Since the date of our visit, we learn that a
+         sad accident--strikingly illustrative of the perils of
+         village life at Dormilhouse--has befallen this young
+         shepherd, by name Jean Joseph Lagier. One day in October,
+         1869, while engaged in gathering wood near the brink of the
+         precipice overhanging Minsals, he accidently fell over and
+         was killed on the spot, leaving behind him a widow and a
+         large family. He was a person of such excellent character and
+         conduct, that he had been selected as colporteur for the
+         neighbourhood.]
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The next morning broke clear and bright overhead. The sun shone along
+the rugged face of the Gramusac right over against the hamlet,
+bringing out its bolder prominences. Far below, the fleecy clouds were
+still rolling themselves up the mountain-sides, or gradually
+dispersing as the sun caught them on their emerging from the valley
+below. The view was bold and striking, displaying the grandeur of the
+scenery of Dormilhouse in one of its best aspects.
+
+Setting out on the return journey to Palons, we descended the face of
+the mountain on which Dormilhouse stands, by a steep footpath right in
+front of it, down towards the falls of the Biasse. Looking back, the
+whole village appeared above us, cottage over cottage, and ledge over
+ledge, with its stern background of rocky mountain.
+
+Immediately under the village, in a hollow between two shoulders of
+rock, the cascade of the Biasse leaps down into the valley. The
+highest leap falls in a jet of about a hundred feet, and the lower,
+divided into two by a projecting ledge, breaks into a shower of spray
+which falls about a hundred and fifty feet more into the abyss below.
+Even in Switzerland this fall would be considered a fine object; but
+in this out-of-the-way place, it is rarely seen except by the
+villagers, who have water and cascades more than enough.
+
+We were told on the spot, that some eighty years since an avalanche
+shot down the mountain immediately on to the plateau on which we
+stood, carrying with it nearly half the village of Dormilhouse; and
+every year the avalanches shoot down at the same place, which is
+strewn with the boulders and débris that extend far down into the
+valley.
+
+At the bottom of the Tourniquet we joined M. Charpiot, accompanying
+the donkey laden with the blankets and knapsacks, and proceeded with
+him on our way down the valley towards his hospitable parsonage at
+Palons.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+GUILLESTRE AND THE VALLEY OF QUEYRAS.
+
+
+We left Palons on a sharp, bright morning in July, with the prospect
+of a fine day before us, though there had been a fall of snow in the
+night, which whitened the tops of the neighbouring hills. Following
+the road along the heights on the right bank of the Biasse, and
+passing the hamlet of Chancellas, another favourite station of Neff's,
+a rapid descent led us down into the valley of the Durance, which we
+crossed a little above the village of St. Crepin, with the strong
+fortress of Mont Dauphin before us a few miles lower down the valley.
+
+This remote corner in the mountains was the scene of much fighting in
+early times between the Roman Catholics and the Huguenots, and
+afterwards between the French and the Piedmontese. It was in this
+neighbourhood that Lesdiguières first gave evidence of his skill and
+valour as a soldier. The massacre of St. Bartholomew at Paris in 1572
+had been followed by like massacres in various parts of France,
+especially in the south. The Roman Catholics of Dauphiny, deeming the
+opportunity favourable for the extirpation of the heretical Vaudois,
+dispatched the military commandant of Embrun against the inhabitants
+of Val Fressinières at the head of an army of twelve hundred men.
+Lesdiguières, then scarce twenty-four years old, being informed of
+their march, hastily assembled a Huguenot force in the valley of the
+Drac, and, crossing the Col d'Orcières from Champsaur into the valley
+of the Durance, he suddenly fell upon the enemy at St. Crepin, routed
+them, and drove them down the valley to Embrun. Twelve years later,
+during the wars of the League, Lesdiguières distinguished himself in
+the same neighbourhood, capturing Embrun, Guillestre, and Château
+Queyras, in the valley of the Guil, thereby securing the entire
+province for his royal master, Henry of Navarre.
+
+The strong fortress of Mont Dauphin, at the junction of the Guil with
+the Durance, was not constructed until a century later. Victor-Amadeus
+II., when invading the province with a Piedmontese army, at sight of
+the plateau commanding the entrance of both valleys, exclaimed, "There
+is a pass to fortify." The hint was not neglected by the French
+general, Catinat, under whose directions the great engineer, Vauban,
+traced the plan of the present fortifications. It is a very strong
+place, completely commanding the valley of the Durance, while it is
+regarded as the key of the passage into Italy by the Guil and the Col
+de la Croix.
+
+Guillestre is a small old-fashioned town, situated on the lowest slope
+of the pine-clad mountain, the Tête de Quigoulet, at the junction of
+the Rioubel and the Chagne, rivulets in summer but torrents in winter,
+which join the Guil a little below the town. Guillestre was in ancient
+times a strong place, and had for its lords the Archbishops of Embrun,
+the ancient persecutors of the Vaudois. The castle of the archbishop,
+flanked by six towers, occupied a commanding site immediately
+overlooking the town; but at the French Revolution of 1789, the first
+thing which the archbishop's flock did was to pull his castle in
+pieces, leaving not one stone upon another; and, strange to say, the
+only walled enclosure now within its precincts is the little
+burying-ground of the Guillestre Protestants. One memorable stone has,
+however, been preserved, the stone trough in which the peasants were
+required to measure the tribute of grain payable by them to their
+reverend seigneurs. It is still to be seen laid against a wall in an
+open space in front of the church.
+
+It happened that the fair of Guillestre, which is held every two
+months, was afoot at the time of our visit. It is frequented by the
+people of the adjoining valleys, of which Guillestre is the centre, as
+well as by Piedmontese from beyond the Italian frontier. On the
+principal day of the fair we found the streets filled with peasants
+buying and selling beasts. They were apparently of many races. Amongst
+them were many well-grown men, some with rings in their
+ears--horse-dealers from Piedmont, we were told; but the greater
+number were little, dark, thin, and poorly-fed peasants. Some of them,
+dark-eyed and tawny-skinned, looked like Arabs, possibly descendants
+of the Saracens who once occupied the province. There were one or two
+groups of gipsies, differing from all else; but the district is too
+poor to be much frequented by people of that race.
+
+The animals brought for sale showed the limited resources of the
+neighbourhood. One hill-woman came along dragging two goats in milk;
+another led a sheep and a goat; a third a donkey in foal; a fourth a
+cow in milk; and so on. The largest lot consisted of about forty
+lambs, of various sizes and breeds, which had been driven down from
+the cool air of the mountains, and, gasping with heat, were cooling
+their heads against the shady side of a stone wall. There were several
+lots of pigs, of a bad but probably hardy sort--mostly black,
+round-backed, long-legged, and long-eared. In selling the animals,
+there was the usual chaffering, in shrill patois, at the top of the
+voice--the seller of some poor scraggy beast extolling its merits, the
+intending buyer running it down as a "misérable bossu," &c., and
+disputing every point raised in its behalf, until the contest of words
+rose to such a height--men, women, and even children, on both sides,
+taking part in it--that the bystander would have thought it impossible
+they could separate without a fight. But matters always came to a
+peaceable conclusion, for the French are by no means a quarrelsome
+people.
+
+There were also various other sorts of produce offered for sale--wool,
+undressed sheepskins, sticks for firewood, onions and vegetable
+produce, and considerable quantities of honeycomb; while the sellers
+of scythes, whetstones, caps, and articles of dress, seemed to meet
+with a ready sale for their wares, arranged on stalls in the open
+space in front of the church. Altogether, the queer collection of
+beasts and their drivers, who were to be seen drinking together
+greedily and promiscuously from the fountains in the market-place; the
+steep streets, crowded with lean goats and cows and pigs, and their
+buyers and sellers; the braying of donkeys and the shrieking of
+chafferers, with here and there a goitred dwarf of hideous aspect,
+presented a picture of an Alpine mountain fair, which, once seen, is
+not readily forgotten.
+
+There is a similar fair held at the village of La Bessie, before
+mentioned, a little higher up the Durance, on the road to Briançon;
+but it is held only once a year, at the end of October, when the
+inhabitants of Dormilhouse come down in a body to lay in their stock
+of necessaries for the winter. "There then arrives," says M. Albert,
+"a caravan of about the most singular character that can be imagined.
+It consists of nearly the whole population of the mountain hamlet, who
+resort thither to supply themselves with the articles required for
+family use during the winter, such as leather, lint, salt, and oil.
+These poor mountaineers are provided with very little money, and, to
+procure the necessary commodities, they have recourse to barter, the
+most ancient and primitive method of conducting trade. Hence they
+bring with them rye, barley, pigs, lambs, chamois skins and horns, and
+the produce of their knitting during the past year, to exchange for
+the required articles, with which they set out homeward, laden as they
+had come."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The same circumstances which have concurred in making Guillestre the
+seat of the principal fair of the valleys, led Felix Neff to regard it
+as an important centre of missionary operations amongst the Vaudois.
+In nearly all the mountain villages in its neighbourhood descendants
+of the ancient Vaudois are to be found, sometimes in the most remote
+and inaccessible places, whither they had fled in the times of the
+persecutions. Thus at Vars, a mountain hamlet up the torrent Rioubel,
+about nine miles from Guillestre, there is a little Christian
+community, which, though under the necessity of long concealing their
+faith, never ceased to be Vaudois in spirit.[106] Then, up the valley
+of the Guil, and in the lateral valleys which join it, there are, in
+some places close to the mountain barrier which divides France from
+Italy, other villages and hamlets, such as Arvieux, San Veran,
+Fongilarde, &c., the inhabitants of which, though they concealed their
+faith subsequent to the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes, never
+conformed to Roman Catholicism, but took the earliest opportunity of
+declaring themselves openly so soon as the dark period of persecution
+had passed by.
+
+         [Footnote 106: The well-known Alpine missionary, J. L.
+         Rostan, of whom an interesting biography has recently been
+         published by the Rev. A. J. French, for the Wesleyan
+         Conference, was a native of Vars. He was one of the favourite
+         pupils of Felix Neff, with whom he resided at Dormilhouse in
+         1825-7; Neff saying of him: "Among the best of my pupils, as
+         regards spiritual things and secular too, is Jean Rostan, of
+         Vars: he is probably destined for the ministry; such at least
+         is my hope." Neff bequeathed to him the charge of his parish
+         during his temporary absence, but he never returned; and
+         shortly after, Rostan left, to pursue his studies at
+         Montauban. He joined the Methodist Church, settled and
+         ministered for a time in La Vaunage and the Cevennes,
+         afterwards labouring as a missionary in the High Alps, and
+         eventually settled as minister of the church at Lisieux,
+         Jersey, in charge of which he died, July, 1859.]
+
+The people of these scattered and distant hamlets were, however, too
+poor to supply themselves with religious instructors, and they long
+remained in a state of spiritual destitution. Felix Neff's labours
+were too short, and scattered over too extensive a field, to produce
+much permanent effect. Besides, they were principally confined to the
+village of Dormilhouse, which, as being the most destitute, had, he
+thought, the greatest claim upon his help; and at his death
+comparatively little had been done or attempted in the Guillestre
+district. But he left behind him what was worth more than any
+endowment of money, a noble example, which still lives, and inspires
+the labourers who have come after him.
+
+It was not until within the last twenty years that a few Vaudois
+families of Guillestre began to meet together for religious purposes,
+which they did at first in the upper chamber of an inn. There the Rev.
+Mr. Freemantle found them when paying his first visit to the valleys
+in 1851. He was rejoiced to see the zeal of the people, holding to
+their faith in the face of considerable opposition and opprobrium; and
+he exerted himself to raise the requisite funds amongst his friends in
+England to provide the Guillestre Vaudois with a place of worship of
+their own. His efforts were attended with success; and in 1854 a
+comfortable parsonage, with a commodious room for public worship, was
+purchased for their use. A fund was also provided for the maintenance
+of a settled ministry; a pastor was appointed; and in 1857 a
+congregation of from forty to seventy persons attended worship every
+Sunday. Mr. Freemantle, in a communication with which he has favoured
+us, says: "Our object has not been to make an aggression upon the
+Roman Catholics, but to strengthen the hands and establish the faith
+of the Vaudois. And in so doing we have found, not unfrequently, that
+when an interest has been excited among the Roman Catholic population
+of the district, there has been some family or hereditary connection
+with ancestors who were independent of the see of Rome, and such have
+again joined themselves to the faith of their fathers."
+
+The new movement was not, however, allowed to proceed without great
+opposition. The "Momiers," or mummers--the modern nickname of the
+Vaudois--were denounced by the curé of the place, and the people were
+cautioned, as they valued their souls' safety, against giving any
+countenance to their proceedings. The curé was doubtless seriously
+impressed by the gravity of the situation; and to protect the parish
+against the assaults of the evil one, he had a large number of crosses
+erected upon the heights overlooking the town. On one occasion he had
+a bad dream, in which he beheld the valley filled with a vast assembly
+come to be judged; and on the site of the judgment-seat which he saw
+in his dream, he set up, on the summit of the Come Chauve, a large tin
+cross hearted with wood. We were standing in the garden in front of
+the parsonage at Guillestre late in the evening, when M. Schell, the
+pastor, pointing up to the height, said, "There you see it now; that
+is the curé's erection." The valley below lay in deep shadow, while
+the cross upon the summit brightly reflected the last rays of the
+setting sun.
+
+The curé, finding that the "Momiers" did not cease to exist, next
+adopted the expedient of preaching them down. On the occasion of the
+Fête Napoleon, 1862, when the Rev. Mr. Freemantle visited Guillestre
+for the purpose of being present at the Vaudois services on Sunday,
+the 10th of August, the curé preached a special sermon to his
+congregation at early morning mass, telling them that an Englishman
+had come into the town with millions of francs to buy up the souls of
+Guillestre, and warning them to abstain from such men.
+
+The people were immediately filled with curiosity to know what it was
+that this stranger had come all the way from England to do, backed by
+"millions of francs." Many of them did not as yet know that there was
+such a thing as a Vaudois church in Guillestre; but now that they did
+know, they were desirous of ascertaining something about the doctrines
+taught there. The consequence was, that a crowd of people--amongst
+whom were some of the highest authorities in the town, the registrar,
+the douaniers, the chief of a neighbouring commune, and persons of all
+classes--assembled at noon to hear M. de Faye, the Protestant pastor,
+who preached to them an excellent sermon under the trees of the
+parsonage orchard, while a still larger number attended in the
+afternoon.
+
+When the curé heard of the conduct of his flock he was greatly
+annoyed. "What did you hear from the heretics?" he asked of one of the
+delinquents. "I heard _your_ sermon in the morning, and a sermon _upon
+charity_ in the afternoon," was the reply.
+
+Great were the surprise and excitement in Guillestre when it became
+known that the principal sergeant of gendarmerie--the very embodiment
+of law and order in the place--had gone over and joined the "Momiers"
+with his wife and family. M. Laugier was quite a model gendarme. He
+was a man of excellent character, steady, sensible, and patient, a
+diligent self-improver, a reader of books, a botanist, and a bit of a
+geologist. He knew all the rare mountain plants, and had a collection
+of those that would bear transplantation, in his garden at the back of
+the town. No man was more respected in Guillestre than the sergeant.
+His long and faithful service entitled him to the _médaille
+militaire_, and it would have been awarded to him, but for the
+circumstance which came to light, and which he did not seek to
+conceal, that he had joined the Protestant connexion. Not only was the
+medal withheld, but influence was used to get him sent away from the
+place; and he was packed off to a station in the mountains at Château
+Queyras.
+
+Though this banishment from Guillestre was intended as a punishment,
+it only served to bring out the sterling qualities of the sergeant,
+and to ensure his eventual reward. It so happened that the station at
+Château Queyras commanded the approaches into an extensive range of
+mountain pasturage. Although not required specially to attend to their
+safety, our sergeant had nevertheless carefully noted the flocks and
+herds as they went up the valleys in the spring. When winter
+approached, they were all brought down again from the mountains for
+safety.
+
+The winter of that year set in early and severely. The sergeant,
+making his observations on the flocks as they passed down the valley,
+noted that one large flock of about three thousand sheep had not yet
+made its appearance. The mountains were now covered with snow, and he
+apprehended that the sheep and their shepherds had been storm-stayed.
+Summoning to his assistance a body of men, he set out at their head in
+search of the lost flock. After a long, laborious, and dangerous
+journey--for the snow by this time lay deep in the hollows of the
+hills--he succeeded in discovering the shepherds and the sheep, almost
+reduced to their last gasp--the sheep, for want of food, actually
+gnawing each other's tails. With great difficulty the whole were
+extricated from their perilous position, and brought down the
+mountains in safety.
+
+No representation was made to head-quarters by the authorities of
+Guillestre of the conduct of the Protestant sergeant in the matter;
+but when the shepherds got down to Gap, they were so full of the
+sergeant's praises, and of his bravery in rescuing them and their
+flock from certain death, that a paragraph descriptive of the affair
+was inserted in the local papers, and was eventually copied into the
+Parisian journals. Then it was that an inquiry was made into his
+conduct, and the result was so satisfactory that the sergeant was at
+once decorated not only with the _médaille militaire_, but with the
+_médaille de sauvetage_--a still higher honour; and, shortly after, he
+was allowed to retire from the service on full pay. He then returned
+to his home and family at Guillestre, where he now officiates as
+_Regent_ of the Vaudois church, reading the prayers and conducting the
+service in the absence of the stated minister.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+We spent a Sunday in the comfortable parsonage at Guillestre. There
+was divine service in the temple at half-past ten A.M., conducted by
+the regular pastor, M. Schell, and instruction and catechizing of the
+children in the afternoon. The pastor's regular work consists of two
+services at Guillestre and Vars on alternate Sundays, with
+Sunday-school and singing lesson; and on week days he gives religious
+instruction in the Guillestre school. The missionary's wife is a true
+"helpmeet," and having been trained as a deaconess at Strasbourg, she
+regularly visits the poor, occasionally assisting them with medical
+advice.
+
+Another important part of the work at Guillestre is the girls' school,
+for which suitable premises have been taken; and it is conducted by an
+excellent female teacher. Here not only the usual branches of
+education are taught, but domestic industry of different kinds.
+Through the instrumentality of Mr. Milsom, glove-sewing has been
+taught to the girls, and it is hoped that by this and similar efforts
+this branch of home manufacture may become introduced in the High
+Alps, and furnish profitable employment to many poor persons during
+their long and dreary winter.
+
+By the aid of a special fund, a few girl boarders, belonging to
+scattered Protestant families who have no other means for the
+education of their children, are also received at the school. The
+girls seem to be extremely well taken care of, and the house, which we
+went over, is a very pattern of cleanliness and comfort.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The route from Guillestre into Italy lies up the valley of the Guil,
+through one of the wildest and deepest gorges, or rather chasms, to be
+found in Europe. Brockedon says it is "one of the finest in the Alps."
+M. Bost compares it to the Moutier-Grand-Val, in the canton of Berne,
+but says it is much wilder. He even calls it frightful, which it is
+not, except in rainy weather, when the rocks occasionally fall from
+overhead. At such times people avoid travelling through the gorge. M.
+Bost also likens it to the Via Mala, though here the road, at the
+narrowest and most precipitous parts, runs in the _bottom_ of the
+gorge, in a ledge cut in the rock, there being room only for the river
+and the road. It is only of late years that the road has been
+completed, and it is often partly washed away in winter, or covered
+with rock and stones brought down by the torrent. When Neff travelled
+the gorge, it was passable only on foot, or on mule-back. Yet
+light-footed armies have passed into Italy by this route. Lesdiguières
+clambered over the mountains and along the Guil to reach Château
+Queyras, which he assaulted and took. Louis XIII. once accompanied a
+French army about a league up the gorge, but he turned back, afraid to
+go farther; and the hamlet at which his progress was arrested is still
+called Maison du Roi. About three leagues higher up, after crossing
+the Guil from bank to bank several times, in order to make use of such
+ledges of the rock as are suitable for the road, the gorge opens into
+the Combe du Queyras, and very shortly the picturesque-looking Castle
+of Queyras comes in sight, occupying the summit of a lofty conical
+rock in the middle of the valley.
+
+As we approached Château Queyras the ruins of a building were pointed
+out by Mr. Milsom in the bottom of the valley, close by the
+river-side. "That," said he, "was once the Protestant temple of the
+place. It was burnt to the ground at the Revocation. You see that old
+elm-tree growing near it. That tree was at the same time burnt to a
+black stump. It became a saying in the valley that Protestantism was
+as dead as that stump, and that it would only reappear when that dead
+stump came to life! And, strange to say, since Felix Neff has been
+here, the stump _has_ come to life--you see how green it is--and again
+Protestantism is like the elm-tree, sending out its vigorous
+offshoots, in the valley."
+
+Château Queyras stands in the centre of the valley of the Guil, which
+is joined near this point by two other valleys, the Combe of Arvieux
+joining it on the right bank, and that of San Veran on the left. The
+heads of the streams which traverse these valleys have their origin in
+the snowy range of the Cottian Alps, which form the boundary between
+France and Italy. As in the case of the descendants of the ancient
+Vaudois at Dormilhouse, they are here also found at the farthest limit
+of vegetation, penetrating almost to the edge of the glacier, where
+they were least likely to be molested. The inhabitants of Arvieux were
+formerly almost entirely Protestant, and had a temple there, which was
+pulled down at the Revocation. From that time down to the Revolution
+they worshipped only in secret, occasionally ministered to by Vaudois
+pastors, who made precarious visits to them from the Italian valleys
+at the risk of their lives.
+
+Above Arvieux is the hamlet of La Chalp, containing a considerable
+number of Protestants, and where Neff had his home--a small, low
+cottage undistinguishable from the others save by its whitewashed
+front. Its situation is cheerful, facing the south, and commanding a
+pleasant mountain prospect, contrasting strongly with the barren
+outlook and dismal hovels of Dormilhouse. But Neff never could regard
+the place as his home. "The inhabitants," he observed in his journal,
+"have more traffic, and the mildness of the climate appears somehow or
+other not favourable to the growth of piety. They are zealous
+Protestants, and show me a thousand attentions, but they are at
+present absolutely impenetrable." The members of the congregation at
+Arvieux, indeed, complained of his spending so little of his time
+among them; but the comfort of his cottage at La Chalp, and the
+comparative mildness of the climate of Arvieux, were insufficient to
+attract him from the barren crags but warm hearts of Dormilhouse.
+
+The village of San Veran, which lies up among the mountains some
+twelve miles to the east of Arvieux, on the opposite side of the Val
+Queyras, was another of the refuges of the ancient Vaudois. It is at
+the foot of the snowy ridge which divides France from Italy. Dr. Gilly
+says, "There is nothing fit for mortal to take refuge in between San
+Veran and the eternal snows which mantle the pinnacles of Monte Viso."
+The village is 6,692 feet above the level of the sea, and there is a
+provincial saying that San Veran is the highest spot in Europe where
+bread is eaten. Felix Neff said, "It is the highest, and consequently
+the most pious, in the valley of Queyras." Dr. Gilly was the second
+Englishman who had ever found his way to the place, and he was
+accompanied on the occasion by Mrs. Gilly. "The sight of a female,"
+he says, "dressed entirely in linen, was a phenomenon so new to those
+simple peasants, whose garments are never anything but woollen, that
+Pizarro and his mail-clad companions were not greater objects of
+curiosity to the Peruvians than we were to these mountaineers."
+
+Not far distant from San Veran are the mountain hamlets of Pierre
+Grosse and Fongillarde, also ancient retreats of the persecuted
+Vaudois, and now for the most part inhabited by Protestants. The
+remoteness and comparative inaccessibility of these mountain hamlets
+may be inferred from the fact that in 1786, when the Protestants of
+France were for the first time since the Revocation of the Edict of
+Nantes permitted to worship in public without molestation, four years
+elapsed before the intelligence reached San Veran.
+
+We have now reached almost the extreme limits of France; Italy lying
+on the other side of the snowy peaks which shut in the upper valleys
+of the Alps. In Neff's time the parish of which he had charge extended
+from San Veran, on the frontier, to Champsaur, in the valley of the
+Drac, a distance of nearly eighty miles. His charge consisted of the
+scattered population of many mountain hamlets, to visit which in
+succession involved his travelling a total distance of not less than
+one hundred and eighty miles. It was, of course, impossible that any
+single man, no matter how inspired by zeal and devotion, could do
+justice to a charge so extensive. The difficulties of passing through
+a country so wild and rugged were also very great, especially in
+winter. Neff records that on one occasion he took six hours to make
+the journey, in the midst of a snow-storm which completely hid the
+footpath, from his cottage at La Chalp to San Veran, a distance of
+only twelve miles.
+
+The pastors who succeeded Neff had the same difficulties to encounter,
+and there were few to be found who could brave them. The want of proper
+domestic accommodation for the pastors was also felt to be a great
+hindrance. Accordingly, one of the first things to which the Rev. Mr.
+Freemantle directed his attention, when he entered upon his noble work
+of supplying the spiritual destitution of the French Vaudois, was to
+take steps not only to supply the poor people with more commodious
+temples, but also to provide dwelling-houses for the pastors. And in the
+course of a few years, helped by friends in England, he has been enabled
+really to accomplish a very great deal. The extensive parish of Neff is
+now divided into five sub-parishes--that of Fressinières, which includes
+Palons, Violins, and Dormilhouse, provided with three temples, a
+parsonage, and schools; Arvieux, with the hamlets of Brunissard (where
+worship was formerly conducted in a stable) and La Chalp, provided with
+two temples, a parsonage, and schools; San Veran, with Fongillarde and
+Pierre Grosse, provided with three temples, a parsonage, and a school;
+St. Laurent du Cros and Champsaur, in the valley of the Drac, provided
+with a temple, school, &c., principally through the liberality of Lord
+Monson; and Guillestre and Vars, provided with two temples, a parsonage,
+and a girls' school. A temple, with a residence for a pastor, has also
+of late years been provided at Briançon, with a meeting-place also at
+the village of Villeneuve.
+
+Such are the agencies now at work in the district of the High Alps,
+helped on by a few zealous workers in England and abroad. While the
+object of the pastors, in the words of Mr. Freemantle, is "not to
+regard themselves as missionaries to proselytize Roman Catholics, but
+as ministers residing among their own people, whose faith, and love,
+and holiness they have to promote," they also endeavour to institute
+measures with the object of improving the social and domestic
+condition of the Vaudois. Thus, in one district--that of St. Laurent
+du Cros--a _banque de prévoyance_, or savings-bank, has been
+established; and though it was at first regarded with suspicion, it
+has gradually made its way and proved of great value, being made use
+of by the indigent Roman Catholics as well as Protestant families of
+the district. Such efforts and such agencies as these cannot fail to
+be followed by blessings, and to be greatly instrumental for good.
+
+Our last night in France was spent in the miserable little town of
+Abries, situated immediately at the foot of the Alpine ridge which
+separates France from Italy. On reaching the principal hotel, or
+rather auberge, we found every bed taken; but a peep into the dark and
+dirty kitchen, which forms the entrance-hall of the place, made us
+almost glad that there was no room for us in that inn. We turned out
+into the wet streets to find a better; but though we succeeded in
+finding beds in a poor house in a back lane, little can be said in
+their praise. We were, however, supplied with a tolerable dinner, and
+contrived to pass the night in rest, and to start refreshed early on
+the following morning on our way to the Vaudois valleys of Piedmont.
+
+[Illustration: Valley of Luserne.]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+THE VALLEY OF THE PELICE--LA TOUR--ANGROGNA--THE PRA DU TOUR.
+
+
+The village of Abries is situated close to the Alpine ridge, the
+summit of which marks the boundary between France and Italy. On the
+other side lie the valleys of Piedmont, in which the French Vaudois
+were accustomed to take refuge when persecution ravaged their own
+valleys, passing by the mountain-road we were now about to travel, as
+far as La Tour, in the valley of the Pelice.
+
+Although there are occasional villages along the route, there is no
+good resting-place for travellers short of La Tour, some twenty-six
+miles distant from Abries; and as it was necessary that we should walk
+the distance, the greater part of the road being merely a track,
+scarcely practicable for mules, we were up betimes in the morning, and
+on our way. The sun had scarcely risen above the horizon. The mist
+was still hanging along the mountain-sides, and the stillness of the
+scene was only broken by the murmur of the Guil running in its rocky
+bed below. Passing through the hamlet of Monta, where the French
+douane has its last frontier station, we began the ascent; and soon,
+as the sun rose and the mists cleared away, we saw the profile of the
+mountain up which we were climbing cast boldly upon the range behind
+us on the further side of the valley. A little beyond the ravine of
+the Combe de la Croix, along the summit of which the road winds, we
+reached the last house within the French frontier--a hospice, not very
+inviting in appearance, for the accommodation of travellers. A little
+further is the Col, and passing a stone block carved with the
+fleur-de-lis and cross of Savoy, we crossed the frontier of France and
+entered Italy.
+
+On turning a shoulder of the mountain, we looked down upon the head of
+the valley of the Pelice, a grand and savage scene. The majestic,
+snow-capped Monte Viso towers up on the right, at the head of the
+valley, amidst an assemblage of other great mountain masses. From its
+foot seems to steal the river Pelice, now a quiet rivulet, though in
+winter a raging torrent. Right in front, lower down the valley, is the
+rocky defile of Mirabouc, a singularly savage gorge, seemingly rent
+asunder by some tremendous convulsion of nature; beyond and over which
+extends the valley of the Pelice, expanding into that of the Po, and
+in the remote distance the plains of Piedmont; while immediately
+beneath our feet, as it were, but far below, lies a considerable
+breadth of green pasture, the Bergerie of Pra, enclosed on all sides
+by the mountains over which we look.
+
+The descent from the Col down into the Pra is very difficult, in some
+places almost precipitous--far more abrupt than on the French side,
+where the incline up to the summit is comparatively easy.
+
+The zigzag descends from one rock to another, along the face of a
+shelving slope, by a succession of notches (from which the footpath is
+not inappropriately termed _La Coche_) affording a very insecure
+footing for the few mules which occasionally cross the pass. Dr. Gilly
+crossed here from La Tour with Mrs. Gilly in 1829, when about to visit
+the French valleys; but he found the path so difficult and dangerous,
+that the lady had to walk nearly the whole way.
+
+As we descended the mountain almost by a succession of leaps, we
+overtook M. Gariod, deputy judge of Gap, engaged in botanizing among
+the rocks; and he informed us that among the rarer specimens he had
+collected in the course of his journey on the summit were the
+_Polygonum alpinum_ and _Silene vallesia_, above Monta; the
+_Leucanthemum alpinum_, near the Hospice; the _Linaria alpina_ and
+_Cirsium spinosissimus_ on the Col; while the _Lloydia serotina_,
+_Arabis alpina_, _Phyteuma hemisphericum_, and _Rhododendrum
+ferrugineum_, were found all over the face of the rocky descent to the
+Pra.
+
+At the foot of the _Coche_ we arrived at the first house in Italy, the
+little auberge of the Pra, a great resort of sportsmen, who come to
+hunt the chamois in the adjoining mountains during the season. Here is
+also the usual customs station, with a few officers of the Italian
+douane, to watch the passage of merchandise across the frontier.
+
+The road from hence to la Tour is along the river Pelice, which is
+kept in sight nearly the whole way. A little below the Pra, where it
+enters the defile of Mirabouc, the path merely follows what is the
+bed of the torrent in winter. The descent is down ledges and notches,
+from rock to rock, with rugged precipices overhanging the ravine for
+nearly a mile. At its narrowest part stand the ruins of the ancient
+fort of Mirabouc, built against the steep escarpments of the mountain,
+which, in ancient times, completely commanded and closed the defile
+against the passage of an enemy from that quarter. And difficult
+though the Col de la Croix is for the passage of an army, it has on
+more than one occasion been passed by French detachments in their
+invasion of Italy.
+
+It is not until we reach Bobi, or Bobbio, several miles lower down the
+Pelice, that we at last feel we are in Italy. Here the valley opens
+out, the scenery is soft and inviting, the fields are well tilled, the
+vegetation is rich, and the clusters of chestnut-trees in magnificent
+foliage. We now begin to see the striking difference between the
+French and the Italian valleys. The former are precipitous and
+sterile, constant falls of slaty rock blocking up the defiles; while
+here the mountains lay aside their savage aspects, and are softened
+down into picturesquely wooded hills, green pastures, and fertile
+fields stretching along the river-sides, yielding a rich territory for
+the plough.
+
+Yet, beautiful and peaceful though this valley of the Pelice now
+appears, there is scarcely a spot in it but has been consecrated by
+the blood of martyrs to the cause of liberty and religion. In the
+rugged defile of the Mirabouc, which we have just passed, is the site
+of a battle fought between the Piedmontese troops and the Vaudois
+peasants, at a place called the Pian-del-Mort, where the persecuted,
+turning upon the persecutors, drove them back, and made good their
+retreat to their mountain fastnesses. Bobi itself was the scene of
+many deadly struggles. A little above the village, on a rocky plateau,
+are the remains of an ancient fort, near the hamlet of Sibaud, where
+the Vaudois performed one of their bravest exploits under Henri
+Arnaud, after their "Glorious Return" from exile,--near which, on a
+stone still pointed out, they swore fidelity to each other, and that
+they would die to the last man rather than abandon their country and
+their religion.
+
+Near Bobi is still to be seen a remarkable illustration of English
+interest long ago felt in the people of these valleys. This is the
+long embankment or breakwater, built by a grant from Oliver Cromwell,
+for the purpose of protecting the village against the inundations of
+the Pelice, by one of which it was nearly destroyed in the time of the
+Protectorate. It seems strange indeed that England should then have
+stretched out its hand so far, to help a people so poor and
+uninfluential as the Vaudois; but their sufferings had excited the
+sympathies of all Europe, and of Protestant England in particular,
+which not only sent them sympathy, but substantial succour. Cromwell
+also, through the influence of Cardinal Mazarin, compelled the Duke of
+Savoy to suspend for a time the persecution of his subjects,--though
+shortly after the Protector's death it waxed hotter than ever.
+
+All down the valley of the Pelice, we come upon village after
+village--La Piante, Villar, and Cabriol--which have been the scenes
+sometimes of heroic combats, and sometimes of treacherous massacres.
+Yet all the cruelty of Grand Dukes and Popes during centuries did not
+avail in turning the people of the valley from their faith. For they
+continue to worship after the same primitive forms as they did a
+thousand years ago; and in the principal villages and hamlets, though
+Romanism has long been supported by the power of the State and the
+patronage of the Church, the Protestant Vaudois continue to constitute
+the majority of the population.
+
+Rising up on the left of the road, between Villar and La Tour, are
+seen the bold and almost perpendicular rocks of Castelluzzo,
+terminating in the tower-like summit which has given to them their
+name. On the face of these rocks is one of the caverns in which the
+Vaudois were accustomed to hide their women and children when they
+themselves were forced to take the field. When Dr. Gilly first
+endeavoured to discover this famous cavern in 1829, he could not find
+any one who could guide him to it. Tradition said it was half way down
+the perpendicular face of the rock, and it was known to be very
+difficult to reach; but the doctor could not find any traces of it.
+Determined, however, not to be baffled, he made a second attempt a
+month later, and succeeded. He had to descend some fifty feet from the
+top of the cliff by a rope ladder, until a platform of rock was
+reached, from which the cavern was entered. It was found to consist of
+an irregular, rugged, sloping gallery in the face of the rock, of
+considerable extent, roofed in by a projecting crag. It is quite open
+to the south, but on all other sides it is secure; and it can only be
+entered from above. Such were the places to which the people of the
+valleys were driven for shelter in the dark days so happily passed
+away.
+
+One of the best indications of the improved _régime_ that now
+prevails, shortly presented itself in the handsome Vaudois church,
+situated at the western entrance of the town of La Tour, near to which
+is the college for the education of Vaudois pastors, together with
+residences for the clergy and professors. The founding of this
+establishment, as well as of the hospital for the poor and infirm
+Vaudois, is in a great measure due to the energetic zeal of the Dr.
+Gilly so often quoted above, whose writings on behalf of the faithful
+but destitute Protestants of the Piedmontese valleys, about forty
+years since, awakened an interest in their behalf in England, as well
+as in foreign countries, which has not yet subsided.
+
+More enthusiastic, if possible, even than Dr. Gilly, was the late
+General Beckwith, who followed up, with extraordinary energy, the work
+which the other had so well begun. The general was an old Peninsular
+veteran, who had followed the late Duke of Wellington through most of
+his campaigns, and lost a leg while serving under him at the battle of
+Waterloo. Hence the designation of him by a Roman Catholic bishop in
+an article published by him in one of the Italian journals, as "the
+adventurer with the wooden leg."
+
+The general's attention was first attracted to the subject of the
+Vaudois in the following curiously accidental way. Being a regular
+visitor at Apsley House, he called on the Duke one morning, and,
+finding him engaged, he strolled into the library to spend an idle
+half-hour among the books. The first he took up was Dr. Gilly's
+"Narrative," and what he read excited so lively an interest in his
+mind that he went direct to his bookseller and ordered all the
+publications relative to the Vaudois Church that could be procured.
+
+The general's zeal being thus fired, he set out shortly after on a
+visit to the Piedmontese valleys. He returned to them again and again,
+and at length settled at La Tour, where he devoted the remainder of
+his life and a large portion of his fortune to the service of the
+Vaudois Church and people. He organized a movement for the erection
+of schools, of which not fewer than one hundred and twenty were
+provided mainly through his instrumentality in different parts of the
+valleys, besides restoring and enlarging the college at La Tour,
+erecting the present commodious dwellings for the professors,
+providing a superior school for the education of pastors' daughters,
+and contributing towards the erection of churches wherever churches
+were needed.
+
+The general was so zealous a missionary, so eager for the propagation
+of the Gospel, that some of his friends asked him why he did not
+preach to the people. "No," said he; "men have their special gifts,
+and mine is _a brick-and-mortar gift_." The general was satisfied to
+go on as he had begun, helping to build schools, colleges, and
+churches for the Vaudois, wherever most needed. His crowning work was
+the erection of the grand block of buildings on the Viale del Ré at
+Turin, which not only includes a handsome and commodious Vaudois
+church, but an English church, and a Vaudois hospital and schools,
+erected at a cost of about fourteen thousand pounds, principally at
+the cost of the general himself, generously aided by Mr. Brewin and
+other English contributors.
+
+Nor were the people ungrateful to their benefactor. "Let the name of
+General Beckwith be blessed by all who pass this way," says an
+inscription placed upon one of the many schools opened through his
+efforts and generosity; and the whole country responds to the
+sentiment.
+
+To return to La Tour. The style of the buildings at its western
+end--the church, college, residences, and adjoining cottages, with
+their pretty gardens in front, designed, as they have been, by English
+architects--give one the idea of the best part of an English town.
+But this disappears as you enter the town itself, and proceed through
+the principal street, which is long, narrow, and thoroughly Italian.
+The situation of the town is exceedingly fine, at the foot of the
+Vandalin Mountain, near the confluence of the river Angrogna with the
+Pelice. The surrounding scenery is charming; and from the high
+grounds, north and south of the town, extensive views may be had in
+all directions--especially up the valley of the Pelice, and eastward
+over the plains of Piedmont--the whole country being, as it were,
+embroidered with vineyards, corn-fields, and meadows, here and there
+shaded with groves and thickets, spread over a surface varied by
+hills, and knolls, and undulating slopes.
+
+The size, importance, industry, and central situation of La Tour have
+always caused it to be regarded as the capital of the valleys.
+One-half of the Vaudois population occupies the valley of the Pelice
+and the lateral valley of Angrogna; the remainder, more widely
+scattered, occupying the valleys of Pérouse and Pragela, and the
+lateral valley of St. Martin--the entire number of the Protestant
+population in the several valleys amounting to about twenty thousand.
+
+Although, as we have already said, there is scarcely a hamlet in the
+valleys but has been made famous by the resistance of its inhabitants
+in past times to the combined tyranny of the Popes of Rome and the
+Dukes of Savoy, perhaps the most interesting events of all have
+occurred in the neighbourhood of La Tour, but more especially in the
+valley of Angrogna, at whose entrance it stands.
+
+The wonder is, that a scattered community of half-armed peasantry,
+without resources, without magazines, without fortresses, should have
+been able for any length of time to resist large bodies of regular
+troops--Italian, French, Spanish, and even Irish!--led by the most
+experienced commanders of the day, and abundantly supplied with arms,
+cannon, ammunition, and stores of all kinds. All that the people had
+on their side--and it compensated for much--was a good cause, great
+bravery, and a perfect knowledge of the country in which, and for
+which, they fought.
+
+Though the Vaudois had no walled towns, their district was a natural
+fortress, every foot of which was known to them--every pass, every
+defile, every barricade, and every defensible position. Resistance in
+the open country, they knew, would be fatal to them. Accordingly,
+whenever assailed by their persecutors, they fled to their mountain
+strongholds, and there waited the attack of the enemy.
+
+One of the strongest of such places--the Thermopylæ of the
+Vaudois--was the valley of Angrogna, up which the inhabitants of La
+Tour were accustomed to retreat on any sudden invasion by the army of
+Savoy. The valley is one of exquisite beauty, presenting a combination
+of mingled picturesqueness and sublimity, the like of which is rarely
+to be seen. It is hemmed in by mountains, in some places rounded and
+majestic, in others jagged and abrupt. The sides of the valley are in
+many places finely wooded, while in others well-tilled fields,
+pastures, and vineyards slope down to the river-side. Orchards are
+succeeded by pine-woods, and these again by farms and gardens.
+Sometimes a little cascade leaps from a rock on its way to the valley
+below; and little is heard around, save the rippling of water, and the
+occasional lowing of cattle in the pastures, mingled with the music of
+their bells.
+
+Shortly after entering the valley, we passed the scene of several
+terrible struggles between the Vaudois and their persecutors. One of
+the most famous spots is the plateau of Rochemalan, where the heights
+of St. John abut upon the mountains of Angrogna. It was shortly after
+the fulmination of a bull of extermination against the Vaudois by Pope
+Innocent VIII., in 1486, that an army of eighteen thousand regular
+French and Piedmontese troops, accompanied by a horde of brigands to
+whom the remission of sins was promised on condition of their helping
+to slay the heretics, encircled the valleys and proceeded to assail
+the Vaudois in their fastnesses. The Papal legate, Albert Catanée,
+Archdeacon of Cremona, had his head-quarters at Pignerol, from whence
+he superintended the execution of the Pope's orders. First, he sent
+preaching monks up the valleys to attempt the conversion of the
+Vaudois before attacking them with arms. But the peasantry refused to
+be converted, and fled to their strongholds in the mountains.
+
+Then Catanée took the field at the head of his army, advancing upon
+Angrogna. He extended his lines so as to enclose the entire body of
+heretics, with the object of cutting them off to a man. The Vaudois,
+however, defended themselves resolutely, though armed only with pikes,
+swords, and bows and arrows, and everywhere beat back the assailants.
+The severest struggle occurred at Rochemalan, which the crusaders
+attacked with great courage. But the Vaudois had the advantage of the
+higher ground, and, encouraged by the cries and prayers of the women,
+children, and old men whom they were defending, they impetuously
+rushed forward and drove the Papal troops downhill in disorder,
+pursuing them into the very plain.
+
+The next day the Papalini renewed the attack, ascending by the bottom
+of the valley, instead of by the plateau on which they had been
+defeated. But one of those dense mists, so common in the Alps, having
+settled down upon the valley, the troops became confused, broken up,
+and entangled in difficult paths; and in this state, marching
+apprehensively, they were fallen upon by the Vaudois and again
+completely defeated. Many of the soldiers slid over the rocks and were
+drowned in the torrent,--the chasm into which the captain of the
+detachment (Saquet de Planghère) fell, being still known as _Toumpi de
+Saquet_, or Saquet's Hole.
+
+The resistance of the mountaineers at other points, in the valleys of
+Pragela and St. Martin, having been almost equally successful, Catanée
+withdrew the Papal army in disgust, and marched it back into France,
+to wreak his vengeance on the defenceless Vaudois of the Val Louise,
+in the manner described in a preceding chapter.
+
+Less than a century later, a like attempt was made to force the
+entrance to the valley of Angrogna, by an army of Italians and
+Spaniards, under the command of the Count de la Trinité. A
+proclamation had been published, and put up in the villages of
+Angrogna, to the effect that all would be destroyed by fire and sword
+who did not forthwith return to the Church of Rome. And as the
+peasantry did not return, on the 2nd November, 1560, the Count
+advanced at the head of his army to extirpate the heretics. The
+Vaudois were provided with the rudest sort of weapons; many of them
+had only slings and cross-bows. But they felt strong in the goodness
+of their cause, and prepared to defend themselves to the death.
+
+As the Count's army advanced, the Vaudois retired until they reached
+the high ground near Rochemalan, where they took their stand. The
+enemy followed, and halted in the valley beneath, lighting their
+bivouac fires, and intending to pass the night there. Before darkness
+fell, however, an accidental circumstance led to an engagement. A
+Vaudois boy, who had got hold of a drum, began beating it in a ravine
+close by. The soldiers, thinking a hostile troop had arrived, sprang
+up in disorder and seized their arms. The Vaudois, on their part,
+seeing the movement, and imagining that an attack was about to be made
+on them, rushed forward to repel it. The soldiers, surprised and
+confused, for the most part threw away their arms, and fled down the
+valley. Irritated by this disgraceful retreat of some twelve hundred
+soldiers before two hundred peasants, the Count advanced a second
+time, and was again, repulsed by the little band of heroes, who
+charged his troops with loud shouts of "Viva Jesu Christo!" driving
+the invaders in confusion down the valley.
+
+It may be mentioned that the object of the Savoy general, in making
+this attack, was to force the valley, and capture the strong position
+of the Pra du Tour, the celebrated stronghold of the Vaudois, from
+whence we shall afterwards find them, again driven back, baffled and
+defeated.
+
+A hundred years passed, and still the Vaudois remained unconverted and
+unexterminated. The Marquis of Pianesse now advanced upon
+Angrogna--always with the same object, "ad extirpandos hereticos," in
+obedience to the order of the Propaganda. On this occasion not only
+Italian and Spanish but Irish troops were engaged in a combined effort
+to exterminate the Vaudois. The Irish were known as "the assassins"
+by the people of the valleys, because of their almost exceptional
+ferocity; and the hatred they excited by their outrages on women and
+children was so great, that on the assault and capture of St. Legont
+by the Vaudois peasantry, an Irish regiment surprised in barracks was
+completely destroyed.
+
+A combined attack was made on Angrogna on the 15th of June, 1655. On
+that day four separate bodies of troops advanced up the heights from
+different directions, thereby enclosing the little Vaudois army of
+three hundred men assembled there, and led by the heroic Javanel. This
+leader first threw himself upon the head of the column which advanced
+from Rocheplate, and drove it downhill. Then he drew off his little
+body towards Rochemalan, when he suddenly found himself opposed by the
+two bodies which had come up from St. John and La Tour. Retiring
+before them, he next found himself face to face with the fourth
+detachment, which had come up from Pramol. With the quick instinct of
+military genius, Javanel threw himself upon it before the beaten
+Rocheplate detachment were able to rally and assail him in flank; and
+he succeeded in cutting the Pramol force in two and passing through
+it, rushing up to the summit of the hill, on which he posted himself.
+And there he stood at bay.
+
+This hill is precipitous on one side, but of comparatively easy ascent
+on the side up which the little band of heroes had ascended. At the
+foot of the slope the four detachments, three thousand against three
+hundred, drew up and attacked him; but firing from a distance, their
+aim was not very deadly. For five hours Javanel resisted them as he
+best could, and then, seeing signs of impatience and hesitation in the
+enemy's ranks, he called out to his men, "Forward, my friends!" and
+they rushed downhill like an avalanche. The three thousand men
+recoiled, broke, and fled before the three hundred; and Javanel
+returned victorious to his entrenchments before Angrogna.
+
+Yet, again, some eight years later, in 1663, was this neighbourhood
+the scene of another contest, and again was Javanel the hero. On this
+occasion, the Marquis de Fleury led the troops of the Duke of Savoy,
+whose object, as before, was to advance up the valley, and assail the
+Vaudois stronghold of Pra du Tour; and again the peasantry resisted
+them successfully, and drove them back into the plains. Javanel then
+went to rejoin a party of the men whom he had posted at the "Gates of
+Angrogna" to defend the pass up the valley; and again he fell upon the
+enemy engaged in attempting to force a passage there, and defeated
+them with heavy loss.
+
+Such are among the exciting events which have occurred in this one
+locality in connection with the Vaudois struggle for country and
+liberty.
+
+Let us now proceed up the valley of Angrogna, towards the famous
+stronghold of the Pra du Tour, the object of those repeated attacks of
+the enemy in the neighbourhood of Rochemalan. As we advance, the
+mountains gradually close in upon the valley, leaving a comparatively
+small width of pasture land by the river-side. At the hamlet of Serre
+the carriage road ends; and from thence the valley grows narrower, the
+mountains which enclose it become more rugged and abrupt, until there
+is room enough only for a footpath along a rocky ledge, and the
+torrent running in its deep bed alongside. This continues for a
+considerable distance, the path in some places being overhung by
+precipices, or encroached upon by rocks and boulders fallen from the
+heights, until at length we emerge from the defile, and find ourselves
+in a comparatively open space, the famous Pra du Tour; the defile we
+have passed, alongside the torrent and overhung by the rocks, being
+known as the Barricade.
+
+The Pra du Tour, or Meadow of the Tower, is a little amphitheatre
+surrounded by rugged and almost inaccessible mountains, situated at
+the head of the valley of Angrogna. The steep slopes bring down into
+this deep dell the headwaters of the torrent, which escape among the
+rocks down the defile we have just ascended. The path up the defile
+forms the only approach to the Pra from the valley, but it is so
+narrow, tortuous, and difficult, that the labours of only a few men in
+blocking up the pathway with rocks and stones that lie ready at hand,
+might at any time so barricade the approach as to render it
+impracticable. The extremely secluded position of the place, its
+natural strength and inaccessibility, and its proximity to the
+principal Vaudois towns and villages, caused it to be regarded from
+the earliest times as their principal refuge. It was their fastness,
+their fortress, and often their home. It was more--it was their school
+and college; for in the depths of the Pra du Tour the pastors, or
+_barbas_,[107] educated young men for the ministry, and provided for
+the religious instruction of the Vaudois population.
+
+         [Footnote 107: _Barba_--a title of respect; in the Vaudois
+         dialect literally signifying an _uncle_.]
+
+It was the importance of the Pra du Tour as a stronghold that rendered
+it so often the object of attack through the valley of Angrogna. When
+the hostile troops of Savoy advanced upon La Tour, the inhabitants of
+the neighbouring valleys at once fled to the Pra, into which they
+drove their cattle, and carried what provisions they could; there
+constructing mills, ovens, houses, and all that was requisite for
+subsistence, as in a fort. The men capable of bearing arms stood on
+their guard to defend the passes of the Vachére and Roussine, at the
+extreme heads of the valley, as well as the defile of the Barricade,
+while other bodies, stationed lower down, below the Barricade,
+prepared to resist the troops seeking to force an entrance up the
+valley; and hence the repeated battles in the neighbourhood of
+Rochemalan above described.
+
+On the occasion of the defeat of the Count de la Trinité by the little
+Vaudois band near the village of Angrogna, in November, 1560, the
+general drew off, and waited the arrival of reinforcements. A large
+body of Spanish veterans having joined him, in the course of the
+following spring he again proceeded up the valley, determined, if
+possible, to force the Barricade--the royal forces now numbering some
+seven thousand men, all disciplined troops. The peasants, finding
+their first position no longer tenable in the face of such numbers,
+abandoned Angrogna and the lower villages, and retired, with the whole
+population, to the Pra du Tour. The Count followed them with his main
+army, at the same time directing two other bodies of troops to advance
+upon the place round by the mountains, one by the heights of the
+Vachére, and another by Les Fourests. The defenders of the Pra would
+thus be assailed from three sides at once, their forces divided, and
+victory rendered certain.
+
+But the Count did not calculate upon the desperate bravery of the
+defenders. All three bodies were beaten back in succession. For four
+days the Count made every effort to force the defile, and failed. Two
+colonels, eight captains, and four hundred men fell in these desperate
+assaults, without gaining an inch of ground. On the fifth day a
+combined attack was made with the reserve, composed of Spanish
+companies, but this, too, failed; and the troops, when ordered to
+return to the charge, refused to obey. The Count, who commanded, is
+said to have wept as he sat on a rock and looked upon so many of his
+dead--the soldiers themselves exclaiming, "God fights for these
+people, and we do them wrong!"
+
+About a hundred years later, the Marquis de Pianesse, who, like the
+Count de la Trinité, had been defeated at Rochemalan, made a similar
+attempt to surprise the Vaudois stronghold, with a like result. The
+peasants were commanded on this occasion by John Leger, the pastor and
+historian. Those who were unarmed hurled rocks and stones on the
+assailants from the heights; and the troops being thus thrown into
+confusion, the Vaudois rushed from behind their ramparts, and drove
+them in a state of total rout down the valley.
+
+On entering the Pra du Tour, one of the most prominent objects that
+meets the eye is the Roman Catholic chapel recently erected there,
+though the few inhabitants of the district are still almost entirely
+Protestant. The Roman Catholic Church has, however, now done what the
+Roman Catholic armies failed to do--established itself in the midst of
+the Vaudois stronghold, though by no means in the hearts of the
+people.
+
+Desirous of ascertaining, if possible, the site of the ancient
+college, we proceeded up the Pra, and hailed a young woman whom we
+observed crossing the rustic bridge over the Pêle, one of the mountain
+rivulets running into the torrent of Angrogna. Inquiring of her as to
+the site of the college, she told us we had already passed it, and led
+us back to the place--up the rocky side of the hill leading to the
+Vachére--past the cottage where she herself lived, and pointed to the
+site: "There," she said, "is where the ancient college of the Vaudois
+stood." The old building has, however, long since been removed, the
+present structure being merely part of a small farmsteading. Higher up
+the steep hill-side, on successive ledges of rock, are the ruins of
+various buildings, some of which may have been dwellings, and one,
+larger than the rest, on a broader plateau, with an elder-tree growing
+in the centre, may possibly have been the temple.
+
+From the higher shelves on this mountain-side the view is extremely
+wild and grand. The acclivities which surround the head of the Pra
+seem as if battlemented walls; the mountain opposite throws its sombre
+shadow over the ravine in which the torrent runs; whilst, down the
+valley, rock seems piled on rock, and mountain on mountain. All is
+perfectly still, and the silence is only audible by the occasional
+tinkling of a sheep-bell, or the humming of a bee in search of flowers
+on the mountain-side. So peaceful and quiet is the place, that it is
+difficult to believe it could ever have been the scene of such deadly
+strife, and rung with the shouts of men thirsting for each other's
+blood.
+
+After lingering about the place until the sun was far on his way
+towards the horizon, we returned, by the road we had come, the valley
+seeming more beautiful than ever under the glow of evening, and
+arrived at our destination about dusk, to find the fireflies darting
+about the streets of La Tour.
+
+The next day saw us at Turin, and our summer excursion at an end. Mr.
+Milsom, who had so pleasantly accompanied me through the valleys, had
+been summoned to attend the death-bed of a friend at Antibes, and he
+set out on the journey forthwith. While still there, he received a
+telegram intimating the death of his daughter at Allevard, near
+Grenoble, and he arrived only in time to attend her funeral. Two
+months later, he lost another dear daughter; shortly after, his
+mother-in-law died; and in the following December he himself died
+suddenly of heart disease, and followed them to the grave.
+
+One could not but conceive a hearty liking for Edward Milsom--he was
+such a thoroughly good man. He was a native of London, but spent the
+greater part of his life at Lyons, in France, where he long since
+settled and married. He there carried on a large business as a silk
+merchant, but was always ready to give a portion of his time and money
+to help forward any good work. He was an "ancien," or elder, of the
+Evangelical church at Lyons, originally founded by Adolphe Monod, to
+whom he was also related by marriage.
+
+Some years since he was very much interested by the perusal of Pastor
+Bost's account of his visit to the scene of Felix Neff's labours in
+the High Alps. He felt touched by the simple, faithful character of
+the people, and keenly sympathised with their destitute condition.
+"Here," said he, "is a field in which I may possibly be of some use."
+And he at once went to their help. He visited the district of
+Fressinières, including the hamlet of Dormilhouse, as well as the more
+distant villages of Arvieux and Sans Veran, up the vale of Queyras;
+and nearly every year thereafter he devoted a certain portion of his
+time in visiting the poorer congregations of the district, giving them
+such help and succour as lay in his power.
+
+His repeated visits made him well known to the people of the valleys,
+who valued him as a friend, if they did not even love him as a
+brother. His visits were also greatly esteemed by the pastors, who
+stood much in need of encouragement and help. He cheered the wavering,
+strengthened the feeble-hearted, and stimulated all to renewed life
+and action. Wherever he went, a light seemed to shine in his path; and
+when he departed, he was followed by many blessings.
+
+In one place he would arrange for the opening of a new place of
+worship; in another, for the opening of a boys' school; in a third,
+for the industrial employment of girls; and wherever there was any
+little heartburning or jealousy to be allayed, he would set himself to
+remove it. His admirable tact, his unfailing temper, and excellent
+good sense, rendered him a wise counsellor and a most successful
+conciliator.
+
+The last time Mr. Milsom visited England, towards the end of 1869, he
+was occupied, as usual, in collecting subscriptions for the poor
+Vaudois of the High Alps. Now that the good "merchant missionary" has
+rested from his labours, they will indeed feel the loss of their
+friend. Who is to assume his mantle?
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+THE GLORIOUS RETURN:
+
+AN EPISODE IN THE HISTORY OF THE ITALIAN VAUDOIS.
+
+
+What is known as The Glorious Return, or re-entry of the exiled
+Vaudois in 1689 to resume possession of the valleys from which they
+had been banished, will always stand out as one of the most remarkable
+events in history.
+
+If ever a people fairly established their right to live in their own
+country, and to worship God after their own methods, the Vaudois had
+surely done so. They had held conscientiously and consistently to
+their religion for nearly five hundred years, during which they
+laboured under many disabilities and suffered much persecution. But
+the successive Dukes of Savoy were no better satisfied with them as
+subjects than before. They could not brook that any part of their
+people should be of a different form of religion from that professed
+by themselves; and they continued, at the instance of successive
+popes, to let slip the dogs of war upon the valleys, in the hopes of
+eventually compelling the Vaudois to "come in" and make their peace
+with the Church.
+
+The result of these invasions was almost uniform. At the first sudden
+inroad of the troops, the people, taken by surprise, usually took to
+flight; on which their dwellings were burnt and their fields laid
+waste. But when they had time to rally and collect their forces, the
+almost invariable result was that the Piedmontese were driven out of
+the valleys again with ignominy and loss. The Duke's invasion of 1655
+was, however, attended with greater success than usual. His armies
+occupied the greater part of the valleys, though the Vaudois still
+held out, and made occasional successful sallies from their mountain
+fastnesses. At length, the Protestants of the Swiss Confederation,
+taking compassion on their co-religionists in Piedmont, sent
+ambassadors to the Duke of Savoy at Turin to intercede for their
+relief; and the result was the amnesty granted to them in that year
+under the title of the "Patents of Grace." The terms were very hard,
+but they were agreed to. The Vaudois were to be permitted to re-occupy
+their valleys, conditional on their rebuilding all the Catholic
+churches which had been destroyed, paying to the Duke an indemnity of
+fifty thousand francs, and ceding to him the richest lands in the
+valley of Luzerna--the last relics of their fortunes being thus taken
+from them to remunerate the barbarity of their persecutors.
+
+It was also stipulated by this treaty, that the pastors of the Vaudois
+churches were to be natives of the district only, and that they were
+to be at liberty to administer religious instruction in their own
+manner in all the Vaudois parishes, excepting that of St. John, near
+La Tour, where their worship was interdicted. The only persons
+excepted from the terms of the amnesty were Javanel, the heroic old
+captain, and Jean Leger, the pastor-historian, the most prominent
+leaders of the Vaudois in the recent war, both of whom were declared
+to be banished the ducal dominions.
+
+Under this treaty the Vaudois enjoyed peace for about thirty years,
+during which they restored the cultivation of the valleys, rebuilt the
+villages, and were acknowledged to be among the most loyal, peaceable,
+and industrious of the subjects of Savoy.
+
+There were, however, certain parts of the valleys to which the amnesty
+granted by the Duke did not apply. Thus, it did not apply to the
+valleys of Pérouse and Pragela, which did not then form part of the
+dominions of Savoy, but were included within the French frontier. It
+was out of this circumstance that a difficulty arose with the French
+monarch, which issued in the revival of the persecution in the
+valleys, the banishment of the Vaudois into Switzerland, and their
+eventual "Glorious Return" in the manner we are about briefly to
+narrate.
+
+When Louis XIV. of France revoked the Edict of Nantes in 1685, and
+interdicted all Protestant worship throughout his dominions, the law
+of course applied to the valleys of Pérouse and Pragela as to the
+other parts of France. The Vaudois pastors were banished, and the
+people were forbidden to profess any other religion than that
+prescribed by the King, under penalty of confiscation of their goods,
+imprisonment, or banishment. The Vaudois who desired to avoid these
+penalties while they still remained staunch to their faith, did what
+so many Frenchmen then did--they fled across the frontier and took
+refuge in foreign lands. Some of the inhabitants of the French valleys
+went northward into Switzerland, while others passed across the
+mountains towards the south, and took refuge in the valley of the
+Pelice, where the Vaudois religion continued to be tolerated under
+the terms of the amnesty above referred to, which had been granted by
+the Duke of Savoy.
+
+The French king, when he found his Huguenot subjects flying in all
+directions rather than remain in France and be "converted" to Roman
+Catholicism, next tried to block up the various avenues of escape, and
+to prevent the rulers of the adjoining countries from giving the
+fugitives asylum. Great was his displeasure when he heard of the
+flight of the Vaudois of Pérouse and Pragela into the adjoining
+valleys. He directed the French ambassador at Turin to call upon the
+Duke of Savoy, and require him to prevent their settlement within his
+dominions. At the same time, he called upon the Duke to take steps to
+compel the conversion of his people from the pretended reformed faith,
+and offered the aid of his troops to enforce their submission, "at
+whatever cost."
+
+The Duke was irritated at the manner in which he was approached. Louis
+XIV. was treating him as a vassal of France rather than as an
+independent sovereign. But he felt himself to be weak, and
+comparatively powerless to resent the insult. So he first temporised,
+then vacillated, and being again pressed by the French king, he
+eventually yielded. The amnesty was declared to be at an end, and the
+Vaudois were ordered forthwith to become members of the Church of
+Rome. An edict was issued on the 31st of January, 1686, forbidding the
+exercise by the Vaudois of their religion, abolishing their ancient
+privileges, and ordering the demolition of all their places of
+worship. Pastors and schoolmasters who refused to be converted were
+ordered to quit the country within fifteen days, on pain of death and
+confiscation of their goods. All refugee Protestants from France were
+ordered to leave under the same penalty. All children born of
+Protestant parents were to be compulsorily educated as Roman
+Catholics. This barbarous measure was merely a repetition by the Duke
+of Savoy in Piedmont of what his master Louis XIV. had already done in
+France.
+
+The Vaudois expostulated with their sovereign, but in vain. They
+petitioned, but there was no reply. They requested the interposition
+of the Swiss Government as before, but the Duke took no notice of
+their memorial. The question of resistance was then discussed; but the
+people were without leaders. Javanel was living in banishment at
+Geneva--old and worn out, and unable to lead them. Besides, the
+Vaudois, before taking up arms, wished to exhaust every means of
+conciliation. Ambassadors next came from Switzerland, who urged them
+to submit to the clemency of the Duke, and suggested that they should
+petition him for permission to leave the country! The Vaudois were
+stupefied by the proposal. They were thus asked, without a contest, to
+submit to all the ignominy and punishment of defeat, and to terminate
+their very existence as a people! The ambassadors represented that
+resistance to the combined armies of Savoy, France, and Spain, without
+leaders, and with less than three thousand combatants, was little
+short of madness.
+
+Nevertheless, a number of the Vaudois determined not to leave their
+valleys without an attempt to hold them, as they had so often
+successfully done before. The united armies of France and Savoy then
+advanced upon the valleys, and arrangements were made for a general
+attack upon the Vaudois position on Easter Monday, 1686, at break of
+day,--the Duke of Savoy assailing the valley of Luzerna, while
+Catinat, commander of the French troops, advanced on St. Martin.
+Catinat made the first attack on the village of St. Germain, and was
+beaten back with heavy loss after six hours' fighting. Henry Arnaud,
+the Huguenot pastor from Die in Dauphiny, of which he was a native,
+particularly distinguished himself by his bravery in this affair, and
+from that time began to be regarded as one of the most promising of
+the Vaudois leaders.
+
+Catinat renewed the attack on the following day with the assistance of
+fresh troops; and he eventually succeeded in overcoming the resistance
+of the handful of men who opposed him, and sweeping the valley of St.
+Martin. Men, women, and children were indiscriminately put to the
+sword. In some of the parishes no resistance was offered, the
+inhabitants submitting to the Duke's proclamation; but whether they
+submitted or not, made no difference in their treatment, which was
+barbarous in all cases.
+
+Meanwhile, the Duke of Savoy's army advanced from the vale of Luzerna
+upon the celebrated heights of Angrogna, and assailed the Vaudois
+assembled there at all points. The resistance lasted for an entire
+day, and when night fell, both forces slept on the ground upon which
+they had fought, kindling their bivouac fires on both sides. On the
+following day the attack was renewed, and again the battle raged until
+night. Then Don Gabriel of Savoy, who was in command, resolved to
+employ the means which Catinat had found so successful: he sent
+forward messengers to inform the Vaudois that their brethren of the
+Val St. Martin had laid down their arms and been pardoned, inviting
+them to follow their example. The result of further parley was, that
+on the express promise of his Royal Highness that they should receive
+pardon, and that neither their persons nor those of their wives or
+children should be touched, the credulous Vaudois, still hoping for
+fair treatment, laid down their arms, and permitted the ducal troops
+to take possession of their entrenchments!
+
+The same treacherous strategy proved equally successful against the
+defenders of the Pra du Tour. After beating back their assailants and
+firmly holding their ground for an entire day, they were told of the
+surrender of their compatriots, promised a full pardon, and assured of
+life and liberty, on condition of immediately ceasing further
+hostilities. They accordingly consented to lay down their arms, and
+the impregnable fastness of the Pra du Tour, which had never been
+taken by force, thus fell before falsehood and perfidy. "The defenders
+of this ancient sanctuary of the Church," says Dr. Huston, "were
+loaded with irons; their children were carried off and scattered
+through the Roman Catholic districts; their wives and daughters were
+violated, massacred, or made captives. As for those that still
+remained, all whom the enemy could seize became a prey devoted to
+carnage, spoliation, fire, excesses which cannot be told, and outrages
+which it would be impossible to describe."[108]
+
+         [Footnote 108: Huston's "Israel of the Alps," translated by
+         Montgomery; Glasgow, 1857; vol. i. p. 446.]
+
+"All the valleys are now exterminated," wrote a French officer to his
+friends; "the people are all killed, hanged, or massacred." The Duke,
+Victor Amadeus, issued a decree, declaring the Vaudois to be guilty of
+high treason, and confiscating all their property. Arnaud says as many
+as eleven thousand persons were killed, or perished in prison, or died
+of want, in consequence of this horrible Easter festival of blood.
+Six thousand were taken prisoners, and the greater number of these
+died in gaol of hunger and disease. When the prisons were opened, and
+the wretched survivors were ordered to quit the country, forbidden to
+return to it on pain of death, only about two thousand six hundred
+contrived to struggle across the frontier into Switzerland.
+
+And thus at last the Vaudois Church seemed utterly uprooted and
+destroyed. What the Dukes of Savoy had so often attempted in vain was
+now accomplished. A second St. Bartholomew had been achieved, and Rome
+rang with _Te Deums_ in praise of the final dispersion of the Vaudois.
+The Pope sent to Victor Amadeus II. a special brief, congratulating
+him on the extirpation of heresy in his dominions; and Piedmontese and
+Savoyards, good Catholics, were presented with the lands from which
+the Vaudois had been driven. Those of them who remained in the country
+"unconverted" were as so many scattered fugitives in the
+mountains--sheep wandering about without a shepherd. Some of the
+Vaudois, for the sake of their families and homes, pretended
+conversion; but these are admitted to have been comparatively few in
+number. In short, the "Israel of the Alps" seemed to be no more, and
+its people utterly and for ever dispersed. Pierre Allix, the Huguenot
+refugee pastor in England, in his "History of the Ancient Churches of
+Piedmont," dedicated to William III., regarded the Vaudois Church as
+obliterated--"their present desolation seeming so universal, that the
+world looks upon them no otherwise than as irrecoverably lost, and
+finally destroyed."
+
+Three years passed. The expelled Vaudois reached Switzerland in
+greatly reduced numbers, many women and children having perished on
+their mountain journey. The inhabitants of Geneva received them with
+great hospitality, clothing and feeding them until they were able to
+proceed on their way northward. Some went into Brandenburg, some into
+Holland, while others settled to various branches of industry in
+different parts of Switzerland. Many of them, however, experienced
+great difficulty in obtaining a settlement. Those who had entered the
+Palatinate were driven thence by war, and those who had entered
+Wurtemburg were expelled by the Grand Duke, who feared incurring the
+ire of Louis XIV. by giving them shelter and protection. Hence many
+little bands of the Vaudois refugees long continued to wander along
+the valley of the Rhine, unable to find rest for their weary feet.
+There were others trying to earn, a precarious living in Geneva and
+Lausanne, and along the shores of Lake Leman. Some of these were men
+who had fought under Javanel in his heroic combats with the
+Piedmontese; and they thought with bitter grief of the manner in which
+they had fallen into the trap of Catinat and the Duke of Savoy, and
+abandoned their country almost without a struggle.
+
+Then it was that the thought occurred to them whether they might not
+yet strike a blow for the recovery of their valleys! The idea seemed
+chimerical in the extreme. A few hundred destitute men, however
+valiant, to think of recovering a country defended by the combined
+armies of France and Savoy! Javanel, the old Vaudois hero, disabled by
+age and wounds, was still alive--an exile at Geneva--and he was
+consulted on the subject. Javanel embraced the project with,
+enthusiasm; and the invasion of the valleys was resolved upon! A more
+daring, and apparently more desperate enterprise, was never planned.
+
+Who was to be their leader? Javanel himself was disabled. Though his
+mind was clear, and his patriotic ardour unquenched, his body was
+weak; and all that he could do was to encourage and advise. But he
+found a noble substitute in Henry Arnaud, the Huguenot refugee, who
+had already distinguished himself in his resistance to the troops of
+Savoy. And Arnaud was now ready to offer up his life for the recovery
+of the valleys.
+
+The enterprise was kept as secret as possible, yet not so close as to
+prevent the authorities of Berne obtaining some inkling of their
+intentions. Three confidential messengers were first dispatched to the
+valleys to ascertain the disposition of the population, and more
+particularly to examine the best route by which an invasion might be
+made. On their return with the necessary information, the plan was
+settled by Javanel, as it was to be carried out by Arnaud. In the
+meantime, the magistrates of Geneva, having obtained information as to
+the intended movement, desirous of averting the hostility of France
+and Savoy, required Javanel to leave their city, and he at once
+retired to Ouchy, a little farther up the lake.
+
+The greatest difficulty experienced by the Vaudois in carrying out
+their enterprise was the want of means. They were poor, destitute
+refugees, without arms, ammunition, or money to buy them. To obtain
+the requisite means, Arnaud made a journey into Holland, for the
+purpose of communicating the intended project to William of Orange.
+William entered cordially into the proposed plan, recommended Arnaud
+to several Huguenot officers, who afterwards took part in the
+expedition, supplied him with assistance in money, and encouraged him
+to carry out the design. Several private persons in Holland--amongst
+others the post-master-general at Leyden--also largely contributed to
+the enterprise.
+
+At length all was ready. The men who intended to take part in the
+expedition came together from various quarters. Some came from
+Brandenburg, others from Bavaria and distant parts of Switzerland; and
+among those who joined them was a body of French Huguenots, willing to
+share in their dangers and their glory. One of their number, Captain
+Turrel, like Arnaud, a native of Die in Dauphiny, was even elected as
+the general of the expedition. Their rendez-vous was in the forest of
+Prangins, near Nyon, on the north bank of the Lake of Geneva; and
+there, on the night of the 16th of August, 1689, they met in the
+hollow recesses of the wood. Fifteen boats had been got together, and
+lay off the shore. After a fervent prayer by the pastor-general
+Arnaud, imploring a blessing upon the enterprise, as many of the men
+as could embark got into the boats. As the lake is there at its
+narrowest, they soon rowed across to the other side, near the town of
+Yvoire, and disembarked on the shore of Savoy. Arnaud had posted
+sentinels in all directions, and the little body waited the arrival of
+the remainder of their comrades from the opposite shore. They had all
+crossed the lake by two o'clock in the morning; and about eight
+hundred men, divided into nineteen companies,[109] each provided with
+its captain, were now ready to march.
+
+         [Footnote 109: Of the nineteen companies three were composed
+         of the Vaudois of Angrogna; those of Bobi and St. John
+         furnished two each; and those of La Tour, Villar, Prarustin,
+         Prali, Macel, St. Germain, and Pramol, furnished one each.
+         The remaining six companies were composed of French Huguenot
+         refugees from Dauphiny and Languedoc under their respective
+         officers. Besides these, there were different smaller parties
+         who constituted a volunteer company. The entire force of
+         about eight hundred men was marshalled in three
+         divisions--vanguard, main body, and rearguard--and this
+         arrangement was strictly observed in the order of march.]
+
+At the very commencement, however, they met with a misfortune. One of
+the pastors, having gone to seek a guide in the village near at hand,
+was seized as a prisoner by the local authorities, and carried off. On
+this, the Vaudois, seeing that they were treated as enemies, sent a
+party to summon Yvoire to open its gates, and it obeyed. The lord of
+the manor and the receiver of taxes were taken as hostages, and made
+to accompany the troop until they reached the next commune, when they
+were set at liberty, and replaced by other hostages.
+
+When it became known that the little army of Vaudois had set out on
+their march, troops were dispatched from all quarters to intercept
+them and cut them off; and it was believed that their destruction was
+inevitable. "What possible chance is there," asked the _Historic
+Mercury_ of the day, "of this small body of men penetrating to their
+native country through the masses of French and Piedmontese troops
+accumulating from all sides, without being crushed and exterminated?"
+"It is impossible," wrote the _Leyden Gazette_, "notwithstanding
+whatever precautions they may take, that the Vaudois can extricate
+themselves without certain death, and the Court of Savoy may therefore
+regard itself safe so far as they are concerned."
+
+No sooner had the boats left the shore at Nyon for the further side of
+the lake than the young seigneur of Prangins, who had been watching
+their movements, rode off at full speed to inform the French resident
+at Geneva of the departure of the Vaudois; and orders were at once
+dispatched to Lyons for a strong body of cavalry to march immediately
+towards Savoy to cut them off. But the Vaudois had well matured their
+plans, and took care to keep out of reach of the advancing enemy.
+Their route at first lay up the valleys towards the mountains, whose
+crests they followed, from glacier to glacier, in places almost
+inaccessible to regular troops, and thus they eluded the combined
+forces of France and Savoy, which, vainly endeavoured to bar their
+passage.
+
+The first day's march led them into the valley of the Arve, by the Col
+de Voirons, from which they took their last view of the peaceful Lake
+of Geneva; thence they proceeded by the pyramidal mountain called the
+Mole to the little town of Viu, where they rested for two hours,
+starting again by moonlight, and passing through St. Joire, where the
+magistrates brought out a great cask of wine, and placed it in the
+middle of the street for their refreshment. The little army, however,
+did not halt there, but marched on to the bare hill of Carman, where,
+after solemn prayer, they encamped about midnight, sleeping on the
+bare ground. Next day found them in front of the small walled town of
+Cluse, in the rocky gorge of the Arve. The authorities shut the gates,
+on which the Vaudois threatened to storm the place, when the gates
+were opened, and they marched through the town, the inhabitants
+standing under arms along both sides of the street. Here the Vaudois
+purchased a store of food and wine, which they duly paid for.
+
+They then proceeded on to Sallanches, where resistance was threatened.
+They found a body of men posted on the wooden bridge which there
+separated the village of St. Martin from Sallanches; but rushing
+forward, the defenders of the bridge fled, and the little army passed
+over and proceeded to range themselves in order of battle over against
+the town, which was defended by six hundred troops. The Vaudois having
+threatened to burn the town, and kill the hostages whom they had taken
+on the slightest show of resistance, the threat had its effect, and
+they were permitted to pass without further opposition, encamping for
+the night at a little village about a league further on. And thus
+closed the second day's march.
+
+The third day they passed over the mountains of Lez Pras and Haute
+Luce, seven thousand feet above the sea-level, a long and fatiguing
+march. At one place the guide lost his way, and rain fell heavily,
+soaking the men to the skin. They spent a wretched night in some empty
+stables at the hamlet of St. Nicholas de Verose; and started earlier
+than usual on the following morning, addressing themselves to the
+formidable work of climbing the Col Bonhomme, which they passed with
+the snow up to their knees. They were now upon the crest of the Alps,
+looking down upon the valley of the Isère, into which they next
+descended. They traversed the valley without resistance, passing
+through St. Germain and Scez, turning aside at the last-mentioned
+place up the valley of Tignes, thereby avoiding the French troops
+lying in wait for them in the neighbourhood of Moutiers, lower down
+the valley of the Isère. Later in the evening they reached Laval, at
+the foot of Mont Iseran; and here Arnaud, for the first time during
+eight days, snatched a few hours' sleep on a bed in the village.
+
+The sixth day saw the little army climbing the steep slopes of Mont
+Iseran, where the shepherds gave them milk and wished them God-speed;
+but they warned them that a body of troops lay in their way at Mont
+Cenis. On they went--over the mountain, and along the crest of the
+chain, until they saw Bonneval in the valley beneath them, and there
+they descended, passing on to Bessant in the valley of the Arc, where
+they encamped for the night.
+
+Next day they marched on Mont Cenis, which they ascended. As they were
+crossing the mountain a strange incident occurred. The Vaudois saw
+before them a large convoy of mules loaded with baggage. And shortly
+after there came up the carriage and equipage of some grand personage.
+It proved to be Cardinal Ranuzzi, on his way to Rome to take part in
+the election of Pope Alexander VIII. The Vaudois seized the mules
+carrying the baggage, which contained important documents compromising
+Louis XIV. with Victor Amadeus; and it is said that in consequence of
+their loss, the Cardinal, who himself aspired to the tiara, afterwards
+died of chagrin, crying in his last moments, "My papers! oh, my
+papers!"
+
+The passage of the Great and Little Cenis was effected with great
+difficulty. The snow lay thick on the ground, though it was the month
+of August, and the travellers descended the mountain of Tourliers by a
+precipice rather than a road. When night fell, they were still
+scattered on the mountain, and lay down to snatch a brief sleep,
+overcome with hunger and fatigue. Next morning they gathered together
+again, and descended into the sterile valley of the Gaillon, and
+shortly after proceeded to ascend the mountain opposite.
+
+They were now close upon the large towns. Susa lay a little to the
+east, and Exilles was directly in their way. The garrison of the
+latter place came out to meet them, and from the crest of the mountain
+rolled large stones and flung grenades down upon the invaders. Here
+the Vaudois lost some men and prisoners, and finding the further
+ascent impracticable, they retreated into the valley from which they
+had come, and again ascended the steep slope of Tourliers in order to
+turn the heights on which the French troops were posted. At last,
+after great fatigue and peril, unable to proceed further, they gained
+the crest of the mountain, and sounded their clarions to summon the
+scattered body.
+
+After a halt of two hours they proceeded along the ridge, and
+perceived through the mist a body of soldiers marching along with
+drums beating; it was the garrison of Exilles. The Vaudois were
+recognised and followed by the soldiers at a distance. Proceeding a
+little further, they came in sight of the long valley of the Doire,
+and looking down into it, not far from the bridge of Salabertrans,
+they discerned some thirty-six bivouac fires burning on the plain,
+indicating the presence of a large force. These were their enemies--a
+well-appointed army of some two thousand five hundred men--whom they
+were at last to meet in battle. Nothing discouraged, they descended
+into the valley, and the advanced guard shortly came in contact with
+the enemy's outposts. Firing between them went on for an hour and a
+half, and then night fell.
+
+The Vaudois leaders held a council to determine what they should do;
+and the result was, that an immediate attack was resolved upon, in
+three bodies. The principal attack was made on the bridge, the passage
+of which was defended by a strong body of French soldiers, under the
+command of Colonel de Larrey. On the advance of the Vaudois in the
+darkness, they were summoned to stand, but continued to advance, when
+the enemy fired a volley on them, killing three men. Then the Vaudois
+brigade rushed to the bridge, but seeing a strong body on the other
+side preparing to fire again, Arnaud called upon his men to lie down,
+and the volley went over their heads. Then Turrel, the Vaudois
+captain, calling out "Forward! the bridge is won!" the Vaudois jumped
+to their feet and rushed on. The two wings at the same time
+concentrated their fire on the defenders, who broke and retired, and
+the bridge was won. But at the further side, where the French were in
+overpowering numbers, they refused to give way, and poured down their
+fire on their assailants. The Vaudois boldly pressed on. They burst
+through the French, force, cutting it in two; and fresh men pouring
+over, the battle was soon won. The French, commander was especially
+chagrined at having been beaten by a parcel of cowherds. "Is it
+possible," he exclaimed, "that I have lost both the battle and my
+honour?"
+
+The rising moon showed the ground strewed with about seven hundred
+dead; the Vaudois having lost only twenty-two killed and eight
+wounded. The victors filled their pouches with ammunition picked up on
+the field, took possession of as many arms and as much provisions as
+they could carry, and placing the remainder in a heap over some
+barrels of powder, they affixed a lighted match and withdrew. A
+tremendous explosion shook the mountains, and echoed along the valley,
+and the remains of the French camp were blown to atoms. The Vaudois
+then proceeded at once to climb the mountain of Sci, which had to be
+crossed in order to enter the valley of Pragelas.
+
+It was early on a Sabbath morning, the ninth day of their march, that
+the Vaudois reached the crest of the mountain overlooking
+Fenestrelles, and saw spread out before them the beloved country which
+they had come to win. They halted for the stragglers, and when these
+had come up, Arnaud made them kneel down and thank God for permitting
+them again to see their native land; himself offering up an eloquent
+prayer, which cheered and strengthened them for further effort. And
+then they descended into the valley of Pragelas, passing the river
+Clusone, and halting to rest at the little village of La Traverse.
+They were now close to the Vaudois strongholds, and in a country every
+foot of which was familiar to most of them. But their danger was by no
+means over; for the valleys were swarming with dragoons and
+foot-soldiers; and when they had shaken off those of France, they had
+still to encounter the troops of Savoy.
+
+Late in the afternoon the little army again set out for the valley of
+St. Martin, passing the night in the mountain hamlet of Jussand, the
+highest on the Col du Pis. Next day they descended the Col near Seras,
+and first came in contact with the troops of Savoy; but these having
+taken to flight, no collision occurred; and on the following day the
+Vaudois arrived, without further molestation, at the famous Balsille.
+
+This celebrated stronghold is situated in front of the narrow defile
+of Macel, which leads into the valley of St. Martin. It is a rampart
+of rock, standing at the entrance to the pass, and is of such natural
+strength, that but little art was needed to make it secure against any
+force that could be brought against it. There is only one approach to
+it from the valley of St. Martin, which is very difficult; a portion
+of the way being in a deep wooded gorge, where a few men could easily
+arrest the progress of an army. The rock itself consists of three
+natural stages or terraces, the highest part rising steep as a wall,
+being surmounted by a natural platform. The mountain was well supplied
+with water, which gushed forth in several places. Caverns had been
+hollowed out in the sides of the rocks, which served as hiding-places
+during the persecutions which so often ravaged the valleys; and these
+were now available for storehouses and barracks.
+
+The place was, indeed, so intimately identified with the past
+sufferings and triumphs of the Vaudois, and it was, besides, so
+centrally situated, and so secure, that they came to regard its
+possession as essential to the success of their enterprise. The aged
+Javanel, who drew up the plan of the invasion before the eight hundred
+set out on their march, attached the greatest importance to its early
+occupation. "Spare no labour nor pains," he said, in the memorandum of
+directions which he drew up, "in fortifying this post, which will be
+your most secure fortress. Do not quit it unless in the utmost
+extremity.... You will, of course, be told that you cannot hold it
+always, and that rather than not succeed in their object, all France
+and Italy will gather together against you.... But were it the whole
+world, and only yourselves against all, fear ye the Almighty alone,
+who is your protection."
+
+On the arrival of the Vaudois at the Balsille, they discerned a small
+body of troops advancing towards them by the Col du Pis, higher up the
+valley. They proved to be Piedmontese, forty-six in number, sent to
+occupy the pass. They were surrounded, disarmed, and put to death, and
+their arms were hid away amongst the rocks. No quarter was given on
+either side during this war; the Vaudois had no prisons in which to
+place their captives; and they themselves, when taken, were treated
+not as soldiers, but as bandits, being instantly hung on the nearest
+trees. The Vaudois did not, however, yet take up their permanent
+position at the Balsille, being desirous of rousing the valleys
+towards the south. The day following, accordingly, they marched to
+Pralis, in the valley of the Germanasca, when, for the first time
+since their exile, they celebrated Divine worship in one of the
+temples of their ancestors.
+
+They were now on their way towards the valley of the Pelice, to reach
+which it was necessary that they should pass over the Col Julian. An
+army of three thousand Piedmontese barred their way, but nothing
+daunted by the great disparity of force, the Vaudois, divided into
+three bodies, as at Salabertrans, mounted to the assault. As they
+advanced, the Piedmontese cried, "Come on, ye devil's Barbets, there
+are more than three thousand of us, and we occupy all the posts!" In
+less than half an hour the whole of the posts were carried, the pass
+was cleared, and the Piedmontese fled down the further side of the
+mountain, leaving all their stores behind them. On the following day
+the Vaudois reached Bobi, drove out the new settlers, and resumed
+possession of the lands of the commune. Thus, after the lapse of only
+fourteen days, this little band of heroes had marched from the shores
+of the Lake of Geneva, by difficult mountain-passes, through bands of
+hostile troops, which they had defeated in two severe fights, and at
+length reached the very centre of the Vaudois valleys, and entered
+into possession of the "Promised Land."
+
+They resolved to celebrate their return to the country of their
+fathers by an act of solemn worship on the Sabbath following. The
+whole body assembled on the hill of Silaoud, commanding an extensive
+prospect of the valley, and with their arms piled, and resting under
+the shade of the chestnut-trees which crown the hill, they listened to
+an eloquent sermon from the pastor Montoux, who preached to them
+standing on a platform, consisting of a door resting upon two rocks,
+after which they chanted the 74th Psalm, to the clash of arms. They
+then proceeded to enter into a solemn covenant with each other,
+renewing the ancient oath of union of the valleys, and swearing never
+to rest from their enterprise, even if they should be reduced to only
+three or four in number, until they had "re-established in the valleys
+the kingdom of the Gospel." Shortly after, they proceeded to divide
+themselves into two bodies, for the purpose of occupying
+simultaneously, as recommended by Javanel, the two valleys of the
+Pelice and St. Martin.
+
+But the trials and sufferings they had already endured were as nothing
+compared with those they were now about to experience. Armies
+concentrated on them from all points. They were pressed by the French
+on the north and west, and by the Piedmontese on the south and east.
+Encouraged by their success at Bobi, the Vaudois rashly attacked
+Villar, lower down the valley, and were repulsed with loss. From
+thence they retired up the valley of Rora, and laid it waste; the
+enemy, in like manner, destroying the town of Bobi and laying waste
+the neighbourhood.
+
+The war now became one of reprisals and mutual devastation, the two
+parties seeking to deprive each other of shelter and the means of
+subsistence. The Vaudois could only obtain food by capturing the
+enemy's convoys, levying contributions from the plains, and making
+incursions into Dauphiny. The enterprise on which they had entered
+seemed to become more hopeless from day to day. This handful of men,
+half famished and clothed in rags, had now arrayed against them
+twenty-two thousand French and Sardinians, provided with all the
+munitions of war. That they should have been able to stand against
+them for two whole months, now fighting in one place, and perhaps the
+next day some twenty miles across the mountains in another, with
+almost invariable success, seems little short of a miracle. But flesh
+and blood could not endure such toil and privations much longer. No
+wonder that the faint-hearted began to despair. Turrel, the military
+commander, seeing no chance of a prosperous issue, withdrew across the
+French frontier, followed by the greater number of the Vaudois from
+Dauphiny;[110] and there remained only the Italian Vaudois, still
+unconquered in spirit, under the leadership of their pastor-general
+Arnaud, who never appeared greater than in times of difficulty and
+danger.
+
+         [Footnote 110: The greater number of them, including Turrel,
+         were taken prisoners and shot, or sent to the galleys, where
+         they died. This last was the fate of Turrel.]
+
+With his diminished forces, and the increasing numbers of the enemy,
+Arnaud found it impossible to hold both the valleys, as intended;
+besides, winter was approaching, and the men must think of shelter and
+provisions during that season, if resistance was to be prolonged. It
+was accordingly determined to concentrate their little force upon the
+Balsille, and all haste was made to reach that stronghold without
+further delay. Their knowledge of the mountain heights and passes
+enabled them to evade their enemies, who were watching for them along
+the valleys, and they passed from the heights of Rodoret to the
+summit of the Balsille by night, before it was known that they were in
+the neighbourhood. They immediately set to work to throw up
+entrenchments and erect barricades, so as to render the place as
+secure as possible. Foraging parties were sent out for provisions, to
+lay in for the winter, and they returned laden with corn from the
+valley of Pragelas. At the little hamlet of Balsille they repaired the
+mill, and set it a-going, the rivulet which flowed down from the
+mountain supplying abundance of water-power.
+
+It was at the end of October that the little band of heroes took
+possession of the Balsille, and they held it firmly all through the
+winter. For more than six months they beat back every force that was
+sent against them. The first attack was made by the Marquis
+d'Ombrailles at the head of a French detachment; but though the enemy
+reached the village of Balsille, they were compelled to retire, partly
+by the bullets of the defenders, and partly by the snow, which was
+falling heavily. The Marquis de Parelles next advanced, and summoned
+the Vaudois to surrender; but in vain. "Our storms are still louder
+than your cannon," replied Arnaud, "and yet our rocks are not shaken."
+Winter having set in, the besiegers refrained for a time from further
+attacks, but strictly guarded all the passes leading to the fortress;
+while the garrison, availing themselves of their knowledge of the
+locality, made frequent sorties into the adjoining valleys, as well as
+into those of Dauphiny, for the purpose of collecting provisions, in
+which they were usually successful.
+
+When the fine weather arrived, suitable for a mountain campaign, the
+French general, Catinat, assembled a strong force, and marched into
+the valley, determined to make short work of this little nest of
+bandits on the Balsille. On Sunday morning, the 30th of April, 1690,
+while Arnaud was preaching to his flock, the sentinels on the look-out
+discovered the enemy's forces swarming up the valley. Soon other
+bodies were seen approaching by the Col du Pis and the Col du Clapier,
+while a French regiment, supported by the Savoyard militia, climbed
+Mont Guinevert, and cut off all retreat in that quarter. In short, the
+Balsille was completely invested.
+
+A general assault was made on the position on the 2nd of May, under
+the direction of General Catinat in person. Three French regiments,
+supported by a regiment of dragoons, opened the attack in front;
+Colonel de Parat, who commanded the leading regiment, saying to his
+soldiers as they advanced, "My friends, we must sleep to-night in that
+barrack," pointing to the rude Vaudois fort on the summit of the
+Balsille. They advanced with great bravery; but the barricade could
+not be surmounted, while they were assailed by a perfect storm of
+bullets from the defenders, securely posted above.
+
+Catinat next ordered the troops stationed on the Guinevert to advance
+from that direction, so as to carry the position from behind. But the
+assailants found unexpected intrenchments in their way, from behind
+which the Vaudois maintained a heavy fire, that eventually drove them
+back, their retreat being accelerated by a shower of stones and a
+blinding fall of snow and hail. In the meantime, the attack on the
+bastion in front continued, and the Vaudois, seeing the French troops
+falling back in disorder, made a vigorous sortie, and destroyed the
+whole remaining force, excepting fifteen men, who fled, bare-headed
+and without arms, and carried to the camp the news of their total
+defeat.
+
+A Savoyard officer thus briefly described the issue of the disastrous
+affair in a letter to a friend: "I have only time to tell you that the
+French have failed in their attack on the Balsille, and they have been
+obliged to retire after having lost one hundred and fifty soldiers,
+three captains, besides subalterns and wounded, including a colonel
+and a lieutenant-colonel who have been made prisoners, with the two
+sergeants who remained behind to help them. The lieutenant-colonel was
+surprised at finding in the fort some nineteen or twenty officers in
+gold and silver lace, who treated him as a prisoner of war and very
+humanely, even allowing him to go in search of the surgeon-major of
+his regiment for the purpose of bringing him into the place, and doing
+all that was necessary."
+
+Catinat did not choose again to renew the attack in person, or to
+endanger his reputation by a further defeat at the hands of men whom
+he had described as a nest of paltry bandits, but entrusted the
+direction of further operations to the Marquis de Féuquières, who had
+his laurels still to win, while Catinat had his to lose. The Balsille
+was again completely invested by the 12th of May, according to the
+scheme of operations prepared by Catinat, and the Marquis received by
+anticipation the title of "Conqueror of the Barbets." The entire
+mountain was surrounded, all the passes were strongly guarded, guns
+were planted in positions which commanded the Vaudois fort, more
+particularly on the Guinevert; and the capture or extermination of the
+Vaudois was now regarded as a matter of certainty. The attacking army
+was divided into five corps. Each soldier was accompanied by a pioneer
+carrying a fascine, in order to form a cover against the Vaudois
+bullets as they advanced.
+
+Several days elapsed before all the preliminaries for the grand attack
+were completed, and then the Marquis ordered a white flag to be
+hoisted, and a messenger was sent forward, inviting a parley with the
+defenders of the Balsille. The envoy was asked what he wanted. "Your
+immediate surrender!" was the reply. "You shall each of you receive
+five hundred louis d'or, and good passports for your retirement to a
+foreign country; but if you resist, you will be infallibly destroyed."
+"That is as the Lord shall will," replied the Vaudois messenger.
+
+The defenders refused to capitulate on any terms. The Marquis himself
+then wrote to the Vaudois, offering them terms on the above basis, but
+threatening, in case of refusal, that every man of them would be hung.
+Arnaud's reply was heroic. "We are not subjects," he said, "of the
+King of France; and that monarch not being master of this country, we
+can enter into no treaty with his servants. We are in the heritage
+which our fathers have left to us, and we hope, with the help of the
+God of armies, to live and die in it, even though there may remain
+only ten of us to defend it." That same night the Vaudois made a
+vigorous sortie, and killed a number of the besiegers: this was their
+final answer to the summons to surrender.
+
+On the 14th of May the battery on Mont Guinevert was opened, and the
+enemy's cannon began to play upon the little fort and bastions, which,
+being only of dry stones, were soon dismantled. The assault was then
+made simultaneously on three sides; and after a stout resistance, the
+Vaudois retired from their lower intrenchments, and retreated to
+those on the higher ledges of the mountain. They continued their
+resistance until night, and then, taking counsel together, and feeling
+that the place was no longer defensible in the face of so overpowering
+a force, commanded, as it was, at the same time by the cannon on the
+adjoining heights, they determined to evacuate the Balsille, after
+holding it for a period of nearly seven months.
+
+A thick mist having risen up from the valley, the Vaudois set out,
+late at night, under the guidance of Captain Poulat, a native of the
+district, who well knew the paths in the mountains. They climbed up on
+to the heights above, over icy slopes, passing across gaping crevices
+and along almost perpendicular rocks, admitting of their passage only
+in single file, sometimes dragging themselves along on their bellies,
+clinging to the rocks or to the tufts of grass, occasionally resting
+and praying, but never despairing. At length they succeeded, after a
+long détour of the mountain crests, in gaining the northern slope of
+Guinevert. Here they came upon and surprised the enemy's outpost,
+which fled towards the main body; and the Vaudois passed on, panting
+and half dead with fatigue. When the morning broke, and the French
+proceeded to penetrate the last redoubt on the Balsille, lo, it was
+empty! The defenders had abandoned it, and they could scarcely believe
+their eyes when they saw the dangerous mountain escarpment by which
+they had escaped in the night. Looking across the valley, far off,
+they saw the fugitives, thrown into relief by the snow amidst which
+they marched, like a line of ants, apparently making for the mass of
+the central Alps.
+
+For three days they wandered from place to place, gradually moving
+southwards, their object now being to take up their position at the
+Pra du Tour, the ancient fortress of the Barbas in the valley of
+Angrogna. Before, however, they could reach this stronghold, and while
+they were still at Pramol in the valley of Perosa, news of the most
+unexpected kind reached them, which opened up the prospect of their
+deliverance. The news was no other than this--Savoy had declared war
+against France!
+
+A rupture between the two powers had for some time been imminent.
+Louis XIV. had become more and more exacting in his demands on the
+Duke of Savoy, until the latter felt himself in a position of
+oppressive vassalage. Louis had even intimated his intention of
+occupying Verrua and the citadel of Turin; and the Duke, having
+previously ascertained through his cousin, Prince Eugène, the
+willingness of the Emperor of Austria, pressed by William of Orange,
+to assist him in opposing the pretensions of France, he at length took
+up his stand and declared war against Louis.
+
+The Vaudois were now a power in the state, and both parties alike
+appealed to them for help, promising them great favours. But the
+Vaudois, notwithstanding the treachery and cruelty of successive Dukes
+of Savoy, were true to their native prince. They pledged themselves to
+hold the valleys and defend the mountain passes against France.
+
+In the first engagements which took place between the French and the
+Piedmontese, the latter were overpowered, and the Duke became a
+fugitive. Where did he find refuge? In the valleys of the Vaudois, in
+a secluded spot in the village of Rora, behind the Pelice, he found a
+safe asylum amidst the people whose fathers he had hunted, proscribed,
+and condemned to death.
+
+But the tide of war turned, and the French were eventually driven out
+of Piedmont. Many of the Vaudois, who had settled in Brandenburg,
+Holland, and Switzerland, returned and settled in the valleys; and
+though the Dukes of Savoy, with their accustomed treachery, more than
+once allowed persecution to recommence, their descendants continue to
+enjoy the land, and to worship after the manner of their fathers down
+to the present day.
+
+The Vaudois long laboured under disabilities, and continued to be
+deprived of many social and civil rights. But they patiently bided
+their time; and the time at length arrived. In 1848 their emancipation
+was one of the great questions of North Italy. It was taken up and
+advocated by the most advanced minds of Piedmont. The petition to
+Charles Albert in their favour was in a few days covered with the
+names of its greatest patriots, including those of Balbo, Cavour, and
+D'Azeglio. Their emancipation was at length granted, and the Vaudois
+now enjoy the same rights and liberties as the other subjects of
+Victor Emanuel.
+
+Nor is the Vaudois Church any longer confined to the valleys, but it
+has become extended of late years all over Italy--to Milan, Florence,
+Brescia, Verona, Genoa, Leghorn, Naples, Palermo, Cataneo, Venice, and
+even to Rome itself. In most of these places there are day-schools and
+Sunday-schools, besides churches. The new church at Venice, held in
+the Cavagnis palace, seems to have proved especially successful, the
+Sunday services being regularly attended by from three to four hundred
+persons; while the day-schools in connection with the churches at
+Turin, Leghorn, Naples, and Cataneo have proved very successful.
+
+Thus, in the course of a few years, thirty-three Vaudois churches and
+stations, with about an equal number of schools, have been established
+in various parts of Italy. The missionaries report that the greatest
+difficulties they have to encounter arise from the incredulity and
+indifference which are the natural heritage of the Romish Church; but
+that, nevertheless, the work makes satisfactory progress--the good
+seed is being planted, and will yet bring forth its increase in God's
+due time.
+
+Finally, it cannot but be acknowledged that the people of the valleys,
+in so tenaciously and conscientiously adhering to their faith, through
+good and through evil, during so many hundred years, have set a
+glorious example to Piedmont, and have possibly been in no small
+degree instrumental in establishing the reign of right and of liberty
+in Italy.
+
+
+
+
+INDEX.
+
+
+  Aiguesmortes, Huguenot prison at, 193, 273, 300.
+  Albigenses, 75.
+  Anabaptists of Munster, 282-3.
+  Anduze, visit to, 125.
+  Angrogna, valley of, 481;
+    fighting in, 481-86, 498.
+  Arnaud, Henry, 215, 512;
+    leads back the Vaudois, 503-15;
+    defends the Balsille, 515-19.
+  Athlone, siege of, 349-50, 355-8.
+
+
+  Balsille, the, 510;
+    defence of, 515-19;
+    given up, 519.
+  Baridon, Etienne, 442-3.
+  Barillon, M. de, 323, 330-1.
+  Baville on the Protestants of Languedoc, 77, 86;
+    occupies the Cevennes, 87;
+    at Pont-de-Montvert, 92.
+  Beauval, Basnage de, 364.
+  Beauvau, Prince de, 273-4.
+  Beckwith, General, 478.
+  Berwick, Duke of, 310-11, 333, 351.
+  Bibles, destruction and scarcity of, 215-16.
+  Boileau, General, 351-2.
+  Bonnafoux repulsed by Camisards, 142.
+  Book-burning, 215, 235-6.
+  Bordeille, Raphaël, 318.
+  Bourg d'Oisans, 409-10.
+  Boyne, battle of the, 341-7.
+  Briançon, 414-16.
+  Briset, Lieut., death of, 335.
+  Broglie, Count, 143-4, 148;
+    superseded, 149.
+  Brousson, Claude, 30;
+    advocate for Protestant church at Nismes, 31;
+    meeting in house of, 34;
+    petition by, 35;
+    escape from Nismes, 42;
+    at Lausanne, 43, 46;
+    at Berlin, 44;
+    in the Cevennes, 50-2, 54;
+    reward offered for, 56; at Nismes, 57;
+    preaching of, 58-9;
+    to Lausanne, England, and Holland, 61-2;
+    at Sedan, 64;
+    through France, 66-7;
+    portraiture of, 68 (note);
+    to Nismes again, 69;
+    taken, tried, and executed, 70-3.
+  Browne, Col. Lyde, 380.
+  Brueys on fanaticism in Languedoc, 91.
+  Bull of Clement XI. against Camisards, 160.
+
+
+  Caillemotte, Col., 339;
+    death of, 345, 348.
+  Calas, Jean, 257;
+    executed, 258;
+    case taken up by Voltaire, 259-62;
+    reversal of judgment on, 262-3.
+  Calvinism and race, 100 (note).
+  Calvinists, French and Scotch, compared, 100.
+  Cambon, Col., 357.
+  Camisards, the origin of name, 107;
+    led by Laporte, 109;
+    organization of, 112-13;
+    encounter troops, 113-14, 117;
+    war-song of, 115;
+    organized by Roland, 123-4;
+    successes of, 134-40, 142, 146-50;
+    spread of insurrection of, 138-9;
+    measures against, 139, 146-7;
+    defeat of, at Vagnas, 150;
+    defeat of, near Pompignan, 152;
+    success of, at Martinargues, 162-4;
+    bull against, 160;
+    success at Salindres, 164-5;
+    defeated near Nismes, 168-9;
+    reverses of, 170-1;
+    success at Font-morte, 176-7;
+    defeated at Pont-de-Montvert, and end of insurrection, 187-9.
+  Camisards, White, 160-1.
+  Carrickfergus, siege of, 335.
+  Castanet, André, 111, 113, 118, 123, 189.
+  Cavalier, John, joins insurgents, 108, 111;
+    family of, 121;
+    to Geneva, 121;
+    to the Cevennes, 122;
+    portrait of, 124;
+    in Lower Languedoc, 133;
+    defeats Royalists, 134-5;
+    takes Château Servas, 136-7;
+    repulses Bonnafoux, 142;
+    at Nismes, 144-5;
+    successes of, 148;
+    winter campaign, 148-9;
+    at Vagnas, 150-1, 153;
+    betrayed at Tower of Belliot, 156-8;
+    at Martinargues, 162-4;
+    at Rosni, 169;
+    his cave magazines, 170-1;
+    his interview with Lalande, 173-6;
+    attempts peace, 177;
+    his interviews with Villars, 177-83;
+    deserted by followers, 183-5;
+    to England, and subsequent career, 186.
+  Caves in the Cevennes, 125, 127-9;
+    at La Tour, 477.
+  Cazenove, Raoul de, 321, 367.
+  Cevennes, the, persecutions in, 39, 52-3, 85;
+    secret meetings in, 54, 84-8;
+    executions in, 59, 67-8;
+    description of, 79-82;
+    arming of the people, 85-6;
+    occupied by troops, 88;
+    prophetic mania in, 88;
+    encounter at Pont-de-Montvert, 92;
+    outbreak against Du Chayla, 96-7;
+    map of, 98;
+    Protestants of, compared with Covenanters, 100-1;
+    organization in, 123-5;
+    caves in, 125, 127-9;
+    visit to, 125-9;
+    present inhabitants of, 129, 131-2;
+    devastation of, 154-5.
+  Champ Domergue, battle at, 114.
+  Charlemont, capture of, 339.
+  Château Queyras, 467.
+  Chaumont, 271.
+  Chayla, Du, 93-4, 97.
+  Chenevix, 15 (note).
+  Choiseul, Duc de, 268.
+  Claris, 237.
+  Colognac, execution of, 59.
+  Comiers, 407.
+  Conderc, Salomon, 119, 123.
+  "Conversions," rapid, 289.
+  Converts, 19-23, 38-9.
+  Cook, Captain, last voyage round the world, 371;
+    cruel death, 371.
+  Court profligacy, 275 (note).
+  Court, Antoine, 206-17;
+    organizes school for preachers, 224;
+    marriage of, 231;
+    retires to Switzerland, 232;
+    results of his work, 233-4;
+    in Languedoc, 239.
+  Covenanters compared with Protestants of the Cevennes, 100-2.
+  Cromwell, 391-2, 476.
+
+
+  D'Aguesseau's opinion of Protestants of Languedoc, 76-7.
+  Dauphiny, map of, 382;
+    aspect of, 383-4.
+  Delada, Mdlle. de, 295.
+  Denbeck, Abbé of, 322-3.
+  Denèse, Rotolf de la, 364.
+  Desert, assemblies in the, 83-8, 218-23.
+  Desparvés, M., 297.
+  Dormilhouse, 438, 443-54.
+  Dortial, 238.
+  Douglas, Lieut.-General, 349-51, 355.
+  Dragonnades, 36-7, 42, 54-5, 288;
+    horrors of, 291.
+  Drogheda, surrender of, 349.
+  Dumas, death of, 52.
+  Dundalk, Schomberg's army at, 337-8.
+  Durand, Pierre, 236.
+
+
+  Easter massacre of the Vaudois, 390-92.
+  England attempts to assist the Camisards, 166-7.
+  Enniskilleners, the, 336.
+  Evertzen, Vice-Admiral, 325.
+  Execution of Pastors, 27.
+
+
+  Fabre, Jean, 265;
+    sent to galleys, 266-9;
+    obtains leave of absence, 269;
+    exonerated, 270;
+    life dramatized, and result, 270.
+  Fermaud, Pastor, 407.
+  Freemantle, Rev. Mr., visits of, to the Vaudois, 395, 450, 462.
+  French labouring classes, present condition of, 397-400.
+  Freney, gorge of, 411.
+  Fusiliers, missionary, 293.
+
+
+  Galley, description of, 197-8;
+    use in war, 200-4.
+  Galley-slaves, treatment of, 194-204;
+    liberation of Protestants, 204, 264 (note), 271-3.
+  Galway, Earl of, 360.
+  Gilly, Dr., visit to the Vaudois, 393-4, 468, 477.
+  Ginckel, Lieut.-General, 347, 354 _et seq._
+  Glorious Return of the Vaudois, 493-5.
+  Grace, Col. Richard, 351.
+  Guarrison, Mdlle. de, 294.
+  Guerin, death of, 67.
+  Guignon betrays Cavalier, 156;
+    executed, 159.
+  Guil, valley of the, 466.
+  Guillestre, 456-66.
+  Guion executed, 57.
+
+
+  Herbert, Admiral, 325.
+  Homel, tortures and death of, 40.
+  Hood, Lord, 376.
+  Huguenots, the (see _Camisards_);
+    emigrations of, 43, 76-8, 83, 287, 316;
+    persecution of, after Camisard insurrection, 190-204;
+    as galley-slaves, 194-204;
+    brought together by Court, 210-17;
+    reorganization of, 218-228;
+    outrages on, 228;
+    great assemblies of, 239-40;
+    last of the executions, 258;
+    last of the galley-slaves, 265-273;
+    character of, 274-5;
+    later history of, 276-283;
+    decrees against, 286-6;
+    in England, 309;
+    foreign services of, 316-17.
+
+
+  Ireland and James II., 331 _et seq._
+  Irish Brigade, 140-2, 359.
+  Iron Boot, the, 102.
+
+
+  James II., flight of, 309, 329;
+    lands with an army in Ireland, 309, 332;
+    campaign against William III., 309 _et seq._, 333 _et seq._;
+    deserted, 328;
+    taken prisoner, 329;
+    his last proclamation, 330;
+    at the French court, 331;
+    cowardice, 337, 347-8;
+    Catholic estimate of his character, 348.
+  Joany, Nicholas, insurgent leader, 120, 123, 151.
+  Johannot, 269.
+  Julien, Brigadier, 147, 150-1.
+
+
+  Lagier, Jean, 452, 453 (note).
+  Lajonquière defeated at Martinargues, 162-4.
+  Lalande, his interview with Cavalier, 173-6.
+  Languedoc (see _Cevennes_), early liberty in, 75;
+    Albigenses in, 75;
+    Protestants of, 76-7;
+    industry of, 76;
+    emigration from, after Revocation, 78, 289;
+    arming of people of, 85-6;
+    outbreak of fanaticism in, 88-92;
+    present inhabitants of, 280-3.
+  Laporte, leader of Camisards, 109-10;
+    organizes insurgents, 112;
+    at Collet, 113;
+    at Champ Domergue, 114;
+    killed at Molezon, 117.
+  La Salette, 404;
+    miracle of, 405-6.
+  La Tour, 476-80.
+  Laugier at Guillestre, 463;
+    at Château Queyras, 464.
+  Lausanne, school for preachers at, 224;
+    Society of Help at, 224-5.
+  Lauteret, Col de, 413.
+  Lauzun, Count, 339, 358.
+  Lesdiguières, Duc de, 402-3, 455.
+  Limerick, siege of, 351-4, 359.
+  Lintarde, Marie, imprisonment of, 54.
+  Locke, John, on Protestants of Nismes, 31 (note).
+  Londonderry, siege of, 333.
+  Louis XIV., 2, 10, 146, 205.
+  Louis XV., 275.
+  Louis XVI., 276;
+    maxim of, 285;
+    his decrees against Protestants, 285-6;
+    his mode of stopping the emigration of Huguenots, 287-8;
+    expulsion of Protestants, 316;
+    assists James II., 332.
+  Luttrell, Capt., brilliant naval achievement of, 372.
+
+
+  Mackay, Major-General, 355, 357.
+  Marillac, Michel de, inventor of the dragonnades, 288.
+  Marion on influence of Camisard prophets, 119.
+  Marlborough, Earl of, 354.
+  Marteilhe, autobiography of, 195, 201-4.
+  Martinargues, battle at, 162-4.
+  Massillon on Louis XIV., 10.
+  Mazel, Abraham, 120, 123.
+  Mialet, visit to, 127-8.
+  Milsom, Edward, 395, 451, 490-92.
+  Missionaries, booted, 288.
+  Montandre, Marquis de, 314.
+  Montauban, persecutions at, 289-90.
+  Montpellier, Protestant Church at, 32-3;
+    the Peyron at, 72;
+    execution of Brousson at, 73, 300.
+  Montrevel, Marshal, in Languedoc, 149;
+    at Pompignan, 152;
+    adopts extermination, 153;
+    at Tower of Belliot, 156-8;
+    character of, 159;
+    recalled, 167;
+    defeats Cavalier, 168-9.
+
+
+  Nantes, Revocation of Edict of, and its results, 1-19, 24, 44-5, 78;
+    contemporary opinion upon, 1-10;
+    enactments of Edict of Revocation, 12-15, 285-6.
+  Neff, Felix, 427-32;
+    life of, 394, 404;
+    his account of winter at Dormilhouse, 447;
+    his charge, 469.
+  Nelson, Lord, eulogium on Capt. Riou, 368;
+    at the battle of Copenhagen, 378-9.
+  Ners, visit to, 131.
+  Newton Butler, engagement at, 333.
+  Nismes, Protestant Church at, 31;
+    petition from, 41;
+    Brousson at, 57, 69;
+    Guion at, 57;
+    country about, 81, 130-2;
+    success of Camisards near, 143;
+    Cavalier at, 144-5, 177-83;
+    treaty of, 179-80;
+    Huguenot meetings at, 265.
+
+
+  Ormond, Duke of, 349.
+
+
+  Palons, 433-6.
+  Paulet, Mdlle., forgeries in name of, 32-4.
+  Pechell, Augustus, 315.
+  Pechell, Capt. William Cecil, 315.
+  Pechell, Col. Jacob, 313.
+  Pechell, Paul, 314.
+  Pechell, Samuel, extraordinary probity of, 314.
+  Pechell, Sir G. R. Brooke, 315.
+  Pechell, Sir Thomas, 315.
+  Péchels de la Boissonade, Samuel de, narrative of his persecutions, 291
+      _et seq._;
+    imprisonment, 296, 299-301;
+    meeting with his wife, 297;
+    condemned to banishment, 299;
+    embarkation, 302;
+    sails for America, 303;
+    sufferings, 304-5;
+    reaches the West Indies, 305;
+    illness and arrival in London, 307;
+    accepts a commission in the English army, 309;
+    campaign in Ireland, 310;
+    return to London, 311;
+    removal with his wife and son to Dublin, 312;
+    death of, 312;
+    his descendants, 313.
+  Péchels, family of, 290.
+  Péchels, Madame de, inhumanity towards, 294-5;
+    touching interview with her husband, 297;
+    further trials, 297;
+    escape to Geneva, 298;
+    in London, 308;
+    reunited to her husband, 311.
+  Pelice, Valley of the, 472.
+  Pélisson, 323.
+  Pont-de-Montvert, outbreak at, 92-7;
+    description of, 93-4;
+    end of Camisard insurrection at, 187-9.
+  Portland, Earl of, 361, 363.
+  Portland Vase, 363.
+  Poul, Captain, in Upper Cevennes, 108;
+    at Champ Domergue, 114-16;
+    takes Laporte at Molezon, 117;
+    defeated and killed near Nismes, 143-4.
+  Pra du Tour, 486-90, 499.
+  Preachers, education of, 221-4;
+    hardships of, 225-9, 236-8.
+  Project, the, 34.
+  "Protestant wind," the, 325.
+  Protestantism in France, present chances of, 417.
+
+
+  Quoite, execution of, 53.
+
+
+  Rapin, Capt. Paul, birth and education, 321-2;
+    emigrates to England, 322;
+    embarks for Holland, 323;
+    a cadet in the Dutch army, 324;
+    sails for England, 325;
+    encounters a storm, 326;
+    with the army of William III., 335 _et seq._;
+    aide-de-camp, 350;
+    wounded and promoted, 354;
+    conciliatory spirit, 358-9;
+    at Kinsale, 359;
+    tutor to Lord Woodstock, 360;
+    presented to the King, 371;
+    makes the "grand tour" with his pupil, 362-3;
+    secures the Portland Vase, 363;
+    marriage, 363;
+    at the Hague and Wesel, 364;
+    his "Dissertation on the Origin and Nature of the English
+      Constitution," 364;
+    "History of England," 364-7;
+    death of, 366.
+  Rapin, Daniel de, 324.
+  Rapin family, 317-21, 367.
+  Rapin, Solomon, 354, 360.
+  Ravanel, insurgent leader, defeats Royalists near Nismes, 143;
+    near Bouquet, 145;
+    supplants Cavalier, 182-5;
+    death of, 189.
+  Redothière, Isabeau, 53.
+  Rességuerie, M. de la, 297.
+  Rey, Fulcran, his preaching and death, 25-7.
+  Riou, Capt., R.N., Lord Nelson's opinion of, 368;
+    ancestry, 368-70;
+    birth and education, 370;
+    becomes a midshipman, 370;
+    accompanies Capt. Cook in his last voyage, 371;
+    witnesses the murder of the captain, 371;
+    return to England and appointed lieutenant, 372;
+    a sharer in the glory of Capt. Luttrell's brilliant achievement, 372;
+    appointed to the command of the _Guardian_, 373;
+    letters to his mother, 373, 377;
+    his ship strikes upon an iceberg, 374;
+    remains with the vessel, 375;
+    letter to the Admiralty, 375;
+    extract from his log, 376;
+    rescued by Dutch whalers, and return to England, 376;
+    receives the special thanks of the Admiralty, 377;
+    commander of the royal yacht _Princess Augusta_, 378;
+    at the battle of Copenhagen, 378-9;
+    death of, 379;
+    his character, 379-80;
+    monument in St. Paul's Cathedral, 380.
+  Rochemalan, Vaudois struggles at, 482-6.
+  Roger, Jacques, 213.
+  Roland, nephew of Laporte, 111;
+    insurgent leader, 113;
+    succeeds Laporte, 118;
+    in Lower Cevennes, 122;
+    organizes Camisards, 123-5;
+    takes Sauvé, 137;
+    at Pompignan, 152;
+    at Salindres, 164-5;
+    at Font-Morte, 176-7;
+    at Pont-de-Montvert, 187;
+    death of, 188.
+  Romanche, Valley of the, 401, 408.
+  Rosen, Count, 332;
+    indignation against King James, 337.
+  Rostan, Alpine missionary, 460 (note).
+  Rou, Jean, 363-4.
+  Roussel, Alexandre, 232.
+  Ruvigny, Major-General, 357.
+
+
+  St. Bartholomew, doubt thrown upon massacre of, 27.
+  Saint-Etienne, Rabout, 276-7.
+  St. Hypolite, meeting at, 35.
+  Saint-Ruth, Marshal, 38;
+    in Ireland, 38 (note), 354 _et seq._
+  Saint-Simon on the treatment of converts, 23.
+  Sands, Captain, 357.
+  San Veran, 468.
+  Sarsfield, General, 351-3, 356.
+  Savoy and France, war declared, 520.
+  Savoy, Duke of, takes refuge with the Vaudois, 520.
+  Schomberg, Marshal, 309 _et seq._, 317, 344 _et seq._;
+    death of, 345.
+  Schomberg, Count, 348.
+  Sedan, prosperity of, before Revocation, 64-5;
+    Brousson at, 65-6.
+  Seguier, Pierre, insurgent leader, 96, 103;
+    at Frugères, 104;
+    at Font-Morte, 106;
+    taken, tried, and executed, 106-7.
+  Sirven, 263;
+    case of, taken up by Voltaire, 264.
+  Society of Friends in Languedoc, 281-2.
+  Souverain executed, 52.
+  Squeezers, the, 101 (note).
+  Synod of French Protestant Church, 283.
+
+
+  Talmash, Major-General, 357.
+  Telford, anecdote of, 82.
+  Testart, Marie Anne, 363.
+  Tetleau, Major-General, 357.
+  Toleration, Edict of, 276.
+  "Troopers' Lane," 310.
+  Tyrconnel, Earl of, 331-2.
+  Tyrconnel, Lady, retort to King James, 348.
+
+
+  Val Fressinières, 423-5, 432-43.
+  Val Louise, 420;
+    massacre at, 422.
+  Vaudois, the country of, 385;
+    early Christianity of, 386-6;
+    early persecutions of, 388;
+    Easter massacre of, 390-1;
+    visits of Dr. Gilly to, 393-4, 468, 477;
+    passiveness of, 420-1;
+    massacre of, at Val Louise, 422;
+    persecutions of, 424-6, 455, 481, 495-500, 513-20;
+    refuges of, 459, 467, 475, 477, 481;
+    struggles of, at Rochemalan, 482-6;
+    flight at the Revocation, 495;
+    apparently exterminated, 500;
+    in Switzerland, 501;
+    prepare to return, 502;
+    Arnaud appointed leader, 502;
+    assisted by William of Orange, 503;
+    The Glorious Return of, 504-13;
+    struggles of, at the Balsille, 515;
+    assist Duke of Savoy, 520;
+    emancipation of, 521-2.
+  Venours, Marquis de, death of, 335.
+  Vesson, 212, 214.
+  Vidal, Isaac, preacher, 48.
+  Villars, Marshal, on prophetic mania in Languedoc, 90;
+    appointed to command in Languedoc, 167;
+    at Nismes, 169;
+    clemency of, 172-86;
+    treats with Cavalier, 177, 185;
+    suppresses insurrection of Camisards, 188.
+  Vincent, Isabel, prophetess, 89, 90.
+  Vivens, death of, 56.
+  Voltaire, takes up case of Calas, 259-63;
+    takes up case of Sirven, 264;
+    case of Chaumont, 271.
+
+
+  Waldenses, the, 384.
+  Walker, Dr. George, death of, 348.
+  Waller, Sir James, 359.
+  Wheel, punishment of the, 258 (note).
+  William of Orange lands in England, 308;
+    proclaimed King, 309;
+    campaign against James II., 309 _et seq._, 340 _et seq._;
+    his fleet, 325-7;
+    wounded, 342;
+    death of, 364.
+  Woodstock, Lord, 360-3.
+  Wurtemberg, Duke of, 340, 357.
+
+
+PRINTED BY VIRTUE AND CO., LIMITED, CITY ROAD, LONDON.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's The Huguenots in France, by Samuel Smiles
+
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+<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1">
+<title>The Project Gutenberg e-Book of The Huguenots in France; Author: Samuel Smiles.</title>
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+
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Huguenots in France, by Samuel Smiles
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The Huguenots in France
+
+Author: Samuel Smiles
+
+Release Date: September 4, 2008 [EBook #26524]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE HUGUENOTS IN FRANCE ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Eric Hutton, Christine P. Travers and the
+Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+
+
+
+
+</pre>
+
+
+<p class="tn">Transcriber's note: Obvious printer's errors have been corrected, all
+other inconsistencies are as in the original. The author's spelling
+has been maintained.</p>
+
+<h1>THE HUGUENOTS IN FRANCE</h1>
+
+<h2>By Dr. SAMUEL SMILES</h2>
+
+<p class="center">Author of "Self Help"</p>
+
+<p class="p4 smaller center">LONDON<br>
+GEORGE ROUTLEDGE AND SONS, LIMITED<br>
+BROADWAY HOUSE, LUDGATE HILL<br>
+MDCCCCIII</p>
+
+<p class="p4 smaller center">LONDON AND COUNTY PRINTING WORKS,<br>
+BAZAAR BUILDINGS, LONDON, W.C.</p>
+
+<a id="toc" name="toc"></a>
+<h3>CONTENTS.</h3>
+
+<p class="title_toc">THE HUGUENOTS IN FRANCE AFTER THE REVOCATION
+  OF THE EDICT OF NANTES.</p>
+
+<ul class="none">
+<li>CHAPTER    <span class="ralign">PAGE</span></li>
+</ul>
+
+<ul class="roman">
+<li>REVOCATION OF THE EDICT OF NANTES
+<span class="ralign"><a href="#page001">1</a></span></li>
+
+<li>EFFECTS OF THE REVOCATION&mdash;CHURCH IN THE DESERT
+<span class="ralign"><a href="#page012">12</a></span></li>
+
+<li>CLAUDE BROUSSON, THE HUGUENOT ADVOCATE
+<span class="ralign"><a href="#page030">30</a></span></li>
+
+<li>CLAUDE BROUSSON, PASTOR AND MARTYR
+<span class="ralign"><a href="#page050">50</a></span></li>
+
+<li>OUTBREAK IN LANGUEDOC
+<span class="ralign"><a href="#page075">75</a></span></li>
+
+<li>INSURRECTION OF THE CAMISARDS
+<span class="ralign"><a href="#page099">99</a></span></li>
+
+<li>EXPLOITS OF CAVALIER
+<span class="ralign"><a href="#page130">130</a></span></li>
+
+<li>END OF THE CAMISARD INSURRECTION
+<span class="ralign"><a href="#page166">166</a></span></li>
+
+<li>GALLEY-SLAVES FOR THE FAITH
+<span class="ralign"><a href="#page190">190</a></span></li>
+
+<li>ANTOINE COURT
+<span class="ralign"><a href="#page205">205</a></span></li>
+
+<li>REORGANIZATION OF THE CHURCH IN THE DESERT
+<span class="ralign"><a href="#page218">218</a></span></li>
+
+<li>THE CHURCH IN THE DESERT&mdash;PAUL RABAUT
+<span class="ralign"><a href="#page235">235</a></span></li>
+
+<li>END OF THE PERSECUTIONS&mdash;THE FRENCH REVOLUTION
+<span class="ralign"><a href="#page253">253</a></span></li>
+</ul>
+
+<p class="p2 title_toc">MEMOIRS OF DISTINGUISHED HUGUENOT REFUGEES.</p>
+
+<ul class="roman">
+<li>STORY OF SAMUEL DE PÉCHELS
+<span class="ralign"><a href="#page285">285</a></span></li>
+
+<li>CAPTAIN RAPIN, AUTHOR OF THE "HISTORY OF ENGLAND"
+<span class="ralign"><a href="#page316">316</a></span></li>
+
+<li>CAPTAIN RIOU, R.N.
+<span class="ralign"><a href="#page368">368</a></span></li>
+</ul>
+
+<p class="p2 title_toc">A VISIT TO THE COUNTRY OF THE VAUDOIS.</p>
+
+<ul class="roman">
+<li>INTRODUCTORY&mdash;EARLY PERSECUTIONS OF THE VAUDOIS
+<span class="ralign"><a href="#page383">383</a></span></li>
+
+<li>THE VALLEY OF THE ROMANCHE&mdash;BRIANÇON
+<span class="ralign"><a href="#page401">401</a></span></li>
+
+<li>VAL LOUISE&mdash;HISTORY OF FELIX NEFF
+<span class="ralign"><a href="#page420">420</a></span></li>
+
+<li>THE VAUDOIS MOUNTAIN-REFUGE OF DORMILHOUSE
+<span class="ralign"><a href="#page437">437</a></span></li>
+
+<li>GUILLESTRE AND THE VALLEY OF QUEYRAS
+<span class="ralign"><a href="#page455">455</a></span></li>
+
+<li>THE VALLEY OF THE PELICE&mdash;LA TOUR&mdash;ANGROGNA&mdash;THE
+PRA DE TOUR
+<span class="ralign"><a href="#page472">472</a></span></li>
+
+<li>THE GLORIOUS RETURN: AN EPISODE IN THE HISTORY OF
+  THE ITALIAN VAUDOIS
+<span class="ralign"><a href="#page493">493</a></span></li>
+</ul>
+
+<h2>MAPS.</h2>
+
+<ul class="none">
+<li>The Country of the Cevennes
+<span class="ralign"><a href="#img001">98</a></span></li>
+
+<li>"The Country of Felix Neff" (Dauphiny)
+<span class="ralign"><a href="#img002">382</a></span></li>
+
+<li>The Valley of Luserne
+<span class="ralign"><a href="#img003">472</a></span></li>
+</ul>
+
+<h2><span class="pagenum"><a id="pagev" name="pagev"></a>(p. v)</span> PREFACE.</h2>
+
+
+<p>In preparing this edition for the press, I have ventured to add three
+short memoirs of distinguished Huguenot Refugees and their
+descendants.</p>
+
+<p>Though the greatest number of Huguenots banished from France at the
+Revocation of the Edict of Nantes were merchants and manufacturers,
+who transferred their skill and arts to England, which was not then a
+manufacturing country; a large number of nobles and gentry emigrated
+to this and other countries, leaving their possessions to be
+confiscated by the French king.</p>
+
+<p>The greater number of the nobles entered the armies of the countries
+in which they took refuge. In Holland, they joined the army of the
+Prince of Orange, afterwards William III., King of England. After
+driving the armies of Louis XIV. out of Ireland, they met the French
+at Ramilies, Blenheim, and Malplacquet, and other battles in the Low
+Countries. A Huguenot engineer directed the operations at the siege of
+Namur, which ended in its capture. Another conducted the siege of
+Lille, which was also taken.</p>
+
+<p>But perhaps the greatest number of Huguenot nobles entered the
+Prussian service. Their descendants revisited France on more than one
+occasion. They <span class="pagenum"><a id="pagevi" name="pagevi"></a>(p. vi)</span> overran the northern and eastern parts of
+France in 1814 and 1815; and last of all they vanquished the
+descendants of their former persecutors at Sedan in 1870. Sedan was,
+prior to the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes, the renowned seat of
+Protestant learning; while now it is known as the scene of the
+greatest military catastrophe which has occurred in modern history.</p>
+
+<p>The Prime Minister of France, M. Jules Simon, not long ago recorded
+the fateful effects of Louis XIV.'s religious intolerance. In
+discussing the perpetual ecclesiastical questions which still disturb
+France, he recalled the fact that not less than eighty of the German
+staff in the late war were representatives of Protestant families,
+driven from France by the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes.</p>
+
+<p>The first of the appended memoirs is that of Samuel de Péchels, a
+noble of Languedoc, who, after enduring great privations, reached
+England through Jamaica, and served as a lieutenant in Ireland under
+William III. Many of his descendants have been distinguished soldiers
+in the service of England. The second is Captain Rapin, who served
+faithfully in Ireland, and was called away to be tutor to the young
+Duke of Portland. He afterwards spent his time at Wesel on the Rhine,
+where he wrote his "History of England." The third is Captain Riou, "the
+gallant and the good," who was killed at the battle of Copenhagen.
+These memoirs might be multiplied to any extent; but those given are
+enough to show the good work which the Huguenots and their descendants
+have done in the service of England.<a href="#toc"><span class="small">[Back to Contents]</span></a></p>
+
+
+<h2><span class="pagenum"><a id="pagevii" name="pagevii"></a>(p. vii)</span> INTRODUCTION.</h2>
+
+
+<p>Six years since, I published a book entitled <span class="italic">The Huguenots: their
+Settlements, Churches, and Industries, in England and Ireland</span>. Its
+object was to give an account of the causes which led to the large
+migrations of foreign Protestants from Flanders and France into
+England, and to describe their effects upon English industry as well
+as English history.</p>
+
+<p>It was necessary to give a brief <span class="italic">résumé</span> of the history of the
+Reformation in France down to the dispersion of the Huguenots, and the
+suppression of the Protestant religion by Louis XIV. under the terms
+of the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes.</p>
+
+<p>Under that Act, the profession of Protestantism was proclaimed to be
+illegal, and subject to the severest penalties. Hence, many of the
+French Protestants who refused to be "converted," and had the means of
+emigrating, were under the necessity of leaving France and
+endeavouring to find personal freedom and religious liberty elsewhere.</p>
+
+<p>The refugees found protection in various countries. The principal
+portion of the emigrants from Languedoc <span class="pagenum"><a id="pageviii" name="pageviii"></a>(p. viii)</span> and the
+south-eastern provinces of France crossed the frontier into
+Switzerland, and settled there, or afterwards proceeded into the
+states of Prussia, Holland, and Denmark, as well as into England and
+Ireland. The chief number of emigrants from the northern and western
+seaboard provinces of France, emigrated directly into England,
+Ireland, America, and the Cape of Good Hope. In my previous work, I
+endeavoured to give as accurate a description as was possible of the
+emigrants who settled in England and Ireland, to which, the American
+editor of the work (the Hon. G. P. Disosway) has added an account of
+those who settled in the United States of America.</p>
+
+<p>But besides the Huguenots who contrived to escape from Franco during
+the dragonnades which preceded and the persecutions which followed the
+Revocation of the Edict of Nantes, there was still a very large number
+of Huguenots remaining in France who had not the means wherewith to
+fly from their country. These were the poorer people, the peasants,
+the small farmers, the small manufacturers, many of whom were spoiled
+of their goods for the very purpose of preventing them from
+emigrating. They were consequently under the necessity of remaining in
+their native country, whether they changed their religion by force or
+not. It is to give an account of these people, as a supplement to my
+former book, that the present work is written.</p>
+
+<p>It is impossible to fix precisely the number of the <span class="pagenum"><a id="pageix" name="pageix"></a>(p. ix)</span> Huguenots
+who left France to avoid the cruelties of Louis XIV., as well as of
+those who perforce remained to endure them. It shakes one's faith in
+history to observe the contradictory statements published with regard
+to French political or religious facts, even of recent date. A general
+impression has long prevailed that there was a Massacre of St.
+Bartholemew in Paris in the year 1572; but even that has recently been
+denied, or softened down into a mere political squabble. It is not,
+however, possible to deny the fact that there was a Revocation of the
+Edict of Nantes in 1685, though it has been vindicated as a noble act
+of legislation, worthy even of the reputation and character of Louis
+the Great.</p>
+
+<p>No two writers agree as to the number of French citizens who were
+driven from their country by the Revocation. A learned Roman Catholic,
+Mr. Charles Butler, states that only 50,000 persons "retired" from
+France; whereas M. Capefigue, equally opposed to the Reformation, who
+consulted the population tables of the period (although the intendants
+made their returns as small as possible in order to avoid the reproach
+of negligence), calculates the emigration at 230,000 souls, namely,
+1,580 ministers, 2,300 elders, 15,000 gentlemen, the remainder
+consisting almost entirely of traders and artisans.</p>
+
+<p>These returns, quoted by M. Capefigue, were made only a few years
+after the Revocation, although the emigration continued without
+intermission for many years later. M. Charles Coquerel says that
+whatever <span class="pagenum"><a id="pagex" name="pagex"></a>(p. x)</span> horror may be felt for the Massacre of St.
+Bartholomew of 1572, the persecutions which preceded and followed the
+Act of Revocation in 1685, "kept France under a perpetual St.
+Bartholomew for about sixty years." During that time it is believed
+that more than 1,000,000 Frenchmen either left the kingdom, or were
+killed, imprisoned, or sent to the galleys in their efforts to escape.</p>
+
+<p>The Intendant of Saintonge, a King's officer, not likely to exaggerate
+the number of emigrants, reported in 1698, long before the emigration
+had ceased, that his province had lost 100,000 Reformers. Languedoc
+suffered far more; whilst Boulainvilliers reports that besides the
+emigrants who succeeded in making their escape, the province lost not
+fewer than 100,000 persons by premature death, the sword,
+strangulation, and the wheel.</p>
+
+<p>The number of French emigrants who resorted to England may be inferred
+from the fact that at the beginning of last century there were not
+fewer than <span class="italic">thirty-five</span> French Protestant churches in London alone,
+at a time when the population of the metropolis was not one-fourth of
+what it is now; while there were other large French settlements at
+Canterbury, Norwich, Southampton, Bristol, Exeter, &amp;c., as well as at
+Dublin, Lisburn, Portarlington, and other towns in Ireland.</p>
+
+<p>Then, with respect to the much larger number of Protestants who
+remained in France after the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes, there
+is the same difference <span class="pagenum"><a id="pagexi" name="pagexi"></a>(p. xi)</span> of opinion. A deputation of Huguenot
+pastors and elders, who waited upon the Duc de Noailles in 1682
+informed him that there were then 1,800,000 Protestant <span class="italic">families</span> in
+France. Thirty years after that date, Louis XIV. proclaimed that there
+were no Protestants whatever in France; that Protestantism had been
+entirely suppressed, and that any one found professing that faith must
+be considered as a "relapsed heretic," and sentenced to imprisonment,
+the galleys, or the other punishments to which Protestants were then
+subject.</p>
+
+<p>After an interval of about seventy-five years, during which
+Protestantism (though suppressed by the law) contrived to lead a sort
+of underground life&mdash;the Protestants meeting by night, and sometimes
+by day, in caves, valleys, moors, woods, old quarries, hollow beds of
+rivers, or, as they themselves called it, "in the Desert"&mdash;they at
+length contrived to lift their heads into the light of day, and then
+Rabaut St. Etienne stood up in the Constituent Assembly at Paris, in
+1787, and claimed the rights of his Protestant fellow-countrymen&mdash;the
+rights of "2,000,000 useful citizens." Louis XVI. granted them an
+Edict of Tolerance, about a hundred years after Louis XIV. had revoked
+the Edict of Nantes; but the measure proved too late for the King, and
+too late for France, which had already been sacrificed to the
+intolerance of Louis XIV. and his Jesuit advisers.</p>
+
+<p>After all the sufferings of France&mdash;after the cruelties to which her
+people have been subjected by <span class="pagenum"><a id="pagexii" name="pagexii"></a>(p. xii)</span> the tyranny of her monarchs
+and the intolerance of her priests,&mdash;it is doubtful whether she has
+yet learnt wisdom from her experience and trials. France was brought
+to ruin a century ago by the Jesuits who held the entire education of
+the country in their hands. They have again recovered their ground,
+and the Congreganistes are now what the Jesuits were before. The
+Sans-Culottes of 1793 were the pupils of the priests; so were the
+Communists of 1871.<a id="footnotetag1" name="footnotetag1"></a><a href="#footnote1" title="Go to footnote 1"><span class="small">[1]</span></a> M. Edgar Quinet has recently said to his
+countrymen: "The Jesuitical and clerical spirit which has sneaked in
+among you and all your affairs has ruined you. It has corrupted the
+spring of life; it has delivered you over to the enemy.... Is this to
+last for ever? For heaven's sake spare us at least the sight of a
+Jesuits' Republic as the coronation of our century."</p>
+
+<p>In the midst of these prophecies of ruin, we have M. Veuillot frankly
+avowing his Ultramontane policy in the <span class="italic">Univers</span>. He is quite willing
+to go back to the old burnings, hangings, and quarterings, to prevent
+any freedom of opinion about religious matters. "For my part," he
+says, "I frankly avow my regret not only that John Huss was not burnt
+sooner, but that Luther was not burnt too. And I regret further that
+there has not been some prince sufficiently pious and politic to have
+made a crusade against the Protestants."</p>
+
+<p>M. Veuillot is perhaps entitled to some respect for boldly speaking
+out what he means and thinks. <span class="pagenum"><a id="pagexiii" name="pagexiii"></a>(p. xiii)</span> There are many amongst
+ourselves who mean the same thing, without having the courage to say
+so&mdash;who hate the Reformation quite as much as M. Veuillot does, and
+would like to see the principles of free examination and individual
+liberty torn up root and branch.</p>
+
+<p>With respect to the proposed crusade against Protestantism, it will be
+seen from the following work what the "pious and politic" Louis XIV.
+attempted, and how very inefficient his measures eventually proved in
+putting down Protestantism, or in extending Catholicism. Louis XIV.
+found it easier to make martyrs than apostates; and discovered that
+hanging, banishment, the galleys, and the sword were not amongst the
+most successful of "converters."</p>
+
+<p>The history of the Huguenots during the time of their submergence as
+an "underground church" is scarcely treated in the general histories
+of France. Courtly writers blot them out of history as Louis XIV.
+desired to blot them out of France. Most histories of France published
+in England contain little notice of them. Those who desire to pursue
+the subject further, will obtain abundant information, more
+particularly from the following works:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Elie Bénoît</span>: <span class="italic">Histoire de l'Édit de Nantes.</span> <span class="smcap">Charles Coquerel</span>:
+<span class="italic">Histoire des Églises du Désert.</span> <span class="smcap">Napoleon Peyrat</span>: <span class="italic">Histoire des
+Pasteurs du Désert.</span> <span class="smcap">Antoine Court</span>: <span class="italic">Histoire des Troubles de
+Cevennes.</span> <span class="smcap">Edmund Hughes</span>: <span class="italic">Histoire de la Restauration du
+Protestantisme en France au xviii. Siècle.</span> <span class="smcap">A. Bonnemère</span>: <span class="italic">Histoire
+des Camisardes.</span> <span class="smcap">Adolphe Michel</span>: <span class="italic">Louvois et Les Protestantes.</span>
+<span class="smcap">Athanase Coquerel Fils</span>; <span class="italic">Les Forçats pour La Foi, &amp;c., &amp;c.</span></p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="pagexiv" name="pagexiv"></a>(p. xiv)</span> It remains to be added that part of this work&mdash;viz., the
+"Wars of the Camisards," and the "Journey in the Country of the
+Vaudois"&mdash;originally appeared in <span class="italic">Good Words</span>.</p>
+
+<p class="right">S.S.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">London</span>, <span class="italic">October</span>, 1873.<a href="#toc"><span class="small">[Back to Contents]</span></a></p>
+
+
+
+
+<h1><span class="pagenum"><a id="page001" name="page001"></a>(p. 001)</span> THE HUGUENOTS IN FRANCE.</h1>
+
+
+<h3>CHAPTER I.</h3>
+
+<p class="title">REVOCATION OF THE EDICT OF NANTES.</p>
+
+
+<p>The Revocation of the Edict of Nantes was signed by Louis XIV. of
+France, on the 18th of October, 1685, and published four days
+afterwards.</p>
+
+<p>Although the Revocation was the personal act of the King, it was
+nevertheless a popular measure, approved by the Catholic Church of
+France, and by the great body of the French people.</p>
+
+<p>The King had solemnly sworn, at the beginning of his reign, to
+maintain, the tolerating Edict of Henry IV.&mdash;the Huguenots being
+amongst the most industrious, enterprising, and loyal of his subjects.
+But the advocacy of the King's then Catholic mistress, Madame de
+Maintenon, and of his Jesuit Confessor, Père la Chaise, overcame his
+scruples, and the deed of Revocation of the Edict was at length signed
+and published.</p>
+
+<p>The aged Chancellor, Le Tellier, was so overjoyed at the measure, that
+on affixing the great seal of France to the deed, he exclaimed, in the
+words of Simeon, "Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace,
+for mine eyes have seen the salvation."</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page002" name="page002"></a>(p. 002)</span> Three months later, the great Bossuet, the eagle of Meaux,
+preached the funeral sermon of Le Tellier; in the course of which he
+testified to the immense joy of the Church at the Revocation of the
+Edict. "Let us," said he, "expand our hearts in praises of the piety
+of Louis. Let our acclamations ascend to heaven, and let us say to
+this new Constantine, this new Theodosius, this new Marcian, this new
+Charlemagne, what the thirty-six fathers formerly said in the Council
+of Chalcedon: 'You have affirmed the faith, you have exterminated the
+heretics; it is a work worthy of your reign, whose proper character it
+is. Thanks to you, heresy is no more. God alone can have worked this
+marvel. King of heaven, preserve the King of earth: it is the prayer
+of the Church, it is the prayer of the Bishops.'"<a id="footnotetag2" name="footnotetag2"></a><a href="#footnote2" title="Go to footnote 2"><span class="small">[2]</span></a></p>
+
+<p>Madame de Maintenon also received the praises of the Church. "All good
+people," said the Abbé de Choisy, "the Pope, the bishops, and all the
+clergy, rejoice at the victory of Madame de Maintenon." Madame enjoyed
+the surname of Director of the Affairs of the Clergy; and it was said
+by the ladies of St. Cyr (an institution founded by her), that "the
+cardinals and the bishops knew no other way of approaching the King
+save through her."</p>
+
+<p>It is generally believed that her price for obtaining the King's
+consent to the Act of Revocation, was the withdrawal by the clergy of
+their opposition to her marriage with the King; and that the two were
+privately united by the Archbishop of Paris at Versailles, a few days
+after, in the presence of Père la Chaise and two more witnesses. But
+Louis XIV. never publicly recognised De Maintenon as his wife&mdash;never
+rescued <span class="pagenum"><a id="page003" name="page003"></a>(p. 003)</span> her from the ignominious position in which she
+originally stood related to him.</p>
+
+<p>People at court all spoke with immense praises of the King's
+intentions with respect to destroying the Huguenots. "Killing them
+off" was a matter of badinage with the courtiers. Madame de Maintenon
+wrote to the Duc de Noailles, "The soldiers are killing numbers of the
+fanatics&mdash;they hope soon to free Languedoc of them."</p>
+
+<p>That picquante letter-writer, Madame de Sévigné, often referred to the
+Huguenots. She seems to have classed them with criminals or wild
+beasts. When residing in Low Brittany during a revolt against the
+Gabelle, a friend wrote to her, "How dull you must be!" "No," replied
+Madame de Sévigné, "we are not so dull&mdash;hanging is quite a refreshment
+to me! They have just taken twenty-four or thirty of these men, and
+are going to throw them off."</p>
+
+<p>A few days after the Edict had been revoked, she wrote to her cousin
+Bussy, at Paris: "You have doubtless seen the Edict by which the King
+revokes that of Nantes. There is nothing so fine as that which it
+contains, and never has any King done, or ever will do, a more
+memorable act." Bussy replied to her: "I immensely admire the conduct
+of the King in destroying the Huguenots. The wars which have been
+waged against them, and the St. Bartholomew, have given some
+reputation to the sect. His Majesty has gradually undermined it; and
+the edict he has just published, maintained by the dragoons and by
+Bourdaloue,<a id="footnotetag3" name="footnotetag3"></a><a href="#footnote3" title="Go to footnote 3"><span class="small">[3]</span></a> will soon give them the <span class="italic">coup de grâce</span>."</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page004" name="page004"></a>(p. 004)</span> In a future letter to Count Bussy, Madame de Sévigné informed
+him of "a dreadfully fatiguing journey which her son-in-law M. de
+Grignan had made in the mountains of Dauphiny, to pursue and punish
+the miserable Huguenots, who issued from their holes, and vanished
+like ghosts to avoid extermination."</p>
+
+<p>De Baville, however, the Lieutenant of Languedoc, kept her in good
+heart. In one of his letters, he said, "I have this morning condemned
+seventy-six of these wretches (Huguenots), and sent them to the
+galleys." All this was very pleasant to Madame de Sévigné.</p>
+
+<p>Madame de Scuderi, also, more moderately rejoiced in the Act of
+Revocation. "The King," she wrote to Bussy, "has worked great marvels
+against the Huguenots; and the authority which he has employed to
+unite them to the Church will be most salutary to themselves and to
+their children, who will be educated in the purity of the faith; all
+this will bring upon him the benedictions of Heaven."</p>
+
+<p>Even the French Academy, though originally founded by a Huguenot,
+publicly approved the deed of Revocation. In a discourse uttered
+before it, the Abbé Tallemand exclaimed, when speaking of the Huguenot
+temple at Charenton, which had just been destroyed by the mob, "Happy
+ruins, the finest trophy France ever beheld!" La Fontaine described
+heresy as now "reduced to the last gasp." Thomas Corneille also
+eulogized the zeal of the King in "throttling the Reformation."
+Barbier D'Aucourt heedlessly, but truly, compared the emigration of
+the Protestants "to the departure of the Israelites from Egypt." The
+Academy afterwards proposed, as the subject of a poem, the Revocation
+of the Edict of Nantes, and Fontenelle had the fortune, good or bad,
+of winning the prize.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page005" name="page005"></a>(p. 005)</span> The philosophic La Bruyère contributed a maxim in praise of
+the Revocation. Quinault wrote a poem on the subject; and Madame
+Deshoulières felt inspired to sing "The Destruction of Heresy." The
+Abbé de Rancé spoke of the whole affair as a prodigy: "The Temple of
+Charenton destroyed, and no exercise of Protestantism, within the
+kingdom; it is a kind of miracle, such as we had never hoped to have
+seen in our day."</p>
+
+<p>The Revocation was popular with the lower class, who went about
+sacking and pulling down the Protestant churches. They also tracked
+the Huguenots and their pastors, where they found them evading or
+breaking the Edict of Revocation; thus earning the praises of the
+Church and the fines offered by the King for their apprehension. The
+provosts and sheriffs of Paris represented the popular feeling, by
+erecting a brazen statue of the King who had rooted out heresy; and
+they struck and distributed medals in honour of the great event.</p>
+
+<p>The Revocation was also popular with the dragoons. In order to
+"convert" the Protestants, the dragoons were unduly billeted upon
+them. As both officers and soldiers were then very badly paid, they
+were thereby enabled to live at free quarters. They treated everything
+in the houses they occupied as if it were their own, and an assignment
+of billets was little loss than the consignment of the premises to the
+military, to use for their own purposes, during the time they occupied
+them.<a id="footnotetag4" name="footnotetag4"></a><a href="#footnote4" title="Go to footnote 4"><span class="small">[4]</span></a></p>
+
+<p>The Revocation was also approved by those who wished to buy land
+cheap. As the Huguenots were prevented holding their estates unless
+they conformed to the Catholic religion, and as many estates were
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page006" name="page006"></a>(p. 006)</span> accordingly confiscated and sold, land speculators, as well
+as grand seigneurs who wished to increase their estates, were
+constantly on the look-out for good bargains. Even before the
+Revocation, when the Huguenots were selling their land in order to
+leave the country, Madame de Maintenon wrote to her nephew, for whom
+she had obtained from the King a grant of 800,000 francs, "I beg of
+you carefully to use the money you are about to receive. Estates in
+Poitou may be got for nothing; the desolation of the Huguenots will
+drive them to sell more. You may easily acquire extensive possessions
+in Poitou."</p>
+
+<p>The Revocation was especially gratifying to the French Catholic
+Church. The Pope, of course, approved of it. <span class="italic">Te Deums</span> were sung at
+Rome in thanksgiving for the forced conversion of the Huguenots. Pope
+Innocent XI. sent a brief to Louis XIV., in which he promised him the
+unanimous praises of the Church, "Amongst all the proofs," said he,
+"which your Majesty has given of natural piety, not the least
+brilliant is the zeal, truly worthy of the most Christian King, which
+has induced you to revoke all the ordinances issued in favour of the
+heretics of your kingdom."<a id="footnotetag5" name="footnotetag5"></a><a href="#footnote5" title="Go to footnote 5"><span class="small">[5]</span></a></p>
+
+<p>The Jesuits were especially elated by the Revocation. It had been
+brought about by the intrigues of their party, acting on the King's
+mind through Madame de Maintenon and Père la Chaise. It enabled them
+to fill their schools and nunneries with the children of Protestants,
+who were compelled by law to pay for their education by Jesuit
+priests. To furnish the required accommodation, nearly the whole of
+the Protestant temples that had not been pulled down were <span class="pagenum"><a id="page007" name="page007"></a>(p. 007)</span>
+made over to the Jesuits, to be converted into monastic schools and
+nunneries. Even Bossuet, the "last father of the Church," shared in
+the spoils of the Huguenots. A few days after the Edict had been
+revoked, Bossuet applied for the materials of the temples of Nauteuil
+and Morcerf, situated in his diocese; and his Majesty ordered that
+they should be granted to him.<a id="footnotetag6" name="footnotetag6"></a><a href="#footnote6" title="Go to footnote 6"><span class="small">[6]</span></a></p>
+
+<p>Now that Protestantism had been put down, and the officers of Louis
+announced from all parts of the kingdom that the Huguenots were
+becoming converted by thousands, there was nothing but a clear course
+before the Jesuits in France. For their religion was now the favoured
+religion of the State.</p>
+
+<p>It is true there were the Jansenists&mdash;declared to be heretical by the
+Popes, and distinguished for their opposition to the doctrines and
+moral teaching of the Jesuits&mdash;who were suffering from a persecution
+which then drove some of the members of Port Royal into exile, and
+eventually destroyed them. But even the Jansenists approved the
+persecution of the Protestants. The great Arnault, their most
+illustrious interpreter, though in exile in the Low Countries,
+declared that though the means which Louis XIV. had employed had been
+"rather violent, they had in nowise been unjust."</p>
+
+<p>But Protestantism being declared destroyed, and Jansenism being in
+disgrace, there was virtually no legal religion in France but
+one&mdash;that of the Roman Catholic Church. Atheism, it is true, was
+tolerated, but then Atheism was not a religion. The Atheists did not,
+like the Protestants, set up rival churches, or appoint rival
+ministers, and seek to draw people to their assemblies. The Atheists,
+though they tacitly approved the religion of the King, had no
+opposition <span class="pagenum"><a id="page008" name="page008"></a>(p. 008)</span> to offer to it&mdash;only neglect, and perhaps
+concealed contempt.</p>
+
+<p>Hence it followed that the Court and the clergy had far more
+toleration for Atheism than for either Protestantism or Jansenism. It
+is authentically related that Louis XIV. on one occasion objected to
+the appointment of a representative on a foreign mission on account of
+the person being supposed to be a Jansenist; but on its being
+discovered that the nominee was only an Atheist, the objection was at
+once withdrawn.<a id="footnotetag7" name="footnotetag7"></a><a href="#footnote7" title="Go to footnote 7"><span class="small">[7]</span></a></p>
+
+<p>At the time of the Revocation, when the King and the Catholic Church
+were resolved to tolerate no religion other than itself, the Church
+had never seemed so powerful in France. It had a strong hold upon the
+minds of the people. It was powerful in its leaders and its great
+preachers; in fact, France has never, either before or since,
+exhibited such an array of preaching genius as Bossuet, Bourdaloue,
+Fléchier, and Massillon.</p>
+
+<p>Yet the uncontrolled and enormously increased power conferred upon the
+French Church at that time, most probably proved its greatest
+calamity. Less than a hundred years after the Revocation, the Church
+had lost its influence over the people, and was despised. The Deists
+and Atheists, sprung from the Church's bosom, were in the ascendant;
+and Voltaire, Rousseau, Diderot, and Mirabeau, were regarded as
+greater men than either Bossuet, Bourdaloue, Fléchier, or Massillon.</p>
+
+<p>Not one of the clergy we have named, powerful orators though they
+were, ever ventured to call in question the cruelties with which the
+King sought to compel the Protestants to embrace the dogmas of their
+Church. There were no doubt many Catholics who deplored the force
+practised on the <span class="pagenum"><a id="page009" name="page009"></a>(p. 009)</span> Huguenots; but they were greatly in the
+minority, and had no power to make their opposition felt. Some of them
+considered it an impious sacrilege to compel the Protestants to take
+the Catholic sacrament&mdash;to force them to accept the host, which
+Catholics believed to be the veritable body of Christ, but which the
+Huguenots could only accept as bread, over which some function had
+been performed by the priests, in whose miraculous power of conversion
+they did not believe.</p>
+
+<p>Fénélon took this view of the forcible course employed by the Jesuits;
+but he was in disgrace as a Jansenist, and what he wrote on the
+subject remained for a long time unknown, and was only first published
+in 1825. The Duc de Saint-Simon, also a Jansenist, took the same view,
+which he embodied in his "Memoirs;" but these were kept secret by his
+family, and were not published for nearly a century after his death.</p>
+
+<p>Thus the Catholic Church remained triumphant. The Revocation was
+apparently approved by all, excepting the Huguenots. The King was
+flattered by the perpetual conversions reported to be going on
+throughout the country&mdash;five thousand persons in one place, ten
+thousand in another, who had abjured and taken the communion&mdash;at once,
+and sometimes "instantly."</p>
+
+<p>"The King," says Saint-Simon, "congratulated himself on his power and
+his piety. He believed himself to have renewed the days of the
+preaching of the Apostles, and attributed to himself all the honour.
+The Bishops wrote panegyrics of him; the Jesuits made the pulpits
+resound with his praises.... He swallowed their poison in deep
+draughts."<a id="footnotetag8" name="footnotetag8"></a><a href="#footnote8" title="Go to footnote 8"><span class="small">[8]</span></a></p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page010" name="page010"></a>(p. 010)</span> Louis XIV. lived for thirty years after the Edict of Nantes
+had been revoked. He had therefore the fullest opportunity of
+observing the results of the policy he had pursued. He died in the
+hands of the Jesuits, his body covered with relics of the true cross.
+Madame de Maintenon, the "famous and fatal witch," as Saint-Simon
+called her, abandoned him at last; and the King died, lamented by no
+one.</p>
+
+<p>He had banished, or destroyed, during-his reign, about a million of
+his subjects, and those who remained did not respect him. Many
+regarded him as a self-conceited tyrant, who sought to save his own
+soul by inflicting penance on the backs of others. He loaded his
+kingdom with debt, and overwhelmed his people with taxes. He destroyed
+the industry of France, which had been mainly supported by the
+Huguenots. Towards the end of his life he became generally hated; and
+while his heart was conveyed to the Grand Jesuits, his body, which was
+buried at St. Denis, was hurried to the grave accompanied by the
+execrations of the people.</p>
+
+<p>Yet the Church remained faithful to him to the last. The great
+Massillon preached his funeral sermon; though the message was draped
+in the livery of the Court. "How far," said he, "did Louis XIV. carry
+his zeal for the Church, that virtue of sovereigns who have received
+power and the sword only that they may be props of the altar and
+defenders of its doctrine! Specious reasons of State! In vain did you
+oppose to Louis the timid views of human wisdom, the body of the
+monarchy enfeebled by the flight of so many citizens, the course of
+trade slackened, either by the deprivation of their industry, or by
+the furtive removal of their wealth! Dangers fortify his zeal. The
+work of God fears not man. He believes even <span class="pagenum"><a id="page011" name="page011"></a>(p. 011)</span> that he
+strengthens his throne by overthrowing that of error. The profane
+temples are destroyed, the pulpits of seduction are cast down. The
+prophets of falsehood are torn from their flocks. At the first blow
+dealt to it by Louis, heresy falls, disappears, and is reduced either
+to hide itself in the obscurity whence it issued, or to cross the
+seas, and to bear with it into foreign lands its false gods, its
+bitterness, and its rage."<a id="footnotetag9" name="footnotetag9"></a><a href="#footnote9" title="Go to footnote 9"><span class="small">[9]</span></a></p>
+
+<p>Whatever may have been the temper which the Huguenots displayed when
+they were driven from France by persecution, they certainly carried
+with them something far more valuable than rage. They carried with
+them their virtue, piety, industry, and valour, which proved the
+source of wealth, spirit, freedom, and character, in all those
+countries&mdash;Holland, Prussia, England, and America&mdash;in which these
+noble exiles took refuge.</p>
+
+<p>We shall next see whether the Huguenots had any occasion for
+entertaining the "rage" which the great Massillon attributed to them.<a href="#toc"><span class="small">[Back to Contents]</span></a></p>
+
+
+<h3><span class="pagenum"><a id="page012" name="page012"></a>(p. 012)</span> CHAPTER II.</h3>
+
+<p class="title">EFFECTS OF THE REVOCATION.</p>
+
+<p>The Revocation struck with civil death the entire Protestant
+population of France. All the liberty of conscience which they had
+enjoyed under the Edict of Nantes, was swept away by the act of the
+King. They were deprived of every right and privilege; their social
+life was destroyed; their callings were proscribed; their property was
+liable to be confiscated at any moment; and they were subjected to
+mean, detestable, and outrageous cruelties.</p>
+
+<p>From the day of the Revocation, the relation of Louis XIV. to his
+Huguenot subjects was that of the Tyrant and his Victims. The only
+resource which remained to the latter was that of flying from their
+native country; and an immense number of persons took the opportunity
+of escaping from France.</p>
+
+<p>The Edict of Revocation proclaimed that the Huguenot subjects of
+France must thenceforward be of "the King's religion;" and the order
+was promulgated throughout the kingdom. The Prime Minister, Louvois,
+wrote to the provincial governors, "His Majesty desires that the
+severest rigour shall be shown to those who will not conform to His
+Religion, and those who seek the foolish glory of wishing to be the
+last, must be pushed to the utmost extremity."</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page013" name="page013"></a>(p. 013)</span> The Huguenots were forbidden, under the penalty of death, to
+worship publicly after their own religious forms. They were also
+forbidden, under the penalty of being sent to the galleys for life, to
+worship privately in their own homes. If they were overheard singing
+their favourite psalms, they were liable to fine, imprisonment, or the
+galleys. They were compelled to hang out flags from their houses on
+the days of Catholic processions; but they were forbidden, under a
+heavy penalty, to look out of their windows when the Corpus Domini was
+borne along the streets.</p>
+
+<p>The Huguenots were rigidly forbidden to instruct their children in
+their own faith. They were commanded to send them to the priest to be
+baptized and brought up in the Roman Catholic faith, under the penalty
+of five hundred livres fine in each case. The boys were educated in
+Jesuit schools, the girls in nunneries, the parents being compelled to
+pay the required expenses; and where the parents were too poor to pay,
+the children were at once transferred to the general hospitals. A
+decree of the King, published in December, 1685, ordered that every
+child of <span class="italic">five years</span> and upwards was to be taken possession of by the
+authorities, and removed from its Protestant parents. This decree
+often proved a sentence of death, not only to the child, but to its
+parents.</p>
+
+<p>The whole of the Protestant temples throughout France were subject to
+demolition. The expelled pastors were compelled to evacuate the
+country within fifteen days. If, in the meantime, they were found
+performing their functions, they were liable to be sent to the galleys
+for life. If they undertook to marry Protestants, the marriages were
+declared illegal, and the children bastards. If, after the expiry of
+the <span class="pagenum"><a id="page014" name="page014"></a>(p. 014)</span> fifteen days, they were found lingering in France, the
+pastors were then liable to the penalty of death.</p>
+
+<p>Protestants could neither be born, nor live, nor die, without state
+and priestly interference. Protestant <span class="italic">sages-femmes</span> were not
+permitted to exercise their functions; Protestant doctors were
+prohibited from practising; Protestant surgeons and apothecaries were
+suppressed; Protestant advocates, notaries, and lawyers were
+interdicted; Protestants could not teach, and all their schools,
+public and private, were put down. Protestants were no longer employed
+by the Government in affairs of finance, as collectors of taxes, or
+even as labourers on the public roads, or in any other office. Even
+Protestant grocers were forbidden to exercise their calling.</p>
+
+<p>There must be no Protestant librarians, booksellers, or printers.
+There was, indeed, a general raid upon Protestant literature all over
+France. All Bibles, Testaments, and books of religious instruction,
+were collected and publicly burnt. There were bonfires in almost every
+town. At Metz, it occupied a whole day to burn the Protestant books
+which had been seized, handed over to the clergy, and condemned to be
+destroyed.</p>
+
+<p>Protestants were even forbidden to hire out horses, and Protestant
+grooms were forbidden to give riding lessons. Protestant domestics
+were forbidden to hire themselves as servants, and Protestant
+mistresses were forbidden to hire them under heavy penalties. If they
+engaged Protestant servants, they were liable to be sent to the
+galleys for life. They were even prevented employing "new converts."</p>
+
+<p>Artisans were forbidden to work without certificates that their
+religion was Catholic. Protestant apprenticeships <span class="pagenum"><a id="page015" name="page015"></a>(p. 015)</span> were
+suppressed. Protestant washerwomen were excluded from their
+washing-places on the river. In fact, there was scarcely a degradation
+that could be invented, or an insult that could be perpetrated, that
+was not practised upon those poor Huguenots who refused to be of "the
+King's religion."</p>
+
+<p>Even when Protestants were about to take refuge in death, their
+troubles were not over. The priests had the power of forcing their way
+into the dying man's house, where they presented themselves at his
+bedside, and offered him conversion and the viaticum. If the dying man
+refused these, he was liable to be seized after death, dragged from
+the house, pulled along the streets naked, and buried in a ditch, or
+thrown upon a dunghill.<a id="footnotetag10" name="footnotetag10"></a><a href="#footnote10" title="Go to footnote 10"><span class="small">[10]</span></a></p>
+
+<p>For several years before the Revocation, while the persecutions of the
+Huguenots had been increasing, many had realised their means, and fled
+abroad into Switzerland, Germany, Holland, and England. But after the
+Revocation, emigration from France was strictly forbidden, under
+penalty of confiscation of the whole goods and property of the
+emigrant. Any person found attempting to leave the country, was liable
+to the seizure of all that belonged to him, and to perpetual
+imprisonment at the galleys; one half the amount realised by the sale
+of the property being paid to the informers, who thus became the most
+active agents of the Government. The Act also ordered that all landed
+proprietors who had left France before the <span class="pagenum"><a id="page016" name="page016"></a>(p. 016)</span> Revocation,
+should return within four months, under penalty of confiscation of all
+their property.</p>
+
+<p>Amongst those of the King's subjects who were the most ready to obey
+his orders were some of the old Huguenot noble families, such as the
+members of the houses of Bouillon, Coligny, Rohan, Tremouille, Sully,
+and La Force. These great vassals, whom a turbulent feudalism had
+probably in the first instance induced to embrace Protestantism, were
+now found ready to change their profession of religion in servile
+obedience to the monarch.</p>
+
+<p>The lesser nobility were more faithful and consistent. Many of them
+abandoned their estates and fled across the frontier, rather than live
+a daily lie to God by forswearing the religion of their conscience.
+Others of this class, on whom religion sat more lightly, as the only
+means of saving their property from confiscation, pretended to be
+converted to Roman Catholicism; though, we shall find, that these "new
+converts," as they were called, were treated with as much suspicion on
+the one side as they were regarded with contempt on the other.</p>
+
+<p>There were also the Huguenot manufacturers, merchants, and employers
+of labour, of whom a large number closed their workshops and
+factories, sold off their goods, converted everything into cash, at
+whatever sacrifice, and fled across the frontier into
+Switzerland&mdash;either settling there, or passing through it on their way
+to Germany, Holland, or England.</p>
+
+<p>It was necessary to stop this emigration, which was rapidly
+diminishing the population, and steadily impoverishing the country. It
+was indeed a terrible thing for Frenchmen, to tear themselves away
+from their country&mdash;Frenchmen, who have always clung so <span class="pagenum"><a id="page017" name="page017"></a>(p. 017)</span>
+close to their soil that they have rarely been able to form colonies
+of emigration elsewhere&mdash;it was breaking so many living fibres to
+leave France, to quit the homes of their fathers, their firesides,
+their kin, and their race. Yet, in a multitude of cases, they were
+compelled to tear themselves by the roots out of the France they so
+loved.</p>
+
+<p>Yet it was so very easy for them to remain. The King merely required
+them to be "converted." He held that loyalty required them to be of
+"his religion." On the 19th of October, 1685, the day after he had
+signed the Act of Revocation, La Reynée, lieutenant of the police of
+Paris, issued a notice to the Huguenot tradespeople and
+working-classes, requiring them to be converted instantly. Many of
+them were terrified, and conformed accordingly. Next day, another
+notice was issued to the Huguenot bourgeois, requiring them to
+assemble on the following day for the purpose of publicly making a
+declaration of their conversion.</p>
+
+<p>The result of those measures was to make hypocrites rather than
+believers, and they took effect upon the weakest and least-principled
+persons. The strongest, most independent, and high-minded of the
+Huguenots, who would <span class="italic">not</span> be hypocrites, resolved passively to resist
+them, and if they could not be allowed to exercise freedom of
+conscience in their own country, they determined to seek it elsewhere.
+Hence the large increase in the emigration from all parts of France
+immediately after the Act of Revocation had been proclaimed.<a id="footnotetag11" name="footnotetag11"></a><a href="#footnote11" title="Go to footnote 11"><span class="small">[11]</span></a> All
+the roads leading to the frontier <span class="pagenum"><a id="page018" name="page018"></a>(p. 018)</span> or the sea-coast streamed
+with fugitives. They went in various forms and guises&mdash;sometimes in
+bodies of armed men, at other times in solitary parties, travelling at
+night and sleeping in the woods by day. They went as beggars,
+travelling merchants, sellers of beads and chaplets, gipsies,
+soldiers, shepherds, women with their faces dyed and sometimes dressed
+in men's clothes, and in all manner of disguises.</p>
+
+<p>To prevent this extensive emigration, more violent measures were
+adopted. Every road out of France was posted with guards. The towns,
+highways, bridges, and ferries, were all watched; and heavy rewards
+were promised to those who would stop and bring back the fugitives.
+Many were taken, loaded with irons, and dispatched by the most public
+roads through France&mdash;as a sight to be seen by other Protestants&mdash;to
+the galleys at Marseilles, Brest, and other ports. As they went along
+they were subject to every sort of indignity in the towns and villages
+through which they passed. They were hooted, stoned, spit upon, and
+loaded with insult.</p>
+
+<p>Many others went by sea, in French as well as in foreign ships. Though
+the sailors of France were prohibited the exercise of the reformed
+religion, under the penalty of fines, corporal punishment, and seizure
+of the vessels where the worship was allowed, yet many of the
+emigrants contrived to get away by the help of French ship captains,
+masters of sloops, fishing-boats, and coast pilots&mdash;who most probably
+sympathized with the views of those who wished to fly their country
+rather than become hypocrites and forswear their religion. A large
+number of emigrants, who went <span class="pagenum"><a id="page019" name="page019"></a>(p. 019)</span> hurriedly off to sea in little
+boats, must have been drowned, as they were never afterwards heard of.</p>
+
+<p>There were also many English ships that appeared off the coast to take
+the flying Huguenots away by night. They also escaped in foreign ships
+taking in their cargoes in the western harbours. They got cooped up in
+casks or wine barraques, with holes for breathing places; others
+contrived to get surreptitiously into the hold, and stowed themselves
+away among the goods. When it became known to the Government that many
+Protestants were escaping in this way, provision was made to meet the
+case; and a Royal Order was issued that, before any ship was allowed
+to set sail for a foreign port, the hold should be fumigated with
+deadly gas, so that any hidden Huguenot who could not otherwise be
+detected, might thus be suffocated!<a id="footnotetag12" name="footnotetag12"></a><a href="#footnote12" title="Go to footnote 12"><span class="small">[12]</span></a></p>
+
+<p>In the meantime, however, numerous efforts were being made to convert
+the Huguenots. The King, his ministers, the dragoons, the bishops, and
+clergy used all due diligence. "Everybody is now missionary," said the
+fascinating Madame de Sévigné; "each has his mission&mdash;above all the
+magistrates and governors of provinces, <span class="italic">helped by the dragoons</span>. It
+is the grandest and finest thing that has ever been imagined and
+executed."<a id="footnotetag13" name="footnotetag13"></a><a href="#footnote13" title="Go to footnote 13"><span class="small">[13]</span></a></p>
+
+<p>The conversions effected by the dragoons were much more sudden than
+those effected by the priests. Sometimes a hundred or more persons
+were converted by a single troop within an hour. In this way Murillac
+converted thousands of persons in a week. The regiment <span class="pagenum"><a id="page020" name="page020"></a>(p. 020)</span> of
+Ashfeld converted the whole province of Poitou in a month.</p>
+
+<p>De Noailles was very successful in his conversions. He converted
+Nismes in twenty-four hours; the day after he converted Montpellier;
+and he promised in a few weeks to deliver all Lower Languedoc from the
+leprosy of heresy. In one of his dispatches soon after the Revocation,
+he boasted that he had converted 350 nobility and gentry, 54
+ministers, and 25,000 individuals of various classes.</p>
+
+<p>The quickness of the conversions effected by the dragoons is easily to
+be accounted for. The principal cause was the free quartering of
+soldiers in the houses of the Protestants. The soldiers knew what was
+the object for which they were thus quartered. They lived freely in
+all ways. They drank, swore, shouted, beat the heretics, insulted
+their women, and subjected them to every imaginable outrage and
+insult.</p>
+
+<p>One of their methods of making converts was borrowed from the
+persecutions of the Vaudois. It consisted in forcing the feet of the
+intended converts into boots full of boiling grease, or they would
+hang them up by the feet, sometimes forgetting to cut them down until
+they were dead. They would also force them to drink water perpetually,
+or make them sit under a slow dripping upon their heads until they
+died of madness. Sometimes they placed burning coals in their hands,
+or used an instrument of torture resembling that known in Scotland as
+the thumbscrews.<a id="footnotetag14" name="footnotetag14"></a><a href="#footnote14" title="Go to footnote 14"><span class="small">[14]</span></a> Many of their attempts at conversion were
+accompanied by details too hideous to be recorded.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page021" name="page021"></a>(p. 021)</span> Of those who would not be converted, the prisons were kept
+full. They were kept there without the usual allowance of straw, and
+almost without food. In winter they had no fire, and at night no lamp.
+Though ill, they had no doctors. Besides the gaoler, their only
+visitors were priests and monks, entreating them to make abjuration.
+Of course many died in prison&mdash;feeble women, and aged and infirm men.
+In the society of obscene criminals, with whom many were imprisoned,
+they prayed for speedy deliverance by death, and death often came to
+their help.</p>
+
+<p>More agreeable, but still more insulting, methods of conversion were
+also attempted. Louis tried to bribe the pastors by offering them an
+increase of annual pay beyond their former stipends. If there were a
+Protestant judge or advocate, Louvois at once endeavoured to bribe him
+over. For instance, there was a heretical syndic of Strasbourg, to
+whom Louvois wrote, "Will you be converted? I will give you 6,000
+livres of pension.&mdash;Will you not? I will dismiss you."</p>
+
+<p>Of course many of the efforts made to convert the Huguenots proved
+successful. The orders of the Prime Minister, the free quarters
+afforded to the dragoons, the preachings and threatenings of the
+clergy, all contributed to terrify the Protestants. The fear of being
+sent to the galleys for life&mdash;the threat of losing the whole of one's
+goods and property&mdash;the alarm of seeing one's household broken up, the
+children seized by the priests and sent to the nearest monkery or
+nunnery for maintenance and education&mdash;all these considerations
+doubtless had their effect in increasing the number of conversions.</p>
+
+<p>Persecution is not easy to bear. To have all the powers and
+authorities employed against one's <span class="pagenum"><a id="page022" name="page022"></a>(p. 022)</span> life, interests, and
+faith, is what few can persistently oppose. And torture, whether it be
+slow or sudden, is what many persons, by reason of their physical
+capacity, have not the power to resist. Even the slow torment of
+dragoons quartered in the houses of the heretics&mdash;their noise and
+shoutings, their drinking and roistering, the insults and outrages
+they were allowed to practise&mdash;was sufficient to compel many at once
+to declare themselves to be converted.</p>
+
+<p>Indeed, pain is, of all things, one of the most terrible of
+converters. One of the prisoners condemned to the galleys, when he saw
+the tortures which the victims about him had to endure by night and by
+day, said that sufferings such as these were "enough to make one
+conform to Buddhism or Mahommedanism as well as to Popery"; and
+doubtless it was force and suffering which converted the Huguenots,
+far more than love of the King or love of the Pope.</p>
+
+<p>By all these means&mdash;forcible, threatening, insulting, and
+bribing&mdash;employed for the conversion of the Huguenots, the Catholics
+boasted that in the space of three months they had received an
+accession of five hundred thousand new converts to the Church of Rome.</p>
+
+<p>But the "new converts" did not gain much by their change. They were
+forced to attend mass, but remained suspected. Even the dragoons who
+converted them, called them dastards and deniers of their faith. They
+tried, if they could, to avoid confession, but confess they must.
+There was the fine, confiscation of goods, and imprisonment at the
+priest's back.</p>
+
+<p>Places were set apart for them in the churches, where they were penned
+up like lepers. A person was stationed at the door with a roll of
+their names, to which they were obliged to answer. During the service,
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page023" name="page023"></a>(p. 023)</span> the most prominent among them were made to carry the lights,
+the holy water, the incense, and such things, which to Huguenots were
+an abomination. They were also required to partake of the Host, which
+Protestants regarded as an awful mockery of the glorious Godhead.</p>
+
+<p>The Duc de Saint-Simon, in his memoirs, after referring to the unmanly
+cruelties practised by Louis XIV. on the Huguenots, "without the
+slightest pretext or necessity," characterizes this forced
+participation in the Eucharist as sacrilegious and blasphemous folly,
+notwithstanding that nearly all the bishops lent themselves to the
+practice. "From simulated abjuration," he says, "they [the Huguenots]
+are dragged to endorse what they do not believe in, and to receive the
+divine body of the Saint of saints whilst remaining persuaded that
+they are only eating bread which they ought to abhor. Such is the
+general abomination born of flattery and cruelty. From torture to
+abjuration, and from that to the communion, there were only
+twenty-four hours' distance; and the executioners were the conductors
+of the converts, and their witnesses. Those who in the end appeared to
+have become reconciled, when more at leisure did not fail, by their
+flight or their behaviour, to contradict their pretended
+conversion."<a id="footnotetag15" name="footnotetag15"></a><a href="#footnote15" title="Go to footnote 15"><span class="small">[15]</span></a></p>
+
+<p>Indeed, many of the new converts, finding life in France to be all but
+intolerable, determined to follow the example of the Huguenots who had
+already fled, and took the first opportunity of disposing of their
+goods and leaving the country. One of the first things they did on
+reaching a foreign soil, was to attend a congregation <span class="pagenum"><a id="page024" name="page024"></a>(p. 024)</span> of
+their brethren, and make "reconnaisances," or acknowledgment of their
+repentance for having attended mass and pretended to be converted to
+the Roman Catholic Church.<a id="footnotetag16" name="footnotetag16"></a><a href="#footnote16" title="Go to footnote 16"><span class="small">[16]</span></a> At one of the sittings of the
+Threadneedle Street Huguenot Church in London, held in May, 1687&mdash;two
+years after the Revocation&mdash;not fewer than 497 members were again
+received into the Church which, by force, they had pretended to
+abandon.</p>
+
+<p>Not many pastors abjured. A few who yielded in the first instance
+through terror and stupor, almost invariably returned to their ancient
+faith. They were offered considerable pensions if they would conform
+and become Catholics. The King promised to augment their income by
+one-third, and if they became advocates or doctors in law, to dispense
+with their three years' study, and with the right of diploma.</p>
+
+<p>At length, most of the pastors had left the country. About seven
+hundred had gone into Switzerland, Holland, Prussia, England, and
+elsewhere. A few remained going about to meetings of the peasantry, at
+the daily risk of death; for every pastor taken was hung. A reward of
+5,500 livres was promised to whoever should take a pastor, or cause
+him to be taken. The punishment of death was also pronounced against
+all persons who should be discovered attending such meetings.</p>
+
+<p>Nevertheless, meetings of the Protestants continued to be held, with
+pastors or without. They were, for the most part, held at night,
+amidst the ruins of their pulled-down temples. But this exposed them
+to great danger, for spies were on the alert to inform upon them and
+have them apprehended.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page025" name="page025"></a>(p. 025)</span> At length they selected more sheltered places in remote
+quarters, where they met for prayer and praise, often resorting
+thither from great distances. They were, however, often surprised, cut
+to pieces by the dragoons, who hung part of the prisoners on the
+neighbouring trees, and took the others to prison, from whence they
+were sent to the galleys, or hung on the nearest public gibbet.</p>
+
+<p>Fulcran Rey was one of the most celebrated of the early victims. He
+was a native of Nismes, twenty-four years old. He had just completed
+his theological studies; but there were neither synods to receive him
+to pastoral ordination, nor temples for him to preach in. The only
+reward he could earn by proceeding on his mission was death, yet he
+determined to preach. The first assemblies he joined were in the
+neighbourhood of Nismes, where his addresses were interrupted by
+assaults of the dragoons. The dangers to his co-religionaries were too
+great in the neighbourhood of this populous town; and he next went to
+Castres and the Vaunage; after which he accepted an invitation to
+proceed into the less populous districts of the Cevennes.</p>
+
+<p>He felt the presentiment of death upon him in accepting the
+invitation; but he went, leaving behind him a letter to his father,
+saying that he was willing, if necessary, to give his life for the
+cause of truth. "Oh! what happiness it would give me," he said, "if I
+might be found amongst the number of those whom the Lord has reserved
+to announce his praise and to die for his cause!"</p>
+
+<p>His apostolate was short but glorious. He went from village to village
+in the Cevennes, collected the old worshippers together, prayed and
+preached to them, <span class="pagenum"><a id="page026" name="page026"></a>(p. 026)</span> encouraging all to suffer in the name of
+Christ. He remained at this work for about six weeks, when a spy who
+accompanied him&mdash;one whom he had regarded as sincere a Huguenot as
+himself&mdash;informed against him for the royal reward, and delivered him
+over to the dragoons.</p>
+
+<p>Rey was at first thrown into prison at Anduze, when, after a brief
+examination by the local judge, he was entrusted to thirty soldiers,
+to be conveyed to Alais. There he was subjected to further
+examination, avowing that he had preached wherever he had found
+faithful people ready to hear him. At Nismes, he was told that he had
+broken the law, in preaching contrary to the King's will. "I obey the
+law of the King of kings," he replied; "it is right that I should obey
+God rather than man. Do with me what you will; I am ready to die."</p>
+
+<p>The priests, the judges, and other persons of influence endeavoured to
+induce him to change his opinions. Promises of great favours were
+offered him if he would abjure; and when the intendant Baville
+informed him of the frightful death before him if he refused, he
+replied, "My life is not of value to me, provided I gain Christ." He
+remained firm. He was ordered to be put to the torture. He was still
+unshaken. Then he was delivered over to the executioner. "I am
+treated," he said, "more mildly than my Saviour."</p>
+
+<p>On his way to the place of execution, two monks walked by his side to
+induce him to relent, and to help him to die. "Let me alone," he said,
+"you annoy me with your consolations." On coming in sight of the
+gallows at Beaucaire, he cried, "Courage, courage! the end of my
+journey is at <span class="pagenum"><a id="page027" name="page027"></a>(p. 027)</span> hand. I see before me the ladder which leads
+to heaven."</p>
+
+<p>The monks wished to mount the ladder with him. "Return," said he, "I
+have no need of your help. I have assistance enough from God to take
+the last step of my journey." When he reached the upper platform, he
+was about, before dying, to make public his confession of faith. But
+the authorities had arranged beforehand that this should be prevented.
+When he opened his mouth, a roll of military drums muffled his voice.
+His radiant look and gestures spoke for him. A few minutes more, and
+he was dead; and when the paleness of death spread over his face, it
+still bore the reflex of joy and peace in which he had expired. "There
+is a veritable martyr," said many even of the Catholics who were
+witnesses of his death.</p>
+
+<p>It was thought that the public hanging of a pastor would put a stop to
+all further ministrations among the Huguenots. But the sight of the
+bodies of their brethren hung on the nearest trees, and the heads of
+their pastors rolling on the scaffold, did not deter them from
+continuing to hold religious meetings in solitary places, more
+especially in Languedoc, Viverais, and the provinces in the south-east
+of France.</p>
+
+<p>Between the year 1686, when Fulcran Rey was hanged at Beaucaire, and
+the year 1698, when Claude Brousson was hanged at Montpellier, not
+fewer than seventeen pastors were publicly executed; namely, three at
+Nismes, two at St. Hippolyte and Marsillargues in the Cevennes, and
+twelve on the Peyrou at Montpellier&mdash;the public place on which
+Protestant Christians in the South of France were then principally
+executed.</p>
+
+<p>There has been some discussion lately as to the <span class="pagenum"><a id="page028" name="page028"></a>(p. 028)</span> massacre of
+the Huguenots about a century before this period. It has been held
+that the St. Bartholomew Massacre was only a political squabble, begun
+by the Huguenots, in which they got the worst of it. The number of
+persons killed on the occasion has been reduced to a very small
+number. It has been doubted whether the Pope had anything to do with
+the medal struck at Rome, bearing the motto <span class="italic">Ugonottorum Strages</span>
+("Massacre of the Huguenots"), with the Pope's head on one side, and
+an angel on the other pursuing and slaying a band of flying heretics.</p>
+
+<p>Whatever may be said of the massacre of St. Bartholomew, there can be
+no mistake about the persecutions which preceded and followed the
+Revocation of the Edict of Nantes. They were continued for more than
+half a century, and had the effect of driving from France about a
+million of the best, most vigorous, and industrious of Frenchmen. In
+the single province of Languedoc, not less than a hundred thousand
+persons (according to Boulainvilliers) were destroyed by premature
+death, one-tenth of whom perished by fire, strangulation, or the
+wheel.</p>
+
+<p>It could not be said that Louis XIV. and the priests were destroying
+France and tearing its flesh, and that Frenchmen did not know it. The
+proclamations, edicts and laws published against the Huguenots were
+known to all Frenchmen. Bénoît<a id="footnotetag17" name="footnotetag17"></a><a href="#footnote17" title="Go to footnote 17"><span class="small">[17]</span></a> gives a list of three hundred and
+thirty-three issued by Louis XIV. during the ten years subsequent to
+the Revocation, and they were continued, as we shall find, during the
+succeeding reign.</p>
+
+<p>"We have," says M. Charles Coquerel, "a horror of <span class="pagenum"><a id="page029" name="page029"></a>(p. 029)</span> St.
+Bartholomew! Will foreigners believe it, that France observed a code
+of laws framed in the same infernal spirit, which maintained <span class="italic">a
+perpetual St. Bartholomew's day in this country for about sixty
+years</span>! If they cannot call us the most barbarous of people, their
+judgment will be well founded in pronouncing us the most
+inconsistent."<a id="footnotetag18" name="footnotetag18"></a><a href="#footnote18" title="Go to footnote 18"><span class="small">[18]</span></a></p>
+
+<p>M. De Félice, however, will not believe that the Revocation of the
+Edict of Nantes was popular in France. He takes a much more patriotic
+view of the French people. He cannot believe them to have been
+wilfully guilty of the barbarities which the French Government
+committed upon the Huguenots. It was the King, the priests, and the
+courtiers only! But he forgets that these upper barbarians were
+supported by the soldiers and the people everywhere. He adds, however,
+that if the Revocation <span class="italic">were</span> popular, "it would be the most
+overwhelming accusation against the Church of Rome, that it had thus
+educated and fashioned France."<a id="footnotetag19" name="footnotetag19"></a><a href="#footnote19" title="Go to footnote 19"><span class="small">[19]</span></a> There is, however, no doubt
+whatever that the Jesuits, during the long period that they had the
+exclusive education of the country in their hands, <span class="italic">did</span> thus fashion
+France; for, in 1793, the people educated by them treated King,
+Jesuits, priests, and aristocracy, in precisely the same manner that
+they had treated the Huguenots about a century before.<a href="#toc"><span class="small">[Back to Contents]</span></a></p>
+
+
+<h3><span class="pagenum"><a id="page030" name="page030"></a>(p. 030)</span> CHAPTER III.</h3>
+
+<p class="title">CLAUDE BROUSSON, THE HUGUENOT ADVOCATE.</p>
+
+<p>To give an account in detail of the varieties of cruelty inflicted on
+the Huguenots, and of the agonies to which they were subjected for
+many years before and after the passing of the Act of Revocation,
+would occupy too much space, besides being tedious through the mere
+repetition of like horrors. But in order to condense such an account,
+we think it will be more interesting if we endeavour to give a brief
+history of the state of France at that time, in connection with the
+biography of one of the most celebrated Huguenots of his period, both
+in his life, his piety, his trials, and his endurance&mdash;that of Claude
+Brousson, the advocate, the pastor, and the martyr of Languedoc.</p>
+
+<p>Claude Brousson was born at Nismes in 1647. He was designed by his
+parents for the profession of the law, and prosecuted his studies at
+the college of his native town, where he graduated as Doctor of Laws.</p>
+
+<p>He commenced his professional career about the time when Louis XIV.
+began to issue his oppressive edicts against the Huguenots. Protestant
+advocates were not yet forbidden to practise, but they already
+laboured under many disabilities. He continued, however, for some time
+to exercise his profession, with much ability, at <span class="pagenum"><a id="page031" name="page031"></a>(p. 031)</span> Castres,
+Castelnaudry, and Toulouse. He was frequently employed in defending
+Protestant pastors, and in contesting the measures for suppressing
+their congregations and levelling their churches under existing
+edicts, some time before the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes had
+been finally resolved upon.</p>
+
+<p>Thus, in 1682, he was engaged in disputing the process instituted
+against the ministers and elders of the church at Nismes, with the
+view of obtaining an order for the demolition of the remaining
+Protestant temple of that city.<a id="footnotetag20" name="footnotetag20"></a><a href="#footnote20" title="Go to footnote 20"><span class="small">[20]</span></a> The pretext for suppressing this
+church was, that a servant girl from the country, being a Catholic,
+had attended worship and received the sacrament from the hands of M.
+Peyrol, one of the ministers.</p>
+
+<p>Brousson defended the case, observing, at the conclusion of his
+speech, that the number of Protestants was very great at Nismes; that
+the ministers could not be personally acquainted with all the people,
+and especially with occasional visitors and strangers; that the
+ministers were quite unacquainted with the girl, or that she professed
+the Roman Catholic religion: "facts which rendered it probable that
+she was sent to the temple for the purpose of furnishing an occasion
+for the prosecution." Sentence was for the present suspended.</p>
+
+<p>Another process was instituted during the same year <span class="pagenum"><a id="page032" name="page032"></a>(p. 032)</span> for the
+suppression of the Protestant church at Uzes, and another for the
+demolition of the large Protestant temple at Montpellier. The pretext
+for destroying the latter was of a singular character.</p>
+
+<p>A Protestant pastor, M. Paulet, had been bribed into embracing the
+Roman Catholic religion, in reward for which he was appointed
+counsellor to the Presidial Court of Montpellier. But his wife and one
+of his daughters refused to apostatize with him. The daughter, though
+only between ten and eleven years old, was sent to a convent at
+Teirargues, where, after enduring considerable persecution, she
+persisted in her steadfastness, and was released after a twelvemonth's
+confinement. Five years later she was again seized and sent to another
+convent; but, continuing immovable against the entreaties and threats
+of the abbess and confessor, she was again set at liberty.</p>
+
+<p>An apostate priest, however, who had many years before renounced the
+Protestant faith, and become director and confessor of the nuns at
+Teirargues, forged two documents; the one to show that while at the
+convent, Mdlle. Paulet had consented to embrace the Catholic religion,
+and the other containing her formal abjuration. It was alleged that
+her abjuration had been signified to Isaac Dubourdieu, of Montpellier,
+one of the most distinguished pastors of the French Church; but that,
+nevertheless, he had admitted her to the sacrament. This, if true, was
+contrary to law; upon which the Catholic clergy laid information
+against the pastor and the young lady before the Parliament of
+Toulouse, when they obtained sentence of imprisonment against the
+former, and the penance of <span class="italic">amende honorable</span> against the latter.</p>
+
+<p>The demolition of temples was the usual consequence <span class="pagenum"><a id="page033" name="page033"></a>(p. 033)</span> of
+convictions like these. The Duc de Noailles, lieutenant-general of the
+province, entered the city on the 16th of October, 1682, accompanied
+by a strong military force; and at a sitting of the Assembly of the
+States which shortly followed, the question of demolishing the
+Protestant temple at Montpellier was brought under consideration. Four
+of the Protestant pastors and several of the elders had before waited
+upon De Noailles to claim a respite until they should have submitted
+their cause to the King in Council.</p>
+
+<p>The request having been refused, one of the deputation protested
+against the illegality of the proceedings, and had the temerity to ask
+his excellency whether he was aware that there were eighteen hundred
+thousand Protestant families in France? Upon which the Duke, turning
+to the officer of his guard, said, "Whilst we wait to see what will
+become of these eighteen hundred thousand Protestant families, will
+you please conduct these gentlemen to the citadel?"<a id="footnotetag21" name="footnotetag21"></a><a href="#footnote21" title="Go to footnote 21"><span class="small">[21]</span></a></p>
+
+<p>The great temple of Montpellier was destroyed immediately on receipt
+of the King's royal mandate. It required the destruction of the place
+within twenty-four hours; "but you will give me pleasure," added the
+King, in a letter to De Noailles, "if you accomplish it in two."</p>
+
+<p>It was, perhaps, scarcely necessary, after the temple had been
+destroyed, to make any effort to justify these high-handed
+proceedings. But Mdlle. Paulet, on whose pretended conversion to
+Catholicism the proceedings had been instituted, was now requested to
+admit the authenticity of the documents. She was still <span class="pagenum"><a id="page034" name="page034"></a>(p. 034)</span>
+imprisoned in Toulouse; and although entreated and threatened by turns
+to admit their truth, she steadfastly denied their genuineness, and
+asking for a pen, she wrote under each of them, "I affirm that the
+above signature was not written by my hand.&mdash;Isabeau de Paulet."</p>
+
+<p>Of course the documents were forged; but they had answered their
+purpose. The Protestant temple of Montpellier lay in ruins, and
+Isabeau de Paulet was recommitted to prison. On hearing of this
+incident, Brousson remarked, "This is what is called instituting a
+process against persons <span class="italic">after</span> they have been condemned"&mdash;a sort of
+"Jedwood justice."</p>
+
+<p>The repetition of these cases of persecution&mdash;the demolition of their
+churches, and the suppression of their worship&mdash;led the Protestants of
+the Cevennes, Viverais, and Dauphiny to combine for the purpose of
+endeavouring to stem the torrent of injustice. With this object, a
+meeting of twenty-eight deputies took place in the house of Brousson,
+at Toulouse, in the month of May, 1683. As the Assembly of the States
+were about to take steps to demolish the Protestant temple at
+Montauban and other towns in the south, and as Brousson was the
+well-known advocate of the persecuted, the deputies were able to meet
+at his house to conduct their deliberations, without exciting the
+jealousy of the priests and the vigilance of the police.</p>
+
+<p>What the meeting of Protestant deputies recommended to their brethren
+was embodied in a measure, which was afterwards known as "The
+Project." The chief objects of the project were to exhort the
+Protestant people to sincere conversion, and the exhibition of the
+good life which such conversion implies; constant prayer to the Holy
+Spirit to enable them to remain steadfast in their profession and in
+the reading and meditation <span class="pagenum"><a id="page035" name="page035"></a>(p. 035)</span> of the Scriptures; encouragements
+to them to hold together as congregations for the purpose of united
+worship; "submitting themselves unto the common instructions and to
+the yoke of Christ, in all places wheresoever He shall have
+established the true discipline, although the edicts of earthly
+magistrates be contrary thereto."</p>
+
+<p>At the same time, Brousson drew up a petition to the Sovereign, humbly
+requesting him to grant permission to the Huguenots to worship God in
+peace after their consciences, copies of which were sent to Louvois
+and the other ministers of State. On this and other petitions,
+Brousson observes, "Surely all the world and posterity will be
+surprised, that so many respectful petitions, so many complaints of
+injuries, and so many solid reasons urged for their removal, produced
+no good result whatever in favour of the Protestants."</p>
+
+<p>The members of the churches which had been interdicted, and whose
+temples had been demolished, were accordingly invited to assemble in
+private, in the neighbouring fields or woods&mdash;not in public places,
+nor around the ruins of their ancient temples&mdash;for the purpose of
+worshipping God, exciting each other to piety by prayer and singing,
+receiving instruction, and celebrating the Lord's Supper.</p>
+
+<p>Various meetings were accordingly held, in the following month of
+July, in the Cevennes and Viverais. At St. Hypolite, where the temple
+of the Protestants had been destroyed, about four thousand persons met
+in a field near the town, when the minister preached to them from the
+text&mdash;"Render unto Cæsar the things which are Cæsar's, and unto God
+the things which are God's." The meeting was conducted with the utmost
+solemnity; and a Catholic priest who was present, on giving
+information <span class="pagenum"><a id="page036" name="page036"></a>(p. 036)</span> to the Bishop of Nismes of the transaction,
+admitted that the preacher had advanced nothing but what the bishop
+himself might have spoken.</p>
+
+<p>The dragoons were at once sent to St. Hypolite to put an end to these
+meetings, and to "convert" the Protestants. The town was almost wholly
+Protestant. The troops were quartered in numbers in every house; and
+the people soon became "new converts."</p>
+
+<p>The losses sustained by the inhabitants of the Cevennes from this
+forced quartering of the troops upon them&mdash;and Anduze, Sauvé, St.
+Germain, Vigan, and Ganges were as full of them as St. Hypolite&mdash;may
+be inferred from the items charged upon the inhabitants of St.
+Hypolite alone<a id="footnotetag22" name="footnotetag22"></a><a href="#footnote22" title="Go to footnote 22"><span class="small">[22]</span></a>:&mdash;</p>
+
+<table  border="0" cellpadding="0" summary="Items charged upon the inhabitants of St.
+Hypolite.">
+<colgroup>
+    <col width="73%">
+    <col width="2%">
+    <col width="15%">
+    <col width="10%">
+</colgroup>
+<tr>
+<td class="minindent">To the regiment of Montpezat, for a billet for
+     sixty-five days</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td class="right">50,000</td>
+<td class="center">livres.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="minindent">To the three companies of Red Dragoons,
+     for ninety-five days</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td class="right">30,000</td>
+<td class="center">"</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="minindent">To three companies of Villeneuve's Dragoons,
+     for thirty days</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td class="right">6,000</td>
+<td class="center">"</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="minindent">To three companies of the Blue Dragoons of
+     Languedoc, for three months and nine days</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td class="right">37,000</td>
+<td class="center">"</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="minindent">To a company of Cravates (troopers) for
+     fourteen days</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td class="right">1,400</td>
+<td class="center">"</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="minindent">To the transport of three hundred and nine
+     companies of cavalry and infantry</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td class="right">10,000</td>
+<td class="center">"</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="minindent">To provisions for the troops</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td class="right">60,000</td>
+<td class="center">"</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="minindent">To damage sustained by the destruction done
+     by the soldiers, of furniture, and losses
+     by the seizure of property, &amp;c.</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td class="right">50,000</td>
+<td class="center">"</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td colspan="2">&nbsp;</td>
+<td class="right">&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="right">Total</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td class="right">244,400</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+</table>
+
+<p>Meetings of the persecuted were also held, under the terms of "The
+Project," in Viverais and Dauphiny. These meetings having been
+repeated for several weeks, the priests of the respective districts
+called upon their bishops for help to put down this heretical display.
+The <span class="pagenum"><a id="page037" name="page037"></a>(p. 037)</span> Bishop of Valence (Daniel de Cosmac) accordingly
+informed them that he had taken the necessary steps, and that he had
+been apprised that twenty thousand soldiers were now on their march to
+the South to put down the Protestant movement.</p>
+
+<p>On their arrival, the troops were scattered over the country, to watch
+and suppress any meetings that might be held. The first took place on
+the 8th of August, at Chateaudouble, a manufacturing village in Drome.
+The assembly was surprised by a troop of dragoons; but most of the
+congregation contrived to escape. Those who were taken were hung upon
+the nearest trees.</p>
+
+<p>Another meeting was held about a fortnight later at Bezaudun, which
+was attended by many persons from Bourdeaux, a village about half a
+league distant. While the meeting was at prayer, intelligence was
+brought that the dragoons had entered Bourdeaux, and that it was a
+scene of general pillage. The Bourdeaux villagers at once set out for
+the protection of their families. The troopers met them, and suddenly
+fell upon them. A few of the villagers were armed, but the principal
+part defended themselves with stones. Of course they were overpowered;
+many were killed by the sword, and those taken prisoners were
+immediately hanged.</p>
+
+<p>A few, who took to flight, sheltered themselves in a barn, where the
+soldiers found them, set fire to the place, and murdered them as they
+endeavoured to escape from the flames. One young man was taken
+prisoner, David Chamier,<a id="footnotetag23" name="footnotetag23"></a><a href="#footnote23" title="Go to footnote 23"><span class="small">[23]</span></a> son of an advocate, and <span class="pagenum"><a id="page038" name="page038"></a>(p. 038)</span> related
+to some of the most eminent Protestants in France. He was taken to the
+neighbouring town of Montelimar, and, after a summary trial, he was
+condemned to be broken to death upon the wheel. The sentence was
+executed before his father's door; but the young man bore his
+frightful tortures with astonishing courage.</p>
+
+<p>The contumacious attitude of the Protestants after so many reports had
+reached Louis XIV. of their entire "conversion," induced him to take
+more active measures for their suppression. He appointed Marshal
+Saint-Ruth commander of the district&mdash;a man who was a stranger to
+mercy, who breathed only carnage, and who, because of his ferocity,
+was known as "The Scourge of the Heretics."</p>
+
+<p>Daniel de Cosmac, Bishop of Valence, had now the help of Saint-Ruth
+and his twenty thousand troops. The instructions Saint-Ruth received
+from Louvois were these: "Amnesty has no longer any place for the
+Viverais, who continue in rebellion after having been informed of the
+King's gracious designs. In one word, you are to cause such a
+desolation in that country that its example may restrain all other
+Huguenots, and may teach them how dangerous it is to rebel against the
+King."</p>
+
+<p>This was a work quite congenial to Saint-Ruth<a id="footnotetag24" name="footnotetag24"></a><a href="#footnote24" title="Go to footnote 24"><span class="small">[24]</span></a>&mdash;rushing <span class="pagenum"><a id="page039" name="page039"></a>(p. 039)</span>
+about the country, scourging, slaughtering, laying waste, and
+suppressing the assemblies&mdash;his soldiers rushing upon their victims
+with cries of "Death or the Mass!"</p>
+
+<p>Tracking the Protestants in this way was like "a hunt in a great
+enclosure." When the soldiers found a meeting of the people going on,
+they shot them down at once, though unarmed. If they were unable to
+fly, they met death upon their knees. Antoine Court recounts meetings
+in which as many as between three and four hundred persons, old men,
+women, and children, were shot dead on the spot.</p>
+
+<p>De Cosmac, the bishop, was very active in the midst of these
+massacres. When he went out to convert the people, he first began by
+sending out Saint-Ruth with the dragoons. Afterwards he himself
+followed to give instructions for their "conversion," partly through
+favours, partly by money. "My efforts," he himself admitted, "were not
+always without success; yet I must avow that the fear of the dragoons,
+and of their being quartered in the houses of the heretics,
+contributed much more to their conversion than anything that I did."</p>
+
+<p>The same course was followed throughout the Cevennes. It would be a
+simple record of cruelty to describe in detail the military
+proceedings there: the dispersion of meetings; the hanging of persons
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page040" name="page040"></a>(p. 040)</span> found attending them; the breaking upon the wheel of the
+pastors captured, amidst horrible tortures; the destruction of
+dwellings and of the household goods which they contained. But let us
+take the single instance of Homel, formerly pastor of the church at
+Soyon.</p>
+
+<p>Homel was taken prisoner, and found guilty of preaching to his flock
+after his temple had been destroyed. For this offence he was sentenced
+to be broken to death upon the wheel. To receive this punishment he
+was conducted to Tournon, in Viverais, where the Jesuits had a
+college. He first received forty blows of the iron bar, after which he
+was left to languish with his bones broken, for forty hours, until he
+died. During his torments, he said: "I count myself happy that I can
+die in my Master's service. What! did my glorious Redeemer descend
+from heaven and suffer an ignominious death for my salvation, and
+shall I, to prolong a miserable life, deny my blessed Saviour and
+abandon his people?" While his bones were being broken on the wheel,
+he said to his wife: "Farewell, once more, my beloved spouse! Though
+you witness my bones broken to shivers, yet is my soul filled with
+inexpressible joy." After life was finally extinct, his heart was
+taken to Chalençon to be publicly exhibited, and his body was exposed
+in like manner at Beauchatel.</p>
+
+<p>De Noailles, the governor, when referring in one of his dispatches to
+the heroism displayed by the tortured prisoners, said: "These wretches
+go to the wheel with the firm assurance of dying martyrs, and ask no
+other favour than that of dying quickly. They request pardon of the
+soldiers, but there is not one of them that will ask pardon of the
+King."</p>
+
+<p>To return to Claude Brousson. After his eloquent <span class="pagenum"><a id="page041" name="page041"></a>(p. 041)</span> defence of
+the Huguenots of Montauban&mdash;the result of which, of course, was that
+the church was ordered to be demolished&mdash;and the institution of
+processes for the demolition of fourteen more Protestant temples,
+Brousson at last became aware that the fury of the Catholics and the
+King was not to be satisfied until they had utterly crushed the
+religion which he served.</p>
+
+<p>Brousson was repeatedly offered the office of counsellor of
+Parliament, equivalent to the office of judge, if he would prove an
+apostate; but the conscience of Brousson was not one that could be
+bought. He also found that his office of defender of the doomed
+Huguenots could not be maintained without personal danger, whilst (as
+events proved) his defence was of no avail to them; and he resolved,
+with much regret, to give up his profession for a time, and retire for
+safety and rest to his native town of Nismes.</p>
+
+<p>He resided there, however, only about four months. Saint-Ruth and De
+Noailles were now overawing Upper Languedoc with their troops. The
+Protestants of Nismes had taken no part in "The Project;" their
+remaining temple was still open. But they got up a respectful petition
+to the King, imploring his consideration of their case. Roman
+Catholics and Protestants, they said, had so many interests in common,
+that the ruin of the one must have the effect of ruining the
+other,&mdash;the flourishing manufactures of the province, which were
+mostly followed by the Protestants, being now rapidly proceeding to
+ruin. They, therefore, implored his Majesty to grant them permission
+to prosecute their employments unmolested on account of their
+religious profession; and lastly, they conjured the King, by his
+piety, by his paternal clemency, and by every law of equity, to grant
+them freedom of religious worship.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page042" name="page042"></a>(p. 042)</span> It was of no use. The hearts of the King, his clergy, and his
+ministers, were all hardened against them. A copy of the above
+petition was presented by two ministers of Nismes and several
+influential gentlemen of Lower Languedoc to the Duke de Noailles, the
+governor of the province. He treated the deputation with contempt, and
+their petition with scorn. Writing to Louvois, the King's prime
+minister, De Noailles said: "Astonished at the effrontery of these
+wretched persons, I did not hesitate to send them all prisoners to the
+Citadel of St. Esprit (in the Cevennes), telling them that if there
+had been <span class="italic">petites maisons</span><a id="footnotetag25" name="footnotetag25"></a><a href="#footnote25" title="Go to footnote 25"><span class="small">[25]</span></a> enough in Languedoc I should not have
+sent them there."</p>
+
+<p>Nismes was now placed under the same ban as Vivarais, and denounced as
+"insurrectionary." To quell the pretended revolt, as well as to
+capture certain persons who were supposed to have been accessory to
+the framing of the petition, a detachment of four hundred dragoons was
+ordered into the place. One of those to be apprehended was Claude
+Brousson. Hundreds of persons knew of his abode in the city, but
+notwithstanding the public proclamation (which he himself heard from
+the window of the house where he was staying), and the reward offered
+for his apprehension, no one attempted to betray him.</p>
+
+<p>After remaining in the city for three days, he adopted a disguised
+dress, passed out of the Crown Gate, and in the course of a few days
+found a safe retreat in Switzerland.</p>
+
+<p>Peyrol and Icard, two of the Protestant ministers whom the dragoons
+were ordered to apprehend, also escaped into Switzerland, Peyrol
+settling at <span class="pagenum"><a id="page043" name="page043"></a>(p. 043)</span> Lausanne, and Icard becoming the minister of a
+Huguenot church in Holland. But although the ministers had escaped,
+all the property they had left behind them was confiscated to the
+Crown. Hideous effigies of them were prepared and hung on gibbets in
+the market-place of Nismes by the public executioner, the magistrates
+and dragoons attending the sham proceeding with the usual ceremony.</p>
+
+<p>At Lausanne, where Claude Brousson settled for a time, he first
+attempted to occupy himself as a lawyer; but this he shortly gave up
+to devote himself to the help of the persecuted Huguenots. Like Jurieu
+and others in Holland, who flooded Europe with accounts of the hideous
+cruelties of Louis XIV. and his myrmidons the clergy and dragoons, he
+composed and published a work, addressed to the Roman Catholic party
+as well as to the Protestants of all countries, entitled, "The State
+of the Reformed Church of France." He afterwards composed a series of
+letters specially addressed to the Roman Catholic clergy of France.</p>
+
+<p>But expostulation was of no use. With each succeeding year the
+persecution became more bitter, until at length, in 1685, the Edict
+was revoked. In September of that year Brousson learnt that the
+Protestant church of his native city had been suppressed, and their
+temple given over to a society of female converters; that the wives
+and daughters of the Protestants who refused to abjure their faith had
+been seized and imprisoned in nunneries and religious seminaries; and
+that three hundred of their husbands and fathers were chained together
+and sent off in one day for confinement in the galleys at Marseilles.</p>
+
+<p>The number of Huguenots resorting to Switzerland <span class="pagenum"><a id="page044" name="page044"></a>(p. 044)</span> being so
+great,<a id="footnotetag26" name="footnotetag26"></a><a href="#footnote26" title="Go to footnote 26"><span class="small">[26]</span></a> and they often came so destitute, that a committee was
+formed at Lausanne to assist the emigrants, and facilitate their
+settlement in the canton, or enable them to proceed elsewhere.
+Brousson was from the first an energetic member of this committee.
+Part of their work was to visit the Protestant states of the north,
+and find out places to which the emigrants might be forwarded, as well
+as to collect subscriptions for their conveyance.</p>
+
+<p>In November 1685, a month after the Revocation, Brousson and La Porte
+set out for Berlin with this object. La Porte was one of the ministers
+of the Cevennes, who had fled before a sentence of death pronounced
+against him for having been concerned in "The Project." At Berlin they
+were received very cordially by the Elector of Brandenburg, who had
+already given great assistance to the Huguenot emigrants, and
+expressed himself as willing to do all that he could for their
+protection. Brousson and La Porte here met the Rev. David Ancillon,
+who had been for thirty-three years pastor at Metz,<a id="footnotetag27" name="footnotetag27"></a><a href="#footnote27" title="Go to footnote 27"><span class="small">[27]</span></a> and <span class="pagenum"><a id="page045" name="page045"></a>(p. 045)</span>
+was now pastor of the Elector at Berlin; Gaultier, banished from
+Montpellier; and Abbadie, banished from Saumur&mdash;all ministers of the
+Huguenot Church there; with a large number of banished ministers and
+emigrant Protestants from all the provinces of France.</p>
+
+<p>The Elector suggested to Brousson that while at Berlin he should
+compose a summary account of the condition of the French Protestants,
+such as should excite the interest and evoke the help of the
+Protestant rulers and people of the northern States. This was done by
+Brousson, and the volume was published, entitled "Letters of the
+Protestants of France who have abandoned all for the cause of the
+Gospel, to other Protestants; with a particular Letter addressed to
+Protestant Kings, Electors, Rulers, and Magistrates." The Elector
+circulated this volume, accompanying it with a letter written in his
+name, to all the princes of the Continent professing the Augsburg
+Confession; and it was thus mainly owing to the Elector's intercession
+that the Huguenots obtained the privilege of establishing
+congregations in several of the states of Germany, as well as in
+Sweden and Denmark.</p>
+
+<p>Brousson remained nearly five months at Berlin, after which he
+departed for Holland to note the progress of the emigration in that
+country, and there he met a large number of his countrymen. Nearly two
+hundred and fifty Huguenot ministers had taken refuge in <span class="pagenum"><a id="page046" name="page046"></a>(p. 046)</span>
+Holland; there were many merchants and manufacturers who had set up
+their branches of industry in the country; and there were many
+soldiers who had entered the service of William of Orange. While in
+Holland, Brousson resided principally with his brother, a banished
+Huguenot, who had settled at Amsterdam as a merchant.</p>
+
+<p>Having accomplished all that he could for his Huguenot brethren in
+exile, Brousson returned to Lausanne, where he continued his former
+labours. He bethought him very much of the Protestants still remaining
+in France, wandering like sheep without shepherds, deprived of
+guidance, books, and worship&mdash;the prey of ravenous wolves,&mdash;and it
+occurred to him whether the Protestant pastors had done right in
+leaving their flocks, even though by so doing they had secured the
+safety of their own lives. Accordingly, in 1686, he wrote and
+published a "Letter to the Pastors of France at present in Protestant
+States, concerning the Desolation of their own Churches, and their own
+Exile."</p>
+
+<p>In this letter he says:&mdash;"If, instead of retiring before your
+persecutors, you had remained in the country; if you had taken refuge
+in forests and caverns; if you had gone from place to place, risking
+your lives to instruct and rally the people, until the first shock of
+the enemy was past; and had you even courageously exposed yourselves
+to martyrdom&mdash;as in fact those have done who have endeavoured to
+perform your duties in your absence&mdash;perhaps the examples of
+constancy, or zeal, or of piety you had discovered, might have
+animated your flocks, revived their courage, and arrested the fury of
+your enemies." He accordingly exhorted the Protestant ministers who
+had left France to return to their flocks at all hazards.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page047" name="page047"></a>(p. 047)</span> This advice, if acted on, was virtually condemning the
+pastors to death. Brousson was not a pastor. Would <span class="italic">he</span> like to return
+to France at the daily risk of the rack and the gibbet? The Protestant
+ministers in exile defended themselves. Bénoît, then residing in
+Germany, replied in a "History and Apology for the Retreat of the
+Pastors." Another, who did not give his name, treated Brousson's
+censure as that of a fanatic, who meddled with matters beyond his
+vocation. "You who condemn the pastors for not returning to France at
+the risk of their lives," said he, "<span class="italic">why do you not first return to
+France yourself?</span>"</p>
+
+<p>Brousson was as brave as his words. He was not a pastor, but he might
+return to the deserted flocks, and encourage and comfort them. He
+could no longer be happy in his exile at Lausanne. He heard by night
+the groans of the prisoners in the Tower of Constance, and the noise
+of the chains borne by the galley slaves at Toulon and Marseilles. He
+reproached himself as if it were a crime with the repose which he
+enjoyed. Life became insupportable to him and he fell ill. His health
+was even despaired of; but one day he suddenly rose up and said to his
+wife, "I must set out; I will go to console, to relieve, to strengthen
+my brethren, groaning under their oppressions."</p>
+
+<p>His wife threw herself at his feet. "Thou wouldst go to certain
+death," she said; "think of me and thy little children." She implored
+him again and again to remain. He loved his wife and children, but he
+thought a higher duty called him away from them. When his friends told
+him that he would be taken prisoner and hung, he said, "When God
+permits his servants to die for the Gospel, they preach louder from
+the grave than they did during life." He remained <span class="pagenum"><a id="page048" name="page048"></a>(p. 048)</span> unshaken.
+He would go to the help of the oppressed with the love of a brother,
+the faith of an apostle, and the courage of a martyr.</p>
+
+<p>Brousson knew the danger of the office he was about to undertake.
+There had, as we have seen, been numerous attempts made to gather the
+Protestant people together, and to administer consolation to them by
+public prayers and preaching. The persons who conducted these services
+were not regular pastors, but only private members of their former
+churches. Some of them were very young men, and they were nearly all
+uneducated as regards clerical instruction. One of the most successful
+was Isaac Vidal, a lame young man, a mechanic of Colognac, near St.
+Hypolite, in the Cevennes. His self-imposed ministrations were
+attended by large numbers of people. He preached for only six months
+and then died&mdash;a natural death, for nearly all who followed him were
+first tortured and then hung.</p>
+
+<p>We have already referred to Fulcran Rey, who preached for about nine
+months, and was then executed. In the same year were executed
+Meyrueis, by trade a wool-carder, and Rocher, who had been a reader in
+one of the Protestant churches. Emanuel Dalgues, a respectable
+inhabitant of Salle, in the Cevennes, also received the crown of
+martyrdom. Ever since the Revocation of the Edict, he had proclaimed
+the Gospel o'er hill and dale, in woods and caverns, to assemblies of
+the people wherever he could collect them. He was executed in 1687.
+Three other persons&mdash;Gransille, Mercier, and Esclopier&mdash;who devoted
+themselves to preaching, were transported as slaves to America; and
+David Mazel, a boy twelve years of age, who had a wonderful memory,
+and preached sermons which he had learned by heart, was transported,
+with his father <span class="pagenum"><a id="page049" name="page049"></a>(p. 049)</span> and other frequenters of the assemblies, to
+the Carribee Islands.</p>
+
+<p>At length Brousson collected about him a number of Huguenots willing
+to return with him into France, in order to collect the Protestant
+people together again, to pray with them, and even to preach to them
+if the opportunity occurred. Brousson's companions were these: Francis
+Vivens, formerly a schoolmaster in the Cevennes; Anthony Bertezene, a
+carpenter, brother of a preacher who had recently been condemned to
+death; and seven other persons named Papus, La Pierre, Serein,
+Dombres, Poutant, Boisson, and M. de Bruc, an aged minister, who had
+been formerly pastor of one of the churches in the Cevennes. They
+prepared to enter France in four distinct companies, in the month of
+July, 1689.<a href="#toc"><span class="small">[Back to Contents]</span></a></p>
+
+
+<h3><span class="pagenum"><a id="page050" name="page050"></a>(p. 050)</span> CHAPTER IV.</h3>
+
+<p class="title">CLAUDE BROUSSON, PASTOR AND MARTYR.</p>
+
+<p>Brousson left Lausanne on the 22nd of July, accompanied by his dear
+friend, the Rev. M. de Bruc. The other members of the party had
+preceded them, crossing the frontier at different places. They all
+arrived in safety at their destination, which was in the mountain
+district of the Cevennes. They resorted to the neighbourhood of the
+Aigoual, the centre of a very inaccessible region&mdash;wild, cold, but
+full of recesses for hiding and worship. It was also a district
+surrounded by villages, the inhabitants of which were for the most
+part Protestant.</p>
+
+<p>The party soon became diminished in number. The old pastor, De Bruc,
+found himself unequal to the fatigue and privations attending the
+work. He was ill and unable to travel, and was accordingly advised by
+his companions to quit the service and withdraw from the country.</p>
+
+<p>Persecution also destroyed some of them. When it became known that
+assemblies for religious observances were again on foot, an increased
+force of soldiers was sent into the district, and a high price was set
+on the heads of all the preachers that could be apprehended. The
+soldiers scoured the country, and, helped by the <span class="pagenum"><a id="page051" name="page051"></a>(p. 051)</span> paid spies,
+they shortly succeeded in apprehending Boisson and Dombres, at St.
+Paul's, north of Anduze, in the Cevennes. They were both executed at
+Nismes, being first subjected to torture on the rack, by which their
+limbs were entirely dislocated. They were then conveyed to the place
+of execution, praying and singing psalms on the way, and finished
+their course with courage and joy.</p>
+
+<p>When Brousson first went into the Cevennes, he did not undertake to
+preach to the people. He was too modest to assume the position of a
+pastor; he merely undertook, as occasion required, to read the
+Scriptures in Protestant families and in small companies, making his
+remarks and exhortations thereupon. He also transcribed portions of
+his own meditations on the Scriptures, and gave them away for
+distribution from hand to hand amongst the people.</p>
+
+<p>When it was found that his instructions were much appreciated, and
+that numbers of people assembled to hear him read and exhort, he was
+strongly urged to undertake the office of public instructor amongst
+them, especially as their ministers were being constantly diminished
+by execution.</p>
+
+<p>He had been about five months in the Cevennes, and was detained by a
+fall of snow on one of the mountains, where his abode was a sheepcote,
+when the proposal that he should become a preacher was first made to
+him. Vivens was one of those who most strongly supported the appeal
+made to Brousson. He spent many hours in private prayer, seeking the
+approval of God for the course he was about to undertake. Vivens also
+prayed in the several assemblies that Brousson might be confirmed, and
+that God would be pleased to pour upon him his Holy Spirit, and
+strengthen him so that he <span class="pagenum"><a id="page052" name="page052"></a>(p. 052)</span> might become a faithful and
+successful labourer in this great calling.</p>
+
+<p>Brousson at length consented, believing that duty and conscience alike
+called upon him to give the best of his help to the oppressed and
+persecuted Protestants of the mountains. "Brethren," he said to them,
+when they called upon him to administer to them the Holy Sacrament of
+the Eucharist&mdash;"Brethren, I look above you, and hear the most High God
+calling me through your mouths to this most responsible and sacred
+office; and I dare not be disobedient to his heavenly call. By the
+grace of God I will comply with your pious desires; dedicate and
+devote myself to the work of the ministry, and spend the remainder of
+my life in unwearied pains and endeavours for promoting God's glory,
+and the consolation of precious souls."</p>
+
+<p>Brousson received his call to the ministry in the Cevennes amidst the
+sound of musketry and grapeshot which spread death among the ranks of
+his brethren. He was continuously tracked by the spies of the Jesuits,
+who sought his apprehension and death; and he was hunted from place to
+place by the troops of the King, who followed him in his wanderings
+into the most wild and inaccessible places.</p>
+
+<p>The perilous character of his new profession was exhibited only a few
+days after his ordination, by the apprehension of Olivier Souverain at
+St. Jean de Gardonenque, for preaching the Gospel to the assemblies.
+He was at once conducted to Montpellier and executed on the 15th of
+January, 1690.</p>
+
+<p>During the same year, Dumas, another preacher in the Cevennes, was
+apprehended and fastened by the troopers across a horse in order to be
+carried to Montpellier. His bowels were so injured and his body so
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page053" name="page053"></a>(p. 053)</span> crushed by this horrible method of conveyance, that Dumas
+died before he was half way to the customary place of martyrdom.</p>
+
+<p>Then followed the execution of David Quoite, a wandering and hunted
+pastor in the Cevennes for several years. He was broken on the wheel
+at Montpellier, and then hanged. "The punishment," said Louvreleuil,
+his tormentor, "which broke his bones, did not break his hardened
+heart: he died in his heresy." After Quoite, M. Bonnemère, a native of
+the same city, was also tortured and executed in like manner on the
+Peyrou.</p>
+
+<p>All these persons were taken, executed, destroyed, or imprisoned,
+during the first year that Brousson commenced his perilous ministry in
+the Cevennes.</p>
+
+<p>About the same time three women, who had gone about instructing the
+families of the destitute Protestants, reading the Scriptures and
+praying with them, were apprehended by Baville, the King's intendant,
+and punished. Isabeau Redothière, eighteen years of age, and Marie
+Lintarde, about a year younger, both the daughters of peasants, were
+taken before Baville at Nismes.</p>
+
+<p>"What! are you one of the preachers, forsooth?" said he to Redothière.
+"Sir," she replied, "I have exhorted my brethren to be mindful of
+their duty towards God, and when occasion offered, I have sought God
+in prayer for them; and, if your lordship calls that preaching, I have
+been a preacher." "But," said the Intendant, "you know that the King
+has forbidden this." "Yes, my lord," she replied, "I know it very
+well, but the King of kings, the God of heaven and earth, He hath
+commanded it." "You deserve death," replied Baville.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page054" name="page054"></a>(p. 054)</span> But the Intendant awarded her a severer fate. She was
+condemned to be imprisoned for life in the Tower of Constance, a place
+echoing with the groans of women, most of whom were in chains,
+perpetually imprisoned there for worshipping God according to
+conscience.</p>
+
+<p>Lintarde was in like manner condemned to imprisonment for life in the
+castle of Sommières, and it is believed she died there. Nothing,
+however, is known of the time when she died. When a woman was taken
+and imprisoned in one of the King's torture-houses, she was given up
+by her friends as lost.</p>
+
+<p>A third woman, taken at the same time, was more mercifully dealt with.
+Anne Montjoye was found assisting at one of the secret assemblies. She
+was solicited in vain to abjure her faith, and being condemned to
+death, was publicly executed.</p>
+
+<p>Shortly after his ordination, Brousson descended from the Upper
+Cevennes, where the hunt for Protestants was becoming very hot, into
+the adjacent valleys and plains. There it was necessary for him to be
+exceedingly cautious. The number of dragoons in Languedoc had been
+increased so as to enable them regularly to patrol the entire
+province, and a price had been set upon Brousson's head, which was
+calculated to quicken their search for the flying pastor.</p>
+
+<p>Brousson was usually kept informed by his Huguenot friends of the
+direction taken by the dragoons in their patrols, and hasty assemblies
+were summoned in their absence. The meetings were held in some secret
+place&mdash;some cavern or recess in the rocks. Often they were held at
+night, when a few lanterns were hung on the adjacent trees to give
+light. Sentinels were set in the neighbourhood, and all the adjoining
+roads were <span class="pagenum"><a id="page055" name="page055"></a>(p. 055)</span> watched. After the meeting was over the
+assemblage dispersed in different directions, and Brousson immediately
+left for another district, travelling mostly by night, so as to avoid
+detection. In this manner he usually presided at three or four
+assemblies each week, besides two on the Sabbath day&mdash;one early in the
+morning and another at night.</p>
+
+<p>At one of his meetings, held at Boucoiran on the Gardon, about half
+way between Nismes and Anduze, a Protestant nobleman&mdash;a <span class="italic">nouveau
+convertis</span>, who had abjured his religion to retain his estates&mdash;was
+present, and stood near the preacher during the service. One of the
+Government spies was present, and gave information. The name of the
+Protestant nobleman was not known. But the Intendant, to strike terror
+into others, seized six of the principal landed proprietors in the
+neighbourhood&mdash;though some of them had never attended any of the
+assemblies since the Revocation&mdash;and sent two of them to the galleys,
+and the four others to imprisonment for life at Lyons, besides
+confiscating the estates of the whole to the Crown.</p>
+
+<p>Brousson now felt that he was bringing his friends into very great
+trouble, and, out of consideration for them, he began to think of
+again leaving France. The dragoons were practising much cruelty on the
+Protestant population, being quartered in their houses, and at liberty
+to plunder and extort money to any extent. They were also incessantly
+on the look out for the assemblies, being often led by mounted priests
+and spies to places where they had been informed that meetings were
+about to be held. Their principal object, besides hanging the persons
+found attending, was to seize the preachers, more especially Brousson
+and Vivens, believing that the country would be more effectually
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page056" name="page056"></a>(p. 056)</span> "converted," provided they could be seized and got out of
+the way.</p>
+
+<p>Brousson, knowing that he might be seized and taken prisoner at any
+moment, had long considered whether he ought to resist the attempts
+made to capture him. He had at first carried a sword, but at length
+ceased to wear it, being resolved entirely to cast himself on
+Providence; and he also instructed all who resorted to his meetings to
+come to them unarmed.</p>
+
+<p>In this respect Brousson differed from Vivens, who thought it right to
+resist force by force; and in the event of any attempt being made to
+capture him, he considered it expedient to be constantly provided with
+arms. Yet he had only once occasion to use them, and it was the first
+and last time. The reward of ten thousand livres being now offered for
+the apprehension of Brousson and Vivens, or five thousand for either,
+an active search was made throughout the province. At length the
+Government found themselves on the track of Vivens. One of his known
+followers, Valderon, having been apprehended and put upon the rack,
+was driven by torture to reveal his place of concealment. A party of
+soldiers went in pursuit, and found Vivens with three other persons,
+concealed in a cave in the neighbourhood of Alais.</p>
+
+<p>Vivens was engaged in prayer when the soldiers came upon him. His hand
+was on his gun in a moment. When asked to surrender he replied with a
+shot, not knowing the number of his opponents. He followed up with two
+other shots, killing a man each time, and then exposing himself, he
+was struck by a volley, and fell dead. The three other persons in the
+cave being in a position to hold the soldiers at defiance for some
+time, were promised their lives if they would surrender. <span class="pagenum"><a id="page057" name="page057"></a>(p. 057)</span>
+They did so, and with the utter want of truth, loyalty, and manliness
+that characterized the persecutors, the promise was belied, and the
+three prisoners were hanged, a few days after, at Alais. Vivens' body
+was taken to the same place. The Intendant sat in judgment upon it,
+and condemned it to be drawn through the streets upon a hurdle and
+then burnt to ashes.</p>
+
+<p>Brousson was becoming exhausted by the fatigues and privations he had
+encountered during his two years' wanderings and preachings in the
+Cevennes; and he not only desired to give the people a relaxation from
+their persecution, but to give himself some absolutely necessary rest.
+He accordingly proceeded to Nismes, his birthplace, where many people
+knew him; and where, if they betrayed him, they might easily have
+earned five thousand livres. But so much faith was kept by the
+Protestants amongst one another, that Brousson felt that his life was
+quite as safe amongst his townspeople as it had been during the last
+two years amongst the mountaineers of the Cevennes.</p>
+
+<p>It soon became known to the priests, and then to the Intendant, that
+Brousson was resident in concealment at Nismes; and great efforts were
+accordingly made for his apprehension. During the search, a letter of
+Brousson's was found in the possession of M. Guion, an aged minister,
+who had returned from Switzerland to resume his ministry, according as
+he might find it practicable. The result of this discovery was, that
+Guion was apprehended, taken before the Intendant, condemned to be
+executed, and sent to Montpellier, where he gave up his life at
+seventy years old&mdash;the drums beating, as usual, that nobody might hear
+his last words. The house in which Guion had been taken at Nismes was
+ordered <span class="pagenum"><a id="page058" name="page058"></a>(p. 058)</span> to be razed to the ground, in punishment of the
+owner who had given him shelter.</p>
+
+<p>After spending about a month at Nismes, Brousson was urged by his
+friends to quit the city. He accordingly succeeded in passing through
+the gates, and went to resume his former work. His first assembly was
+held in a commodious place on the Gardon, between Valence, Brignon,
+and St. Maurice, about ten miles distant from Nismes. Although he had
+requested that only the Protestants in the immediate neighbourhood
+should attend the meeting, so as not to excite the apprehensions of
+the authorities, yet a multitude of persons came from Uzes and Nismes,
+augmented by accessions from upwards of thirty villages. The service
+was commenced about ten o'clock, and was not completed until midnight.</p>
+
+<p>The concourse of persons from all quarters had been so great that the
+soldiers could not fail to be informed of it. Accordingly they rode
+towards the place of assemblage late at night, but they did not arrive
+until the meeting had been dissolved. One troop of soldiers took
+ambush in a wood through which the worshippers would return on their
+way back to Uzes. The command had been given to "draw blood from the
+conventicles." On the approach of the people the soldiers fired, and
+killed and wounded several. About forty others wore taken prisoners.
+The men were sent to the galleys for life, and the women were thrown
+into gaol at Carcassone&mdash;the Tower of Constance being then too full of
+prisoners.</p>
+
+<p>After this event, the Government became more anxious in their desire
+to capture Brousson. They published far and wide their renewed offer
+of reward for his apprehension. They sent six fresh companies
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page059" name="page059"></a>(p. 059)</span> of soldiers specially to track him, and examine the woods
+and search the caves between Uzes and Alais. But Brousson's friends
+took care to advise him of the approach of danger, and he sped away to
+take shelter in another quarter. The soldiers were, however, close
+upon his heels; and one morning, in attempting to enter a village for
+the purpose of drying himself&mdash;having been exposed to the winter's
+rain and cold all night&mdash;he suddenly came upon a detachment of
+soldiers! He avoided them by taking shelter in a thicket, and while
+there, he observed another detachment pass in file, close to where he
+was concealed. The soldiers were divided into four parties, and sent
+out to search in different directions, one of them proceeding to
+search every house in the village into which Brousson had just been
+about to enter.</p>
+
+<p>The next assembly was held at Sommières, about eight miles west of
+Nismes. The soldiers were too late to disperse the meeting, but they
+watched some of the people on their return. One of these, an old
+woman, who had been observed to leave the place, was shot on entering
+her cottage; and the soldier, observing that she was attempting to
+rise, raised the butt end of his gun and brained her on the spot.</p>
+
+<p>The hunted pastors of the Cevennes were falling off one by one.
+Bernard Saint Paul, a young man, who had for some time exercised the
+office of preacher, was executed in 1692. One of the brothers Du Plans
+was executed in the same year, having been offered his life if he
+would conform to the Catholic religion. In the following year Paul
+Colognac was executed, after being broken to death on the wheel at
+Masselargais, near to which he had held his last assembly. His arms,
+thighs, legs, and feet were severally broken with the <span class="pagenum"><a id="page060" name="page060"></a>(p. 060)</span> iron
+bar some hours before the <span class="italic">coup de grace</span>, or deathblow, was
+inflicted. Colognac endured his sufferings with heroic fortitude. He
+was only twenty-four. He had commenced to preach at twenty, and
+laboured at the work for only four years.</p>
+
+<p>Brousson's health was fast giving way. Every place that he frequented
+was closely watched, so that he had often to spend the night under the
+hollow of a rock, or under the shelter of a wood, exposed to rain and
+snow,&mdash;and sometimes he had even to contend with a wolf for the
+shelter of a cave. Often he was almost perishing for want of food; and
+often he found himself nearly ready to die for want of rest. And yet,
+even in the midst of his greatest perils, his constant thought was of
+the people committed to him, and for whose eternal happiness he
+continued to work.</p>
+
+<p>As he could not visit all who wished to hear him, he wrote out sermons
+that might be read to them. His friend Henry Poutant, one of those who
+originally accompanied him from Switzerland and had not yet been taken
+prisoner by the soldiers, went about holding meetings for prayer, and
+reading to the people the sermons prepared for them by Brousson.</p>
+
+<p>For the purpose of writing out his sermons, Brousson carried about
+with him a small board, which he called his "Wilderness Table." With
+this placed upon his knees, he wrote the sermons, for the most part in
+woods and caves. He copied out seventeen of these sermons, which he
+sent to Louis XIV., to show him that what "he preached in the deserts
+contained nothing but the pure word of God, and that he only exhorted
+the people to obey God and to give glory to Him."</p>
+
+<p>The sermons were afterwards published at Amsterdam, <span class="pagenum"><a id="page061" name="page061"></a>(p. 061)</span> in 1695,
+under the title of "The Mystic Manna of the Desert." One would have
+expected that, under the bitter persecutions which Brousson had
+suffered during so many years, they would have been full of
+denunciation; on the contrary, they were only full of love. His words
+were only burning when he censured his hearers for not remaining
+faithful to their Church and to their God.</p>
+
+<p>At length, the fury of Brousson's enemies so increased, and his health
+was so much impaired, that he again thought of leaving France. His
+lungs were so much injured by constant exposure to cold, and his voice
+had become so much impaired, that he could not preach. He also heard
+that his family, whom he had left at Lausanne, required his
+assistance. His only son was growing up, and needed education. Perhaps
+Brousson had too long neglected those of his own household; though he
+had every confidence in the prudence and thoughtfulness of his wife.</p>
+
+<p>Accordingly, about the end of 1693, Brousson made arrangements for
+leaving the Cevennes. He set out in the beginning of December, and
+arrived at Lausanne about a fortnight later, having been engaged on
+his extraordinary mission of duty and peril for four years and five
+months. He was received like one rescued from the dead. His health was
+so injured, that his wife could scarcely recognise her husband in that
+wan, wasted, and weatherbeaten creature who stood before her. In fact,
+he was a perfect wreck.</p>
+
+<p>He remained about fifteen months in Switzerland, during which he
+preached in the Huguenots' church; wrote out many of his pastoral
+letters and sermons; and, when his health had become restored, he
+again proceeded on his travels into foreign countries. He <span class="pagenum"><a id="page062" name="page062"></a>(p. 062)</span>
+first went into Holland. He had scarcely arrived there, when
+intelligence reached him from Montpellier of the execution, after
+barbarous torments, of his friend Papus,&mdash;one of those who had
+accompanied him into the Cevennes to preach the Gospel some six years
+before. There were now very few of the original company left.</p>
+
+<p>On hearing of the martyrdom of Papus, Brousson, in a pastoral letter
+which he addressed to his followers, said: "He must have died some
+day; and as he could not have prolonged his life beyond the term
+appointed, how could his end have been more happy and more glorious?
+His constancy, his sweetness of temper, his patience, his humility,
+his faith, his hope, and his piety, affected even his judges and the
+false pastors who endeavoured to seduce him, as also the soldiers and
+all that witnessed his execution. He could not have preached better
+than he did by his martyrdom; and I doubt not that his death, will
+produce abundance of fruit."</p>
+
+<p>While in Holland, Brousson took the opportunity of having his sermons
+and many of his pastoral letters printed at Amsterdam; after which he
+proceeded to make a visit to his banished Huguenot friends in England.
+He also wished to ascertain from personal inquiry the advisability of
+forwarding an increased number of French emigrants&mdash;then resident in
+Switzerland&mdash;for settlement in this country. In London, he met many of
+his friends from the South of France&mdash;for there were settled there as
+ministers, Graverol of Nismes, Satur of Montauban, four ministers from
+Montpellier for whom he had pleaded in the courts at Toulouse&mdash;the two
+Dubourdieus and the two Berthaus&mdash;fathers and sons. There were also La
+Coux from Castres, De Joux from Lyons, Roussillon from <span class="pagenum"><a id="page063" name="page063"></a>(p. 063)</span>
+Montredon, Mestayer from St. Quentin, all settled in London as
+ministers of Huguenot churches.</p>
+
+<p>After staying in England for only about a month, Brousson was suddenly
+recalled to Holland to assume the office to which he was appointed
+without solicitation, of preacher to the Walloon church at the Hague.
+Though his office was easy&mdash;for he had several colleagues to assist
+him in the duties&mdash;and the salary was abundant for his purposes, while
+he was living in the society of his wife and family&mdash;Brousson
+nevertheless very soon began to be ill at ease. He still thought of
+the abandoned Huguenots "in the Desert"; without teachers, without
+pastors, without spiritual help of any kind. When he had undertaken
+the work of the ministry, he had vowed that he would devote his time
+and talents to the support and help of the afflicted Church; and now
+he was living at ease in a foreign country, far removed from those to
+whom he considered his services belonged. These thoughts were
+constantly recurring and pressing upon his mind; and at length he
+ceased to have any rest or satisfaction in his new position.</p>
+
+<p>Accordingly, after only about four months' connection with the Church
+at the Hague, Brousson decided to relinquish the charge, and to devote
+himself to the service of the oppressed and afflicted members of his
+native Church in France. The Dutch Government, however, having been
+informed of his perilous and self-sacrificing intention, agreed to
+continue his salary as a pastor of the Walloon Church, and to pay it
+to his wife, who henceforth abode at the Hague.</p>
+
+<p>Brousson determined to enter France from the north, and to visit
+districts that were entirely new to him. For this purpose he put
+himself in charge of a guide. <span class="pagenum"><a id="page064" name="page064"></a>(p. 064)</span> At that time, while the
+Protestants were flying from France, as they continued to do for many
+years, there were numerous persons who acted as guides for those not
+only flying from, but entering the country. Those who guided
+Protestant pastors on their concealed visits to France, were men of
+great zeal and courage&mdash;known to be faithful and self-denying&mdash;and
+thoroughly acquainted with the country. They knew all the woods, and
+fords, and caves, and places of natural shelter along the route. They
+made the itinerary of the mountains and precipices, of the byways and
+deserts, their study. They also knew of the dwellings of the faithful
+in the towns and villages where Huguenots might find relief and
+shelter for the night. They studied the disguises to be assumed, and
+were prepared with a stock of phrases and answers adapted for every
+class of inquiries.</p>
+
+<p>The guide employed by Brousson was one James Bruman&mdash;an old Huguenot
+merchant, banished at the Revocation, and now employed in escorting
+Huguenot preachers back to France, and escorting flying Huguenot men,
+women, and children from it.<a id="footnotetag28" name="footnotetag28"></a><a href="#footnote28" title="Go to footnote 28"><span class="small">[28]</span></a> The pastor and his guide started
+about the end of August, 1695. They proceeded by way of Liége; and
+travelling south, they crossed the forest of Ardennes, and entered
+France near Sedan.</p>
+
+<p>Sedan, recently the scene of one of the greatest calamities that has
+ever befallen France, was, about two centuries ago, a very prosperous
+place. It was the seat of a great amount of Protestant learning and
+Protestant industry. One of the four principal Huguenot academies of
+France was situated in that town. It was <span class="pagenum"><a id="page065" name="page065"></a>(p. 065)</span> suppressed in 1681,
+shortly before the Revocation, and its professors, Bayle, Abbadie,
+Basnage, Brazy, and Jurieu, expelled the country. The academy
+buildings themselves had been given over to the Jesuits&mdash;the sworn
+enemies of the Huguenots.</p>
+
+<p>At the same time, Sedan had been the seat of great woollen
+manufactures, originally founded by Flemish Protestant families, and
+for the manufacture of arms, implements of husbandry, and all kinds of
+steel and iron articles.<a id="footnotetag29" name="footnotetag29"></a><a href="#footnote29" title="Go to footnote 29"><span class="small">[29]</span></a> At the Revocation, the Protestants packed
+up their tools and property, suddenly escaped across the frontier,
+near which they were, and went and established themselves in the Low
+Countries, where they might pursue their industries in safety. Sedan
+was ruined, and remained so until our own day, when it has begun to
+experience a little prosperity from the tourists desirous of seeing
+the place where the great French Army surrendered.</p>
+
+<p>When Brousson visited the place, the remaining Protestants resided
+chiefly in the suburban villages of Givonne and Daigny. He visited
+them in their families, and also held several private meetings, after
+which he was induced to preach in a secluded place near Sedan at
+night.</p>
+
+<p>This assembly, however, was reported to the authorities, who
+immediately proceeded to make search for the heretic preacher. A party
+of soldiers, informed by the spies, next morning invested the house in
+which Brousson slept. They first apprehended Bruman, the guide, and
+thought that in him they had secured the <span class="pagenum"><a id="page066" name="page066"></a>(p. 066)</span> pastor. They next
+rummaged the house, in order to find the preacher's books. But
+Brousson, hearing them coming in, hid himself behind the door, which,
+being small, hardly concealed his person.</p>
+
+<p>After setting a guard all round the house, ransacking every room in
+it, and turning everything upside down, they left it; but two of the
+children, seeing Brousson's feet under the door, one of them ran after
+the officer of the party, and exclaimed to him, pointing back, "Here,
+sir, here!" But the officer, not understanding what the child meant,
+went away with his soldiers, and Brousson's life was, for the time,
+saved.</p>
+
+<p>The same evening, Brousson changed his disguise to that of a
+wool-comber, and carrying a parcel on his shoulder, he set out on the
+same evening with another guide. He visited many places in which
+Protestants were to be found&mdash;in Champagne, Picardy, Normandy,
+Nevernois, and Burgundy. He also visited several of his friends in the
+neighbourhood of Paris.</p>
+
+<p>We have not many details of his perils and experiences during his
+journey. But the following passage is extracted from a letter
+addressed by him to a friend in Holland: "I assure you that in every
+place through which I passed, I witnessed the poor people truly
+repenting their fault (<span class="italic">i.e.</span> of having gone to Mass), weeping day and
+night, and imploring the grace and consolations of the Gospel in their
+distress. Their persecutors daily oppress them, and burden them with
+taxes and imposts; but the more discerning of the Roman Catholics
+acknowledge that the cruelties and injustice done towards so many
+innocent persons, draw down misery and distress upon the kingdom. And
+truly it is to be apprehended that God will abandon its inhabitants to
+their wickedness, that he may afterwards <span class="pagenum"><a id="page067" name="page067"></a>(p. 067)</span> pour down his most
+terrible judgments upon that ungrateful and vaunting country, which
+has rejected his truth and despised the day of visitation."</p>
+
+<p>During the twelve months that Brousson was occupied with his perilous
+journey through France, two more of his friends in the Cevennes
+suffered martyrdom&mdash;La Porte on the 7th of February, 1696, and Henri
+Guerin on the 22nd of June following. Both were broken alive on the
+wheel before receiving the <span class="italic">coup de grace</span>.</p>
+
+<p>Towards the close of the year, Brousson arrived at Basle, from whence
+he proceeded to visit his friends throughout the cantons of
+Switzerland, and then he returned to Holland by way of the Rhine, to
+rejoin his family at the Hague.</p>
+
+<p>At that time, the representatives of the Allies were meeting at
+Ryswick the representatives of Louis XIV., who was desirous of peace.
+Brousson and the French refugee ministers resident in Holland
+endeavoured to bring the persecutions of the French Protestants under
+the notice of the Conference. But Louis XIV. would not brook this
+interference. He proposed going on dealing with the heretics in his
+own way. "I do not pretend," he said, "to prescribe to William III.
+rules about his subjects, and I expect the same liberty as to my own."</p>
+
+<p>Finding it impossible to obtain redress for his fellow-countrymen
+under the treaty of Ryswick, which was shortly after concluded,
+Brousson at length prepared to make his third journey into France in
+the month of August 1697. He set out greatly to the regret of his
+wife, who feared it might be his last journey, as indeed it proved to
+be. In a letter which he wrote to console her, from some remote place
+where he was snowed up about the middle of the following December, he
+said: <span class="pagenum"><a id="page068" name="page068"></a>(p. 068)</span> "I cannot at present enter into the details of the
+work the Lord has given me grace to labour in; but it is the source of
+much consolation to a large number of his poor people. It will be
+expedient that you do not mention where I am, lest I should be traced.
+It may be that I cannot for some time write to you; but I walk under
+the conduct of my God, and I repeat that I would not for millions of
+money that the Lord should refuse me the grace which renders it
+imperative for me to labour as I now do in His work."<a id="footnotetag30" name="footnotetag30"></a><a href="#footnote30" title="Go to footnote 30"><span class="small">[30]</span></a></p>
+
+<p>When the snow had melted sufficiently to enable Brousson to escape
+from the district of Dauphiny, near the High Alps, where he had been
+concealed, he made his way across the country to the Viverais, where
+he laboured for some time. Here he heard of the martyrdom of the third
+of the brothers Du Plans, broken on the wheel and executed like the
+others on the Peyrou at Montpellier.</p>
+
+<p>During the next nine months, Brousson laboured in the north-eastern
+provinces of Languedoc (more particularly in the Cevennes and
+Viverais), Orange, and Dauphiny. He excited so much interest amongst
+the Protestants, who resorted from a great distance to attend his
+assemblies, that the spies (who were usually pretended Protestants)
+soon knew of his presence in the neighbourhood, and information was at
+once forwarded to the Intendant or his officers.</p>
+
+<p>Persecution was growing very bitter about this time. By orders of the
+bishops the Protestants were led by force to Mass before the dragoons
+with drawn swords, and the shops of merchants who refused to go to
+Mass <span class="pagenum"><a id="page069" name="page069"></a>(p. 069)</span> regularly were ordered to be closed. Their houses were
+also filled with soldiers. "The soldiers or militia," said Brousson to
+a friend in Holland, "frequently commit horrible ravages, breaking
+open the cabinets, removing every article that is saleable, which are
+often purchased by the priests at insignificant prices; the rest they
+burn and break up, after which the soldiers are removed; and when the
+sufferers think themselves restored to peace, fresh billets are
+ordered upon them. Many are consequently induced to go to Mass with
+weeping and lamentation, but a great number remain inflexible, and
+others fly the kingdom."</p>
+
+<p>When it became known that Brousson, in the course of his journeyings,
+had arrived, about the end of August, 1698, in the neighbourhood of
+Nismes, Baville was greatly mortified; and he at once offered a reward
+of six hundred louis d'or for his head. Brousson nevertheless entered
+Nismes, and found refuge amongst his friends. He had, however, the
+imprudence to post there a petition to the King, signed by his own
+hand, which had the effect of at once setting the spies upon his
+track. Leaving the city itself, he took refuge in a house not far from
+it, whither the spies contrived to trace him, and gave the requisite
+information to the Intendant. The house was soon after surrounded by
+soldiers, and was itself entered and completely searched.</p>
+
+<p>Brousson's host had only had time to make him descend into a well,
+which had a niche in the bottom in which he could conceal himself. The
+soldiers looked down the well a dozen times, but could see nothing.
+Brousson was not in the house; he was not in the chimneys; he was not
+in the outhouses. He <span class="italic">must</span> be in the well! A soldier went down the
+well to make a personal <span class="pagenum"><a id="page070" name="page070"></a>(p. 070)</span> examination. He was let down close
+to the surface of the water, and felt all about. There was nothing!
+Feeling awfully cold, and wishing to be taken out, he called to his
+friends, "There is nothing here, pull me up." He was pulled up
+accordingly, and Brousson was again saved.</p>
+
+<p>The country about Nismes being beset with spies to track the
+Protestants and prevent their meetings, Brousson determined to go
+westward and visit the scattered people in Rouerge, Pays de Foix, and
+Bigorre, proceeding as far as Bearn, where a remnant of Huguenots
+still lingered, notwithstanding the repeated dragooning to which the
+district had been subjected. It was at Oberon that he fell into the
+hands of a spy, who bore the same name as a Protestant friend to whom
+his letter was addressed. Information was given to the authorities,
+and Brousson was arrested. He made no resistance, and answered at once
+to his name.</p>
+
+<p>When the Judas who had betrayed him went to M. Pénon, the intendant of
+the province, to demand the reward set upon Brousson's head, the
+Intendant replied with indignation, "Wretch! don't you blush to look
+upon the man in whose blood you traffic? Begone! I cannot bear your
+presence!"</p>
+
+<p>Brousson was sent to Pau, where he was imprisoned in the castle of
+Foix, at one time the centre of the Reformation movement in the South
+of France&mdash;where Calvin had preached, where Jeanne d'Albret had lived,
+and where Henry IV. had been born.</p>
+
+<p>From Pau, Brousson was sent to Montpellier, escorted by dragoons. At
+Toulouse the party took passage by the canal of Languedoc, which had
+then been shortly open. At Somail, during the night, Brousson saw that
+all the soldiers were asleep. He <span class="pagenum"><a id="page071" name="page071"></a>(p. 071)</span> had but to step on shore to
+regain his liberty; but he had promised to the Intendant of Bearn, who
+had allowed him to go unfettered, that he would not attempt to escape.
+At Agade there was a detachment of a hundred soldiers, ready to convey
+the prisoner to Baville, Intendant of Languedoc. He was imprisoned in
+the citadel of Montpellier, on the 30th October, 1698.</p>
+
+<p>Baville, who knew much of the character of Brousson&mdash;his peacefulness,
+his piety, his self-sacrifice, and his noble magnanimity&mdash;is said to
+have observed on one occasion, "I would not for a world have to judge
+that man." And yet the time had now arrived when Brousson was to be
+judged and condemned by Baville and the Presidial Court. The trial was
+a farce, because it had been predetermined that Brousson should die.
+He was charged with preaching in France contrary to the King's
+prohibition. This he admitted; but when asked to whom he had
+administered the Sacrament, he positively refused to disclose, because
+he was neither a traitor nor informer to accuse his brethren. He was
+also charged with having conspired to introduce a foreign army into
+France under the command of Marshal Schomberg. This he declared to be
+absolutely false, for he had throughout his career been a man of
+peace, and sought to bring back Christ's followers by peaceful means
+only.</p>
+
+<p>His defence was of no avail. He was condemned to be racked, then to be
+broken on the wheel, and afterwards to be executed. He received the
+sentence without a shudder. He was tied on the rack, but when he
+refused to accuse his brethren he was released from it. Attempts were
+made by several priests and friars to add him to the number of "new
+converts," but these <span class="pagenum"><a id="page072" name="page072"></a>(p. 072)</span> were altogether fruitless. All that
+remained was to execute him finally on the public place of
+execution&mdash;the Peyrou.</p>
+
+<p>The Peyrou is the pride of modern Montpellier. It is the favourite
+promenade of the place, and is one of the finest in Europe. It
+consists of a broad platform elevated high above the rest of the town,
+and commanding extensive views of the surrounding country. In clear
+weather, Mont Ventoux, one of the Alpine summits, may be seen across
+the broad valley of the Rhône on the east, and the peak of Mont
+Canizou in the Pyrenees on the west. Northward stretches the mountain
+range of the Cevennes, the bold Pic de Saint-Loup the advanced
+sentinel of the group; while in the south the prospect is bounded by
+the blue line of the Mediterranean.</p>
+
+<p>The Peyrou is now pleasantly laid out in terraced walks and shady
+groves, with gay parterres of flowers&mdash;the upper platform being
+surrounded with a handsome stone balustrade. An equestrian statue of
+Louis XIV. occupies the centre of the area; and a triumphal arch
+stands at the entrance to the promenade, erected to commemorate the
+"glories" of the same monarch, more particularly the Revocation by him
+of the Edict of Nantes&mdash;one of the entablatures of the arch displaying
+a hideous figure, intended to represent a Huguenot, lying trampled
+under foot of the "Most Christian King."</p>
+
+<p>The Peyrou was thus laid out and ornamented in the reign of his
+successor, Louis XV., "the Well-beloved," during which the same policy
+for which Louis XIV. was here glorified by an equestrian statue and a
+triumphal arch continued to be persevered in&mdash;of imprisoning,
+banishing, hanging, or sending to the <span class="pagenum"><a id="page073" name="page073"></a>(p. 073)</span> galleys such of the
+citizens of France as were not of "the King's religion."</p>
+
+<p>But during the reign of Louis XIV. himself, the Peyrou was anything
+but a pleasure-ground. It was the infamous place of the city&mdash;the
+<span class="italic">place de Grève</span>&mdash;a desert, barren, blasted table-land, where
+sometimes half-a-dozen decaying corpses might be seen swinging from
+the gibbets on which they had been hung. It was specially reserved,
+because of its infamy, for the execution of heretics against Rome; and
+here, accordingly, hundreds of Huguenot martyrs&mdash;whom power, honour,
+and wealth failed to bribe or to convert&mdash;were called upon to seal
+their faith with their blood.</p>
+
+<p>Brousson was executed at this place on the 4th of November, 1698. It
+was towards evening, while the sun was slowly sinking behind the
+western mountains, that an immense multitude assembled on the Peyrou
+to witness the martyrdom of the devoted pastor. Not fewer than twenty
+thousand persons were there, including the principal nobility of the
+city and province, besides many inhabitants of the adjoining mountain
+district of the Cevennes, some of whom had come from a great distance
+to be present. In the centre of the plateau, near where the equestrian
+statue of the great King now stands, was a scaffold, strongly
+surrounded by troops to keep off the crowd. Two battalions, drawn up
+in two lines facing each other, formed an avenue of bayonets between
+the citadel, near at hand, and the place of execution.</p>
+
+<p>A commotion stirred the throng; and the object of the breathless
+interest excited shortly appeared in the person of a middle-sized,
+middle-aged man, spare, grave, and dignified in appearance, dressed in
+the ordinary <span class="pagenum"><a id="page074" name="page074"></a>(p. 074)</span> garb of a pastor, who walked slowly towards the
+scaffold, engaged in earnest prayer, his eyes and hands lifted towards
+heaven. On mounting the platform, he stood forward to say a few last
+words to the people, and give to many of his friends, whom he knew to
+be in the crowd, his parting benediction. But his voice was instantly
+stifled by the roll of twenty drums, which continued to beat a quick
+march until the hideous ceremony was over, and the martyr, Claude
+Brousson, had ceased to live.<a id="footnotetag31" name="footnotetag31"></a><a href="#footnote31" title="Go to footnote 31"><span class="small">[31]</span></a></p>
+
+<p>Strange are the vicissitudes of human affairs! Not a hundred years
+passed after this event, before the great grandson of the monarch, at
+whose instance Brousson had laid down his life, appeared upon a
+scaffold in the Place Louis XIV. in Paris, and implored permission to
+say his few last words to the people. In vain! His voice was drowned
+by the drums of Santerre!<a href="#toc"><span class="small">[Back to Contents]</span></a></p>
+
+
+<h3><span class="pagenum"><a id="page075" name="page075"></a>(p. 075)</span> CHAPTER V.</h3>
+
+<p class="title">OUTBREAK IN LANGUEDOC.</p>
+
+<p>Although the arbitrary measures of the King were felt all over France,
+they nowhere excited more dismay and consternation than in the
+province of Languedoc. This province had always been inhabited by a
+spirited and energetic people, born lovers of liberty. They were among
+the earliest to call in question the despotic authority over mind and
+conscience claimed by the see of Rome. The country is sown with the
+ashes of martyrs. Long before the execution of Brousson, the Peyrou at
+Montpellier had been the Calvary of the South of France.</p>
+
+<p>As early as the twelfth century, the Albigenses, who inhabited the
+district, excited the wrath of the Popes. Simple, sincere believers in
+the Divine providence, they rejected Rome, and took their stand upon
+the individual responsibility of man to God. Count de Foix said to the
+legate of Innocent III.: "As to my religion, the Pope has nothing to
+do with it. Every man's conscience must be free. My father has always
+recommended to me this liberty, and I am content to die for it."</p>
+
+<p>A crusade was waged against the Albigenses, which lasted for a period
+of about sixty years. Armies were <span class="pagenum"><a id="page076" name="page076"></a>(p. 076)</span> concentrated upon
+Languedoc, and after great slaughter the heretics were supposed to be
+exterminated.</p>
+
+<p>But enough of the people survived to perpetuate the love of liberty in
+their descendants, who continued to exercise a degree of independence
+in matters of religion and politics almost unknown in other parts of
+France. Languedoc was the principal stronghold of the Huguenots in the
+sixteenth and seventeenth centuries; and when, in 1685, Louis XIV.
+revoked the Edict of Nantes, which interdicted freedom of worship
+under penalty of confiscation, banishment, and death, it is not
+surprising that such a policy should have occasioned widespread
+consternation, if not hostility and open resistance.</p>
+
+<p>At the period of the Revocation there were, according to the Intendant
+of the province, not fewer than 250,000 Protestants in Languedoc, and
+these formed the most skilled, industrious, enterprising, and wealthy
+portion of the community. They were the best farmers, vine-dressers,
+manufacturers, and traders. The valley of Vaunage, lying to the
+westward of Nismes, was one of the richest and most highly cultivated
+parts of France. It contained more than sixty temples, its population
+being almost exclusively Protestant; and it was known as "The Little
+Canaan," abounding as it did in corn, and wine, and oil.</p>
+
+<p>The greater part of the commerce of the South of France was conducted
+by the Protestant merchants of Nismes, of whom the Intendant wrote to
+the King in 1699, "If they are still bad Catholics, at any rate they
+have not ceased to be very good traders."</p>
+
+<p>The Marquis d'Aguesseau bore similar testimony to the intelligent
+industry of the Huguenot population. "By an unfortunate fatality,"
+said he, "in nearly every <span class="pagenum"><a id="page077" name="page077"></a>(p. 077)</span> kind of art the most skilful
+workmen, as well as the richest merchants, belong to the pretended
+reformed religion."</p>
+
+<p>The Marquis, who governed Languedoc for many years, was further of
+opinion that the intelligence of the Protestants was in a great
+measure due to the instructions of their pastors. "It is certain,"
+said he, "that one of the things which holds the Huguenots to their
+religion is the amount of information which they receive from their
+instructors, and which it is not thought necessary to give in ours.
+The Huguenots <span class="italic">will</span> be instructed, and it is a general complaint
+amongst the new converts not to find in our religion the same mental
+and moral discipline they find in their own."</p>
+
+<p>Baville, the intendant, made an observation to a similar effect in a
+confidential communication which he made to the authorities at Paris
+in 1697, in which he boasted that the Protestants had now all been
+converted, and that there were 198,483 new converts in Languedoc.
+"Generally speaking," he said, "the new converts are much better off,
+being more laborious and industrious than the old Catholics of the
+province. The new converts must not be regarded as Catholics; they
+almost all preserve in their heart their attachment to their former
+religion. They may confess and communicate as much as you will,
+because they are menaced and forced to do so by the secular power. But
+this only leads to sacrilege. To gain them, <span class="italic">their hearts must be
+won</span>. It is there that religion resides, and it can only be solely
+established by effecting that conquest."</p>
+
+<p>From the number, as well as the wealth and education, of the
+Protestants of Languedoc, it is reasonable <span class="pagenum"><a id="page078" name="page078"></a>(p. 078)</span> to suppose that
+the emigration from this quarter of France should have been very
+considerable during the persecutions which followed the Revocation. Of
+course nearly all the pastors fled, death being their punishment if
+they remained in France. Hence many of the most celebrated French
+preachers in Holland, Germany, and England were pastors banished from
+Languedoc. Claude and Saurin both belonged to the province; and among
+the London preachers were the Dubourdieus, the Bertheaus, Graverol,
+and Pégorier.</p>
+
+<p>It is also interesting to find how many of the distinguished Huguenots
+who settled in England came from Languedoc. The Romillys and Layards
+came from Montpellier; the Saurins from Nismes; the Gaussens from
+Lunel; and the Bosanquets from Caila;<a id="footnotetag32" name="footnotetag32"></a><a href="#footnote32" title="Go to footnote 32"><span class="small">[32]</span></a> besides the Auriols,
+Arnauds, Péchels, De Beauvoirs, Durands, Portals, Boileaus, D'Albiacs,
+D'Oliers, Rious, and Vignoles, all of whom belonged to the Huguenot
+landed gentry of Languedoc, who fled and sacrificed everything rather
+than conform to the religion of Louis XIV.</p>
+
+<p>When Brousson was executed at Montpellier, it was believed that
+Protestantism was finally dead. At all events, it was supposed that
+those of the Protestants who remained, without becoming converted,
+were at length reduced to utter powerlessness. It was not believed
+that the smouldering ashes contained any sparks that might yet be
+fanned into flames. The Huguenot landed proprietors, the principal
+manufacturers, the best of the artisans, had left for other countries.
+Protestantism was now entirely without leaders. The <span class="pagenum"><a id="page079" name="page079"></a>(p. 079)</span> very
+existence of Protestantism in any form was denied by the law; and it
+might perhaps reasonably have been expected that, being thus crushed
+out of sight, it would die.</p>
+
+<p>But there still remained another important and vital element&mdash;the
+common people&mdash;the peasants, the small farmers, the artisans, and
+labouring classes&mdash;persons of slender means, for the most part too
+poor to emigrate, and who remained, as it were, rooted to the soil on
+which they had been born. This was especially the case in the
+Cevennes, where, in many of the communes, almost the entire
+inhabitants were Protestants; in others, they formed a large
+proportion of the population; while in all the larger towns and
+villages they were very numerous, as well as widely spread over the
+whole province.</p>
+
+<hr>
+
+<p>The mountainous district of the Cevennes is the most rugged, broken,
+and elevated region in the South of France. It fills the department of
+Lozère, as well as the greater part of Gard and Herault. The principal
+mountain-chain, about a hundred leagues in length, runs from
+north-east to south-west, and may almost be said to unite the Alps
+with the Pyrenees. From the centre of France the surface rises with a
+gradual slope, forming an inclined plane, which reaches its greatest
+height in the Cevennic chain, several of the summits of which are
+about five thousand five hundred feet above the sea level. Its
+connection with the Alpine range is, however, broken abruptly by the
+deep valley of the Rhône, running nearly due north and south.</p>
+
+<p>The whole of this mountain district maybe regarded as a triangular
+plateau rising gradually from the northwest, and tilted up at its
+south-eastern angle. It is <span class="pagenum"><a id="page080" name="page080"></a>(p. 080)</span> composed for the most part of
+granite, overlapped by strata belonging to the Jurassic-system; and in
+many places, especially in Auvergne, the granitic rocks have been
+burst through by volcanoes, long since extinct, which rise like
+enormous protuberances from the higher parts of the platform. Towards
+the southern border of the district, the limestone strata overlapping
+the granite assume a remarkable development, exhibiting a series of
+flat-topped hills bounded by perpendicular cliffs some six or eight
+hundred feet high.</p>
+
+<p>"These plateaux," says Mr. Scrope, in his interesting account of the
+geology of Central France, "are called 'causses' in the provincial
+dialect, and they have a singularly dreary and desert aspect from the
+monotony of their form and their barren and rocky character. The
+valleys which separate them are rarely of considerable width. Winding,
+narrow, and all but impassable cliff-like glens predominate, giving to
+the Cevennes that peculiarly intricate character which enabled its
+Protestant inhabitants, in the beginning of the last century, to offer
+so stubborn and gallant a resistance to the atrocious persecutions of
+Louis XIV."</p>
+
+<p>Such being the character of this mountain district&mdash;rocky, elevated,
+and sterile&mdash;the people inhabiting it, though exceedingly industrious,
+are for the most very poor. Sheep-farming is the principal occupation
+of the people of the hill country; and in the summer season, when the
+lower districts are parched with drought, tens of thousands of sheep
+may be seen covering the roads leading to the Upper Cevennes, whither
+they are driven for pasture. There is a comparatively small breadth of
+arable land in the district. The mountains in many places contain only
+soil enough to grow juniper-bushes. There is very little verdure to
+relieve the eye&mdash;few <span class="pagenum"><a id="page081" name="page081"></a>(p. 081)</span> turf-clad slopes or earth-covered
+ledges to repay the tillage of the farmer. Even the mountains of lower
+elevation are for the most part stony deserts. Chestnut-trees, it is
+true, grow luxuriantly in the sheltered places, and occasionally
+scanty crops of rye on the lower mountain-sides. Mulberry-trees also
+thrive in the valleys, their leaves being used for the feeding of
+silkworms, the rearing of which forms one of the principal industries
+of the district.</p>
+
+<p>Even in the immediate neighbourhood of Nismes&mdash;a rich and beautiful
+town, abounding in Roman remains, which exhibit ample evidences of its
+ancient grandeur&mdash;the country is arid, stony, and barren-looking,
+though here the vine, the olive, and the fig-tree, wherever there is
+soil enough, grow luxuriantly in the open air. Indeed, the country
+very much resembles in its character the land of Judea, being rocky,
+parched, and in many places waste, though in others abounding in corn
+and wine and oil. In the interior parts of the district the scenery is
+wild and grand, especially in the valleys lying under the lofty
+mountain of Lozère. But the rocks and stones are everywhere in the
+ascendant.</p>
+
+<p>A few years ago we visited the district; and while proceeding in the
+old-fashioned diligence which runs between Alais and Florac&mdash;for the
+district is altogether beyond the reach of railways&mdash;a French
+contractor, accompanying a band of Italian miners, whom he was taking
+into the mountains to search for minerals, pointing to the sterile
+rocks, exclaimed to us, "Messieurs, behold the very poorest district
+in France! It contains nothing but juniper-bushes! As for its
+agriculture, it produces nothing; manufactures, nothing; commerce,
+nothing! <span class="italic">Rien, rien, rien!</span>"</p>
+
+<p>The observation of this French <span class="italic">entrepreneur</span> reminds <span class="pagenum"><a id="page082" name="page082"></a>(p. 082)</span> us of
+an anecdote that Telford, the Scotch engineer, used to relate of a
+countryman with reference to his appreciation of Scotch mountain
+beauty. An English artist, enraptured by the scenery of Ben MacDhui,
+was expatiating on its magnificence, and appealed to the native guide
+for confirmation of his news. "I dinna ken aboot the scenery," replied
+the man, "but there's plenty o' big rocks and stanes; an' the kintra's
+awfu' puir." The same observation might doubtless apply to the
+Cevennes. Yet, though the people may be poor, they are not miserable
+or destitute, for they are all well-clad and respectable-looking
+peasants, and there is not a beggar to be seen in the district.</p>
+
+<p>But the one country, as the other, grows strong and brave men. These
+barren mountain districts of the Cevennes have bred a race of heroes;
+and the men are as simple and kind as they are brave. Hospitality is a
+characteristic of the people, which never fails to strike the visitor
+accustomed to the exactions which are so common along the hackneyed
+tourist routes.</p>
+
+<p>As in other parts of France, the peasantry here are laborious almost
+to excess. Robust and hardy, they are distinguished for their
+perseverance against the obstacles which nature constantly opposes to
+them. Out-door industry being suspended in winter, during which they
+are shut up in their cabins for nearly six months by the ice and snow,
+they occupy themselves in preparing their wool for manufacture into
+cloth. The women card, the children spin, the men weave; and each
+cottage is a little manufactory of drugget and serge, which is taken
+to market in spring, and sold in the low-country towns. Such was the
+industry of the Cevennes nearly two hundred years since, and such it
+remains to the present day.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page083" name="page083"></a>(p. 083)</span> The people are of a contented nature, and bear their poverty
+with cheerfulness and even dignity. While they partake of the ardour
+and strong temper which characterize the inhabitants of the South of
+France, they are probably, on the whole, more grave and staid than
+Frenchmen generally, and are thought to be more urbane and
+intelligent; and though they are unmanageable by force, they are
+remarkably accessible to kindness and moral suasion.</p>
+
+<p>Such, in a few words, are the more prominent characteristics of the
+country and people of the Cevennes.</p>
+
+<hr>
+
+<p>When the popular worship of the mountain district of Languedoc&mdash;in
+which the Protestants constituted the majority of the population&mdash;was
+suppressed, great dismay fell upon the people; but they made no signs
+of resistance to the royal authority. For a time they remained
+comparatively passive, and it was at first thought they were
+indifferent. Their astonished enemies derisively spoke of them as
+displaying "the patience of a Huguenot,"&mdash;the words having passed into
+a proverb.</p>
+
+<p>But their persecutors did not know the stuff of which these
+mountaineers were made. They had seen their temples demolished one
+after another, and their pastors banished, leaving them "like poor
+starved sheep looking for the pasture of life." Next they heard that
+such of their pastors as had been apprehended for venturing to
+minister to them in "the Desert" had been taken to Nismes and
+Montpellier and hanged. Then they began to feel excited and indignant.
+For they could not shake off their own belief and embrace another
+man's, even though that man was their king. If Louis XIV. had ordered
+them to believe that two and two make <span class="pagenum"><a id="page084" name="page084"></a>(p. 084)</span> six, they could not
+possibly believe, though they might pretend to do so, that it made any
+other number than four. And so it was with the King's order to them to
+profess a faith which they could not bring their minds to believe in.</p>
+
+<p>These poor people entertained the conviction that they possessed
+certain paramount rights as men. Of these they held the right of
+conscience to be one of the principal. They were willing to give unto
+Cæsar the things that were Cæsar's; but they could not give him those
+which belonged unto God. And if they were forced to make a choice,
+then they must rather disobey their King than the King of kings.</p>
+
+<p>Though deprived of their leaders and pastors, the dispossessed
+Huguenots emerged by degrees from their obscurity, and began to
+recognise each other openly. If their temples were destroyed, there
+remained the woods and fields and mountain pastures, where they might
+still meet and worship God, even though it were in defiance of the
+law. Having taken counsel together, they resolved "not to forsake the
+assembling of themselves together;" and they proceeded, in all the
+Protestant districts in the South of France&mdash;in Viverais, Dauphiny,
+and the Cevennes&mdash;to hold meetings of the people, mostly by night, for
+worship&mdash;in woods, in caves, in rocky gorges, and in hollows of the
+hills. Then began those famous assemblies of "the Desert," which were
+the nightmare of Louvois and the horror of Louis XIV.</p>
+
+<p>When it came to the knowledge of the authorities that such meetings
+were being held, large bodies of troops were sent into the southern
+provinces, with orders to disperse them and apprehend the ringleaders.
+These orders were carried out with much barbarity. Amongst <span class="pagenum"><a id="page085" name="page085"></a>(p. 085)</span>
+various assemblies which were discovered and attacked in the Cevennes,
+were those of Auduze and Vigan, where the soldiers fell upon the
+defenceless people, put the greater number to the sword, and hanged
+upon the nearest trees those who did not succeed in making their
+escape.</p>
+
+<p>The authorities waited to see the effect of these "vigorous measures;"
+but they were egregiously disappointed. The meetings in the Desert
+went on as before, and even increased in number. Then milder means
+were tried. Other meetings were attacked in like manner, and the
+people found attending them taken prisoners. They were then threatened
+with death unless they became converted, and promised to attend Mass.
+They declared that they preferred death. A passion for martyrdom even
+seemed to be spreading amongst the infatuated people!</p>
+
+<p>Then the peasantry began secretly to take up arms for their defence.
+They had thus far been passive in their resistance, and were content
+to brave death provided they could but worship together. At length
+they felt themselves driven in their despair to resist force by
+force&mdash;acting, however, in the first place, entirely on the
+defensive&mdash;"leaving the issue," to use the words of one of their
+solemn declarations, "to the providence of God."</p>
+
+<p>They began&mdash;these poor labourers, herdsmen, and wool-carders&mdash;by
+instituting a common fund for the purpose of helping their distressed
+brethren in surrounding districts. They then invited such as were
+disposed to join them to form themselves into companies, so as to be
+prepared to come together and give their assistance as occasion
+required. When meetings in the Desert were held, it became the duty of
+these enrolled <span class="pagenum"><a id="page086" name="page086"></a>(p. 086)</span> men to post themselves as sentinels on the
+surrounding heights, and give notice of the approach of their enemies.
+They also constituted a sort of voluntary police for their respective
+districts, taking notice of the changes of the royal troops, and
+dispatching information by trusty emissaries, intimating the direction
+of their march.</p>
+
+<p>The Intendant, Baville, wrote to Louvois, minister of Louis XIV.
+during the persecutions, expressing his surprise and alarm at the
+apparent evidences of organization amongst the peasantry. "I have just
+learned," said he in one letter,<a id="footnotetag33" name="footnotetag33"></a><a href="#footnote33" title="Go to footnote 33"><span class="small">[33]</span></a> "that last Sunday there was an
+assembly of nearly four hundred men, many of them armed, at the foot
+of the mountain of Lozère. I had thought," he added, "that the great
+lesson taught them at Vigan and Anduze would have restored
+tranquillity to the Cevennes, at least for a time. But, on the
+contrary, the severity of the measures heretofore adopted seems only
+to have had the effect of exasperating and hardening them in their
+iniquitous courses."</p>
+
+<hr>
+
+<p>As the massacres had failed, the question next arose whether the
+inhabitants might not be driven into exile, and the country entirely
+cleared of them. "They pretend," said Louvois, "to meet in 'the
+Desert;' why not take them at their word, and make the Cevennes
+<span class="italic">really</span> a Desert?" But there were difficulties in the way of
+executing this plan. In the first place, the Protestants of Languedoc
+were a quarter of a million in number. And, besides, if they were
+driven out of it, what would become of the industry and the wealth of
+this great province&mdash;what of the King's taxes?</p>
+
+<p>The Duke de Noailles advised that it would be necessary <span class="pagenum"><a id="page087" name="page087"></a>(p. 087)</span> to
+proceed with some caution in the matter. "If his Majesty," he wrote to
+Baville, "thinks there is no other remedy than changing the whole
+people of the Cevennes, it would be better to begin by expelling those
+who are not engaged in commerce, who inhabit inaccessible mountain
+districts, where the severity of the climate and the poverty of the
+soil render them rude and barbarous, as in the case of those people
+who recently met at the foot of the Lozère. Should the King consent to
+this course, it will be necessary to send here at least four
+additional battalions of foot to execute his orders."<a id="footnotetag34" name="footnotetag34"></a><a href="#footnote34" title="Go to footnote 34"><span class="small">[34]</span></a></p>
+
+<p>An attempt was made to carry out this measure of deportation of the
+people, but totally failed. With the aid of spies, stimulated by high
+rewards, numerous meetings in the Desert were fallen upon by the
+troops, and those who were not hanged were transported&mdash;some to Italy,
+some to Switzerland, and some to America. But transportation had no
+terrors for the people, and the meetings continued to be held as
+before.</p>
+
+<p>Baville then determined to occupy the entire province with troops, and
+to carry out a general disarmament of the population. Eight
+regiments of regular infantry were sent into the Cevennes, and fifty
+regiments of militia were raised throughout the province, forming
+together an army of some forty thousand men. Strong military posts
+were established in the mountains, and new forts and barracks were
+erected at Alais, Anduze, St. Hyppolyte, and Nismes. The
+mountain-roads being almost impassable, many of them mere mule paths,
+Baville had more than a hundred new high-roads and branch-roads
+constructed and made practicable for the passage of troops and
+transport of cannon.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page088" name="page088"></a>(p. 088)</span> By these means the whole country became strongly occupied,
+but still the meetings in the Desert went on. The peasantry continued
+to brave all risks&mdash;of exile, the galleys, the rack, and the
+gibbet&mdash;and persevered in their assemblies, until the very ferocity of
+their persecutors became wearied. The people would not be converted
+either by the dragoons or the priests who were stationed amongst them.
+In the dead of the night they would sally forth to their meetings in
+the hills; though their mountains were not too steep, their valleys
+not too secluded, their denies not too impenetrable to protect them
+from pursuit and attack, for they were liable at any moment to be
+fallen upon and put to the sword.</p>
+
+<p>The darkness, the dangers, the awe and mystery attending these
+midnight meetings invested them with an extraordinary degree of
+interest and even fascination. It is not surprising that under such
+circumstances the devotion of these poor people should have run into
+fanaticism and superstition. Singing the psalms of Marot by night,
+under the shadow of echoing rocks, they fancied they heard the sounds
+of heavenly voices filling the air. At other times they would meet
+amidst the ruins of their fallen sanctuaries, and mysterious sounds of
+sobbing and wailing and groaning would seem as if to rise from the
+tombs of their fathers.</p>
+
+<hr>
+
+<p>Under these distressing circumstances&mdash;in the midst of poverty,
+suffering, and terror&mdash;a sort of religious hysteria suddenly developed
+itself amongst the people, breaking out and spreading like many other
+forms of disease, and displaying itself chiefly in the most persecuted
+quarters of Dauphiny, Viverais, and the Cevennes. The people had lost
+their pastors; they had not the <span class="pagenum"><a id="page089" name="page089"></a>(p. 089)</span> guidance of sober and
+intelligent persons; and they were left merely to pray and to suffer.
+The terrible raid of the priests against the Protestant books had even
+deprived most of the Huguenots of their Bibles and psalm-books, so
+that they were in a great measure left to profit by their own light,
+such as it was.</p>
+
+<p>The disease to which we refer, had often before been experienced,
+under different forms, amongst uneducated people when afflicted by
+terror and excitement; such, for instance, as the Brotherhood of the
+Flagellants, which followed the attack of the plague in the Middle
+Ages; the Dancing Mania, which followed upon the Black Death; the
+Child's Pilgrimages, the Convulsionaires, the Revival epilepsies and
+swoons, which have so often accompanied fits of religious devotion
+worked up into frenzy; these diseases being merely the result of
+excitement of the senses, which convulse the mind and powerfully
+affect the whole nervous system.</p>
+
+<p>The "prophetic malady," as we may call it, which suddenly broke out
+amongst the poor Huguenots, began with epileptic convulsions. They
+fell to the ground senseless, foamed at the mouth, sobbed, and
+eventually revived so far as to be able to speak and "prophesy," like
+a mesmerised person in a state of <span class="italic">clairvoyance</span>. The disease spread
+rapidly by the influence of morbid sympathy, which, under the peculiar
+circumstances we have described, exercises an amazing power over human
+minds. Those who spoke with power were considered "inspired." They
+prayed and preached ecstatically, the most inspired of the whole being
+women, boys, and even children.</p>
+
+<p>One of the first "prophets" who appeared was Isabel Vincent, a young
+shepherdess of Crest, in Dauphiny, <span class="pagenum"><a id="page090" name="page090"></a>(p. 090)</span> who could neither read
+nor write. Her usual speech was the patois of her country, but when
+she became inspired she spoke perfectly, and, according to Michelet,
+with great eloquence. "She chanted," he says, "at first the
+Commandments, then a psalm, in a low and fascinating voice. She
+meditated a moment, then began the lamentation of the Church,
+tortured, exiled, at the galleys, in the dungeons: for all those evils
+she blamed our sins only, and called all to penitence. Then, starting
+anew, she spoke angelically of the Divine goodness."</p>
+
+<p>Boucher, the intendant of the province, had her apprehended and
+examined. She would not renounce. "You may take my life," she said,
+"but God will raise up others to speak better things than I have
+done." She was at last imprisoned at Grenoble, and afterwards in the
+Tower of Constance.</p>
+
+<p>As Isabel Vincent had predicted, many prophets followed in her steps,
+but they did not prophesy as divinely as she. They denounced "Woe,
+woe" upon their persecutors. They reviled Babylon as the oppressor of
+the House of Israel. They preached the most violent declamations
+against Rome, drawn from the most lugubrious of the prophets, and
+stirred the minds of their hearers into the most furious indignation.</p>
+
+<p>The rapidity with which the contagion of convulsive prophesying spread
+was extraordinary. The adherents were all of the poorer classes, who
+read nothing but the Bible, and had it nearly by heart. It spread from
+Dauphiny to Viverais, and from thence into the Cevennes. "I have
+seen," said Marshal Villars, "things that I could never have believed
+if they had not passed under my own eyes&mdash;an entire city, in which all
+the women and girls, without exception, appeared possessed <span class="pagenum"><a id="page091" name="page091"></a>(p. 091)</span>
+by the devil; they quaked and prophesied publicly in the streets."<a id="footnotetag35" name="footnotetag35"></a><a href="#footnote35" title="Go to footnote 35"><span class="small">[35]</span></a></p>
+
+<p>Flottard says there were eight thousand persons in one province who
+had inspiration. All were not, however, equally inspired. There were
+four degrees of ecstasy: first, the being called; next, the
+inspiration; then, the prophesy; and, lastly, the gift, which was the
+inspiration in the highest degree.</p>
+
+<p>All this may appear ludicrous to some. And yet the school of credulity
+is a very wide one. Even in these enlightened times in which we live,
+we hear of tables turning, spelling out words, and "prophesying" in
+their own way. There are even philosophers, men of science, and
+literati who believe in spiritualists that rise on sofas and float
+about in the air, who project themselves suddenly out of one window
+and enter by another, and do many other remarkable things. And though
+our spiritual table-rapping and floating about may seem to be of no
+possible use, the "prophesying" of the Camisards was all but essential
+to the existence of the movement in which they were engaged.</p>
+
+<p>The population became intensely excited by the prevalence of this
+enthusiasm or fanaticism. "When a Huguenot assembly," says Brueys,
+"was appointed, even before daybreak, from all the hamlets round, the
+men, women, boys, girls, and even infants, came in crowds, hurrying
+from their huts, pierced through the woods, leapt over the rocks, and
+flew to the place of appointment."<a id="footnotetag36" name="footnotetag36"></a><a href="#footnote36" title="Go to footnote 36"><span class="small">[36]</span></a></p>
+
+<p>Mere force was of no avail against people who supposed themselves to
+be under supernatural influences. The meetings in the Desert,
+accordingly, were attended <span class="pagenum"><a id="page092" name="page092"></a>(p. 092)</span> with increased and increasing
+fascination, and Baville, who had reported to the King the entire
+pacification and conversion of Languedoc, to his dismay found the
+whole province bursting with excitement, which a spark at any moment
+might fire into frenzy. And that spark was shortly afterwards supplied
+by the archpriest Chayla, director of missions at Pont-de-Montvert.</p>
+
+<p>Although it was known that many of the peasantry attended the meetings
+armed, there had as yet been no open outbreak against the royal
+authority in the Cevennes. At Cheilaret, in the Vivarais, there had
+been an encounter between the troops and the peasantry; but the people
+were speedily dispersed, leaving three hundred dead and fifty wounded
+on the field.</p>
+
+<p>The Intendant Baville, after thus pacifying the Vivarais, was
+proceeding on his way back to Montpellier, escorted by some companies
+of dragoons and militia, passing through the Cevennes by one of the
+new roads he had caused to be constructed along the valley of the
+Tarn, by Pont-de-Montvert to Florac. What was his surprise, on
+passing through the village of Pont-de-Montvert, to hear the roll of a
+drum, and shortly after to perceive a column of rustics, some three or
+four hundred in number, advancing as if to give him battle. Baville at
+once drew up his troops and charged the column, which broke and fled
+into an adjoining wood. Some were killed and others taken prisoners,
+who were hanged next day at St. Jean-du-Gard. A reward of five hundred
+louis d'or was advertised for the leader, who was shortly after
+tracked to his hiding-place in a cavern situated between Anduze and
+Alais, and was there shot, but not until after he had killed three
+soldiers with his fusil.</p>
+
+<p>After this event persecution was redoubled throughout <span class="pagenum"><a id="page093" name="page093"></a>(p. 093)</span> the
+Cevennes. The militia ran night and day after the meetings in the
+Desert. All persons found attending them, who could be captured, were
+either killed on the spot or hanged. Two companies of militia were
+quartered in Pont-de-Montvert at the expense of the inhabitants; and
+they acted under the direction of the archpriest Du Chayla. This
+priest, who was a native of the district, had been for some time
+settled as a missionary in Siam engaged in the conversion of
+Buddhists, and on his return to France he was appointed to undertake
+the conversion of the people of the Cevennes to the faith of Rome.</p>
+
+<hr>
+
+<p>The village of Pont-de-Montvert is situated in the hollow of a deep
+valley formed by the mountain of Lozère on the north, and of Bougès on
+the south, at the point at which two streams, descending from their
+respective summits, flow into the Tarn. The village is separated by
+these streams into three little hamlets, which are joined together by
+the bridge which gives its name to the place. The addition of "Mont
+Vert," however, is a misnomer; for though seated at the foot of a
+steep mountain, it is not green, but sterile, rocky, and verdureless.
+The village is best reached from Florac, from which it is about twenty
+miles distant. The valley runs east and west, and is traversed by a
+tolerably good road, which at the lower part follows the windings of
+the Tarn, and higher up runs in and out along the mountain ledges, at
+every turn presenting new views of the bold, grand, and picturesque
+scenery which characterizes the wilder parts of the Cevennes. Along
+this route the old mule-road is still discernible in some places&mdash;a
+difficult, rugged, mountain path, which must have kept the district
+sealed up during the <span class="pagenum"><a id="page094" name="page094"></a>(p. 094)</span> greater part of the year, until Baville
+constructed the new road for the purpose of opening up the country for
+the easier passage of troops and munitions of war.</p>
+
+<p>A few poor hamlets occur at intervals along the road, sometimes
+perched on apparently inaccessible rocks, and at the lower part of the
+valley an occasional château is to be seen, as at Miral, picturesquely
+situated on a height. But the country is too poor by nature&mdash;the
+breadth of land in the bottom of the ravine being too narrow and that
+on the mountain ledges too stony and sterile&mdash;ever to have enabled it
+to maintain a considerable population. On all sides little is to be
+seen but rocky mountain sides, stony and precipitous, with bold
+mountain peaks extending beyond them far away in the distance.</p>
+
+<p>Pont-de-Montvert is the centre of a series of hamlets, the inhabitants
+of which were in former times almost exclusively Protestant, as they
+are now; and where meetings in the Desert were of the most frequent
+occurrence. Strong detachments of troops were accordingly stationed
+there and at Florac for the purpose of preventing the meetings and
+overawing the population. Besides soldiers, the authorities also
+established missions throughout the Cevennes, and the principal
+inspector of these missions was the archpriest Chayla. The house in
+which he resided at Pont-de-Montvert is still pointed out. It is
+situated near the north end of the bridge over the Tarn; but though
+the lower part of the building remains as it was in his time, the
+upper portion has been for the most part rebuilt.</p>
+
+<p>Chayla was a man of great force of character&mdash;zealous, laborious, and
+indefatigable&mdash;but pitiless, relentless, and cruel. He had no bowels
+of compassion. He was deaf to all appeals for mercy. With <span class="pagenum"><a id="page095" name="page095"></a>(p. 095)</span>
+him the penalty of non-belief in the faith of Rome was imprisonment,
+torture, death. Eight young priests lived with him, whose labours he
+directed; and great was his annoyance to find that the people would
+not attend his ministrations, but continued to flock after their own
+prophet-preachers in the Desert.</p>
+
+<p>Moral means having failed, he next tried physical. He converted the
+arched cellars of his dwelling into dungeons, where he shut up those
+guilty of contumacy; and day by day he put them to torture. It seems
+like a satire on religion to say that, in his attempt to convert
+souls, this vehement missionary made it one of his principal studies
+to find out what amount of agony the bodies of those who differed from
+him would bear short of actual death. He put hot coals into their
+hands, which they were then made to clench; wrapped round their
+fingers cotton steeped in oil, which was then set on fire; besides
+practising upon them the more ordinary and commonplace tortures. No
+wonder that the archpriest came to be detested by the inhabitants of
+Pont-de-Montvert.</p>
+
+<p>At length, a number of people in the district, in order to get beyond
+reach of Chayla's cruelty, determined to emigrate from France and take
+refuge in Geneva. They assembled one morning secretly, a cavalcade of
+men and women, and set out under the direction of a guide who knew the
+mountain paths towards the east. When they had travelled a few hours,
+they fell into an ambuscade of militia, and were marched back to the
+archpriest's quarters at Pont-de-Montvert. The women were sent to
+Mende to be immured in convents, and the men were imprisoned in the
+archpriest's dungeons. The parents of some of the captives ran to
+throw themselves <span class="pagenum"><a id="page096" name="page096"></a>(p. 096)</span> at his feet, and implored mercy for their
+sons; but Chayla was inexorable. He declared harshly that the
+prisoners must suffer according to the law&mdash;that the fugitives must go
+the galleys, and their guide to the gibbet.</p>
+
+<p>On the following Sunday, the 23rd of July, 1702, one of the preaching
+prophets, Pierre Seguier of Magistavols, a hamlet lying to the south
+of Pont-de-Montvert, preached to an assembly on the neighbouring
+mountain of Bougès; and there he declared that the Lord had ordered
+him to take up arms to deliver the captives and exterminate the
+archpriest of Moloch. Another and another preacher followed in the
+same strain, the excited assembly encouraging them by their cries, and
+calling upon them to execute God's vengeance on the persecutors of
+God's people.</p>
+
+<p>That same night Seguier and his companions went round amongst the
+neighbouring hamlets to summon an assemblage of their sworn followers
+for the evening of the following day. They met punctually in the
+Altefage Wood, and under the shadow of three gigantic beech trees, the
+trunks of which were standing but a few years ago, they solemnly swore
+to deliver their companions and destroy the archpriest.</p>
+
+<p>When night fell, a band of fifty determined men marched down the
+mountain towards the bridge, led by Seguier. Twenty of them were armed
+with guns and pistols. The rest carried scythes and hatchets. As they
+approached the village, they sang Marot's version of the
+seventy-fourth Psalm. The archpriest heard the unwonted sound as they
+came marching along. Thinking it was a nocturnal assembly, he cried to
+his soldiers, "Run and see what this means." But the doors of the
+house were already <span class="pagenum"><a id="page097" name="page097"></a>(p. 097)</span> invested by the mountaineers, who shouted
+out for "The prisoners! the prisoners!" "Back, Huguenot canaille!"
+cried Chayla from the window. But they only shouted the louder for
+"The prisoners!"</p>
+
+<p>The archpriest then directed the militia to fire, and one of the
+peasants fell dead. Infuriated, they seized the trunk of a tree, and
+using it as a battering-ram, at once broke in the door. They next
+proceeded to force the entrance to the dungeon, in which they
+succeeded, and called upon the prisoners to come forth. But some of
+them were so crippled by the tortures to which they had been
+subjected, that they could not stand. At sight of their sufferings the
+fury of the assailants increased, and, running up the staircase, they
+called out for the archpriest. "Burn the priest and the satellites of
+Baal!" cried their leader; and heaping together the soldiers' straw
+beds, the chairs, and other combustibles, they set the whole on fire.</p>
+
+<p>Chayla, in the hope of escaping, jumped from a window into the garden,
+and in the fall broke his leg. The peasants discovered him by the
+light of the blazing dwelling. He called for mercy. "No," said
+Seguier, "only such mercy as you have shown to others;" and he struck
+him the first blow.</p>
+
+<p>The others followed. "This for my father," said the next, "whom you
+racked to death!"</p>
+
+<p>"This for my brother," said another, "whom you sent to the galleys!"</p>
+
+<p>"This for my mother, who died of grief!"</p>
+
+<p>This for my sister, my relatives, my friends, in exile, in prison, in
+misery!</p>
+
+<p>And thus blow followed blow, fifty-two in all, half of which would
+probably have been mortal, and the detested Chayla lay a bleeding mass
+at their feet!<a href="#toc"><span class="small">[Back to Contents]</span></a></p>
+
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page098" name="page098"></a>(p. 098)</span>
+
+<a id="img001" name="img001"></a>
+<div class="figcenter">
+<a href="images/img001.jpg">
+<img src="images/img001tb.jpg" width="400" height="301" alt="" title=""></a>
+<p>Map of the Country of the Cevennes.</p></div>
+
+
+<h3><span class="pagenum"><a id="page099" name="page099"></a>(p. 099)</span> CHAPTER VI.</h3>
+
+<p class="title">INSURRECTION OF THE CAMISARDS.</p>
+
+<p>The poor peasants, wool-carders, and neatherds of the Cevennes, formed
+only a small and insignificant section of the great body of men who
+were about the same time engaged in different countries of Europe in
+vindicating the cause of civil and religious liberty. For this cause,
+a comparative handful of people in the Low Countries, occupying the
+Dutch United Provinces, had banded themselves together to resist the
+armies of Spain, then the most powerful monarchy in the world. The
+struggle had also for some time been in progress in England and
+Scotland, where it culminated in the Revolution of 1688; and it was
+still raging in the Vaudois valleys of Piedmont.</p>
+
+<p>The object contended for in all these cases was the same. It was the
+vindication of human freedom against royal and sacerdotal despotism.
+It could only have been the direst necessity that drove a poor,
+scattered, unarmed peasantry, such as the people of the Cevennes, to
+take up arms against so powerful a sovereign as Louis XIV. Their
+passive resistance had lasted for fifteen long years, during which
+many of them had seen their kindred racked, hanged, or sent to the
+galleys; and at length their patience was <span class="pagenum"><a id="page100" name="page100"></a>(p. 100)</span> exhausted, and the
+inevitable outburst took place. Yet they were at any moment ready to
+lay down their arms and return to their allegiance, provided only a
+reasonable degree of liberty of worship were assured to them. This,
+however, their misguided and bigoted monarch, would not tolerate; for
+he had sworn that no persons were to be suffered in his dominions save
+those who were of "the King's religion."</p>
+
+<p>The circumstances accompanying the outbreak of the Protestant
+peasantry in the Cevennes in many respects resembled those which
+attended the rising of the Scotch Covenanters in 1679. Both were
+occasioned by the persistent attempts of men in power to enforce a
+particular form of religion at the point of the sword. The resisters
+of the policy were in both cases Calvinists;<a id="footnotetag37" name="footnotetag37"></a><a href="#footnote37" title="Go to footnote 37"><span class="small">[37]</span></a> and they were alike
+indomitable and obstinate in their assertion of the rights of
+conscience. They held that religion was a matter between man and his
+God, and not between man and his sovereign or the Pope. The peasantry
+in both cases persevered in their <span class="pagenum"><a id="page101" name="page101"></a>(p. 101)</span> own form of worship. In
+Languedoc, the mountaineers of the Cevennes held their assemblies in
+"The Desert;" and in Scotland, the "hill-folk" of the West held their
+meetings on the muirs. In the one country as in the other, the
+monarchy sent out soldiers as their missionaries&mdash;Louis XIV. employing
+the dragoons of Louvois and Baville, and Charles II. those of
+Claverhouse and Dalzell. These failing, new instruments of torture
+were invented for their "conversion." But the people, in both cases,
+continued alike stubborn in their adherence to their own simple and,
+as some thought, uncouth form of faith.</p>
+
+<p>The French Calvinist peasantry, like the Scotch, were great in their
+preachers and their prophets. Both devoted themselves with enthusiasm
+to psalmody, insomuch that "psalm-singers" was their nickname in both
+countries. The one had their Clement Marot by heart, the other their
+Sternhold and Hopkins. Huguenot prisoners in chains sang psalms in
+their dungeons, galley slaves sang them as they plied at the oar,
+fugitives in the halting-places of their flight, the condemned as they
+marched to the gallows, and the Camisards as they rushed into battle.
+It was said of the Covenanters that "they lived praying and preaching,
+and they died praying and fighting;" and the same might have been said
+of the Huguenot peasantry of the Cevennes.</p>
+
+<p>The immediate cause of the outbreak of the insurrection in both
+countries was also similar. In the one case, it was the cruelty of the
+archpriest Chayla, the inventor of a new machine of torture called
+"the Squeezers,"<a id="footnotetag38" name="footnotetag38"></a><a href="#footnote38" title="Go to footnote 38"><span class="small">[38]</span></a> and in the other the cruelty of Archbishop
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page102" name="page102"></a>(p. 102)</span> Sharpe, the inventor of that horrible instrument called "the
+Iron Boot," that excited the fury of the people; and the murder of the
+one by Seguier and his band at Pont-de-Montvert, as of the other by
+Balfour of Burley and his companions on Magus Muir, proved the signal
+for a general insurrection of the peasantry in both countries. Both
+acts were of like atrocity; but they corresponded in character with
+the cruelties which had provoked them. Insurrections, like
+revolutions, are not made of rose-water. In such cases, action and
+reaction are equal; the violence of the oppressors usually finding its
+counterpart in the violence of the oppressed.</p>
+
+<p>The insurrection of the French peasantry proved by far the most
+determined and protracted of the two; arising probably from the more
+difficult character of the mountain districts which they occupied and
+the quicker military instincts of the people, as well as because
+several of their early leaders and organizers were veteran soldiers
+who had served in many campaigns. The Scotch insurgents were
+suppressed by the English army under the Duke of Monmouth in less than
+two months after the original outbreak, though their cause eventually
+triumphed in the Revolution of 1688; whereas the peasantry of the
+Cevennes, though deprived of all extraneous help, continued to
+maintain a heroic struggle for several years, but were under the
+necessity of at last succumbing to the overpowering military force of
+Louis XIV., after which the Huguenots <span class="pagenum"><a id="page103" name="page103"></a>(p. 103)</span> of France continued to
+be stamped out of sight, and apparently out of existence, for nearly a
+century.</p>
+
+<hr>
+
+<p>In the preceding chapter, we left the archpriest Chayla a corpse at
+the feet of his murderers. Several of the soldiers found in the
+château were also killed, as well as the cook and house-steward, who
+had helped to torture the prisoners. But one of the domestics, and a
+soldier, who had treated them with kindness, were, at their
+intercession, pardoned and set at liberty. The corpses were brought
+together in the garden, and Seguier and his companions, kneeling round
+them&mdash;a grim and ghastly sight&mdash;sang psalms until daybreak, the
+uncouth harmony mingling with the crackling of the flames of the
+dwelling overhead, and the sullen roar of the river rushing under the
+neighbouring bridge.</p>
+
+<p>When the grey of morning appeared, the men rose from their knees,
+emerged from the garden, crossed the bridge, and marched up the main
+street of the village. The inhabitants had barricaded themselves in
+their houses, being in a state of great fear lest they should be
+implicated in the murder of the archpriest. But Seguier and his
+followers made no further halt in Pont-de-Montvert, but passed along,
+still singing psalms, towards the hamlet of Frugères, a little further
+up the valley of the Tarn.</p>
+
+<p>Seguier has been characterised as "the Danton of the Cevennes." This
+fierce and iron-willed man was of great stature&mdash;bony and
+dark-visaged, without upper teeth, his hair hanging loose over his
+shoulders&mdash;and of a wild and mystic appearance, occasioned probably by
+the fits of ecstasy to which he was subject, and the wandering life he
+had for so many years led as a prophet-preacher in the Desert. This
+terrible man <span class="pagenum"><a id="page104" name="page104"></a>(p. 104)</span> had resolved upon a general massacre of the
+priests, and he now threw himself upon Frugères for the purpose of
+carrying out the enterprise begun by him at Pont-de-Montvert. The curé
+of the hamlet, who had already heard of Chayla's murder, fled from his
+house at sound of the approaching psalm-singers, and took refuge in an
+adjoining rye-field. He was speedily tracked thither, and brought down
+by a musket-ball; and a list of twenty of his parishioners, whom he
+had denounced to the archpriest, was found under his cassock.</p>
+
+<p>From Frugères the prophet and his band marched on to St. Maurice de
+Ventalong, so called because of the winds which at certain seasons
+blow so furiously along the narrow valley in which it is situated; but
+the prior of the convent, having been warned of the outbreak, had
+already mounted his horse and taken to flight. Here Seguier was
+informed of the approach of a body of militia who were on his trail;
+but he avoided them by taking refuge on a neighbouring mountain-side,
+where he spent the night with his companions in a thicket.</p>
+
+<p>Next morning, at daybreak, he descended the mountain, crossed the
+track of his pursuers, and directed himself upon St. André de Lancèze.
+The whole country was by this time in a state of alarm; and the curé
+of the place, being on the outlook, mounted the clock-tower and rang
+the tocsin. But his parishioners having joined the insurgents, the
+curé was pursued, captured in the belfry, and thrown from its highest
+window. The insurgents then proceeded to gut the church, pull down the
+crosses, and destroy all the emblems of Romanism on which they could
+lay their hands.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page105" name="page105"></a>(p. 105)</span> Seguier and his band next hurried across the mountains
+towards the south, having learnt that the curés of the neighbourhood
+had assembled at St. Germain to assist at the obsequies of the
+archpriest Chayla, whose body had been brought thither from
+Pont-de-Montvert on the morning after his murder. When Seguier was
+informed that the town and country militia were in force in the place,
+he turned aside and went in another direction. The curés, however,
+having heard that Seguier was in the neighbourhood, fled
+panic-stricken, some to the château of Portes, others to St. André,
+while a number of them did not halt until they had found shelter
+within the walls of Alais, some twenty miles distant.</p>
+
+<p>Thus four days passed. On the fifth night Seguier appeared before the
+château of Ladevèze, and demanded the arms which had been deposited
+there at the time of the disarmament of the peasantry. The owner
+replied by a volley of musketry, which killed and wounded several of
+the insurgents, at the same time ringing the alarm-bell. Seguier,
+furious at this resistance, at once burst open the gates, and ordered
+a general massacre of the household. This accomplished, he ransacked
+the place of its arms and ammunition, and before leaving set the
+castle on fire, the flames throwing a lurid glare over the surrounding
+country. Seguier's band then descended the mountain on which the
+château is situated, and made for the north in the direction of
+Cassagnas, arriving at the elevated plateau of Font-Morte a little
+before daybreak.</p>
+
+<p>In the meantime, Baville, the intendant of the province, was hastening
+to Pont-de-Montvert to put down the insurrection and avenge the death
+of the archpriest. The whole country was roused. Troops were
+dispatched <span class="pagenum"><a id="page106" name="page106"></a>(p. 106)</span> in hot haste from Alais; the militia were
+assembled from all quarters and marched upon the disturbed district.
+The force was placed under the orders of Captain Poul, an old soldier
+of fortune, who had distinguished himself in the German wars, and in
+the recent crusade against the Italian Vaudois. It was because of the
+individual prowess which Captain Poul had displayed in his last
+campaign, that, at the peace of Ryswick, Baville requested that he
+should be attached to the army of Languedoc, and employed in putting
+down the insurgents of the Cevennes.</p>
+
+<p>Captain Poul was hastening with his troops to Florac when, having been
+informed of the direction in which Seguier and his band had gone, he
+turned aside at Barre, and after about an hour's march eastward, he
+came up with them at Font-Morte. They suddenly started up from amongst
+the broom where they had lain down to sleep, and, firing off their
+guns upon the advancing host, without offering any further resistance,
+fled in all directions. Poul and his men spurred after them, cutting
+down the fugitives. Coming up with Seguier, who was vainly trying to
+rally his men, Poul took him prisoner with several others, and they
+were forthwith chained and marched to Florac. As they proceeded along
+the road, Poul said to Seguier, "Well, wretch! now I have got you, how
+do you expect to be treated after the crimes you have committed?" "As
+I would myself have treated you, had I taken you prisoner," was the
+reply.</p>
+
+<p>Seguier stood before his judges calm and fearless. "What is your
+name?" he was asked. "Pierre Seguier." "Why do they call you Esprit?"
+"Because the Spirit of God is in me." "Your abode?" "In the Desert,
+and shortly in heaven." "Ask pardon <span class="pagenum"><a id="page107" name="page107"></a>(p. 107)</span> of the King!" "We have
+no other King but the Eternal." "Have you no feeling of remorse for
+your crimes?" "My soul is as a garden full of shady groves and of
+peaceful fountains."</p>
+
+<p>Seguier was condemned to have his hands cut off at the wrist, and he
+burnt alive at Pont-de-Montvert. Nouvel, another of the prisoners, was
+broken alive at Ladevèze, and Bonnet, a third, was hanged at St.
+André. They all suffered without flinching. Seguier's last words,
+spoken amidst the flames, were, "Brethren, wait, and hope in the
+Eternal. The desolate Carmel shall yet revive, and the solitary
+Lebanon shall blossom as the rose!" Thus perished the grim,
+unflinching prophet of Magistavols, the terrible avenger of the
+cruelties of Chayla, the earliest leader in the insurrection of the
+Camisards!</p>
+
+<p>It is not exactly known how or when the insurgents were first called
+Camisards. They called themselves by no other name than "The Children
+of God" (<span class="italic">Enfants de Dieu</span>); but their enemies variously nicknamed
+them "The Barbets," "The Vagabonds," "The Assemblers," "The
+Psalm-singers," "The Fanatics," and lastly, "The Camisards." This name
+is said to have been given them because of the common blouse or
+camisole which they wore&mdash;their only uniform. Others say that it arose
+from their wearing a white shirt, or camise, over their dress, to
+enable them to distinguish each other in their night attacks; and that
+this was not the case, is partly countenanced by the fact that in the
+course of the insurrection a body of peasant royalists took the field,
+who designated themselves the "<span class="italic">White</span> Camisards," in
+contradistinction from the others. Others say the word is derived from
+<span class="italic">camis</span>, signifying a roadrunner. But whatever the origin of the word
+may be, <span class="pagenum"><a id="page108" name="page108"></a>(p. 108)</span> the Camisards was the name most commonly applied to
+the insurgents, and by which they continue to be known in local
+history.</p>
+
+<hr>
+
+<p>Captain Poul vigorously followed up the blow delivered at Font-Morte.
+He apprehended all suspected persons in the Upper Cevennes, and sent
+them before the judges at Florac. Unable to capture the insurgents who
+had escaped, he seized their parents, their relations, and families,
+and these were condemned to various punishments. But what had become
+of the insurgents themselves? Knowing that they had nothing but death
+to expect, if taken, they hid themselves in caves known only to the
+inhabitants of the district, and so secretly that Poul thought they
+had succeeded in making their escape from France. The Intendant
+Baville arrived at the same conclusion, and he congratulated himself
+accordingly on the final suppression of the outbreak. Leaving sundry
+detachments of troops posted in the principal villages, he returned to
+Alais, and invited the fugitive priests at once to return to their
+respective parishes.</p>
+
+<p>After remaining in concealment for several days, the surviving
+insurgents met one night to consult as to the steps they were to take,
+with a view to their personal safety. They had by this time been
+joined by several sympathizers, amongst others by three veteran
+soldiers&mdash;Laporte, Espérandieu, and Rastelet&mdash;and by young Cavalier,
+who had just returned from Geneva, where he had been in exile, and was
+now ready to share in the dangers of his compatriots. The greater
+number of those present were in favour of bidding a final adieu to
+France, and escaping across the frontier into Switzerland, considering
+that the chances of their <span class="pagenum"><a id="page109" name="page109"></a>(p. 109)</span> offering any successful resistance
+to their oppressors, were altogether hopeless. But against this craven
+course Laporte raised his voice.</p>
+
+<p>"Brethren," said he, "why depart into the land of the stranger? Have
+we not a country of our own, the country of our fathers? It is, you
+say, a country of slavery and death! Well! Free it! and deliver your
+oppressed brethren. Never say, 'What can we do? we are few in number,
+and without arms!' The God of armies shall be our strength. Let us
+sing aloud the psalm of battles, and from the Lozère even to the sea
+Israel will arise! As for arms, have we not our hatchets? These will
+bring us muskets! Brethren, there is only one course worthy to be
+pursued. It is to live for our country; and, if need be, to die for
+it. Better die by the sword than by the rack or the gallows!"</p>
+
+<p>From this moment, not another word was said of flight. With one voice,
+the assembly cried to the speaker, "Be our chief! It is the will of
+the Eternal!" "The Eternal be the witness of your promises," replied
+Laporte; "I consent to be your chief!" He assumed forthwith the title
+of "Colonel of the Children of God," and named his camp "The camp of
+the Eternal!"</p>
+
+<p>Laporte belonged to an old Huguenot family of the village of
+Massoubeyran, near Anduze. They were respectable peasants, some of
+whom lived by farming and others by trade. Old John Laporte had four
+sons, of whom the eldest succeeded his father as a small farmer and
+cattle-breeder, occupying the family dwelling at Massoubeyran, still
+known there as the house of "Laporte-Roland." It contains a secret
+retreat, opening from a corner of the floor, called the "Cachette de
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page110" name="page110"></a>(p. 110)</span> Roland," in which the celebrated chief of this name, son of
+the owner, was accustomed to take refuge; and in this cottage, the old
+Bible of Roland's father, as well as the halbert of Roland himself,
+continue to be religiously preserved.</p>
+
+<p>Two of Laporte's brothers were Protestant ministers. One of them was
+the last pastor of Collet-de-Deze in the Cevennes. Banished because of
+his faith, he fled from France at the Revocation, joined the army of
+the Prince of Orange in Holland, and came over with him to England as
+chaplain of one of the French regiments which landed at Torbay in
+1688. Another brother, also a pastor, remained in the Cevennes,
+preaching to the people in the Desert, though at the daily risk of his
+life, and after about ten years' labour in this vocation, he was
+apprehended, taken prisoner to Montpellier, and strangled on the
+Peyrou in the year 1696.</p>
+
+<p>The fourth brother was the Laporte whom we have just described in
+undertaking the leadership of the hunted insurgents remaining in the
+Upper Cevennes. He had served as a soldier in the King's armies, and
+at the peace of Ryswick returned to his native village, the year after
+his elder brother had suffered martyrdom at Montpellier. He settled
+for a time at Collet-de-Deze, from which his other brother had been
+expelled, and there he carried on the trade of an ironworker and
+blacksmith. He was a great, brown, brawny man, of vehement piety, a
+constant frequenter of the meetings in the Desert, and a mighty
+psalm-singer&mdash;one of those strong, massive, ardent-natured men who so
+powerfully draw others after them, and in times of revolution exercise
+a sort of popular royalty amongst the masses. The oppression which had
+raged so furiously in the district excited his utmost indignation,
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page111" name="page111"></a>(p. 111)</span> and when he sought out the despairing insurgents in the
+mountains, and found that they were contemplating flight, he at once
+gave utterance to the few burning words we have cited, and fixed their
+determination to strike at least another blow for the liberty of their
+country and their religion.</p>
+
+<p>The same evening on which Laporte assumed the leadership (about the
+beginning of August, 1702) he made a descent on three Roman Catholic
+villages in the neighbourhood of the meeting-place, and obtained
+possession of a small stock of powder and balls. When it became known
+that the insurgents were again drawing together, others joined them.
+Amongst these were Castonet, a forest-ranger of the Aigoal mountain
+district in the west, who brought with him some twelve recruits from
+the country near Vebron. Shortly after, there arrived from Vauvert the
+soldier Catinet, bringing with him twenty more. Next came young
+Cavalier, from Ribaute, with another band, armed with muskets which
+they had seized from the prior of St. Martin, with whom they had been
+deposited.</p>
+
+<p>Meanwhile Laporte's nephew, young Roland, was running from village to
+village in the Vaunage, holding assemblies and rousing the people to
+come to the help of their distressed brethren in the mountains. Roland
+was a young man of bright intelligence, gifted with much of the
+preaching power of his family. His eloquence was of a martial sort,
+for he had been bred a soldier, and though young, had already fought
+in many battles. He was everywhere received with open arms in the
+Vaunage.</p>
+
+<p>"My brethren," said he, "the cause of God and the deliverance of
+Israel is at stake. Follow us to the mountains. No country is better
+suited for war&mdash;we <span class="pagenum"><a id="page112" name="page112"></a>(p. 112)</span> have the hill-tops for camps, gorges for
+ambuscades, woods to rally in, caves to hide in, and, in case of
+flight, secret tracts trodden only by the mountain goat. All the
+people there are your brethren, who will throw open their cabins to
+you, and share their bread and milk and the flesh of their sheep with
+you, while the forests will supply you with chestnuts. And then, what
+is there to fear? Did not God nourish his chosen people with manna in
+the desert? And does He not renew his miracles day by day? Will not
+his Spirit descend upon his afflicted children? He consoles us, He
+strengthens us, He calls us to arms, He will cause his angels to march
+before us! As for me, I am an old soldier, and will do my duty!"<a id="footnotetag39" name="footnotetag39"></a><a href="#footnote39" title="Go to footnote 39"><span class="small">[39]</span></a></p>
+
+<p>These stirring words evoked an enthusiastic response. Numbers of the
+people thus addressed by Roland declared themselves ready to follow
+him at once. But instead of taking with him all who were willing to
+join the standard of the insurgents, he directed them to enrol and
+organize themselves, and await his speedy return; selecting for the
+present only such as were in his opinion likely to make efficient
+soldiers, and with these he rejoined his uncle in the mountains.</p>
+
+<p>The number of the insurgents was thus raised to about a hundred and
+fifty&mdash;a very small body of men, contemptible in point of numbers
+compared with the overwhelming forces by which they were opposed, but
+all animated by a determined spirit, and commanded by fearless and
+indomitable leaders. The band was divided into three brigades of fifty
+each; Laporte taking the command of the companions of Seguier; the
+new-comers <span class="pagenum"><a id="page113" name="page113"></a>(p. 113)</span> being divided into two bodies of like number, who
+elected Roland and Castanet as their respective chiefs.</p>
+
+<p>Laporte occupied the last days of August in drilling his troops, and
+familiarising them with the mountain district which was to be the
+scene of their operations. While thus engaged, he received an urgent
+message from the Protestant herdsmen of the hill-country of Vebron,
+whose cattle, sheep, and goats a band of royalist militia, under
+Colonel Miral, had captured, and were driving northward towards
+Florac. Laporte immediately ran to their help, and posted himself to
+intercept them at the bridge of Tarnon, which they must cross. On the
+militia coming up, the Camisards fell upon them furiously, on which
+they took to flight, and the cattle were driven back in triumph to the
+villages.</p>
+
+<p>Laporte then led his victorious troops towards Collet, the village in
+which his brother had been pastor. The temple in which he ministered
+was still standing&mdash;the only one in the Cevennes that had not been
+demolished, the Seigneur of the place intending to convert it into a
+hospital. Collet was at present occupied by a company of fusiliers,
+commanded by Captain Cabrières. On nearing the place, Laporte wrote to
+this officer, under an assumed name, intimating that a religious
+assembly was to be held that night in a certain wood in the
+neighbourhood. The captain at once marched thither with his men, on
+which Laporte entered the village, and reopened the temple, which had
+continued unoccupied since the day on which his brother had gone into
+exile. All that night Laporte sang psalms, preached, and prayed by
+turns, solemnly invoking the help of the God of battles in this holy
+war in which he was engaged for the liberation of his country. Shortly
+before daybreak, Laporte and his <span class="pagenum"><a id="page114" name="page114"></a>(p. 114)</span> companions retired from the
+temple, and after setting fire to the Roman Catholic church, and the
+houses of the consul, the captain, and the curé, he left the village,
+and proceeded in a northerly direction.</p>
+
+<p>That same morning, Captain Poul arrived at the neighbouring valley of
+St. Germain, for the purpose of superintending the demolition of
+certain Protestant dwellings, and then he heard of Laporte's midnight
+expedition. He immediately hastened to Collet, assembled all the
+troops he could muster, and put himself on the track of the Camisards.
+After a hot march of about two hours in the direction of Coudouloux,
+Poul discerned Laporte and his band encamped on a lofty height, from
+the scarped foot of which a sloping grove of chestnuts descended into
+the wide grassy plain, known as the "Champ Domergue."</p>
+
+<p>The chestnut grove had in ancient times been one of the sacred places
+of the Druids, who celebrated their mysterious rites in its recesses,
+while the adjoining mountains were said to have been the honoured
+haunts of certain of the divinities of ancient Gaul. It was therefore
+regarded as a sort of sacred place, and this circumstance was probably
+not without its influence in rendering it one of the most frequent
+resorts of the hunted Protestants in their midnight assemblies, as
+well as because it occupied a central position between the villages of
+St. Frézal, St. Andéol, Dèze, and Violas. Laporte had now come hither
+with his companions to pray, and they were so engaged when the scouts
+on the look-out announced the approach of the enemy.</p>
+
+<p>Poul halted his men to take breath, while Laporte held a little
+council of war. What was to be done? Laporte himself was in favour of
+accepting battle on the spot, while several of his lieutenants advised
+immediate <span class="pagenum"><a id="page115" name="page115"></a>(p. 115)</span> flight into the mountains. On the other hand, the
+young and impetuous Cavalier, who was there, supported the opinion of
+his chief, and urged an immediate attack; and an attack was determined
+on accordingly.</p>
+
+<p>The little band descended from their vantage-ground on the hill, and
+came down into the chestnut wood, singing the sixty-eighth Psalm&mdash;"Let
+God arise, let his enemies be scattered." The following is the song
+itself, in the words of Marot. When the Huguenots sang it, each
+soldier became a lion in courage.</p>
+
+<div class="poem30" lang="fr">
+<p>"Que Dieu se montre seulement<br>
+  Et l'on verra dans un moment<br>
+<span class="add1em">Abandonner la place;</span><br>
+  Le camp des ennemies épars,<br>
+  Épouvanté de toutes parts,<br>
+<span class="add1em">Fuira devant sa face.</span></p>
+
+<p>On verra tout ce camp s'enfuir,<br>
+  Comme l'on voit s'évanouir;<br>
+<span class="add1em">Une épaisse fumée;</span><br>
+  Comme la cire fond au feu,<br>
+  Ainsi des méchants devant<br>
+<span class="add1em">Dieu, La force est consumée.</span></p>
+
+<p>L'Éternel est notre recours;<br>
+  Nous obtenons par son secours,<br>
+<span class="add1em">Plus d'une déliverance.</span><br>
+  C'est Lui qui fut notre support,<br>
+  Et qui tient les clefs de la mort,<br>
+<span class="add1em">Lui seul en sa puissance.</span></p>
+
+<p>A nous défendre toujours prompt,<br>
+  Il frappe le superbe front<br>
+<span class="add1em">De la troupe ennemie;</span><br>
+  On verra tomber sous ses coups<br>
+  Ceux qui provoquent son courroux<br>
+<span class="add1em">Par leur méchante vie."</span></p>
+</div>
+
+<p>This was the "Marseillaise" of the Camisards, their war-song in many
+battles, sung by them as a <span class="italic">pas de charge</span> to the music of Goudimal.
+Poul, seeing them approach from under cover of the wood, charged them
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page116" name="page116"></a>(p. 116)</span> at once, shouting to his men, "Charge, kill, kill the
+Barbets!"<a id="footnotetag40" name="footnotetag40"></a><a href="#footnote40" title="Go to footnote 40"><span class="small">[40]</span></a> But "the Barbets," though they were only as one to three
+of their assailants, bravely held their ground. Those who had muskets
+kept up a fusillade, whilst a body of scythemen in the centre repulsed
+Poul, who attacked them with the bayonet. Several of these terrible
+scythemen were, however, slain, and three were taken prisoners.</p>
+
+<p>Laporte, finding that he could not drive Poul back, retreated slowly
+into the wood, keeping up a running fire, and reascended the hill,
+whither Poul durst not follow him. The Royalist leader was satisfied
+with remaining master of the hard-fought field, on which many of his
+soldiers lay dead, together with a captain of militia.</p>
+
+<p>The Camisard chiefs then separated, Laporte and his band taking a
+westerly direction. The Royalists, having received considerable
+reinforcements, hastened from different directions to intercept him,
+but he slipped through their fingers, and descended to
+Pont-de-Montvert, from whence he threw himself upon the villages
+situated near the sources of the western Gardon. At the same time, to
+distract the attention of the Royalists, the other Camisard leaders
+descended, the one towards the south, and the other towards the east,
+disarming the Roman Catholics, carrying off their arms, and spreading
+consternation wherever they went.</p>
+
+<p>Meanwhile, Count Broglie, Captain Poul, Colonel Miral, and the
+commanders of the soldiers and militia all over the Cevennes, were
+hunting the Protestants and their families wherever found, pillaging
+their houses, driving away their cattle, and burning their <span class="pagenum"><a id="page117" name="page117"></a>(p. 117)</span>
+huts; and it was evident that the war on both sides was fast drifting
+into one of reprisal and revenge. Brigands, belonging to neither side,
+organized themselves in bodies, and robbed Protestants and Catholics
+with equal impartiality.</p>
+
+<p>One effect of this state of things was rapidly to increase the numbers
+of the disaffected. The dwellings of many of the Protestants having
+been destroyed, such of the homeless fugitives as could bear arms fled
+into the mountains to join the Camisards, whose numbers were thus
+augmented, notwithstanding the measures taken for their extermination.</p>
+
+<p>Laporte was at last tracked by his indefatigable enemy, Captain Poul,
+who burned to wipe out the disgrace which he conceived himself to have
+suffered at Champ-Domergue. Information was conveyed to him that
+Laporte and his band were in the neighbourhood of Molezon on the
+western Gardon, and that they intended to hold a field-meeting there
+on Sunday, the 22nd of October.</p>
+
+<p>Poul made his dispositions accordingly. Dividing his force into two
+bodies, he fell upon the insurgents impetuously from two sides, taking
+them completely by surprise. They hastily put themselves in order of
+battle, but their muskets, wet with rain, would not fire, and Laporte
+hastened with his men to seek the shelter of a cliff near at hand.
+While in the act of springing from one rock to another, he was seen to
+stagger and fall. He had been shot dead by a musket bullet, and his
+career was thus brought to a sudden close. His followers at once fled
+in all directions.</p>
+
+<p>Poul cut off Laporte's head, as well as the heads of the other
+Camisards who had been killed, and sent them in two baskets to Count
+Broglie. Next day the heads <span class="pagenum"><a id="page118" name="page118"></a>(p. 118)</span> were exposed on the bridge of
+Anduze; the day after on the castle wall of St. Hypolite; after which
+these ghastly trophies of Poul's victory were sent to Montpellier to
+be permanently exposed on the Peyrou.</p>
+
+<p>Such was the end of Laporte, the second leader of the Camisards.
+Seguier, the first, had been chief for only six days; Laporte, the
+second, for only about two months. Again Baville supposed the
+pacification of the Cevennes to be complete. He imagined that Poul, in
+cutting off Laporte's head, had decapitated the insurrection. But the
+Camisard ranks had never been so full as now, swelled as they were by
+the persecutions of the Royalists, who, by demolishing the homes of
+the peasantry, had in a measure forced them into the arms of the
+insurgents. Nor were they ever better supplied with leaders, even
+though Laporte had fallen. No sooner did his death become known, than
+the "Children of God" held a solemn assembly in the mountains, at
+which Roland, Castanet, Salomon, Abraham, and young Cavalier were
+present; and after lamenting the death of their chief, they with one
+accord elected Laporte's nephew, Roland, as his successor.</p>
+
+<hr>
+
+<p>A few words as to the associates of Roland, whose family and origin
+have already been described. André Castanet of Massavaque, in the
+Upper Cevennes, had been a goatherd in his youth, after which he
+worked at his father's trade of a wool-carder. An avowed Huguenot, he
+was, shortly after the peace of Ryswick, hunted out of the country
+because of his attending the meetings in the Desert; but in 1700 he
+returned to preach and to prophesy, acting also as a forest-ranger in
+the Aigoal Mountains. Of all the chiefs he was the <span class="pagenum"><a id="page119" name="page119"></a>(p. 119)</span> greatest
+controversialist, and in his capacity of preacher he distinguished
+himself from his companions by wearing a wig. There must have been
+something comical in his appearance, for Brueys describes him as a
+little, squat, bandy-legged man, presenting "the figure of a little
+bear." But it was an enemy who drew the picture.</p>
+
+<p>Next there was Salomon Conderc, also a wool-carder, a native of the
+hamlet of Mazelrode, south of the mountain of Bougès. For twenty years
+the Condercs, father and son, had been zealous worshippers in the
+Desert&mdash;Salomon having acted by turns as Bible-reader, precentor,
+preacher, and prophet. We have already referred to the gift of
+prophesying. All the leaders of the Camisards were prophets. Elie
+Marion, in his "Théâtre Sacré de Cevennes," thus describes the
+influence of the prophets on the Camisard War:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"We were without strength and without counsel," says he; "but our
+inspirations were our succour and our support. They elected our
+leaders, and conducted them; they were our military discipline. It was
+they who raised us, even weakness itself, to put a strong bridle upon
+an army of more than twenty thousand picked soldiers. It was they who
+banished sorrow from our hearts in the midst of the greatest peril, as
+well as in the deserts and the mountain fastnesses, when cold and
+famine oppressed us. Our heaviest crosses were but lightsome burdens,
+for this intimate communion that God allowed us to have with Him bore
+up and consoled us; it was our safety and our happiness."</p>
+
+<p>Many of the Condercs had suffered for their faith. The archpriest
+Chayla had persecuted them grievously. One of their sisters was seized
+by the soldiery and carried off to be immured in a convent at Mende,
+but <span class="pagenum"><a id="page120" name="page120"></a>(p. 120)</span> was rescued on the way by Salomon and his brother
+Jacques. Of the two, Salomon, though deformed, had the greatest gift
+in prophesying, and hence the choice of him as a leader.</p>
+
+<p>Abraham Mazel belonged to the same hamlet as Conderc. They were both
+of the same age&mdash;about twenty-five&mdash;of the same trade, and they were
+as inseparable as brothers. They had both been engaged with Seguier's
+band in the midnight attack on Pont-de-Montvert, and were alike
+committed to the desperate enterprise they had taken in hand. The
+tribe of Mazel abounds in the Cevennes, and they had already given
+many martyrs to the cause. Some emigrated to America, some were sent
+to the galleys; Oliver Mazel, the preacher, was hanged at Montpellier
+in 1690, Jacques Mazel was a refugee in London in 1701, and in all the
+combats of the Cevennes there were Mazels leading as well as
+following.</p>
+
+<p>Nicholas Joany, of Genouillac, was an old soldier, who had seen much
+service, having been for some time quartermaster of the regiment of
+Orleans. Among other veterans who served with the Camisards, were
+Espérandieu and Rastelet, two old sub-officers, and Catinat and
+Ravenel, two thorough soldiers. Of these Catinat achieved the greatest
+notoriety. His proper name was Mauriel&mdash;Abdias Mauriel; but having
+served as a dragoon under Marshal Catinat in Italy, he conceived such
+an admiration for that general, and was so constantly eulogizing him,
+that his comrades gave him the nickname of Catinat, which he continued
+to bear all through the Camisard war.</p>
+
+<p>But the most distinguished of all the Camisard chiefs, next to Roland,
+was the youthful John Cavalier, peasant boy, baker's apprentice, and
+eventually <span class="pagenum"><a id="page121" name="page121"></a>(p. 121)</span> insurgent leader, who, after baffling and
+repeatedly defeating the armies of Louis XIV., ended his remarkable
+career as governor of Jersey and major-general in the British service.</p>
+
+<p>Cavalier was a native of Ribaute, a village on the Gardon, a little
+below Anduze. His parents were persons in humble circumstances, as may
+be inferred from the fact that when John was of sufficient age he was
+sent into the mountains to herd cattle, and when a little older he was
+placed apprentice to a baker at Anduze.</p>
+
+<p>His father, though a Protestant at heart, to avoid persecution,
+pretended to be converted to Romanism, and attended Mass. But his
+mother, a fervent Calvinist, refused to conform, and diligently
+trained her sons in her own views. She was a regular attender of
+meetings in the Desert, to which she also took her children.</p>
+
+<p>Cavalier relates that on one occasion, when a very little fellow, he
+went with her to an assembly which was conducted by Claude Brousson;
+and when he afterwards heard that many of the people had been
+apprehended for attending it, of whom some were hanged and others sent
+to the galleys, the account so shocked him that he felt he would then
+have avenged them if he had possessed the power.</p>
+
+<p>As the boy grew up, and witnessed the increasing cruelty with which
+conformity was enforced, he determined to quit the country; and,
+accompanied by twelve other young men, he succeeded in reaching Geneva
+after a toilsome journey of eight days. He had not been at Geneva more
+than two months, when&mdash;heart-sore, solitary, his eyes constantly
+turned towards his dear Cevennes&mdash;he accidentally heard that his
+father and mother had been thrown into prison because of his <span class="pagenum"><a id="page122" name="page122"></a>(p. 122)</span>
+flight&mdash;his father at Carcassone, and his mother in the dreadful tower
+of Constance, near Aiguesmortes, one of the most notorious prisons of
+the Huguenots.</p>
+
+<p>He at once determined to return, in the hope of being able to get them
+set at liberty. On his reaching Ribaute, to his surprise he found them
+already released, on condition of attending Mass. As his presence in
+his father's house might only serve to bring fresh trouble upon
+them&mdash;he himself having no intention of conforming&mdash;he went up for
+refuge into the mountains of the Cevennes.</p>
+
+<p>The young Cavalier was present at the midnight meeting on the Bougès,
+at which it was determined to slay the archpriest Chayla. He implored
+leave to accompany the band; but he was declared to be too young for
+such an enterprise, being a boy of only sixteen, so he was left behind
+with his friends.</p>
+
+<p>Being virtually an outlaw, Cavalier afterwards joined the band of
+Laporte, under whom he served as lieutenant during his short career.
+At his death the insurrection assumed larger proportions, and recruits
+flocked apace to the standard of Roland, Laporte's successor.
+Harvest-work over, the youths of the Lower Cevennes hastened to join
+him, armed only with bills and hatchets. The people of the Vaunage
+more than fulfilled their promise to Roland, and sent him five hundred
+men. Cavalier also brought with him from Ribaute a further number of
+recruits, and by the end of autumn the Camisards under arms, such as
+they were, amounted to over a thousand men.</p>
+
+<p>Roland, unable to provide quarters or commissariat for so large a
+number, divided them into five bodies, and sent them into their
+respective cantonments (so to speak) for the winter. Roland himself
+occupied the <span class="pagenum"><a id="page123" name="page123"></a>(p. 123)</span> district known as the Lower Cevennes,
+comprising the Gardonnenque and the mountain district situated between
+the rivers Vidourle and the western Gardon. That part of the Upper
+Cevennes, which extends between the Anduze branch of the Gardon and
+the river Tarn, was in like manner occupied by a force commanded by
+Abraham Hazel and Solomon Conderc, while Andrew Castanet led the
+people of the western Cevennes, comprising the mountain region of the
+Aigoal and the Esperou, near the sources of the Gardon d'Anduze and
+the Tarnon. The rugged mountain district of the Lozère, in which the
+Tarn, the Ceze, and the Alais branch of the Gardon have their origin,
+was placed under the command of Joany. And, finally, the more open
+country towards the south, extending from Anduze to the sea-coast,
+including the districts around Alais, Uzes, Nismes, as well as the
+populous valley of the Vaunage, was placed under the direction of
+young Cavalier, though he had scarcely yet completed his seventeenth
+year.</p>
+
+<p>These chiefs were all elected by their followers, who chose them, not
+because of any military ability they might possess, but entirely
+because of their "gifts" as preachers and "prophets." Though Roland
+and Joany had been soldiers, they were also preachers, as were
+Castanet, Abraham, and Salomon; and young Cavalier had already given
+remarkable indications of the prophetic gift. Hence, when it became
+the duty of the band to which he belonged to select a chief, they
+passed over the old soldiers, Espérandieu, Raslet, Catinat, and
+Ravenel, and pitched upon the young baker lad of Ribaute, not because
+he could fight, but because he could preach; and the old soldiers
+cheerfully submitted themselves to his leadership.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page124" name="page124"></a>(p. 124)</span> The portrait of this remarkable Camisard chief represents him
+as a little handsome youth, fair and ruddy complexioned, with lively
+and prominent blue eyes, and a large head, from whence his long fair
+hair hung floating over his shoulders. His companions recognised in
+him a supposed striking resemblance to the scriptural portrait of
+David, the famous shepherd of Israel.</p>
+
+<p>The Camisard legions, spread as they now were over the entire
+Cevennes, and embracing Lower Languedoc as far as the sea, were for
+the most part occupied during the winter of 1702-3 in organizing
+themselves, obtaining arms, and increasing their forces. The
+respective districts which they occupied were so many
+recruiting-grounds, and by the end of the season they had enrolled
+nearly three thousand men. They were still, however, very badly armed.
+Their weapons included fowling-pieces, old matchlocks, muskets taken
+from the militia, pistols, sabres, scythes, hatchets, billhooks, and
+even ploughshares. They were very short of powder, and what they had
+was mostly bought surreptitiously from the King's soldiers, or by
+messengers sent for the purpose to Nismes and Avignon. But Roland,
+finding that such sources of supply could not be depended upon,
+resolved to manufacture his own powder.</p>
+
+<p>A commissariat was also established, and the most spacious caves in
+the most sequestered places were sought out and converted into
+magazines, hospitals, granaries, cellars, arsenals, and powder
+factories. Thus Mialet, with its extensive caves, was the head-quarters
+of Roland; Bouquet and the caves at Euzet, of Cavalier; Cassagnacs and
+the caves at Magistavols, of Salomon; and so on with the others. Each
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page125" name="page125"></a>(p. 125)</span> chief had his respective canton, his granary, his magazine,
+and his arsenal. To each retreat was attached a special body of
+tradesmen&mdash;millers, bakers, shoemakers, tailors, armourers, and other
+mechanics; and each had its special guards and sentinels.</p>
+
+<p>We have already referred to the peculiar geological features of the
+Cevennes, and to the limestone strata which embraces the whole
+granitic platform of the southern border almost like a frame. As is
+almost invariably the case in such formations, large caves, occasioned
+by the constant dripping of water, are of frequent occurrence; and
+those of the Cevennes, which are in many places of great extent,
+constituted a peculiar feature in the Camisard insurrection. There is
+one of such caves in the neighbourhood of the Protestant town of
+Ganges, on the river Herault, which often served as a refuge for the
+Huguenots, though it is now scarcely penetrable because of the heavy
+falls of stone from the roof. This cavern has two entrances, one from
+the river Herault, the other from the Mendesse, and it extends under
+the entire mountain, which separates the two rivers. It is still known
+as the "Camisards' Grotto." There are numerous others of a like
+character all over the district; but as those of Mialet were of
+special importance&mdash;Mialet, "the Metropolis of the Insurrection,"
+being the head-quarters of Roland&mdash;it will be sufficient if we briefly
+describe a visit paid to them in the month of June, 1870.</p>
+
+<hr>
+
+<p>The town of Anduze is the little capital of the Gardonnenque, a
+district which has always been exclusively Protestant. Even at the
+present day, of the 5,200 inhabitants of Anduze, 4,600 belong to that
+faith; and these include the principal proprietors, cultivators, and
+manufacturers of the town and neighbourhood. <span class="pagenum"><a id="page126" name="page126"></a>(p. 126)</span> During the wars
+of religion, Anduze was one of the Huguenot strongholds. After the
+death of Henry IV. the district continued to be held by the Duc de
+Rohan, the ruins of whose castle are still to be seen on the summit of
+a pyramidal hill on the north of the town. Anduze is jammed in between
+the precipitous mountain of St. Julien, which rises behind it, and the
+river Gardon, along which a modern quay-wall extends, forming a
+pleasant promenade as well as a barrier against the furious torrents
+which rush down from the mountains in winter.</p>
+
+<p>A little above the town, the river passes through a rocky gorge formed
+by the rugged grey cliffs of Peyremale on the one bank and St. Julien
+on the other. The bare precipitous rocks rise up on either side like
+two cyclopean towers, flanking the gateway of the Cevennes. The gorge
+is so narrow at bottom that there is room only for the river running
+in its rocky bed below, and a roadway along either bank&mdash;that on the
+eastern side having been partly formed by blasting out the cliff which
+overhangs it.</p>
+
+<p>After crossing the five-arched bridge which spans the Gardon, the road
+proceeds along the eastern bank, up the valley towards Mialet. It
+being market-day at Anduze, well-clad peasants were flocking into the
+town, some in their little pony-carts, others with their baskets or
+bundles of produce, and each had his "Bon jour, messieurs!" for us as
+we passed. So long as the road held along the bottom of the valley,
+passing through the scattered hamlets and villages north of the town,
+our little springless cart got along cleverly enough. But after we had
+entered the narrower valley higher up, and the cultivated ground
+became confined to a little strip along either bank, then the mountain
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page127" name="page127"></a>(p. 127)</span> barriers seemed to rise in front of us and on all sides, and
+the road became winding, steep, and difficult.</p>
+
+<p>A few miles up the valley, the little hamlet of Massoubeyran,
+consisting of a group of peasant cottages&mdash;one of which was the
+birthplace of Roland, the Camisard chief&mdash;was seen on a hill-side to
+the right; and about two miles further on, at a bend of the road, we
+came in sight of the village of Mialet, with its whitewashed,
+flat-roofed cottages&mdash;forming a little group of peasants' houses lying
+in the hollow of the hills. The principal building in it is the
+Protestant temple, which continues to be frequented by the
+inhabitants; the <span class="italic">Annuaire Protestant</span> for 1868-70, stating the
+Protestant population of the district to be 1,325. Strange to say, the
+present pastor, M. Seguier, bears the name of the first leader of the
+Camisard insurrection; and one of the leading members of the
+consistory, M. Laporte, is a lineal descendant of the second and third
+leaders.</p>
+
+<p>From its secluded and secure position among the hills, as well as
+because of its proximity to the great Temelac road constructed by
+Baville, which passed from Anduze by St. Jean-de-Gard into the Upper
+Cevennes, Mialet was well situated as the head-quarters of the Camisard
+chief. But it was principally because of the numerous limestone caves
+abounding in the locality, which afforded a ready hiding-place for the
+inhabitants in the event of the enemies' approach, as well as because
+they were capable of being adapted for the purpose of magazines,
+stores, and hospitals, that Mialet became of so much importance as the
+citadel of the insurgents. One of such caverns or grottoes is still to
+be seen about a mile below Mialet, of extraordinary magnitude. It
+extends under the hill which rises up on the right-hand side of
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page128" name="page128"></a>(p. 128)</span> the road, and is entered from behind, nearly at the summit.
+The entrance is narrow and difficult, but the interior is large and
+spacious, widening out in some places into dome-shaped chambers, with
+stalactites hanging from the roof. The whole extent of this cavern
+cannot be much less than a quarter of a mile, judging from the time it
+took to explore it and to return from the furthest point in the
+interior to the entrance. The existence of this place had been
+forgotten until a few years ago, when it was rediscovered by a man of
+Anduze, who succeeded in entering it, but, being unable to find his
+way out, he remained there for three days without food, until the
+alarm was given and his friends came to his rescue and delivered him.</p>
+
+<p>Immediately behind the village of Mialet, under the side of the hill,
+is another large cavern, with other grottoes branching out of it,
+capable, on an emergency, of accommodating the whole population. This
+was used by Roland as his principal magazine. But perhaps the most
+interesting of these caves is the one used as a hospital for the sick
+and wounded. It is situated about a mile above Mialet, in a limestone
+cliff almost overhanging the river. The approach to it is steep and
+difficult, up a footpath cut in the face of the rock. At length a
+little platform is reached, about a hundred feet above the level of
+the river, behind which is a low wall extending across the entrance to
+the cavern. This wall is pierced with two openings, intended for two
+culverins, one of which commanded the road leading down the pass, and
+the other the road up the valley from the direction of the village.
+The outer vault is large and roomy, and extends back into a lofty
+dome-shaped cavern about forty feet high, behind which a long tortuous
+vault extends for several hundred feet. <span class="pagenum"><a id="page129" name="page129"></a>(p. 129)</span> The place is quite
+dry, and sufficiently spacious to accommodate a large number of
+persons; and there can be no doubt as to the uses to which it was
+applied during the wars of the Cevennes.</p>
+
+<p>The person who guided us to the cave was an ordinary working man of
+the village&mdash;apparently a blacksmith&mdash;a well-informed, intelligent
+person&mdash;who left his smithy, opposite the Protestant temple at which
+our pony-cart drew up, to show us over the place; and he took pride in
+relating the traditions which continue to be handed down from father
+to son relating to the great Camisard war of the Cevennes.<a href="#toc"><span class="small">[Back to Contents]</span></a></p>
+
+
+<h3><span class="pagenum"><a id="page130" name="page130"></a>(p. 130)</span> CHAPTER VII.</h3>
+
+<p class="title">EXPLOITS OF CAVALIER.</p>
+
+
+<p>The country round Nismes, which was the scene of so many contests
+between the Royalists and the Camisard insurgents at the beginning of
+last century, presents nearly the same aspect as it did then,
+excepting that it is traversed by railways in several directions. The
+railway to Montpellier on the west, crosses the fertile valley of the
+Vaunage, "the little Canaan," still rich in vineyards as of old. That
+to Alais on the north, proceeds for the most part along the valley of
+the Gardon, the names of the successive stations reminding the passing
+traveller of the embittered contests of which they were the scenes in
+former times: Nozières, Boucoiran, Ners, Vezenobres, and Alais itself,
+now a considerable manufacturing town, and the centre of an important
+coal-mining district.</p>
+
+<p>The country in the neighbourhood of Nismes is by no means picturesque.
+Though undulating, it is barren, arid, and stony. The view from the
+Tour Magne, which is very extensive, is over an apparently skeleton
+landscape, the bare rocks rising on all sides without any covering of
+verdure. In summer the grass is parched and brown. There are few trees
+visible; and these mostly mulberry, which, when, cropped, have
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page131" name="page131"></a>(p. 131)</span> a blasted look. Yet, wherever soil exists, in the bottoms,
+the land is very productive, yielding olives, grapes, and chestnuts in
+great abundance.</p>
+
+<p>As we ascend the valley of the Gardon, the country becomes more
+undulating and better wooded. The villages and farmhouses have all an
+old-fashioned look; not a modern villa is to be seen. We alight from
+the train at the Ners station&mdash;Ners, where Cavalier drove Montrevel's
+army across the river, and near which, at the village of Martinargues,
+he completely defeated the Royalists under Lajonquière. We went to see
+the scene of the battle, some three miles to the south-east, passing
+through a well-tilled country, with the peasants busily at work in the
+fields. From the high ground behind Ners a fine view is obtained of
+the valley of the Gardon, overlooking the junction of its two branches
+descending by Alais and Anduze, the mountains of the Cevennes rising
+up in the distance. To the left is the fertile valley of Beaurivage,
+celebrated in the Pastorals of Florian, who was a native of the
+district.</p>
+
+<p>Descending the hill towards Ners, we were overtaken by an aged peasant
+of the village, with a scythe over his shoulder, returning from his
+morning's work. There was the usual polite greeting and exchange of
+salutations&mdash;for the French peasant is by nature polite&mdash;and a ready
+opening was afforded for conversation. It turned out that the old man
+had been a soldier of the first empire, and fought under Soult in the
+desperate battle of Toulouse in 1814. He was now nearly eighty, but
+was still able to do a fair day's work in the fields. Inviting us to
+enter his dwelling and partake of his hospitality, he went down to his
+cellar and fetched therefrom a jug of light sparkling wine, of which
+we partook. In answer to an inquiry whether there were any Protestants
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page132" name="page132"></a>(p. 132)</span> in the neighbourhood, the old man replied that Ners was "all
+Protestant." His grandson, however, who was present, qualified this
+sweeping statement by the remark, <span class="italic">sotto voce</span>, that many of them were
+"nothing."</p>
+
+<p>The conversation then turned upon the subject of Cavalier and his
+exploits, when our entertainer launched out into a description of the
+battle of Martinargues, in which the Royalists had been "toutes
+abattus." Like most of the Protestant peasantry of the Cevennes, he
+displayed a very familiar acquaintance with the events of the civil
+war, and spoke with enthusiasm and honest pride of the achievements of
+the Camisards.</p>
+
+<hr>
+
+<p>We have in previous chapters described the outbreak of the
+insurrection and its spread throughout the Upper Cevennes; and we have
+now rapidly to note its growth and progress to its culmination and
+fall.</p>
+
+<p>While the Camisards were secretly organizing their forces under cover
+of the woods and caves of the mountain districts, the governor of
+Languedoc was indulging in the hope that the insurrection had expired
+with the death of Laporte and the dispersion of his band. But, to his
+immense surprise, the whole country was suddenly covered with
+insurgents, who seemed as if to spring from the earth in all quarters
+simultaneously. Messengers brought him intelligence at the same time
+of risings in the mountains of the Lozère and the Aigoal, in the
+neighbourhoods of Anduze and Alais, and even in the open country about
+Nismes and Calvisson, down almost to the sea-coast.</p>
+
+<p>Wherever the churches had been used as garrisons and depositories of
+arms, they were attacked, stormed, and burnt. Cavalier says he never
+meddled with any <span class="pagenum"><a id="page133" name="page133"></a>(p. 133)</span> church which had not been thus converted
+into a "den of thieves;" but the other leaders were less scrupulous.
+Salomon and Abraham destroyed all the establishments and insignia of
+their enemies on which they could lay hands&mdash;crosses, churches, and
+presbyteries. The curé of Saint-Germain said of Castanet in the Aigoal
+that he was "like a raging torrent." Roland and Joany ran from village
+to village ransacking dwellings, châteaux, churches, and collecting
+arms. Knowing every foot of the country, they rapidly passed by
+mountain tracks from one village to another; suddenly appearing in the
+least-expected quarters, while the troops in pursuit of them had
+passed in other directions.</p>
+
+<p>Cavalier had even the hardihood to descend upon the low country, and
+to ransack the Catholic villages in the neighbourhood of Nismes. By
+turns he fought, preached, and sacked churches. About the middle of
+November, 1702, he preached at Aiguevives, a village not far from
+Calvisson, in the Vaunage. Count Broglie, commander of the royal
+troops, hastened from Nismes to intercept him. But pursuing Cavalier
+was like pursuing a shadow; he had already made his escape into the
+mountains. Broglie assembled the inhabitants of the village in the
+church, and demanded to be informed who had been present with the
+Camisard preacher. "All!" was the reply: "we are all guilty." He
+seized the principal persons of the place and sent them to Baville.
+Four were hanged, twelve were sent to the galleys, many more were
+flogged, and a heavy fine was levied on the entire village.</p>
+
+<p>Meanwhile, Cavalier had joined Roland near Mialet, and again descended
+upon the low country, marching through the villages along the valley
+of the Vidourle, carrying off arms and devastating churches. Broglie
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page134" name="page134"></a>(p. 134)</span> sent two strong bodies of troops to intercept them; but the
+light-footed insurgents had already crossed the Gardon.</p>
+
+<p>A few days later (December 5th), they were lying concealed in the
+forest of Vaquières, in the neighbourhood of Cavalier's head-quarters
+at Euzet. Their retreat having been discovered, a strong force of
+soldiers and militia was directed upon them, under the command of the
+Chevalier Montarnaud (who, being a new convert, wished to show his
+zeal), and Captain Bimard of the Nismes militia.</p>
+
+<p>They took with them a herdsman of the neighbourhood for their guide,
+not knowing that he was a confederate of the Camisards. Leading the
+Royalists into the wood, he guided them along a narrow ravine, and
+hearing no sound of the insurgents, it was supposed that they were
+lying asleep in their camp.</p>
+
+<p>Suddenly three sentinels on the outlook fired off their pieces. At
+this signal Ravenel posted himself at the outlet of the defile, and
+Cavalier and Catinat along its two sides. Raising their war-song, the
+sixty-eighth psalm the Camisards furiously charged the enemy. Captain
+Bimard fell at the first fire. Montarnaud turned and fled with such of
+the soldiers and militia as could follow him; and not many of them
+succeeded in making their escape from the wood.</p>
+
+<p>"After which complete victory," says Cavalier, "we returned to the
+field of battle to give our hearty thanks to Almighty God for his
+extraordinary assistance, and afterwards stripped the corpses of the
+enemy, and secured their arms. We found a purse of one hundred
+pistoles in Captain Bimard's pocket, which was very acceptable, for we
+stood in great need thereof, and expended part of it in buying hats,
+shoes, and stockings <span class="pagenum"><a id="page135" name="page135"></a>(p. 135)</span> for those who wanted them, and with the
+remainder bought six great mule loads of brandy, for our winter's
+supply, from a merchant who was sending it to be sold at Anduze
+market."<a id="footnotetag41" name="footnotetag41"></a><a href="#footnote41" title="Go to footnote 41"><span class="small">[41]</span></a></p>
+
+<p>On the Sunday following, Cavalier held an assembly for public worship
+near Monteze on the Gardon, at which about five hundred persons were
+present. The governor of Alais, being informed of the meeting,
+resolved to put it down with a strong hand; and he set out for the
+purpose at the head of a force of about six hundred horse and foot. A
+mule accompanied him, laden with ropes with which to bind or hang the
+rebels. Cavalier had timely information, from scouts posted on the
+adjoining hills, of the approach of the governor's force, and though
+the number of fighting men in the Camisard assembly was comparatively
+small, they resolved to defend themselves.</p>
+
+<p>Sending away the women and others not bearing arms, Cavalier posted
+his little band behind an old entrenchment on the road along which the
+governor was approaching, and awaited his attack. The horsemen came on
+at the charge; but the Camisards, firing over the top of the
+entrenchment, emptied more than a dozen saddles, and then leaping
+forward, saluted them with a general discharge. At this, the horsemen
+turned and fled, galloping through the foot coming up behind them, and
+throwing them into complete disorder. The Camisards pulled off their
+coats, in order the better to pursue the fugitives.</p>
+
+<p>The Royalists were in full flight, when they were met by a
+reinforcement of two hundred men of Marsilly's regiment of foot. But
+these, too, were suddenly seized by the panic, and turned and fled
+with the rest, the <span class="pagenum"><a id="page136" name="page136"></a>(p. 136)</span> Camisards pursuing them for nearly an
+hour, in the course of which they slew more than a hundred of the
+enemy. Besides the soldiers' clothes, of which they stripped the dead,
+the Camisards made prize of two loads of ammunition and a large
+quantity of arms, which they were very much in need of, and also of
+the ropes with which the governor had intended to hang them.</p>
+
+<p>Emboldened by these successes, Cavalier determined on making an attack
+on the strong castle of Servas, occupying a steep height on the east
+of the forest of Bouquet. Cavalier detested the governor and garrison
+of this place because they too closely watched his movements, and
+overlooked his head-quarters, which were in the adjoining forest; and
+they had, besides, distinguished themselves by the ferocity with which
+they attacked and dispersed recent assemblies in the Desert.</p>
+
+<p>Cavalier was, however, without the means of directly assaulting the
+place, and he waited for an opportunity of entering it, if possible,
+by stratagem. While passing along the road between Alais and Lussan
+one day, he met a detachment of about forty men of the royal army,
+whom he at once attacked, killing a number of them, and putting the
+rest to flight. Among the slain was the commanding officer of the
+party, in whose pockets was found an order signed by Count Broglie
+directing all town-majors and consuls to lodge him and his men along
+their line of march. Cavalier at once determined on making use of this
+order as a key to open the gates of the castle of Servas.</p>
+
+<p>He had twelve of his men dressed up in the clothes of the soldiers who
+had fallen, and six others in their ordinary Camisard dress bound with
+ropes as prisoners of war. Cavalier himself donned the uniform of the
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page137" name="page137"></a>(p. 137)</span> fallen officer; and thus disguised and well armed, the party
+moved up the steep ascent to the castle. On reaching the outer gate
+Cavalier presented the order of Count Broglie, and requested
+admittance for the purpose of keeping his pretended Camisard prisoners
+in safe custody for the night. He was at once admitted with his party.
+The governor showed him round the ramparts, pointing out the strength
+of the place, and boasting of the punishments he had inflicted on the
+rebels.</p>
+
+<p>At supper Cavalier's soldiers took care to drop into the room, one by
+one, apparently for orders, and suddenly, on a signal being given, the
+governor and his attendants were seized and bound. At the same time
+the guard outside was attacked and overpowered. The outer gates were
+opened, the Camisards rushed in, the castle was taken, and the
+garrison put to the sword.</p>
+
+<p>Cavalier and his band carried off with them to their magazine at
+Bouquet all the arms, ammunition, and provisions they could find, and
+before leaving they set fire to the castle. There must have been a
+large store of gunpowder in the vaults of the place besides what the
+Camisards carried away, for they had scarcely proceeded a mile on
+their return journey when a tremendous explosion took place, shaking
+the ground like an earthquake, and turning back, they saw the
+battlements of the detested Château Servas hurled into the air.</p>
+
+<p>Shortly after, Roland repeated at Sauvé, a little fortified town hung
+along the side of a rocky hill a few miles to the south of Anduze, the
+stratagem which Cavalier had employed at Servas, and with like
+success. He disarmed the inhabitants, and carried off the arms and
+provisions in the place: and though he released <span class="pagenum"><a id="page138" name="page138"></a>(p. 138)</span> the
+commandant and the soldiers whom he had taken prisoners, he shot a
+persecuting priest and a Capuchin monk, and destroyed all the insignia
+of Popery in Sauvé.</p>
+
+<p>These terrible measures caused a new stampede of the clergy all over
+the Cevennes. The nobles and gentry also left their châteaux, the
+merchants their shops and warehouses, and took refuge in the fortified
+towns. Even the bishops of Mende, Uzes, and Alais barricaded and
+fortified their episcopal palaces, and organized a system of defence
+as if the hordes of Attila had been at their gates.</p>
+
+<p>With each fresh success the Camisards increased in daring, and every
+day the insurrection became more threatening and formidable. It
+already embraced the whole mountain district of the Cevennes, as well
+as a considerable extent of the low country between Nismes and
+Montpellier. The Camisard troops, headed by their chiefs, marched
+through the villages with drums beating in open day, and were
+quartered by billet on the inhabitants in like manner as the royal
+regiments. Roland levied imposts and even tithes throughout his
+district, and compelled the farmers, at the peril of their lives, to
+bring their stores of victual to the "Camp of the Eternal." In the
+midst of all, they held their meetings in the Desert, at which the
+chiefs preached, baptized, and administered the sacrament to their
+flocks.</p>
+
+<p>The constituted authorities seemed paralyzed by the extent of the
+insurrection, and the suddenness with which it spread. The governor of
+the province had so repeatedly reported to his royal master the
+pacification of Languedoc, that when this last and worst outbreak
+occurred he was ashamed to announce it. The peace at Ryswick had set
+at liberty a large force of soldiers, who <span class="pagenum"><a id="page139" name="page139"></a>(p. 139)</span> had now no other
+occupation than to "convert" the Protestants and force them to attend
+Mass. About five hundred thousand men were now under arms for this
+purpose&mdash;occupied as a sort of police force, very much to their own
+degradation as soldiers.</p>
+
+<p>A large body of this otherwise unoccupied army had been placed under
+the direction of Baville for the purpose of suppressing the
+rebellion&mdash;an army of veteran horse and foot, whose valour had been
+tried in many hard-fought battles. Surely it was not to be said that
+this immense force could be baffled and defied by a few thousand
+peasants, cowherds, and wool-carders, fighting for what they
+ridiculously called their "rights of conscience!" Baville could not
+believe it; and he accordingly determined again to apply himself more
+vigorously than ever to the suppression of the insurrection, by means
+of the ample forces placed at his disposal.</p>
+
+<p>Again the troops were launched against the insurgents, and again and
+again they were baffled in their attempts to overtake and crush them.
+The soldiers became worn out by forced marches, in running from one
+place to another to disperse assemblies in the Desert. They were
+distracted by the number of places in which the rebels made their
+appearance. Cavalier ran from town to town, making his attacks
+sometimes late at night, sometimes in the early morning; but before
+the troops could come up he had done all the mischief he intended, and
+was perhaps fifty miles distant on another expedition. If the
+Royalists divided themselves into small bodies, they were in danger of
+being overpowered; and if they kept together in large bodies, they
+moved about with difficulty, and could not overtake the insurgents,
+"by reason," said Cavalier, "we could go <span class="pagenum"><a id="page140" name="page140"></a>(p. 140)</span> further in three
+hours than they could in a whole day; regular troops not being used to
+march through woods and mountains as we did."</p>
+
+<p>At length the truth could not be concealed any longer. The States of
+Languedoc were summoned to meet at Montpellier, and there the
+desperate state of affairs was fully revealed. The bishops of the
+principal dioceses could with difficulty attend the meeting, and were
+only enabled to do so by the assistance of strong detachments of
+soldiers&mdash;the Camisards being masters of the principal roads. They
+filled the assembly with their lamentations, and declared that they
+had been betrayed by the men in power. At their urgent solicitation,
+thirty-two more companies of Catholic fusiliers and another regiment
+of dragoons were ordered to be immediately embodied in the district.
+The governor also called to his aid an additional regiment of dragoons
+from Rouergue; a battalion of marines from the ships-of-war lying at
+Marseilles and Toulon; a body of Miguelets from Roussillon, accustomed
+to mountain warfare; together with a large body of Irish officers and
+soldiers, part of the Irish Brigade.</p>
+
+<hr>
+
+<p>And how did it happen that the self-exiled Irish patriots were now in
+the Cevennes, helping the army of Louis XIV. to massacre the Camisards
+by way of teaching them a better religion? It happened thus: The
+banishment of the Huguenots from France, and their appearance under
+William III. in Ireland to fight at the Boyne and Augrhim, contributed
+to send the Irish Brigade over to France&mdash;though it must be confessed
+that the Irish Brigade fought much better for Louis XIV. than they had
+ever done for Ireland.</p>
+
+<p>After the surrender of Limerick in 1691, the principal <span class="pagenum"><a id="page141" name="page141"></a>(p. 141)</span>
+number of the Irish followers of James II. declared their intention of
+abandoning Ireland and serving their sovereign's ally the King of
+France. The Irish historians allege that the number of the brigade at
+first amounted to nearly thirty thousand men.<a id="footnotetag42" name="footnotetag42"></a><a href="#footnote42" title="Go to footnote 42"><span class="small">[42]</span></a> Though, they fought
+bravely for France, and conducted themselves valiantly in many of her
+great battles, they were unfortunately put forward to do a great deal
+of dirty work for Louis XIV. One of the first campaigns they were
+engaged in was in Savoy, under Catinat, in repressing the Vaudois or
+Barbets.</p>
+
+<p>The Vaudois peasantry were for the most part unarmed, and their only
+crime was their religion. The regiments of Viscount Clare and Viscount
+Dillon, principally distinguished themselves against the Vaudois. The
+war was one of extermination, in which many of the Barbets were
+killed. Mr. O'Connor states that between the number of the Alpine
+mountaineers cut off, and the extent of devastation and pillage
+committed amongst them by the Irish, Catinat's commission was executed
+with terrible fidelity; the memory of which "has rendered their name
+and nation odious to the Vaudois. Six generations," he remarks, "have
+since passed, away, but neither time nor subsequent calamities have
+obliterated the impression made by the waste and desolation of this
+military incursion."<a id="footnotetag43" name="footnotetag43"></a><a href="#footnote43" title="Go to footnote 43"><span class="small">[43]</span></a> Because of the outrages and destruction
+committed upon the women and children in the valleys in the absence of
+their natural defenders, the Vaudois still speak of the Irish as "the
+foreign assassins."</p>
+
+<p>The Brigade having thus faithfully served Louis XIV. <span class="pagenum"><a id="page142" name="page142"></a>(p. 142)</span> in
+Piedmont, were now occupied in the same work in the Cevennes. The
+historian of the Brigade does not particularise the battles in which
+they were engaged with the Camisards, but merely announces that "on
+several occasions, the Irish appear to have distinguished themselves,
+especially their officers."</p>
+
+<hr>
+
+<p>When Cavalier heard of the vast additional forces about to be thrown
+into the Cevennes, he sought to effect a diversion by shifting the
+theatre of war. Marching down towards the low country with about two
+hundred men, he went from village to village in the Vaunage, holding
+assemblies of the people. His whereabouts soon became known to the
+Royalists, and Captain Bonnafoux, of the Calvisson militia, hearing
+that Cavalier was preaching one day at the village of St. Comes,
+hastened to capture him.</p>
+
+<p>Bonnafoux had already distinguished himself in the preceding year, by
+sabring two assemblies surprised by him at Vauvert and Caudiac, and
+his intention now was to serve Cavalier and his followers in like
+manner. Galloping up to the place of meeting, the Captain was
+challenged by the Camisard sentinel; and his answer was to shoot the
+man dead with his pistol. The report alarmed the meeting, then
+occupied in prayer; but rising from their knees, they at once formed
+in line and advanced to meet the foe, who turned and fled at their
+first discharge.</p>
+
+<p>Cavalier next went southward to Caudiac, where he waited for an
+opportunity of surprising Aimargues, and putting to the sword the
+militia, who had long been the scourge of the Protestants in that
+quarter. He entered the latter town on a fair day, and walked about
+amongst the people; but, finding that his intention was <span class="pagenum"><a id="page143" name="page143"></a>(p. 143)</span>
+known, and that his enterprise was not likely to succeed, he turned
+aside and resolved upon another course. But first it was necessary
+that his troops should be supplied with powder and ammunition, of
+which they had run short. So, disguising himself as a merchant, and
+mounted on a horse with capacious saddlebags, he rode off to Nismes,
+close at hand, to buy gunpowder. He left his men in charge of his two
+lieutenants, Ravanel and Catinat, who prophesied to him that during
+his absence they would fight a battle and win a victory.</p>
+
+<p>Count Broglie had been promptly informed by the defeated Captain
+Bonnafoux that the Camisards were in the neighbourhood; and he set out
+in pursuit of them with a strong body of horse and foot. After several
+days' search amongst the vineyards near Nismes and the heathery hills
+about Milhaud, Broglie learnt that the Camisards were to be found at
+Caudiac. But when he reached that place he found the insurgents had
+already left, and taken a northerly direction. Broglie followed their
+track, and on the following day came up with them at a place called
+Mas de Gaffarel, in the Val de Bane, about three miles west of Nismes,
+The Royalists consisted of two hundred militia, commanded by the Count
+and his son, and two troops of dragoons, under Captain la Dourville
+and the redoubtable Captain Poul.</p>
+
+<p>The Camisards had only time to utter a short prayer, and to rise from
+their knees and advance singing their battle psalm, when Poul and his
+dragoons were upon them. Their charge was so furious that Ravanel and
+his men were at first thrown into disorder; but rallying, and bravely
+fighting, they held their ground. Captain Poul was brought to the
+ground by a stone <span class="pagenum"><a id="page144" name="page144"></a>(p. 144)</span> hurled from a sling by a young Vauvert
+miller named Samuelet; Count Broglie himself was wounded by a
+musket-ball, and many of his dragoons lay stretched on the field.
+Catinat observing the fall of Poul, rushed forward, cut off his head
+with a sweep of his sabre, and mounting Poul's horse, almost alone
+chased the Royalists, now flying in all directions. Broglie did not
+draw breath until he had reached the secure shelter of the castle of
+Bernis.</p>
+
+<p>While these events were in progress, Cavalier was occupied on his
+mission of buying gunpowder in Nismes. He was passing along the
+Esplanade&mdash;then, as now, a beautiful promenade&mdash;when he observed from
+the excitement of the people, running about hither and thither, that
+something alarming had occurred. On making inquiry he was told that
+"the Barbets" were in the immediate neighbourhood, and it was even
+feared they would enter and sack the city. Shortly after, a trooper
+was observed galloping towards them at full speed along the
+Montpellier Road, without arms or helmet. He was almost out of breath
+when he came up, and could only exclaim that "All is lost! Count
+Broglie and Captain Poul are killed, and the Barbets are pursuing the
+remainder of the royal troops into the city!"</p>
+
+<p>The gates were at once ordered to be shut and barricaded; the
+<span class="italic">générale</span> was beaten; the troops and militia were mustered; the
+priests ran about in the streets crying, "We are undone!" Some of the
+Roman Catholics even took shelter in the houses of the Protestants,
+calling upon them to save their lives. But the night passed, and with
+it their alarm, for the Camisards did not make their appearance. Next
+morning a message arrived from Count Broglie, shut up in <span class="pagenum"><a id="page145" name="page145"></a>(p. 145)</span> the
+castle of Bernis, ordering the garrison to come to his relief.</p>
+
+<p>In the meantime, Cavalier, with the assistance of his friends in
+Nismes, had obtained the articles of which he was in need, and
+prepared to set out on his return journey. The governor and his
+detachment were issuing from the western gate as he left, and he
+accompanied them part of the way, still disguised as a merchant, and
+mounted on his horse, with a large portmanteau behind him, and
+saddlebags on either side full of gunpowder and ammunition. The
+Camisard chief mixed with the men, talking with them freely about the
+Barbets and their doings. When he came to the St. Hypolite road he
+turned aside; but they warned him that if he went that way he would
+certainly fall into the hands of the Barbets, and lose not only his
+horse and his merchandise, but his life. Cavalier thanked them for
+their advice, but said he was not afraid of the Barbets, and proceeded
+on his way, shortly rejoining his troop at the appointed rendez-vous.</p>
+
+<p>The Camisards crossed the Gardon by the bridge of St. Nicholas, and
+were proceeding towards their head-quarters at Bouquet, up the left
+bank of the river, when an attempt was made by the Chevalier de St.
+Chaptes, at the head of the militia of the district, to cut off their
+retreat. But Ravanel charged them with such fury as to drive the
+greater part into the Gardon, then swollen by a flood, and those who
+did not escape by swimming were either killed or drowned.</p>
+
+<p>Thus the insurrection seemed to grow, notwithstanding all the measures
+taken to repress it. The number of soldiers stationed in the province
+was from time to time increased; they were scattered in detachments
+all over the country, and the Camisards took care to <span class="pagenum"><a id="page146" name="page146"></a>(p. 146)</span> give
+them but few opportunities of exhibiting their force, and then only
+when at a comparative disadvantage. The Royalists, at their wits' end,
+considered what was next to be done in order to the pacification of
+the country. The simple remedy, they knew, was to allow these poor
+simple people to worship in their own way without molestation. Grant
+them this privilege, and they were at any moment ready to lay down
+their arms, and resume their ordinary peaceful pursuits.</p>
+
+<p>But this was precisely what the King would not allow. To do so would
+be an admission of royal fallibility which neither he nor his advisers
+were prepared to make. To enforce conformity on his subjects, Louis
+XIV. had already driven some half-a-million of the best of them into
+exile, besides the thousands who had perished on gibbets, in dungeons,
+or at the galleys. And was he now to confess, by granting liberty of
+worship to these neatherds, carders, and peasants, that the rigorous
+policy of "the Most Christian King" had been an entire mistake?</p>
+
+<p>It was resolved, therefore, that no such liberty should be granted,
+and that these peasants, like the rest of the King's subjects, were to
+be forced, at the sword's point if necessary, to worship God in <span class="italic">his</span>
+way, and not in theirs. Viewed in this light, the whole proceeding
+would appear to be a ludicrous absurdity, but for its revolting
+impiety and the abominable cruelties with which it was accompanied.
+Yet the Royalists even blamed themselves for the mercy which they had
+hitherto shown to the Protestant peasantry; and the more virulent
+amongst them urged that the whole of the remaining population that
+would not at once conform to the Church of Rome, should forthwith be
+put to the sword!</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page147" name="page147"></a>(p. 147)</span> Brigadier Julien, an apostate Protestant, who had served
+under William of Orange in Ireland, and afterwards under the Duke of
+Savoy in Piedmont, disappointed with the slowness of his promotion,
+had taken service under Louis XIV., and was now employed as a partizan
+chief in the suppression of his former co-religionists in Languedoc.
+Like all renegades, he was a bitter and furious persecutor; and in the
+councils of Baville his voice was always raised for the extremest
+measures. He would utterly exterminate the insurgents, and, if
+necessary, reduce the country to a desert. "It is not enough," said
+he, "merely to kill those bearing arms; the villages which supply the
+combatants, and which give them shelter and sustenance, ought to be
+burnt down: thus only can the insurrection be suppressed."</p>
+
+<p>In a military point of view Julien was probably right; but the savage
+advice startled even Baville. "Nothing can be easier," said he, "than
+to destroy the towns and villages; but this would be to make a desert
+of one of the finest and most productive districts of Languedoc." Yet
+Baville himself eventually adopted the very policy which he now
+condemned.</p>
+
+<p>In the first place, however, it was determined to pursue and destroy
+Cavalier and his band. Eight hundred men, under the Count de Touman,
+were posted at Uzes; two battalions of the regiment of Hainault, under
+Julien, at Anduze; while Broglie, with a strong body of dragoons and
+militia, commanded the passes at St. Ambrose. These troops occupied,
+as it were, the three sides of a triangle, in the centre of which
+Cavalier was known to be in hiding in the woods of Bouquet. Converging
+upon him simultaneously, they hoped to surround and destroy him.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page148" name="page148"></a>(p. 148)</span> But the Camisard chief was well advised of their movements.
+To draw them away from his magazines, Cavalier marched boldly to the
+north, and slipping through between the advancing forces, he got into
+Broglie's rear, and set fire to two villages inhabited by Catholics.
+The three bodies at once directed themselves upon the burning
+villages; but when they reached them Cavalier had made his escape, and
+was nowhere to be heard of. For four days they hunted the country
+between the Garden and the Ceze, beating the woods and exploring the
+caves; and then they returned, harassed and vexed, to their respective
+quarters.</p>
+
+<p>While the Royalists were thus occupied, Cavalier fell upon a convoy of
+provisions which Colonel Marsilly was leading to the castle of
+Mendajols, scattered and killed the escort, and carried off the mules
+and their loads to the magazines at Bouquet. During the whole of the
+month of January, the Camisards, notwithstanding the inclemency of the
+weather, were constantly on the move, making their appearance in the
+most unexpected quarters; Roland descending from Mialet on Anduze, and
+rousing Broglie from his slumbers by a midnight fusillade; Castanet
+attacking St. André, and making a bonfire of the contents of the
+church; Joany disarming Genouillac; and Lafleur terrifying the
+villages of the Lozère almost to the gates of Mende.</p>
+
+<p>Although the winters in the South of France, along the shores of the
+Mediterranean, are comparatively mild and genial, it is very different
+in the mountain districts of the interior, where the snow lies thick
+upon the ground, and the rivers are bound up by frost. Cavalier, in
+his Memoirs, describes the straits to which his followers were reduced
+in that inclement season, being "destitute of houses or beds,
+victuals, bread, or <span class="pagenum"><a id="page149" name="page149"></a>(p. 149)</span> money, and left to struggle with hunger,
+cold, snow, misery, and poverty."</p>
+
+<p class="quote">
+     "General Broglie," he continues, "believed and hoped that though
+     he had not been able to destroy us with the sword, yet the
+     insufferable miseries of the winter would do him that good
+     office. Yet God Almighty prevented it through his power, and by
+     unexpected means his Providence ordered the thing so well that at
+     the end of the winter we found ourselves in being, and in a
+     better condition than we expected.... As for our retiring places,
+     we were used in the night-time to go into hamlets or sheepfolds
+     built in or near the woods, and thought ourselves happy when we
+     lighted upon a stone or piece of timber to make our pillows
+     withal, and a little straw or dry leaves to lie upon in our
+     clothes. We did in this condition sleep as gently and soundly as
+     if we had lain upon a down bed. The weather being extremely cold,
+     we had a great occasion for fire; but residing mostly in woods,
+     we used to get great quantity of faggots and kindle them, and so
+     sit round about them and warm ourselves. In this manner we spent
+     a quarter of a year, running up and down, sometimes one way and
+     sometimes another, through great forests and upon high mountains,
+     in deep snow and upon ice. And notwithstanding the sharpness of
+     the weather, the small stock of our provisions, and the marches
+     and counter-marches we were continually obliged to make, and
+     which gave us but seldom the opportunity of washing the only
+     shirt we had upon our back, not one amongst us fell sick. One
+     might have perceived in our visage a complexion as fresh as if we
+     had fed upon the most delicious meats, and at the end of the
+     season we found ourselves in a good disposition heartily to
+     commence the following campaign."<a id="footnotetag44" name="footnotetag44"></a><a href="#footnote44" title="Go to footnote 44"><span class="small">[44]</span></a></p>
+
+<p>The campaign of 1703, the third year of the insurrection, began
+unfavourably for the Camisards. The ill-success of Count Broglie as
+commander of the royal forces in the Cevennes, determined Louis
+XIV.&mdash;from whom the true state of affairs could no longer be
+concealed&mdash;to supersede him by Marshal Montrevel, one of the ablest of
+his generals. The army of Languedoc was again reinforced by ten
+thousand of the best soldiers of France, drawn from the armies of
+Germany and Italy. It now consisted of three regiments of dragoons and
+twenty-four battalions of foot&mdash;of the Irish Brigade, the Miguelets,
+and the Languedoc fusiliers&mdash;which, with <span class="pagenum"><a id="page150" name="page150"></a>(p. 150)</span> the local militia,
+constituted an effective force of not less than sixty thousand men!</p>
+
+<p>Such was the irresistible army, commanded by a marshal of France,
+three lieutenant-generals, three major-generals, and three
+brigadier-generals, now stationed in Languedoc, to crush the peasant
+insurrection. No wonder that the Camisard chiefs were alarmed when the
+intelligence reached them of this formidable force having been set in
+motion for their destruction.</p>
+
+<p>The first thing they determined upon was to effect a powerful
+diversion, and to extend, if possible, the area of the insurrection.
+For this purpose, Cavalier, at the head of eight hundred men,
+accompanied by thirty baggage mules, set out in the beginning of
+February, with the object of raising the Viverais, the north-eastern
+quarter of Languedoc, where the Camisards had numerous partizans. The
+snow was lying thick upon the ground when they set out; but the little
+army pushed northward, through Rochegude and Barjac. At the town of
+Vagnas they found their way barred by a body of six hundred militia,
+under the Count de Roure. These they attacked with great fury and
+speedily put to flight.</p>
+
+<p>But behind the Camisarde was a second and much stronger royalist
+force, eighteen hundred men, under Brigadier Julien, who had hastened
+up from Lussan upon Cavalier's track, and now hung upon his rear in
+the forest of Vagnas. Next morning the Camisards accepted battle,
+fought with their usual bravery, but having been trapped into an
+ambuscade, they were overpowered by numbers, and at length broke and
+fled in disorder, leaving behind them their mules, baggage, seven
+drums, and a quantity of arms, with some two <span class="pagenum"><a id="page151" name="page151"></a>(p. 151)</span> hundred dead
+and wounded. Cavalier himself escaped with difficulty, and, after
+having been given up for lost, reached the rendez-vous at Bouquet in a
+state of complete exhaustion, Ravanel and Catinat having preceded him
+thither with, the remains of his broken army.</p>
+
+<p>Roland and Cavalier now altered their tactics. They resolved to avoid
+pitched battles such as that at Vagnas, where they were liable to be
+crushed at a blow, and to divide their forces into small detachments
+constantly on the move, harassing the enemy, interrupting their
+communications, and falling upon detached bodies whenever an
+opportunity for an attack presented itself.</p>
+
+<p>To the surprise of Montrevel, who supposed the Camisards finally
+crushed at Vagnas, the intelligence suddenly reached him of a
+multitude of attacks on fortified posts, burning of châteaux and
+churches, captures of convoys, and defeats of detached bodies of
+Royalists.</p>
+
+<p>Joany attacked Genouillac, cut to pieces the militia who defended it,
+and carried off their arms and ammunition, with other spoils, to the
+camp at Faux-des-Armes. Shortly after, in one of his incursions, he
+captured a convoy of forty mules laden with cloth, wine, and
+provisions for Lent; and, though hotly pursued by a much superior
+force, he succeeded in making his escape into the mountains.</p>
+
+<p>Castanet was not less active in the west&mdash;sacking and burning Catholic
+villages, and putting their inhabitants to the sword by way of
+reprisal for similar atrocities committed by the Royalists. At the
+same time, Montrevel pillaged and burned Euzet and St. Jean de
+Ceirarges, villages inhabited by Protestants; and there was not a
+hamlet but was liable at any moment <span class="pagenum"><a id="page152" name="page152"></a>(p. 152)</span> to be sacked and
+destroyed by one or other of the contending parties.</p>
+
+<p>Nor was Roland idle. Being greatly in want of arms and ammunition, as
+well as of shoes and clothes for his men, he collected a considerable
+force, and made a descent, for the purpose of obtaining them, on the
+rich and populous towns of the south; more particularly on the
+manufacturing town of Ganges, where the Camisards had many friends.
+Although Roland, to divert the attention of Montrevel from Ganges,
+sent a detachment of his men into the neighbourhood of Nismes to raise
+the alarm there, it was not long before a large royalist force was
+directed against him.</p>
+
+<p>Hearing that Montrevel was marching upon Ganges, Roland hastily left
+for the north, but was overtaken near Pompignan by the marshal at the
+head of an army of regular horse and foot, including several regiments
+of local militia, Miguelets, marines, and Irish. The Royalists were
+posted in such a manner as to surround the Camisards, who, though they
+fought with their usual impetuosity, and succeeded in breaking through
+the ranks of their enemies, suffered a heavy loss in dead and wounded.
+Roland himself escaped with difficulty, and with his broken forces
+fled through Durfort to his stronghold at Mialet.</p>
+
+<p>After the battle, Marshal Montrevel returned to Ganges, where he
+levied a fine of ten thousand livres on the Protestant population,
+giving up their houses to pillage, and hanging a dozen of those who
+had been the most prominent in abetting the Camisards during their
+recent visit. At the game time, he reported to head-quarters at Paris
+that he had entirely destroyed the rebels, and that Languedoc was now
+"pacified."</p>
+
+<p>Much to his surprise, however, not many weeks <span class="pagenum"><a id="page153" name="page153"></a>(p. 153)</span> elapsed before
+Cavalier, who had been laid up by the small-pox during Roland's
+expedition to Ganges, again appeared in the field, attacking convoys,
+entering the villages and carrying off arms, and spreading terror anew
+to the very gates of Nismes. He returned northwards by the valley of
+the Rhône, driving before him flocks and herds for the provisioning of
+his men, and reached his retreat at Bouquet in safety. Shortly after,
+he issued from it again, and descended upon Ners, where he destroyed a
+detachment of troops under Colonel de Jarnaud; next day he crossed the
+Gardon, and cut up a reinforcement intended for the garrison of
+Sommières; and the day after he was heard of in another place,
+attacking a convoy, and carrying off arms, ammunition, and provisions.</p>
+
+<p>Montrevel was profoundly annoyed at the failure of his efforts thus
+far to suppress the insurrection. It even seemed to increase and
+extend with every new measure taken to crush it. A marshal of France,
+at the head of sixty thousand men, he feared lest he should lose
+credit with his friends at court unless he were able at once to root
+out these miserable cowherds and wool-carders who continued to bid
+defiance to the royal authority which he represented; and he
+determined to exert himself with renewed vigour to exterminate them
+root and branch.</p>
+
+<p>In this state of irritation the intelligence was one day brought to
+the marshal while sitting over his wine after dinner at Nismes, that
+an assembly of Huguenots was engaged in worship in a mill situated on
+the canal outside the Port-des-Carmes. He at once ordered out a
+battalion of foot, marched on the mill, and surrounded it. The
+soldiers burst open the door, and found from two to three hundred
+women, children, and old men <span class="pagenum"><a id="page154" name="page154"></a>(p. 154)</span> engaged in prayer; and
+proceeded to put them to the sword. But the marshal, impatient at the
+slowness of the butchery, ordered the men to desist and to fire the
+place. This order was obeyed, and the building, being for the most
+part of wood, was soon wrapped in flames, from amidst which rose the
+screams of women and children. All who tried to escape were bayoneted,
+or driven back into the burning mill. Every soul perished&mdash;all
+excepting a girl, who was rescued by one of Montrevel's servants. But
+the pitiless marshal ordered both the girl and her deliverer to be put
+to death. The former was hanged forthwith, but the lackey's life was
+spared at the intercession of some sisters of mercy accidentally
+passing the place.</p>
+
+<p>In the same savage and relentless spirit, Montrevel proceeded to
+extirpate the Huguenots wherever found. He caused all suspected
+persons in twenty-two parishes in the diocese of Nismes to be seized
+and carried off. The men were transported to North America, and the
+women and children imprisoned in the fortresses of Roussillon.</p>
+
+<p>But the most ruthless measures were those which were adopted in the
+Upper Cevennes: there nothing short of devastation would satisfy the
+marshal. Thirty-two parishes were completely laid waste; the cattle,
+grain, and produce which they contained were seized and carried into
+the towns of refuge garrisoned by the Royalists&mdash;Alais, Anduze,
+Florac, St. Hypolite, and Nismes&mdash;so that nothing should be left
+calculated to give sustenance to the rebels. Four hundred and
+sixty-six villages and hamlets were reduced to mere heaps of ashes and
+blackened ruins, and such of their inhabitants as were not slain by
+the soldiery fled with their families into the wilderness.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page155" name="page155"></a>(p. 155)</span> All the principal villages inhabited by the Protestants were
+thus completely destroyed, together with their mills and barns, and
+every building likely to give them shelter. Mialet was sacked and
+burnt&mdash;Roland, still suffering from his wounds, being unable to strike
+a blow in defence of his stronghold. St. Julien was also plundered and
+levelled, and its inhabitants carried captive to Montpellier, where
+the women and children were imprisoned, and the men sent to the
+galleys.</p>
+
+<p>When Cavalier heard of the determination of Montrevel to make a desert
+of the country, he sent word to him that for every Huguenot village
+destroyed he would destroy two inhabited by the Romanists. Thus the
+sacking and burning on the one side was immediately followed by
+increased sacking and burning on the other. The war became one of
+mutual destruction and extermination, and the unfortunate inhabitants
+on both sides were delivered over to all the horrors of civil war.</p>
+
+<p>So far, however, from the Camisards being suppressed, the destruction
+of the dwellings of the Huguenots only served to swell their numbers,
+and they descended from their mountains upon the Catholics of the
+plains in increasing force and redoubled fury. Montlezan was utterly
+destroyed&mdash;all but the church, which was strongly barricaded, and
+resisted Cavalier's attempts to enter it. Aurillac, also, was in like
+manner sacked and gutted, and the destroying torrent swept over all
+the towns and villages of the Cevennes.</p>
+
+<p>Cavalier was so ubiquitous, so daring, and often so successful in his
+attacks, that of all the Camisard leaders he was held to be the most
+dangerous, and a high price was accordingly set upon his head by the
+governor. Hence many attempts were made to betray him. He <span class="pagenum"><a id="page156" name="page156"></a>(p. 156)</span>
+was haunted by spies, some of whom even succeeded in obtaining
+admission to his ranks. More than once the spies were detected&mdash;it was
+pretended through prophetic influence&mdash;and immediately shot. But on
+one occasion Cavalier and his whole force narrowly escaped destruction
+through the betrayal of a pretended follower.</p>
+
+<p>While the Royalists were carrying destruction through the villages of
+the Upper Cevennes, Cavalier, Salomon, and Abraham, in order to divert
+them from their purpose, resolved upon another descent into the low
+country, now comparatively ungarrisoned. With this object they
+gathered together some fifteen hundred men, and descended from the
+mountains by Collet, intending to cross the Gardon at Beaurivage. On
+Sunday, the 29th of April, they halted in the wood of Malaboissière, a
+little north of Mialet, for a day's preaching and worship; and after
+holding three services, which were largely attended, they directed
+their steps to the Tower of Belliot, a deserted farmhouse on the south
+of the present high road between Alais and Anduze.</p>
+
+<p>The house had been built on the ruins of a feudal castle, and took its
+name from one of the old towers still standing. It was surrounded by a
+dry stone wall, forming a court, the entrance to which was closed by
+hurdles. On their arrival at this place late at night, the Camisards
+partook of the supper which had been prepared for them by their
+purveyor on the occasion&mdash;a miller of the neighbourhood, named
+Guignon&mdash;whose fidelity was assured not only by his apparent piety,
+but by the circumstance that two of his sons belonged to Cavalier's
+band.</p>
+
+<p>No sooner, however, had the Camisards lain down to sleep than the
+miller, possessed by the demon of gold, <span class="pagenum"><a id="page157" name="page157"></a>(p. 157)</span> set out directly for
+Alais, about three miles distant, and, reaching the quarters of
+Montrevel, sold the secret of Cavalier's sleeping-place to the marshal
+for fifty pieces of gold, and together with it the lives of his own
+sons and their fifteen hundred companions.</p>
+
+<p>The marshal forthwith mustered all the available troops in Alais,
+consisting of eight regiments of foot (of which one was Irish) and two
+of dragoons, and set out at once for the Tower of Belliot, taking the
+precaution to set a strict guard upon all the gates, to prevent the
+possibility of any messenger leaving the place to warn Cavalier of his
+approach. The Royalists crept towards the tower in three bodies, so as
+to cut off their retreat in every direction. Meanwhile, the Camisards,
+unapprehensive of danger, lay wrapped in slumber, filling the tower,
+the barns, the stables, and outhouses.</p>
+
+<p>The night was dark, and favoured the Royalists' approach. Suddenly,
+one of their divisions came upon the advanced Camisard sentinels. They
+fired, but were at once cut down. Those behind fled back to the
+sleeping camp, and raised the cry of alarm. Cavalier started up,
+calling his men "to arms," and, followed by about four hundred, he
+precipitated himself on the heads of the advancing columns. Driven
+back, they rallied again, more troops coming up to their support, and
+again they advanced to the attack.</p>
+
+<p>To his dismay, Cavalier found the enemy in overwhelming force,
+enveloping his whole position. By great efforts he held them back
+until some four or five hundred more of his men had joined him, and
+then he gave way and retired behind a ravine or hollow, probably
+forming part of the fosse of the ancient château. Having there rallied
+his followers, he recrossed the <span class="pagenum"><a id="page158" name="page158"></a>(p. 158)</span> ravine to make another
+desperate effort to relieve the remainder of his troop shut up in the
+tower.</p>
+
+<p>A desperate encounter followed, in the midst of which two of the
+royalist columns, mistaking each other for enemies in the darkness,
+fired into each other and increased the confusion and the carnage. The
+moon rose on this dreadful scene, and revealed to the Royalists the
+smallness of the force opposed to them. The struggle was renewed again
+and again; Cavalier still seeking to relieve those shut up in the
+tower, and the Royalists, now concentrated and in force, to surround
+and destroy him.</p>
+
+<p>At length, after the struggle had lasted for about five hours,
+Cavalier, in order to save the rest of his men, resolved on retiring
+before daybreak; and he succeeded in effecting his retreat without
+being pursued by the enemy.</p>
+
+<p>The three hundred Camisards who continued shut up in the tower refused
+to surrender. They transformed the ruin into a fortress, barricading
+every entrance, and firing from every loophole. When their ammunition
+was expended, they hurled stones, joists, and tiles down upon their
+assailants from the summit of the tower. For four more hours they
+continued to hold out. Cannon were sent for from Alais, to blow in the
+doors; but before they arrived all was over. The place had been set on
+fire by hand grenades, and the imprisoned Camisards, singing psalms
+amidst the flames to their last breath, perished to a man.</p>
+
+<p>This victory cost Montrevel dear. He lost some twelve hundred dead and
+wounded before the fatal Tower of Belliot; whilst Cavalier's loss was
+not less than four hundred dead, of whom a hundred and eighteen were
+found at daybreak along the brink of the <span class="pagenum"><a id="page159" name="page159"></a>(p. 159)</span> ravine. One of
+these was mistaken for the body of Cavalier; on which Montrevel, with
+characteristic barbarity, ordered the head to be cut off and sent to
+<span class="italic">Cavalier's mother</span> for identification!</p>
+
+<p>From the slight glimpses we obtain of the <span class="italic">man</span> Montrevel in the
+course of these deplorable transactions, there seems to have been
+something ineffably mean and spiteful in his nature. Thus, on another
+occasion, in a fit of rage at having been baffled by the young
+Camisard leader, he dispatched a squadron of dragoons to Ribaute for
+the express purpose of pulling down the house in which Cavalier had
+been born!</p>
+
+<p>A befitting sequel to this sanguinary struggle at the Tower of Belliot
+was the fate of Guignon, the miller, who had betrayed the sleeping
+Camisards to Montrevel. His crime was discovered. The gold was found
+upon him. He was tried, and condemned to death. The Camisards, under
+arms, assembled to see the sentence carried out. They knelt round the
+doomed man, while the prophets by turn prayed for his soul, and
+implored the clemency of the Sovereign Judge. Guignon professed the
+utmost contrition, besought the pardon of his brethren, and sought
+leave to embrace for the last time his two sons&mdash;privates in the
+Camisard ranks. The two young men, however, refused the proffered
+embrace with a gesture of apparent disgust; and they looked on, the
+sad and stern spectators of the traitor's punishment.</p>
+
+<p>Again Montrevel thought he had succeeded in crushing the insurrection,
+and that he had cut off its head with that of the Camisard chief. But
+his supposed discovery of the dead body proved an entire mistake; and
+not many days elapsed before Cavalier made his appearance before the
+gates of Alais, and sent in a <span class="pagenum"><a id="page160" name="page160"></a>(p. 160)</span> challenge to the governor to
+come out and fight him. And it is to be observed that by this time a
+fiercely combative spirit, of fighting for fighting's sake, began to
+show itself among the Camisards. Thus, Castanet appeared one day
+before the gates of Meyreuis, where the regiment of Cordes was
+stationed, and challenged the colonel to come out and fight him in the
+open; but the challenge was declined. On another occasion, Cavalier in
+like manner challenged the commander of Vic to bring out thirty of his
+soldiers and fight thirty Camisards. The challenge was accepted, and
+the battle took place; they fought until ten men only remained alive
+on either side, but the Camisards were masters of the field.</p>
+
+<p>Montrevel only redoubled his efforts to exterminate the Camisards. He
+had no other policy. In the summer of 1703 the Pope (Clement XI.) came
+to his assistance, issuing a bull against the rebels as being of "the
+execrable race of the ancient Albigenses," and promising "absolute and
+general remission of sins" to all such as should join the holy militia
+of Louis XIV. in "exterminating the cursed heretics and miscreants,
+enemies alike of God and of Cæsar."</p>
+
+<p>A special force was embodied with this object&mdash;the Florentines, or
+"White Camisards"&mdash;distinguished by the white cross which they wore in
+front of their hats. They were for the most part composed of
+desperadoes and miscreants, and went about pillaging and burning, with
+so little discrimination between friend and foe, that the Catholics
+themselves implored the marshal to suppress them. These Florentines
+were the perpetrators of such barbarities that Roland determined to
+raise a body of cavalry to hunt them down; and with that object,
+Catinat, the old dragoon, went down to the <span class="pagenum"><a id="page161" name="page161"></a>(p. 161)</span> Camargues&mdash;a sort
+of island-prairies lying between the mouths of the Rhône&mdash;where the
+Arabs had left a hardy breed of horses; and there he purchased some
+two hundred steeds wherewith to mount the Camisard horse, to the
+command of which Catinat was himself appointed.</p>
+
+<p>It is unnecessary to particularise the variety of combats, of
+marchings and countermarchings, which occurred during the progress of
+the insurrection. Between the contending parties, the country was
+reduced to a desert. Tillage ceased, for there was no certainty of the
+cultivator reaping the crop; more likely it would be carried off or
+burnt by the conflicting armies. Beggars and vagabonds wandered about
+robbing and plundering without regard to party or religion; and social
+security was entirely at an end.</p>
+
+<p>Meanwhile, Montrevel still called for more troops. Of the twenty
+battalions already entrusted to him, more than one-third had perished;
+and still the insurrection was not suppressed. He hoped, however, that
+the work was now accomplished; and, looking to the wasted condition of
+the country, that the famine and cold of the winter of 1703-4 would
+complete the destruction of such of the rebels as still survived.</p>
+
+<p>During the winter, however, the Camisard chiefs had not only been able
+to keep their forces together, but to lay up a considerable store of
+provisions and ammunition, principally by captures from the enemy; and
+in the following spring they were in a position to take the field in
+even greater force than ever. They, indeed, opened the campaign by
+gaining two important victories over the Royalists; but though they
+were their greatest, they were also nearly their last.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page162" name="page162"></a>(p. 162)</span> The battle of Martinargues was the Cannæ of the Camisards. It
+was fought near the village of that name, not far from Ners, early in
+the spring of 1704. The campaign had been opened by the Florentines,
+who, now that they had made a desert of the Upper Cevennes, were
+burning and ravaging the Protestant villages of the plain. Cavalier
+had put himself on their track, and pursued and punished them so
+severely, that in their distress they called upon Montrevel to help
+them, informing him of the whereabouts of the Camisards.</p>
+
+<p>A strong royalist force of horse and foot was immediately sent in
+pursuit, under the command of Brigadier Lajonquière. He first marched
+upon the Protestant village of Lascours, where Cavalier had passed the
+previous night. The brigadier severely punished the inhabitants for
+sheltering the Camisards, putting to death four persons, two of them
+girls, whom he suspected to be Cavalier's prophetesses. On the people
+refusing to indicate the direction in which the Camisards had gone, he
+gave the village up to plunder, and the soldiers passed several hours
+ransacking the place, in the course of which they broke open and
+pillaged the wine-cellars.</p>
+
+<p>Meanwhile, Cavalier and his men had proceeded in a northerly
+direction, along the right bank of the little river Droude, one of the
+affluents of the Gardon. A messenger from Lascours overtook him,
+telling him of the outrages committed on the inhabitants of the
+village; and shortly after, the inhabitants of Lascours themselves
+came up&mdash;men, women, and children, who had been driven from their
+pillaged homes by the royalist soldiery. Cavalier was enraged at the
+recital of their woes; and though his force was not one-sixth
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page163" name="page163"></a>(p. 163)</span> the strength of the enemy, he determined to meet their
+advance and give them battle.</p>
+
+<p>Placing the poor people of Lascours in safety, the Camisard leader
+took up his position on a rising ground at the head of a little valley
+close to the village of Martinargues. Cavalier himself occupied the
+centre, his front being covered by a brook running in the hollow of a
+ravine. Ravanel and Catinat, with a small body of men, were posted
+along the two sides of the valley, screened by brushwood. The
+approaching Royalists, seeing before them only the feeble force of
+Cavalier, looked upon his capture as certain.</p>
+
+<p>"See!" cried Lajonquière, "at last we have hold of the Barbets we have
+been so long looking for!" With his dragoons in the centre, flanked by
+the grenadiers and foot, the Royalists advanced with confidence to the
+charge. At the first volley, the Camisards prostrated themselves, and
+the bullets went over their heads. Thinking they had fallen before his
+fusillade, the commander ordered his men to cross the ravine and fall
+upon the remnant with the bayonet. Instantly, however, Cavalier's men
+started to their feet, and smote the assailants with a deadly volley,
+bringing down men and horses. At the same moment, the two wings, until
+then concealed, fired down upon the Royalists and completed their
+confusion. The Camisards, then raising their battle-psalm, rushed
+forward and charged the enemy. The grenadiers resisted stoutly, but
+after a few minutes the entire body&mdash;dragoons, grenadiers, marines,
+and Irish&mdash;fled down the valley towards the Gardon, and the greater
+number of those who were not killed were drowned, Lajonquière himself
+escaping with difficulty.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page164" name="page164"></a>(p. 164)</span> In this battle perished a colonel, a major, thirty-three
+captains and lieutenants, and four hundred and fifty men, while
+Cavalier's loss was only about twenty killed and wounded. A great
+booty was picked up on the field, of gold, silver, jewels, ornamented
+swords, magnificent uniforms, scarfs, and clothing, besides horses, as
+well as the plunder brought from Lascours.</p>
+
+<p>The opening of the Lascours wine-cellars proved the ruin of the
+Royalists, for many of the men were so drunk that they were unable
+either to fight or fly. After returning thanks to God on the
+battle-field, Cavalier conducted the rejoicing people of Lascours back
+to their village, and proceeded to his head-quarters at Bouquet with
+his booty and his trophies.</p>
+
+<p>Another encounter shortly followed at the Bridge of Salindres, about
+midway between Auduze and St. Jean du Gard, in which Roland inflicted
+an equally decisive defeat on a force commanded by Brigadier Lalande.
+Informed of the approach of the Royalists, Roland posted his little
+army in the narrow, precipitous, and rocky valley, along the bottom of
+which runs the river Gardon. Dividing his men into three bodies, he
+posted one on the bridge, another in ambuscade at the entrance to the
+defile, and a third on the summit of the precipice overhanging the
+road.</p>
+
+<p>The Royalists had scarcely advanced to the attack of the bridge, when
+the concealed Camisards rushed out and assailed their rear, while
+those stationed above hurled down rocks and stones, which threw them
+into complete disorder. They at once broke and fled, rushing down to
+the river, into which they threw themselves; and but for Roland's
+neglect in guarding the <span class="pagenum"><a id="page165" name="page165"></a>(p. 165)</span> steep footpath leading to the ford
+at the mill, the whole body would have been destroyed. As it was, they
+suffered heavy loss, the general himself escaping with difficulty,
+leaving his white-plumed hat behind him in the hands of the Camisards.<a href="#toc"><span class="small">[Back to Contents]</span></a></p>
+
+
+<h3><span class="pagenum"><a id="page166" name="page166"></a>(p. 166)</span> CHAPTER VIII.</h3>
+
+<p class="title">END OF THE CAMISARD INSURRECTION.</p>
+
+<p>The insurrection in the Cevennes had continued for more than two
+years, when at length it began to excite serious uneasiness at
+Versailles. It was felt to be a source of weakness as well as danger
+to France, then at war with Portugal, England, and Savoy. What
+increased the alarm of the French Government was the fact that the
+insurgents were anxiously looking abroad for help, and endeavouring to
+excite the Protestant governments of the North to strike a blow in
+their behalf.</p>
+
+<p>England and Holland had been especially appealed to. Large numbers of
+Huguenot soldiers were then serving in the English army; and it was
+suggested that if they could effect a landing on the coast of
+Languedoc, and co-operate with the Camisards, it would at the same
+time help the cause of religious liberty, and operate as a powerful
+diversion in favour of the confederate armies, then engaged with the
+armies of France in the Low Countries and on the Rhine.</p>
+
+<p>In order to ascertain the feasibility of the proposed landing, and the
+condition of the Camisard insurgents, the ministry of Queen Anne sent
+the Marquis de Miremont, a Huguenot refugee in England, on a mission
+to <span class="pagenum"><a id="page167" name="page167"></a>(p. 167)</span> the Cevennes; and he succeeded in reaching the insurgent
+camp at St. Felix, where he met Roland and the other leaders, and
+arranged with them for the descent of a body of Huguenot soldiers on
+the coast.</p>
+
+<p>In the month of September, 1703, the English fleet was descried in the
+Gulf of Lyons, off Aiguesmortes, making signals, which, however, were
+not answered. Marshal Montrevel had been warned of the intended
+invasion; and, summoning troops from all quarters, he so effectually
+guarded the coast, that a landing was found impracticable. Though
+Cavalier was near at hand, he was unable at any point to communicate
+with the English ships; and after lying off for a few days, they
+spread their sails, and the disheartened Camisards saw their intended
+liberators disappear in the distance.</p>
+
+<p>The ministers of Louis XIV. were greatly alarmed by this event. The
+invasion had been frustrated for the time, but the English fleet might
+return, and eventually succeed in effecting a landing. The danger,
+therefore, had to be provided against, and at once. It became clear,
+even to Louis XIV. himself, that the system of terror and coercion
+which had heretofore been exclusively employed against the insurgents,
+had proved a total failure. It was accordingly determined to employ
+some other means, if possible, of bringing this dangerous insurrection
+to an end. In pursuance of this object, Montrevel, to his intense
+mortification, was recalled, and the celebrated Marshal Villars, the
+victor of Hochstadt and Friedlingen, was appointed in his stead, with
+full powers to undertake and carry out the pacification of Languedoc.</p>
+
+<p>Villars reached Nismes towards the end of August, 1704; but before his
+arrival, Montrevel at last succeeded in settling accounts with
+Cavalier, and wiped <span class="pagenum"><a id="page168" name="page168"></a>(p. 168)</span> out many old scores by inflicting upon
+him the severest defeat the Camisard arms had yet received. It was his
+first victory over Cavalier, and his last.</p>
+
+<p>Cavalier's recent successes had made him careless. Having so often
+overcome the royal troops against great odds, he began to think
+himself invincible, and to despise his enemy. His success at
+Martinargues had the effect of greatly increasing his troops; and he
+made a descent upon the low country in the spring of 1704, at the head
+of about a thousand foot and two hundred horse.</p>
+
+<p>Appearing before Bouciran, which he entered without resistance, he
+demolished the fortifications, and proceeded southwards to St. Géniès,
+which he attacked and took, carrying away horses, mules, and arms.
+Next day he marched still southward to Caveirac, only about three
+miles east of Nismes.</p>
+
+<p>Montrevel designedly published his intention of taking leave of his
+government on a certain day, and proceeding to Montpellier with only a
+very slender force&mdash;pretending to send the remainder to Beaucaire, in
+the opposite direction, for the purpose of escorting Villars, his
+successor, into the city. His object in doing this was to deceive the
+Camisard leader, and to draw him into a trap.</p>
+
+<p>The intelligence became known to Cavalier, who now watched the
+Montpellier road, for the purpose of inflicting a parting blow upon
+his often-baffled enemy. Instead, however, of Montrevel setting out
+for Montpellier with a small force, he mustered almost the entire
+troops belonging to the garrison of Nismes&mdash;over six thousand horse
+and foot&mdash;and determined to overwhelm Cavalier, who lay in his way.
+Montrevel divided his force into several bodies, and so disposed them
+as completely to <span class="pagenum"><a id="page169" name="page169"></a>(p. 169)</span> surround the comparatively small Camisard
+force, near Langlade. The first encounter was with the royalist
+regiment of Firmarcon, which Cavalier completely routed; but while
+pursuing them too keenly, the Camisards were assailed in flank by a
+strong body of foot posted in vineyards along the road, and driven
+back upon the main body. The Camisards now discovered that a still
+stronger battalion was stationed in their rear; and, indeed, wherever
+they turned, they saw the Royalists posted in force. There was no
+alternative but cutting their way through the enemy; and Cavalier,
+putting himself at the head of his men, led the way, sword in hand.</p>
+
+<p>A terrible struggle ensued, and the Camisards at last reached the
+bridge at Rosni; but there, too, the Royalists were found blocking the
+road, and crowding the heights on either side. Cavalier, to avoid
+recognition, threw off his uniform, and assumed the guise of a simple
+Camisard. Again he sought to force his way through the masses of the
+enemy. His advance was a series of hand-to-hand fights, extending over
+some six miles, and the struggle lasted for nearly the entire day.
+More than a thousand dead strewed the roads, of whom one half were
+Camisards. The Royalists took five drums, sixty-two horses, and four
+mules laden with provisions, but not one prisoner.</p>
+
+<p>When Villars reached Nismes and heard of this battle, he went to see
+the field, and expressed his admiration at the skill and valour of the
+Camisard chief. "Here is a man," said he, "of no education, without
+any experience in the art of war, who has conducted himself under the
+most difficult and delicate circumstances as if he had been a great
+general. Truly, to fight such a battle were worthy of Cæsar!"</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page170" name="page170"></a>(p. 170)</span> Indeed, the conduct of Cavalier in this struggle so impressed
+Marshal Villars, that he determined, if possible, to gain him over,
+together with his brave followers, to the ranks of the royal army.
+Villars was no bigot, but a humane and honourable man, and a thorough
+soldier. He deplored the continuance of this atrocious war, and
+proceeded to take immediate steps to bring it, if possible, to a
+satisfactory conclusion.</p>
+
+<p>In the meantime, however, the defeat of the Camisards had been
+followed by other reverses. During the absence of Cavalier in the
+South, the royalist general Lalande, at the head of five thousand
+troops, fell upon the joint forces of Roland and Joany at Brenoux, and
+completely defeated them. The same general lay in wait for the return
+of Cavalier with his broken forces, to his retreat near Euzet; and on
+his coming up, the Royalists, in overpowering numbers, fell upon the
+dispirited Camisards, and inflicted upon them another heavy loss.</p>
+
+<p>But a greater calamity, if possible, was the discovery and capture of
+Cavalier's magazines in the caverns near Euzet. The royalist soldiers,
+having observed an old woman frequently leaving the village for the
+adjoining wood with a full basket and returning with an empty one,
+suspected her of succouring the rebels, arrested her, and took her
+before the general. When questioned at first she would confess
+nothing; on which she was ordered forthwith to be hanged. When taken
+to the gibbet in the market-place, however, the old woman's resolution
+gave way, and she entreated to be taken back to the general, when she
+would confess everything. She then acknowledged that she had the care
+of an hospital in the adjoining wood, and that her daily errands had
+been thither. She was promised pardon if <span class="pagenum"><a id="page171" name="page171"></a>(p. 171)</span> she led the
+soldiers at once to the place; and she did so, a battalion following
+at her heels.</p>
+
+<p>Advancing into the wood, the old woman led the soldiers to the mouth
+of a cavern, into which she pointed, and the men entered. The first
+sight that met their eyes was a number of sick and wounded Camisards
+lying upon couches along ledges cut in the rock. They were immediately
+put to death. Entering further into the cavern, the soldiers were
+surprised to find in an inner vault an immense magazine of grain,
+flour, chestnuts, beans, barrels of wine and brandy; farther in,
+stores of drugs, ointment, dressings, and hospital furnishings; and
+finally, an arsenal containing a large store of sabres, muskets,
+pistols, and gunpowder, together with the materials for making it; all
+of which the Royalists seized and carried off.</p>
+
+<p>Lalande, before leaving Euzet, inflicted upon it a terrible
+punishment. He gave it up to pillage, then burnt it to the ground, and
+put the inhabitants to the sword&mdash;all but the old woman, who was left
+alone amidst the corpses and ashes of the ruined village. Lalande
+returned in triumph to Alais, some of his soldiers displaying on the
+points of their bayonets the ears of the slain Camisards.</p>
+
+<p>Other reverses followed in quick succession. Salomon was attacked near
+Pont-de-Montvert, the birthplace of the insurrection, and lost some
+eight hundred of his men. His magazines at Magistavols were also
+discovered and ransacked, containing, amongst other stores, twenty
+oxen and a hundred sheep.</p>
+
+<p>Thus, in four combats, the Camisards lost nearly half their forces,
+together with a large part of their arms, ammunition, and provisions.
+The country occupied by them had been ravaged and reduced to a state
+of desert, <span class="pagenum"><a id="page172" name="page172"></a>(p. 172)</span> and there seemed but little prospect of their
+again being able to make head against their enemies.</p>
+
+<p>The loss of life during the last year of the insurrection had been
+frightful. Some twenty thousand men had perished&mdash;eight thousand
+soldiers, four thousand of the Roman Catholic population, and from
+seven to eight thousand Protestants.</p>
+
+<p>Villars had no sooner entered upon the functions of his office than he
+set himself to remedy this dreadful state of things. He was encouraged
+in his wise intentions by the Baron D'Aigalliers, a Protestant
+nobleman of high standing and great influence, who had emigrated into
+England at the Revocation, but had since returned. This nobleman
+entertained the ardent desire of reconciling the King with his
+Protestant subjects; and he was encouraged by the French Court to
+endeavour to bring the rebels of the Cevennes to terms.</p>
+
+<p>One of the first things Villars did, was to proceed on a journey
+through the devastated districts; and he could not fail to be
+horrified at the sight of the villages in ruins, the wasted vineyards,
+the untilled fields, and the deserted homesteads which met his eyes on
+every side. Wherever he went, he gave it out that he was ready to
+pardon all persons&mdash;rebels as well as their chiefs&mdash;who should lay
+down their arms and submit to the royal clemency; but that, if they
+continued obstinate and refused to submit, he would proceed against
+them to the last extremity. He even offered to put arms in the hands
+of such of the Protestant population as would co-operate with him in
+suppressing the insurrection.</p>
+
+<p>In the meantime, the defeated Camisards under Roland were reorganizing
+their forces, and preparing again to take the field. They were
+unwilling to submit <span class="pagenum"><a id="page173" name="page173"></a>(p. 173)</span> themselves to the professed clemency of
+Villars, without some sufficient guarantee that their religious
+rights&mdash;in defence of which they had taken up arms&mdash;would be
+respected. Roland was already establishing new magazines in place of
+those which had been destroyed; he was again recruiting his brigades
+from the Protestant communes, and many of those who had recovered from
+their wounds again rallied under his standard.</p>
+
+<p>At this juncture, D'Aigalliers suggested to Villars that a negotiation
+should be opened directly with the Camisard chiefs to induce them to
+lay down their arms. Roland refused to listen to any overtures; but
+Cavalier was more accessible, and expressed himself willing to
+negotiate for peace provided his religion was respected and
+recognised.</p>
+
+<p>And Cavalier was right. He saw clearly that longer resistance was
+futile, that it could only end in increased devastation and
+destruction; and he was wise in endeavouring to secure the best
+possible terms under the circumstances for his suffering
+co-religionists. Roland, who refused all such overtures, was the more
+uncompromising and tenacious of purpose; but Cavalier, notwithstanding
+his extreme youth, was by far the more practical and politic of the
+two.</p>
+
+<p>There is no doubt also that Cavalier had begun to weary of the
+struggle. He became depressed and sad, and even after a victory he
+would kneel down amidst the dead and wounded, and pray to God that He
+would turn the heart of the King to mercy, and help to re-establish the
+ancient temples throughout the land.</p>
+
+<p>An interview with Cavalier was eventually arranged by Lalande. The
+brigadier invited him to a conference, guaranteeing him safe conduct,
+and intimating that if he refused the meeting, he would be regarded as
+the <span class="pagenum"><a id="page174" name="page174"></a>(p. 174)</span> enemy of peace, and held responsible before God and man
+for all future bloodshed. Cavalier replied to Lalande's invitation,
+accepting the interview, indicating the place and the time of meeting.</p>
+
+<p>Catinat, the Camisard general of horse, was the bearer of Cavalier's
+letter, and he rode on to Alais to deliver it, arrayed in magnificent
+costume. Lalande was at table when Catinat was shown in to him.
+Observing the strange uniform and fierce look of the intruder, the
+brigadier asked who he was. "Catinat!" was the reply. "What," cried
+Lalande, "are you the Catinat who killed so many people in Beaucaire?"
+"Yes, it is I," said Catinat, "and I only endeavoured to do my duty."
+"You are hardy, indeed, to dare to show yourself before me." "I have
+come," said the Camisard, "in good faith, persuaded that you are an
+honest man, and on the assurance of my brother Cavalier that you would
+do me no harm. I come to deliver you his letter." And so saying, he
+handed it to the brigadier. Hastily perusing the letter, Lalande said,
+"Go back to Cavalier, and tell him that in two hours I shall be at the
+Bridge of Avène with only ten officers and thirty dragoons."</p>
+
+<p>The interview took place at the time appointed, on the bridge over the
+Avène, a few miles south of Alais. Cavalier arrived, attended by three
+hundred foot and sixty Camisard dragoons. When the two chiefs
+recognised each other, they halted their escorts, dismounted, and,
+followed by some officers, proceeded on foot to meet each other.</p>
+
+<p>Lalande had brought with him Cavalier's younger brother, who had been
+for some time a prisoner, and presented him, saying, "The King gives
+him to you in token of his merciful intentions." The brothers, who
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page175" name="page175"></a>(p. 175)</span> had not met since their mother's death, embraced and wept.
+Cavalier thanked the general; and then, leaving their officers, the
+two went on one side, and conferred together alone.</p>
+
+<p>"The King," said Lalande, "wishes, in the exercise of his clemency, to
+terminate this war amongst his subjects; what are your terms and your
+demands?" "They consist of three things," replied Cavalier: "liberty
+of worship; the deliverance of our brethren who are in prison and at
+the galleys; and, if the first condition be refused, then free
+permission to leave France." "How many persons would wish to leave the
+kingdom?" asked Lalande. "Ten thousand of various ages and both
+sexes." "Ten thousand! It is impossible! Leave might possibly be
+granted for two, but certainly not for ten." "Then," said Cavalier,
+"if the King will not allow us to leave the kingdom, he will at least
+re-establish our ancient edicts and privileges?"</p>
+
+<p>Lalande promised to report the result of the conference to the
+marshal, though he expressed a doubt whether he could agree to the
+terms proposed. The brigadier took leave of Cavalier by expressing the
+desire to be of service to him at any time; but he made a gross and
+indelicate mistake in offering his purse to the Camisard chief. "No,
+no!" said Cavalier, rejecting it with a look of contempt, "I wish for
+none of your gold, but only for religious liberty, or, if that be
+refused, for a safe conduct out of the kingdom."</p>
+
+<p>Lalande then asked to be taken up to the Camisard troop, who had been
+watching the proceedings of their leader with great interest. Coming
+up to them in the ranks, he said, "Here is a purse of a hundred louis
+with which to drink the King's health." Their reply was like their
+leader's, "We want no money, but <span class="pagenum"><a id="page176" name="page176"></a>(p. 176)</span> liberty of conscience." "It
+is not in my power to grant you that," said the general, "but you will
+do well to submit to the King's will." "We are ready," said they, "to
+obey his orders, provided he grants our just demands; but if not, we
+are prepared to die arms in hand." And thus ended this memorable
+interview, which lasted for about two hours; Lalande and his followers
+returning to Alais, while Cavalier went with his troop in the
+direction of Vezenobres.</p>
+
+<p>Cavalier's enemies say that in the course of his interview with
+Lalande he was offered honours, rewards, and promotion, if he would
+enter the King's service; and it is added that Cavalier was tempted by
+these offers, and thereby proved false to his cause and followers. But
+it is more probable that Cavalier was sincere in his desire to come to
+fair terms with the King, observing the impossibility, under the
+circumstances, of prolonging the struggle against the royal armies
+with any reasonable prospect of success. If Cavalier were really
+bribed by any such promises of promotion, at all events such promises
+were never fulfilled; nor did the French monarch reward him in any way
+for his endeavours to bring the Camisard insurrection to an end.</p>
+
+<p>It was characteristic of Roland to hold aloof from these negotiations,
+and refuse to come to any terms whatever with "Baal." As if to
+separate himself entirely from Cavalier, he withdrew into the Upper
+Cevennes to resume the war. At the very time that Cavalier was holding
+the conference with the royalist general at the Bridge of the Avène,
+Roland and Joany, with a body of horse and foot, waylaid the Count de
+Tournou at the plateau of Font-morte&mdash;the place where Seguier, the
+first Camisard leader, had been <span class="pagenum"><a id="page177" name="page177"></a>(p. 177)</span> defeated and captured&mdash;and
+suddenly fell upon the Royalists, putting them to flight.</p>
+
+<p>A rich booty fell into the hands of the Camisards, part of which
+consisted of the quarter's rental of the confiscated estate of Salgas,
+in the possession of the King's collector, Viala, whom the royalist
+troops were escorting to St. Jean de Gard. The collector, who had made
+himself notorious for his cruelty, was put to death after frightful
+torment, and his son and nephew were also shot. So far, therefore, as
+Roland and his associates were concerned, there appeared to be no
+intention of surrender or compromise; and Villars was under the
+necessity of prosecuting the war against them to the last extremity.</p>
+
+<p>In the meantime, Cavalier was hailed throughout the low country as the
+pacificator of Languedoc. The people on both sides had become heartily
+sick of the war, and were glad to be rid of it on any terms that
+promised peace and security for the future. At the invitation of
+Marshal Villars, Cavalier proceeded towards Nismes, and his march from
+town to town was one continuous ovation. He was eagerly welcomed by
+the population; and his men were hospitably entertained by the
+garrisons of the places through which they passed. Every liberty was
+allowed him; and not a day passed without a religious meeting being
+held, accompanied with public preaching, praying, and psalm-singing.
+At length Cavalier and his little army approached the neighbourhood of
+Nismes, where his arrival was anticipated with extraordinary interest.</p>
+
+<p>The beautiful old city had witnessed many strange sights; but probably
+the entry of the young Camisard chief was one of the most remarkable
+of all. This herd-boy and baker's apprentice of the Cevennes, after
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page178" name="page178"></a>(p. 178)</span> holding at bay the armies of France for nearly three years,
+had come to negotiate a treaty of peace with its most famous general.
+Leaving the greater part of his cavalry and the whole of his infantry
+at St. Césaire, a few miles from Nismes, Cavalier rode towards the
+town attended by eighteen horsemen commanded by Catinat. On
+approaching the southern gate, he found an immense multitude waiting
+his arrival. "He could not have been more royally welcomed," said the
+priest of St. Germain, "had he been a king."</p>
+
+<p>Cavalier rode at the head of his troop gaily attired; for fine dress
+was one of the weaknesses of the Camisard chiefs. He wore a
+tight-fitting doeskin coat ornamented with gold lace, scarlet
+breeches, a muslin cravat, and a large beaver with a white plume; his
+long fair hair hanging over his shoulders. Catinat rode by his side on
+a high-mettled charger, attracting all eyes by his fine figure, his
+martial air, and his magnificent costume. Cavalier's faithful friend,
+Daniel Billard, rode on his left; and behind followed his little
+brother in military uniform, between the Baron d'Aigalliers and
+Lacombe, the agents for peace.</p>
+
+<p>The cavalcade advanced through the dense crowd, which could with
+difficulty be kept back, past the Roman Amphitheatre, and along the
+Rue St. Antoine, to the Garden of the Récollets, a Franciscan convent,
+nearly opposite the elegant Roman temple known as the Maison
+Carrée.<a id="footnotetag45" name="footnotetag45"></a><a href="#footnote45" title="Go to footnote 45"><span class="small">[45]</span></a> Alighting from his horse at the gate, and stationing his
+guard there under the charge of Catinat, Cavalier entered the garden,
+and was conducted to Marshal Villars, with whom was Baville, intendant
+of the province; Baron Sandricourt, governor <span class="pagenum"><a id="page179" name="page179"></a>(p. 179)</span> of Nismes;
+General Lalande, and other dignitaries. Cavalier looked such a mere
+boy, that Villars at first could scarcely believe that it was the
+celebrated Camisard chief who stood before him. The marshal, however,
+advanced several steps, and addressed some complimentary words to
+Cavalier, to which he respectfully replied.</p>
+
+<p>The conference then began and proceeded, though not without frequent
+interruptions from Baville, who had so long regarded Cavalier as a
+despicable rebel, that he could scarcely brook the idea of the King's
+marshal treating with him on anything like equal terms. But the
+marshal checked the intendant by reminding him that he had no
+authority to interfere in a matter which the King had solely entrusted
+to himself. Then turning to Cavalier, he asked him to state his
+conditions for a treaty of peace.</p>
+
+<p>Cavalier has set forth in his memoirs the details of the conditions
+proposed by him, and which he alleges were afterwards duly agreed to
+and signed by Villars and Baville, on the 17th of May, 1704, on the
+part of the King. The first condition was liberty of conscience, with
+the privilege of holding religious assemblies in country places. This
+was agreed to, subject to the Protestant temples not being rebuilt.
+The second&mdash;that all Protestants in prison or at the galleys should be
+set at liberty within six weeks from the date of the treaty&mdash;was also
+agreed to. The third&mdash;that all who had left the kingdom on account of
+their religion should have liberty to return, and be restored to their
+estates and privileges&mdash;was agreed to, subject to their taking the
+oath of allegiance. The fourth&mdash;as to the re-establishment of the
+parliament of Languedoc on its ancient footing&mdash;was promised
+consideration. The <span class="pagenum"><a id="page180" name="page180"></a>(p. 180)</span> fifth and sixth&mdash;that the province should
+be free from capitation tax for ten years, and that the Protestants
+should hold Montpellier, Cette, Perpignan, and Aiguesmortes, as
+cautionary towns&mdash;were refused. The seventh&mdash;that those inhabitants of
+the Cevennes whose houses had been burnt during the civil war should
+pay no imposts for seven years&mdash;was granted. And the eighth&mdash;that
+Cavalier should raise a regiment of dragoons to serve the King in
+Portugal&mdash;was also granted.</p>
+
+<p>These conditions are said to have been agreed to on the distinct
+understanding that the insurrection should forthwith cease, and that
+all persons in arms against the King should lay them down and submit
+themselves to his majesty's clemency.</p>
+
+<p>The terms having been generally agreed to, Cavalier respectfully took
+his leave of the marshal, and returned to his comrades at the gate.
+But Catinat and the Camisard guard had disappeared. The conference had
+lasted two hours, during which Cavalier's general of horse had become
+tired of waiting, and gone with his companions to refresh himself at
+the sign of the Golden Cup. On his way thither, he witched the world
+of Nismes with his noble horsemanship, making his charger bound and
+prance and curvet, greatly to the delight of the immense crowd that
+followed him.</p>
+
+<p>On the return of the Camisard guard to the Récollets, Cavalier mounted
+his horse, and, escorted by them, proceeded to the Hôtel de la Poste,
+where he rested. In the evening, he came out on the Esplanade, and
+walked freely amidst the crowd, amongst whom were many ladies, eager
+to see the Camisard hero, and happy if they could but hear him speak,
+or touch his dress. He then went to visit the mother of Daniel, his
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page181" name="page181"></a>(p. 181)</span> favourite prophet, a native of Nismes, whose father and
+brother were both prisoners because of their religion. Returning to
+the hotel, Cavalier mustered his guard, and set out for Calvisson,
+followed by hundreds of people, singing together as they passed
+through the town gate the 133rd Psalm&mdash;"Behold, how good and how
+pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity!"</p>
+
+<p>Cavalier remained with his companions at Calvisson for eight days,
+during which he enjoyed the most perfect freedom of action. He held
+public religious services daily, at first amidst the ruins of the
+demolished Protestant temple, and afterwards, when the space was
+insufficient, in the open plain outside the town walls. People came
+from all quarters to attend them&mdash;from the Vaunage, from Sommières,
+from Lunel, from Nismes, and even from Montpellier. As many as forty
+thousand persons are said to have resorted to the services during
+Cavalier's sojourn at Calvisson. The plains resounded with preaching
+and psalmody from morning until evening, sometimes until late at
+night, by torchlight.</p>
+
+<p>These meetings were a great cause of offence to the more bigoted of
+the Roman Catholics, who saw in them the triumph of their enemies.
+They muttered audibly against the policy of Villars, who was
+tolerating if not encouraging heretics&mdash;worthy, in their estimation,
+only of perdition. Fléchier, Bishop of Nismes, was full of
+lamentations on the subject, and did not scruple to proclaim that war,
+with all its horrors, was even more tolerable than such a peace as
+this.</p>
+
+<p>Unhappily, the peace proved only of short duration, and Cavalier's
+anticipations of unity and brotherly love were not destined to be
+fulfilled. Whether Roland <span class="pagenum"><a id="page182" name="page182"></a>(p. 182)</span> was jealous of the popularity
+achieved by Cavalier, or suspected treachery on the part of the
+Royalists, or whether he still believed in the ability of his
+followers to conquer religious liberty and compel the re-establishment
+of the ancient edicts by the sword, does not clearly appear. At all
+events, he refused to be committed in any way by what Cavalier had
+done; and when the treaty entered into with Villars was submitted to
+Roland for approval, he refused to sign it. A quarrel had almost
+occurred between the chiefs, and hot words passed between them. But
+Cavalier controlled himself, and still hoped to persuade Roland to
+adopt a practicable course, and bring the unhappy war to a conclusion.</p>
+
+<p>It was at length agreed between them that a further effort should be
+made to induce Villars to grant more liberal terms, particularly with
+respect to the rebuilding of the Protestant temples; and Cavalier
+consented that Salomon should accompany him to an interview with the
+marshal, and endeavour to obtain such a modification of the treaty as
+should meet Roland's views. Accordingly, another meeting shortly after
+took place in the Garden of the Récollets at Nismes, Cavalier leaving
+it to Salomon to be the spokesman on the occasion.</p>
+
+<p>But Salomon proved as uncompromising as his chief. He stated his
+<span class="italic">ultimatum</span> bluntly and firmly&mdash;re-establishment of the Edict of
+Nantes, and complete liberty of conscience. On no other terms, he
+said, would the Camisards lay down their arms. Villars was courtly and
+polite as usual, but he was as firm as Salomon. He would adhere to the
+terms that had been agreed to, but could not comply with the
+conditions proposed. The discussion lasted for two hours, and at
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page183" name="page183"></a>(p. 183)</span> length became stormy and threatening on the part of Salomon,
+on which the marshal turned on his heel and left the apartment.</p>
+
+<p>Cavalier's followers had not yet been informed of the conditions of
+the treaty into which he had entered with Villars, but they had been
+led to believe that the Edict was to be re-established and liberty of
+worship restored. Their suspicions had already been roused by the
+hints thrown out by Ravanel, who was as obdurate as Roland in his
+refusal to lay down his arms until the Edict had been re-established.</p>
+
+<p>While Cavalier was still at Nismes, on his second mission to Villars,
+accompanied by Salomon, Ravanel, who had been left in charge of the
+troop at Calvisson, assembled the men, and told them he feared they
+were being betrayed&mdash;that they were to be refused this free exercise
+of their religion in temples of their own, but were to be required to
+embark as King's soldiers on shipboard, perhaps to perish at sea.
+"Brethren," said he, "let us cling by our own native land, and live
+and die for the Eternal." The men enthusiastically applauded the stern
+resolve of Ravanel, and awaited with increasing impatience the return
+of the negotiating chief.</p>
+
+<p>On Cavalier's return to his men, he found, to his dismay, that instead
+of being welcomed back with the usual cordiality, they were drawn up
+in arms under Ravanel, and received him in silence, with angry and
+scowling looks. He upbraided Ravanel for such a reception, on which
+the storm immediately burst. "What is the treaty, then," cried
+Ravanel, "that thou hast made with this marshal?"</p>
+
+<p>Cavalier, embarrassed, evaded the inquiry; but Ravanel, encouraged by
+his men, proceeded to press for the information. "Well," said
+Cavalier, "it is arranged <span class="pagenum"><a id="page184" name="page184"></a>(p. 184)</span> that we shall go to serve in
+Portugal." There was at once a violent outburst from the ranks.
+"Traitor! coward! then thou hast sold us! But we shall have no
+peace&mdash;no peace without our temples."</p>
+
+<p>At sound of the loud commotion and shouting, Vincel, the King's
+commissioner, who remained at Calvisson pending the negotiations, came
+running up, and the men in their rage would have torn him to pieces,
+but Cavalier threw himself in their way, exclaiming, "Back, men! Do
+him no harm, kill me instead." His voice, his gesture, arrested the
+Camisards, and Vincel turned and fled for his life.</p>
+
+<p>Ravanel then ordered the <span class="italic">générale</span> to be beaten. The men drew up in
+their ranks, and putting himself at their head, Ravanel marched them
+out of Calvisson by the northern gate. Cavalier, humiliated and
+downcast, followed the troop&mdash;their leader no more. He could not part
+with them thus&mdash;the men he had so often led to victory, and who had
+followed him so devotedly&mdash;but hung upon their rear, hoping they would
+yet relent and return to him as their chief.</p>
+
+<p>Catinat, his general of horse, observing Cavalier following the men,
+turned upon him. "Whither wouldst thou go, traitor?" cried Catinat.
+What! Catinat, of all others, to prove unfaithful? Yet it was so!
+Catinat even, presented his pistol at his former chief, but he did not
+fire.</p>
+
+<p>Cavalier would not yet turn back. He hung upon the skirts of the
+column, entreating, supplicating, adjuring the men, by all their
+former love for him, to turn, and follow him. But they sternly marched
+on, scarcely even deigning to answer him. Ravanel endeavoured to drive
+him back by reproaches, which at length so irritated Cavalier, that he
+drew his sword, <span class="pagenum"><a id="page185" name="page185"></a>(p. 185)</span> and they were about to rush at each other,
+when one of the prophets ran between them and prevented bloodshed.</p>
+
+<p>Cavalier did not desist from following them for several miles, until
+at length, on reaching St. Estève, the men were appealed to as to whom
+they would follow, and they declared themselves for Ravanel. Cavalier
+made a last appeal to their allegiance, and called out, "Let those who
+love me, follow me!" About forty of his old adherents detached
+themselves from the ranks, and followed Cavalier in the direction of
+Nismes. But the principal body remained with Ravanel, who, waving his
+sabre in the air, and shouting, "Vive l'Épée de l'Éternel!" turned his
+men's faces northward and marched on to rejoin Roland in the Upper
+Cevennes.</p>
+
+<p>Cavalier was completely prostrated by the desertion of his followers.
+He did not know where next to turn. He could not rejoin the Camisard
+camp nor enter the villages of the Cevennes, and he was ashamed to
+approach Villars, lest he should be charged with deceiving him. But he
+sent a letter to the marshal, informing him of the failure of his
+negotiations, the continued revolt of the Camisards, and their
+rejection of him as their chief. Villars, however, was gentle and
+generous; he was persuaded that Cavalier had acted loyally and in good
+faith throughout, and he sent a message by the Baron d'Aigalliers,
+urgently inviting him to return to Nismes and arrange as to the
+future. Cavalier accordingly set out forthwith, accompanied by his
+brother and the prophet Daniel, and escorted by the ten horsemen and
+thirty foot who still remained faithful to his person.</p>
+
+<p>It is not necessary further to pursue the history of <span class="pagenum"><a id="page186" name="page186"></a>(p. 186)</span>
+Cavalier. Suffice it to say that, at the request of Marshal Villars,
+he proceeded to Paris, where he had an unsatisfactory interview with
+Louis XIV.; that fearing an intention on the part of the Roman
+Catholic party to make him a prisoner, he fled across the frontier
+into Switzerland; that he eventually reached England, and entered the
+English army, with the rank of Colonel; that he raised a regiment of
+refugee Frenchmen, consisting principally of his Camisard followers,
+at the head of whom he fought most valiantly at the battle of Almanza;
+that he was afterwards appointed governor of Jersey, and died a
+major-general in the British service in the year 1740, greatly
+respected by all who knew him.</p>
+
+<hr>
+
+<p>Although Cavalier failed in carrying the treaty into effect, so far as
+he was concerned, his secession at this juncture proved a deathblow to
+the insurrection. The remaining Camisard leaders endeavoured in vain
+to incite that enthusiasm amongst their followers which had so often
+before led them to victory. The men felt that they were fighting
+without hope, and as it were with halters round their necks. Many of
+them began to think that Cavalier had been justified in seeking to
+secure the best terms practicable; and they dropped off, by tens and
+fifties, to join their former leader, whose head-quarters for some
+time continued to be at Vallabergue, an island in the Rhône a little
+above Beaucaire.</p>
+
+<p>The insurgents were also in a great measure disarmed by Marshal
+Villars, who continued to pursue a policy of clemency, and at the same
+time of severity. He offered a free pardon to all who surrendered
+themselves, but threatened death to all who continued to resist
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page187" name="page187"></a>(p. 187)</span> the royal troops. In sign of his clemency, he ordered the
+gibbets which had for some years stood <span class="italic">en permanence</span> in all the
+villages of the Cevennes, to be removed; and he went from town to
+town, urging all well-disposed people, of both religions, to
+co-operate with him in putting an end to the dreadful civil war that
+had so long desolated the province.</p>
+
+<p>Moved by the marshal's eloquent appeals, the principal towns along the
+Gardon and the Vidourle appointed deputies to proceed in a body to the
+camp of Roland, and induce him if possible to accept the proffered
+amnesty. They waited upon him accordingly at his camp of St. Felix and
+told him their errand. But his answer was to order them at once to
+leave the place on pain of death.</p>
+
+<p>Villars himself sent messengers to Roland&mdash;amongst others the Baron
+d'Aigalliers&mdash;offering to guarantee that no one should be molested on
+account of his religion, provided he and his men would lay down their
+arms; but Roland remained inflexible&mdash;nothing short of complete
+religious liberty would induce him to surrender.</p>
+
+<p>Roland and Joany were still at the head of about a thousand men in the
+Upper Cevennes. Pont-de-Montvert was at the time occupied by a body of
+Miguelets, whom they determined if possible to destroy. Dividing their
+army into three bodies, they proceeded to assail simultaneously the
+three quarters of which the village is composed. But the commander of
+the Miguelets, informed of Roland's intention, was prepared to receive
+him. One of the Camisard wings was attacked at the same time in front
+and rear, thrown into confusion and defeated; and the other wings were
+driven back with heavy loss.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page188" name="page188"></a>(p. 188)</span> This was Roland's last battle. About a month later&mdash;in
+August, 1704&mdash;while a body of Camisards occupied the Château of
+Castelnau, not far from Ners, the place was suddenly surrounded at
+night by a body of royalist dragoons. The alarm was raised, and
+Roland, half-dressed, threw himself on horseback and fled. He was
+pursued, overtaken, and brought to a stand in a wood, where, setting
+his back to a tree he defended himself bravely for a time against
+overpowering numbers, but was at last shot through the heart by a
+dragoon, and the Camisard chief lay dead upon the ground.</p>
+
+<p>The insurrection did not long survive the death of Roland. The other
+chiefs wandered about from place to place with their followers, but
+they had lost heart and hope, and avoided further encounters with the
+royal forces. One after another of them surrendered. Castanet and
+Catinat both laid down their arms, and were allowed to leave France
+for Switzerland, accompanied by twenty-two of their men. Joany also
+surrendered with forty-six of his followers.</p>
+
+<p>One by one the other chiefs laid down their arms&mdash;all excepting
+Abraham and Ravanel, who preferred liberty and misery at home to peace
+and exile abroad. They continued for some time to wander about in the
+Upper Cevennes, hiding in the woods by day and sleeping in caves by
+night&mdash;hunted, deserted, and miserable. And thus at last was Languedoc
+pacified; and at the beginning of January, 1705, Marshal Villars
+returned to Versailles to receive the congratulations and honours of
+the King.</p>
+
+<p>Several futile attempts were afterwards made by the banished leaders
+to rekindle the insurrection from its embers, Catinat and Castanet,
+wearied of their inaction <span class="pagenum"><a id="page189" name="page189"></a>(p. 189)</span> at Geneva, stole back across the
+frontier and rejoined Ravanel in the Cevennes; but their rashness cost
+them their lives. They were all captured and condemned to death.
+Castanet and Salomon were broken alive on the wheel on the Peyrou at
+Montpellier, and Catinat, Ravanel, with several others, were burnt
+alive on the Place de la Beaucaire at Nismes.</p>
+
+<p>The last to perish were Abraham and Joany. The one was shot while
+holding the royal troops at bay, firing upon them from the roof of a
+cottage at Mas-de-Couteau; the other was captured in the mountains
+near the source of the Tarn. He was on his way to prison, tied behind
+a trooper, like Rob Roy in Scott's novel, when, suddenly freeing
+himself from his bonds while crossing the bridge of Pont-de-Montvert,
+he slid from the horse, and leapt over the parapet into the Tarn. The
+soldiers at once opened fire upon the fugitive, and he fell, pierced
+with many balls, and was carried away in the torrent. And thus
+Pont-de-Montvert, which had seen the beginning, also saw the end of
+the insurrection.<a href="#toc"><span class="small">[Back to Contents]</span></a></p>
+
+<h3><span class="pagenum"><a id="page190" name="page190"></a>(p. 190)</span> CHAPTER IX.</h3>
+
+<p class="title">GALLEY-SLAVES FOR THE FAITH.</p>
+
+<p>After the death of the last of the Camisard leaders, there was no
+further effort at revolt. The Huguenots seemed to be entirely put
+down, and Protestantism completely destroyed. There was no longer any
+resistance nor protest. If there were any Huguenots who had not become
+Catholics, they remained mute. Force had at last succeeded in stifling
+them.</p>
+
+<p>A profound quiet reigned for a time throughout France. The country had
+become a circle, closely watched by armed men&mdash;by dragoons, infantry,
+archers, and coastguards&mdash;beyond which the Huguenots could not escape
+without running the risk of the prison, the galley, or the gibbet.</p>
+
+<p>The intendants throughout the kingdom flattered Louis XIV., and Louis
+XIV. flattered himself, that the Huguenots had either been converted,
+extirpated, or expelled the kingdom. The King had medals struck,
+announcing the "<span class="italic">extinction of heresy</span>." A proclamation to this effect
+was also published by the King, dated the 8th of March, 1715,
+declaring the entire conversion of the French Huguenots, and
+sentencing those who, after that date, relapsed from Catholicism to
+Protestantism, to all the penalties of heresy.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page191" name="page191"></a>(p. 191)</span> What, then, had become of the Huguenots? They were for the
+moment prostrate, but their life had not gone out of them. Many were
+no doubt "converted." They had not strength to resist the pains and
+penalties threatened by the State if they refused. They accordingly
+attended Mass, and assisted in ceremonies which at heart they
+detested. Though they blushed at their apostasy, they were too much
+broken down and weary of oppression and suffering to attempt to be
+free.</p>
+
+<p>But though many Huguenots pretended to be "converted," the greater
+number silently refrained. They held their peace and bided their time.
+Meanwhile, however, they were subject to all the annoyances of
+persecution. Persecution had seized them from the day of their birth,
+and never relaxed its hold until the day of their death. Every
+new-born child must be taken to the priest to be baptized. When the
+children had grown into boys and girls, they must go to school and be
+educated, also by the priest. If their parents refused to send them,
+the children were forcibly seized, taken away, and brought up in the
+Jesuit schools and nunneries. And lastly, when grown up into young men
+and women, they must be married by the priest, or their offspring be
+declared illegitimate.</p>
+
+<p>The Huguenots refused to conform to all this. Nevertheless, it was by
+no means easy to continue to refuse obeying the priest. The priest was
+well served with spies, though the principal spy in every parish was
+himself. There were also numerous other professional spies&mdash;besides
+idlers, mischief-makers, and "good-natured friends." In time of peace,
+also, soldiers were usually employed in performing the disgraceful
+duty of acting as spies upon the Huguenots.</p>
+
+<p>The Huguenot was ordered to attend Mass under the <span class="pagenum"><a id="page192" name="page192"></a>(p. 192)</span> penalty of
+fine and imprisonment. Supposing he refused, because he did not
+believe that the priest had the miraculous power of converting bread
+and wine into something the very opposite. The priest insisted that he
+did possess this power, and that he was supported by the State in
+demanding that the Huguenot <span class="italic">must</span> come and worship his
+transubstantiation of bread into flesh and wine into blood. "I do not
+believe it," said the Huguenot. "But I <span class="italic">order</span> you to come, for Louis
+XIV. has proclaimed you to be a converted Catholic, and if you refuse
+you will be at once subject to all the penalties of heresy." It was
+certainly very difficult to argue with a priest who had the hangman at
+his back, or with the King who had his hundred thousand dragoons. And
+so, perhaps, the threatened Huguenot went to Mass, and pretended to
+believe all that the priest had said about his miraculous powers.</p>
+
+<p>But many resolutely continued to refuse, willing to incur the last and
+heaviest penalties. Then it came to be seen that Protestantism,
+although, declared defunct by the King's edict, had not in fact
+expired, but was merely reposing for a time in order to make a fresh
+start forward. The Huguenots who still remained in France, whether as
+"new converts" or as "obstinate heretics," at length began to emerge
+from their obscurity. They met together in caves and solitary
+places&mdash;in deep and rocky gorges&mdash;in valleys among the
+mountains&mdash;where they prayed together, sang together their songs of
+David, and took counsel one with another.</p>
+
+<p>At length, from private meetings for prayer, religious assemblies
+began to be held in the Desert, and preachers made their appearance.
+The spies spread about the country informed the intendants. The
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page193" name="page193"></a>(p. 193)</span> meetings were often surprised by the military. Sometimes the
+soldiers would come upon them suddenly, and fire into the crowd of
+men, women, and children. On some occasions a hundred persons or more
+would be killed upon the spot. Of those taken prisoners, the preachers
+were hanged or broken on the wheel, the women were sent to prison, and
+the children, to nunneries, while the men were sent to be
+galley-slaves for life.<a id="footnotetag46" name="footnotetag46"></a><a href="#footnote46" title="Go to footnote 46"><span class="small">[46]</span></a></p>
+
+<p>The persecutions to which Huguenot women and children were exposed
+caused a sudden enlargement of all the prisons and nunneries in
+France. Many of the old castles were fitted up as gaols, and even
+their dungeons were used for the incorrigible heretics. One of the
+worst of these was the Tour de Constance in the town of Aiguesmortes,
+which is to this day remembered with horror as the principal dungeon
+of the Huguenot women.</p>
+
+<p>The town of Aiguesmortes is situated in the department of Gard, close
+to the Mediterranean, whose waters wash into the salt marshes and
+lagunes by which it is surrounded. It was erected in the thirteenth
+century for Philip the Bold, and is still interesting as an example of
+the ancient feudal fortress. The fosse has since been filled up, on
+account of the malaria produced by the stagnant water which it
+contained.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page194" name="page194"></a>(p. 194)</span> The place is approached by a long causeway raised above the
+marsh, and the entrance to the tower is spanned by an ancient
+gatehouse. In advance of the tower, to the north, in an angle of the
+wall, is a single, large round tower, which served as a citadel. It is
+sixty-six feet in diameter and ninety feet high, surmounted by a
+lighthouse turret of thirty-four feet. It consists of two large
+vaulted apartments, the staircase from the one to the other being
+built within the wall itself, which is about eighteen feet thick. The
+upper chamber is dimly lighted by narrow chinks through the walls. The
+lowest of the apartments is the dungeon, which is almost without light
+and air. In the centre of the floor is a hole connected with a
+reservoir of water below.</p>
+
+<p>This Tour de Constance continued to be the principal prison for
+Huguenot women in France for a period of about a hundred years. It was
+always horribly unhealthy; and to be condemned to this dungeon was
+considered almost as certain though a slower death than to be
+condemned to the gallows. Sixteen Huguenot women confined there in
+1686 died within five months. Most of them were the wives of merchants
+of Nismes, or of men of property in the district. When the prisoners
+died off, the dungeon was at once filled up again with more victims,
+and it was rarely, if ever, empty, down to a period within only a few
+years before the outbreak of the French Revolution.</p>
+
+<p>The punishment of the men found attending religious meetings, and
+taken prisoners by the soldiers, was to be sentenced to the galleys,
+mostly for life. They were usually collected in large numbers, and
+sent to the seaports attached together by chains. They were sent
+openly, sometimes through the entire length <span class="pagenum"><a id="page195" name="page195"></a>(p. 195)</span> of the kingdom,
+by way of a show. The object was to teach the horrible delinquency of
+professing Protestantism; for it could not be to show the greater
+beautifulness and mercifulness of Catholicism.</p>
+
+<p>The punishment of the Chain varied in degree. Sometimes it was more
+cruel than at other times. This depended upon the drivers of the
+prisoners. Marteilhe describes the punishment during his conveyance
+from Havre to Marseilles in the winter of 1712.<a id="footnotetag47" name="footnotetag47"></a><a href="#footnote47" title="Go to footnote 47"><span class="small">[47]</span></a> The Chain to which
+he belonged did not reach Marseilles until the 17th January, 1713. The
+season was bitterly cold; but that made no difference in the treatment
+of Huguenot prisoners.</p>
+
+<p>The Chain consisted of a file of prisoners, chained one to another in
+various ways. On this occasion, each pair was fastened by the neck
+with a thick chain three feet long, in the middle of which was a round
+ring. After being thus chained, the pairs were placed in file, couple
+behind couple, when another long thick chain was passed through the
+rings, thus running along the centre of the gang, and the whole were
+thus doubly-chained together. There were no less than four hundred
+prisoners in the chain described by Marteilhe. The number had,
+however, greatly fallen off through deaths by barbarous treatment
+before it reached Marseilles.</p>
+
+<p>It must, however, be added, that the whole gang did not consist of
+Huguenots, but only a part of it&mdash;the Huguenots being distinguished by
+their red jackets. The rest consisted of murderers, thieves,
+deserters, and criminals of various sorts.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page196" name="page196"></a>(p. 196)</span> The difficulty which the prisoners had in marching along the
+roads was very great; the weight of chain which each member had to
+carry being no less than one hundred and fifty pounds. The lodging
+they had at night was of the worst description. While at Paris, the
+galley-slaves were quartered in the Château de la Tournelle, which was
+under the spiritual direction of the Jesuits. The gaol consisted of a
+large cellar or dungeon, fitted with huge beams of oak fixed close to
+the floor. Thick iron collars were attached by iron chains to the
+beams. The collar being placed round the prisoner's neck, it was
+closed and riveted upon an anvil with heavy blows of a hammer.</p>
+
+<p>Twenty men in pairs were thus chained to each beam. The dungeon was so
+large that five hundred men could thus be fastened up. They could not
+sleep lying at full length, nor could they sleep sitting or standing
+up straight; the beam to which they were chained being too high in the
+one case and too low in the other. The torture which they endured,
+therefore, is scarcely to be described. The prisoners were kept there
+until a sufficient number could be collected to set out in a great
+chain for Marseilles.</p>
+
+<p>When they arrived at the first stage out of Paris, at Charenton, after
+a heavy day's fatigue, their lodging was no better than before. A
+stable was found in which they were chained up in such a way that they
+could with difficulty sit down, and then only on a dung-heap. After
+they had lain there for a few hours, the prisoners' chains were taken
+off, and they were turned out into the spacious courtyard of the inn,
+where they were ordered to strip off their clothes, put them down at
+their feet, and march over to the other side of the courtyard.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page197" name="page197"></a>(p. 197)</span> The object of this proceeding was to search the pockets of
+the prisoners, examine their clothes, and find whether they contained
+any knives, files, or other tools which might be used for cutting the
+chains. All money and other valuables or necessaries that the clothes
+contained were at the same time taken away.</p>
+
+<p>The night was cold and frosty, with a keen north wind blowing; and
+after the prisoners had been exposed to it for about half an hour,
+their bodies became so benumbed that they could scarcely move across
+the yard to where their clothes were lying. Next morning it was found
+that eighteen of the unfortunates were happily released by death.</p>
+
+<p>It is not necessary to describe the tortures endured by the
+galley-slaves to the end of their journey. One little circumstance
+may, however, be mentioned. While marching towards the coast, the
+exhausted Huguenots, weary and worn out by the heaviness of their
+chains, were accustomed to stretch out their little wooden cups for a
+drop of water to the inhabitants of the villages through which they
+passed. The women, whom they mostly addressed, answered their
+entreaties with the bitterest spite. "Away, away!" they cried; "you
+are going where you will have <span class="italic">water enough</span>!"</p>
+
+<p>When the gang or chain reached the port at which the prisoners were to
+be confined, they were drafted on board the different galleys. These
+were for the most part stationed at Toulon, but there were also other
+galleys in which Huguenots were imprisoned&mdash;at Marseilles, Dunkirk,
+Brest, St. Malo, and Bordeaux. Let us briefly describe the galley of
+those days.</p>
+
+<p>The royal galley was about a hundred and fifty feet long and forty
+feet broad, and was capable of containing <span class="pagenum"><a id="page198" name="page198"></a>(p. 198)</span> about five hundred
+men. It had fifty benches for rowers, twenty-five on each side.
+Between these two rows of benches was the raised middle gallery,
+commonly called the waist of the ship, four feet high and about three
+or four feet broad. The oars were fifty feet long, of which
+thirty-seven feet were outside the ship and thirteen within. Six men
+worked at each oar, all chained to the same bench. They had to row in
+unison, otherwise they would be heavily struck by the return rowers
+both before and behind them. They were under the constant command of
+the <span class="italic">comite</span> or galley-slave-driver, who struck all about him with
+his long whip in urging them to work. To enable his strokes to <span class="italic">tell</span>,
+the men sat naked while they rowed.<a id="footnotetag48" name="footnotetag48"></a><a href="#footnote48" title="Go to footnote 48"><span class="small">[48]</span></a> Their dress was always
+insufficient, summer and winter&mdash;the lower part of their bodies being
+covered with a short red jacket and a sort of apron, for their
+manacles prevented them wearing any other dress.</p>
+
+<p>The chain which bound each rower to his bench was fastened to his leg,
+and was of such a length as to enable his feet to come and go whilst
+rowing. At night, the galley-slave slept where he sat&mdash;on the bench on
+which he had been rowing all day. There was no room for him to lie
+down. He never quitted his bench except for the hospital or the grave;
+yet some of the Huguenot rowers contrived to live upon their benches
+for thirty or forty years!</p>
+
+<p>During all these years they toiled in their chains in a hell of foul
+and disgusting utterance, for they were <span class="pagenum"><a id="page199" name="page199"></a>(p. 199)</span> mixed up with
+thieves and the worst of criminals. They ate the bread and drank the
+waters of bitterness. They seemed to be forsaken by the world. They
+had no one to love them, for most had left their families behind them
+at home, or perhaps in convents or prisons. They lived under the
+constant threats of their keepers, who lashed them to make them row
+harder, who lashed them to make them sit up, or lashed them to make
+them lie down. The Chevalier Langeron, captain of <span class="italic">La Palme</span>, of which
+Marteilhe was at first a rower, used to call the <span class="italic">comite</span> to him and
+say, "Go and refresh the backs of these Huguenots with a salad of
+strokes of the whip." For the captain, it seems, "held the most
+Jesuitical sentiments," and hated his Huguenot prisoners far worse
+than his thieves or his murderers.<a id="footnotetag49" name="footnotetag49"></a><a href="#footnote49" title="Go to footnote 49"><span class="small">[49]</span></a></p>
+
+<p>And yet, at any moment, a word spoken would have made these Huguenots
+free. The Catholic priests frequently visited the galleys and
+entreated them to become converted. If "converted," and the Huguenots
+would only declare that they believed in the miraculous powers of the
+clergy, their chains would fall away from their limbs at once; and
+they would have been restored to the world, to their families, and to
+liberty! And who would not have declared themselves "converted,"
+rather than endure these horrible punishments? Yet by far the greater
+number of the Huguenots did not. They could not be hypocrites. They
+would not lie to God. Rather than do this, they had the heroism&mdash;some
+will call it the obstinacy&mdash;to remain galley-slaves for life!</p>
+
+<p>Many of the galley-slaves did not survive their torture long. Men of
+all ages and conditions, accustomed to indoor life, could not bear the
+exposure to the sun, <span class="pagenum"><a id="page200" name="page200"></a>(p. 200)</span> rain, and snow, which the punishment of
+the galley-slave involved. The old men and the young soon succumbed
+and died. Middle-aged men survived the longest. But there was always a
+change going on. When the numbers of a galley became thinned by death,
+there were other Huguenots ready to be sent on board&mdash;perhaps waiting
+in some inland prison until another "Great Chain" could be made up for
+the seaports, to go on board the galley-ships, to be manacled,
+tortured, and killed off as before.</p>
+
+<p>Such was the treatment of the galley-slaves in time of peace. But the
+galleys were also war-ships. They carried large numbers of armed men
+on board. Sometimes they scoured the Mediterranean, and protected
+French merchant-ships against the Sallee rovers. At other times they
+were engaged in the English channel, attacking Dutch and English
+ships, sometimes picking up a prize, at other times in actual
+sea-fight.</p>
+
+<p>When the service required, they were compelled to row incessantly
+night and day, without rest, save in the last extremity; and they were
+treated as if, on the first opportunity, in sight of the enemy, they
+would revolt and betray the ship; hence they were constantly watched
+by the soldiers on board, and if any commotion appeared amongst them,
+they were shot down without ceremony, and their bodies thrown into the
+sea. Loaded cannons were also placed at the end of the benches of
+rowers, so as to shoot them down in case of necessity.</p>
+
+<p>Whenever an enemy's ship came up, the galley-slaves were covered over
+with a linen screen, so as to prevent them giving signals to the
+enemy. When an action occurred, they were particularly exposed to
+danger, for the rowers and their oars were the first to be shot
+at&mdash;just as the boiler or screw of a war-steamer would be <span class="pagenum"><a id="page201" name="page201"></a>(p. 201)</span>
+shot at now&mdash;in order to disable the ship. The galley-slaves thus
+suffered much more from the enemy's shot than the other armed men of
+the ship. The rowers benches were often filled with dead, before the
+soldiers and mariners on board had been touched.</p>
+
+<p>Marteilhe, while a galley-slave on board <span class="italic">La Palme</span>, was engaged in an
+adventure which had nearly cost him his life. Four French galleys,
+after cruising along the English coast from Dover to the Downs, got
+sight of a fleet of thirty-five merchant vessels on their way from the
+Texel to the Thames, under the protection of one small English
+frigate. The commanders of the galleys, taking counsel together,
+determined to attack the frigate (which they thought themselves easily
+able to master), and so capture the entire English fleet.</p>
+
+<p>The captain of the frigate, when he saw the galleys approach him,
+ordered the merchantmen to crowd sail and make for the Thames, the
+mouth of which they had nearly reached. He then sailed down upon the
+galleys, determined to sacrifice his ship if necessary for the safety
+of his charge. The galleys fired into him, but he returned never a
+shot. The captain of the galley in which Marteilhe was, said, "Oh, he
+is coming to surrender!" The frigate was so near that the French
+musqueteers were already firing full upon her. All of a sudden the
+frigate tacked and veered round as if about to fly from the galleys.
+The Frenchmen called out that the English were cowards in thus trying
+to avoid the battle. If they did not surrender at once, they would
+sink the frigate!</p>
+
+<p>The English captain took no notice. The frigate then turned her stern
+towards the galley, as if to give the Frenchmen an opportunity of
+boarding her. The French commander ordered the galley at once to run
+at <span class="pagenum"><a id="page202" name="page202"></a>(p. 202)</span> the enemy's stern, and the crew to board the frigate. The
+rush was made; the galley-slaves, urged by blows of the whip, rowing
+with great force. The galley was suddenly nearing the stern of the
+frigate, when by a clever stroke of the helm the ship moved to one
+side, and the galley, missing it, rushed past. All the oars on that
+side were suddenly broken off, and the galley was placed immediately
+under the broadside of the enemy.</p>
+
+<p>Then began the English part of the game. The French galley was seized
+with grappling irons and hooked on to the English broadside. The men
+on board the galley were as exposed as if they had been upon a raft or
+a bridge. The frigate's guns, which were charged with grapeshot, were
+discharged full upon them, and a frightful carnage ensued. The English
+also threw hand grenades, which went down amongst the rowers and
+killed many. They next boarded the galley, and cut to pieces all the
+armed men they could lay hold of, only sparing the convicts, who could
+make no attempt at defence.</p>
+
+<p>The English captain then threw off the galley, which he had broadsided
+and disarmed, in order to look after the merchantmen, which some of
+the other galleys had gone to intercept on their way to the mouth of
+the Thames. Some of the ships had already been captured; but the
+commanders of the galleys, seeing their fellow-commodores flying
+signals of distress, let go their prey, and concentrated their attack
+upon the frigate. This they surrounded, and after a very hard struggle
+the frigate was captured, but not until the English captain had
+ascertained that all the fleet of which he had been in charge had
+entered the Thames and were safe.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page203" name="page203"></a>(p. 203)</span> In the above encounter with the English frigate Marteilhe had
+nearly lost his life. The bench on which he was seated, with five
+other slaves, was opposite one of the loaded guns of the frigate. He
+saw that it must be discharged directly upon them. His fellows tried
+to lie down flat, while Marteilhe himself stood up. He saw the gunner
+with his lighted match approach the touchhole; then he lifted up his
+heart to God; the next moment he was lying stunned and prostrate in
+the centre of the galley, as far as the chain would allow him to
+reach. He was lying across the body of the lieutenant, who was killed.
+A long time passed, during which the fight was still going on, and
+then Marteilhe came to himself, towards dark. Most of his
+fellow-slaves were killed. He himself was bleeding from a large open
+wound on his shoulder, another on his knee, and a third in his
+stomach. Of the eighteen men around him he was the only one that
+escaped, with his three wounds.</p>
+
+<p>The dead were all thrown into the sea. The men were about to throw
+Marteilhe after them, but while attempting to release him from his
+chain, they touched the wound upon his knee, and he groaned heavily.
+They let him remain where he lay. Shortly after, he was taken down to
+the bottom of the hold with the other men, where he long lay amongst
+the wounded and dying. At length he recovered from his wounds, and was
+again returned to his bench, to re-enter the horrible life of a
+galley-slave.</p>
+
+<p>There was another mean and unmanly cruelty, connected with this
+galley-slave service, which was practised only upon the Huguenots. If
+an assassin or other criminal received a wound in the service of the
+state while engaged in battle, he was at once restored <span class="pagenum"><a id="page204" name="page204"></a>(p. 204)</span> to
+his liberty; but if a Huguenot was wounded, he was never released. He
+was returned to his bench and chained as before; the wounds he had
+received being only so many additional tortures to be borne by him in
+the course of his punishment.</p>
+
+<p>Marteilhe, as we have already stated, was disembarked when he had
+sufficiently recovered, and marched through the entire length of
+France, enchained with other malefactors. On his arrival at
+Marseilles, he was placed on board the galley <span class="italic">Grand Réale</span>, where he
+remained until peace was declared between England and France by the
+Treaty of Utrecht.<a id="footnotetag50" name="footnotetag50"></a><a href="#footnote50" title="Go to footnote 50"><span class="small">[50]</span></a></p>
+
+<p>Queen Anne of England, at the instigation of the Marquis de Rochegade,
+then made an effort to obtain the liberation of Protestants serving at
+the galleys; and at length, out of seven hundred and forty-two
+Huguenots who were then enslaved, a hundred and thirty-six were
+liberated, of whom Marteilhe was one. He was thus enabled to get rid
+of his inhuman countrymen, and to spend the remainder of his life in
+Holland and England, where Protestants were free.<a href="#toc"><span class="small">[Back to Contents]</span></a></p>
+
+<h3><span class="pagenum"><a id="page205" name="page205"></a>(p. 205)</span> CHAPTER X.</h3>
+
+<p class="title">ANTOINE COURT.</p>
+
+<p>Almost at the very time that Louis XIV. was lying on his death-bed at
+Versailles, a young man conceived the idea of re-establishing
+Protestantism in France! Louis XIV. had tried to enter heaven by
+superstition and cruelty. On his death-bed he began to doubt whether
+he "had not carried his authority too far."<a id="footnotetag51" name="footnotetag51"></a><a href="#footnote51" title="Go to footnote 51"><span class="small">[51]</span></a> But the Jesuits tried
+to make death easy for him, covering his body with relics of the true
+cross.</p>
+
+<p>Very different was the position of the young man who tried to undo all
+that Louis XIV., under the influence of his mistress De Maintenon, and
+his Jesuit confessor, Père la Chase,<a id="footnotetag52" name="footnotetag52"></a><a href="#footnote52" title="Go to footnote 52"><span class="small">[52]</span></a> had been trying all his life
+to accomplish. He was an intelligent youth, the son of <span class="pagenum"><a id="page206" name="page206"></a>(p. 206)</span>
+Huguenot parents in Viverais, of comparatively poor and humble
+condition. He was, however, full of energy, activity, and a zealous
+disposition for work. Observing the tendency which Protestantism had,
+while bereft of its pastors, to run into gloomy forms of fanaticism,
+Antoine Court conceived the idea of reviving the pastorate, and
+restoring the proscribed Protestant Church of France. It was a bold
+idea, but the result proved that Antoine Court was justified in
+entertaining it.</p>
+
+<p>Louis XIV. died in August, 1715. During that very month, Court
+summoned together a small number of Huguenots to consider his
+suggestions. The meeting was held at daybreak, in an empty quarry near
+Nismes, which has already been mentioned in the course of this
+history. But it may here be necessary to inform the reader of the
+early life of this enthusiastic young man.</p>
+
+<p>Antoine Court was born at Villeneuve de Berg, in Viverais, in the year
+1696. Religious persecution was then at its height; assemblies were
+vigorously put down; and all pastors taken prisoners were hanged on
+the Peyrou at Montpellier. Court was only four years old when his
+father died, and his mother resolved, if the boy lived, to train him
+up so that he might consecrate himself to the service of God. He was
+still very <span class="pagenum"><a id="page207" name="page207"></a>(p. 207)</span> young while the Camisard war was in progress, but
+he heard a great deal about it, and vividly remembered all that he
+heard.</p>
+
+<p>Antoine Court, like many Protestant children, was compelled to attend
+a Jesuit school in his neighbourhood. Though but a boy he abhorred the
+Mass. With Protestants the Mass was then the symbol of persecution; it
+was identified with the Revocation of the Edict&mdash;the dragonnades, the
+galleys, the prisons, the nunneries, the monkeries, and the Jesuits.
+The Mass was not a matter of knowledge, but of fear, of terror, and of
+hereditary hatred.</p>
+
+<p>At school, the other boys were most bitter against Court, because he
+was the son of a Huguenot. Every sort of mischief was practised upon
+him, for little boys are generally among the greatest of persecutors.
+Court was stoned, worried, railed at, laughed at, spit at. When
+leaving school, the boys called after him "He, he! the eldest son of
+Calvin!" They sometimes pursued him with clamour and volleys of stones
+to the door of his house, collecting in their riotous procession all
+the other Catholic boys of the place. Sometimes they forced him into
+church whilst the Mass was being celebrated. In fact, the boy's hatred
+of the Mass and of Catholicism grew daily more and more vehement.</p>
+
+<p>All these persecutions, together with reading some of the books which
+came under his notice at home, confirmed his aversion to the
+Jesuitical school to which he had been sent. At the same time he
+became desirous of attending the secret assemblies, which he knew were
+being held in the neighbourhood. One day, when his mother set out to
+attend one of them, the boy set out to follow her. She discovered him,
+and demanded whither he was going. "I follow you, <span class="pagenum"><a id="page208" name="page208"></a>(p. 208)</span> mother,"
+said he, "and I wish you to permit me to go where you go. I know that
+you go to pray to God, and will you refuse me the favour of going to
+do so with you?"</p>
+
+<p>She shed tears at his words, told him of the danger of attending the
+assembly, and strongly exhorted him to secrecy; but she allowed him to
+accompany her. He was at that time too little and weak to walk the
+whole way to the meeting; but other worshippers coming up, they took
+the boy on their shoulders and carried him along with them.</p>
+
+<p>At the age of seventeen, Court began to read the Bible at the
+assemblies. One day, in a moment of sudden excitement, common enough
+at secret meetings, he undertook to address the assembly. What he said
+was received with much approval, and he was encouraged to go on
+preaching. He soon became famous among the mountaineers, and was
+regarded as a young man capable of accomplishing great things.</p>
+
+<p>As he grew older, he at length determined to devote his life to
+preaching and ministering to the forsaken and afflicted Protestants.
+It was a noble, self-denying work, the only earthly reward for which
+was labour, difficulty, and danger. His mother was in great trouble,
+for Antoine was her only remaining son. She did not, however, press
+him to change his resolution. Court quoted to her the text, "Whoever
+loves father and mother more than me, is not worthy of me." After
+this, she only saw in her son a victim consecrated, like another
+Abraham, to the Divine service.</p>
+
+<p>After arriving at his decision, Court proceeded to visit the Huguenots
+in Low Languedoc, passing by Uzes to Nismes, and preaching wherever he
+could draw assemblies of the people together. His success <span class="pagenum"><a id="page209" name="page209"></a>(p. 209)</span>
+during this rapid excursion induced him to visit Dauphiny. There he
+met Brunel, another preacher, with knapsack on his back, running from
+place to place in order to avoid spies, priests, and soldiers. The two
+were equally full of ardour, and they went together preaching in many
+places, and duly encouraging each other.</p>
+
+<p>From Dauphiny, Court directed his steps to Marseilles, where the royal
+galleys stationed there contained about three hundred Huguenot
+galley-slaves. He penetrated these horrible floating prisons, without
+being detected, and even contrived to organize amongst them a regular
+system of secret worship. Then he returned to Nismes, and from thence
+went through the Cevennes and the Viverais, preaching to people who
+had never met for Protestant worship since the termination of the wars
+of the Camisards. To elude the spies, who began to make hot search for
+him, because of the enthusiasm which he excited, Court contrived to be
+always on the move, and to appear daily in some fresh locality.</p>
+
+<p>The constant fatigue which he underwent undermined his health, and he
+was compelled to remain for a time inactive at the mineral waters of
+Euzet. This retirement proved useful. He began to think over what
+might be done to revivify the Protestant religion in France. Remember
+that he was at that time only nineteen years of age! It might be
+thought presumptuous in a youth, comparatively uninstructed, even to
+dream of such a subject. The instruments of earthly power&mdash;King, Pope,
+bishops, priests, soldiers, and spies&mdash;were all arrayed against him.
+He had nothing to oppose to them but truth, uprightness, conscience,
+and indefatigable zeal for labour.</p>
+
+<p>When Court had last met the few Protestant preachers <span class="pagenum"><a id="page210" name="page210"></a>(p. 210)</span> who
+survived in Languedoc, they were very undecided about taking up his
+scheme. They had met at Nismes to take the sacrament in the house of a
+friend. There were Bombonnoux (an old Camisard), Crotte, Corteiz,
+Brunel, and Court. Without coming to any decision, they separated,
+some going to Switzerland, and others to the South and West of France.
+It now rested with Court, during his sickness, to study and endeavour
+to arrange the method of reorganization of the Church.</p>
+
+<p>The Huguenots who remained in France were then divided into three
+classes&mdash;the "new converts," who professed Catholicism while hating
+it; the lovers of the ancient Protestant faith, who still clung to it;
+and, lastly, the more ignorant, who still clung to prophesying and
+inspiration. These last had done the Protestant Church much injury,
+for the intelligent classes generally regarded them as but mere
+fanatics.</p>
+
+<p>Court found it would be requisite to keep the latter within the
+leading-strings of spiritual instruction, and to encourage the "new
+converts" to return to the church of their fathers by the
+re-establishment of some efficient pastoral service. He therefore
+urged that religious assemblies must be continued, and that discipline
+must be established by the appointment of elders, presbyteries, and
+synods, and also by the training up of a body of young pastors to
+preach amongst the people, and discipline them according to the rules
+of the Protestant Church. Nearly thirty years had passed since it had
+been disorganized by the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes, so that
+synods, presbyteries, and the training of preachers had become almost
+forgotten.</p>
+
+<p>The first synod was convened by Court, and held in the abandoned
+quarry near Nismes, above referred to, in the very same month in which
+Louis XIV. breathed <span class="pagenum"><a id="page211" name="page211"></a>(p. 211)</span> his last. It was a very small beginning.
+Two or three laymen and a few preachers<a id="footnotetag53" name="footnotetag53"></a><a href="#footnote53" title="Go to footnote 53"><span class="small">[53]</span></a> were present, the whole
+meeting numbering only nine persons. The place in which the meeting
+was held had often before been used as a secret place of worship by
+the Huguenots. Religious meetings held there had often been dispersed
+by the dragoons, and there was scarcely a stone in it that had not
+been splashed by Huguenot blood. And now, after Protestantism had been
+"finally suppressed," Antoine Court assembled his first synod to
+re-establish the proscribed religion!</p>
+
+<p>The first meeting took place on the 21st of August, 1715, at daybreak.
+After prayer, Court, as moderator, explained his method of
+reorganization, which was approved. The first elders were appointed
+from amongst those present. A series of rules and regulations was
+resolved upon and ordered to be spread over the entire province. The
+preachers were then charged to go forth, to stir up the people and
+endeavour to bring back the "new converts."</p>
+
+<p>They lost no time in carrying out their mission. The first districts
+in which they were appointed to work were those of Mende, Alais,
+Viviers, Uzes, Nismes, and Montpellier, in Languedoc&mdash;districts which,
+fifteen years before, had been the scenes of the Camisard war. There,
+in unknown valleys, on hillsides, on the mountains, in the midst of
+hostile towns and villages, the missionaries sought out the huts, the
+farms, and the dwellings of the scattered, concealed, and
+half-frightened Huguenots. Amidst the open threats of the magistrates
+and others in office, and the fear of the still more hateful priests
+and spies, they went from house to house, and <span class="pagenum"><a id="page212" name="page212"></a>(p. 212)</span> prayed,
+preached, advised, and endeavoured to awaken the zeal of their old
+allies of the "Religion."</p>
+
+<p>The preachers were for the most part poor, and some of them were
+labouring men. They were mostly natives of Languedoc. Jean Vesson, a
+cooper by trade, had in his youth been "inspired," and prophesied in
+his ecstasy. Mazelet, now an elderly man, had formerly been celebrated
+among the Camisards, and preached with great success before the
+soldiers of Roland. At forty he was not able to read or write; but
+having been forced to fly into Switzerland, he picked up some
+education at Geneva, and had studied divinity under a fellow-exile.</p>
+
+<p>Bombonnoux had been a brigadier in the troop of Cavalier. After his
+chief's defection he resolved to continue the war to the end, by
+preaching, if not by fighting. He had been taken prisoner and
+imprisoned at Montpellier, in 1705. Two of his Camisard friends were
+first put upon the rack, and then, while still living, thrown upon a
+pile and burnt to death before his eyes. But the horrible character of
+the punishment did not terrify him. He contrived to escape from prison
+at Montpellier, and then went about convoking assemblies and preaching
+to the people as before.</p>
+
+<p>Besides these, there were Huc, Corteiz, Durand, Arnaud, Brunel, and
+Rouviere or Crotte, who all went about from place to place, convoking
+assemblies and preaching. There were also some local preachers, as
+they might be called&mdash;old men who could not move far from home&mdash;who
+worked at their looms or trades, sometimes tilling the ground by day,
+and preaching at night. Amongst these were Monteil, Guillot, and
+Bonnard, all more than sixty years of age.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page213" name="page213"></a>(p. 213)</span> Court, because of his youth and energy, seems to have been
+among the most active of the preachers. One day, near St. Hypolite, a
+chief centre of the Huguenot population, he convoked an assembly on a
+mountain side, the largest that had taken place for many years. The
+priests of the parish gave information to the authorities; and the
+governor of Alais offered a reward of fifty pistoles to anyone who
+would apprehend and deliver up to him the young preacher. Troops were
+sent into the district; upon which Court descended from the mountains
+towards the towns of Low Languedoc, and shortly after he arrived at
+Nismes.</p>
+
+<p>At Nismes, Court first met Jacques Roger, who afterwards proved of
+great assistance to him in his work. Roger had long been an exile in
+Wurtemburg. He was originally a native of Boissieres, in Languedoc,
+and when a young man was compelled to quit France with his parents,
+who were Huguenots. His heart, however, continued to draw him towards
+his native country, although it had treated himself and his family so
+cruelly.</p>
+
+<p>As Roger grew older, he determined to return to France, with the
+object of helping his friends of the "Religion." A plan had occurred
+to him, like that which Antoine Court was now endeavouring to carry
+into effect. The joy with which Roger encountered Court at Nismes, and
+learnt his plans, may therefore be conceived. The result was, that
+Roger undertook to "awaken" the Protestants of Dauphiny, and to
+endeavour to accomplish there what Court was already gradually
+effecting in Languedoc. Roger held his first synod in Dauphiny in
+August, 1716, at which seven preachers and several elders or <span class="italic">anciens</span>
+assisted.</p>
+
+<p>In the meantime Antoine Court again set out to visit <span class="pagenum"><a id="page214" name="page214"></a>(p. 214)</span> the
+churches which had been reconstructed along the banks of the Gardon.
+He had been suffering from intermittent fever, and started on his
+journey before he was sufficiently recovered. Having no horse, he
+walked on foot, mostly by night, along the least known by-paths,
+stopping here and there upon his way. At length he became so enfeebled
+and ill as to be unable to walk further. He then induced two men to
+carry him. By crossing their hands over each other, they took him up
+between them, and carried him along on this improvised chair.</p>
+
+<p>Court found a temporary lodging with a friend. But no sooner had he
+laid himself down to sleep, than the alarm was raised that he must get
+up and fly. A spy had been observed watching the house. Court rose,
+put on his clothes, and though suffering great pain, started afresh.
+The night was dark and rainy. By turns shivering with cold and in an
+access of fever, he wandered alone for hours across the country,
+towards the house of another friend, where he at last found shelter.
+Such were the common experiences of these wandering, devoted,
+proscribed, and heroic ministers of the Gospel.</p>
+
+<p>Their labours were not carried on without encountering other and
+greater dangers. Now that the Protestants were becoming organized, it
+was not so necessary to incite them to public worship. They even
+required to be restrained, so that they might not too suddenly awaken
+the suspicion or excite the opposition of the authorities. Thus, at
+the beginning of 1717, the preacher Vesson held an open assembly near
+Anduze. It was surprised by the troops; and seventy-two persons made
+prisoners, of whom the men were sent to the galleys for life, and the
+women imprisoned in the Tour de Constance. Vesson was on this occasion
+reprimanded <span class="pagenum"><a id="page215" name="page215"></a>(p. 215)</span> by the synod, for having exposed his brethren to
+unnecessary danger.</p>
+
+<p>While there was the danger of loss of liberty to the people, there was
+the danger of loss of life to the pastors who were bold enough to
+minister to their religious necessities. Etienne Arnaud having
+preached to an assembly near Alais, was taken prisoner by the
+soldiers. They took him to Montpellier, where he was judged,
+condemned, and sent back to Alais to be hanged. This brave young man
+gave up his life with great courage and resignation. His death caused
+much sorrow amongst the Protestants, but it had no effect in
+dissuading the preachers and pastors from the work they had taken in
+hand. There were many to take the place of Arnaud. Young Bètrine
+offered himself to the synod, and was accepted.</p>
+
+<p>Scripture readers were also appointed, to read the Bible at meetings
+which preachers were not able to attend. There was, however, a great
+want of Bibles amongst the Protestants. One of the first things done
+by the young King Louis XV.&mdash;the "Well-beloved" of the Jesuits&mdash;on his
+ascending the throne, was to issue a proclamation ordering the seizure
+of Bibles, Testaments, Psalm-books, and other religious works used by
+the Protestants. And though so many books had already been seized and
+burnt in the reign of Louis XIV., immense piles were again collected
+and given to the flames by the executioners.</p>
+
+<p>"Our need of books is very great," wrote Court to a friend abroad; and
+the same statement was repeated in many of his letters. His principal
+need was of Bibles and Testaments; for every Huguenot knew the greater
+part of the Psalms by heart. When a Testament was obtained, it was
+lent about, and for the most <span class="pagenum"><a id="page216" name="page216"></a>(p. 216)</span> part learnt off. The labour was
+divided in this way. One person, sometimes a boy or girl, of good
+memory, would undertake to learn one or more chapters in the Gospels,
+another a certain number in the Epistles, until at last a large
+portion of the book was committed to memory, and could be recited at
+the meetings of the assemblies. And thus also it happened, that the
+conversation of the people, as well as the sermons of their preachers,
+gradually assumed a strongly biblical form.</p>
+
+<p>Strong appeals were made to foreign Protestants to supply the people
+with books. The refugees who had settled in Switzerland, Holland, and
+England sent the Huguenots remaining in France considerable help in
+this way. They sent many Testaments and Psalm-books, together with
+catechisms for the young, and many devotional works written by French
+divines residing in Holland and England&mdash;by Drelincourt, Saurin,
+Claude and others. These were sent safely across the frontier in
+bales, put into the hands of colporteurs, and circulated amongst the
+Protestants all over the South of France. The printing press of Geneva
+was also put in requisition; and Court had many of his sermons printed
+there and distributed amongst the people.</p>
+
+<p>Until this time, Court had merely acted as a preacher; and it was now
+determined to ordain and consecrate him as a pastor. The ceremony,
+though, comparatively unceremonious, was very touching. A large number
+of Protestants in the Vaunage assembled on the night of the 21st
+November, 1718, and, after prayer, Court rose and spoke for some time
+of the responsible duties of the ministry, and of the necessity and
+advantages of preaching. He thanked God for having raised up ministers
+to serve the Church when <span class="pagenum"><a id="page217" name="page217"></a>(p. 217)</span> so many of her enemies were seeking
+for her ruin. He finally asked the whole assembly to pray for grace to
+enable him to fulfil with renewed zeal the duties to which, he was
+about to be called, together with all the virtues needed for success.
+At these touching words the assembled hearers shed tears. Then
+Corteiz, the old pastor, drew near to Court, now upon his knees, and
+placing a Bible upon his head, in the name of Jesus Christ, and with
+the authority of the synod, gave him power to exercise all the
+functions of the ministry. Cries of joy were heard on all sides. Then,
+after further prayer, the assembly broke up in the darkness of the
+night.</p>
+
+<p>The plague which broke out in 1720 helped the progress of the new
+Church. The Protestants thought the plague had been sent as a
+punishment for their backsliding. Piety increased, and assemblies in
+the Desert were more largely attended than before. The intendants
+ceased to interfere with them, and the soldiers were kept strictly
+within their cantonments. More preachers were licensed, and more
+elders were elected. Many new churches were set up throughout
+Languedoc; and the department of the Lozère, in the Cevennes, became
+again almost entirely Protestant. Roger and Villeveyre were almost
+equally successful in Dauphiny; and Saintonge, Normandy, and Poitou
+were also beginning to maintain a connection with the Protestant
+churches of Languedoc.<a href="#toc"><span class="small">[Back to Contents]</span></a></p>
+
+<h3><span class="pagenum"><a id="page218" name="page218"></a>(p. 218)</span> CHAPTER XI.</h3>
+
+<p class="title">REORGANIZATION OF THE CHURCH IN THE DESERT.</p>
+
+<p>The organization of the Church in the Desert is one of the most
+curious things in history. Secret meetings of the Huguenots had long
+been held in France. They were began several years before the Act of
+Revocation was proclaimed, when the dragonnades were on foot, and
+while the Protestant temples were being demolished by the Government.
+The Huguenots then arranged to meet and hold their worship in retired
+places.</p>
+
+<p>As the meetings were at first held, for the most part, in Languedoc,
+and as much of that province, especially in the district of the
+Cevennes, is really waste and desert land, the meetings were at first
+called "Assemblies in the Desert," and for nearly a hundred years they
+retained that name.</p>
+
+<p>When Court began to reorganize the Protestant Church in France,
+shortly after the Camisard war, meetings in the Desert had become
+almost unknown. There were occasional prayer-meetings, at which
+chapters of the Bible were read or recited by those who remembered
+them, and psalms were sung; but there were few or no meetings at which
+pastors presided. Court, however, resolved not only to revive the
+meetings of <span class="pagenum"><a id="page219" name="page219"></a>(p. 219)</span> the Church in the Desert, but to reconstitute
+the congregations, and restore the system of governing them according
+to the methods of the Huguenot Church.</p>
+
+<p>The first thing done in reconstituting a congregation, was to appoint
+certain well-known religious men, as <span class="italic">anciens</span> or elders. These were
+very important officers. They formed the church in the first instance;
+for where there were no elders, there was no church. They were members
+of the <span class="italic">consistoire</span> or presbytery. They looked after the flock,
+visited them in their families, made collections, named the pastors,
+and maintained peace, order, and discipline amongst the people. Though
+first nominated by the pastors, they were elected by the congregation;
+and the reason for their election was their known ability, zeal, and
+piety.</p>
+
+<p>The elder was always present at the assemblies, though the minister
+was absent. He prevented the members from succumbing to temptation and
+falling away; he censured scandal; he kept up the flame of religious
+zeal, and encouraged the failing and helpless; he distributed amongst
+the poorest the collections made and intrusted to him by the Church.</p>
+
+<p>We have said that part of the duty of the elders was to censure
+scandal amongst the members. If their conduct was not considered
+becoming the Christian life, they were not visited by the pastors and
+were not allowed to attend the assemblies, until they had declared
+their determination to lead a better life. What a punishment for
+infraction of discipline! to be debarred attending an assembly, for
+being present at which, the pastor, if detected, might be hanged, and
+the penitent member sent to the galleys for life!<a id="footnotetag54" name="footnotetag54"></a><a href="#footnote54" title="Go to footnote 54"><span class="small">[54]</span></a></p>
+
+<p>The elders summoned the assemblies. They gave <span class="pagenum"><a id="page220" name="page220"></a>(p. 220)</span> the word to a
+few friends, and these spread the notice about amongst the rest. The
+news soon became known, and in the course of a day or two, the members
+of the congregation, though living perhaps in distant villages, would
+be duly informed of the time and place of the intended meeting. It was
+usually held at night,&mdash;in some secret place&mdash;in a cave, a hollow in
+the woods, a ravine, or an abandoned farmstead.</p>
+
+<p>Men, women, and even children were taken thither, after one, two, or
+sometimes three leagues' walking. The meetings were always full of
+danger, for spies were lurking about. Catholic priests were constant
+informers; and soldiers were never far distant. But besides the
+difficulties of spies and soldiers, the meetings were often dispersed
+by the rain in summer, or by the snow in winter.</p>
+
+<p>After the Camisard war, and before the appearance of Court, these
+meetings rarely numbered more than a hundred persons. But Court and
+his fellow-pastors often held meetings at which more than two thousand
+people were present. On one occasion, not less than four thousand
+persons attended an assembly in Lower Languedoc.</p>
+
+<p>When the meetings were held by day, they were carefully guarded and
+watched by sentinels on the look-out, especially in those places near
+which garrisons were stationed. The fleetest of the young men were
+chosen for this purpose. They watched the garrison exits, and when the
+soldiers made a sortie, the sentinels communicated by signal from hill
+to hill, thus giving warning to the meeting to disperse. But the
+assemblies were mostly held at night; and even then the sentinels were
+carefully posted about, but not at so great a distance.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page221" name="page221"></a>(p. 221)</span> The chief of the whole organization was the pastor. First,
+there were the members entitled to church, privileges; next the
+<span class="italic">anciens</span>; and lastly the pastors. As in Presbyterianism, so in
+Huguenot Calvinism, its form of government was republican. The
+organization was based upon the people who elected their elders; then
+upon the elders who selected and recommended the pastors; and lastly
+upon the whole congregation of members, elders, and pastors
+(represented in synods), who maintained the entire organization of the
+Church.</p>
+
+<p>There were three grades of service in the rank of pastor&mdash;first
+students, next preachers, and lastly pastors. Wonderful that there
+should have been students of a profession, to follow which was almost
+equal to a sentence of death! But there were plenty of young
+enthusiasts ready to brave martyrdom in the service of the proscribed
+Church. Sometimes it was even necessary to restrain them in their
+applications.</p>
+
+<p>Court once wrote to Pierre Durand, at a time when the latter was
+restoring order and organization in Viverais: "Sound and examine well
+the persons offering themselves for your approval, before permitting
+them to enter on this glorious employment. Secure good, virtuous men,
+full of zeal for the cause of truth. It is piety only that inspires
+nobility and greatness of soul. Piety sustains us under the most
+extreme dangers, and triumphs over the severest obstacles. The good
+conscience always marches forward with its head erect."</p>
+
+<p>When the character of the young applicants was approved, their studies
+then proceeded, like everything else connected with the proscribed
+religion, in secret. The students followed the professor and pastor in
+his <span class="pagenum"><a id="page222" name="page222"></a>(p. 222)</span> wanderings over the country, passing long nights in
+marching, sometimes hiding in caves by day, or sleeping under the
+stars by night, passing from meeting to meeting, always with death
+looming before them.</p>
+
+<p>"I have often pitched my professor's chair," said Court, "in a torrent
+underneath a rock. The sky was our roof, and the leafy branches thrown
+out from the crevices in the rock overhead, were our canopy. There I
+and my students would remain for about eight days; it was our hall,
+our lecture-room, and our study. To make the most of our time, and to
+practise the students properly, I gave them a text of Scripture to
+discuss before me&mdash;say the first eleven verses of the fifth chapter of
+Luke. I would afterwards propose to them some point of doctrine, some
+passage of Scripture, some moral precept, or sometimes I gave them
+some difficult passages to reconcile. After the whole had stated their
+views upon the question under discussion, I asked the youngest if he
+had anything to state against the arguments advanced; then the others
+were asked in turn; and after they had finished, I stated the views
+which I considered most just and correct. When the more advanced
+students were required to preach, they mounted a particular place,
+where a pole had been set across some rocks in the ravine, and which
+for the time served for a pulpit. And when they had delivered
+themselves, the others were requested by turns to express themselves
+freely upon the subject of the sermon which they had heard."</p>
+
+<p>When the <span class="italic">proposant</span> or probationer was considered sufficiently able
+to preach, he was sent on a mission to visit the churches. Sometimes
+he preached the approved sermons of other pastors; sometimes he
+preached his own sermons, after they had been examined <span class="pagenum"><a id="page223" name="page223"></a>(p. 223)</span> by
+persons appointed by the synod. After a time, if approved by the
+moderator and a committee of the synod, the <span class="italic">proposant</span> was licensed
+to preach. His work then resembled that of a pastor; but he could not
+yet administer the sacrament. It was only when he had passed the
+synod, and been appointed by the laying on of hands, that he could
+exercise the higher pastoral functions.</p>
+
+<p>Then, with respect to the maintenance of the pastors and preachers,
+Court recounts, not without pride, that for the ten years between 1713
+and 1723 (excepting the years which he spent at Geneva), he served the
+Huguenot churches without receiving a farthing. His family and friends
+saw to the supply of his private wants. With respect to the others,
+they were supported by collections made at the assemblies; and, as the
+people were nearly all poor, the amount collected was very small. On
+one occasion, three assemblies produced a halfpenny and six
+half-farthings.</p>
+
+<p>But a regular system of collecting moneys was framed by the synods
+(consisting of a meeting of pastors and elders), and out of the common
+fund so raised, emoluments were assigned, first to those preachers who
+were married, and afterwards to those who were single. In either case
+the pay was very small, scarcely sufficient to keep the wolf from the
+door.</p>
+
+<p>The students for the ministry were at first educated by Court and
+trained to preach, while he was on his dangerous journeys from one
+assembly in the Desert to another. Nor was the supply of preachers
+sufficient to visit the congregations already organized. Court had
+long determined, so soon as the opportunity offered, of starting a
+school for the special education of preachers and pastors, so that the
+work he was engaged in might <span class="pagenum"><a id="page224" name="page224"></a>(p. 224)</span> be more efficiently carried on.
+He at first corresponded with influential French refugees in England
+and Holland with reference to the subject. He wrote to Basnage and
+Saurin, but they received his propositions coolly. He wrote to William
+Wake, then Archbishop of Canterbury, who promised his assistance. At
+last Court resolved to proceed into Switzerland, to stir up the French
+refugees disposed to help him in his labours.</p>
+
+<p>Arrived at Geneva, Court sought out M. Pictet, to whom he explained
+the state of affairs in France. It had been rumoured amongst the
+foreign Protestants that fanaticism and "inspiration" were now in the
+ascendant among the Protestants of France. Court showed that this was
+entirely a mistake, and that all which the proscribed Huguenots in
+France wanted, was a supply of properly educated pastors. The friends
+of true religion, and the enemies of fanaticism, ought therefore to
+come to their help and supply them with that of which they stood most
+in need. If they would find teachers, Court would undertake to supply
+them with congregations. And Huguenot congregations were rapidly
+increasing, not only in Languedoc and Dauphiny, but in Normandy,
+Picardy, Poitou, Saintonge, Bearn, and the other provinces.</p>
+
+<p>At length the subject became matured. It was not found desirable to
+establish the proposed school at Geneva, that city being closely
+watched by France, and frequently under the censure of its government
+for giving shelter to refugee Frenchmen. It was eventually determined
+that the college for the education of preachers should begin at
+Lausanne. It was accordingly commenced in the year 1726, and
+established under the superintendence of M. Duplan.</p>
+
+<p>A committee of refugees called the "Society of Help <span class="pagenum"><a id="page225" name="page225"></a>(p. 225)</span> for the
+Afflicted Faithful," was formed at Lausanne to collect subscriptions
+for the maintenance of the preachers, the pastors, and the seminary.
+These were in the first place received from Huguenots settled in
+Switzerland, afterwards increased by subscriptions obtained from
+refugees settled in Holland, Germany, and England. The King of England
+subscribed five hundred guineas yearly. Duplan was an indefatigable
+agent. In fourteen years he collected fourteen thousand pounds. By
+these efforts the number of students was gradually increased. They
+came from all parts of France, but chiefly from Languedoc. Between
+1726 (the year in which it was started) and 1753, ninety students had
+passed through the seminary.</p>
+
+<p>When the students had passed the range of study appointed by the
+professors, they returned from Switzerland to France to enter upon the
+work of their lives. They had passed the school for martyrdom, and
+were ready to preach to the assemblies&mdash;they had paved their way to
+the scaffold!</p>
+
+<p>The preachers always went abroad with their lives in their hands. They
+travelled mostly by night, shunning the open highways, and selecting
+abandoned routes, often sheep-paths across the hills, to reach the
+scene of their next meeting. The trace of their steps is still marked
+upon the soil of the Cevennes, the people of the country still
+speaking of the solitary routes taken by their instructors when
+passing from parish to parish, to preach to their fathers.</p>
+
+<p>They were dressed, for disguise, in various ways; sometimes as
+peasants, as workmen, or as shepherds. On one occasion, Court and
+Duplan travelled the country disguised as officers! The police heard
+of it, and ordered their immediate arrest, pointing <span class="pagenum"><a id="page226" name="page226"></a>(p. 226)</span> out the
+town and the very house where they were to be taken. But the preachers
+escaped, and assumed a new dress.</p>
+
+<p>When living near Nismes, Court was one day seated under a tree
+composing a sermon, when a party of soldiers, hearing that he was in
+the neighbourhood, came within sight. Court climbed up into the tree,
+where he remained concealed among the branches, and thus contrived to
+escape their search.</p>
+
+<p>On another occasion, he was staying with a friend, in whose house he
+had slept during the previous night. A detachment of troops suddenly
+surrounded the house, and the officer knocked loudly at the door.
+Court made his friend go at once to bed pretending to be ill, while he
+himself cowered down in the narrow space between the bed and the wall.
+His wife slowly answered the door, which the soldiers were threatening
+to blow open. They entered, rummaged the house, opened all the chests
+and closets, sounded the walls, examined the sick man's room, and
+found nothing!</p>
+
+<p>Court himself, as well as the other pastors, worked very hard. On one
+occasion, Court made a round of visits in Lower Languedoc and in the
+Cevennes, at first alone, and afterwards accompanied by a young
+preacher. In the space of two months and a few days he visited
+thirty-one churches, holding assemblies, preaching, and administering
+the sacrament, during which he travelled over three hundred miles. The
+weather did not matter to the pastors&mdash;rain nor snow, wind nor storm,
+never hindered them. They took the road and braved all. Even sickness
+often failed to stay them. Sickness might weaken but did not overthrow
+them.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page227" name="page227"></a>(p. 227)</span> The spies and police so abounded throughout the country, and
+were so active, that they knew all the houses in which the preachers
+might take refuge. A list of these was prepared and placed in the
+hands of the intendant of the province.<a id="footnotetag55" name="footnotetag55"></a><a href="#footnote55" title="Go to footnote 55"><span class="small">[55]</span></a> If preachers were found in
+them, both the shelterers and the sheltered knew what they had to
+expect. The whole property and goods of the former were confiscated
+and they were sent to the galleys for life; and the latter were first
+tortured by the rack, and then hanged. The houses in which preachers
+were found were almost invariably burnt down.</p>
+
+<p>Notwithstanding the great secrecy with which the whole organization
+proceeded, preachers were frequently apprehended, assemblies were
+often surprised, and many persons were imprisoned and sent to the
+galleys for life. Each village had its chief spy&mdash;the priest; and
+beneath the priest there were a number of other spies&mdash;spies for
+money, spies for cruelty, spies for revenge.</p>
+
+<p>Was an assembly of Huguenots about to be held? A spy, perhaps a
+traitor, would make it known. The priest's order was sufficient for
+the captain of the nearest troop of soldiers to proceed to disperse
+it. They marched and surrounded the assembly. A sound of volley-firing
+was heard. The soldiers shot down, hanged, or made prisoners of the
+unlawful worshippers. Punishments were sudden, and inquiry was never
+made into them, however brutal. There was the fire for Bibles,
+Testaments, and psalm-books; galleys for men; prisons and convents for
+women; and gibbets for preachers.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page228" name="page228"></a>(p. 228)</span> In 1720 a large number of prisoners were captured in the
+famous old quarry near Nismes, long the seat of secret Protestant
+worship. But the troops surrounded the meeting suddenly, and the whole
+were taken. The women were sent for life to the Tour de Constance, and
+the men, chained in gangs, were sent all through France to La
+Rochelle, to be imprisoned in the galleys there. The ambassador of
+England made intercession for the prisoners, and their sentence was
+commuted into one of perpetual banishment from France. They were
+accordingly transported to New Orleans on the Mississippi, to populate
+the rising French colony in that quarter of North America.</p>
+
+<p>Thus crimes abounded, and cruelty when practised upon Huguenots was
+never investigated. The seizure and violation of women was common.
+Fathers knew the probable consequence when their daughters were
+seized. The daughter of a Huguenot was seized at Uzes, in 1733, when
+the father immediately died of grief. Two sisters were seized at the
+same place to be "converted," and their immediate relations were
+thrown into gaol in the meantime. This was a common proceeding. The
+Tour de Constance was always filling, and kept full.</p>
+
+<p>The dying were tortured. If they refused the viaticum they were
+treated as "damned persons." When Jean de Molènes of Cahors died,
+making a profession of Protestantism, his body was denounced as
+damned, and it was abandoned without sepulture. A woman who addressed
+some words of consolation to Joseph Martin when dying was condemned to
+pay a fine of six thousand livres, and be imprisoned in the castle of
+Beauregard; and as for Martin, his memory was declared to be damned
+for ever. Many such outrages <span class="pagenum"><a id="page229" name="page229"></a>(p. 229)</span> to the living and dead were
+constantly occurring.<a id="footnotetag56" name="footnotetag56"></a><a href="#footnote56" title="Go to footnote 56"><span class="small">[56]</span></a> Gaolers were accustomed to earn money by
+exhibiting the corpses of Huguenot women at fairs, inviting those who
+paid for admission, to walk up and "see the corpse of a damned
+person."<a id="footnotetag57" name="footnotetag57"></a><a href="#footnote57" title="Go to footnote 57"><span class="small">[57]</span></a></p>
+
+<p>Notwithstanding all these cruelties, Protestantism was making
+considerable progress, both in Languedoc and Dauphiny. In reorganizing
+the Church, the whole country had been divided into districts, and
+preachers and pastors endeavoured to visit the whole of their members
+with as much regularity as possible. Thus Languedoc was divided into
+seven districts, and to each of those a <span class="italic">proposant</span> or probationary
+preacher was appointed. The presbyteries and synods met regularly and
+secretly in a cave, or the hollow bed of a river, or among the
+mountains. They cheered each other up, though their progress was
+usually over the bodies of their dead friends.</p>
+
+<p>For any pastor or preacher to be apprehended, was, of course, certain
+death. Thus, out of thirteen Huguenots who were found worshipping in a
+private apartment at Montpellier, in 1723, Vesson, the pastor, and
+Bonicel and Antoine Comte, his assistants, were at once condemned and
+hanged on the Peyrou, the other ten persons being imprisoned or sent
+to the galleys for life.</p>
+
+<p>Shortly after, Huc, the aged pastor, was taken prisoner in the
+Cevennes, brought to Montpellier, and hanged in the same place. A
+reward of a thousand livres was offered by Bernage, the intendant, for
+the heads of the remaining preachers, the fatal list comprising
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page230" name="page230"></a>(p. 230)</span> the names of Court, Cortez, Durand, Rouviere, Bombonnoux,
+and others. The names of these "others" were not mentioned, not being
+yet thought worthy of the gibbet.</p>
+
+<p>And yet it was at this time that the Bishop of Alais made an appeal to
+the government against the toleration shown to the Huguenots! In 1723,
+he sent a long memorial to Paris, alleging that Catholicism was
+suffering a serious injury; that not only had the "new converts"
+withdrawn themselves from the Catholic Church, but that the old
+Catholics themselves were resorting to the Huguenot assemblies; that
+sometimes their meetings numbered from three to four thousand persons;
+that their psalms were sometimes overheard in the surrounding
+villages; that the churches were becoming deserted, the curés in some
+parishes not being able to find a single Catholic to serve at Mass;
+that the Protestants had ceased to send their children to school, and
+were baptized and married without the intervention of the Church.</p>
+
+<p>In consequence of these representations, the then Regent, the Duke of
+Bourbon, sent down an urgent order to the authorities to carry out the
+law&mdash;to prevent meetings, under penalty of death to preachers, and
+imprisonment at the galleys to all who attended them, ordering that
+the people should be <span class="italic">forced</span> to go to church and the children to
+school, and reviving generally the severe laws against Protestantism
+issued by Louis XIV. The result was that many of the assemblies were
+shortly after attacked and dispersed, many persons were made prisoners
+and sent to the galleys, and many more preachers were apprehended,
+racked, and hanged.</p>
+
+<p>Repeated attempts were made to apprehend Antoine <span class="pagenum"><a id="page231" name="page231"></a>(p. 231)</span> Court, as
+being the soul of the renewed Protestant organization. A heavy reward
+was offered for his head. The spies and police hunted after him in all
+directions. Houses where he was supposed to be concealed were
+surrounded by soldiers at night, and every hole and corner in them
+ransacked. Three houses were searched in one night. Court sometimes
+escaped with great difficulty. On one occasion he remained concealed
+for more than twenty hours under a heap of manure. His friends
+endeavoured to persuade him to leave the country until the activity of
+the search for him had passed.</p>
+
+<p>Since the year 1722, Court had undertaken new responsibilities. He had
+become married, and was now the father of three children. He had
+married a young Huguenot woman of Uzes. He first met her in her
+father's house, while he was in hiding from the spies. While he was
+engaged in his pastoral work his wife and family continued to live at
+Uzes. Court was never seen in her company, but could only visit his
+family secretly. The woman was known to be of estimable character, but
+it gave rise to suspicions that she had three children without a known
+father. The spies were endeavouring to unravel the secret, tempted by
+the heavy reward offered for Court's head.</p>
+
+<p>One day the new commandant of the town, passing before the door of the
+house where Court's wife lived, stopped, and, pointing to the house,
+put some questions to the neighbours. Court was informed of this, and
+immediately supposed that his house had become known, that his wife
+and family had been discovered and would be apprehended. He at once
+made arrangements for having them removed to Geneva. They reached that
+city in safety, in the month of April, 1729.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page232" name="page232"></a>(p. 232)</span> Shortly after, Court, still wandering and preaching about
+Languedoc, became seriously ill. He feared for his wife, he feared for
+his family, and conceived the design of joining them in Switzerland. A
+few months later, exhausted by his labours and continued illness, he
+left Languedoc and journeyed by slow stages to Geneva. He was still a
+young man, only thirty-three; but he had worked excessively hard
+during the last dozen years. Since the age of fourteen, in fact, he
+had evangelized Languedoc.</p>
+
+<p>Shortly before Court left France for Switzerland, the preacher,
+Alexandre Roussel, was, in the year 1728, added to the number of
+martyrs. He was only twenty-six years of age. The occasion on which
+he was made prisoner was while attending an assembly near Vigan. The
+whole of the people had departed, and Roussel was the last to leave
+the meeting. He was taken to Montpellier, and imprisoned in the
+citadel, which had before held so many Huguenot pastors. He was asked
+to abjure, and offered a handsome bribe if he would become a Catholic.
+He refused to deny his faith, and was sentenced to die. When Antoine
+Court went to offer consolation to his mother, she replied, "If my son
+had given way I should have been greatly distressed; but as he died
+with constancy, I thank God for strengthening him to perform this last
+work in his service."</p>
+
+<p>Court did not leave his brethren in France without the expostulations
+of his friends. They alleged that his affection for his wife and
+family had cooled his zeal for God's service. Duplan and Cortez
+expostulated with him; and the churches of Languedoc, which he himself
+had established, called upon him to return to his duties amongst them.</p>
+
+<p>But Court did not attend to their request. His <span class="pagenum"><a id="page233" name="page233"></a>(p. 233)</span> determination
+was for the present unshaken. He had a long arrears of work to do in
+quiet. He had money to raise for the support of the suffering Church
+of France, and for the proper maintenance of the college for students,
+preachers, and pastors. He had to help the refugees, who still
+continued to leave France for Switzerland, and to write letters and
+rouse the Protestant kingdoms of the north, as Brousson had done
+before him some thirty years ago.</p>
+
+<p>The city of Berne was very generous in its treatment of Court and the
+Huguenots generally. The Bernish Government allotted Court a pension
+of five hundred livres a-year&mdash;for he was without the means of
+supporting his family&mdash;all his own and his wife's property having been
+seized and sequestrated in France. Court preached with great success
+in the principal towns of Switzerland, more particularly at Berne, and
+afterwards at Lausanne, where he spent the rest of his days.</p>
+
+<p>Though he worked there more peacefully, he laboured as continuously as
+ever in the service of the Huguenot churches. He composed addresses to
+them; he educated preachers and pastors for them; and one of his
+principal works, while at Lausanne, was to compose a history of the
+Huguenots in France subsequent to the Revocation of the Edict of
+Nantes.</p>
+
+<p>What he had done for the reorganization of the Huguenot Church in
+France may be thus briefly stated. Court had begun his work in 1715,
+at which time there was no settled congregation in the South of
+France. The Huguenots were only ministered to by occasional wandering
+pastors. In 1729, the year in which Court finally left France, there
+were in Lower Languedoc 29 organized, though secretly governed,
+churches; in <span class="pagenum"><a id="page234" name="page234"></a>(p. 234)</span> Upper Languedoc, 11; in the Cevennes, 18; in
+the Lozère 12; and in Viverais, 42 churches. There were now over
+200,000 recognised Protestants in Languedoc alone. The ancient
+discipline had been restored; 120 churches had been organized; a
+seminary for the education of preachers and pastors had been
+established; and Protestantism was extending in Dauphiny, Bearn,
+Saintonge,<a id="footnotetag58" name="footnotetag58"></a><a href="#footnote58" title="Go to footnote 58"><span class="small">[58]</span></a> and other quarters.</p>
+
+<p>Such were, in a great measure, the results of the labours of Antoine
+Court and his assistants during the previous fifteen years.<a href="#toc"><span class="small">[Back to Contents]</span></a></p>
+
+<h3><span class="pagenum"><a id="page235" name="page235"></a>(p. 235)</span> CHAPTER XII.</h3>
+
+<p class="title">THE CHURCH IN THE DESERT, 1730-62&mdash;PAUL RABAUT.</p>
+
+
+<p>The persecutions of the Huguenots increased at one time and relaxed at
+another. When France was at war, and the soldiers were fighting in
+Flanders or on the Rhine, the bishops became furious, and complained
+bitterly to the government of the toleration shown to the Protestants.
+The reason was that there were no regiments at liberty to pursue the
+Huguenots and disperse their meetings in the Desert. When the soldiers
+returned from the wars, persecution began again.</p>
+
+<p>It usually began with the seizing and burning of books. The
+book-burning days were considered amongst the great days of fête.</p>
+
+<p>One day in June, 1730, the Intendant of Languedoc visited Nismes,
+escorted by four battalions of troops. On arriving, the principal
+Catholics were selected, and placed as commissaries to watch the
+houses of the suspected Huguenots. At night, while the inhabitants
+slept, the troops turned out, and the commissaries pointed out the
+Huguenot houses to be searched. The inmates were knocked up, the
+soldiers entered, the houses were rummaged, and all the books that
+could be found were taken to the Hôtel de Ville.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page236" name="page236"></a>(p. 236)</span> A few days after a great <span class="italic">auto-da-fé</span> was held. The entire
+Catholic population turned out. There were the four battalions of
+troops, the gendarmes, the Catholic priests, and the chief
+dignitaries; and in their presence all the Huguenot books were
+destroyed. They were thrown into a pile on the usual place of
+execution, and the hangman set fire to this great mass of Bibles,
+psalm-books, catechisms, and sermons.<a id="footnotetag59" name="footnotetag59"></a><a href="#footnote59" title="Go to footnote 59"><span class="small">[59]</span></a> The officers laughed, the
+priests sneered, the multitude cheered. These bonfires were of
+frequent occurrence in all the towns of Languedoc.</p>
+
+<p>But if the priests hated the printed word, still more did they hate
+the spoken word. They did not like the Bible, but they hated the
+preachers. Fines, <span class="italic">auto-da-fés</span>, condemnation to the galleys, seizures
+of women and girls, and profanation of the dead, were tolerable
+punishments, but there was nothing like hanging a preacher. "Nothing,"
+said Saint-Florentin to the commandant of La Devese, "can produce more
+impression than hanging a preacher; and it is very desirable that you
+should immediately take steps to arrest one of them."</p>
+
+<p>The commandant obeyed orders, and apprehended Pierre Durand. He was on
+his way to baptize the child of one of his congregation, who lived on
+a farm in Viverais. An apparent peasant, who seemed to be waiting his
+approach, offered to conduct him to the farm. Durand followed him. The
+peasant proved to be a soldier in disguise. He led Durand directly
+into the midst of his troop. There he was bound and carried off to
+Montpellier.</p>
+
+<p>Durand was executed at the old place&mdash;the Peyrou&mdash;the <span class="pagenum"><a id="page237" name="page237"></a>(p. 237)</span>
+soldiers beating their drums to stifle his voice while he prayed. His
+corpse was laid beside that of Alexandre Roussel, under the rampart of
+the fortress of Montpellier. Durand was the last of the preachers in
+France who had attended the synod of 1715. They had all been executed,
+excepting only Antoine Court, who was safe in Switzerland.</p>
+
+<p>The priests were not so successful with Claris, the preacher, who
+contrived to escape their clutches. Claris had just reached France on
+his return from the seminary at Lausanne. He had taken shelter for the
+night with a Protestant friend at Foissac, near Uzes. Scarcely had he
+fallen asleep, when the soldiers, informed by the spies, entered his
+chamber, bound him, and marched him off on foot by night, to Alais. He
+was thrown into gaol, and was afterwards judged and condemned to
+death. His friends in Alais, however, secretly contrived to get an
+iron chisel passed to him in prison. He raised the stone of a chamber
+which communicated with his dungeon, descended to the ground, and
+silently leapt the wall. He was saved.</p>
+
+<p>Pastors and preachers continued to be tracked and hunted with renewed
+ardour in Saintonge, Poitou, Gascony, and Dauphiny. "The Chase," as it
+was called, was better organized than it had been for twenty years
+previously. The Catholic clergy, however, continued to complain. The
+chase, they said, was not productive enough! The hangings of pastors
+were too few. The curates of the Cevennes thus addressed the
+intendants: "You do not perform your duty: you are neither active
+enough nor pitiless enough;"<a id="footnotetag60" name="footnotetag60"></a><a href="#footnote60" title="Go to footnote 60"><span class="small">[60]</span></a> and they requested the government to
+adopt more vigorous measures.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page238" name="page238"></a>(p. 238)</span> The intendants, who were thus accused, insisted that they
+<span class="italic">had</span> done their duty. They had hanged all the Huguenot preachers that
+the priests and their spies had discovered and brought to them. They
+had also offered increased rewards for the preachers' heads. If
+Protestantism counted so large a number of adherents, <span class="italic">they</span> were
+surely not to blame for that! Had the priests themselves done <span class="italic">their</span>
+duty? Thus the intendants and the curés reproached each other by
+turns.</p>
+
+<p>And yet the pastors and preachers had not been spared. They had been
+hanged without mercy. They knew they were in the peril of constant
+death. "I have slept fifteen days in a meadow," wrote Cortez, the
+pastor, "and I write this under a tree." Morel, the preacher, when
+attending an assembly, was fired at by the soldiers and died of his
+wounds. Pierre Dortial was also taken prisoner when holding an
+assembly. The host with whom he lived was condemned to the galleys for
+life; the arrondissement in which the assembly had been held was
+compelled to pay a fine of three thousand livres; and Dortial himself
+was sentenced to be hanged. When the aged preacher was informed of his
+sentence he exclaimed: "What an honour for me, oh my God! to have been
+chosen from so many others to suffer death because of my constancy to
+the truth." He was executed at Nismes, and died with courage.</p>
+
+<p>In 1742 France was at war, and the Huguenots enjoyed a certain amount
+of liberty. The edicts against them were by no means revoked; their
+execution was merely suspended. The provinces were stripped of troops,
+and the clergy could no longer call upon them to scatter the meetings
+in the Desert. Hence the assemblies increased. The people began to
+think that the <span class="pagenum"><a id="page239" name="page239"></a>(p. 239)</span> commandants of the provinces had received
+orders to shut their eyes, and see nothing of the proceedings of the
+Huguenots.</p>
+
+<p>At a meeting held in a valley between Calvisson and Langlade, in
+Languedoc, no fewer than ten thousand persons openly met for worship.
+No troops appeared. There was no alarm nor surprise. Everything passed
+in perfect quiet. In many other places, public worship was celebrated,
+the sacrament was administered, children were baptized, and marriages
+were celebrated in the open day.<a id="footnotetag61" name="footnotetag61"></a><a href="#footnote61" title="Go to footnote 61"><span class="small">[61]</span></a></p>
+
+<p>The Catholics again urgently complained to the government of the
+increasing number of Huguenot meetings. The Bishop of Poitiers
+complained that in certain parishes of his diocese there was not now a
+single Catholic. Low Poitou contained thirty Protestant churches,
+divided into twelve arrondissements, and each arrondissement contained
+about seven thousand members. The Procureur-Général of Normandy said,
+"All this country is full of Huguenots." But the government had at
+present no troops to spare, and the Catholic bishops and clergy must
+necessarily wait until the war with the English and the Austrians had
+come to an end.</p>
+
+<p>Antoine Court paid a short visit to Languedoc in 1744, to reconcile a
+difference which had arisen in the Church through the irregular
+conduct of Pastor Boyer. Court was received with great enthusiasm, and
+when Boyer was re-established in his position as pastor, after making
+his submission to the synod, a convocation of <span class="pagenum"><a id="page240" name="page240"></a>(p. 240)</span> Huguenots was
+held near Sauzet, at which thousands of people were present. Court
+remained for about a month in France, preaching almost daily to
+immense audiences. At Nismes, he preached at the famous place for
+Huguenot meetings&mdash;in the old quarry, about three miles from the town.
+There were about twenty thousand persons present, ranged, as in an
+amphitheatre, along the sides of the quarry. It was a most impressive
+sight. Peasants and gentlemen mixed together. Even the "beau monde" of
+Nismes was present. Everybody thought that there was now an end of the
+persecution.<a id="footnotetag62" name="footnotetag62"></a><a href="#footnote62" title="Go to footnote 62"><span class="small">[62]</span></a></p>
+
+<p>In the meantime the clergy continued to show signs of increasing
+irritation. They complained, denounced, and threatened. Various
+calumnies were invented respecting the Huguenots. The priests of
+Dauphiny gave out that Roger, the pastor, had read an edict purporting
+to be signed by Louis XV. granting complete toleration to the
+Huguenots! The report was entirely without foundation, and Roger
+indignantly denied that he had read any such edict. But the report
+reached the ears of the King, then before Ypres with his army; on
+which he issued a proclamation announcing that the rumour publicly
+circulated that it was his intention to tolerate the Huguenots was
+absolutely false.</p>
+
+<p>No sooner had the war terminated, and the army returned to France,
+than the persecutions recommenced as hotly as ever. The citizens of
+Nismes, <span class="pagenum"><a id="page241" name="page241"></a>(p. 241)</span> for having recently encouraged the Huguenots and
+attended Court's great meeting, were heavily fined. All the existing
+laws for the repression and destruction of Protestantism were
+enforced. Suspected persons were apprehended and imprisoned without
+trial. A new "hunt" was set on foot for preachers. There were now
+plenty of soldiers at liberty to suppress the meetings in the Desert,
+and they were ordered into the infested quarters. In a word,
+persecution was let loose all over France. Nor was it without the
+usual results. It was very hot in Dauphiny. There a detachment of
+horse police, accompanied by regular troops and a hangman, ran through
+the province early in 1745, spreading terror everywhere. One of their
+exploits was to seize a sick old Huguenot, drag him from his bed, and
+force him towards prison. He died upon the road.</p>
+
+<p>In February, it was ascertained that the Huguenots met for worship in
+a certain cavern. The owner of the estate on which the cavern was
+situated, though unaware of the meetings, was fined a thousand crowns,
+and imprisoned for a year in the Castle of Cret.</p>
+
+<p>Next month, Louis Ranc, a pastor, was seized at Livron while baptizing
+an infant, taken to Die, and hanged. He had scarcely breathed his
+last, when the hangman cut the cord, hewed off the head, and made a
+young Protestant draw the corpse along the streets of Die.</p>
+
+<p>In the month of April, 1745, Jacques Roger, the old friend and
+coadjutor of Court&mdash;the apostle of Dauphiny as Court had been of
+Languedoc&mdash;was taken prisoner and conducted to Grenoble. Roger was
+then eighty years old, worn out with privation and hard work. He was
+condemned to death. He professed his joy at being <span class="pagenum"><a id="page242" name="page242"></a>(p. 242)</span> still able
+to seal with his blood the truths he had so often proclaimed. On his
+way to the scaffold, he sang aloud the fifty-first Psalm. He was
+executed in the Place du Breuil. After he had hung for twenty-four
+hours, his body was taken down, dragged along the streets of Grenoble,
+and thrown into the Isère.</p>
+
+<p>At Grenoble also, in the same year, seven persons were condemned to
+the galleys. A young woman was publicly whipped at the same place for
+attending a Huguenot meeting. Seven students and pastors who could not
+be found, were hanged in effigy. Four houses were demolished for
+having served as asylums for preachers. Fines were levied on all
+sides, and punishments of various kinds were awarded to many hundred
+persons. Thus persecution ran riot in Dauphiny in the years 1745 and
+1746.</p>
+
+<p>In Languedoc it was the same. The prisons and the galleys were always
+kept full. Dragoons were quartered in the Huguenot villages, and by
+this means the inhabitants were soon ruined. The soldiers pillaged the
+houses, destroyed the furniture, tore up the linen, drank all the
+wine, and, when they were in good humour, followed the cattle, swine,
+and fowl, and killed them off sword in hand. Montauban, an old
+Huguenot town, was thus ruined in the course of a very few months.</p>
+
+<p>One day, in a Languedoc village, a soldier seized a young girl with a
+foul intention. She cried aloud, and the villagers came to her rescue.
+The dragoons turned out in a body, and fired upon the people. An old
+man was shot dead, a number of the villagers were taken prisoners,
+and, with their hands tied to the horses' tails, were conducted for
+punishment to Montauban.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page243" name="page243"></a>(p. 243)</span> All the towns and villages in Upper Languedoc were treated
+with the same cruelty. Nismes was fined over and over again. Viverais
+was treated with the usual severity. M. Désubas, the pastor, was taken
+prisoner there, and conducted to Vernoux. As the soldiers led him
+through the country to prison, the villagers came out in crowds to see
+him pass. Many followed the pastor, thinking they might be able to
+induce the magistrates of Vernoux to liberate him. The villagers were
+no sooner cooped up in a mass in the chief street of the town, than
+they were suddenly fired upon by the soldiers. Thirty persons were
+killed on the spot, more than two hundred were wounded, and many
+afterwards died of their wounds.</p>
+
+<p>Désubas, the pastor, was conducted to Nismes, and from Nismes to
+Montpellier. While on his way to death at Montpellier, some of his
+peasant friends, who lived along the road, determined to rescue him.
+But when Paul Rabaut heard of the proposed attempt, he ran to the
+place where the people had assembled and held them back. He was
+opposed to all resistance to the governing power, and thought it
+possible, by patience and righteousness, to live down all this
+horrible persecution.</p>
+
+<p>Désubas was judged, and, as usual, condemned to death. Though it was
+winter time, he was led to his punishment almost naked; his legs
+uncovered, and only in thin linen vest over his body. Arrived at the
+gallows, his books and papers were burnt before his eyes, and he was
+then delivered over to the executioner. A Jesuit presented a crucifix
+for him to kiss, but he turned his head to one side, raised his eyes
+upwards, and was then hanged.</p>
+
+<p>The same persecution prevailed over the greater part <span class="pagenum"><a id="page244" name="page244"></a>(p. 244)</span> of
+France. In Saintonge, Elie Vivien, the preacher, was taken prisoner,
+and hanged at La Rochelle. His body remained for twenty-four hours on
+the gallows. It was then placed upon a forked gibbet, where it hung
+until the bones were picked clean by the crows and bleached by the
+wind and the sun.<a id="footnotetag63" name="footnotetag63"></a><a href="#footnote63" title="Go to footnote 63"><span class="small">[63]</span></a></p>
+
+<p>The same series of persecutions went on from one year to another. It
+was a miserable monotony of cruelty. There was hanging for the
+pastors; the galleys for men attending meetings in the Desert; the
+prisons and convents for women and children. Wherever it was found
+that persons had been married by the Huguenot pastors, they were haled
+before the magistrate, fined and imprisoned, and told that they had
+been merely living in concubinage, and that their children were
+illegitimate.</p>
+
+<p>Sometimes it was thought that the persecutors would relent. France was
+again engaged in a disastrous war with England and Austria; and it was
+feared that England would endeavour to stir up a rebellion amongst the
+Huguenots. But the pastors met in a general synod, and passed
+resolutions assuring the government of their loyalty to the King,<a id="footnotetag64" name="footnotetag64"></a><a href="#footnote64" title="Go to footnote 64"><span class="small">[64]</span></a>
+and of their devotion to the laws of France!</p>
+
+<p>Their "loyalty" proved of no use. The towns of Languedoc were as
+heavily fined as before, for attending meetings in the Desert.<a id="footnotetag65" name="footnotetag65"></a><a href="#footnote65" title="Go to footnote 65"><span class="small">[65]</span></a>
+Children were, as usual, taken <span class="pagenum"><a id="page245" name="page245"></a>(p. 245)</span> away from their parents and
+placed in Jesuit convents. Le Nain apprehended Jean Desjours, and had
+him hanged at Montpellier, on the ground that he had accompanied the
+peasants who, as above recited, went into Vernoux after the martyr
+Désubas.</p>
+
+<p>The Catholics would not even allow Protestant corpses to be buried in
+peace. At Levaur a well-known Huguenot died. Two of his friends went
+to dig a grave for him by night; they were observed by spies and
+informed against. By dint of money and entreaties, however, the
+friends succeeded in getting the dead man buried. The populace,
+stirred up by the White Penitents (monks), opened the grave, took out
+the corpse, sawed the head from the body, and prepared to commit
+further outrages, when the police interfered, and buried the body
+again, in consideration of the large sum that had been paid to the
+authorities for its interment.</p>
+
+<p>The populace were always wild for an exhibition of cruelty. In
+Provence, a Protestant named Montague died, and was secretly interred.
+The Catholics having discovered the place where he was buried
+determined to disinter him. The grave was opened, and the corpse taken
+out. A cord was attached to the neck, and the body was hauled through
+the village to the music of a tambourine and flageolet. At every step
+it was kicked or mauled by the crowd who accompanied it. Under the
+kicks the corpse burst. The furious brutes then took out the entrails
+and attached them to poles, going through the village crying, "Who
+wants preachings? Who wants preachings?"<a id="footnotetag66" name="footnotetag66"></a><a href="#footnote66" title="Go to footnote 66"><span class="small">[66]</span></a></p>
+
+<p>To such a pitch of brutality had the kings of France <span class="pagenum"><a id="page246" name="page246"></a>(p. 246)</span> and
+their instigators, the Jesuits&mdash;who, since the Revocation of the
+Edict, had nearly the whole education of the country in their
+hands&mdash;reduced the people; from whom they were themselves, however, to
+suffer almost an equal amount of indignity.</p>
+
+<p>In the midst of these hangings and cruelties, the bishops again
+complained bitterly of the tolerance granted to the Huguenots. M. de
+Montclus, Bishop of Alais, urged "that the true cause of all the evils
+that afflict the country was the relaxation of the laws against heresy
+by the magistrates, that they gave themselves no trouble to persecute
+the Protestants, and that their further emigration from the kingdom
+was no more to be feared than formerly." It was, they alleged, a great
+danger to the country that there should be in it two millions of men
+allowed to live without church and outside the law.<a id="footnotetag67" name="footnotetag67"></a><a href="#footnote67" title="Go to footnote 67"><span class="small">[67]</span></a></p>
+
+<p>The afflicted Church at this time had many misfortunes to contend
+with. In 1748, the noble, self-denying, indefatigable Claris died&mdash;one
+of the few Protestant pastors who died in his bed. In 1750, the
+eloquent young preacher, François Benezet,<a id="footnotetag68" name="footnotetag68"></a><a href="#footnote68" title="Go to footnote 68"><span class="small">[68]</span></a> was taken and hanged at
+Montpellier. Meetings in the Desert were more vigorously attacked and
+dispersed, and when surrounded by the soldiers, most persons were
+shot; the others were taken prisoners.</p>
+
+<p>The Huguenot pastors repeatedly addressed Louis XV. and his ministers,
+appealing to them for protection as loyal subjects. In 1750 they
+addressed the King in a new memorial, respectfully representing that
+their meetings for public worship, sacraments, baptisms, <span class="pagenum"><a id="page247" name="page247"></a>(p. 247)</span> and
+marriages, were matters of conscience. They added: "Your troops pursue
+us in the deserts as if we were wild beasts; our property is
+confiscated; our children are torn from us; we are condemned to the
+galleys; and although our ministers continually exhort us to discharge
+our duty as good citizens and faithful subjects, a price is set upon
+their heads, and when they are taken, they are cruelly executed." But
+Louis XV. and his ministers gave no greater heed to this petition than
+they had done to those which had preceded it.</p>
+
+<p>After occasional relays the Catholic persecutions again broke out. In
+1752 there was a considerable emigration in consequence of a new
+intendant having been appointed to Languedoc. The Catholics called
+upon him to put in force the powers of the law. New brooms sweep
+clean. The Intendant proceeded to carry out the law with such ferocity
+as to excite great terror throughout the province. Meetings were
+surrounded; prisoners taken and sent to the galleys; and all the gaols
+and convents were filled with women and children.</p>
+
+<p>The emigration began again. Many hundred persons went to Holland; and
+a still larger number went to settle with their compatriots as silk
+and poplin weavers in Dublin. The Intendant of Languedoc tried to stop
+their flight. The roads were again watched as before. All the outlets
+from the kingdom were closed by the royalist troops. Many of the
+intending emigrants were made prisoners. They were spoiled of
+everything, robbed of their money, and thrown into gaol. Nevertheless,
+another large troop started, passed through Switzerland, and reached
+Ireland at the end of the year.</p>
+
+<p>At the same time, emigration was going on from <span class="pagenum"><a id="page248" name="page248"></a>(p. 248)</span> Normandy and
+Poitou, where persecution was compelling the people to fly from their
+own shores and take refuge in England. This religious emigration of
+1752 was, however, almost the last which took place from France.
+Though the persecutions were drawing to an end, they had not yet come
+to a close.</p>
+
+<p>In 1754, the young pastor Tessier (called Lafage), had just returned
+from Lausanne, where he had been pursuing his studies for three years.
+He had been tracked by a spy to a certain house, where he had spent
+the night. Next morning the house was surrounded by soldiers. Tessier
+tried to escape by getting out of a top window and running along the
+roofs of the adjoining houses. A soldier saw him escaping and shot at
+him. He was severely wounded in the arm. He was captured, taken before
+the Intendant of Languedoc, condemned, and hanged in the course of the
+same day.</p>
+
+<p>Religious meetings also continued to be surrounded, and were treated
+in the usual brutal manner. For instance, an assembly was held in
+Lower Languedoc on the 8th of August, 1756, for the purpose of
+ordaining to the ministry three young men who had arrived from
+Lausanne, where they had been educated. A number of pastors were
+present, and as many as from ten to twelve thousand men, women, and
+children were there from the surrounding country. The congregation was
+singing a psalm, when a detachment of soldiers approached. The people
+saw them; the singing ceased; the pastors urging patience and
+submission. The soldiers fired; every shot told; and the crowd fled in
+all directions. The meeting was thus dispersed, leaving the
+murderers&mdash;in other words, the gallant soldiers&mdash;masters of the field;
+a long track of blood remaining to mark the site on which the
+prayer-meeting had been held.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page249" name="page249"></a>(p. 249)</span> It is not necessary to recount further cruelties and
+tortures. Assemblies surrounded and people shot; preachers seized and
+hanged; men sent to the galleys; women sent to the Tour de Constance;
+children carried off to the convents&mdash;such was the horrible ministry
+of torture in France. When Court heard of the re-inflictions of some
+old form of torture&mdash;"Alas," said he, "there is nothing new under the
+sun. In all times, the storm of persecution has cleansed the
+threshing-floor of the Lord."</p>
+
+<p>And yet, notwithstanding all the bitterness of the persecution, the
+number of Protestants increased. It is difficult to determine their
+numbers. Their apologists said they amounted to three millions;<a id="footnotetag69" name="footnotetag69"></a><a href="#footnote69" title="Go to footnote 69"><span class="small">[69]</span></a>
+their detractors that they did not amount to four hundred thousand.
+The number of itinerant pastors, however, steadily grew. In 1756 there
+were 48 pastors at work, with 22 probationary preachers and students.
+In 1763 there were 62 pastors, 35 preachers, and 15 students.</p>
+
+<p>Then followed the death of Antoine Court himself in Switzerland&mdash;after
+watching over the education and training of preachers at the Lausanne
+Seminary. Feeling his powers beginning to fail, he had left Lausanne,
+and resided at Timonex. There, assisted by his son Court de Gébelin,
+Professor of Logic at the College, he conducted an immense
+correspondence with French Protestants at home and abroad.</p>
+
+<p>Court's wife died in 1755, to his irreparable loss. His "Rachel,"
+during his many years of peril, had been his constant friend and
+consoler. Unable, after <span class="pagenum"><a id="page250" name="page250"></a>(p. 250)</span> her death, to live at Timonex, so
+full of cruel recollections, Court returned to Lausanne. He did not
+long survive his wife's death. While engaged in writing the history of
+the Reformed Church of France, he was taken ill. His history of the
+Camisards was sent to press, and he lived to revise the first
+proof-sheets. But he did not survive to see the book published. He
+died on the 15th June, 1760, in the sixty-fourth year of his age.</p>
+
+<p>From the time of Court's death&mdash;indeed from the time that Court left
+France to settle at Lausanne&mdash;Paul Rabaut continued to be looked upon
+as the leader and director of the proscribed Huguenot Church. Rabaut
+originally belonged to Bedarieux in Languedoc. He was a great friend
+of Pradel's. Rabaut served the Church at Nismes, and Pradel at Uzes.
+Both spent two years at Lausanne in 1744-5. Court entertained the
+highest affection for Rabaut, and regarded him as his successor. And
+indeed he nobly continued the work which Court had begun.</p>
+
+<p>Besides being zealous, studious, and pious, Rabaut was firm, active,
+shrewd, and gentle. He stood strongly upon moral force. Once, when the
+Huguenots had become more than usually provoked by the persecutions
+practised on them, they determined to appear armed at the assemblies.
+Rabaut peremptorily forbade it. If they persevered, he would forsake
+their meetings. He prevailed, and they came armed only with their
+Bibles.</p>
+
+<p>The directness of Rabaut's character, the nobility of his sentiments,
+the austerity of his life, and his heroic courage, evidently destined
+him as the head of the work which Court had begun. Antoine Court! Paul
+Rabaut! The one restored Protestantism in France, the other rooted and
+established it.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page251" name="page251"></a>(p. 251)</span> Rabaut's enthusiasm may be gathered from the following
+extract of a letter which he wrote to a friend at Geneva: "When I fix
+my attention upon the divine fire with which, I will not say Jesus
+Christ and the Apostles, but the Reformed and their immediate
+successors, burned for the salvation of souls, it seems to me that, in
+comparison with them, we are ice. Their immense works astound me, and
+at the same time cover me with confusion. What would I not give to
+resemble them in everything laudable!"</p>
+
+<p>Rabaut had the same privations, perils, and difficulties to undergo as
+the rest of the pastors in the Desert. He had to assume all sorts of
+names and disguises while he travelled through the country, in order
+to preach at the appointed places. He went by the names of M. Paul, M.
+Denis, M. Pastourel, and M. Theophile; and he travelled under the
+disguises of a common labourer, a trader, a journeyman, and a baker.</p>
+
+<p>He was condemned to death, as a pastor who preached in defiance of the
+law; but his disguises were so well prepared, and the people for whom
+he ministered were so faithful to him, that the priests and other
+spies never succeeded in apprehending him. Singularly enough, he was
+in all other respects in favour of the recognition of legal authority,
+and strongly urged his brethren never to adopt any means whatever of
+forcibly resisting the King's orders.</p>
+
+<p>Many of the military commanders were becoming disgusted with the
+despicable and cowardly business which the priests called upon them to
+do. Thus, on one occasion, a number of Protestants had assembled at
+the house of Paul Rabaut at Nismes, and, while they were on their
+knees, the door was suddenly burst open, when a man, muffled up,
+presented himself, and throwing <span class="pagenum"><a id="page252" name="page252"></a>(p. 252)</span> open his cloak, discovered
+the military commandant of the town. "My friends," he said, "you have
+Paul Rabaut with you; in a quarter of an hour I shall be here with my
+soldiers, accompanied by Father &mdash;&mdash;, who has just laid the
+information against you." When the soldiers arrived, headed by the
+commandant and the father, of course no Paul Rabaut was to be found.</p>
+
+<p>"For more than thirty years," says one of Paul Rabaut's biographers,
+"caverns and huts, whence he was unearthed like a wild animal, were
+his only habitation. For a long time he dwelt in a safe hiding-place
+that one of his faithful guides had provided for him, under a pile of
+stones and thorn-bushes. It was discovered at length by a shepherd,
+and such was the wretchedness of his condition, that, when he was
+forced to abandon the place, he still regretted this retreat, which
+was more fit for savage beasts than men."</p>
+
+<p>Yet this hut of piled stones was for some time the centre of
+Protestant affairs in France. All the faithful instinctively turned to
+Rabaut when assailed by fresh difficulties and persecutions, and acted
+on his advice. He obtained the respect even of the Catholics
+themselves, because it was known that he was a friend of peace, and
+opposed to all risings and rebellions amongst his people.</p>
+
+<p>Once he had the courage to present a petition to the Marquis de
+Paulmy, Minister of War, when changing horses at a post-house between
+Nismes and Montpellier. Rabaut introduced himself by name, and the
+Marquis knew that it was the proscribed pastor who stood before him.
+He might have arrested and hanged Rabaut on the spot; but, impressed
+by the noble bearing of the pastor, he accepted the petition, and
+promised to lay it before the king.<a href="#toc"><span class="small">[Back to Contents]</span></a></p>
+
+<h3><span class="pagenum"><a id="page253" name="page253"></a>(p. 253)</span> CHAPTER XIII.</h3>
+
+<p class="title">END OF THE PERSECUTIONS&mdash;THE FRENCH REVOLUTION.</p>
+
+<p>In the year 1762, the execution of an unknown Protestant at Toulouse
+made an extraordinary noise in Europe. Protestant pastors had so often
+been executed, that the punishment had ceased to be a novelty.
+Sometimes they were simply hanged; at other times they were racked,
+and then hanged; and lastly, they were racked, had their larger bones
+broken, and were then hanged. Yet none of the various tortures
+practised on the Protestant pastors had up to that time excited any
+particular sensation in France itself, and still less in Europe.</p>
+
+<p>Cruelty against French Huguenots was so common a thing in those days,
+that few persons who were of any other religion, or of no religion at
+all, cured anything about it. The Protestants were altogether outside
+the law. When a Protestant meeting was discovered and surrounded, and
+men, women, and children were at once shot down, no one could call the
+murderers in question, because the meetings were illegal. The persons
+taken prisoners at the meetings were brought before the magistrates
+and sentenced to punishments even worse than death. They might be sent
+to the galleys, to spend the remainder of their <span class="pagenum"><a id="page254" name="page254"></a>(p. 254)</span> lives
+amongst thieves, murderers, and assassins. Women and children found at
+such meetings might also be sentenced to be imprisoned in the Tour de
+Constance. There were even cases of boys of twelve years old having
+been sent to the galleys for life, because of having accompanied their
+parents to "the Preaching."<a id="footnotetag70" name="footnotetag70"></a><a href="#footnote70" title="Go to footnote 70"><span class="small">[70]</span></a></p>
+
+<p>The same cruelties were at that time practised upon the common people
+generally, whether they were Huguenots or not. The poor creatures,
+whose only pleasure consisted in sometimes hunting a Protestant, were
+so badly off in some districts of France that they even fed upon
+grass. The most distressed districts in France were those in which the
+bishops and clergy were the principal owners of land. They were the
+last to abandon slavery, which continued upon their estates until
+after the Revolution.</p>
+
+<p>All these abominations had grown up in France, because the people had
+begun to lose the sense of individual liberty. Louis XIV. had in his
+time prohibited the people from being of any religion different from
+his own. "His Majesty," said his Prime Minister Louvois, "will not
+suffer any person to remain in his kingdom who shall not be of his
+religion." And Louis XV. continued the delusion. The whole of the
+tyrannical edicts and ordinances of Louis XIV. continued to be
+maintained.</p>
+
+<p>It was not that Louis XIV. and Louis XV. were kings of any virtue or
+religion. Both were men of exceedingly immoral habits. We have
+elsewhere described Louis XIV., but Louis XV., the Well-beloved, was
+perhaps the greatest profligate of the two. Madame de Pompadour, when
+she ceased to be his mistress, became <span class="pagenum"><a id="page255" name="page255"></a>(p. 255)</span> his procuress. This
+infamous woman had the command of the state purse, and she contrived
+to build for the sovereign a harem, called the Parc-aux-Cerfs, in the
+park of Versailles, which cost the country at least a hundred millions
+of francs.<a id="footnotetag71" name="footnotetag71"></a><a href="#footnote71" title="Go to footnote 71"><span class="small">[71]</span></a> The number of young girls taken from Paris to this
+place excited great public discontent; and though morals generally
+were not very high at that time, the debauchery and intemperance of
+the King (for he was almost constantly drunk)<a id="footnotetag72" name="footnotetag72"></a><a href="#footnote72" title="Go to footnote 72"><span class="small">[72]</span></a> contributed to
+alienate the nation, and to foster those feelings of hatred which
+broke forth without restraint in the ensuing reign.</p>
+
+<p>In the midst of all this public disregard for virtue, a spirit of
+ribaldry and disregard for the sanctions of religion had long been
+making its appearance in the literature of the time. The highest
+speculations which can occupy the attention of man were touched with a
+recklessness and power, a brilliancy of touch and a bitterness of
+satire, which forced the sceptical productions of the day upon the
+notice of all who studied, read, or delighted in literature;&mdash;for
+those were the <span class="pagenum"><a id="page256" name="page256"></a>(p. 256)</span> days of Voltaire, Rousseau, Condorcet, and
+the great men of "The Encyclopædia."</p>
+
+<p>While the King indulged in his vicious pleasures, and went reeking
+from his debaucheries to obtain absolution from his confessors, the
+persecution of the Protestants went on as before. Nor was it until
+public opinion (such as it was) was brought to bear upon the hideous
+incongruity that religious persecutions were at once brought summarily
+to an end.</p>
+
+<p>The last executions of Huguenots in France because of their
+Protestantism occurred in 1762. Francis Rochette, a young pastor,
+twenty-six years old, was laid up by sickness at Montauban. He
+recovered sufficiently to proceed to the waters of St. Antonin for the
+recovery of his health, when he was seized, together with his two
+guides or bearers, by the burgess guard of the town of Caussade. The
+three brothers Grenier endeavoured to intercede for them; but the
+mayor of Caussade, proud of his capture, sent the whole of the
+prisoners to gaol.</p>
+
+<p>They were tried by the judges of Toulouse on the 18th of February.
+Rochette was condemned to be hung in his shirt, his head and feet
+uncovered, with a paper pinned on his shirt before and behind, with
+the words written thereon&mdash;"<span class="italic">Ministre de la religion prétendue
+réformée.</span>" The three brothers Grenier, who interfered on behalf of
+Rochette, were ordered to have their heads taken off for resisting the
+secular power; and the two guides, who were bearing the sick Rochette
+to St. Antonin for the benefit of the waters, were sent to the galleys
+for life.</p>
+
+<p>Barbarous punishments such as these were so common when Protestants
+were the offenders, that the decision, of the judges did not excite
+any particular sensation. <span class="pagenum"><a id="page257" name="page257"></a>(p. 257)</span> It was only when Jean Calas was
+shortly after executed at Toulouse that an extraordinary sensation was
+produced&mdash;and that not because Calas was a Protestant, but because his
+punishment came under the notice of Voltaire, who exposed the inhuman
+cruelty to France, Europe, and the world at large.</p>
+
+<p>The reason why Protestant executions terminated with the death of
+Calas was as follows:&mdash;The family of Jean Calas resided at Toulouse,
+then one of the most bigoted cities in France. Toulouse swarmed with
+priests and monks, more Spanish than French in their leanings. They
+were great in relics, processions, and confraternities. While
+"mealy-mouthed" Catholics in other quarters were becoming somewhat
+ashamed of the murders perpetrated during the Massacre of St.
+Bartholomew, and were even disposed to deny them, the more outspoken
+Catholics of Toulouse were even proud of the feat, and publicly
+celebrated the great southern Massacre of St. Bartholomew which took
+place in 1572. The procession then held was one of the finest church
+commemorations in the south; it was followed by bishops, clergy, and
+the people of the neighbourhood, in immense numbers.</p>
+
+<p>Calas was an old man of sixty-four, and reduced to great weakness by a
+paralytic complaint. He and his family were all Protestants excepting
+one son, who had become a Catholic. Another of the sons, however, a
+man of ill-regulated life, dissolute, and involved in pecuniary
+difficulties, committed suicide by hanging himself in an outhouse.</p>
+
+<p>On this, the brotherhood of White Penitents stirred up a great fury
+against the Protestant family in the minds of the populace. The monks
+alleged that Jean <span class="pagenum"><a id="page258" name="page258"></a>(p. 258)</span> Calas had murdered his son because he
+wished to become a Catholic. They gave out that it was a practice of
+the Protestants to keep an executioner to murder their children who
+wished to abjure the reformed faith, and that one of the objects of
+the meetings which they held in the Desert, was to elect this
+executioner. The White Penitents celebrated mass for the suicide's
+soul; they exhibited his figure with a palm branch in his hand, and
+treated him as a martyr.</p>
+
+<p>The public mind became inflamed. A fanatical judge, called David, took
+up the case, and ordered Calas and his whole family to be sent to
+prison. Calas was tried by the court of Toulouse. They tortured the
+whole family to compel them to confess the murder;<a id="footnotetag73" name="footnotetag73"></a><a href="#footnote73" title="Go to footnote 73"><span class="small">[73]</span></a> but they did
+not confess. The court wished to burn the mother, but they ended by
+condemning the paralytic father to be broken alive on the wheel.<a id="footnotetag74" name="footnotetag74"></a><a href="#footnote74" title="Go to footnote 74"><span class="small">[74]</span></a>
+The parliament of Toulouse confirmed the atrocious sentence, and the
+old man perished in torments, declaring to the last his entire
+innocence. The rest of the family were discharged, although if there
+had been any truth in the charge for which Jean Calas was racked to
+death, <span class="pagenum"><a id="page259" name="page259"></a>(p. 259)</span> they must necessarily have been his accomplices, and
+equally liable to punishment.</p>
+
+<p>The ruined family left Toulouse and made for Geneva, then the
+head-quarters of Protestants from the South of France. And here it was
+that the murder of Jean Calas and the misfortunes of the Calas family
+came under the notice of Voltaire, then living at Ferney, near Geneva.</p>
+
+<p>In the midst of the persecutions of the Protestants a great many
+changes had been going on in France. Although the clergy had for more
+than a century the sole control of the religious education of the
+people, the people had not become religious. They had become very
+ignorant and very fanatical. The upper classes were anything but
+religious; they were given up for the most part to frivolity and
+libertinage. The examples of their kings had been freely followed.
+Though ready to do honour to the court religion, the higher classes
+did not believe in it. The press was very free for the publication of
+licentious and immoral books, but not for Protestant Bibles. A great
+work was, however, in course of publication, under the editorship of
+D'Alembert and Diderot, to which Voltaire, Rousseau, and others
+contributed, entitled "The Encyclopædia." It was a description of the
+entire circle of human knowledge; but the dominant idea which pervaded
+it was the utter subversion of religion.</p>
+
+<p>The abuses of the Church, its tyranny and cruelty, the ignorance and
+helplessness in which it kept the people, the frivolity and unbelief
+of the clergy themselves, had already condemned it in the minds of the
+nation. The writers in "The Encyclopædia" merely gave expression to
+their views, and the publication of its successive numbers was
+received with rapture. In <span class="pagenum"><a id="page260" name="page260"></a>(p. 260)</span> the midst of the free publication
+of obscene books, there had also appeared, before the execution of
+Calas, the Marquis de Mirabeau's "Ami des Hommes," Rousseau's "Émile,"
+the "Contrat Social," with other works, denying religion of all kinds,
+and pointing to the general downfall, which was now fast approaching.</p>
+
+<p>When the Calas family took refuge in Geneva, Voltaire soon heard of
+their story. It was communicated to him by M. de Végobre, a French
+refugee. After he had related it, Voltaire said, "This is a horrible
+story. What has become of the family?" "They arrived in Geneva only
+three days ago." "In Geneva!" said Voltaire; "then let me see them at
+once." Madame Calas soon arrived, told him the whole facts of the
+case, and convinced Voltaire of the entire innocence of the family.</p>
+
+<p>Voltaire was no friend of the Huguenots. He believed the Huguenot
+spirit to be a republican spirit. In his "Siècle de Louis XIV.," when
+treating of the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes, he affirmed that
+the Reformed were the enemies of the State; and though he depicted
+feelingly the cruelties they had suffered, he also stated clearly that
+he thought they had deserved them. Voltaire probably owed his hatred
+of the Protestants to the Jesuits, by whom he was educated. He was
+brought up at the Jesuit College of Louis le Grand, the chief
+persecutor of the Huguenots. Voltaire also owed much of the looseness
+of his principles to his godfather, the Abbé Chateauneuf, grand-prior
+of Vendôme, the Abbé de Chalieu, and others, who educated him in an
+utter contempt for the doctrines they were appointed and paid to
+teach. It was when but a mere youth that Father Lejay, one of
+Voltaire's <span class="pagenum"><a id="page261" name="page261"></a>(p. 261)</span> instructors, predicted that he would yet be the
+Coryphæus of Deism in France.</p>
+
+<p>Nor was Voltaire better pleased with the Swiss Calvinists. He
+encountered some of the most pedantic of them while residing at
+Lausanne and Geneva.<a id="footnotetag75" name="footnotetag75"></a><a href="#footnote75" title="Go to footnote 75"><span class="small">[75]</span></a> At the latter place, he covered with sarcasm
+the "twenty-four periwigs"&mdash;the Protestant council of the city. They
+would not allow him to set up a theatre in Geneva, so he determined to
+set up one himself at La Chatelaine, about a mile off, but beyond the
+Genevese frontier. His object, he professed, was "to corrupt the
+pedantic city." The theatre is still standing, though it is now used
+only as a hayloft. The box is preserved from which Voltaire cheered
+the performance of his own and other plays.</p>
+
+<p>But though Voltaire hated Protestantism like every other religion, he
+also hated injustice. It was because of this that he took up the case
+of the Calas family, so soon as he had become satisfied of their
+innocence. But what a difficulty he had to encounter in endeavouring
+to upset the decision of the judges, and the condemnation of Calas by
+the parliament of Toulouse. Moreover, he had to reverse their decision
+against a dead man, and that man a detested Huguenot.</p>
+
+<p>Nevertheless Voltaire took up the case. He wrote letters to his
+friends in all parts of France. He wrote to the sovereigns of Europe.
+He published letters in the newspapers. He addressed the Duke de
+Choiseul, the King's Secretary of State. He appealed to philosophers,
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page262" name="page262"></a>(p. 262)</span> to men of letters, to ladies of the court, and even to
+priests and bishops, denouncing the sentence pronounced against
+Calas,&mdash;the most iniquitous, he said, that any court professing to act
+in the name of justice had ever pronounced. Ferney was visited by many
+foreigners, from Germany, America, England, and Russia; as well as by
+numerous persons of influence in France. To all these he spoke
+vehemently of Calas and his sentence. He gave himself no rest until he
+had inflamed the minds of all men against the horrible injustice.</p>
+
+<p>At length, the case of Calas became known all over France, and in fact
+all over Europe. The press of Paris rang with it. In the boudoirs and
+salons, Calas was the subject of conversation. In the streets, men
+meeting each other would ask, "Have you heard of Calas?" The dead man
+had already become a hero and a martyr!</p>
+
+<p>An important point was next reached. It was decided that the case of
+Calas should be remitted to a special court of judges appointed to
+consider the whole matter. Voltaire himself proceeded to get up the
+case. He prepared and revised the memorials, he revised all the
+pleadings of the advocates, transforming them into brief, conclusive
+arguments, sparkling with wit, reason, and eloquence. The revision of
+the process commenced. The people held their breaths while it
+proceeded.</p>
+
+<p>At length, in the spring of 1766&mdash;four years after Calas had been
+broken to death on the wheel&mdash;four years after Voltaire had undertaken
+to have the unjust decision of the Toulouse magistrates and parliament
+reversed, the court of judges, after going completely over the
+evidence, pronounced the judgment to have been entirely unfounded!</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page263" name="page263"></a>(p. 263)</span> The decree was accordingly reversed. Jean Calas was declared
+to have been innocent. The man was, however, dead. But in order to
+compensate his family, the ministry granted 36,000 francs to Calas's
+widow, on the express recommendation of the court which reversed the
+abominable sentence.<a id="footnotetag76" name="footnotetag76"></a><a href="#footnote76" title="Go to footnote 76"><span class="small">[76]</span></a></p>
+
+<p>The French people never forgot Voltaire's efforts in this cause.
+Notwithstanding all his offences against morals and religion, Voltaire
+on this occasion acted on his best impulses. Many years after, in
+1778, he visited Paris, where he was received with immense enthusiasm.
+He was followed in the streets wherever he went. One day when passing
+along the Pont Royal, some person asked, "Who is that man the crowd is
+following?" "Ne savez vous pas," answered a common woman, "que c'est
+le sauveur de Calas!" Voltaire was more touched with this simple
+tribute to his fame than with all the adoration of the Parisians.</p>
+
+<p>It was soon found, however, that there were many persons still
+suffering in France from the cruelty of priests and judges; and one of
+these occurred shortly after the death of Calas. One of the ordinary
+practices of the Catholics was to seize the children of Protestants
+and carry them off to some nunnery to be educated at the expense of
+their parents. The priests of Toulouse had obtained a <span class="italic">lettre de
+cachet</span> to take away the daughter of a Protestant named Sirven, to
+compel her to change her religion. She was accordingly seized and
+carried off to a nunnery. She manifested such reluctance to embrace
+Catholicism, and she was treated with such cruelty, that she fled from
+the convent in the night, and fell into a well, where she was found
+drowned.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page264" name="page264"></a>(p. 264)</span> The prejudices of the Catholic bigots being very much excited
+about this time by the case of Calas, blamed the family of Sirven (in
+the same manner as they had done that of Calas) with murdering their
+daughter. Foreseeing that they would be apprehended if they remained,
+the whole family left the city, and set out for Geneva. After they
+left, Sirven was in fact sentenced to death <span class="italic">par contumace</span>. It was
+about the middle of winter when they set out, and Sirven's wife died
+of cold on the way, amidst the snows of the Jura.</p>
+
+<p>On his arrival at Geneva, Sirven stated his case to Voltaire, who took
+it up as he had done that of Calas. He exerted himself as before.
+Advocates of the highest rank offered to conduct Sirven's case; for
+public opinion had already made considerable progress. Sirven was
+advised to return to Toulouse, and offer himself as a prisoner. He did
+so. The case was tried with the same results as before; the advocates,
+acting under Voltaire's instructions and with his help, succeeded in
+obtaining the judges' unanimous decision that Sirven was innocent of
+the crime for which he had already been sentenced to death.</p>
+
+<p>After this, there were no further executions of Protestants in France.
+But what became of the Huguenots at the galleys, who still continued
+to endure a punishment from day to day, even worse than death
+itself?<a id="footnotetag77" name="footnotetag77"></a><a href="#footnote77" title="Go to footnote 77"><span class="small">[77]</span></a> <span class="pagenum"><a id="page265" name="page265"></a>(p. 265)</span> Although, they were often cut off by fever,
+starvation, and exposure, many of them contrived to live on to a
+considerable age. After the trials of Calas and Sirven, the punishment
+of the galleys was evidently drawing to an end. Only two persons were
+sent to the galleys during the year in which Pastor Rochette was
+hanged. But a circumstance came to light respecting one of the
+galley-slaves who had been liberated in that very year (1762), which
+had the effect of eventually putting an end to the cruelty.</p>
+
+<p>The punishment was not, however, abolished by Christian feeling, or by
+greater humanity on the part of the Catholics; nor was it abolished
+through the ministers of justice, and still less by the order of the
+King. It was put an end to by the Stage! As Voltaire, the Deist,
+terminated the hanging of Protestants, so did Fenouillot, the player,
+put an end to their serving as galley-slaves. The termination of this
+latter punishment has a curious history attached to it.</p>
+
+<p>It happened that a Huguenot meeting for worship was held in the
+neighbourhood of Nismes, on the first day of January, 1756. The place
+of meeting was called the Lecque,<a id="footnotetag78" name="footnotetag78"></a><a href="#footnote78" title="Go to footnote 78"><span class="small">[78]</span></a> situated immediately north of
+the Tour Magne, from which the greater part of the city has been
+built. It was a favourable place for holding meetings; but it was not
+so favourable for those who wished to escape. The assembly had
+scarcely been constituted by prayer, when the alarm was given that the
+soldiers were upon them! The people fled on all sides. The youngest
+and most agile made their escape by climbing the surrounding rocks.</p>
+
+<p>Amongst these, Jean Fabre, a young silk merchant <span class="pagenum"><a id="page266" name="page266"></a>(p. 266)</span> of Nismes,
+was already beyond reach of danger, when he heard that his father had
+been made a prisoner. The old man, who was seventy-eight, could not
+climb as the others had done, and the soldiers had taken him and were
+leading him away. The son, who knew that his father would be sentenced
+to the galleys for life, immediately determined, if possible, to
+rescue him from this horrible fate. He returned to the group of
+soldiers who had his father in charge, and asked them to take him
+prisoner in his place. On their refusal, he seized his father and drew
+him from their grasp, insisting upon them taking himself instead. The
+sergeant in command at first refused to adopt this strange
+substitution; but, conquered at last by the tears and prayers of the
+son, he liberated the aged man and accepted Jean Fabre as his
+prisoner.</p>
+
+<p>Jean Fabre was first imprisoned at Nismes, where he was prevented
+seeing any of his friends, including a certain young lady to whom he
+was about shortly to be married. He was then transferred to
+Montpellier to be judged; where, of course, he was condemned, as he
+expected, to be sent to the galleys for life. With this dreadful
+prospect before him, of separation from all that he loved&mdash;from his
+father, for whom he was about to suffer so much; from his betrothed,
+who gave up all hope of ever seeing him again&mdash;and having no prospect
+of being relieved from his horrible destiny, his spirits failed, and
+he became seriously ill. But his youth and Christian resignation came
+to his aid, and he finally recovered.</p>
+
+<p>The Protestants of Nismes, and indeed of all Languedoc, were greatly
+moved by the fate of Jean Fabre. The heroism of his devotion to his
+parent soon became known, and the name of the volunteer convict
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page267" name="page267"></a>(p. 267)</span> was in every mouth. The Duc de Mirepoix, then governor of
+the province, endeavoured to turn the popular feeling to some account.
+He offered pardon to Fabre and Turgis (who had been taken prisoner
+with him) provided Paul Rabaut, the chief pastor of the Desert, a
+hard-working and indefatigable man, would leave France and reside
+abroad. But neither Fabre, nor Rabaut, nor the Huguenots generally,
+had any confidence in the mercy of the Catholics, and the proposal was
+coldly declined.</p>
+
+<p>Fabre was next sent to Toulon under a strong escort of cavalry. He was
+there registered in the class of convicts; his hair was cut close; he
+was clothed in the ignominious dress of the galley-slave, and placed
+in a galley among murderers and criminals, where he was chained to one
+of the worst. The dinner consisted of a porridge of cooked beans and
+black bread. At first he could not touch it, and preferred to suffer
+hunger. A friend of Fabre, who was informed of his starvation, sent
+him some food more savoury and digestible; but his stomach was in such
+a state that he could not eat even that. At length he became
+accustomed to the situation, though the place was a sort of hell, in
+which he was surrounded by criminals in rags, dirt, and vermin, and,
+worst of all, distinguished for their abominable vileness of speech.
+He was shortly after seized with a serious illness, when he was sent
+to the hospital, where he found many Huguenot convicts imprisoned,
+like himself, because of their religion.<a id="footnotetag79" name="footnotetag79"></a><a href="#footnote79" title="Go to footnote 79"><span class="small">[79]</span></a></p>
+
+<p>Repeated applications were made to Saint-Florentin, the Secretary of
+State, by Fabre's relatives, friends, <span class="pagenum"><a id="page268" name="page268"></a>(p. 268)</span> and fellow Protestants
+for his liberation, but without result. After he had been imprisoned
+for some years, a circumstance happened which more than anything else
+exasperated his sufferings. The young lady to whom he was engaged had
+an offer of marriage made to her by a desirable person, which her
+friends were anxious that she should accept. Her father had been
+struck by paralysis, and was poor and unable to maintain himself as
+well as his daughter. He urged that she should give up Fabre, now
+hopelessly imprisoned for life, and accept her new lover.</p>
+
+<p>Fabre himself was consulted on the subject; his conscience was
+appealed to, and how did he decide? It was only after the bitterest
+struggle, that he determined on liberating his betrothed. He saw no
+prospect of his release, and why should he sacrifice her? Let her no
+longer be bound up with his fearful fate, but be happy with another if
+she could.</p>
+
+<p>The young lady yielded, though not without great misgivings. The day
+for her marriage with her new lover was fixed; but, at the last
+moment, she relented. Her faithfulness and love for the heroic
+galley-slave had never been shaken, and she resolved to remain
+constant to him, to remain unmarried if need be, or to wait for his
+liberation until death!</p>
+
+<p>It is probable that her noble decision determined Fabre and Fabre's
+friends to make a renewed effort for his liberation. At last, after
+having been more than six years a galley-slave, he bethought him of a
+method of obtaining at least a temporary liberty. He proposed&mdash;without
+appealing to Saint-Florentin, who was the bitter enemy of the
+Protestants&mdash;to get his case made known to the Duc de Choiseul,
+Minister of Marine. This nobleman was a just man, and it had been in a
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page269" name="page269"></a>(p. 269)</span> great measure through his influence that the judgment of
+Calas had been reconsidered and reversed.</p>
+
+<p>Fabre, while on the rowers' bench, had often met with a M. Johannot, a
+French Protestant, settled at Frankfort-on-Maine, to whom he stated
+his case. It may be mentioned that Huguenot refugees, on their visits
+to France, often visited the Protestant prisoners at the galleys,
+relieved their wants, and made intercession for them with the outside
+world. It may also be incidentally mentioned that this M. Johannot was
+the ancestor of two well-known painters and designers, Alfred and
+Tony, who have been the illustrators of some of our finest artistic
+works.</p>
+
+<p>Johannot made the case of Fabre known to some French officers whom he
+met at Frankfort, interested them greatly in his noble character and
+self-sacrifice, and the result was that before long Fabre obtained,
+directly from the Duc de Choiseul, leave of absence from the position
+of galley-slave. The annoyance of Saint-Florentin, Minister of State,
+was so well-known, that Fabre, on his liberation, was induced to
+conceal himself. Nor could he yet marry his promised wife, as he had
+not been discharged, but was only on leave of absence; and
+Saint-Florentin obstinately refused to reverse the sentence that had
+been pronounced against him.</p>
+
+<p>In the meantime, Fabre's name was becoming celebrated. He had no idea,
+while privately settled at Ganges as a silk stocking maker, that great
+people in France were interesting themselves about his fate. The
+Duchesse de Grammont, sister of the Duc de Choiseul, had heard about
+him from her brother; and the Prince de Beauvau, governor of
+Languedoc, the Duchesse de Villeroy, and many other distinguished
+personages, were celebrating his heroism.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page270" name="page270"></a>(p. 270)</span> Inquiry was made of the sergeant who had originally
+apprehended Fabre, upon his offering himself in exchange for his
+father (long since dead), and the sergeant confirmed the truth of the
+noble and generous act. At the same time, M. Alison, first consul at
+Nismes, confirmed the statement by three witnesses, in presence of the
+secretary of the Prince de Beauvau. The result was, that Jean Fabre
+was completely exonerated from the charge on account of which he had
+been sent to the galleys. He was now a free man, and at last married
+the young lady who had loved him so long and so devotedly.</p>
+
+<p>One day, to his extreme surprise, Fabre received from the Duc de
+Choiseul a packet containing a drama, in which he found his own
+history related in verse, by Fenouillot de Falbaire. It was entitled
+"The Honest Criminal." Fabre had never been a criminal, except in
+worshipping God according to his conscience, though that had for
+nearly a hundred years been pronounced a crime by the law of France.</p>
+
+<p>The piece, which was of no great merit as a tragedy, was at first
+played before the Duchesse de Villeroy and her friends, with great
+applause, Mdlle. Clairon playing the principal female part.
+Saint-Florentin prohibited the playing of the piece in public,
+protesting to the last against the work and the author. Voltaire
+played it at Ferney, and Queen Marie Antoinette had it played in her
+presence at Versailles. It was not until 1789 that the piece was
+played in the theatres of Paris, when it had a considerable success.</p>
+
+<p>We do not find that any Protestants were sent to be galley-slaves
+after 1762, the year that Calas was executed. A reaction against this
+barbarous method of treating men for differences of opinion seems to
+have <span class="pagenum"><a id="page271" name="page271"></a>(p. 271)</span> set in; or, perhaps, it was because most men were
+ceasing to believe in the miraculous powers of the priests, for which
+the Protestants had so long been hanged and made galley-slaves.</p>
+
+<p>After the liberation of Fabre in 1762, other galley-slaves were
+liberated from time to time. Thus, in the same year, Jean Albiges and
+Jean Barran were liberated after eight years of convict life. They had
+been condemned for assisting at Protestant assemblies. Next year,
+Maurice was liberated; he had been condemned for life for the same
+reason.</p>
+
+<p>While Voltaire had been engaged in the case of Calas he asked the Duc
+de Choiseul for the liberation of a galley-slave. The man for whom he
+interceded, had been a convict twenty years for attending a Protestant
+meeting. Of course, Voltaire cared nothing for his religion, believing
+Catholicism and Protestantism to be only two forms of the same
+superstition. The name of this galley-slave was Claude Chaumont. Like
+nearly all the other convicts he was a working man&mdash;a little
+dark-faced shoemaker. Some Protestant friends he had at Geneva
+interceded with Voltaire for his liberation.</p>
+
+<p>On Chaumont's release in 1764, he waited upon his deliverer to thank
+him. "What!" said Voltaire, on first seeing him, "my poor little bit
+of a man, have they put <span class="italic">you</span> in the galleys? What could they have
+done with you? The idea of sending a little creature to the
+galley-chain, for no other crime than that of praying to God in bad
+French!"<a id="footnotetag80" name="footnotetag80"></a><a href="#footnote80" title="Go to footnote 80"><span class="small">[80]</span></a> Voltaire ended by handing the impoverished fellow a sum
+of money to set him up in the world again, when he left the house the
+happiest of men.</p>
+
+<p>We may briefly mention a few of the last of the <span class="pagenum"><a id="page272" name="page272"></a>(p. 272)</span>
+galley-slaves. Daniel Bic and Jean Cabdié, liberated in 1764, for
+attending religious meetings. Both were condemned for life, and had
+been at the galley-chain for ten years.</p>
+
+<p>Jean Pierre Espinas, an attorney, of St. Felix de Châteauneuf, in
+Viverais, who had been condemned for life for having given shelter to
+a pastor, was released in 1765, at the age of sixty-seven, after being
+chained at the galleys for twenty-five years.</p>
+
+<p>Jean Raymond, of Fangères, the father of six children, who had been a
+galley-slave for thirteen years, was liberated in 1767. Alexandre
+Chambon, a labourer, more than eighty years old, condemned for life in
+1741, for attending a religious meeting, was released in 1769, on the
+entreaty of Voltaire, after being a galley-slave for twenty-eight
+years. His friends had forgotten him, and on his release he was
+utterly destitute and miserable.<a id="footnotetag81" name="footnotetag81"></a><a href="#footnote81" title="Go to footnote 81"><span class="small">[81]</span></a></p>
+
+<p>In 1772, three galley-slaves were liberated from their chains. André
+Guisard, a labourer, aged eighty-two, Jean Roque, and Louis Tregon, of
+the same class, all condemned for life for attending religious
+meetings. They had all been confined at the chain for twenty years.</p>
+
+<p>The two last galley-slaves were liberated in 1775, during the first
+year of the reign of Louis XVI., and close upon the outbreak of the
+French Revolution. They had been quite forgotten, until Court de
+Gébelin, son of Antoine Court, discovered them. When he applied for
+their release to M. de Boyne, Minister of Marine, he answered that
+there were no more Protestant convicts at the galleys; at least, he
+believed so. <span class="pagenum"><a id="page273" name="page273"></a>(p. 273)</span> Shortly after, Turgot succeeded Boyne, and
+application was made to him. He answered that there was no need to
+recommend such objects to him for liberation, as they were liberated
+already.</p>
+
+<p>On the two old men being told they were released, they burst into
+tears; but were almost afraid of returning to the world which no
+longer knew them. One of them was Antoine Rialle, a tailor of Aoste,
+in Dauphiny, who had been condemned by the parliament of Grenoble to
+the galleys for life "for contravening the edicts of the King
+concerning religion." He was seventy-eight years old, and had been a
+galley-slave for thirty years.</p>
+
+<p>The other, Paul Achard, had been a shoemaker of Châtillon, also in
+Dauphiny. He was condemned to be a galley-slave for life by the
+parliament of Grenoble, for having given shelter to a pastor. Achard
+had also been confined at the galleys for thirty years.</p>
+
+<p>It is not known when the last Huguenot women were liberated from the
+Tour de Constance, at Aiguesmortes. It would probably be about the
+time when the last Huguenots were liberated from the galleys. An
+affecting picture has been left by an officer who visited the prison
+at the release of the last prisoners. "I accompanied," he says, "the
+Prince de Beauvau (the intendant of Languedoc under Louis XVI.) in a
+survey which he made of the coast. Arriving at Aiguesmortes, at the
+gate of the Tour de Constance, we found at the entrance the principal
+keeper, who conducted us by dark steps through a great gate, which
+opened with an ominous noise, and over which was inscribed a motto
+from Dante&mdash;'Lasciate ogni speranza voi che'ntrate.'</p>
+
+<p>"Words fail me to describe the horror with which we regarded a scene
+to which we were so unaccustomed&mdash;a <span class="pagenum"><a id="page274" name="page274"></a>(p. 274)</span> frightful and affecting
+picture, in which the interest was heightened by disgust. We beheld a
+large circular apartment, deprived of air and of light, in which
+fourteen females still languished in misery. It was with difficulty
+that the Prince smothered his emotion; and doubtless it was the first
+time that these unfortunate creatures had there witnessed compassion
+depicted upon a human countenance; I still seem to behold the
+affecting apparition. They fell at our feet, bathed in tears, and
+speechless, until, emboldened by our expressions of sympathy, they
+recounted to us their sufferings. Alas! all their crime consisted in
+having been attached to the same religion as Henry IV. The youngest of
+these martyrs was more than fifty years old. She was but <span class="italic">eight</span> when
+first imprisoned for having accompanied her mother to hear a religious
+service, and her punishment had continued until now!"<a id="footnotetag82" name="footnotetag82"></a><a href="#footnote82" title="Go to footnote 82"><span class="small">[82]</span></a></p>
+
+<p>After the liberation of the last of the galley-slaves there were no
+further apprehensions nor punishments of Protestants. The priests had
+lost their power; and the secular authority no longer obeyed their
+behests. The nation had ceased to believe in them; in some places they
+were laughed at; in others they were detested. They owed this partly
+to their cruelty and intolerance, partly to their luxury and
+self-indulgence amidst the poverty of the people, and partly to the
+sarcasms of the philosophers, who had become more powerful in France
+than themselves. "It is not enough," said Voltaire, "that we prove
+intolerance to be horrible; we must also prove to the French that it
+is ridiculous."</p>
+
+<p>In looking back at the sufferings of the Huguenots remaining in France
+since the Revocation of the Edict <span class="pagenum"><a id="page275" name="page275"></a>(p. 275)</span> of Nantes; at the purity,
+self-denial, honesty, and industry of their lives; at the devotion
+with which they adhered to religious duty and the worship of God; we
+cannot fail to regard them&mdash;labourers and peasants though they
+were&mdash;as amongst the truest, greatest, and worthiest heroes of their
+age. When society in France was falling to pieces; when its men and
+women were ceasing to believe in themselves and in each other; when
+the religion of the State had become a mass of abuse, consistent only
+in its cruelty; when the debauchery of its kings<a id="footnotetag83" name="footnotetag83"></a><a href="#footnote83" title="Go to footnote 83"><span class="small">[83]</span></a> had descended
+through the aristocracy to the people, until the whole mass was
+becoming thoroughly corrupt; these poor Huguenots seem to have been
+the only constant and true men, the only men holding to a great idea,
+for which they were willing to die&mdash;for they were always ready for
+martyrdom by the rack, the gibbet, or the galleys, rather than forsake
+the worship of God freely and according to conscience.</p>
+
+<p>But their persecution was now in a great measure at <span class="pagenum"><a id="page276" name="page276"></a>(p. 276)</span> an end.
+It is true the Protestants were not recognised, but they nevertheless
+held their worship openly, and were not interfered with. When Louis
+XVI. succeeded to the throne in 1774, on the administration of the
+oath for the extermination of heretics denounced by the Church, the
+Archbishop of Toulouse said to him: "It is reserved for you to strike
+the final blow against Calvinism in your dominions. Command the
+dispersion of the schismatic assemblies of the Protestants, exclude
+the sectarians, without distinction, from all offices of the public
+administration, and you will insure among your subjects the unity of
+the true Christian religion."</p>
+
+<p>No attention was paid to this and similar appeals for the restoration
+of intolerance. On the contrary, an Edict of Toleration was issued by
+Louis XVI. in 1787, which, though granting a legal existence to the
+Protestants, nevertheless set forth that "The Catholic, Apostolic, and
+Roman religion alone shall continue to enjoy the right of public
+worship in our realm."</p>
+
+<p>Opinion, however, moved very fast in those days. The Declaration of
+Rights of 1789 overthrew the barriers which debarred the admission of
+Protestants to public offices. On the question of tolerance, Rabaut
+Saint-Etienne, son of Paul Rabaut, who sat in the National Assembly
+for Nismes, insisted on the freedom of the Protestants to worship God
+after their accustomed forms. He said he represented a constituency of
+360,000, of whom 120,000 were Protestants. The penal laws against the
+worship of the Reformed, he said, had never been formally abolished.
+He claimed the rights of Frenchmen for two millions of useful
+citizens. It was not toleration he asked for, <span class="italic">it was liberty</span>.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page277" name="page277"></a>(p. 277)</span> "Toleration!" he exclaimed; "sufferance! pardon! clemency!
+ideas supremely unjust towards the Protestants, so long as it is true
+that difference of religion, that difference of opinion, is not a
+crime! Toleration! I demand that toleration should be proscribed in
+its turn, and deemed an iniquitous word, dealing with us as citizens
+worthy of pity, as criminals to whom pardon is to be granted!"<a id="footnotetag84" name="footnotetag84"></a><a href="#footnote84" title="Go to footnote 84"><span class="small">[84]</span></a></p>
+
+<p>The motion before the House was adopted with a modification, and all
+Frenchmen, without distinction of religious opinions, were declared
+admissible to all offices and employments. Four months later, on the
+15th March, 1790, Rabaut Saint-Etienne himself, son of the long
+proscribed pastor of the Desert, was nominated President of the
+Constituent Assembly, succeeding to the chair of the Abbé Montesquieu.</p>
+
+<p>He did not, however, occupy the position long. In the struggles of the
+Convention he took part with the Girondists, and refused to vote for
+the death of Louis XVI. He maintained an obstinate struggle against
+the violence of the Mountain. His arrest was decreed; he was dragged
+before the revolutionary tribunal, and condemned to be executed within
+twenty-four hours.</p>
+
+<p>The horrors of the French Revolution hide the doings of Protestantism
+and Catholicism alike for several years, until Buonaparte came into
+power. He recognised Catholicism as the established religion, and paid
+for the maintenance of the bishops and priests. He also protected
+Protestantism, the members of which were entitled to all the benefits
+secured to the other Christian <span class="pagenum"><a id="page278" name="page278"></a>(p. 278)</span> communions, "with the
+exception of pecuniary subvention."</p>
+
+<p>The comparative liberty which the Protestants of France had enjoyed
+under the Republic and the Empire seemed to be in some peril at the
+restoration of the Bourbons. The more bigoted Roman Catholics of the
+South hailed their return as the precursors of renewed persecution:
+and they raised the cry of "Un Dieu, un Roi, une Foi."</p>
+
+<p>The Protestant mayor of Nismes was publicly insulted, and compelled to
+resign his office. The mob assembled in the streets and sang ferocious
+songs, threatening to "make black puddings of the blood of the
+Calvinists' children."<a id="footnotetag85" name="footnotetag85"></a><a href="#footnote85" title="Go to footnote 85"><span class="small">[85]</span></a> Another St. Bartholomew was even
+threatened; the Protestants began to conceal themselves, and many fled
+for refuge to the Upper Cevennes. Houses were sacked, their inmates
+outraged, and in many cases murdered.</p>
+
+<p>The same scenes occurred in most of the towns and villages of the
+department of Gard; and the authorities seemed to be powerless to
+prevent them. The Protestants at length began to take up arms for
+their defence; the peasantry of the Cevennes brought from their secret
+places the rusty arms which their fathers had wielded more than a
+century before; and another Camisard war seemed imminent.</p>
+
+<p>In the meantime, the subject of the renewed Protestant persecutions in
+the South of France was, in May, 1816, brought under the notice of the
+British House of Commons by Sir Samuel Romilly&mdash;himself the descendant
+of a Languedoc Huguenot&mdash;in a powerful <span class="pagenum"><a id="page279" name="page279"></a>(p. 279)</span> speech; and although
+the motion was opposed by the Government, there can be little doubt
+that the discussion produced its due effect; for the Bourbon
+Government, itself becoming alarmed, shortly after adopted vigorous
+measures, and the persecution was brought to an end.</p>
+
+<p>Since that time the Protestants of France have remained comparatively
+unmolested. Evidences have not been wanting to show that the
+persecuting spirit of the priest-party has not become extinct. While
+the author was in France in 1870, to visit the scenes of the wars of
+the Camisards, he observed from the papers that a French deputy had
+recently brought a case before the Assembly, in which a Catholic curé
+of Ville-d'Avray refused burial in the public cemetery to the corpse
+of a young English lady, because she was a Protestant, and remitted it
+to the place allotted for criminals and suicides. The body accordingly
+lay for eighteen days in the cabin of the gravedigger, until it could
+be transported to the cemetery of Sèvres, where it was finally
+interred.</p>
+
+<p>But the people of France, as well as the government, have become too
+indifferent about religion generally, to persecute any one on its
+account. The nation is probably even now suffering for its
+indifference, and the spectacle is a sad one. It is only the old, old
+story. The sins of the fathers are being visited on the children.
+Louis XIV. and the French nation of his time sowed the wind, and their
+descendants at the Revolution reaped the whirlwind. And who knows how
+much of the sufferings of France during the last few years may have
+been due to the ferocious intolerance, the abandonment to vicious
+pleasures, the thirst for dominion, and the hunger for "glory," which
+above all others characterized <span class="pagenum"><a id="page280" name="page280"></a>(p. 280)</span> the reign of that monarch who
+is in history miscalled "the Great?"</p>
+
+<p>It will have been noted that the chief scenes of the revival of
+Protestantism described in the preceding pages occurred in Languedoc
+and the South of France, where the chief strength of the Huguenots
+always lay. The Camisard civil war which happened there, was not
+without its influence. The resolute spirit which it had evoked
+survived. The people were purified by suffering, and though they did
+not conquer civil liberty, they continued to live strong, hardy,
+virtuous lives. When Protestantism was at length able to lift up its
+head after so long a period of persecution, it was found that, during
+its long submergence, it had lost neither in numbers, in moral or
+intellectual vigour, nor in industrial power.</p>
+
+<p>To this day the Protestants of Languedoc cherish the memory of their
+wanderings and worshippings in the Desert; and they still occasionally
+hold their meetings in the old frequented places. Not far from Nismes
+are several of these ancient meeting-places of the persecuted, to
+which we have above referred. One of them is about two miles from the
+city, in the bed of a mountain torrent. The worshippers arranged
+themselves along the slopes of the narrow valley, the pastor preaching
+to them from the grassy level in the hollow, while sentinels posted
+on the adjoining heights gave warning of the approach of the enemy.
+Another favourite place of meeting was the hollow of an ancient quarry
+called the Echo, from which the Romans had excavated much of the stone
+used in the building of the city. The congregation seated themselves
+around the craggy sides, the preacher's pulpit being placed in the
+narrow pass leading into the quarry. Notwithstanding all the <span class="pagenum"><a id="page281" name="page281"></a>(p. 281)</span>
+vigilance of the sentinels, many persons of both sexes and various
+ages were often dragged from the Echo to imprisonment or death. Even
+after the persecutions had ceased, these meeting-places continued to
+be frequented by the Protestants of Nismes, and they were sometimes
+attended by five or six thousand persons, and on sacrament days by
+even double that number.</p>
+
+<p>Although the Protestants of Languedoc for the most part belong to the
+National Reformed Church, the independent character of the people has
+led them to embrace Protestantism in other forms. Thus, the
+Evangelical Church is especially strong in the South, whilst the
+Evangelical Methodists number more congregations and worshippers in
+Languedoc than in all the rest of France. There are also in the
+Cevennes several congregations of Moravian Brethren. But perhaps one
+of the most curious and interesting issues of the Camisard war is the
+branch of the Society of Friends still existing in Languedoc&mdash;the only
+representatives of that body in France, or indeed on the European
+continent.</p>
+
+<p>When the Protestant peasants of the Cevennes took up arms and
+determined to resist force by force, there were several influential
+men amongst them who kept back and refused to join them. They held
+that the Gospel they professed did not warrant them in taking up arms
+and fighting, even against the enemies who plundered and persecuted
+them. And when they saw the excesses into which the Camisards were led
+by the war of retaliation on which they had entered, they were the
+more confirmed in their view that the attitude which the rebels had
+assumed, was inconsistent with the Christian religion.</p>
+
+<p>After the war had ceased, these people continued to associate
+together, maintaining a faithful testimony <span class="pagenum"><a id="page282" name="page282"></a>(p. 282)</span> against war,
+refusing to take oaths, and recognising silent worship, without
+dependence on human acquirements. They were not aware of the existence
+of a similar body in England and America until the period of the
+French Revolution, when some intercourse began to take place between
+them.</p>
+
+<p>In 1807, Stephen Grellet, an American Friend, of French origin,
+visited Languedoc, and held many religious meetings in the towns and
+villages of the Lower Cevennes, which were not only attended by the
+Friends of Congenies, St. Hypolite, Granges, St. Grilles, Fontane's,
+Vauvert, Quissac, and other places in the neighbourhood of Nismes, but
+by the inhabitants at large, Roman Catholics as well as Protestants.
+At that time, as now, Congenies was regarded as the centre of the
+district principally inhabited by the Friends, and there they possess
+a large and commodious meeting-house, built for the purpose of
+worship.</p>
+
+<p>At the time of Stephen Grellet's visit, he especially mentioned Louis
+Majolier as "a father and a pillar" amongst the little flock.<a id="footnotetag86" name="footnotetag86"></a><a href="#footnote86" title="Go to footnote 86"><span class="small">[86]</span></a> And
+it may not be unworthy to note that the daughter of the same Louis
+Majolier is at the present time one of the most acceptable female
+preachers of the Society of Friends in England.</p>
+
+<p>It may also be mentioned, in passing, that there still exist amongst
+the Vosges mountains the remnants of an ancient sect&mdash;the Anabaptists
+of Munster&mdash;who hold views in many respects similar to those of the
+Friends. Amongst other things, they testify against war as
+unchristian, and refuse under any circumstances to carry arms. Rather
+than do so, they have at different times suffered imprisonment,
+persecution, and even death. The republic of 1793 respected their
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page283" name="page283"></a>(p. 283)</span> scruples, and did not require the Anabaptists to fight in
+the ranks, but employed them as pioneers and drivers, while Napoleon
+made them look after the wounded on the field of battle, and attend to
+the waggon train and ambulances.<a id="footnotetag87" name="footnotetag87"></a><a href="#footnote87" title="Go to footnote 87"><span class="small">[87]</span></a> And we understand that they
+continue to be similarly employed down to the present time.</p>
+
+<hr>
+
+<p>It forms no part of our subject to discuss the present state of the
+French Protestant Church. It has lost no part of its activity during
+the recent political changes. Although its clergy had for some time
+been supported by the State, they had not met in public synod until
+June, 1872, after an interval of more than two hundred years. During
+that period many things had become changed. Rationalism had invaded
+Evangelicalism. Without a synod, or a settled faith, the Protestant
+churches were only so many separate congregations, often representing
+merely individual interests. In fact, the old Huguenot Church required
+reorganization; and great results are expected from the proceedings
+adopted at the recently held synod of the French Protestant
+Church.<a id="footnotetag88" name="footnotetag88"></a><a href="#footnote88" title="Go to footnote 88"><span class="small">[88]</span></a></p>
+
+<p>With respect to the French Catholic Church, its relative position to
+the Protestants remains the same as before. But it has no longer the
+power to persecute. The Gallican Church has been replaced by the
+Ultramontane Church, but its impulses are no kindlier, though it has
+become "Infallible."</p>
+
+<p>The principal movement of the Catholic priests of late years has been
+to get up appearances of the Virgin. <span class="pagenum"><a id="page284" name="page284"></a>(p. 284)</span> The Virgin appears,
+usually, to a child or two, and pilgrimages are immediately got up to
+the scene of her visit. By getting up religious movements of this
+kind, the priests and their followers believe that France will yet be
+helped towards the <span class="italic">Revanche</span>, which she is said to long for.</p>
+
+<p>But pilgrimages will not make men; and if France wishes to be free,
+she will have to adopt some other methods. Bismarck will never be put
+down by pilgrimages. It was a sad saying of Father Hyacinthe at
+Geneva, that "France is bound to two influences&mdash;Superstition and
+Irreligion."<a href="#toc"><span class="small">[Back to Contents]</span></a></p>
+
+
+<h2><span class="pagenum"><a id="page285" name="page285"></a>(p. 285)</span> MEMOIRS OF DISTINGUISHED HUGUENOT REFUGEES.</h2>
+
+<h3>I.</h3>
+
+<p class="title">STORY OF SAMUEL DE PÉCHELS.</p>
+
+<p>When Louis XIV. revoked the Edict of Nantes, he issued a number of
+decrees or edicts for the purpose of stamping out Protestantism in
+France. Each decree had the effect of an Act of Parliament. Louis
+combined in himself the entire powers of the State. The King's word
+was law. "<span class="italic">L'état c'est Moi</span>" was his maxim.</p>
+
+<p>The Decrees which Louis issued were tyrannical, brutal, and cowardly.
+Some were even ludicrous in their inhumanity. Thus Protestant grooms
+were forbidden to give riding-lessons; Protestant barbers were
+forbidden to cut hair; Protestant washerwomen were forbidden to wash
+clothes; Protestant servants were forbidden to serve either Roman
+Catholic or Protestant mistresses. They must all be "converted." A
+profession of the Roman Catholic faith was required from simple
+artisans&mdash;from shoemakers, tailors, masons, carpenters, and
+such-like&mdash;before they were permitted to labour at their respective
+callings.</p>
+
+<p>The cruelty went further. Protestants were forbidden to be employed as
+librarians and printers. They could not even be employed as labourers
+upon the King's highway. They could not serve in any public office
+whatever. They were excluded from the collection <span class="pagenum"><a id="page286" name="page286"></a>(p. 286)</span> of the
+taxes, and from all government departments. Protestant apothecaries
+must shut up their shops. Protestant advocates were forbidden to plead
+before the courts. Protestant doctors were forbidden to practise
+medicine and surgery. The <span class="italic">sages-femmes</span> must necessarily be of the
+Roman Catholic religion.</p>
+
+<p>The cruelty was extended to the family. Protestant parents were
+forbidden to instruct their children in their own faith. They were
+enjoined, under a heavy penalty, to have their children baptized by
+the Roman Catholic priest, and brought up in the Roman Catholic
+religion. When the law was disobeyed, the priests were empowered to
+seize and carry off the children, and educate them, at the expense of
+the parents, in monasteries and nunneries.</p>
+
+<p>Then, as regards the profession of the Protestant religion:&mdash;It was
+decreed by the King, that all the Protestant temples in France should
+be demolished, or converted to other uses. Protestant pastors were
+ordered to quit the country within fifteen days after the date of the
+Revocation of the Edict of Nantes. If found in the country after that
+period, they were condemned to death. A reward of five thousand five
+hundred livres was offered for the apprehension of any Protestant
+pastor. When apprehended he was hung. Protestant worship was
+altogether prohibited. If any Protestants were found singing psalms,
+or engaged in prayer, in their own houses, they were liable to have
+their entire property confiscated, and to be sent to the galleys for
+life.</p>
+
+<p>These monstrous decrees were carried into effect&mdash;at a time when
+France reigned supreme in the domain of intellect, poetry, and the
+arts&mdash;in the days of Racine, Corneille, Molière&mdash;of Bossuet,
+Bourdaloue, and Fénélon. Louis XIV. had the soldier, the hangman, and
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page287" name="page287"></a>(p. 287)</span> the priest at his command; but they all failed him. They
+could imprison, they could torture, they could kill, they could make
+the Protestants galley-slaves; they could burn their Bibles, and
+deprive them of everything that they valued; but the impregnable
+rights of conscience defied them.</p>
+
+<p>The only thing left for the Protestants was to fly from France in all
+directions. They took refuge in Switzerland, Germany, Holland, and
+England. The flight from France had begun before the Revocation of the
+Edict of Nantes, but after that act the flight rapidly increased. Not
+less than a million of persons are supposed to have escaped from
+France in consequence of the Revocation.</p>
+
+<p>Steps were, however, taken by the King to stop the emigration. He
+issued a decree ordering that the property and goods of all those
+Protestants who had already escaped should be confiscated to the
+Crown, unless they returned within three months from the date of the
+Revocation. Then, with respect to the Protestants who remained in
+France, he decreed that all French<span class="italic">men</span> found attempting to escape
+were to be sent to the galleys for life; and that all French<span class="italic">women</span>
+found attempting to escape were to be imprisoned for life. The spies
+who denounced the fugitive Protestants were rewarded by the
+apportionment of half their goods.</p>
+
+<p>This decree was not, however, considered sufficiently severe, and it
+was shortly after followed by another, proclaiming that any captured
+fugitives, as well as any person found acting as their guide, should
+be condemned to death. Another royal decree was issued respecting
+those fugitives who attempted to escape by sea. It was to the effect,
+that before any ship was allowed to set sail for a foreign port, the
+hold should be fumigated with a deadly gas, so that any hidden
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page288" name="page288"></a>(p. 288)</span> Huguenot who could not otherwise be detected, might be
+suffocated to death.</p>
+
+<p>These measures, however, did not seem to have the effect of
+"converting" the French Protestants. The Dragonnades were next
+resorted to. Louis XIV. was pleased to call the dragoons his Booted
+Missionaries, <span class="italic">ses missionnaires bottés</span>. The dragonnades are said to
+have been the invention of Michel de Marillac, whose name will
+doubtless descend to infamous notoriety, like those of Catherine de
+Médicis, the Guises, and the authors of the Massacre of St.
+Bartholomew.</p>
+
+<p>Yet there was not much genius displayed in the invention of the
+Dragonnades. It merely consisted in this: whenever it was found that a
+town abounded with Huguenots, the dragoons, hussars, and troops of
+various kinds were poured into it, and quartered on the inhabitants.
+Twenty, thirty, or forty were quartered together, according to the
+size of the house. They occupied every room; they beat their drums and
+blew their trumpets; they smoked, drank, and swore, without any regard
+to the infirm, the sick, or the dying, until the inmates were
+"converted."</p>
+
+<p>The whole army of France was let loose upon the Huguenots. They had
+been beaten out of Holland by the Dutch Calvinists; and they could now
+fearlessly take their revenge out of their unarmed Huguenot
+fellow-countrymen. Whenever they quartered themselves in a dwelling,
+it was, for the time being, their own. They rummaged the cellars,
+drank the wines, ordered the best of everything, pillaged the house,
+and treated everybody who belonged to it as a slave. The Huguenots
+were not only compelled to provide for the entertainment of their
+guests, but to pay them their wages. The superior officers were paid
+fifteen francs a day, the lieutenants nine francs, and the common
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page289" name="page289"></a>(p. 289)</span> soldiers three francs. If the money was not paid, the
+household furniture, the horses and cows, and all the other articles
+that could be seized, were publicly sold.</p>
+
+<p>No wonder that so many Huguenots were "converted" by the dragoons.
+Forty thousand persons were converted in Poitou. The regiment of
+Asfeld was the instrument of their conversion. A company and a half of
+dragoons occupied the house of a single lady at Poitiers until she was
+converted to the Roman Catholic faith. What bravery!</p>
+
+<p>The Huguenots of Languedoc were amongst the most obstinate of all.
+They refused to be converted by the priests; and then Louis XIV.
+determined to dragonnade them. About sixty thousand troops were
+concentrated on the province. Noailles, the governor, shortly after
+wrote to the King that he had converted the city of Nismes in
+twenty-four hours. Twenty thousand converts had been made in
+Montauban; and he promised that by the end of the month there would be
+no more Huguenots left in Languedoc.</p>
+
+<p>Many persons were doubtless converted by force, or by the fear of
+being dragonnaded; but there were also many more who were ready to run
+all risks rather than abjure their faith. Of those who abjured, the
+greater number took the first opportunity of flying from France, by
+land or by sea, and taking refuge in Switzerland, Germany, Holland, or
+England. Many instances might be given of the heroic fortitude with
+which the Huguenots bore the brutality of their enemies; but, for the
+present, it may be sufficient to mention the case of the De Péchels of
+Montauban.</p>
+
+<p>The citizens of Montauban had been terribly treated before and after
+the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes. The town had been one of the
+principal Huguenot places of refuge in France. Hence its population
+was <span class="pagenum"><a id="page290" name="page290"></a>(p. 290)</span> principally Protestant. Its university had been shut up.
+Its churches had been levelled to the ground. Its professors and
+pastors had been banished from France. And now it was to be
+dragonnaded.</p>
+
+<p>The town was filled with troops, who were quartered on the
+Protestants. One of the burgesses called upon the Intendant, threw
+himself at his feet, and prayed to be delivered from the dragoons. "On
+one condition only!" replied Dubois, "that you become a Catholic." "I
+cannot," said the townsman, "because, if the Sultan quartered twenty
+janissaries on me, I might, for the same reason, be forced to become a
+Turk."</p>
+
+<p>Although many of the townsmen pretended to be converted, the
+Protestant chiefs held firm to their convictions, and resisted all
+persuasions, promises, and threats, to induce them to abjure their
+religion. Amongst them were Samuel de Péchels de la Boissonade and the
+Marquise de Sabonnières, his wife, who, in the midst of many trials
+and sorrows, preferred to do their duty to every other consideration.</p>
+
+<p>The family of De Péchels had long been settled at Montauban. Being
+regarded as among the heads of the Protestant party in Montauban, they
+were marked out by the King's ministers for the most vigorous
+treatment. When the troops entered the town on the 20th of August,
+1685, they treated the inhabitants as if the town had been taken by
+assault. The officers and soldiers vied with each other in committing
+acts of violence. They were sanctioned by the magistrate, who
+authorised their excesses, in conformity with the King's will. Tumult
+and disorder prevailed everywhere. Houses were broken into. Persons of
+the reformed religion, without regard to age, sex, or condition, were
+treated with indignity. They were sworn at, threatened, and beaten.
+Their families were turned <span class="pagenum"><a id="page291" name="page291"></a>(p. 291)</span> out of doors. Every room in the
+house was entered and ransacked of its plate, silk, linen, and
+clothes. When the furniture was too heavy to be carried away, it was
+demolished. The mirrors were slashed with swords, or shot at with
+pistols. In short, so far as regarded their household possessions, the
+greater number of the Protestants were completely ruined.</p>
+
+<p>Samuel de Péchels de la Boissonade had no fewer than thirty-eight
+dragoons and fusiliers quartered upon him. It was intended at first to
+quarter these troopers on Roupeiroux, the King's adjutant; but having
+promptly changed his religion to avoid the horrors of the dragonnade,
+they were removed to the house of De Péchels, and he was ordered by
+Chevalier Duc, their commander, to pay down the money which he had
+failed to get from Roupeiroux, during the days that the troopers
+should have occupied his house. De Péchels has himself told the story
+of his sufferings, and we proceed to quote his own words:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Soon after," he says, "my house was filled with officers, troopers,
+and their horses, who took possession of every room with such
+unfeeling harshness that I could not reserve a single one for the use
+of my family; nor could I make these unfeeling wretches listen to my
+declaration that I was ready to give up all that I possessed without
+resistance. Doors were broken open, boxes and cupboards forced. They
+liked better to carry off what belonged to me in this violent manner
+than to take the keys which my wife and I, standing on either side,
+continued to offer. The granaries served for the reception of their
+horses among the grain and meal, which the wretches, with the greatest
+barbarity, made them trample underfoot. The very bread destined for my
+little children, like the rest, was contemptuously trodden down by the
+horses.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page292" name="page292"></a>(p. 292)</span> "Nothing could stop the brutality of these madmen. I was
+thrust out into the street with my wife, now very near her
+confinement, and four very young children, taking nothing with me but
+a little cradle and a small supply of linen, for the babe whose birth
+was almost momentarily expected. The street being full of people,
+diverted at seeing us thus exposed, we were delayed some moments near
+the door, during which we were pitilessly drenched by the troopers,
+who amused themselves at the windows with emptying upon our heads
+pitchers of water, to add to their enjoyment of our sad condition.</p>
+
+<p>"From this moment I gave up both house and goods to be plundered,
+without having in view any place of refuge but the street, ill suited,
+it must be owned, for such a purpose, and especially so to a woman
+expecting her confinement hourly, and to little children of too tender
+an age to make their own way&mdash;some of them, indeed, being unable to
+walk or speak&mdash;and having no hope but in the mercy of God and His
+gracious protection."</p>
+
+<p>De Péchels proceeded to the house of Marshal Boufflers, commander of
+the district, thinking it probable that a man of honour, such as he
+was supposed to be, would discourage such barbarities, and place the
+dragoons under some sort of military control. But no! The Marshal
+could not be found. He carefully kept out of the way of all Protestant
+complainants. De Péchels, however, met Chevalier Duc, who commanded
+the soldiers that had turned him out of his house. In answer to the
+expostulations of De Péchels, the Chevalier gave him to understand
+that the same treatment would be continued unless he "changed his
+religion." "Then," answered De Péchels, "by God's help I never will."</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page293" name="page293"></a>(p. 293)</span> At length, when De Péchels' house had been thoroughly
+stripped, and the dragoons had decamped elsewhere, he received an
+order to return, in order to entertain another detachment of soldiers.
+The criminal judge, who had possession of the keys, entered the house,
+and found it in extreme disorder. "I was obliged to remain in it,"
+says De Péchels, "amidst dirt and vermin, in obedience to the
+Intendant's orders, reiterated in the strictest manner by the criminal
+judge, that I should await the arrival of a fresh party of lodgers,
+who accordingly came on the day following."</p>
+
+<p>The new party consisted of six soldiers of the regiment of fusiliers,
+who called themselves simply "missionaries," as distinct from the
+"booted missionaries" who had just left. They were savage at not
+finding anything to plunder, their predecessors having removed
+everything in the shape of booty. The fusiliers were shortly followed
+by six soldiers of Dampier's regiment, who were still more ferocious.
+They gave De Péchels and his wife no peace day or night; they kept the
+house in a constant uproar; swore and sang obscene songs, and carried
+their insolence to the utmost pitch. At length De Péchels was forced
+to quit the house, on account of his wife, who was near the time of
+her confinement. These are his own words:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"For a long time we were wandering through the streets, no one daring
+to offer us an asylum, as the ordinance of the Intendant imposed a
+fine of four or five hundred livres<a id="footnotetag89" name="footnotetag89"></a><a href="#footnote89" title="Go to footnote 89"><span class="small">[89]</span></a> upon any one who should
+receive Protestants into their houses. My mother's house had long been
+filled with soldiers, as well as that of my sister De Darassus; and
+not knowing where to go, I suffered great agony of mind for fear my
+poor wife <span class="pagenum"><a id="page294" name="page294"></a>(p. 294)</span> should give birth to her infant in the street. In
+this lamentable plight, the good providence of God led us to the house
+of Mdlle. de Guarrison, my wife's sister, from whence, most
+fortunately, a large number of soldiers, with their officers, were
+issuing. They had occupied it for some time, and had allowed the
+family no rest. Now they were changing their quarters, to continue
+their lawless mission in some country town. The stillness of the house
+after their departure induced us to enter it at once, and hardly had
+my wife accepted the bed Mdlle. de Guarrison offered her, than she was
+happily delivered of a daughter, blessed be God, who never leaves
+Himself without a witness to those who fear His name.</p>
+
+<p>"That same evening a great number of soldiers arrived, and took up
+their quarters in M. de Guarrison's house, and two days after, this
+burden was augmented by the addition of a colonel, a captain, and two
+lieutenants, with a large company of soldiers and several servants,
+all of whom conducted themselves with a degree of violence scarcely to
+be described. They had no regard for the owners of the house, but
+robbed them with impunity. They had no pity for my poor wife, weak and
+ill as she was; nor for the helpless children, who suffered much under
+these miserable conditions.</p>
+
+<p>"Officers, soldiers, and servants pillaged the house with odious
+rivalry, took possession of all the rooms, drove out the owners, and
+obliged the poor sick woman (by their continual threats and abominable
+conduct) to get up and try to retire to some other place. She crept
+into the courtyard, where, with her infant, she was detained in the
+cold for a long time by the soldiers, who would not allow her to quit
+the premises. At length, however, my poor wife got into the street,
+still, however, guarded by soldiers, who would not allow her to go out
+of their sight, or to speak with any one. She complained <span class="pagenum"><a id="page295" name="page295"></a>(p. 295)</span> to
+the Intendant of their cruel ways, but instead of procuring her any
+relief, he aggravated her affliction, ordering the soldiers to keep
+strict watch over her, never to leave her, and to inform him with what
+persons she found a refuge, that he might make them pay the penalty."</p>
+
+<p>De Péchels' wife was thus under the necessity of sleeping, with her
+babe and her children, in the street. After all was quiet, they sought
+for a door-step, and lay down for the night under the stars.</p>
+
+<p>Madame de Péchels at length found temporary shelter. Mademoiselle de
+Delada, a friend of the Intendant, touched by the poor woman's sad
+condition, implored the magistrate's permission to give her refuge;
+and being a well-known Roman Catholic, she was at length permitted to
+take Madame de Péchels and her babe into her house, but on condition
+that four soldiers should still keep her in view. She remained there
+for a short time, until she was able to leave her bed, when she was
+privily removed to a country house belonging to Mademoiselle de
+Delada, not far from the town of Montauban.</p>
+
+<p>To return to Samuel de Péchels. His house was still overflowing with
+soldiers. They proceeded to wreck what was left of his household
+effects; they carried off and sold his papers and his library, which
+was considerable. Some of the soldiers of Dampier's regiment carried
+off in a sack a pair of brass chimney dogs, the shovel and tongs, a
+grate, and some iron spits, the wretched remains of his household
+furniture. They proceeded to lay waste his farms and carry off his
+cattle, selling the latter by public auction in the square. They next
+pulled down his house, and sold the materials. After this, ten
+soldiers were quartered in a neighbouring tavern, at De Péchels'
+expense. Not being able to pay the expenses, the Intendant sent some
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page296" name="page296"></a>(p. 296)</span> archers to him to say that he would be carried off to prison
+unless he changed his religion. To that proposal he answered, as
+before, that "by the help of God he would never make that change, and
+that he was quite prepared to go to any place to which his merciful
+Saviour might lead him."</p>
+
+<p>He was accordingly taken, into custody, and placed, for a time, in the
+Royal Château. On the same day, his sister De Darassus was committed
+to prison. Still holding steadfast by his faith, De Péchels was, after
+a month's imprisonment at Montauban, removed to the prison of Cahors,
+where he was put into the lowest dungeon. "By the grace of my
+Saviour," said he, "I strengthened myself more in my determination to
+die rather than renounce the truth."</p>
+
+<p>After lying for more than three months in the dampest mould of the
+lowest dungeon in the prison of Cahors, and being still found
+immovable in his faith, De Péchels was ordered to be taken to the
+citadel of Montpellier, to wait there until he could be transported to
+America. His wife, the Marquise de Sabonnières, having heard of his
+condemnation (though he was never tried), determined to see him before
+he left France for ever. The road from Cahors to Montpellier did not
+pass through Montauban, but a few miles to the east of it. Having
+spent the night in prayer to God, that He might endow her with
+firmness to sustain the trials of a scene, which was as heroic in her
+as it was touching to those who witnessed it, she went forth in the
+morning to wait along the roadside for the arrival of the illustrious
+body of prisoners, who were on their way, some to the galleys, some to
+banishment, some to imprisonment, and some to death.</p>
+
+<p>At length the glorious band arrived. They were chained two and two.
+They were for the most part <span class="pagenum"><a id="page297" name="page297"></a>(p. 297)</span> ladies and gentlemen who had
+refused to abjure their religion. Among them were M. Desparvés, a
+gentleman from the neighbourhood of Laitoure, old and blind, led by
+his wife; M. de la Rességuerie, of Montauban, and many more. Madame de
+Péchels implored leave of the guard who conducted the prisoners to
+have an interview with her husband. It was granted. She had been
+supplied with the fortitude for which she had so ardently and piously
+prayed to God during the whole of the past night. It seemed as if some
+supernatural power had prompted the discourse with her husband, which
+softened the hearts of those who, up to that time, had appeared
+inaccessible to the sentiments of humanity. The superintendent allowed
+the noble couple to pray together; after which they were separated
+without the least weakness betraying itself on the part of Madame de
+Péchels, who remained unmoved, whilst all the bystanders were melted
+into tears. The procession of guards and prisoners then went on its
+way.</p>
+
+<p>The trials of Madame de Péchels were not yet ended. Though she had
+parted with her husband, who was now on his way to banishment, she had
+still the children with her; and, cruellest torture of all! these were
+now to be torn from her. One evening a devoted friend came to inform
+her that a body of men were to arrive next morning and take her
+children, even the baby from her breast, and immure them in a convent.
+She was also informed that she herself was to be seized and
+imprisoned.</p>
+
+<p>The intelligence fell like a thunderbolt upon the tender mother. What
+was she to do? Was she to abjure her religion? She prayed for help
+from God. Part of the night was thus spent before she could make up
+her mind to part from her innocent children, who were to be brought up
+in a religion at variance with <span class="pagenum"><a id="page298" name="page298"></a>(p. 298)</span> her own. In any case, a
+separation was necessary. Could she not fly, like so many other
+Protestant women, and live in hopes of better days to come? It was
+better to fly from France than encounter the horrors of a French
+prison. Before she parted with her children she embraced them while
+they slept; she withdrew a few steps to tear herself from them, and
+again she came back to bid them a last farewell!</p>
+
+<p>At length, urged by the person who was about to give her a refuge in
+his house, she consented to follow him. The man was a weaver by trade,
+and all day long he carried on his work in the only room which he
+possessed. Madame de Péchels passed the day in a recess, concealed by
+the bed of her entertainers, and in the evening she came out, and the
+good people supplied her with what was necessary. She passed six
+months in this retreat, without any one knowing what had become of
+her. It was thought that she had taken refuge in some foreign country.</p>
+
+<p>Numbers of ladies had already been able to make their escape. The
+frontier was strictly guarded by troops, police, and armed peasantry.
+The high-roads as well as the byways were patrolled day and night, and
+all the bridges were strongly guarded. But the fugitives avoided the
+frequented routes. They travelled at night, and hid themselves during
+the day. There were Protestant guides who knew every pathway leading
+out of France, through forests, wastes, or mountain paths, where no
+patrols were on the watch; and they thus succeeded in leading
+thousands of refugee Protestants across the frontier. And thus it was
+that Madame de Péchels was at length enabled, with the help of a
+guide, to reach Geneva, one of the great refuges of the Huguenots.</p>
+
+<p>On arrival there she felt the loss of her children <span class="pagenum"><a id="page299" name="page299"></a>(p. 299)</span> more than
+ever. She offered to the guide who had conducted her all the money
+that she possessed to bring her one or other of her children. The
+eldest girl, then nine or ten years old, was communicated with, but
+having already tasted the pleasure of being her own mistress, she
+refused the proposal to fly into Switzerland to join her mother. Her
+son Jacob was next communicated with. He was seven years old. He was
+greatly moved at the name of his mother, and he earnestly entreated to
+be taken to where she was. The guide at once proceeded to fulfil his
+engagement. The boy fled with him from France, passing for his son.
+The way was long&mdash;some five hundred miles. The journey occupied them
+about three weeks. They rested during the day, and travelled at night.
+They avoided every danger, and at length the faithful guide was able
+to place the loving son in the arms of his noble and affectionate
+mother.</p>
+
+<p>Samuel de Péchels was condemned to banishment without the shadow of a
+trial. He could not be dragooned into denying his faith, and he was
+therefore imprisoned, preparatory to his expulsion from France. "I was
+told," he said, "by the Sieur Raoul, Roqueton (or chief archer) to the
+Intendant of Montauban, that if I would not change my religion, he had
+orders from the King and the Intendant to convey me to the citadel of
+Montpellier, from thence to be immediately shipped for America. My
+reply was, that I was ready to go forthwith whithersoever it was God's
+pleasure to lead me, and that assuredly, by God's help, I would make
+no change in my religion."</p>
+
+<p>After five months' imprisonment at Cahors, he was taken out and
+marched, as already related, to the citadel of Montpellier. The
+citadel adjoins the Peyrou, a lofty platform of rock, which commands
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page300" name="page300"></a>(p. 300)</span> a splendid panoramic view of the surrounding country. It is
+now laid out as a pleasure-ground, though it was then the principal
+hanging-place of the Languedoc Protestants. Brousson, and many other
+faithful pastors of the "Church in the Desert," laid down their lives
+there. Half-a-dozen decaying corpses might sometimes be seen swinging
+from the gibbets on which the ministers had been hung.</p>
+
+<p>A more bitter fate was, however, reserved for De Péchels. After about
+a month's imprisonment in the citadel, he was removed to Aiguesmortes,
+under the charge of several mounted archers and foot soldiers. He was
+accompanied by fourteen Protestant ladies and gentlemen, on their way
+to perpetual imprisonment, to the galleys, or to banishment.
+Aiguesmortes was the principal fortified dungeon in the south of
+France, used for the imprisonment of Huguenots who refused to be
+converted. It is situated close to the Mediterranean, and is
+surrounded by lagunes and salt marshes. It is a most unhealthy place;
+and imprisonment at Aiguesmortes was considered a slower but not a
+less certain death than hanging. Sixteen Huguenot women were confined
+there in 1686, and the whole of them died within five months. When the
+prisoners died off, the place was at once filled again. The castle of
+Aiguesmortes was thus used as a prison for nearly a hundred years.</p>
+
+<p>De Péchels gives the following account of his journey from Montpellier
+to Aiguesmortes:&mdash;"Mounted on asses, harnessed in the meanest manner,
+without stirrups, and with wretched ropes for halters, we entered
+Aiguesmortes, and were there locked up in the Tower of Constance, with
+thirty other male prisoners and twenty women and girls, who had also
+been brought hither, tied two and two. The men were placed in an
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page301" name="page301"></a>(p. 301)</span> upper apartment of the tower, and the women and girls below,
+so that we could hear each other pray to God and sing His praises with
+a loud voice."</p>
+
+<p>De Péchels did not long remain a prisoner at Aiguesmortes. He was
+shortly after put on board a king's ship bound for Marseilles. He was
+very ill during the voyage, suffering from seasickness and continual
+fainting fits. On reaching Marseilles he was confined in the hospital
+prison used for common felons and galley-slaves. It was called the
+Chamber of Darkness, because of its want of light. The single
+apartment contained two hundred and thirty prisoners. Some of them
+were chained together, two and two; others, three and three. The
+miserable palliasses on which they slept had been much worn by the
+galley-slaves, who had used them during their illnesses. The women
+were separated from the men by a linen cloth attached to the ceiling,
+which was drawn across every evening, and formed the only partition
+between them.</p>
+
+<p>As may easily be supposed, the condition of the prisoners was
+frightful. The swearing of the common felons was mixed with the
+prayers of the Huguenots. The guards walked about all night to keep
+watch and ward over them. They fell upon any who assembled and knelt
+together, separating them and swearing at them, and mercilessly
+ill-treating them, men and women alike. "But all their strictness and
+rage," says De Péchels, "could not prevent one from seeing always, in
+different parts of the dungeon, little groups upon their knees,
+imploring the mercy of God and singing His praises, whilst others kept
+near the guards so as to hinder them from interfering with the little
+bands of worshippers."</p>
+
+<p>At length the time arrived for the embarkation of the Huguenots for
+America. On the 18th of September, <span class="pagenum"><a id="page302" name="page302"></a>(p. 302)</span> 1687, De Péchels, with
+fifty-eight men and twenty-one women, was put on board a <span class="italic">flûte</span>
+called the <span class="italic">Mary</span>&mdash;the French <span class="italic">flûte</span> consisting of a heavy
+narrow-sterned vessel, called in England a "pink." De Péchels was
+carefully separated from all with whom he had formed habits of
+intimacy, and whose presence near him would doubtless have helped him
+to bear the bitterness of his fate. On the same day, ninety prisoners
+of both sexes were embarked in another ship, named the <span class="italic">Concord</span>,
+bound for the same destination. The two vessels set sail in the first
+place for Toulon, in order to obtain an escort of two ships-of-war.</p>
+
+<p>The voyage was very disastrous. Three hours after the squadron had
+left Toulon, the <span class="italic">Mary</span> was nearly dashed against a rock, owing to the
+roughness of the weather. Three days after, a frightful storm arose,
+and dashed the prisoners against each other. All were sick; indeed, De
+Péchels' malady lasted during the entire voyage. The squadron first
+cast anchor amongst the Formentera Islands, off the coast of Spain,
+where they took in water. On the next day they anchored in the Straits
+of Gibraltar for the same purpose. They next sailed for Cadiz, but a
+strong west wind having set in, the ship was forced back to the road
+of Gibraltar. After waiting there for three days they again started,
+under the shelter of a Dutch fleet of eighteen sail, "which," says De
+Péchels, "providentially saved us from falling into the hands of the
+Algerine corsairs, some of whom had appeared in sight, and from whose
+hands God, in His great mercy, delivered us." As if the Algerine
+corsairs would have treated the Huguenots worse than their own king
+was now treating them. The Algerine corsairs would have sold them into
+slavery; whilst the French king was transporting them to America for
+the same purpose.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page303" name="page303"></a>(p. 303)</span> At length the squadron reached Cadiz roads. Many ships were
+there&mdash;English as well as Dutch. When the foreigners heard of the
+state and misfortunes of the Huguenots on board the French ships, they
+came to visit them in their anchoring ground, and were profuse in
+their charity to the prisoners for conscience' sake confined in the
+two French vessels. "God, who never leaves Himself without witness,
+brought us consolation and relief from this town, where superstition
+and bigotry reign in their fullest force." As it was in De Péchels'
+day, so it is now.</p>
+
+<p>At length the French squadron set sail for America. The voyage was
+tedious and miserable. There were about a hundred and thirty prisoners
+on board. Seventy of them were sick felons, chained with heavy irons.
+Being useless for the French galleys, they were now being transported
+to America, to be sold as slaves. The imprisoned Huguenots&mdash;men and
+women&mdash;were fifty-nine in number. They were crammed into a part of the
+ship that could scarcely hold them. They could not stand upright; nor
+could they lie down. They had to lie upon each other. The den was
+moreover very dark, the only light that entered it being through the
+narrow hatchway; and even this was often closed. The wonder is that
+they were not suffocated outright.</p>
+
+<p>The burning heat of the sun shining on the deck above them, the
+never-ceasing fire of the kitchen, which was situated alongside their
+place of confinement, created such a stifling heat, that the prisoners
+had to take off their shirts to relieve their agony. The horrid stench
+arising from so many persons being crowded together, and the entire
+want of the means of cleanliness, caused the inmates to become covered
+with vermin. They were also tormented by the intolerable <span class="pagenum"><a id="page304" name="page304"></a>(p. 304)</span>
+thirst which no means were taken to allay. Their feeding was horrible;
+for they must be kept alive in some way, in order that the intentions
+of their gracious sovereign might be carried into effect. One day they
+had stinking salt beef; the next, cod fish half boiled; then peas as
+hard as when they were put into the pot; and at other times, dried cod
+fish, or rank cheese. These things, together with the violent motion
+of the sea, occasioned severe sickness, from which many of the
+sufferers were relieved by death. This deplorable voyage extended over
+five months. Here is De Péchels' account of the sufferings of the
+prisoners, written in his own words:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"The intense and suffocating heat, the horrible odour, the maddening
+swarm of vermin that devoured us, the incessant thirst and wretched
+fare, sufficed not to satisfy our overseers. They sometimes struck us
+rudely, and very often threw down sea-water upon us, when they saw us
+engaged in prayer and praise to God. The common talk of these enemies
+of the truth was how they would hang, when they came to America, every
+man who would not go to mass, and how they would deliver the women to
+the natives. But far from being frightened at these threats, or even
+moved by all the barbarities of which we were the victims, many of us
+felt a secret joy that we were chosen to suffer for the holy name of
+Jesus, who strengthened us with a willingness to die for His sake. For
+myself, these menaces had been so often repeated during my
+imprisonments, that they had become familiar; insomuch that, far from
+being shaken by them any more than by the sufferings to which it had
+pleased my Saviour to call me, I considered them as transient things,
+not worthy to be weighed against the glory to come, and such as would
+procure me a weight of glory supremely excellent. <span class="pagenum"><a id="page305" name="page305"></a>(p. 305)</span> 'Blessed
+are they who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the
+kingdom of heaven.'"</p>
+
+<p>On the 2nd of January, 1688, the island of San Domingo came in sight.
+It was for the most part inhabited by savages. The French had a
+settlement on the west coast of the island, and the Spaniards occupied
+the eastern part. Dense forests separated the two settlements. The
+<span class="italic">Mary</span> coasted along the island, and afterwards made sail for
+Guadaloupe, another colony belonging to the French. The ship seemed as
+yet to have had no proper destination, for, four days later, the
+<span class="italic">Mary</span> weighed her anchor, and sailed to St. Christopher, another
+island partly belonging to the French. "It was well situated," says De
+Péchels, "as may readily be believed, when I add that it possessed a
+colony of Jesuits&mdash;an order which never selects a bad situation. The
+Jesuits here are very rich and in high repute. Two of the fraternity,
+having come on board, were received by the crew with every
+demonstration of respect; and on their retirement, three guns were
+fired as a mark of honour to the distinguished visitors."</p>
+
+<p>The Huguenots were still under hatches,&mdash;weary, longing, wretched, and
+miserable. They were most anxious to be put on shore&mdash;anywhere, even
+among savages. But the <span class="italic">Mary</span> had not yet arrived at her destination.
+She again set sail, and passed St. Kitts, St. Eustace, St. Croix,
+Porto Rico, and at length again reached San Domingo. The ship dropped
+anchor before Port au Prince, the residence of the governor. The
+galley-slaves were disembarked and sold. Some of the Huguenots were
+also sold for slaves, though De Péchels was not among them. The rest
+were transferred to the <span class="italic">Maria</span>, a king's ship, commanded by M. de
+Beauguay, who treated the prisoners with much humanity. The ship then
+set sail for Léogane, another part of the <span class="pagenum"><a id="page306" name="page306"></a>(p. 306)</span> colony, where the
+remaining Huguenots were disembarked. They were quartered on the
+inhabitants at the pleasure of the governor.</p>
+
+<p>De Péchels says that he passed his time at this place in tranquillity,
+waiting till it might please God to afford him an opportunity of
+escaping from his troubles. He visited the inhabitants, especially
+those of his own religious persuasion&mdash;a circumstance which gave much
+umbrage to the Dominican monks. They ordered some of the bigots among
+their parishioners to lodge a complaint against him with the governor,
+to the effect that he was hindering his fellow-prisoners from becoming
+Roman Catholics, and preventing those who had become so from going to
+mass. He accordingly received a verbal command from M. Dumas, the
+King's lieutenant, to repair immediately to Avache (probably La
+Vache), an island about a hundred leagues distant from Léogane. He was
+accordingly despatched by ship to Avache, which he reached on the 8th
+of June. He was put in charge of Captain Laurans, a renowned
+freebooter, and was specially lodged under his roof. The captain was
+ordered never to lose sight of his prisoner.</p>
+
+<p>De Péchels suffered much at this place in consequence of the intense
+heat, and the insects, mosquitoes, and horrible flies by which he was
+surrounded. "And yet," he says, "God in His great mercy willed that in
+this very place I should find the means of escaping from my exile, and
+making my way to the English island of Jamaica. On the 13th of August
+a little shallop of that generous nation, in its course from the
+island of St. Thomas to Jamaica, stopped at Avache to water and take
+provisions. Two months already had I watched for such an opportunity,
+and now that God had presented me with this, I thought it should not
+be neglected. So fully was I persuaded of this, that <span class="pagenum"><a id="page307" name="page307"></a>(p. 307)</span> without
+reflecting upon the smallness of the shallop, I put myself on board
+with victuals for four days, although assured that the passage would
+only occupy three. But instead of performing the passage in three
+days, as we had thought, it was ten days before we made the island,
+during the whole of which time I was constantly unwell from bad
+weather and consequent seasickness. During the last three days I
+suffered also from hunger, my provisions being spent, with the
+exception of some little wretched food, salt and smoky, which the
+sailors eat to keep themselves from starving. God, in His great
+compassion, preserved me from all dangers, and brought me happily to
+Jamaica, where, however, I thought to leave my bones."</p>
+
+<p>The voyage was followed by a serious illness. De Péchels was obliged
+to take to his bed, where he lay for fifteen days prostrated by fever,
+accompanied by incessant pains in his head. After the fever had left
+him, he could neither walk nor stand. By slow degrees his strength
+returned. He was at length able to walk; and he then began to make
+arrangements for setting out for England. On the 1st of October he
+embarked on board an English vessel bound for London. During his
+voyage north he suffered from cold, as much as he had before suffered
+from heat. At length the coast of England was sighted. Two days after,
+the ship reached the Downs; and on the 22nd of December it was borne
+up the Thames by the tide, to within about seven miles from London
+Bridge. There the ship stopped to discharge part of her cargo; and De
+Péchels, having taken his place on board a small sloop for the great
+city, arrived there at ten o'clock the same night.</p>
+
+<p>On arrival in London, De Péchels proceeded to make inquiry amongst his
+Huguenot friends&mdash;who had by that time reached England in great
+numbers&mdash;for his <span class="pagenum"><a id="page308" name="page308"></a>(p. 308)</span> wife, his children, his mother, and his
+sisters. Alas! what disappointment! He found no wife, no child, nor
+any relation ready to welcome him. His wife, however, was living at
+Geneva, with their only son; for the youngest had died at Montauban
+during De Péchels' exile. His daughters were still at Montauban&mdash;the
+eldest in a convent. His mother and youngest sister were both in
+prison&mdash;the one at Moissac, the other at Auvillard. A message was,
+however, sent to Madame de Péchels, that her husband was now in
+England, and longing to meet her.</p>
+
+<p>It was long before the message reached Madame de Péchels; and still
+longer before she could join her husband in London. While at Geneva,
+she had maintained herself and her son by the work of her hands. On
+receiving the message she immediately set out, but her voyage could
+not fail to be one of hardship to a person in her reduced
+circumstances. We are not informed how she and her son contrived to
+travel the long distance of eight hundred miles (by way of the Rhine
+and Holland) from Geneva to London; but at length she reached the
+English capital, when she had the mortification to find that her
+husband was not there, but had left London for Ireland only four days
+before. During the absence of her husband, Madame de Péchels, whose
+courage never abandoned her, chose rather to stoop to the most
+toilsome labours than to have recourse to the charity of the
+government, of which many, less self-helping, or perhaps more
+necessitous, did not scruple to take advantage.</p>
+
+<p>We must now revert to the circumstances under which De Péchels left
+London for Ireland. At the time when he arrived in England, the
+country was in the throes of a Revolution. Only a month before,
+William of Orange had landed at Torbay, with a large body <span class="pagenum"><a id="page309" name="page309"></a>(p. 309)</span> of
+troops, a considerable proportion of which consisted of Huguenot
+officers and soldiers. There were three strong regiments of Huguenot
+infantry, and a complete squadron of Huguenot cavalry. Marshal
+Schomberg, next in command to William of Orange, was a banished
+Huguenot; and many of his principal officers were French.</p>
+
+<p>James II. had so distinctly shown his disposition to carry back the
+nation to the Roman Catholic religion, that the Prince of Orange, on
+his landing at Torbay, was hailed as the deliverer of England. His
+troops advanced direct upon London. He was daily joined by fresh
+adherents; by the gentry, officers, and soldiers. There was scarcely a
+show of resistance; and when he entered London, James was getting on
+board a smack in the Thames, and slinking ignominiously out of his
+kingdom. Towards the end of June, 1689, William and Mary were
+proclaimed King and Queen of Great Britain; and they were solemnly
+crowned at Westminster about three months after.</p>
+
+<p>But James II. had not yet been got rid of. In the spring of 1689 he
+landed at Kinsale, in Ireland, with substantial help obtained from the
+French king. Before many weeks had elapsed, forty thousand Irish stood
+in arms to support his cause. It was clear that William III. must
+fight for his throne, and that Ireland was to be the battle-field. He
+accordingly called his forces together again&mdash;for the greater part had
+been disbanded&mdash;when he prepared to take the field in person. Four
+Huguenot regiments were at once raised, three infantry regiments, and
+one cavalry regiment. The cavalry regiment was raised by Marshal
+Schomberg, its colonel. It was composed of French gentlemen, privates
+as well as officers. De Péchels was offered a commission in the
+regiment, which he cheerfully accepted. He assumed the name of his
+barony, La <span class="pagenum"><a id="page310" name="page310"></a>(p. 310)</span> Boissonade, as was common in those days; and he
+acted as lieutenant in the company of La Fontain.</p>
+
+<p>The regiment, when completed, was at once despatched to the north of
+Ireland to join the little army of about ten thousand Protestants, who
+had already laid siege to and taken the fortified town of
+Carrickfergus. Schomberg's regiment embarked from Chester, on Monday,
+the 25th of August, 1689; and on the following Saturday the squadron
+arrived in Belfast Lough. The troopers were landed a little to the
+west of Carrickfergus, and marched along the road towards Belfast,
+which is still known as "Troopers' Lane." Next day the Duke moved on
+in pursuit of the enemy. The regiment passed through Belfast, which
+was then a very small place. It consisted of a few streets of thatched
+cottages, grouped around what is now known as the High Street of
+Belfast. Schomberg's regiment joined the infantry and the
+Enniskilleners, who were encamped in a wood on the west of the town.</p>
+
+<p>Next morning the little army started in pursuit of the enemy, who,
+though in much greater numbers, fled before them, laying waste the
+country. At night Schomberg's troops encamped at Lisburn; on the
+following day at Dromore; on the third at Brickclay (this must be
+Loughbrickland); and then on to Newry. All the villages they passed
+were either burnt or burning. At length they heard that James's Irish
+army was at Newry, and that the Duke of Berwick (James's natural son)
+was in possession of the town with a strong body of horse. But before
+Schomberg could reach the place the Duke of Berwick had evacuated it,
+leaving the town in flames. The Duke had fled with such haste that he
+had left some of his baggage behind him, and thrown his cannon into
+the river. Schomberg ordered his cavalry to advance rapidly upon
+Dundalk, <span class="pagenum"><a id="page311" name="page311"></a>(p. 311)</span> in order to prevent the town from sharing the same
+fate as Newry. This forced march took the enemy by surprise. They
+suddenly abandoned Dundalk, without burning it, and never paused until
+they had reached the entrenched camp of King James.</p>
+
+<p>The weather had now become cold, dreary, and rainy. Provisions were
+scarcely to be had. The people of Dundalk were themselves starving.
+Strong bodies of cavalry foraged the country, but were able to find
+next to nothing in the shape of food for themselves, or corn for their
+horses. The ships from England, laden with provisions which ought to
+have arrived at Belfast, were forced back by contrary winds. Thus the
+army was becoming rapidly famished. Disease soon made its appearance,
+and carried off the men by hundreds. Schomberg's camp, outside
+Dundalk, was situated by the side of a marsh&mdash;a most unwholesome
+position; but the marsh protected him from the enemy, who were not far
+off. The rain and snow continued; the men and the horses were
+perpetually drenched; and scouring winds blew across the camp. Ague,
+dysentery, and fever everywhere prevailed. Dalrymple has recorded that
+of fifteen thousand men who belonged to Schomberg's army, not less
+than eight thousand perished. Under these circumstances, the greatly
+reduced force broke up from their cantonments and went into winter
+quarters. Schomberg's cavalry regiment was stationed at Lurgan, then a
+small village, which happily had not been burnt. De Péchels was one of
+those who had been sick in camp, and was disabled from pursuing the
+campaign further. After remaining for some weeks at Lurgan, he
+obtained leave from the Duke of Schomberg to return to London. And
+there, after the lapse of four years, he found and embraced his
+beloved and noble wife.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page312" name="page312"></a>(p. 312)</span> De Péchels continued invalided, and was unable to rejoin the
+army of King William. "After some stay in London," he says, in the
+memoir from which the above extracts are made, "it was the King's
+pleasure to exempt from further service certain officers specified by
+name, and to assign them a pension. Through a kind Providence I was
+included in the number. When I had lived in London on the pension
+which it had pleased the king to allow those officers who were no
+longer in a position to serve him, until the 1st of August, 1692, I
+then left that city, in company with my wife and son, to remove into
+Ireland, whither my pension was transferred."</p>
+
+<p>De Péchels accordingly arrived in Dublin, where he spent the rest of
+his days in peace and quiet. He lived to experience the truth of the
+promise "that every one that hath forsaken houses, or brethren, or
+sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands for my
+name's sake, shall receive an hundredfold, and shall inherit
+everlasting life." De Péchels died in 1732, at a ripe old age, in his
+eighty-seventh year, and was interred in the Huguenot cemetery in the
+neighbourhood of Dublin.</p>
+
+<p>And what of the children left by De Péchels at Montauban? The two
+daughters who were torn from their mother's care, and immured in a
+convent, were brought up in the Roman Catholic faith. The little boy,
+who was also taken from her, died shortly after. The daughters
+accordingly secured the possession of the family estates. The eldest
+married M. de Cahuzac, and the youngest, who was taken as a babe from
+her mother's breast, married M. de St. Sardos; and the descendants of
+the latter still possess La Boissonade, which exists as an old château
+near Montauban.</p>
+
+<p>It was left for Jacob de Péchels, the only son of <span class="pagenum"><a id="page313" name="page313"></a>(p. 313)</span> Samuel de
+Péchels and his wife, the Marquise de Sabonnières, to build up the
+family fortunes in England. Following the military instincts of the
+French, he entered the English army at an early age. His name was
+entered "Pechell" in his War Office commission. Probably this change
+of name originated in the disposition of the naturalised Huguenots to
+adopt names of an English sound rather than to retain their French
+names. Numerous instances of this have already been given.<a id="footnotetag90" name="footnotetag90"></a><a href="#footnote90" title="Go to footnote 90"><span class="small">[90]</span></a> Jacob
+Pechell was a gallant officer. He rose in the army, step by step. He
+fought through the wars in the Low Countries, under Marlborough and
+Ligonier, the latter being a Huguenot like himself. He rose through
+the various grades of ensign, lieutenant, captain, and major, until he
+attained the rank of colonel of the 16th regiment. Colonel Pechell
+married an Irish heiress, Jane Elizabeth Boyd, descended from the
+Earls of Kilmarnock. By her he had three sons and a daughter. Samuel,
+the eldest, studied law, and became a Master in Chancery. George and
+Paul obedient to their military instincts, entered the army, and
+became distinguished officers. George was killed at Carthagena, and it
+was left for Paul to maintain the fortunes of the family.</p>
+
+<p>In those days the exiled Huguenots and their descendants lived very
+much together. They married into each other's families. The richer
+helped the poorer. There were distinguished French social circles,
+where, though their country was forbidden them, they delighted to
+speak in their own language. Like many others, the Pechells
+intermarried with Huguenot families. Thus Samuel Pechell married the
+daughter of François Gaultier, Esq., and his sister Mary married
+Brigadier-General Cailland, of Aston Rowant.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page314" name="page314"></a>(p. 314)</span> Among the distinguished French nobles in London was the
+Marquis de Montandre, descended from the De la Rochefoucaulds, one of
+the greatest families in France. De Montandre was a field-marshal in
+the English army, having rendered important services in the Spanish
+war. His wife was daughter of Baron de Spanheim, Ambassador
+Extraordinary for the King of Prussia, and descended from another
+Protestant refugee. The field-marshal left his fortune to his wife,
+and when she died, she left Samuel Pechell, Master in Chancery, her
+sole executor and residuary legatee. The sum of money to which he
+became entitled on her decease amounted to upwards of £40,000. But Mr.
+Pechell, from a highly sensitive conscience&mdash;such as is rarely
+equalled&mdash;did not feel himself perfectly justified in acquiring so
+large a fortune until he knew that there were no relations of the
+testatrix in existence, whose claim to inherit the property might be
+greater than his own. He therefore collected all her effects, and put
+them into Chancery, in order that those who could make good their
+claims by kindred to the Marchioness might do so before the
+Chancellor. Accordingly, one family from Berlin and another from
+Geneva appeared, and claimed, and obtained the inheritance. These
+relations, in acknowledgment of the kindness and honesty of Mr.
+Pechell, resolved on presenting him with a set of Sèvres china, which
+was at that time beyond all price in value. It could only be had as a
+great favour from the manufactory at Sèvres, and was only purchased
+by, or presented to, crowned heads.<a id="footnotetag91" name="footnotetag91"></a><a href="#footnote91" title="Go to footnote 91"><span class="small">[91]</span></a></p>
+
+<p>Paul Pechell, who had entered the army, became a distinguished
+officer, and rose to the rank of general. In 1797 he was created a
+baronet, and married Mary, <span class="pagenum"><a id="page315" name="page315"></a>(p. 315)</span> the only daughter and heiress of
+Thomas Brooke, Esq., of Pagglesham, Essex. His eldest son, Sir Thomas,
+was a major-general in the army, and was for some time M.P. for
+Downton. The second son, Augustus, was appointed Receiver-General of
+the Post Office in 1785, and of the Customs in 1790. Many of his
+descendants still survive, and the baronetcy reverted to his second
+son. He was succeeded by his two sons, one of whom became
+rear-admiral, and the other vice-admiral. The latter, Sir George
+Richard Brooke Pechell, entered the Royal Navy in 1803, and served
+with distinction in several engagements. After the peace, he
+represented the important borough of Brighton in Parliament for
+twenty-four years. He married the daughter and coheir of Cecil, Lord
+Zouche, and added Castle Goring to part of the ancient possessions of
+the Bisshopp family, which she inherited at her father's death.</p>
+
+<p>William Cecil Pechell, the only son of Sir George, again following the
+military instincts of his race, entered the army, and became captain
+of the 77th regiment, with which he served during the Crimean war. He
+fell leading on his men to repel an attack made by the Russians on the
+advanced trenches before Sebastopol, on the 3rd of September, 1855. He
+was beloved and deeply lamented by all who knew him; and sorrow at his
+loss was expressed by the Queen, by the Commander-in-Chief, by the
+whole of the light division, and by the mayor and principal
+inhabitants of Brighton. A statue of Captain Pechell, by Noble, was
+erected by public subscription, and now stands in the Pavilion at
+Brighton.<a href="#toc"><span class="small">[Back to Contents]</span></a></p>
+
+<h3><span class="pagenum"><a id="page316" name="page316"></a>(p. 316)</span> II.</h3>
+
+<p class="title">CAPTAIN RAPIN,<br>
+AUTHOR OF THE "HISTORY OF ENGLAND."</p>
+
+
+<p>When Louis XIV. revoked the Edict of Nantes, he expelled from France
+nearly all his subjects who would not conform to the Roman Catholic
+religion. He drove out the manufacturers, who were for the most part
+Protestants, and thus destroyed the manufacturing supremacy of France.
+He expelled Protestants of every class&mdash;advocates, judges, doctors,
+artists, scientists, teachers, and professors. And, last of all, he
+expelled the Protestant soldiers and sailors.</p>
+
+<p>According to Vauban, 12,000 tried soldiers, 9,000 sailors, and 600
+officers left France, and entered into foreign service. Some went to
+England, some to Holland, and some to Prussia. Those who took refuge
+in Holland entered the service of William, Prince of Orange. Most of
+them accompanied him to Torbay in 1688. They fought against the armies
+of Louis XIV. at the Boyne, at Athlone, and at Aughrim, and finally
+drove the French out of Ireland.</p>
+
+<p>The sailors also did good service under the flags of England and
+Holland. They distinguished themselves at the sea-fight off La Hogue,
+where the English and <span class="pagenum"><a id="page317" name="page317"></a>(p. 317)</span> Dutch fleets annihilated the
+expedition prepared by Louis XIV. for a descent upon England.</p>
+
+<p>The expatriated French soldiers occasionally revisited the country of
+their birth, not as friends, but as enemies. They encountered the
+armies of Louis XIV. in all the battles of the Low Countries. They
+fought at Ramilies, Blenheim, and Malplacquet. A Huguenot engineer
+directed the operations at the siege of Namur, which ended in the
+capture of the fortress. Another Huguenot engineer conducted the
+operations at Lisle, which was also taken by the allied forces. While
+there, a flying party, consisting chiefly of French Huguenots,
+penetrated as far as the neighbourhood of Paris, when they nearly
+succeeded in carrying off the Dauphin.</p>
+
+<p>The Huguenot officers who took refuge in Prussia entered the service
+of Frederick William, Elector of Brandenburg. Some were raised to the
+highest offices in his army. Marshal Schomberg was one of the number.
+But when he found that William of Orange was assembling a large force
+in Holland for the purpose of making a descent upon England, he
+requested leave to join him; and his friend Prince Frederick William,
+though with great regret, at length granted him permission to leave
+the Prussian service.</p>
+
+<p>The subject of the following narrative was a French refugee, who
+entered the service of William of Orange. To find the beginning of his
+ancestry, we must reach far back into history. The Rapins were
+supposed to have been driven from the Campagna of Rome during the
+persecutions of Nero. They took refuge in one of the wildest and most
+picturesque valleys of the Alps. In 1250 we find the Rapins
+established near Saint-Jean de la Maurienne, in Savoy, close upon the
+French <span class="pagenum"><a id="page318" name="page318"></a>(p. 318)</span> frontier. Saint-Jean de la Maurienne was so called
+because of the supposed relic of the bones of St. John the Baptist,
+which had been deposited there by a female pilgrim, Sainte Thècle, who
+was, it is supposed, a Rapin by birth. The fief of Chaudane en
+Valloires was the patrimony of the Rapins, which they long continued
+to hold. In 1692 the descendants of the family endeavoured to prove,
+from the numerous titles which they possessed, that they had been
+nobles for eight or nine hundred years.</p>
+
+<p>The home of the Rapins was situated in the country of the Vaudois. In
+1375 the Vaudois descended from their mountains and preached the
+gospel in the valleys of Savoy. The Pope appealed to the King of
+France, who sent an army into the district. The Vaudois were crushed.
+Those who remained fled back to the mountains. Nevertheless the
+Reformed religion spread in the district. An Italian priest, Raphaël
+Bordeille, even preached the gospel in the cathedral of Saint-Jean de
+Maurienne. But he was suddenly arrested. He was seized, tried for the
+crime of heresy, and burnt in front of the cathedral on Holy Thursday,
+in Passion Week, 1550.</p>
+
+<p>Though the Rapin family held many high offices in Church and State,
+several of them attached themselves to the Reformed religion. Three
+brothers at length left their home in Savoy, and established
+themselves in France during the reign of Francis I. Without entering
+into their history during the long-continued religious wars which
+devastated the south of France, it may be sufficient to state that two
+of the brothers took an active part under Condé. Antoine de Rapin held
+important commands at Toulouse, at Montauban, at Castres and
+Montpellier. Philibert de Rapin, his <span class="pagenum"><a id="page319" name="page319"></a>(p. 319)</span> younger brother, was
+one of the most valiant and trusted officers of the Reformed party. He
+was selected by the Prince of Condé to carry into Languedoc the treaty
+of peace signed at Longjumeaux on the 20th March, 1568.</p>
+
+<p>Feeling safe under the royal commission, he presented to the
+Parliament at Toulouse the edict with which he was intrusted. He then
+retired to his country house at Grenade, on the outskirts of Toulouse.
+He was there seized like a criminal, brought before the judges, and
+sentenced to be beheaded in three days. The treaty was thus annulled.
+War went on as before. Two years after, the army of Coligny appeared
+before Toulouse. The houses and châteaux of the councillors of
+Parliament were burnt, and on their smoking ruins were affixed the
+significant words, "<span class="italic">Vengeance de Rapin</span>."</p>
+
+<p>Philibert de Rapin's son Pierre embraced the career of arms almost
+from his boyhood. He served under the Prince of Navarre. He was almost
+as poor as the Prince. One day he asked him for some pistoles to
+replace a horse which had been killed under him in action. The Prince
+replied, "I should like to give you them, but do you see I have only
+three shirts!" Pierre at length became Seigneur and Baron of Manvers,
+though his château was destroyed and burnt during his absence with the
+army. Destructions of the same kind were constantly taking place
+throughout the whole of France. But, to the honour of humanity, it
+must be told that when his château was last destroyed, the Catholic
+gentlemen of the neighbourhood brought their labourers to the place,
+and tilled and sowed his abandoned fields. When Rapin arrived eight
+months later, he was surprised and gratified to find his estate
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page320" name="page320"></a>(p. 320)</span> in perfect order. This was a touching proof of the esteem
+with which this Protestant gentleman was held by his Catholic
+neighbours.</p>
+
+<p>Pierre de Rapin died in 1647 at the age of eighty-nine. He left
+twenty-two children by his second wife. His eldest son Jean succeeded
+to the estate of Manvers and to the title of baron. Like his father,
+he was a soldier. He first served under the Prince of Orange, who was
+then a French prince, head of the principality of Orange. He served
+under the King of France in the war with Spain. He was a frank and
+loyal soldier, yet firmly attached to the faith of his fathers. He
+belonged to the old Huguenot phalanx, who, as the Duke de Mayenne
+said, "were always ready for death, from father to son." After the
+wars were over, he gave up the sword for the plough. His château was
+in ruins, and he had to live in a very humble way until his fortunes
+were restored. He used to say that his riches consisted in his four
+sons, who were all worthy of the name they bore.</p>
+
+<p>Jacques de Rapin, Seigneur de Thoyras, was the second son of Pierre de
+Rapin. Thoyras was a little hamlet near Grenade, adjacent to the
+baronial estate of Manvers. Jacques studied the law. He became an
+advocate, and practised with success, for about fifty years, at
+Castres and other cities and towns in the south of France. When the
+Edict of Nantes was revoked, the Protestants were no longer permitted
+to practise the law, and he was compelled to resign his profession. He
+died shortly after, but the authorities would not even allow his
+corpse to be buried in the family vault. They demolished his place of
+interment, and threw his body into a ditch by the side of the road.</p>
+
+<p>In the meantime Paul de Rapin, son of Jean, Baron <span class="pagenum"><a id="page321" name="page321"></a>(p. 321)</span> de
+Manvers, had married the eldest daughter of Jacques, Seigneur de
+Thoyras. Paul, like many of his ancestors, entered the army. He served
+with distinction under the Duke of Luxembourg in Holland, Flanders,
+and Italy, yet he never rose above the rank of captain. On his death
+in 1685, his widow and two daughters (being Protestants) were
+apprehended in their château at Manvers, and incarcerated in convents
+at Montpellier and Toulouse. Her sons were also taken away, and placed
+in other convents. They were only liberated after five years'
+confinement.</p>
+
+<p>Madame de Rapin then resolved to quit France entirely. She contrived
+to reach Holland, and established her family at Utrecht. Her
+brother-in-law, Daniel de Rapin, had already escaped from France, and
+achieved the position of colonel in the Dutch service.</p>
+
+<p>Raoul de Cazenove, the author of "Rapin-Thoyras, sa Famille, sa Vie,
+et ses &OElig;uvres," says, "The women of the house of Rapin
+distinguished themselves more than once by like courage. Strengthened
+and fortified by persecutions, the Reformed were willing to die in
+exile, far from their beloved children who had been violently snatched
+from them, but leaving with them a holy heritage of example and of
+firmness in their faith. The pious lessons of their mothers,
+profoundly engraved on the hearts of their daughters, sufficed more
+than once to save them from apostasy, which was rendered all the more
+easy by the feebleness of their youth and the perfidious suggestions
+by which they were surrounded."</p>
+
+<p>We return to Paul de Rapin-Thoyras, second son of Madame de Rapin. He
+was born at Castres in 1661. He received his first lessons at home. He
+learnt the <span class="pagenum"><a id="page322" name="page322"></a>(p. 322)</span> Latin rudiments, but his progress was not such as
+to please his father. He was then sent to the academy at Puylaurens,
+where the Protestant noblesse of the south of France were still
+permitted to send their sons. The celebrated Bayle was educated there.
+But in 1685 the academy of Puylaurens was suppressed, as that of
+Montauban had been a few years before; and then young Rapin was sent
+to Saumur, one of the few remaining schools in France where
+Protestants were allowed to be educated.</p>
+
+<p>Rapin finished his studies and returned home. He wished to enter the
+army, but his father was so much opposed to it, that he at length
+acceded to his desires and commenced the study of the law. He was
+already prepared for being received to the office of advocate, when
+the royal edict was passed which prevented Protestants from practising
+before the courts; and, indeed, prevented them from following any
+profession whatever. Immediately after the death of his father, Paul
+de Rapin, accompanied by his younger brother Solomon, emigrated from
+France and proceeded into England.</p>
+
+<p>It was not without a profound feeling of sadness that Rapin-Thoyras
+left his native country. He left his widowed mother in profound grief,
+arising from the recent death of her husband. She was now exposed to
+persecutions which were bitterer by far than the perils of exile. It
+was at her express wish that Rapin left his native country and
+emigrated to England. And yet it was for France that his fathers had
+shed their blood and laid down their lives. But France now repelled
+the descendants of her noblest sons from her bosom.</p>
+
+<p>Shortly after his arrival in London, Rapin made the acquaintance of
+the Abbé of Denbeck, nephew of the <span class="pagenum"><a id="page323" name="page323"></a>(p. 323)</span> Bishop of Tournay. The
+Abbé was an intimate friend of Rapin's uncle, Pélisson, a man
+notorious in those times for buying up consciences with money. Louis
+XIV. consecrated to this traffic one-third of the benefices which fell
+to the Crown during their vacancy. They were left vacant for the
+purpose of paying for the abjurations of the heretics. Pélisson had
+the administration of the fund. He had been born a Protestant, but he
+abjured his religion, and from a convert he became a converter.
+Voltaire says of him, in his "Siècle de Louis XIV.," "Much more a
+courtier than a philosopher, Pélisson changed his religion and made a
+fortune."</p>
+
+<p>Pélisson wrote to his friend the Abbé of Denbeck, then in London at
+the court of James II., to look after his nephew Rapin-Thoyras, and
+endeavour to bring him over to the true faith. It is even said that
+Pélisson offered Rapin the priory of Saint-Orens d'Auch if he would
+change his religion. The Abbé did his best. He introduced Rapin to M.
+de Barillon, then ambassador at the English court. James II. was then
+the pensioner of France, and accordingly had many intimate
+transactions with the French ambassador. M. de Barillon received the
+young refugee with great kindness, and, at the recommendation of the
+Abbé and Pélisson, offered to present him to the King. Their object
+was to get Rapin appointed to some public office, and thereby help his
+conversion.</p>
+
+<p>But Rapin fled from the temptation. Though no great theologian, he
+felt it to be wrong to be thus entrapped into a faith which was not
+his own; and without much reasoning about his belief, but merely
+acting from a sense of duty, he left London at once and embarked for
+Holland.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page324" name="page324"></a>(p. 324)</span> At Utrecht he joined his uncle, Daniel de Rapin, who was in
+command of a company of cadets wholly composed of Huguenot gentlemen
+and nobles. Daniel had left the service of France on the 25th of
+October, 1685, three days after the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes.
+He was then captain of a French regiment in Picardy, but he could no
+longer, without denying his God, serve his country and his King. In
+fact, he was compelled, like all other Protestant officers, to leave
+France unless he would at once conform to the King's faith.</p>
+
+<p>Rapin was admitted to the company of refugee cadets commanded by his
+uncle. He was now twenty-seven years old. His first instincts had been
+military, and now he was about to pursue the profession of arms in his
+adopted country. His first prospects were not brilliant. He was put
+under a course of discipline, his pay amounting to only sixpence a
+day. Indeed, the States-General of Holland were at first unwilling to
+take so large a number of refugee Frenchmen into their service; but on
+the Prince of Orange publicly declaring that he would himself pay the
+expenses of maintaining the military refugees, they hesitated no
+longer, but voted money enough to enrol them in their service.</p>
+
+<p>The Prince of Orange had now a large body of troops at his command. No
+one knew for what purpose they were enrolled. Some thought they were
+intended for an attack upon France in revenge for Louis' devastation
+of Holland a few years before. James II. never dreamt that they were
+intended for a descent upon the coasts of England. Yet he was rapidly
+alienating the loyalty of his subjects by hypocrisy, by infidelity to
+the laws of England, and by unmitigated persecution of those who
+differed from him in religious belief. In this <span class="pagenum"><a id="page325" name="page325"></a>(p. 325)</span> state of
+affairs England looked to the Prince of Orange for help.</p>
+
+<p>William III. was doubly related to the royal family of England. He was
+nephew of Charles I. and son-in-law of James II. His wife was the
+heiress-presumptive to the British throne. Above all, he was a
+Protestant, while James II. was a Roman Catholic. "Here," said the
+Archbishop of Rheims of the latter, "is a good sort of man who has
+lost his three kingdoms for a mass!"</p>
+
+<p>William was at length ready with his troops. Louis XIV. suddenly
+withdrew his army from Flanders and poured them into Germany. William
+seized the opportunity. A fleet of more than six hundred vessels,
+including fifty men-of-war, assembled at Helvoetsluys, near the mouth
+of the Maas. The troops were embarked with great celerity. William
+hoisted his flag with the words emblazoned on it, "The Protestant
+Religion and Liberties of England," and underneath the motto of the
+House of Nassau, <span class="italic">Je maintiendra</span>&mdash;"I will maintain."</p>
+
+<p>The fleet set sail on the 19th October, the English Admiral Herbert
+leading the van, the Prince of Orange commanding the main body of the
+fleet, and the Dutch Vice-Admiral Evertzen bringing up the rear.</p>
+
+<p>The wind was fair. It was the "Protestant wind" that the people of
+England had so long been looking for. In a few hours the strong
+eastern breeze had driven the fleet half across the sea that divides
+the Dutch and English coasts. Then the wind changed. It began to blow
+from the west. The wind increased until it blew a violent tempest. The
+fleet seemed to be in the midst of a cyclone. The ships were blown
+hither and thither, so that in less than two hours the fleet was
+completely <span class="pagenum"><a id="page326" name="page326"></a>(p. 326)</span> dispersed. At daybreak next morning scarce two
+ships could be seen together.</p>
+
+<p>The several ships returned to their rendez-vous at Goeree, in the Maas.
+They returned in a miserable condition&mdash;some with their sails blown
+away, some without their bulwarks, some without their masts. Many
+ships were still missing. The horses had suffered severely. They had
+been stowed away in the holds and driven against each other during the
+storm. Many had been suffocated, others had their legs broken, and had
+to be killed when the vessels reached the shore. The banks at Goeree
+were covered with dead horses taken from the ships. Four hundred had
+been lost.</p>
+
+<p>Rapin de Thoyras and M. de Chavernay, commanding two companies of
+French Huguenots, were on board one of the missing ships. The
+frightful tempest had separated them from the fleet. They had been
+driven before the wind as far as the coast of Norway. They thought
+that each moment might be their last. But the sailors were brave, and
+the ship was manageable. After enduring a week's storm the wind at
+last abated. The ship was tacked, and winged its way towards the
+south. At length, after about eight days' absence, they rejoined the
+fleet, which had again assembled in the Maas. There were now only two
+vessels missing, containing four companies of the Holstein regiment,
+and about sixty French Huguenot officers.</p>
+
+<p>In the meantime the Prince of Orange had caused all the damages in the
+combined fleet to be repaired. New horses were embarked, new men were
+added to the army, and new ships were hired for the purpose of
+accommodating them. The men-of-war were also increased. After eleven
+days the fleet was prepared to put to sea again.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page327" name="page327"></a>(p. 327)</span> On the 1st of November, 1688, the armament started on its
+second voyage for the English coast. The fleet at first steered
+northward, and it was thought to be the Prince's intention to land at
+the mouth of the Humber. But a violent east wind having begun to blow
+during the night, the fleet steered towards the south-eastern coast of
+England; after which the ships shortened sail for fear of accidents.</p>
+
+<p>The same wind that blew the English and Dutch fleet towards the
+Channel, had the effect of keeping King James's fleet in the Thames,
+where they remained anchored at Gunfleet, sixty-one men-of-war, under
+command of Admiral Lord Dartmouth.</p>
+
+<p>On the 3rd of November, the fleet under the Prince of Orange entered
+the English Channel, and lay between Calais and Dover to wait for the
+ships that were behind. "It is easy," says Rapin Thoyras, "to imagine
+what a glorious show the fleet made. Five or six hundred ships in so
+narrow a channel, and both the English and French shores covered with
+numberless spectators, are no common sight. For my part, who was then
+on board the fleet, I own it struck me extremely."</p>
+
+<p>Sunday, the 4th of November, was the Prince's birthday, and it was
+dedicated to devotion. The fleet was then off the Isle of Wight. Sail
+was slackened during the performance of divine service. The fleet then
+sped on its way down-channel, in order that the troops might be landed
+at Dartmouth or Torbay; but during the night the wind freshened, and
+the fleet was carried beyond the desired ports. Soon after, however,
+the wind changed to the south, when the fleet tacked in splendid
+order, and made for the shore in Torbay. The landing was effected with
+such diligence <span class="pagenum"><a id="page328" name="page328"></a>(p. 328)</span> and tranquillity that the whole army was on
+shore before night.</p>
+
+<p>There was no opposition to the landing. King James's army greatly
+outnumbered that of the Prince of Orange. It amounted to about forty
+thousand troops, exclusive of the militia. But the King's forces had
+been sent northward to resist the anticipated landing of the
+delivering army at the mouth of the Humber, so that the south-west of
+England was nearly stripped of troops.</p>
+
+<p>Nor could the King depend upon his forces. The King had already
+outraged and insulted the gallant noblemen and gentlemen who had
+heretofore been the bulwark of his throne. He had imprisoned the
+bishops, dismissed Protestant clergymen from their livings, refused to
+summon a Parliament, and caused terror and dismay throughout England
+and Scotland. He had created discontent throughout the army by his
+dismissal of Protestant officers, and the King now began to fear that
+the common soldiers themselves would fail to serve him in his time of
+need.</p>
+
+<p>His fears proved prophetic. When the army of the Prince of Orange
+advanced from Brixton (where it had landed) to Exeter, and afterwards
+to Salisbury and London, it was joined by noblemen, gentlemen,
+officers, and soldiers. Lord Churchill, afterwards Duke of
+Marlborough, Lord Cornbury, with four regiments of dragoons, passed
+over to the Prince of Orange. The Prince of Denmark, the King's
+son-in-law, deserted him. His councillors abandoned him. His
+mistresses left him. The country was up against him. At length the
+King saw no remedy before him but a precipitate flight.</p>
+
+<p>The account given by Rapin of James's departure <span class="pagenum"><a id="page329" name="page329"></a>(p. 329)</span> from England
+is somewhat ludicrous. The Queen went first. On the night between the
+9th and 10th of December she crossed the Thames in disguise. She
+waited under the walls of a church at Lambeth until a coach could be
+got ready for her at the nearest inn. She went from thence to
+Gravesend, where she embarked with the Prince of Wales on a small
+vessel, which conveyed them safely to France. The King set out on the
+following night. He entered a small boat at Whitehall, dressed in a
+plain suit and a bob wig, accompanied by a few friends. He threw the
+Great Seal into the water, from whence it was afterwards dragged up by
+a fisherman's net. Before he left, he gave the Earl of Feversham
+orders to disband the army without pay, in order, probably, to create
+anarchy after his flight.</p>
+
+<p>James reached the south shore of the Thames. He travelled, with relays
+of horses, to Emley Ferry, near the Island of Sheppey. He went on
+board the little vessel that was to convey him to a French frigate
+lying in the mouth of the Thames ready to transport him to France. The
+wind blew strong, and the vessel was unable to sail.</p>
+
+<p>The fishermen of the neighbourhood boarded the vessel in which the
+King was. They took him for the chaplain of Sir Edward Hales, one of
+his attendants. They searched the King, and found upon him four
+hundred guineas and several valuable seals and jewels, which they
+seized. A constable was present who knew the King, and he ordered
+restitution of the valuables which had been taken from him. The King
+wished to be gone, but the people by a sort of violence conducted him
+to a public inn in the town of Feversham. He then sent for the Earl of
+Winchelsea, Lord-Lieutenant <span class="pagenum"><a id="page330" name="page330"></a>(p. 330)</span> of the county, who prevailed
+upon him not to leave the kingdom, but to return to London.</p>
+
+<p>And to London he went. The Prince of Orange was by this time at
+Windsor. On the King's arrival in London he was received with
+acclamations, as if he had returned from victory. He resumed
+possession of his palace. He published a proclamation, announcing that
+having been given to understand that divers outrages had been
+committed in various parts of the kingdom, by burning, pulling down,
+and defacing of houses, he commanded all lord-lieutenants, &amp;c., to
+prevent such outrages for the future, and suppress all riotous
+assemblies.</p>
+
+<p>This was his last public act. He was without an army. He had few
+friends. The Dutch Guards arrived in London, and took possession of
+St. James's and Whitehall. The Prince of Orange sent three lords to
+the King to desire his Majesty's departure for Ham&mdash;a house belonging
+to the Duchess of Lauderdale; but the King desired them to tell the
+Prince that he wished rather to go to Rochester. The Prince gave his
+consent.</p>
+
+<p>Next morning the King entered his barge, accompanied by four earls,
+six of the Yeomen of his Guard, and about a hundred of the Dutch
+Guard, commanded by a colonel of the regiment. They arrived at
+Gravesend, where the King entered his coach, and proceeded across the
+country to Rochester.</p>
+
+<p>In the meantime, Barillon, the French ambassador, was requested to
+leave England. St. Ledger, a French refugee, was requested to attend
+him and see him embark. While they were on the road St. Ledger could
+not forbear saying to the ambassador, "Sir, had any one told you a
+year ago that a French refugee <span class="pagenum"><a id="page331" name="page331"></a>(p. 331)</span> should be commissioned to see
+you out of England, would you have believed it?" To which the
+ambassador answered, "Sir, cross over with me to Calais, and I will
+give you an answer."</p>
+
+<p>Shortly after, James embarked in a small French ship, which landed him
+safely at Ambleteuse, a few miles north of Boulogne; while the army of
+William marched into London amidst loud congratulations, and William
+himself took possession of the Palace of St. James's, which the
+recreant King had left for his occupation.</p>
+
+<p>James II. fled from England at the end of December, 1688. Louis XIV.
+received him courteously, and entertained him and his family at St.
+Germain and Versailles. But he could scarcely entertain much regard
+for the abdicated monarch. James had left his kingdom in an
+ignominious manner. Though he was at the head of a great fleet and
+army, he had not struck a single blow in defence of his kingly rights
+And now he had come to the court of Louis XIV. to beg for the
+assistance of a French fleet and army to recover his throne.</p>
+
+<p>Though England had rejected James, Ireland was still in his favour.
+The Lord-Deputy Tyrconnel was devoted to him; and the Irish people,
+excepting those of the north, were ready to fight for him. About a
+hundred thousand Irishmen were in arms. Half were soldiers; the rest
+were undrilled Rapparees. James was urged by messengers from Ireland
+to take advantage of this state of affairs. He accordingly begged
+Louis XIV. to send a French army with him into Ireland to help him to
+recover his kingdom.</p>
+
+<p>But the French monarch, who saw before him the prospect of a
+continental war, was unwilling to send a <span class="pagenum"><a id="page332" name="page332"></a>(p. 332)</span> large body of
+troops out of his kingdom. But he did what he could.</p>
+
+<p>He ordered the Brest fleet to be ready. He put on board arms and
+ammunition for ten thousand men. He selected four hundred French
+officers for the purpose of disciplining the Irish levies. Count
+Rosen, a veteran warrior, was placed in command. Over a hundred
+thousand pounds of money was also put on board. When the fleet was
+ready to sail, James took leave of his patron, Louis XIV. "The best
+thing that I can wish you," said the French king, "is that I may never
+see you again in this world."</p>
+
+<p>The fleet sailed from Brest on the 7th of March, 1689, and reached
+Kinsale, in the south of Ireland, four days later. James II. was
+received with the greatest rejoicing. Next day he went on to Cork; he
+was received by the Earl of Tyrconnel, who caused one of the
+magistrates to be executed because he had declared for the Prince of
+Orange.</p>
+
+<p>The news went abroad that the King had landed. He entered Dublin on
+the 24th of March, and was received in a triumphant manner. All Roman
+Catholic Ireland was at his feet. The Protestants in the south were
+disarmed. There was some show of resistance in the north; but no doubt
+was entertained that Enniskillen and Derry, where the Protestants had
+taken refuge, would soon be captured and Protestantism crushed.</p>
+
+<p>The Prince of Orange, who had now been proclaimed King at Westminster,
+found that he must fight for his throne, and that Ireland was to be
+the battle-field. Londonderry was crowded with Protestants, who held
+out for William III. James believed that the place would fall without
+a blow. Count Rosen was of the <span class="pagenum"><a id="page333" name="page333"></a>(p. 333)</span> same opinion. The Irish army
+proceeded northwards without resistance. The country, as far as the
+walls of Derry, was found abandoned by the population. Everything
+valuable had been destroyed by bands of Rapparees. There was great
+want of food for the army.</p>
+
+<p>Nevertheless, James proceeded as far as Derry. Confident of success,
+he approached within a hundred yards of the southern gate, when he was
+received with a shout of "No surrender!" The cannon were fired from
+the nearest bastion. One of James's officers was killed by his side.
+Then he fled. A few days later he was on his way to Dublin,
+accompanied by Count Rosen.</p>
+
+<p>Londonderry, after an heroic contest, was at length relieved. A fleet
+from England, laden with food, broke the boom which had been thrown by
+the Irish army across the entrance to the harbour. The ships reached
+the quay at ten o'clock at night. The whole population were there to
+receive them. The food was unloaded, and the famished people were at
+length fed. Three days after, the Irish army burnt their huts, and
+left the long-beleaguered city. They retreated along the left bunk of
+the Boyne to Strabane.</p>
+
+<p>While the Irish forces were lying there, the news of another disaster
+reached them. The Duke of Berwick lay with a strong detachment of
+Irish troops before Enniskillen. He had already gained some advantage
+over the Protestant colonists, and the command reached him from Dublin
+that he was immediately to attack them. The Irish were five thousand
+in number; the Enniskilleners under three thousand.</p>
+
+<p>An engagement took place at Newton Butler. The Enniskillen horse swept
+the Irish troops before them. <span class="pagenum"><a id="page334" name="page334"></a>(p. 334)</span> Fifteen hundred were put to
+the sword, and four hundred prisoners were taken. Seven pieces of
+cannon, fourteen barrels of powder, and all the drums and colours were
+left in the hands of the victors. The Irish army were then at
+Strabane, on their retreat from Londonderry. They at once struck their
+tents, threw their military stores into the river, and set out in full
+retreat for the south.</p>
+
+<p>In the meantime a French fleet had landed at Bantry Bay, with three
+thousand men on board, and a large convoy of ammunition and
+provisions. William III., on his part, determined, with the consent of
+the English Parliament, to send a force into Ireland to encounter the
+French and Irish forces under King James.</p>
+
+<p>William's troops consisted of English, Scotch, Dutch, and Danes, with
+a large admixture of French Huguenots. There were a regiment of
+Huguenot horse, of eight companies, commanded by the Duke of
+Schomberg, and three regiments of Huguenot foot, commanded by La
+Mellonière, Du Cambon, and La Caillemotte. Schomberg, the old Huguenot
+chief, was put in command of the entire force.</p>
+
+<p>Rapin accompanied the expedition as a cadet. The army assembled at
+Highlake, about sixteen miles from Chester. About ninety vessels of
+all sorts were assembled near the mouth of the Dee. Part of the army
+was embarked on the 12th of August, and set sail for Ireland. About
+ten thousand men, horse and foot, were landed at Bangor, near the
+southern entrance to Belfast Lough. Parties were sent out to scour the
+adjacent country, and to feel for the enemy. This done, the army set
+out for Belfast.</p>
+
+<p>James's forces had abandoned the place, and retired <span class="pagenum"><a id="page335" name="page335"></a>(p. 335)</span> to
+Carrickfergus, some ten miles from Belfast, on the north coast of the
+Lough. Carrickfergus was a fortified town. The castle occupies a
+strong position on a rock overlooking the Lough. The place formed a
+depôt for James's troops, and Schomberg therefore determined to
+besiege the fortress.</p>
+
+<p>Rapin has written an account of William's campaigns in England and
+Ireland; but with becoming modesty he says nothing about his own
+achievements. We must therefore supply the deficiency. Before the
+siege of Carrickfergus, he had been appointed ensign in Lord
+Kingston's regiment. He was helped to this office by his uncle Daniel,
+who accompanied the expedition. Several regiments of Schomberg's army
+were detached from Belfast to Carrickfergus, to commence the siege.
+Among these was Lord Kingston's regiment.</p>
+
+<p>On their approach, the enemy beat a parley. They desired to march out
+with arms and baggage. Schomberg refused, and the siege began. The
+trenches were opened, the batteries were raised, and the cannon
+thundered against the walls of the old town. Several breaches were
+made. The attacks were pursued with great vigour for four days, when a
+general assault was made. The besieged hoisted the white flag. After a
+parley, it was arranged that the Irish should surrender the place, and
+march out with their arms, and as much baggage as they could carry on
+their backs.</p>
+
+<p>Carrickfergus was not taken without considerable loss to the
+besiegers. Lieutenant Briset, of the Flemish Guards, was killed by the
+first shot fired from the castle. The Marquis de Venours was also
+killed while leading the Huguenot regiments to the breach. Rapin
+distinguished himself so much during <span class="pagenum"><a id="page336" name="page336"></a>(p. 336)</span> the siege that he was
+promoted to the rank of lieutenant. He was at the same time
+transferred to another regiment, and served under Lieutenant-General
+Douglas during the rest of the campaign.</p>
+
+<p>More troops having arrived from England, Schomberg marched with his
+augmented army to Lisburn, Drummore, and Loughbrickland. Here the
+Enniskillen Horse joined them, and offered to be the advanced guard of
+the army. The Enniskilleners were a body of irregular horsemen, of
+singularly wild and uncouth appearance. They rode together in a
+confused body, each man being attended by a mounted servant, bearing
+his baggage. The horsemen were each mounted and accoutred after their
+own fashion, without any regular dress, or arms, or mode of attack.
+They only assumed a hasty and confused line when about to rush into
+action. They fell on pell-mell. Yet they were the bravest of the
+brave, and were never deterred from attacking by inequality of
+numbers. They were attended by their favourite preachers, who urged
+them on to deeds of valour, and encouraged them "to purge the land of
+idolatry."</p>
+
+<p>Thus reinforced, Schomberg pushed on to Newry. The Irish were in force
+there, under command of the Duke of Berwick. But although it was a
+very strong place, the Irish abandoned the town, first setting fire to
+it. This news having been brought to Schomberg, he sent a trumpet to
+the Duke of Berwick, acquainting him that if they went on to burn
+towns in that barbarous manner, he would give no quarter. This notice
+seems to have had a good effect, for on quitting Dundalk the
+retreating army did no harm to the town. Schomberg encamped about a
+mile north of Dundalk, in a low, moist ground, where he entrenched his
+army. <span class="pagenum"><a id="page337" name="page337"></a>(p. 337)</span> Count Rosen was then at Drogheda with about twenty
+thousand men, far outnumbering the forces under Schomberg.</p>
+
+<p>About the end of September, King James's army approached the lines of
+Dundalk. They drew up in order of battle. The English officers were
+for attacking the enemy, but Schomberg advised them to refrain. A
+large party of horse appeared within cannon shot, but they made no
+further attempt. In a day or two after James drew off his army to
+Ardee, Count Rosen indignantly exclaiming, "If your Majesty had ten
+kingdoms, you would lose them all." In the meantime, Schomberg
+remained entrenched in his camp. The Enniskilleners nevertheless made
+various excursions, and routed a body of James's troops marching
+towards Sligo.</p>
+
+<p>Great distress fell upon Schomberg's army. The marshy land on which
+they were encamped, the wet and drizzly weather, the scarcity and
+badness of the food, caused a raging sickness to break out. Great
+numbers were swept away by disease. Among the officers who died were
+Sir Edward Deering, of Kent; Colonel Wharton, son of Lord Wharton; Sir
+Thomas Gower and Colonel Hungerford, two young gentlemen of
+distinguished merit. Two thousand soldiers died in the camp. Many
+afterwards perished from cold and hunger. Schomberg at length left the
+camp at Dundalk, and the remains of his army went into winter
+quarters.</p>
+
+<p>Rapin shared all the suffering of the campaign. When the army
+retreated northward, Rapin was sent with a party of soldiers to occupy
+a fortified place between Stranorlar and Donegal. It commanded the
+Pass of Barnes Gap. This is perhaps the most magnificent <span class="pagenum"><a id="page338" name="page338"></a>(p. 338)</span>
+defile in Ireland. It is about four miles long. Huge mountains rise on
+either side. The fortalice occupied by Rapin is now in ruins. It
+stands on a height overlooking the northern end of the pass. It is now
+called Barrack Hill. The Rapparees who lived at the lower end of the
+Gap were accustomed to come down upon the farming population of the
+lowland country on the banks of the rivers Finn and Mourne, and carry
+off all the cattle that they could seize; Rapin was accordingly sent
+with a body of troops to defend the lowland farmers from the
+Rapparees. Besides, it was found necessary to defend the pass against
+the forces of King James, who then occupied Sligo and the neighbouring
+towns, under the command of General Sarsfield.</p>
+
+<p>Schomberg was very much blamed by the English Parliament for having
+effected nothing decisive in Ireland. But what could he do? He had to
+oppose an army more than three times stronger in numbers than his own.
+King William, Rapin says, wrote twice to him, "pressing him to put
+somewhat to the venture." But his army was wasted by disease, and had
+he volunteered an encounter and been defeated, his whole army, and
+consequently all Ireland, would have been lost, for he could not have
+made a regular retreat. "His sure way," says Rapin, "was to preserve
+his army, and that would save Ulster and keep matters entire for
+another year. And therefore, though this conduct of his was blamed by
+some, yet better judges thought that the managing of this campaign as
+he did was one of the greatest parts of his life."</p>
+
+<p>Winter passed. Nothing decisive had been accomplished on either side.
+Part of Ulster was in the <span class="pagenum"><a id="page339" name="page339"></a>(p. 339)</span> hands of William; the remainder of
+Ireland was in the hands of James. Schomberg's army was wasted by
+famine and disease. James made no use of his opportunity to convert
+his athletic peasants into good soldiers. On the contrary, Schomberg
+recruited his old regiments, drilled them constantly, and was ready to
+take the field at the approach of spring.</p>
+
+<p>His first achievement was the capture of Charlemont, midway between
+Armagh and Dungannon. It was one of the strongest forts in the north
+of Ireland. It overlooked the Blackwater, and commanded an important
+pass. It was surrounded by a morass, and approachable only by two
+narrow causeways. When Teague O'Regan, who commanded the fort, was
+summoned to surrender, he replied, "Schomberg is an old rogue, and
+shall not have this castle!" But Caillemotte, with his Huguenot
+regiments, sat down before the fortress, and starved the garrison into
+submission. Captain Francis Rapin, cousin of our hero, was killed
+during the siege.</p>
+
+<p>The armies on both sides were now receiving reinforcements. Louis XIV.
+sent seven thousand two hundred and ninety men of all ranks to the
+help of James, under the command of Count Lauzun. They landed at Cork
+in March, 1689, and marched at once to Dublin. Lauzun described the
+country as a chaos such as he had read of in the Book of Genesis. On
+his arrival at Dublin, Lauzun was appointed Commander-in-Chief of the
+Irish army, and took up his residence in the castle.</p>
+
+<p>On the other hand, Schomberg's forces were recruited by seven thousand
+Danes, under a treaty which William III. had entered into with the
+King of Denmark. New detachments of English and Scotch, <span class="pagenum"><a id="page340" name="page340"></a>(p. 340)</span> of
+Huguenots, Dutch, Flemings, and Brandenburgers, were also added to the
+allied army.</p>
+
+<p>William landed at Carrickfergus on the 14th of June. He passed on to
+Belfast, where he met Schomberg, the Prince of Wurtemberg,
+Major-General Kirk, and other general officers. He then pushed on to
+Lisburn, the head-quarters of his army. He there declared that he
+would not let the grass grow under his feet, but would pursue the war
+with the utmost vigour. He ordered the whole army to assemble at
+Loughbrickland. He found them to consist of sixty-two squadrons of
+cavalry and fifty-two battalions of infantry&mdash;in all, thirty-six
+thousand English, Dutch, French, Danes, and Germans, well appointed in
+every respect. Lieutenant-General Douglas commanded the
+advance-guard&mdash;to which Rapin belonged&mdash;and William III., Schomberg,
+and St. Gravenmore commanded the main body.</p>
+
+<p>William III. had no hesitation in entering at once on the campaign. He
+had been kept too long in London by parliamentary turmoil, by
+intrigues between Whigs and Tories, and sometimes by treachery on both
+sides. But now that he was in the field his spirits returned, and he
+determined to lose not a day in measuring swords with his enemy. He
+had very little time to spare. He must lose or win his crown; though
+his determination was to win. Accordingly he marched southward without
+delay.</p>
+
+<p>William had been in Ireland six days before James knew of his arrival.
+The passes between Newry and Dundalk had been left unguarded&mdash;passes
+where a small body of well-disciplined troops might easily have
+checked the advance of William's army. Dundalk was abandoned. Ardee
+was abandoned. The Irish <span class="pagenum"><a id="page341" name="page341"></a>(p. 341)</span> army were drawn up in a strong
+position on the south of the Boyne to arrest the progress of the
+invading army. James had all the advantages that nature could give
+him. He had a deep river in front, a morass on his left, and the
+narrow bridge of Slane on his right. Behind was a rising ground
+stretching along the whole of the field. In the rear lay the church
+and village of Donore, and the Pass of Duleek. Drogheda lay towards
+the mouth of the river, where the green and white flags of Ireland and
+France were flying, emblazoned with the harp and the lilies.</p>
+
+<p>William never halted until he reached the summit of a rising ground
+overlooking the beautiful valley of the Boyne. It is about the most
+fertile ground in Ireland. As he looked from east to west, William
+said to one of his staff, "Behold a land worth fighting for!" Rapin
+was there, and has told the story of the crossing of the Boyne. He
+says that the forces of King James, lying on the other side of the
+river, amounted to about the same number as those under King William.
+They included more than seven thousand veteran French soldiers. There
+was a splendid body of Irish horse, and about twenty thousand Irish
+foot.</p>
+
+<p>James's officers were opposed to a battle; they wished to wait for the
+large fleet and the additional forces promised by Louis XIV. But James
+resolved to maintain his position, and thought that he might have one
+fair battle for his crown. "But," says Rapin, "notwithstanding all his
+advantages&mdash;the deep river in front, the morass on his right, and the
+rising ground behind him&mdash;he ordered a ship to be prepared for him at
+Waterford, that in case of a defeat he might secure his retreat to
+France."</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page342" name="page342"></a>(p. 342)</span> On the morning of the 30th of June, William ordered his whole
+army to move by break of day by three lines towards the river, about
+three miles distant. The King marched in front. By nine o'clock they
+were within two miles of Drogheda. Observing a hill east of the enemy,
+the King rode up to view the enemy's camp. He found it to lie all
+along the river in two lines. Here he had a long consultation with his
+leading officers. He then rode to the pass at Old Bridge, within
+musket-shot of the ford; next he rode westward, so as to take a full
+view of the enemy's camp. He fixed the place where his batteries were
+to be planted, and decided upon the spot where his army was to cross
+the river on the following day.</p>
+
+<p>The Irish on the other side of the river had not been unobservant of
+the King's movements. They could see him riding up and down the banks,
+for they were not sixty yards apart. The Duke of Berwick, the Viceroy
+Tyrconnel, General Sarsfield, and other officers were carefully
+watching his movements. While the army was marching up the river-side,
+William dismounted and sat down upon a rising ground to partake of
+some refreshments, for he had been on horseback since early dawn.
+During this time a party of Irish horse on the other side brought
+forward two field-pieces through a ploughed field, and planted them
+behind a hedge. They took their sight and fired. The first shot killed
+a man and two horses close by the King. William immediately mounted
+his horse. The second gun was not so well aimed. The shot struck the
+water, but rising <span class="italic">en ricochet</span>, it slanted on the King's right
+shoulder, took a piece out of his coat, and tore the skin and the
+flesh. William rode away stooping in his saddle. The Earl of Coningsby
+put a handkerchief <span class="pagenum"><a id="page343" name="page343"></a>(p. 343)</span> over the wound, but William said "there
+was no necessity, the bullet should have come nearer."</p>
+
+<p>The enemy, seeing the discomfiture of the King's party, and that he
+rode away wounded, spread abroad the news that he was killed. "They
+immediately," says Rapin, "set up a shout all over their camp, and
+drew down several squadrons of their horse upon a plain towards the
+river, as if they meant to pass and pursue the English army. Nay, the
+report of the King's death flew presently to Dublin, and from thence
+spread as far as Paris, where the people were encouraged to express
+their joy by bonfires and illuminations." In the meantime William
+returned to his tent, where he had his wound dressed, and again
+mounted and showed himself to the whole army, in order to dissipate
+their apprehensions. He remained on horseback until nine at night,
+though he had been up since one o'clock in the morning.</p>
+
+<p>William then called a council of war, and declared his resolution of
+forcing the river next day. Schomberg opposed this, but finding the
+King determined, he urged that a strong body of horse and foot should
+be sent to Slane bridge that night, so as to be able to cross the
+bridge and get between the enemy and the Pass of Duleek, which lay
+behind King James's army. This advice, if followed, might perhaps have
+ended the war in one campaign. Such is Rapin's opinion. The proposal
+was, however, rejected; and it was determined to cross the river in
+force on the following morning. William inspected the troops at
+midnight. He rode along the whole army by torchlight, and after giving
+out the password "Westminster," he returned to his tent for a few
+hours' sleep.</p>
+
+<p>The shades of night lay still over that sleeping host. <span class="pagenum"><a id="page344" name="page344"></a>(p. 344)</span> The
+stars looked down in peace on these sixty thousand brethren of the
+same human family, ready to rise with the sun and imbrue their hands
+in each other's blood. Tyrannical factions and warring creeds had set
+them at enmity with each other, and turned the sweetness and joy of
+their nature into gall and bitterness. The night was quiet. The murmur
+of the river fell faintly on the ear. A few trembling lights gleamed
+through the dark from the distant watchtowers of Drogheda. The only
+sounds that rose from the vast host that lay encamped in the valley of
+the Boyne were the challenges of the sentinels to each other as they
+paced their midnight rounds.</p>
+
+<p>The sun rose clear and beautiful. It was the first day of July&mdash;a day
+for ever memorable in the history of Ireland as well as England. The
+<span class="italic">générale</span> was beat in the camp of William before daybreak, and as
+soon as the sun was up the battle began. Lieutenant-General Douglas
+marched towards the right with six battalions of foot, accompanied by
+Count Schomberg (son of the Marshal) with twenty-four squadrons of
+horse. They crossed the river below the bridge of Slane, and though
+opposed by the Irish, they drove them back and pressed them on towards
+Duleek.</p>
+
+<p>When it was supposed that the left wing had crossed the Boyne, the
+Dutch Blue Guards, beating a march till they reached the river's edge,
+went in eight or ten abreast, the water reaching above their girdles.
+When they had gained the centre of the stream they were saluted with a
+tremendous fire from the Irish foot, protected by the breastworks,
+lanes, and hedges on the farther side of the river. Nevertheless they
+pushed on, formed in two lines, and drove the Irish before them.
+Several Irish battalions were brought to bear upon <span class="pagenum"><a id="page345" name="page345"></a>(p. 345)</span> them, but
+without effect. Then a body of Irish cavalry assailed them, but still
+they held their ground.</p>
+
+<p>William, seeing his troops hardly pressed, sent across two Huguenot
+regiments and one English regiment to their assistance. But a regiment
+of Irish dragoons, at the moment of their reaching the shore, fell
+upon their flank, broke their ranks, and put many of them to the
+sword. Colonel Caillemotte, leader of the Huguenots, received a mortal
+wound. He was laid on a litter and carried to the rear. As he met his
+men coming up to the help of their comrades, he called out, "A la
+gloire, mes enfants! à la gloire!" A squadron of Danish horse forded
+the river, but the Irish dragoons, in one of their dashing charges,
+broke and defeated them, and drove them across the river in great
+confusion.</p>
+
+<p>Duke Schomberg, who was in command of the centre, seeing that the day
+was going against King William, and that the French Huguenots were
+fighting without their leader, crossed the river and put himself at
+their head. Pointing to the Frenchmen in James's ranks, he cried out
+to his men, "Allons, messieurs, voilà vos persécuteurs!" The words
+were scarcely out of his mouth when a troop of James's guards,
+returning full speed to their main body, fell furiously upon the Duke
+and inflicted two sword cuts upon his head. The regiment of Cambon
+began at once to fire upon the enemy, but by a miss shot they hit the
+Duke. "They shot the Duke," says Rapin, "through the neck, of which he
+instantly died, and M. Foubert, alighting to receive him, was shot in
+the arm."</p>
+
+<p>The critical moment had arrived. The centre of William's army was in
+confusion. Their leaders, Schomberg and Caillemotte, were killed. The
+men were waiting for orders. They were exposed to the <span class="pagenum"><a id="page346" name="page346"></a>(p. 346)</span>
+galling fire of the Irish infantry and cavalry. King James was in the
+rear on the hill of Dunmore surrounded by his French body-guard. He
+was looking down upon the field of battle, viewing now here, now
+there. It is even said that when he saw the Irish dragoons routing the
+cavalry and riding down the broken infantry of William, he exclaimed,
+"Spare! oh, spare my English subjects!"</p>
+
+<p>The firing had now lasted uninterruptedly for more than an hour, when
+William seized the opportunity of turning the tide of battle against
+his spiritless adversary. Putting himself at the head of the left
+wing, he crossed the Boyne by a dangerous and difficult ford a little
+lower down the river; his cavalry for the most part swimming across
+the tide. The ford had been left unguarded, and the whole soon reached
+the opposite bank in safety. But even there the horse which William
+rode sank in a bog, and he was forced to alight until the horse was
+got out. He was helped to remount, for the wound in his shoulder was
+very painful. So soon as the troops were got into sufficient order,
+William drew his sword, though his wound made it uneasy for him to
+wield it. He then marched on towards the enemy.</p>
+
+<p>When the Irish saw themselves menaced by William's left wing, they
+halted, and retired towards Dunmore. But gaining courage, they faced
+about and fell upon the English horse. They gave way. The King then
+rode up to the Enniskilleners, and asked, "What they would do for
+him?" Not knowing him, the men were about to shoot him, thinking him
+to be one of the enemy. But when their chief officer told them that it
+was the King who wanted their help, they at once declared their
+intention of following him. They <span class="pagenum"><a id="page347" name="page347"></a>(p. 347)</span> marched forward and
+received the enemy's fire. The Dutch troops came up, at the head of
+whom William placed himself. "In this place," says Rapin, "Duke
+Schomberg's regiment of horse, composed of French Protestants, and
+strengthened by an unusual number of officers, behaved with undaunted
+resolution, like men who fought for a nation amongst whom themselves
+and their friends had found shelter against the persecution of
+France."</p>
+
+<p>Ginckel's troops now arrived on the scene; but they were overpowered
+by the Irish horse, and forced to give way. Sir Albert Cunningham's
+and Colonel Levison's dragoons then came up, and enabled Ginckel's
+troops to rally; and the Irish were driven up the hill, after an
+hour's hard fighting. James's lieutenant-general, Hamilton, was taken
+prisoner and brought before the King. He was asked "Whether the Irish
+would fight any more?" "Yes," he answered; "upon my honour I believe
+they will." The Irish slowly gave way, their dragoons charging again
+and again, to cover the retreat of the foot. At Dunmore they made a
+gallant stand, driving back the troops of William several times. The
+farmstead of Sheephouse was taken and retaken again and again.</p>
+
+<p>At last the Irish troops slowly retreated up the hill. The French
+troops had scarcely been engaged. Sarsfield implored James to put
+himself at their head, and make a last fight for his crown. Six
+thousand fresh men coming into action, when the army of William was
+exhausted by fatigue, might have changed the fortune of the day. But
+James would not face the enemy. He put himself at the head of the
+French troops and Sarsfield's regiment&mdash;the first occasion on which he
+had led during the day&mdash;and set out for <span class="pagenum"><a id="page348" name="page348"></a>(p. 348)</span> Dublin, leaving the
+rest of his army to shift for themselves.</p>
+
+<p>The Irish army now poured through the Pass of Duleek. They were
+pursued by Count Schomberg at the head of the left wing of William's
+army. The pursuit lasted several miles beyond the village of Duleek,
+when the Count was recalled by express orders of the King. The Irish
+army retreated in good order, and they reached Dublin in safety. James
+was the first to carry thither the news of his defeat. On reaching
+Dublin Castle, he was received by Lady Tyrconnel, the wife of the
+Viceroy. "Madam," said he, "your countrymen can run well." "Not quite
+so well as your Majesty," was her retort, "for I see that you have won
+the race."</p>
+
+<p>The opinion of the Irish soldiers may be understood from their saying,
+after their defeat, "Change generals, and we will fight the battle
+over again." "James had no royal quality about him," says an able
+Catholic historian; "nature had made him a coward, a monk, and a
+gourmand; and, in spite of the freak of fortune that had placed him on
+a throne, and seemed inclined to keep him there, she vindicated her
+authority, and dropped him ultimately in the niche that suited him&mdash;</p>
+
+<p class="poem">
+  'The meanest slave of France's despot lord.'"</p>
+
+<p>William halted on the field that James had occupied in the morning.
+The troops remained under arms all night. The loss of life was not so
+great as was expected. On William's side not more than four hundred
+men were killed; but amongst them were Duke Schomberg, Colonel
+Caillemotte, and Dr. George Walker, the defender of Derry. "King
+James's whole loss in this battle," says Rapin, "was generally
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page349" name="page349"></a>(p. 349)</span> computed at fifteen hundred men, amongst whom were the Lord
+Dungan, the Lord Carlingford, Sir Neil O'Neil, Colonel Fitzgerald, the
+Marquis d'Hocquincourt, and several prisoners, the chief of whom was
+Lieutenant-General Hamilton, who, to do him justice, behaved with
+great courage, and kept the victory doubtful, until he was taken
+prisoner."</p>
+
+<p>On the following day Drogheda surrendered without resistance. The
+garrison laid down their arms, and departed for Athlone. James stayed
+at Dublin for a night, and on the following morning he started for
+Waterford, causing the bridges to be broken down behind him, for fear
+of being pursued by the allied forces. He then embarked on a
+ship-of-war, and was again conveyed to France.</p>
+
+<p>William's army proceeded slowly to Dublin. The Duke of Ormond entered
+the city two days after the battle of the Boyne, at the head of nine
+troops of horse. On the next day the King, with his whole army,
+marched to Finglas, in the neighbourhood of Dublin; and on the 6th of
+July he entered the city, and proceeded to St. Patrick's Church, to
+return thanks for his victory.</p>
+
+<p>The whole of the Irish army proceeded towards Athlone and Limerick,
+intending to carry on the war behind the Shannon. William sent a body
+of his troops, under Lieutenant-General Douglas, to Athlone, while he
+himself proceeded to reduce and occupy the towns of the South. Rapin
+followed his leader, and hence his next appearance at the siege of
+Athlone.</p>
+
+<p>Rapin conducted himself throughout the Irish campaign as a true
+soldier. He was attentive, accurate, skilful, and brave. He did the
+work he had to do without any fuss; but he <span class="italic">did</span> it.
+Lieutenant-General <span class="pagenum"><a id="page350" name="page350"></a>(p. 350)</span> Douglas, under whom he served, soon
+ascertained his merits, saw through his character, and became much
+attached to him. He promoted him to the rank of aide-de-camp, so that
+he might have this able Frenchman continually about his person.</p>
+
+<p>Douglas proceeded westward, with six regiments of horse and ten of
+foot, to reduce Athlone. But the place was by far too strong for so
+small a force to besiege, and still less to take it. Athlone had
+always been a stronghold. For centuries the bridge and castle had
+formed the great highway into Connaught. The Irish town is defended on
+the eastern side by the Shannon, a deep and wide river, almost
+impossible to pass in the face of a hostile army.</p>
+
+<p>Douglas summoned the Irish garrison to surrender. Colonel Richard
+Grace, the gallant old governor, returned a passionate defiance.
+"These are my terms," he said, discharging a pistol at the messenger:
+"when my provisions are consumed, I will defend my trust until I have
+eaten my boots."</p>
+
+<p>Abandoning as indefensible the English part of the town, situated on
+the east side of the Shannon, Grace set fire to it, and retired with
+all his forces to the western side, blowing up an arch of the bridge
+behind him. The English then brought up the few cannon they had with
+them, and commenced battering the walls. The Irish had more cannon,
+and defended themselves with vigour. The besiegers made a breach in
+the castle, but it was too high and too small for an assault.
+"Notwithstanding this," says Rapin, "the firing continued very brisk
+on both sides; but the besiegers having lost Mr. Neilson, their best
+gunner, and the cavalry suffering very much for want of forage; and at
+the same time it being reported that Sarsfield <span class="pagenum"><a id="page351" name="page351"></a>(p. 351)</span> was advancing
+with fifteen thousand men to relieve the place, Douglas held a council
+of war, wherein it was thought fit to raise the siege, which he
+accordingly did on the 25th, having lost near four hundred men before
+the town, the greatest part of whom died of sickness."</p>
+
+<p>Thus, after a week's ineffectual siege, Douglas left Athlone, and made
+all haste to rejoin the army of William, which had already reduced the
+most important towns in the south of Ireland. On the 7th of August he
+rejoined William at Cahirconlish, a few miles west of Limerick. The
+flower of the Irish army was assembled at Limerick. The Duke of
+Berwick and General Sarsfield occupied the city with their forces. The
+French general, Boileau, commanded the garrison. The besieged were
+almost as numerous as the besiegers. William, by garrisoning the towns
+of which he took possession, had reduced his forces to about twenty
+thousand men.</p>
+
+<p>Limerick was fortified by walls, batteries, and ramparts. It was also
+defended by a castle and citadel. It had always been a place of great
+strength. The chivalry of the Anglo-Norman monarch, the Ironsides of
+Cromwell, had been defeated under its walls; and now the victorious
+army of William III. was destined to meet with a similar repulse.</p>
+
+<p>Limerick is situated in an extensive plain, watered by the noble
+Shannon. The river surrounds the town on three sides. Like Athlone,
+the city is divided into the English and Irish towns, connected
+together by a bridge. The English town was much the strongest. It was
+built upon an island, surrounded by morasses, which could at any time
+be flooded on the approach of an enemy. The town was well supplied
+with provisions&mdash;all <span class="pagenum"><a id="page352" name="page352"></a>(p. 352)</span> Clare and Galway being open to it, from
+whence it could draw supplies.</p>
+
+<p>Notwithstanding the strength of the fortress, William resolved to
+besiege it. He was ill supplied with cannon, having left his heavy
+artillery at Dublin. He had only a field train with him, which was
+quite insufficient for his purpose. William's advance-guards drove the
+Irish outposts before them; the pioneers cutting down the hedges and
+filling up the ditches, until they came to a narrow pass between two
+bogs, where a considerable body of Irish horse and foot were assembled
+to dispute the pass.</p>
+
+<p>Two field-pieces were brought up, which played with such effect upon
+the Irish horse that they soon quitted their post. At the same time
+Colonel Earle, at the head of the English foot, attacked the Irish who
+were firing through the hedges, so that they also retired after two
+hours' fighting. The Irish were driven to the town walls, and
+William's forces took possession of two important positions,
+Cromwell's fort and the old Chapel. The Danes also occupied an old
+Danish fort, built by their ancestors, of which they were not a little
+proud.</p>
+
+<p>The army being thus posted, a trumpeter was sent, on the 9th of
+August, to summon the garrison to surrender. General Boileau answered,
+that he intended to make a vigorous defence of the town with which his
+Majesty had intrusted him. In the meantime, William had ordered up his
+train of artillery from Dublin. They were on their way to join him,
+when a spy from William's camp went over to the enemy, and informed
+them of the route, the motions, and the strength of the convoy.
+Sarsfield at once set out with a strong body of horse. He passed the
+Shannon in the <span class="pagenum"><a id="page353" name="page353"></a>(p. 353)</span> night, nine miles above Limerick, lurked all
+day in the mountains near Ballyneety, and waited for the approach of
+the convoy.</p>
+
+<p>The men of William's artillery, seeing no enemy, turned out their
+horses to graze, and went to sleep in the full sense of security.
+Sarsfield's body of horse came down upon them, slew or dispersed the
+convoy, and took possession of the cannon. Sarsfield could not,
+however, take the prizes into Limerick. He therefore endeavoured to
+destroy them. Cramming the guns with powder up to their muzzles, and
+burying their mouths deep in the earth, then piling the stores,
+waggons, carriages, and baggage over them, he laid a train and fired
+it, just as Sir John Lanier, with a body of cavalry, was arriving to
+rescue the convoy. The explosion was tremendous, and was heard at the
+camp of William, more than seven miles off. Sarsfield's troops
+returned to Limerick in triumph.</p>
+
+<p>Notwithstanding these grievous discouragements, William resolved to
+persevere. He recovered two of the guns, which remained uninjured. He
+obtained others from Waterford. The trenches were opened on the 17th
+of August. A battery was raised below the fort to the right of the
+trenches. Firing went on on both sides. Several redoubts were taken.
+By the 25th, the trenches were advanced to within thirty paces of the
+ditch near St. John's Gate, and a breach was made in the walls about
+twelve yards wide.</p>
+
+<p>The assault was ordered to take place on the 27th. The English
+grenadiers took the lead, supported by a hundred French officers and
+volunteers. The enemy were dislodged from the covered way and the two
+forts which guarded the breach on each side. The assailants entered
+the breach, but they were not sufficiently <span class="pagenum"><a id="page354" name="page354"></a>(p. 354)</span> supported. The
+Irish rallied. They returned to the charge, helped by the women, who
+pelted the besiegers with stones, broken bottles, and such other
+missiles as came readily to hand. A Brandenburg regiment having
+assailed and taken the Black Battery, it was blown up by an explosion,
+which killed many of the men. In fine, the assault was vigorously
+repulsed; and William's troops retreated to the main body, with a loss
+of six hundred men killed on the spot and as many mortally wounded.</p>
+
+<p>Rapin was severely wounded. A musket shot hit him in the shoulder, and
+completely disabled him. His brother Solomon was also wounded. His
+younger brother fell dead by his side. They belonged to the "forlorn
+hope," and were volunteers in the assault on the breach. Rapin was
+raised to the rank of captain.</p>
+
+<p>The siege of Limerick was at once raised. The heavy baggage and cannon
+were sent away on the 30th of August, and the next day the army
+decamped and marched towards Clonmel. The King intrusted the command
+of his army to Lieutenant-General Ginckel, and set sail for England
+from Duncannon Fort, near Waterford, on the 5th of September.</p>
+
+<p>The campaign was not yet over. The Earl of Marlborough landed near
+Cork with four thousand men. Reinforced by four thousand Danes and
+French Huguenots, he shortly succeeded in taking the fortified towns
+of Cork and Kinsale. After garrisoning these places the Earl returned
+to England.</p>
+
+<p>General Ginckel went into winter quarters at Mullingar, in Westmeath.
+The French troops, under command of Count Lauzun, went into Galway.
+Lauzun shortly after returned to France, and St. Ruth was sent over to
+take command of the French and Irish army. <span class="pagenum"><a id="page355" name="page355"></a>(p. 355)</span> But they hung
+about Galway doing nothing. In the meantime Ginckel was carefully
+preparing for the renewal of the campaign. He was reinforced by an
+excellent body of troops from Scotland, commanded by General Mackay.
+He was also well supplied, through the vigilance of William, with all
+the necessaries of war.</p>
+
+<p>Rapin's friend, Colonel Lord Douglas, pressed him to accompany him to
+Flanders as his aide-de-camp; but the wound in his shoulder still
+caused him great pain, and he was forced to decline the appointment.
+Strange to say, his uncle Pélisson&mdash;the converter, or rather the
+buyer, of so many Romish converts in France&mdash;sent him a present of
+fifty pistoles through his cousin M. de la Bastide, which consoled him
+greatly during his recovery.</p>
+
+<p>General Ginckel broke up his camp at Mullingar at the beginning of
+June, and marched towards Athlone. The Irish had assembled a
+considerable army at Ballymore, about midway between Mullingar and
+Athlone. They had also built a fort there, and intended to dispute the
+passage of Ginckel's army. A sharp engagement took place when his
+forces came up. The Irish were defeated, with the loss of over a
+thousand prisoners and all their baggage.</p>
+
+<p>Ginckel then appeared before Athlone, but the second resistance of the
+besieged was much less successful than the first. St. Ruth, the French
+general, treated the Irish officers and soldiers under his command
+with supercilious contempt. He admitted none of their officers into
+his councils. He was as ignorant of the army which he commanded as of
+the country which he occupied. Nor was he a great general. He had been
+principally occupied in France in hunting and hanging the poor
+Protestants of Dauphiny and the Cevennes. He had never fought a
+pitched battle; <span class="pagenum"><a id="page356" name="page356"></a>(p. 356)</span> and his incapacity led to the defeat of the
+Irish at Athlone, and afterwards at Aughrim.</p>
+
+<p>St. Ruth treated his English adversaries with as much contempt as he
+did his Irish followers. When he heard that the English were about to
+cross the Shannon, he said "it was impossible for them to take the
+town, and be so near with an army to succour it." He added that he
+would give a thousand louis if they <span class="italic">durst</span> attempt it. To which
+Sarsfield retorted, "Spare your money and mind your business; for I
+know that no enterprise is too difficult for British courage to
+attempt."</p>
+
+<p>Ginckel took possession of the English town after some resistance,
+when the Irish army retreated to the other side of the Shannon.
+Batteries were planted, pontoons were brought up, and the siege began
+with vigour. Ginckel attempted to get possession of the bridge. One of
+the arches was broken down, on the Connaught side of the river. Under
+cover of a heavy fire, a party of Ginckel's men succeeded in raising a
+plank-work for the purpose of spanning the broken arch. The work was
+nearly completed, when a sergeant and ten bold Scots belonging to
+Maxwell's Brigade on the Irish side, pushed on to the bridge; but they
+were all slain. A second brave party was more successful than the
+first. They succeeded in throwing all the planks and beams into the
+river, only two men escaping with their lives.</p>
+
+<p>Ginckel then attempted to repair the broken arch by carrying a close
+gallery on the bridge, in order to fill up the gap with heavy planks.
+All was ready, and an assault was ordered for next day. It was
+resolved to cross the Shannon in three places&mdash;one body to cross by
+the narrow ford below the bridge, another by the pontoons above it,
+while the main body was to force <span class="pagenum"><a id="page357" name="page357"></a>(p. 357)</span> the bridge itself. On the
+morning of the intended crossing, the Irish sent a volley of grenades
+among the wooden work of the bridge, when some of the fascines took
+fire, and the whole fabric was soon in a blaze. The smoke blew into
+the faces of the English, and it was found impossible to cross the
+river that day.</p>
+
+<p>A council of war was held, to debate whether it was advisable to renew
+the attack or to raise the siege and retreat. The cannonade had now
+continued for eight days, and nothing had been gained. Some of the
+officers were for withdrawing, but the majority were in favour of
+making a general assault on the following day&mdash;seeing more danger in
+retreating than in advancing. The Duke of Wurtemberg, Major-Generals
+Mackay, Talmash, Ruvigny, Tetleau, and Colonel Cambon urged "that no
+brave action could be performed without hazard; and that the attempt
+was like to be attended with success." Moreover, they proffered
+themselves to be the first to pass the river and attack the enemy.</p>
+
+<p>The assault was therefore agreed upon. The river was then at the
+lowest state at which it had been for years. Next morning, at six
+o'clock&mdash;the usual hour for relieving guards&mdash;the detachments were led
+down to the river. Captain Sands led the first party of sixty
+grenadiers. They were supported by another strong detachment of
+grenadiers and six battalions of foot. They went into the water twenty
+abreast, clad in armour, and pushed across the ford a little below the
+bridge. The stream was very rapid, and the passage difficult, by
+reason of the great stones which lay at the bottom of the river. The
+guns played over them from the batteries and covered their passage.
+The grenadiers reached the other side amidst the fire and smoke of
+their enemies. They held their ground and <span class="pagenum"><a id="page358" name="page358"></a>(p. 358)</span> made for the
+bridge. Some of them laid planks over the broken arch, and others
+helped at preparing the pontoons. Thus the whole of the English army
+were able to cross to the Irish side of the river. In less than half
+an hour they were masters of the town. The Irish were entirely
+surprised. They fled in all directions, and lost many men. The
+besiegers did not lose above fifty.</p>
+
+<p>St. Ruth, the Irish commander-in-chief, seemed completely idle during
+the assault. It is true he ordered several detachments to drive the
+English from the town after it had been taken; but, remembering that
+the fortifications of Athlone, nearest to his camp, had not been
+razed, and that they were now in possession of the enemy, he recalled
+his troops, and decamped from before Athlone that very night. In a few
+days Ginckel followed him, and inflicted on his army a terrible defeat
+at the battle of Aughrim. With that, however, we have nothing to do at
+present, but proceed to follow the fortunes of Rapin.</p>
+
+<p>Rapin entered Athlone with his regiment, and conducted himself with
+his usual valour. Ginckel remained only a few days in the place, in
+order to repair the fortifications. That done, he set out in pursuit
+of the enemy. He left two regiments in the castle, one of which was
+that to which Rapin belonged. The soldiers, who belonged to different
+nationalities, had many contentions with each other. The officers
+stood upon their order of precedence. The men were disposed to
+quarrel. Aided by a friend, a captain like himself, Rapin endeavoured
+to pacify the men, and to bring the officers to reason. By his kind,
+gentle, and conciliatory manner, he soon succeeded in restoring quiet
+and mutual confidence; and during his stay at Athlone no further
+disturbance occurred among the garrison.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page359" name="page359"></a>(p. 359)</span> Rapin was ordered to Kilkenny, where he had a similar
+opportunity of displaying his qualities of conciliation. A quarrel had
+sprung up between the chief magistrate of the town and the officers of
+the garrison. Rapin interceded, and by his firmness and moderation he
+reconciled all differences; and, at the same time, he gained the
+respect and admiration of both the disputing parties.</p>
+
+<p>By this time the second siege of Limerick had occurred. Ginckel
+surrounded the city, and battered the walls and fortresses for six
+weeks. The French and Irish armies at length surrendered. Fourteen
+thousand Irish marched out with the honours of war. A large proportion
+of them joined the army of Louis XIV., and were long after known as
+"The Irish Brigade." Although they fought valiantly and honourably in
+many well-known battles, they were first employed in Louis'
+persecution of the Protestants in the Vaudois and Cevennes mountains.
+Their first encounter was with the Camisards, under Cavalier, their
+peasant leader. They gained no glory in that campaign, but a good deal
+of discredit.</p>
+
+<p>In the meantime Ireland had been restored to peace. After the
+surrender of Limerick no further resistance was offered to the arms of
+William III. A considerable body of English troops remained in Ireland
+to garrison the fortresses. Rapin's regiment was stationed at Kinsale,
+and there he rejoined it in 1693. He made the intimate friendship of
+Sir James Waller, the governor of the town. Sir James was a man of
+much intelligence, a keen observer, and an ardent student. By his
+knowledge of political history, he inspired Rapin with a like taste,
+and determined him at a later period in his life to undertake what was
+a real want <span class="pagenum"><a id="page360" name="page360"></a>(p. 360)</span> at the time, an intelligent and readable history
+of England.</p>
+
+<p>Rapin was suddenly recalled to England. He was required to leave his
+regiment and report himself to King William. No reason was given; but
+with his usual obedience to orders he at once set out. He did not
+leave Ireland without regret. He was attached to his numerous Huguenot
+comrades, and he hoped yet to rise to higher guides in the King's
+service. By special favour he was allowed to hand over his company to
+his brother Solomon, who had been wounded at the first siege of
+Limerick. His brother received the promotion which he himself had
+deserved, and afterwards became lieutenant-colonel of dragoons.
+Rapin's fortune led him in quite another direction.</p>
+
+<p>It turned out that, by the recommendation of the Earl of Galway
+(formerly the Marquis de Ruvigny, another French Huguenot), he had
+been recalled to London for the purpose of being appointed governor
+and tutor to Lord Woodstock, son of Bentinck, Earl of Portland, one of
+King William's most devoted servants. Lord Galway was consulted by the
+King as to the best tutor for the son of his friend. He knew of
+Rapin's valour and courage during his campaigns in Ireland; he also
+knew of his discretion, his firmness, and his conciliatory manners, in
+reconciling the men under his charge at Athlone and Kilkenny; and he
+was also satisfied about his thoughtfulness, his delicacy of spirit,
+his grace and his nobleness&mdash;for he had been bred a noble, though he
+had first served as a common soldier in the army of William.</p>
+
+<p>The King immediately approved the recommendation of Lord Galway. He
+knew of Rapin's courage at the battle of the Boyne; and he
+remembered&mdash;as every <span class="pagenum"><a id="page361" name="page361"></a>(p. 361)</span> true captain does remember&mdash;the serious
+wound he had received while accompanying the forlorn hope at the first
+siege of Limerick. Hence the sudden recall of Rapin from Ireland. On
+his arrival in London he was presented to the King, and immediately
+after he entered upon his new function of conducting the education of
+the future Duke of Portland.</p>
+
+<p>Henry, Lord Woodstock, was then about fifteen. Being of delicate
+health, he had hitherto been the object of his father's tender care,
+and it was not without considerable regret that Lord Portland yielded
+to the request of the King and handed over his son to the government
+of M. Rapin. Though of considerable intelligence, the powers of his
+heart were greater than those of his head. Thus Rapin had no
+difficulty in acquiring the esteem and affection of his pupil.</p>
+
+<p>Portland House was then the resort of the most eminent men of the Whig
+party, through whose patriotic assistance the constitution of England
+was placed in the position which it now occupies. Rapin was introduced
+by Lord Woodstock to his friends. Having already mastered the English
+language, he had no difficulty in understanding the conflicting
+opinions of the times. He saw history developing itself before his
+eyes. He heard with his ears the discussions which eventuated in Acts
+of Parliament, confirming the liberties of the English people, the
+liberty of speech, the liberty of writing, the liberty of doing,
+within the limits of the common law.</p>
+
+<p>All this was of great importance to Rapin. It prepared him for writing
+his afterwards famous works, his "History of England," and his
+Dissertation on the Whigs and Tories. Rapin was not only a man of
+great accomplishments, but he had a remarkable aptitude for <span class="pagenum"><a id="page362" name="page362"></a>(p. 362)</span>
+languages. He knew French and English, as well as Italian, Spanish,
+and German. He had an extraordinary memory, and a continuous
+application and perseverance, which enabled him to suck the contents
+of many volumes, and to bring out the facts in future years during the
+preparation of his works. His memory seems to have been of the same
+order as that of Lord Macaulay, who afterwards made use of his works,
+and complimented his predecessor as to their value.</p>
+
+<p>According to the custom of those days, the time arrived when Rapin was
+required to make "the grand tour" with his pupil and friend, Lord
+Woodstock. This was considered the complement of English education
+amongst the highest classes. It was thought necessary that young
+noblemen should come in contact with foreigners, and observe the
+manners and customs of other countries besides their own; and that
+thus they might acquire a sort of cosmopolitan education. Archbishop
+Leighton even considered a journey of this sort as a condition of
+moral perfection. He quoted the words of the Latin poet: "Homo sum, et
+nihil hominem à me alienum puto."</p>
+
+<p>No one could be better fitted than Rapin to accompany the young lord
+on his foreign travels. They went to Holland, Germany, France, Spain,
+and Italy. Rapin diligently improved himself, while instructing his
+friend. He taught him the languages of the countries through which
+they passed; he rendered him familiar with Greek and Latin; he
+rendered him familiar with the principles of mathematics. He also
+studied with him the destinies of peoples and of kings, and pointed
+out to him the Divine will accomplishing itself amidst the destruction
+of empires. Withal he sought to penetrate the young soul of the friend
+committed <span class="pagenum"><a id="page363" name="page363"></a>(p. 363)</span> to his charge with that firmness of belief and
+piety of sentiment which pervaded his own.</p>
+
+<p>It was while in Italy that the Earl of Portland, at the instigation of
+Rapin, requested copies to be made for him of the rarest and most
+precious medals in point of historic interest; and also to purchase
+for him objects of ancient workmanship. Hence Rapin was able to secure
+for him the <span class="italic">Portland Vase</span>, now in the British Museum, one of the
+most exquisite products of Roman and Etruscan ceramic art.</p>
+
+<p>In 1699, the Earl of Portland was sent by William III. as ambassador
+to the court of Louis XIV., in connection with the negotiations as to
+the Spanish succession. Lord Woodstock attended the embassy, and Rapin
+accompanied him. They were entertained at Versailles. Persecution was
+still going on in France, although about eight hundred thousand
+persons had already left the country. Rapin at one time thought of
+leaving Lord Woodstock for a few days, and making a rapid journey
+south to visit his friends near Toulouse. But the thought of being
+made a prisoner and sent to the galleys for life stayed him, and he
+remained at Versailles until the return of the embassy.</p>
+
+<p>Rapin remained with Lord Woodstock for thirteen years. In the meantime
+he had married, at the Hague, Marie Anne Testart, a refugee from
+Saint-Quentin. Jean Rou describes her as a true helpmeet for him,
+young, beautiful, rich, and withal virtuous, and of the most pleasing
+and gentle temper in the world. Her riches, however, were not great.
+She had merely, like Rapin, rescued some portion of her heritage from
+the devouring claws of her persecutors. Rapin accumulated very little
+capital during his tutorship of Lord Woodstock; but to compensate him,
+the King granted <span class="pagenum"><a id="page364" name="page364"></a>(p. 364)</span> him a pension of £100 a year, payable by
+the States of Holland, until he could secure some better income.</p>
+
+<p>Rapin lived for some time at the Hague. While there he joined a
+society of learned French refugees. Among them were Rotolf de la
+Denèse, Basnage de Beauval, and Jean Rou, secretary to the
+States-General. One of the objects of the little academy was to
+translate the Psalms anew into French verse; but before the version
+was completed, Rapin was under the necessity of leaving the Hague.
+William III., his patron, died in 1701, when his pension was stopped.
+He was promised some remunerative employment, but he was forgotten
+amidst the press of applicants.</p>
+
+<p>At length he removed to the little town of Wesel, on the Lower Rhine,
+in the beginning of May, 1707. He had a wife and four children to
+maintain, and living was much more reasonable at Wesel than at the
+Hague. His wife's modest fortune enabled him to live there to the end
+of his days. Wesel was also a resort of the French refugees&mdash;persons
+of learning and taste, though of small means. It was at his modest
+retreat at Wesel that Rapin began to arrange the immense mass of
+documents which he had been accumulating during so many years,
+relating to the history of England. The first work which he published
+was "A Dissertation on the Origin and Nature of the English
+Constitution." It met with great success, and went through many
+editions, besides being translated into nearly all the continental
+languages.</p>
+
+<p>He next proceeded with his great work, "The History of England."
+During his residence in Ireland and England, he had read with great
+interest all books relating to the early history of the Government of
+England. He began with, the history of England after <span class="pagenum"><a id="page365" name="page365"></a>(p. 365)</span> the
+Norman Conquest; but he found that he must begin at the beginning. He
+studied the history of the Anglo-Saxons, but found it "like a vast
+forest, where the traveller, with great difficulty, finds a few narrow
+paths to guide his wandering steps. It was this, however, that
+inspired him with the design of clearing this part of the English
+history, by removing the rubbish, and carrying on the thread so as to
+give, at least, a general knowledge of the earlier history." Then he
+went back to Julius Cæsar's account of his invasion of Britain, for
+the purpose of showing how the Saxons came to send troops into this
+country, and now the conquest which had cost them so much was at last
+abandoned by the Romans. He then proceeded, during his residence in
+England, with his work of reading and writing; but when he came to the
+reign of Henry II. he was about to relinquish his undertaking, when an
+unexpected assistance not only induced him to continue it, but to
+project a much larger history of England than he had at first
+intended.</p>
+
+<p>This unexpected assistance was the publication of Rymer's "F&oelig;dera,"
+at the expense of the British Government. The volumes as they came out
+were sent to Rapin by Le Clerc (another refugee), a friend of Lord
+Halifax, who was one of the principal promoters of the publication.
+This book was of infinite value to Rapin in enabling him to proceed
+with his history. He prepared abstracts of seventeen volumes (now in
+the Cottonian collection), to show the relation of the acts narrated
+in Rymer's "F&oelig;dera" to the history of England. He was also able to
+compare the facts stated by English historians with, those of the
+neighbouring states, whether they were written in Latin, French,
+Italian, or Spanish.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page366" name="page366"></a>(p. 366)</span> The work was accomplished with great labour. It occupied
+seventeen years of Rapin's life. The work was published at intervals.
+The first two volumes appeared in November, 1723. During the following
+year six more volumes were published. The ninth and tenth volumes were
+left in manuscript ready for the press. They ended with the coronation
+of William and Mary at Westminster. Besides, he left a large number of
+MSS., which were made use of by the editor of the continuation of
+Rapin's history.</p>
+
+<p>Rapin died at Wesel in 1725, at the age of sixty-four. His work, the
+cause of his fatal illness, was almost his only pleasure. He was worn
+out by hard study and sedentary confinement, and at last death came to
+his rescue. He had struggled all his life against persecution; against
+the difficulties of exile; against the enemy; and though he did not
+die on the field of battle, he died on the breach pen in hand, in work
+and duty, striving to commemorate the independence through which a
+noble people had worked their way to ultimate freedom and liberty. The
+following epitaph was inscribed over his grave:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p class="poem30">
+  "Ici le casque et la science,<br>
+  L'esprit vif, la solidité,<br>
+  La politesse et la sincérité<br>
+  Ont fait une heureuse alliance,<br>
+  Dont le public a profité."</p>
+
+<p>The first edition of Rapin's history, consisting of ten volumes, was
+published at the Hague by Rogessart. The Rev. David Durand added two
+more volumes to the second edition, principally compiled from the
+memoranda left by Rapin at his death. The twelfth volume concluded the
+reign of William III.</p>
+
+<p>The fourth edition appeared in 1733. Being originally composed and
+published in French, the work was <span class="pagenum"><a id="page367" name="page367"></a>(p. 367)</span> translated into English by
+Mr. N. Tindal, who added numerous notes. Two editions wore published
+simultaneously in London, and a third translation was published some
+sixty years later. The book was attacked by the Jacobite authors, who
+defended the Stuart party against the statements of the author. In
+those fanatical times impartiality was nothing to them. A man must be
+emphatically for the Stuarts, or against them. Yet the work of Rapin
+held its ground, and it long continued to be regarded as the best
+history that had up to that time been written.</p>
+
+<p>The Rapin family are now scattered over the world. Some remain in
+Holland, some have settled in Switzerland, some have returned to
+France, but the greater number are Prussian subjects. James, the only
+son of Rapin, studied at Cleves, then at Antwerp, and at thirty-one he
+was appointed to the important office of Director of the French
+Colonies at Stettin and Stargardt. Charles, Rapin's eldest brother,
+was a captain of infantry in the service of Prussia. Two sons of Louis
+de Rapin were killed in the battles of Smolensko and Leipsic.</p>
+
+<p>Many of the Rapins attained high positions in the military service of
+Prussia. Colonel Philip de Rapin-Thoyras was the head of the family in
+Prussia. He was with the Allied Army in their war of deliverance
+against France in the years 1813, 1814, and 1815. He was consequently
+decorated with the Cross and the Military Medal for his long and
+valued services to the country of his adoption.</p>
+
+<p>The handsome volume by Raoul de Cazenove, entitled "Rapin-Thoyras, sa
+Famille, sa Vie, et ses &OElig;uvres," to which we are indebted for much
+of the above information, is dedicated to this distinguished military
+chief.<a href="#toc"><span class="small">[Back to Contents]</span></a></p>
+
+
+<h3><span class="pagenum"><a id="page368" name="page368"></a>(p. 368)</span> III.</h3>
+
+<p class="title">CAPTAIN RIOU, R.N.</p>
+
+<p class="poem30">
+    "Brave hearts! to Britain's pride<br>
+<span class="add1em">Once so faithful and so true,</span><br>
+    On the deck of fame that died,<br>
+<span class="add1em">With the gallant good Riou:</span><br>
+<span class="min2em">Soft sigh the winds of heaven o'er their grave!"</span></p>
+
+<p class="poem"><span class="smcap">Campbell's</span> <span class="italic">Battle of the Baltic</span>.</p>
+
+<p class="p2">The words in which Campbell describes Captain Riou in his noble ode
+are nearly identical with those used by Lord Nelson himself when
+alluding to his death in the famous despatch relative to the battle of
+Copenhagen. These few but pregnant words, "the gallant and the good,"
+constitute nearly all the record that exists of the character of this
+distinguished officer, though it is no slight glory to have them
+embalmed in the poetry of Campbell and the despatches of Nelson.</p>
+
+<p>Having had the good fortune, in the course of recent inquiries as to
+the descendants of illustrious Huguenots in England, to become
+acquainted with the principal events in Captain Riou's life, drawn
+from family papers, I now propose to supplement Lord Nelson's brief
+epitome of his character by the following memoir of this distinguished
+seaman.</p>
+
+<p>Captain Riou was descended from the ancient Riou family of Vernoux, in
+Languedoc, of whom early mention <span class="pagenum"><a id="page369" name="page369"></a>(p. 369)</span> is made in French history,
+several members of it having specially distinguished themselves as
+generals in the wars in Spain. Like many other noble families of
+Languedoc in the seventeenth century, the Rious were staunch
+Huguenots; and when, in 1685, Louis XIV. determined to stamp out
+Protestantism in France, and revoked the Edict of Nantes, the
+principal members of the family, refusing to conform, left the
+country, and their estates were confiscated by the Crown.</p>
+
+<p>Estienne Riou, heir to the estate at Vernoux, was born after the death
+of his father, who was a man of eminent repute in his neighbourhood;
+and he did not leave France until his eleventh year, when he fled with
+his paternal uncle, Matthew Labrune, across the frontier, and took
+refuge with him at Berne, in Switzerland. There the uncle engaged in
+business as a merchant, while the nephew, when of sufficient age,
+desirous of following the usual career of his family, went into
+Piedmont to join the little Huguenot army from England, then engaged
+in assisting the Duke of Savoy against the armies of the French king.
+Estienne was admitted a cadet in Lord Galway's regiment, then engaged
+in the siege of Casale; and he remained with it for two years, when,
+on the army returning to England, he received an honourable discharge,
+and went back to reside for a time with his bachelor uncle at Berne.</p>
+
+<p>In 1698 both uncle and nephew left Switzerland to settle in London as
+merchants, bringing with them a considerable capital. They exported
+English manufactured goods to the East Indies, Holland, Germany, and
+Italy; and imported large quantities of raw silk, principally from
+Spain and Italy, carrying on their business with uniform probity and
+credit. In course of time Estienne married Magdalen Baudoin, the
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page370" name="page370"></a>(p. 370)</span> daughter of a refugee gentleman from Touraine,&mdash;the members
+of refugee families usually intermarrying for several generations
+after their settlement in England. The issue of this marriage was an
+only son, Stephen Riou, who, like his ancestors, embraced the
+profession of arms, rising to be captain in the Horse Grenadier
+Guards. He afterwards attended the Confederate forces in Flanders as
+an engineer, and on the conclusion of peace, he travelled for nearly
+four years through the principal countries of Europe, accompanying Sir
+P. Ker Porter on his embassy to Constantinople. He afterwards settled,
+married, and had two sons,&mdash;Philip, the elder, who entered the Royal
+Artillery, and died senior colonel at Woolwich in 1817; and Edward,
+the second son, who entered the navy&mdash;the subject of the present
+memoir.</p>
+
+<p>Edward Riou was born at Mount Ephraim, near Faversham, on the 20th
+November, 1762. The family afterwards removed to London, where Edward
+received his education, partly at the Marylebone Grammar School and
+partly at home, where his father superintended his instruction in
+fortification, and navigation. Though of peculiarly sweet and amiable
+disposition, young Riou displayed remarkable firmness and even
+fearlessness as a boy. He rejoiced at all deeds of noble daring, and
+it was perhaps his love of adventure that early determined his choice
+of a profession; for, even when a very little fellow, he was usually
+styled by the servants and by his playmates, "the noble captain."</p>
+
+<p>Accordingly, when only twelve years old, he went to sea as midshipman
+on board Admiral Pye's ship, the <span class="italic">Harfleur</span>; from whence, in the
+following year, he was removed to the <span class="italic">Romney</span>, Captain Keith
+Elphinstone, on the Newfoundland station; and on the return of the
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page371" name="page371"></a>(p. 371)</span> ship to England in 1776, he had the good fortune to be
+appointed midshipman on board the <span class="italic">Discovery</span>, Captain Charles Clarke,
+which accompanied Captain Cook in the <span class="italic">Resolution</span> in his last voyage
+round the world. Nothing could have been more to the mind of our
+sailor-boy than this voyage of adventure and discovery, in company
+with the greatest navigator of the age.</p>
+
+<p>The <span class="italic">Discovery</span> sailed from the Downs on the 18th of June, but had no
+sooner entered the Channel than a storm arose which did considerable
+damage to the ship, which was driven into Portland Roads. At Plymouth,
+the <span class="italic">Discovery</span> was joined by the <span class="italic">Resolution</span>; but as the former had
+to go into harbour for repairs, Captain Cook set sail for the Cape
+alone, leaving orders for Captain Clarke to follow him there. The
+<span class="italic">Discovery</span> at length put to sea, and after a stormy voyage joined
+Captain Cook in Table Bay on the 11th of August. Before setting sail
+on the longer voyage, Riou had the felicity of being transferred to
+the <span class="italic">Resolution</span>, under the command of Captain Cook himself.</p>
+
+<p>It is not necessary that we should describe this celebrated voyage,
+with which every boy is familiar&mdash;its storms and hurricanes; the
+landings on islands where the white man's face had never been seen
+before; the visits to the simple natives of Huahine and Otaheite, then
+a little Eden; the perilous coasting along the North American seaboard
+to Behring's Straits, in search of the North-Western passage; and
+finally, the wintering of the ships at Owyhee, where Captain Cook met
+his cruel death, of which young Riou was a horror-struck spectator
+from the deck of the <span class="italic">Resolution</span>, on the morning of the 14th of
+February, 1779.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page372" name="page372"></a>(p. 372)</span> After about four years' absence on this voyage, so full of
+adventure and peril, Riou returned to England with the <span class="italic">Resolution</span>,
+and was shortly after appointed lieutenant of the sloop <span class="italic">Scourge</span>,
+Captain Knatchbull, Commander, which took part, under Lord Rodney, in
+the bombardment and capture of St. Eustatia. Here Riou was so severely
+wounded in the eye by a splinter that he lost his sight for many
+months. In March, 1782, he was removed to the <span class="italic">Mediator</span>, forty-four
+guns, commanded by Captain Luttrell, and shared in the glory which
+attached to the officers and crew of that ship through its almost
+unparalleled achievement of the 12th of December of that year.</p>
+
+<p>It was at daybreak that the <span class="italic">Mediator</span> sighted five sail of the enemy,
+consisting of the <span class="italic">Ménagère</span>, thirty-six guns <span class="italic">en flûte</span>; the
+<span class="italic">Eugène</span>, thirty-six; and the <span class="italic">Dauphin Royal</span>, twenty-eight (French);
+in company with the <span class="italic">Alexander</span>, twenty-eight guns, and another brig,
+fourteen (American), formed in line of battle to receive the
+<span class="italic">Mediator</span>, which singly bore down upon them. The skilful seamanship
+and dashing gallantry of the English disconcerted the combinations of
+the enemy, and after several hours' fighting two of their vessels fell
+out of the line, and went away, badly crippled, to leeward. About an
+hour later the <span class="italic">Alexander</span> was cut off, the <span class="italic">Mediator</span> wearing between
+her and her consorts, and in ten minutes she struck. A chase then
+ensued after the larger vessels, and late in the evening the
+<span class="italic">Ménagère</span>, being raked within pistol shot, hailed for quarter. The
+rest of the squadron escaped, and the gallant <span class="italic">Mediator</span>, having taken
+possession of her two prizes, set sail with them for England, arriving
+in Cawsand Bay on the 17th of December.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page373" name="page373"></a>(p. 373)</span> In the year following, Captain Luttrell, having been
+appointed to the <span class="italic">Ganges</span>, took with him Mr. Riou as second
+lieutenant. He served in this ship until the following summer, when he
+retired for a time on half-pay, devoting himself to study and
+continental travel until March, 1786, when we find him serving under
+Admiral Elliot as second lieutenant of the <span class="italic">Salisbury</span>. It was about
+this time that he submitted to the Admiralty a plan, doubtless
+suggested by his voyage with Captain Cook, "for the discovery and
+preservation of a passage through the continent of North America, and
+for the increase of commerce to this kingdom." The plan was very
+favourably received, but as war seemed imminent, no steps were then
+taken to carry it into effect.</p>
+
+<p>The young officer had, however, by this time recommended himself for
+promotion by his admirable conduct and his good service; and in the
+spring of 1789 he was appointed to the command of the <span class="italic">Guardian</span>,
+forty-four guns, armed <span class="italic">en flûte</span>, which was under orders to take out
+stores and convicts to New South Wales. In a chatty, affectionate
+letter written to his widowed mother, from on shipboard at the Cape
+while on the voyage out, he says,&mdash;"I have no expectation, after the
+promotion that took place before I left England, of finding myself
+master and commander on my return." After speculating as to what might
+happen in the meantime while he was so far from home, and expressing
+an anxiety which was but natural on the part of an enterprising young
+officer eager for advancement in his profession, he
+proceeded,&mdash;"Politics must take a great turn, I think, by the time of
+my return. War will likely be begun; in that case we may bring a prize
+in with us. But our <span class="pagenum"><a id="page374" name="page374"></a>(p. 374)</span> foresight is short&mdash;and mine
+particularly so. I hardly ever look forward to beyond three months.
+'Tis in vain to be otherwise, for Providence, which directs all
+things, is inscrutable." And he concluded his letter thus,&mdash;"Now for
+Port Jackson. I shall sail to-night if the wind is fair. God for ever
+bless you."</p>
+
+<p>But neither Riou nor the ill-fated <span class="italic">Guardian</span> ever reached Port
+Jackson! A fortnight after setting sail from the Cape, while the ship
+was driving through a thick fog (in lat. 44·5, long. 41) a severe
+shock suddenly called Riou to the deck, where an appalling spectacle
+presented itself. The ship had struck upon an iceberg. A body of
+floating ice twice as high as the masthead was on the lee beam, and
+the ship appeared to be entering a sort of cavern in its side. In a
+few minutes the rudder was torn away, a severe leak was sprung, and
+all hands worked for bare life at the pumps. The ship became
+comparatively unmanageable, and masses of overhanging ice threatened
+every moment to overwhelm her. At length, by dint of incessant
+efforts, the ship was extricated from the ice, but the leak gained
+fearfully, and stores, cattle, guns, booms, everything that could be
+cut away, was thrown overboard.</p>
+
+<p>It was all in vain. The ship seemed to be sinking; and despair sat on
+every countenance save that of the young commander. He continued to
+hope even against hope. At length, after forty-eight hours of
+incessant pumping, a cry arose for "the boats," as presenting the only
+chance of safety. Riou pleaded with the men to persevere, and they
+went on bravely again at the pumps. But the dawn of another day
+revealed so fearful a position of affairs that the inevitable
+foundering of the ship seemed to be a matter of minutes rather
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page375" name="page375"></a>(p. 375)</span> than of hours. The boats were hoisted out, discipline being
+preserved to the last. Riou's servant hastened to him to ask what boat
+he would select to go in, that he himself might take a place beside
+him. His answer was that "he would stay by the ship, save her if he
+could, and if needs be sink with her, but that the people were at
+liberty to consult their own safety." He then sat down and wrote the
+following letter to the Admiralty, giving it in charge to Mr.
+Clements, the master, whose boat was the only one that ever reached
+land:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="quote">
+<p class="left50 p0_b">"Her Majesty's Ship <span class="italic">Guardian</span>,</p>
+<p class="right italic p0_t">"December, 1789.</p>
+
+<p>"If any part of the officers or crew of the <span class="italic">Guardian</span> should
+     ever survive to reach home, I have only to say that their
+     conduct, after the fatal stroke against an island of ice, was
+     admirable and wonderful in everything that relates to their
+     duties, considered either as private men or in his Majesty's
+     service. As there seems no possibility of my remaining many hours
+     in this world, I beg leave to recommend to the consideration of
+     the Admiralty a sister, to whom, if my conduct or services should
+     be found deserving any memory, favour might be shown, together
+     with a widowed mother.</p>
+
+<p class="p0_b"><span class="add2em">"I am, sir, with great respect,</span><br>
+<span class="add4em">"Your ever obedient servant,</span></p>
+<p class="right p0_t smcap">"Edward Riou.</p>
+
+<p>"<span class="smcap">Philip Stephens, Esq.</span>,<br>
+<span class="add2em">"Admiralty."</span></p>
+</div>
+
+<p>About half the crew remained with Riou, some because they determined
+to stand by their commander, and others because they could not get
+away in the boats, which, to avoid being overcrowded, had put off
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page376" name="page376"></a>(p. 376)</span> in haste, for the most part insufficiently stored and
+provided. The sea, still high, continued to make breaches over the
+ship, and many were drowned in their attempts to reach the boats.
+Those who remained were exhausted by fatigue; and, without the most
+distant hope of life, some were mad with despair. A party of these
+last contrived to break open the spirit-room, and found a temporary
+oblivion in intoxication. "It is hardly a time to be a
+disciplinarian," wrote Riou in his log, which continues a valued
+treasury in his family, "when only a few more hours of life seem to
+present themselves; but this behaviour greatly hurts me." This log
+gives a detailed account, day by day, of the eight weeks' heroic
+fortitude and scientific seamanship which preserved the <span class="italic">Guardian</span>
+afloat until she got into the track of ships, and was finally towed by
+Dutch whalers into Table Bay, Cape of Good Hope.</p>
+
+<p>The master's boat, in which were also the purser and chaplain, had by
+a miracle been picked up, and those officers, on their return to
+England, reported to the Admiralty "the total loss of the <span class="italic">Guardian</span>".
+They also at the same time spoke of Riou's noble conduct in terms of
+such enthusiasm as to awaken general admiration, and occasion the
+greatest regret at his loss. Accordingly, when the Admiralty received
+from his own hand the unexpected intelligence of his safety, his
+widowed mother and only sister had the affectionate sympathy of all
+England. Lord Hood himself, before unknown to the family, hastened to
+their house with the news, calling to the servants as he ran up the
+stairs to "throw off their mourning!" The following was Riou's brief
+letter to his mother, which he found time to scrawl and send off by a
+ship just leaving Table <span class="pagenum"><a id="page377" name="page377"></a>(p. 377)</span> Bay for England as the poor helpless
+<span class="italic">Guardian</span> was being towed in:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="quote">
+<p class="left50 p0_b">"Cape of Good Hope,</p>
+<p class="right p0_t italic">"February, 22, 1790.</p>
+
+<p>"<span class="smcap">Dearest</span>,&mdash;God has been merciful. I hope you have no fatal
+     accounts of the <span class="italic">Guardian</span>. I am safe; I am well, notwithstanding
+     you may hear otherwise. Join with me in prayer to that blessed
+     Saviour who hath hung over my ship for two months, and kept thy
+     dear son safe, to be, I hope, thankful for almost a miracle. I
+     can say no more because I am hurried, and the ship sails for
+     England this afternoon.</p>
+
+<p class="add2em p0_b">"Yours ever and ever,</p>
+<p class="right p0_t smcap">"Edward Riou."</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>Riou remained many months at the Cape trying to patch up the
+<span class="italic">Guardian</span>, and repair it so as to bring it back to port; but all his
+exertions were fruitless, and in October the Admiralty despatched the
+<span class="italic">Sphinx</span> ship-of-war to bring him and the survivors of his crew to
+England, where they landed shortly after. There was, of course, the
+usual court-martial held upon him for the loss of his ship, but it was
+merely a matter of form. At its conclusion he was complimented by the
+Court in the warmest terms; and "as a mark of the high consideration
+in which the magnanimity of his conduct was held, in remaining by his
+ship from an exalted sense of duty when all reasonable prospects of
+saving her were at an end," he received the special thanks of the
+Admiralty, was made commander, and at the same time promoted to the
+rank of post captain.</p>
+
+<p>No record exists of the services of Captain Riou from the date of his
+promotion until 1794, when we find him in command of his Majesty's
+ship <span class="italic">Rose</span>, assisting in the reduction of Martinique. He was then
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page378" name="page378"></a>(p. 378)</span> transferred to the <span class="italic">Beaulieu</span>, and remained cruising in the
+West Indian seas till his health became so injured by the climate that
+he found himself compelled to solicit his recall, and he consequently
+returned to England in the <span class="italic">Theseus</span> in the following year. Shortly
+after, in recognition of his distinguished services, he was appointed
+to the command of the royal yacht, the <span class="italic">Princess Augusta</span>, in which he
+remained until the spring of 1790. So soon as his health was
+sufficiently re-established, he earnestly solicited active employment,
+and he was accordingly appointed to the command of the fine frigate,
+the <span class="italic">Amazon</span>, thirty-eight guns, whose name afterwards figured so
+prominently in Nelson's famous battle before Copenhagen.</p>
+
+<p>After cruising about in her on various stations, and picking up a few
+prizes, the <span class="italic">Amazon</span>, early in 1801, was attached to Sir Hyde Parker's
+fleet, destined for the Baltic. The last letter which Riou wrote home
+to his mother was dated Sunday, the 29th March, "at the entrance to
+the Sound;" and in it he said:&mdash;"It yet remains in doubt whether we
+are to fight the Danes, or whether they will be our friends." Already,
+however, Nelson was arranging his plan of attack, and on the following
+day, the 30th, the Admiral and all the artillery officers were on
+board the <span class="italic">Amazon</span>, which proceeded to examine the northern channel
+outside Copenhagen Harbour. It was on this occasion that Riou first
+became known to Nelson, who was struck with admiration at the superior
+discipline and seamanship which were observable on board the frigate
+during the proceedings of that day.</p>
+
+<p>Early in the evening of the 1st of April the signal to prepare for
+action was made; and Lord Nelson, with Riou and Foley, on board the
+<span class="italic">Elephant</span>&mdash;all the <span class="pagenum"><a id="page379" name="page379"></a>(p. 379)</span> other officers having returned to their
+respective ships&mdash;arranged the order of battle on the following day.
+What remains to be told of Riou is matter of history. The science and
+skill in navigation which made Nelson intrust to him the last
+soundings, and place under his command the fire-ships which were to
+lead the way on the following morning,&mdash;the gallantry with which the
+captain of the <span class="italic">Amazon</span> throw himself, <span class="italic">impar congressus</span>, under the
+fearful fire of the Trekroner battery, to redeem the failure
+threatened by the grounding of the ships of the line,&mdash;have all been
+told with a skilful pen, and forms a picture of a great sailor's last
+hours, which is cherished with equal pride in the affections of his
+family and the annals of his country.</p>
+
+<p>Sir Hyde Parker's signal to "leave off action," which Nelson, putting
+his telescope to his blind eye, refused to see, was seen, by Riou and
+reluctantly obeyed. Indeed, nothing but that signal for retreat saved
+the <span class="italic">Amazon</span> from destruction, though it did not save its heroic
+commander. As he unwillingly drew off from the destructive fire of the
+battery he mournfully exclaimed, "What will Nelson think of us!" His
+clerk had been killed by his side. He himself had been wounded in the
+head by a splinter, but continued to sit on a gun encouraging his men,
+who were falling in numbers around him. "Come then, my boys," he
+cried, "let us all die together." Scarcely had he uttered the words,
+when a raking shot cut him in two. And thus, in an instant, perished
+the "gallant good Riou," at the early age of thirty-nine.</p>
+
+<p>Riou was a man of the truest and tenderest feelings, yet the bravest
+of the brave. His private correspondence revealed the most endearing
+qualities of mind and heart, while the nobility of his actions was
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page380" name="page380"></a>(p. 380)</span> heightened by lofty Christian sentiment, and a firm reliance
+on the power and mercy of God. His chivalrous devotion to duty in the
+face of difficulty and danger heightened the affectionate admiration
+with which he was regarded, and his death before Copenhagen was
+mourned almost as a national bereavement. The monument erected to his
+memory in St. Paul's Cathedral represented, however inadequately, the
+widely felt sorrow which pervaded all classes at the early death of
+this heroic officer. "Except it had been Nelson himself," says
+Southey, "the British navy could not have suffered a severer loss."</p>
+
+<p>Captain Riou's only sister married Colonel Lyde Browne, who closed his
+honourable career of twenty-three years' active service in Dublin, on
+July 23rd, 1803. Within two years of her bitter mourning for the death
+of her brother, she had also to mourn for the loss of her husband. He
+was colonel of the 21st Fusiliers. He was hastening to the assistance
+of Lord Kilwarden on the fatal night of Emmett's rebellion, when he
+was basely assassinated. He was buried in the churchyard of St.
+Paul's, Dublin, where his brother officers erected a marble tablet to
+his memory. He left an only daughter, who was married, in 1826, to M.
+G. Benson, Esq., of Lulwyche Hall, Salop. It is through this lady that
+we have been permitted to inspect the family papers relating to the
+life and death of Captain Riou.<a href="#toc"><span class="small">[Back to Contents]</span></a></p>
+
+<h2><span class="pagenum"><a id="page382" name="page382"></a>(p. 382)</span> A VISIT TO THE COUNTRY OF THE VAUDOIS.</h2>
+
+
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page383" name="page383"></a>(p. 383)</span>
+
+<a id="img002" name="img002"></a>
+<div class="figcenter">
+<a href="images/img002.jpg">
+<img src="images/img002tb.jpg" width="400" height="255" alt="" title=""></a>
+<p>"The Country of Felix Neff." (Dauphiny.)</p></div>
+
+
+<h3>CHAPTER I.</h3>
+
+<p class="title">INTRODUCTORY.</p>
+
+
+<p>Dauphiny is one of the least visited of all the provinces of France.
+It occupies a remote corner of the empire, lying completely out of the
+track of ordinary tourists. No great road passes through it into
+Italy, the Piedmontese frontier of which it adjoins; and the annual
+streams of English and American travellers accordingly enter that
+kingdom by other routes. Even to Frenchmen, who travel little in their
+own country and still less in others, Dauphiny is very little known;
+and M. Joanne, who has written an excellent Itinerary of the South of
+France, almost takes the credit of having discovered it.</p>
+
+<p>Yet Dauphiny is a province full of interest. Its scenery almost vies
+with that of Switzerland in grandeur, beauty, and wildness. The great
+mountain masses of the Alps do not end in Savoy, but extend through
+the south-eastern parts of France, almost to the mouths <span class="pagenum"><a id="page384" name="page384"></a>(p. 384)</span> of
+the Rhône. Packed closer together than in most parts of Switzerland,
+the mountains of Dauphiny are furrowed by deep valleys, each with its
+rapid stream or torrent at bottom, in some places overhung by
+precipitous rocks, in others hemmed in by green hills, over which are
+seen the distant snowy peaks and glaciers of the loftier mountain
+ranges. Of these, Mont Pelvoux&mdash;whose double pyramid can be seen from
+Lyons on a clear day, a hundred miles off&mdash;and the Aiguille du Midi,
+are among the larger masses, rising to a height little short of Mont
+Blanc itself.</p>
+
+<p>From the ramparts of Grenoble the panoramic view is of wonderful
+beauty and grandeur, extending along the valleys of the Isère and the
+Drac, and across that of the Romanche. The massive heads of the Grand
+Chartreuse mountains bound the prospect to the north; and the summits
+of the snow-clad Dauphiny Alps on the south and east present a
+combination of bold valley and mountain scenery, the like of which is
+not to be seen in France, if in Europe.</p>
+
+<p>But it is not the scenery, or the geology, or the flora of the
+province, however marvellous these may be, that constitutes the chief
+interest for the traveller through these Dauphiny valleys, so much as
+the human endurance, suffering, and faithfulness of the people who
+have lived in them in past times, and of which so many interesting
+remnants still survive. For Dauphiny forms a principal part of the
+country of the ancient Vaudois or Waldenses&mdash;literally, the people
+inhabiting the <span class="italic">Vaux</span>, or valleys&mdash;who for nearly seven hundred years
+bore the heavy brunt of Papal persecution, and are now, after all
+their sufferings, free to worship God according to the dictates of
+their conscience.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page385" name="page385"></a>(p. 385)</span> The country of the Vaudois is not confined, as is generally
+supposed, to the valleys of Piedmont, but extends over the greater
+part of Dauphiny and Provence. From the main ridge of the Cottian
+Alps, which, divide France from Italy, great mountain spurs are thrown
+out, which run westward as well as eastward, and enclose narrow strips
+of pasturage, cultivable land, and green shelves on the mountain
+sides, where a poor, virtuous, and hard-working race have long
+contrived to earn a scanty subsistence, amidst trials and difficulties
+of no ordinary kind,&mdash;the greatest of which, strange to say, have
+arisen from the pure and simple character of the religion they
+professed.</p>
+
+<p>The tradition which exists among them is, that the early Christian
+missionaries, when travelling from Italy into Gaul by the Roman road
+passing over Mont Genèvre, taught the Gospel in its primitive form to
+the people of the adjoining districts. It is even surmised that St.
+Paul journeyed from Rome into Spain by that route, and may himself
+have imparted to the people of the valleys their first Christian
+instruction. The Italian and Gallic provinces in that quarter were
+certainly Christianized in the second century at the latest, and it is
+known that the early missionaries were in the habit of making frequent
+journeys from the provinces to Rome. Wherefore it is reasonable to
+suppose that the people of the valleys would receive occasional visits
+from the wayfaring teachers who travelled by the mountain passes in
+the immediate neighbourhood of their dwellings.</p>
+
+<p>As years rolled on, and the Church at Rome became rich and allied
+itself with the secular power, it gradually departed more and more
+from its primitive condition,<a id="footnotetag92" name="footnotetag92"></a><a href="#footnote92" title="Go to footnote 92"><span class="small">[92]</span></a> <span class="pagenum"><a id="page386" name="page386"></a>(p. 386)</span> until at length it was
+scarcely to be recognised from the Paganism which it had superseded.
+The heathen gods were replaced by canonised mortals; Venus and Cupid
+by the Virgin and Child; Lares and Penates by images and crucifixes;
+while incense, flowers, tapers, and showy dresses came to be regarded
+as essential parts of the ceremonial of the new religion as they had
+been of the old. Madonnas winked and bled again, as the statues of
+Juno and Pompey had done before; and stones and relics worked miracles
+as in the time of the Augurs.</p>
+
+<p>Attempts were made by some of the early bishops to stem this tide of
+innovation. Thus, in the fourth, century, Ambrose, Bishop of Milan,
+and Philastrius, Bishop of Brescia, acknowledging no authority on
+earth as superior to that of the Bible, protested against the
+introduction of images in churches, which they held to be a return to
+Paganism. Four centuries later, Claude, Bishop of Turin, advanced like
+views, and opposed with energy the worship of images, which he
+regarded as absolute idolatry. In the meanwhile, the simple Vaudois,
+shut up in their almost inaccessible valleys, and knowing nothing of
+these innovations, continued to adhere to their original primitive
+form of worship; and it clearly appears, from a passage in the
+writings of St. Ambrose, that, in his time, the superstitions which
+prevailed elsewhere had not at all extended into the mountainous
+regions of his diocese.</p>
+
+<p>The Vaudois Church was never, in the ordinary sense of the word, a
+"Reformed" Church, simply because it had not become corrupted, and did
+not stand <span class="pagenum"><a id="page387" name="page387"></a>(p. 387)</span> in need of "reformation." It was not the Vaudois
+who left the Church, but the Roman Church that left them in search of
+idols. Adhering to their primitive faith, they never recognised the
+paramount authority of the Pope; they never worshipped images, nor
+used incense, nor observed Mass; and when, in the course of time,
+these corruptions became known to them, and they found that the
+Western Church had ceased to be Catholic, and become merely Roman;
+they openly separated from it, as being no longer in conformity with
+the principles of the Gospel as inculcated in the Bible and delivered
+to them by their fathers. Their ancient manuscripts, still extant,
+attest to the purity of their doctrines. They are written, like the
+Nobla Leyçon, in the Romance or Provençal&mdash;the earliest of the modern
+classical languages, the language of the troubadours&mdash;though now only
+spoken as a <span class="italic">patois</span> in Dauphiny, Piedmont, Sardinia, the north of
+Spain, and the Balearic Isles.<a id="footnotetag93" name="footnotetag93"></a><a href="#footnote93" title="Go to footnote 93"><span class="small">[93]</span></a></p>
+
+<p>If the age counts for anything, the Vaudois are justified in their
+claim to be considered one of the oldest churches in Europe. Long
+before the conquest of England by the Normans, before the time of
+Wallace and Bruce in Scotland, before England had planted its foot in
+Ireland, the Vaudois Church existed. Their remoteness, their poverty,
+and their comparative unimportance as a people, for a long time
+protected them from interference; and for centuries they remained
+unnoticed by Rome. But as the Western Church extended its power, it
+became insatiable for uniformity. It would not tolerate the
+independence which characterized the early churches, but aimed at
+subjecting them to the exclusive authority of Rome.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page388" name="page388"></a>(p. 388)</span> The Vaudois, however, persisted in repudiating the doctrines
+and formularies of the Pope. When argument failed, the Church called
+the secular arm to its aid, and then began a series of persecutions,
+extending over several centuries, which, for brutality and ferocity,
+are probably unexampled in history. To crush this unoffending but
+faithful people, Rome employed her most irrefragable arguments&mdash;the
+curses of Lucius and the horrible cruelties of Innocent&mdash;and the
+"Vicar of Christ" bathed the banner of the Cross in a carnage from
+which the wolves of Romulus and the eagles of Cæsar would have turned
+with loathing.</p>
+
+<p>Long before the period of the Reformation, the Vaudois valleys were
+ravaged by fire and sword because of the alleged heresy of the people.
+Luther was not born until 1483; whereas nearly four centuries before,
+the Vaudois were stigmatized as heretics by Rome. As early as 1096, we
+find Pope Urban II. describing Val Louise, one of the Dauphiny
+valleys&mdash;then called Vallis Gyrontana, from the torrent of Gyr, which
+flows through it&mdash;as "infested with heresy." In 1179, hot persecution
+raged all over Dauphiny, extending to the Albigeois of the South of
+France, as far as Lyons and Toulouse; one of the first martyrs being
+Pierre Waldo, or Waldensis,<a id="footnotetag94" name="footnotetag94"></a><a href="#footnote94" title="Go to footnote 94"><span class="small">[94]</span></a> of Lyons, who was executed for heresy
+by the Archbishop of Lyons in 1180.</p>
+
+<p>Of one of the early persecutions, an ancient writer says: "In the year
+1243, Pope Innocent II. ordered the Bishop of Metz rigorously to
+prosecute the Vaudois, especially because they read the sacred books
+in the <span class="pagenum"><a id="page389" name="page389"></a>(p. 389)</span> vulgar tongue."<a id="footnotetag95" name="footnotetag95"></a><a href="#footnote95" title="Go to footnote 95"><span class="small">[95]</span></a> From time to time, new
+persecutions were ordered, and conducted with ever-increasing
+ferocity&mdash;the scourge, the brand, and the sword being employed by
+turns. In 1486, while Luther was still in his cradle, Pope Innocent
+VIII. issued a bull of extermination against the Vaudois, summoning
+all true Catholics to the holy crusade, promising free pardon to all
+manner of criminals who should take part in it, and concluding with
+the promise of the remission of sins to every one who should slay a
+heretic.<a id="footnotetag96" name="footnotetag96"></a><a href="#footnote96" title="Go to footnote 96"><span class="small">[96]</span></a> The consequence was, the assemblage of an immense horde
+of brigands, who were let loose on the valleys of Dauphiny and
+Piedmont, which they ravaged and pillaged, in company with eighteen
+thousand regular troops, jointly furnished by the French king and the
+Duke of Savoy.</p>
+
+<p>Sometimes the valleys were under the authority of the kings of France,
+sometimes under that of the dukes of Savoy, whose armies alternately
+overran them; but change of masters and change of popes made little
+difference to the Vaudois. It sometimes, however, happened, that the
+persecution waxed hotter on one side of the Cottian Alps, while it
+temporarily relaxed on the other; and on such occasions the French and
+Italian Vaudois were accustomed to cross the mountain passes, and take
+refuge in each others' valleys. But when, as in the above case, the
+kings, soldiers, and brigands, on both sides, simultaneously plied the
+brand and the sword, the times were very troublous indeed for these
+poor hunted people. They had then no alternative but to climb up the
+mountains into the <span class="pagenum"><a id="page390" name="page390"></a>(p. 390)</span> least accessible places, or hide
+themselves away in dens and caverns with their families, until their
+enemies had departed. But they were often, tracked to their
+hiding-places by their persecutors, and suffocated, strangled, or
+shot&mdash;men, women, and children. Hence there is scarcely a hiding-place
+along the mountain-sides of Dauphiny but has some tradition connected
+with it relating to those dreadful times. In one, so many women and
+children were suffocated; in another, so many perished of cold and
+hunger; in a third, so many were ruthlessly put to the sword. If these
+caves of Dauphiny had voices, what deeds of horror they could tell!</p>
+
+<hr>
+
+<p>What is known as the Easter massacre of 1655 made an unusual sensation
+in Europe, but especially in England, principally through the attitude
+which Oliver Cromwell assumed in the matter. Persecution had followed
+persecution for nearly four hundred years, and still the Vaudois were
+neither converted nor extirpated. The dukes of Savoy during all that
+time pursued a uniform course of treachery and cruelty towards this
+portion of their subjects. Sometimes the Vaudois, pressed by their
+persecutors, turned upon them, and drove them ignominiously out of
+their valleys. Then the reigning dukes would refrain for a time; and,
+probably needing their help in one or other of the wars in which they
+were constantly engaged, would promise them protection and privileges.
+But such promises were invariably broken; and at some moment when the
+Vaudois were thrown off their guard by his pretended graciousness, the
+duke for the time being would suddenly pounce upon them and carry fire
+and sword through their valleys.</p>
+
+<p>Indeed, the dukes of Savoy seem to have been about <span class="pagenum"><a id="page391" name="page391"></a>(p. 391)</span> the most
+wrong-headed line of despots that ever cursed a people by their rule.
+Their mania was soldiering, though they were oftener beaten than
+victorious. They were thrashed out of Dauphiny by France, thrashed out
+of Geneva by the citizens, thrashed out of the valleys by their own
+peasantry; and still they went on raising armies, making war, and
+massacring their Vaudois subjects. Being devoted servants of the Pope,
+in 1655 they concurred with him in the establishment of a branch of
+the society <span class="italic">De Propaganda Fide</span> at Turin, which extended over the
+whole of Piedmont, for the avowed purpose of extirpating the heretics.
+On Palm Sunday, the beginning of Holy Week, the society commenced
+active proceedings. The army of Savoy advanced suddenly upon La Tour,
+and were let loose upon the people. A general massacre began,
+accompanied with shocking brutalities, and continued for more than a
+week. In many hamlets not a cottage was left standing, and such of the
+people as had not been able to fly into the upper valleys were
+indiscriminately put to the sword. And thus was Easter celebrated.</p>
+
+<p>The noise of this dreadful deed rang through Europe, and excited a
+general feeling of horror, especially in England. Cromwell, then at
+the height of his power, offered the fugitive Vaudois an asylum in
+Ireland; but the distance which lay between was too great, and the
+Vaudois asked him to help them in some other way. Forthwith, he
+addressed letters, written by his secretary, John Milton,<a id="footnotetag97" name="footnotetag97"></a><a href="#footnote97" title="Go to footnote 97"><span class="small">[97]</span></a> to the
+principal European powers, calling upon them to join him in putting a
+stop to these <span class="pagenum"><a id="page392" name="page392"></a>(p. 392)</span> horrid barbarities committed upon an
+unoffending people. Cromwell did more. He sent the exiles £2,000 out
+of his own purse; appointed a day of humiliation and a general
+collection all over England, by which some £38,000 were raised; and
+dispatched Sir Samuel Morland as his plenipotentiary to expostulate in
+person with the Duke of Savoy. Moreover, a treaty was on the eve of
+being signed with France; and Cromwell refused to complete it until
+Cardinal Mazarin had undertaken to assist him in getting right done to
+the people of the valleys.</p>
+
+<p>These energetic measures had their effect. The Vaudois who survived
+the massacre were permitted to return to their devastated homes, under
+the terms of the treaty known as the "Patents of Grace," which was
+only observed, however, so long as Cromwell lived. At the Restoration,
+Charles II. seized the public fund collected for the relief of the
+Vaudois, and refused to remit the annuity arising from the interest
+thereon which Cromwell had assigned to them, declaring that he would
+not pay the debts of a usurper!</p>
+
+<p>After that time, the interest felt in the Vaudois was very much of a
+traditional character. Little was known as to their actual condition,
+or whether the descendants of the primitive Vaudois Church continued
+to exist or not. Though English travellers&mdash;amongst others, Addison,
+Smollett, and Sterne&mdash;passed through the country in the course of last
+century, they took no note of the people of the valleys. And this
+state of general ignorance as to the district continued down to within
+about the last fifty years, when quite a new interest was imparted to
+the subject through the labours and researches of the late Dr. Gilly,
+Prebendary of Durham.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page393" name="page393"></a>(p. 393)</span> It happened that that gentleman was present at a meeting of
+the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, in the year 1820, when
+a very touching letter was read to the board, signed "Frederick
+Peyrani, minister of Pramol," requesting the assistance of the society
+in supplying books to the Vaudois churches of Piedmont, who were
+described as maintaining a very hard struggle with poverty and
+oppression. Dr. Gilly was greatly interested by the reading of this
+letter. Indeed, the subject of it so strongly arrested his attention,
+that he says it "took complete possession of him." He proceeded to
+make search for information about the Vaudois, but could find very
+little that was definite or satisfactory respecting them. Then it was
+that he formed the determination of visiting the valleys and
+ascertaining the actual condition of the people in person.</p>
+
+<p>His visit was made in 1823, and in the course of the following year
+Dr. Gilly published the result in his "Narrative of an Excursion to
+the Mountains of Piedmont." The book excited much interest, not only
+in England, but in other countries; and a movement was shortly after
+set on foot for the relief and assistance of the Vaudois. A committee
+was formed, and a fund was raised&mdash;to which the Emperor of Russia and
+the Kings of Prussia and Holland contributed&mdash;with the object, in the
+first place, of erecting a hospital for the sick and infirm Vaudois at
+La Tour, in the valley of Luzern. It turned out that the money raised
+was not only sufficient for this purpose, but also to provide schools
+and a college for the education of pastors, which were shortly after
+erected at the same place.</p>
+
+<p>In 1829, Dr. Gilly made a second visit to the Piedmontese <span class="pagenum"><a id="page394" name="page394"></a>(p. 394)</span>
+valleys, partly in order to ascertain how far the aid thus rendered to
+the poor Vaudois had proved effectual, and also to judge in what way
+certain further sums placed at his disposal might best be employed for
+their benefit.<a id="footnotetag98" name="footnotetag98"></a><a href="#footnote98" title="Go to footnote 98"><span class="small">[98]</span></a> It was in the course of his second visit that Dr.
+Gilly became aware of the fact that the Vaudois were not confined to
+the valleys of Piedmont, but that numerous traces of them were also to
+be found on the French side of the Alps, in Dauphiny and Provence. He
+accordingly extended his journey across the Col de la Croix into
+France, and cursorily visited the old Vaudois district of Val
+Fressinières and Val Queyras, of which an account will be given in the
+following chapters. It was while on this journey that Dr. Gilly became
+acquainted with the self-denying labours of the good Felix Neff among
+those poor outlying Christians, with whose life and character he was
+so fascinated that he afterwards wrote and published the memoir of
+Neff, so well known to English readers.</p>
+
+<p>Since that time occasional efforts have been made in aid of the French
+Vaudois, though those on the Italian side have heretofore commanded by
+far the larger share of interest. There have been several reasons for
+this. In the first place, the French valleys are much less accessible;
+the roads through some of the most interesting valleys are so bad that
+they can only be travelled on foot, being scarcely practicable even
+for mules. There is no good hotel accommodation in the district, only
+<span class="italic">auberges</span>, and these of an indifferent character. The people are also
+more scattered, and even poorer than they are on the Italian side of
+the Alps. Then the climate is much more severe, from the greater
+elevation <span class="pagenum"><a id="page395" name="page395"></a>(p. 395)</span> of the sites of most of the Vaudois villages; so
+that when pastors were induced to settle there, the cold, and
+sterility, and want of domestic accommodation, soon drove them away.
+It was to the rigour of the climate that Felix Neff was eventually
+compelled to succumb.</p>
+
+<p>Yet much has been done of late years for the amelioration of the
+French Vaudois; and among the most zealous workers in their behalf
+have been the Rev. Mr. Freemantle, rector of Claydon, Bucks, and Mr.
+Edward Milsom, the well-known merchant of Lyons. It was in the year
+1851 that the Rev. Mr. Freemantle first visited the Vaudois of
+Dauphiny. His attention was drawn to the subject while editing the
+memoir of a young English clergyman, the Rev. Spencer Thornton, who
+had taken Felix Neff for his model; and he was thereby induced to
+visit the scene of Neff's labours, and to institute a movement on
+behalf of the people of the French valleys, which has issued in the
+erection of schools, churches, and pastors' dwellings in several of
+the most destitute places.</p>
+
+<p>It is curious and interesting to trace the influence of personal
+example on human life and action. As the example of Oberlin in the Ban
+de la Roche inspired Felix Neff to action, so the life of Felix Neff
+inspired that of Spencer Thornton, and eventually led Mr. Freemantle
+to enter upon the work of extending evangelization among the Vaudois.
+In like manner, a young French pastor, M. Bost, also influenced by the
+life and labours of Neff, visited the valleys some years since, and
+wrote a book on the subject, the perusal of which induced Mr. Milsom
+to lend a hand to the work which the young Genevese missionary had
+begun. And thus good example goes on ever propagating <span class="pagenum"><a id="page396" name="page396"></a>(p. 396)</span>
+itself; and though the tombstone may record "Hic jacet" over the
+crumbling dust of the departed, his spirit still lives and works
+through other minds&mdash;stimulates them to action, and inspires them with
+hope&mdash;"allures to brighter worlds, and leads the way."</p>
+
+<hr>
+
+<p>A few words as to the origin of these fragmentary papers. In chalking
+out a summer holiday trip, one likes to get quite away from the
+ordinary round of daily life and business. Half the benefits of such a
+trip consists in getting out of the old ruts, and breathing fresh air
+amidst new surroundings. But this is very difficult if you follow the
+ordinary tourist's track. London goes with you and elbows you on your
+way, accompanied by swarms of commissionaires, guides, and beggars.
+You encounter London people on the Righi, on the Wengern Alp, and
+especially at Chamouni. Think of being asked, as I once was on
+entering the Pavilion at Montanvert, after crossing the Mer de Glace
+from the Mauvais Pas, "Pray, can you tell me what was the price of
+Brighton stock when you left town?"</p>
+
+<p>There is no risk of such rencontres in Dauphiny, whose valleys remain
+in almost as primitive a state as they were hundreds of years ago.
+Accordingly, when my friend Mr. Milsom, above mentioned, invited me to
+accompany him in one of his periodical visits to the country of the
+Vaudois, I embraced the opportunity with pleasure. I was cautioned
+beforehand as to the inferior accommodation provided for travellers
+through the district. Tourists being unknown there, the route is not
+padded and cushioned as it is on all the beaten continental rounds.
+English is not spoken; Bass's <span class="pagenum"><a id="page397" name="page397"></a>(p. 397)</span> pale ale has not yet
+penetrated into Dauphiny; nor do you encounter London tourists
+carrying their tin baths about with them as you do in Switzerland.
+Only an occasional negotiant comes up from Gap or Grenoble, seeking
+orders in the villages, for whom the ordinary auberges suffice.</p>
+
+<p>Where the roads are practicable, an old-fashioned diligence may
+occasionally be seen plodding along, freighted with villagers bound
+for some local market; but the roads are, for the most part, as silent
+as the desert.</p>
+
+<p>Such being the case, the traveller in the valleys must be prepared to
+"rough it" a little. I was directed to bring with me only a light
+knapsack, a pair of stout hob-nailed shoes, a large stock of patience,
+and a small parcel of insect powder. The knapsack and the shoes I
+found exceedingly useful, indeed indispensable; but I had very little
+occasion to draw upon either my stock of patience or insect powder.
+The French are a tidy people, and though their beds, stuffed with
+maize chaff, may be hard, they are tolerably clean. The food provided
+in the auberges is doubtless very different from what one is
+accustomed to at home; but with the help of cheerfulness and a good
+digestion that difficulty too may be got over.</p>
+
+<p>Indeed, among the things that most strikes a traveller through France,
+as characteristic of the people, is the skill with which persons of
+even the poorest classes prepare and serve up food. The French women
+are careful economists and excellent cooks. Nothing is wasted. The
+<span class="italic">pot au feu</span> is always kept simmering on the hob, and, with the help
+of a hunch of bread, a good meal may at any time be made from it. Even
+in the humblest auberge, in the least frequented district, the
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page398" name="page398"></a>(p. 398)</span> dinner served up is of a quality such as can very rarely be
+had in any English public-house, or even in most of our country inns.
+Cooking seems to be one of the lost arts of England, if indeed it ever
+possessed it; and our people are in the habit, through want of
+knowledge, of probably <span class="italic">wasting</span> more food than would sustain many
+another nation. But in the great system of National Education that is
+to be, no one dreams of including as a branch of it skill in the
+preparation and economy in the use of human food.</p>
+
+<p>There is another thing that the traveller through France may always
+depend upon, and that is civility. The politeness of even the French
+poor to each other is charming. They respect themselves, and they
+respect each other. I have seen in France what I have not yet seen in
+England&mdash;young working men walking out their aged mothers arm in arm
+in the evening, to hear the band play in the "Place," or to take a
+turn on the public promenade. But the French are equally polite to
+strangers. A stranger lady may travel all through the rural districts
+of France, and never encounter a rude look; a stranger gentleman, and
+never receive a rude word. That the French are a self-respecting
+people is also evinced by the fact that they are a sober people.
+Drunkenness is scarcely known in France; and one may travel all
+through it and never witness the degrading sight of a drunken man.</p>
+
+<p>The French are also honest and thrifty, and exceedingly hard-working.
+The industry of the people is unceasing. Indeed it is excessive; for
+they work Sunday and Saturday. Sunday has long ceased to be a Sabbath
+in France. There is no day of rest there. Before the Revolution, the
+saints' days which the Church ordered to be observed so encroached
+upon the <span class="pagenum"><a id="page399" name="page399"></a>(p. 399)</span> hours required for labour, that in course of time
+Sunday became an ordinary working day. And when the Revolution
+abolished saints' days and Sabbath days alike, Sunday work became an
+established practice.</p>
+
+<p>What the so-called friends of the working classes are aiming at in
+England, has already been effected in France. The public museums and
+picture-galleries are open on Sunday. But you look for the working
+people there in vain. They are at work in the factories, whose
+chimneys are smoking as usual; or building houses, or working in the
+fields, or they are engaged in the various departments of labour. The
+government works all go on as usual on Sundays. The railway trains run
+precisely as on week days. In short, the Sunday is secularised, or
+regarded but as a partial holiday.<a id="footnotetag99" name="footnotetag99"></a><a href="#footnote99" title="Go to footnote 99"><span class="small">[99]</span></a></p>
+
+<p>As you pass through the country on Sundays, as on week-days, you see
+the people toiling in the fields. And as dusk draws on, the dark
+figures may be seen <span class="pagenum"><a id="page400" name="page400"></a>(p. 400)</span> moving about so long as there is light
+to see by. It is the peasants working the land, and it is <span class="italic">their own</span>.
+Such is the "magical influence of property," said Arthur Young, when
+he observed the same thing.</p>
+
+<p>It is to be feared, however, that the French peasantry are afflicted
+with the disease which Sir Walter Scott called the "earth-hunger;" and
+there is danger of the gravel getting into their souls. Anyhow, their
+continuous devotion to bodily labour, without a seventh day's rest,
+cannot fail to exercise a deteriorating effect upon their physical as
+well as their moral condition; and this we believe it is which gives
+to the men, and especially to the women of the country, the look of a
+prematurely old and overworked race.<a href="#toc"><span class="small">[Back to Contents]</span></a></p>
+
+
+<h3><span class="pagenum"><a id="page401" name="page401"></a>(p. 401)</span> CHAPTER II.</h3>
+
+<p class="title">THE VALLEY OF THE ROMANCHE&mdash;BRIANÇON.</p>
+
+<p>The route from Grenoble to the frontier fortress of Briançon lies for
+the most part up the valley of the Romanche, which presents a variety
+of wild and beautiful scenery. In summer the river is confined within
+comparatively narrow limits; but in autumn and spring it is often a
+furious torrent, flooding the low-lying lands, and forcing for itself
+new channels. The mountain heights which bound it, being composed for
+the most part of schist, mica slate, and talcose slate, large masses
+become detached in winter&mdash;split off by the freezing of the water
+behind them&mdash;when they descend, on the coming of thaw, in terrible
+avalanches of stone and mud. Sometimes the masses are such as to dam
+up the river and form temporary lakes, until the accumulation of force
+behind bursts the barrier, and a furious flood rushes down the valley.
+By one of such floods, which occurred a few centuries since, through
+the bursting of the hike of St. Laurent in the valley of the Romanche,
+a large part of Grenoble was swept away, and many of the inhabitants
+were drowned.</p>
+
+<p>The valley of the Romanche is no sooner entered, a few miles above
+Grenoble, than the mountains begin <span class="pagenum"><a id="page402" name="page402"></a>(p. 402)</span> to close, the scenery
+becomes wilder, and the fury of the torrent is evinced by the masses
+of débris strewed along its bed. Shortly after passing the picturesque
+defile called L'Étroit, where the river rushes through a deep cleft in
+the rocks, the valley opens out again, and we shortly come in sight of
+the ancient town of Vizille&mdash;the most prominent building in which is
+the château of the famous Duc de Lesdiguières, governor of the
+province in the reign of Henry IV., and Constable of France in that of
+Louis XIII.</p>
+
+<hr>
+
+<p>Wherever you go in Dauphiny, you come upon the footmarks of this great
+soldier. At Grenoble there is the Constable's palace, now the
+Prefecture; and the beautiful grounds adjoining it, laid out by
+himself, are now the public gardens of the town. Between Grenoble and
+Vizille there is the old road constructed by him, still known as "Le
+chemin du Connétable." At St. Bonnet, in the valley of the Drac,
+formerly an almost exclusively Protestant town, known as "the Geneva
+of the High Alps," you are shown the house in which the Constable was
+born; and a little lower down the same valley, in the commune of
+Glaizil, on a hill overlooking the Drac, stand the ruins of the family
+castle; where the Constable was buried. The people of the commune were
+in the practice of carrying away the bones from the family vault,
+believing them to possess some virtue as relics, until the prefect of
+the High Alps ordered it to be walled up to prevent the entire removal
+of the skeletons.</p>
+
+<p>In the early part of his career, Lesdiguières was one of the most
+trusted chiefs of Henry of Navarre, often leading his Huguenot
+soldiers to victory; capturing town after town, and eventually
+securing possession of <span class="pagenum"><a id="page403" name="page403"></a>(p. 403)</span> the entire province of Dauphiny, of
+which Henry appointed him governor. In that capacity he carried out
+many important public works&mdash;made roads, built bridges, erected
+fourteen fortresses, and enlarged and beautified his palace at
+Grenoble and his château at Vizille. He enjoyed great popularity
+during his life, and was known throughout his province as "King of the
+Mountains." But he did not continue staunch either to his party or his
+faith. As in the case of many of the aristocratic leaders of those
+times, Lesdiguières' religion was only skin deep. It was but a party
+emblem&mdash;a flag to fight under, not a faith to live by. So, when
+ambition tempted him, and the Constable's baton dangled before his
+eyes, it cost the old soldier but little compunction to abandon the
+cause which he had so brilliantly served in his youth. To secure the
+prize which he so coveted, he made public abjuration of his faith in
+the church, of St. Andrew's at Grenoble in 1622, in the presence of
+the Marquis de Crequi, the minister of Louis XIII., who, immediately
+after Lesdiguières' first mass, presented him with the Constable's
+baton.</p>
+
+<p>But the Lesdiguières family has long since passed away, and left no
+traces. At the Revolution, the Constable's tomb was burst open, and
+his coffin torn up. His monument was afterwards removed to Gap, which,
+when a Huguenot, he had stormed and ravaged. His château at Vizille
+passed through different hands, until in 1775 it came into the
+possession of the Périer family, to which the celebrated Casimir
+Périer belonged. The great Gothic hall of the château has witnessed
+many strange scenes. In 1623, shortly after his investment as
+Constable, Lesdiguières entertained Louis XIII. and his court there,
+while on his journey into Italy, in the <span class="pagenum"><a id="page404" name="page404"></a>(p. 404)</span> course of which he
+so grievously ravaged the Vaudois villages. In 1788, the Estates of
+Dauphiny met there, and prepared the first bold remonstrance against
+aristocratic privileges, and in favour of popular representation,
+which, in a measure, proved the commencement of the great Revolution.
+And there too, in 1822, Felix Neff preached to large congregations,
+who were so anxious and attentive that he always after spoke of the
+place as his "dear Vizille;" and now, to wind up the vicissitudes of
+the great hall, it is used as a place for the printing of Bandana
+handkerchiefs!</p>
+
+<hr>
+
+<p>When Neff made his flying visits to Vizille, he was temporarily
+stationed at Mens, which was the scene of his first labours in
+Dauphiny. The place lies not far from Vizille, away among the
+mountains towards the south. During the wars of religion, and more
+especially after the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes, Mens became a
+place of refuge for the Protestants, who still form about one-half of
+its population. Although, during the long dark period of religious
+persecution which followed the Revocation, the Protestants of Mens and
+the neighbouring villages did not dare to show themselves, and
+worshipped, if at all, only in their dwellings, in secret, or in "the
+Desert," no sooner did the Revolution set them at liberty than they
+formed themselves again into churches, and appointed pastors; and it
+was to serve them temporarily in that capacity that Felix Neff first
+went amongst them, and laboured there and at Vizille with such good
+effect.</p>
+
+<hr>
+
+<p>Not far from Mens is a place which has made much more noise in the
+world&mdash;no other than La Salette, the scene of the latest Roman
+"miracle." La Salette is <span class="pagenum"><a id="page405" name="page405"></a>(p. 405)</span> one of the side-valleys of the
+large valley of the Drac, which joins the Romanche a few miles above
+Grenoble. There is no village of La Salette, but a commune, which is
+somewhat appropriately called La Salette-Fallavaux, the latter word
+being from <span class="italic">fallax vallis</span>, or "the lying valley."</p>
+
+<p>About twenty-seven years ago, on the 19th of September, 1846, two
+children belonging to the hamlet of Abladens&mdash;the one a girl of
+fourteen, the other a boy of twelve years old&mdash;came down from the
+lofty pasturage of Mont Gargas, where they had been herding cattle,
+and told the following strange story. They had seen the Virgin Mary
+descend from heaven with a crucifix suspended from her neck by a gold
+chain, and a hammer and pincers suspended from the chain, but without
+any visible support. The figure sat down upon a large stone, and wept
+so piteously as shortly to fill a large pool with her tears.</p>
+
+<p>When the story was noised abroad, people came from all quarters, and
+went up the mountain to see where the Virgin had sat. The stone was
+soon broken off in chips and carried away as relics, but the fountain
+filled with the tears is still there, tasting very much, like ordinary
+spring water.</p>
+
+<p>Two priests of Grenoble, disgusted at what they believed to be an
+imposition, accused a young person of the neighbourhood, one Mdlle. de
+Lamerlière, as being the real author of the pretended miracle, on
+which she commenced an action against them for defamation of
+character. She brought the celebrated advocate Jules Favre from Paris
+to plead her cause, but the verdict was given in favour of the two
+priests. The "miracle" was an imposture!</p>
+
+<p>Notwithstanding this circumstance, the miracle came <span class="pagenum"><a id="page406" name="page406"></a>(p. 406)</span> to be
+generally believed in the neighbourhood. The number of persons who
+resorted to the place with money in their pockets steadily increased.
+The question was then taken up by the local priests, who vouched for
+the authenticity of the miracle seen by the two children. The miracle
+was next accepted by Rome.<a id="footnotetag100" name="footnotetag100"></a><a href="#footnote100" title="Go to footnote 100"><span class="small">[100]</span></a> A church was built on the spot by
+means of the contributions of the visitors&mdash;L'Église de la
+Salette&mdash;and thither pilgrims annually resort in great numbers, the
+more devout climbing the hill, from station to station, on their
+knees. As many as four thousand persons of both sexes, and of various
+ages, have been known to climb the hill in one day&mdash;on the anniversary
+of the appearance of the apparition&mdash;notwithstanding the extreme
+steepness and difficulties of the ascent.</p>
+
+<hr>
+
+<p>As a pendant to this story, another may be given of an entirely
+different character, relating to the inhabitants of another commune in
+the same valley, about midway between La Salette and Grenoble. In
+1860, while the discussion about the miracle at La Salette was still
+in progress, the inhabitants of Notre-Dame-de-Comiers, <span class="pagenum"><a id="page407" name="page407"></a>(p. 407)</span>
+dissatisfied with the conduct of their curé, invited M. Fermaud,
+pastor of the Protestant church at Grenoble, to come over and preach
+to them, as they were desirous of embracing Protestantism. The pastor,
+supposing that they were influenced by merely temporary irritation
+against their curé, cautioned the deputation that waited upon him as
+to the gravity of their decision in such a matter, and asked them to
+reflect further upon it.</p>
+
+<p>For several years M. Fermaud continued to maintain the same attitude,
+until, in 1865, a formal petition was delivered to him by the mayor of
+the place, signed by forty-three heads of families, and by nine out of
+the ten members of the council of the commune, urging him to send them
+over a minister of the evangelical religion. Even then he hesitated,
+and recommended the memorialists to appeal to the bishop of the
+diocese for redress of the wrongs of which he knew they complained,
+but in vain, until at length, in the beginning of 1868, with the
+sanction of the consistory of Grenoble a minister was sent over to
+Comiers to perform the first acts of Protestant worship, including
+baptism and marriage; and it was not until October in the same year
+that Pastor Fermaud himself went thither to administer the sacrament
+to the new church.</p>
+
+<p>The service was conducted in the public hall of the commune, and was
+attended by a large number of persons belonging to the town and
+neighbourhood. The local clergy tried in vain to check the movement.
+Quite recently, when the curé entered one of the schools to inscribe
+the names of the children who were to attend their first mass, out of
+fifteen of the proper age eleven answered to the interrogatory of the
+priest, "Monsieur, nous sommes Protestantes." The movement <span class="pagenum"><a id="page408" name="page408"></a>(p. 408)</span>
+has also extended into the neighbouring communes, helped by the zeal
+of the new converts, one of whom is known in the neighbourhood as
+"Père la Bible," and it is possible that before long it may even
+extend to La Salette itself.</p>
+
+<hr>
+
+<p>The route from Vizille up the valley of the Romanche continues hemmed
+in by rugged mountains, in some places almost overhanging the river.
+At Séchilienne it opens out sufficiently to afford space for a
+terraced garden, amidst which stands a handsome château, flanked by
+two massive towers, commanding a beautiful prospect down the valley.
+The abundant water which rushes down from the mountain behind is
+partly collected in a reservoir, and employed to feed a <span class="italic">jet d'eau</span>
+which rises in a lofty column under the castle windows. Further up,
+the valley again contracts, until the Gorge de Loiret is passed. The
+road then crosses to the left bank, and used to be continued along it,
+but the terrible torrent of 1868 washed it away for miles, and it has
+not yet been reconstructed. Temporary bridges enable the route to be
+pursued by the old road on the right bank, and after passing through
+several hamlets of little interest, we arrive at length at the
+cultivated plain hemmed in by lofty mountains, in the midst of which
+Bourg d'Oisans lies seated.</p>
+
+<p>This little plain was formerly occupied by the lake of St. Laurent,
+formed by the barrier of rocks and débris which had tumbled down from
+the flank of the Petite Voudène, a precipitous mountain escarpment
+overhanging the river. At this place, the strata are laid completely
+bare, and may be read like a book. For some distance along the valley
+they exhibit the most extraordinary contortions and dislocations,
+impressing <span class="pagenum"><a id="page409" name="page409"></a>(p. 409)</span> the mind with the enormous natural forces that
+must have been at work to occasion such tremendous upheavings and
+disruptions. Elie de Beaumont, the French geologist, who has carefully
+examined the district, says that at the Montagne d'Oisans he found the
+granite in some places resting upon the limestone, cutting through the
+Calcareous beds, rising like a wall and lapping over them.</p>
+
+<p>On arriving at Bourg d'Oisans, we put up at the Hôtel de Milan close
+by the bridge; but though dignified with the name of hotel, it is only
+a common roadside inn. Still, it is tolerably clean, and in summer the
+want of carpets is not missed. The people were civil and attentive,
+their bread wholesome, their pottage and bouilli good&mdash;being such fare
+as the people of the locality contrive to live and thrive upon. The
+accommodation of the place is, indeed, quite equal to the demand; for
+very few travellers accustomed to a better style of living pass that
+way. When the landlady was asked if many tourists had passed this
+year, she replied, "Tourists! We rarely see such travellers here. You
+are the first this season, and perhaps you may be the last."</p>
+
+<p>Yet these valleys are well worthy of a visit, and an influx of
+tourists would doubtless have the same effect that it has already had
+in Switzerland and elsewhere, of greatly improving the hotel
+accommodation throughout the district. There are many domestic
+arrangements, costing very little money, but greatly ministering to
+cleanliness and comfort, which might very readily be provided. But the
+people themselves are indifferent to them, and they need the requisite
+stimulus of "pressure from without." One of the most prominent
+defects&mdash;common to all the inns of Dauphiny&mdash;having been <span class="pagenum"><a id="page410" name="page410"></a>(p. 410)</span>
+brought under the notice of the landlady, she replied, "C'est vrai,
+monsieur; mais&mdash;il laisse quelque chose à desirer!" How neatly evaded!
+The very defect was itself an advantage! What would life be&mdash;what
+would hotels be&mdash;if there were not "something left to be desired!"</p>
+
+<p>The view from the inn at the bridge is really charming. The little
+river which runs down the valley, and becomes lost in the distance, is
+finally fringed with trees&mdash;alder, birch, and chestnut. Ridge upon
+ridge of mountain rises up behind on the right hand and the left, the
+lower clothed with patches of green larch, and the upper with dark
+pine. Above all are ranges of jagged and grey rocks, shooting up in
+many places into lofty peaks. The setting sun, shining across the face
+of the mountain opposite, brings out the prominent masses in bold
+relief, while the valley beneath hovers between light and shadow,
+changing almost from one second to another as the sun goes down. In
+the cool of the evening, we walked through the fields across the
+plain, to see the torrent, visible from the village, which rushes from
+the rocky gorge on the mountain-side to join its waters to the
+Romanche. All along the valleys, water abounds&mdash;sometimes bounding
+from the heights, in jets, in rivulets, in masses, leaping from rock
+to rock, and reaching the ground only in white clouds of spray, or, as
+in the case of the little river which flows alongside the inn at the
+bridge, bursting directly from the ground in a continuous spring;
+these waterfalls, and streams, and springs being fed all the year
+through by the immense glaciers that fill the hollows of the mountains
+on either side the valley.</p>
+
+<p>Though the scenery of Bourg d'Oisans is not, as its eulogists allege,
+equal to that of Switzerland, it will at <span class="pagenum"><a id="page411" name="page411"></a>(p. 411)</span> least stand a
+comparison with that of Savoy. Its mountains are more precipitous and
+abrupt, its peaks more jagged, and its aspect more savage and wild.
+The scenery of Mont Pelvoux, which is best approached from Bourg
+d'Oisans, is especially grand and sublime, though of a wild and
+desolate character. The road from Bourg d'Oisans to Briançon also
+presents some magnificent scenery; and there is one part of it that is
+not perhaps surpassed even by the famous Via Mala leading up to the
+Splügen. It is about three miles above Bourg d'Oisans, from which we
+started early next morning. There the road leaves the plain and enters
+the wild gorge of Freney, climbing by a steep road up the Rampe des
+Commières. The view from the height when gained is really superb,
+commanding an extremely bold and picturesque valley, hemmed in by
+mountains. The ledges on the hillsides spread out in some places so
+as to afford sufficient breadths for cultivation; occasional hamlets
+appear amidst the fields and pine-woods; and far up, between you and
+the sky, an occasional church spire peeps up, indicating still loftier
+settlements, though how the people contrive to climb up to those
+heights is a wonder to the spectator who views them from below.</p>
+
+<p>The route follows the profile of the mountain, winding in and out
+along its rugged face, scarped and blasted so as to form the road. At
+one place it passes along a gallery about six hundred feet in length,
+cut through a precipitous rock overhanging the river, which dashes,
+roaring and foaming, more than a thousand feet below, through the
+rocky abyss of the Gorge de l'Infernet. Perhaps there is nothing to be
+seen in Switzerland finer of its kind than the succession of charming
+landscapes which meet the eye in descending this pass.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page412" name="page412"></a>(p. 412)</span> Beyond the village of Freney we enter another defile, so
+narrow that in places there is room only for the river and the road;
+and in winter the river sometimes plays sad havoc with the engineer's
+constructions. Above this gorge, the Romanche is joined by the
+Ferrand, an impetuous torrent which comes down from the glaciers of
+the Grand Rousses. Immediately over their point of confluence, seated
+on a lofty promontory, is the village of Mizoën&mdash;a place which,
+because of the outlook it commands, as well as because of its natural
+strength, was one of the places in which the Vaudois were accustomed
+to take refuge in the times of the persecutions. Further on, we pass
+through another gallery in the rock, then across the little green
+valley of Chambon to Le Dauphin, after which the scenery becomes
+wilder, the valley&mdash;here called the Combe de Malaval (the "Cursed
+Valley")&mdash;rocky and sterile, the only feature to enliven it being the
+Cascade de la Pisse, which falls from a height of over six hundred
+feet, first in one jet, then becomes split by a projecting rock into
+two, and finally reaches the ground in a shower of spray. Shortly
+after we pass another cascade, that of the Riftort, which also joins
+the Romanche, and marks the boundary between the department of the
+Isère and that of the Hautes Alpes, which we now enter.</p>
+
+<p>More waterfalls&mdash;the Sau de la Pucelle, which falls from a height of
+some two hundred and fifty feet, resembling the Staubbach&mdash;besides
+rivulets without number, running down the mountain-sides like silver
+threads; until we arrive at La Grave, a village about five thousand
+feet above the sea-level, directly opposite the grand glaciers of
+Tabuchet, Pacave, and Vallon, which almost overhang the Romanche,
+descending from the steep slopes of the gigantic Aiguille du Midi, the
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page413" name="page413"></a>(p. 413)</span> highest mountain in the French Alps,&mdash;being over 13,200 feet
+above the level of the sea.</p>
+
+<p>After resting some two hours at La Grave, we proceeded by the two
+tunnels under the hamlet of Ventelong&mdash;one of which is 650 and the
+other 1,800 feet long&mdash;to the village of Villard d'Arene, which,
+though some five thousand feet above the level of the sea, is so
+surrounded by lofty mountains that for months together the sun never
+shines on it. From thence a gradual ascent leads up to the summit of
+the Col de Lauteret, which divides the valley of the Romanche from
+that of the Guisanne. The pastures along the mountain-side are of the
+richest verdure; and so many rare and beautiful plants are found
+growing there that M. Rousillon has described it as a "very botanical
+Eden." Here Jean Jacques Rousseau delighted to herborize, and here the
+celebrated botanist Mathonnet, originally a customs officer, born at
+the haggard village of Villard d'Arene, which we have just passed,
+cultivated his taste for natural history, and laid the foundations of
+his European reputation. The variety of temperature which exists along
+the mountain-side, from the bottom to the summit, its exposure to the
+full rays of the sun in some places, and its sheltered aspect in
+others, facilitate the growth of an extraordinary variety of beautiful
+plants and wild flowers. In the low grounds meridional plants
+flourish; on the middle slopes those of genial climates; while on the
+summit are found specimens of the flora of Lapland and Greenland. Thus
+almost every variety of flowers is represented in this brilliant
+natural garden&mdash;orchids, cruciferæ, leguminæ, rosaceæ, caryophyllæ,
+lilies of various kinds, saxifrages, anemones, ranunculuses, swertia,
+primula, varieties of the sedum, <span class="pagenum"><a id="page414" name="page414"></a>(p. 414)</span> some of which are peculiar
+to this mountain, and are elsewhere unknown.</p>
+
+<p>After passing the Hospice near the summit of the Col, the valley of
+the Guisanne comes in sight, showing a line of bare and rugged
+mountains on the right hand and on the left, with a narrow strip of
+land in the bottom, in many parts strewn with stones carried down by
+the avalanches from the cliffs above. Shortly we come in sight of the
+distant ramparts of Briançon, apparently closing in the valley, the
+snow-clad peak of Monte Viso rising in the distance. Halfway between
+the Col and Briançon we pass through the village of Monestier, where,
+being a saint's day, the bulk of the population are in the street,
+holding festival. The place was originally a Roman station, and the
+people still give indications of their origin, being extremely
+swarthy, black-haired, and large-eyed, evidently much more Italian
+than French.</p>
+
+<p>But though the villagers of Monestier were taking holiday, no one can
+reproach them with idleness. Never was there a more hard-working
+people than the peasantry of these valleys. Every little patch of
+ground that the plough or spade can be got into is turned to account.
+The piles of stone and rock collected by the sides of the fields
+testify to the industry of the people in clearing the soil for
+culture. And their farming is carried on in the face of difficulties
+and discouragements of no ordinary character, for sometimes the soil
+of many of the little farms will be swept away in a night by an
+avalanche of snow in winter or of stones in spring. The wrecks of
+fields are visible all along the valley, especially at its upper part.
+Lower down it widens, and affords greater room for culture; the sides
+of the mountains become better wooded; and, as we approach <span class="pagenum"><a id="page415" name="page415"></a>(p. 415)</span>
+the fortress of Briançon, with its battlements seemingly piled one
+over the other up the mountain-sides, the landscape becomes
+exceedingly bold and picturesque.</p>
+
+<p>When passing the village of Villeneuve la Salle, a few miles from
+Briançon, we were pointed to a spot on the opposite mountain-side,
+over the pathway leading to the Col de l'Echuada, where a cavern was
+discovered a few years since, which, upon examination, was found to
+contain a considerable quantity of human bones. It was one of the
+caves in which the hunted Vaudois were accustomed to take refuge
+during the persecutions; and it continued to be called by the
+peasantry "La Roche armée"&mdash;the name being thus perpetuated, though
+the circumstances in which it originated had been forgotten.</p>
+
+<p>The fortress of Briançon, which we entered by a narrow winding roadway
+round the western rampart, is the frontier fortress which guards the
+pass from Italy into France by the road over Mont Genèvre. It must
+always have been a strong place by nature, overlooking as it does the
+valley of the Durance on the one hand, and the mountain road from
+Italy on the other, while the river Clairée, running in a deep defile,
+cuts it off from the high ground to the south and east. The highest
+part of the town is the citadel, or Fort du Château, built upon a peak
+of rock on the site of the ancient castle. It was doubtless the
+nucleus round which the early town became clustered, until it filled
+the lower plateau to the verge of the walls and battlements. There
+being no room for the town to expand, the houses are closely packed
+together and squeezed up, as it were, so as to occupy the smallest
+possible space. The streets are narrow, dark, gloomy, and steep, being
+altogether impassable for carriages. The liveliest sight <span class="pagenum"><a id="page416" name="page416"></a>(p. 416)</span> in
+the place is a stream of pure water, that rushes down an open conduit
+in the middle of the principal street, which is exceedingly steep and
+narrow. The town is sacrificed to the fortifications, which dominate
+everywhere. With the increasing range and power of cannon, they have
+been extended in all directions, until they occupy the flanks of the
+adjoining mountains and many of their summits, so that the original
+castle now forms but a comparatively insignificant part of the
+fortress. The most important part of the population is the
+soldiery&mdash;the red-trousered missionaries of "civilisation," according
+to the gospel of Louis Napoleon, published a short time before our
+visit.</p>
+
+<p>Other missionaries, are, however, at work in the town and
+neighbourhood; and both at Briançon and Villeneuve Protestant stations
+have been recently established, under the auspices of the Protestant
+Society of Lyons. In former times, the population of Briançon included
+a large number of Protestants. In the year 1575, three years after the
+massacre of St. Bartholomew, they were so numerous and wealthy as to
+be able to build a handsome temple, almost alongside the cathedral,
+and it still stands there in the street called Rue du Temple, with the
+motto over the entrance, in old French, "Cerches et vos troveres." But
+at the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes, the temple was seized by the
+King and converted into a granary, and the Protestants of the place
+were either executed, banished, or forced to conform to the Papal
+religion. Since then the voice of Protestantism has been mute in
+Briançon until within the last few years, during which a mission has
+been in operation. Some of the leading persons in the town have
+embraced the Reform faith, amongst others the professor of literature
+in the public college; <span class="pagenum"><a id="page417" name="page417"></a>(p. 417)</span> but he had no sooner acknowledged to
+the authorities the fact of his conversion, than he was dismissed from
+his office, though he has since been appointed to a more important
+profession at Nice. The number of members is, however, as yet very
+small, and the mission has to contend with limited means, and to carry
+on its operations in the face of many obstructions and difficulties.</p>
+
+<hr>
+
+<p>What are the prospects of the extension of Protestantism in France?
+Various answers have been given to the question. Some think that the
+prevailing dissensions among French Protestants interpose a serious
+barrier in the way of progress. Others, more hopeful, think, that
+these divisions are only the indications of renewed life and vigour,
+of the friction of mind with mind, which evinces earnestness, and
+cannot fail to lead to increased activity and effort. The observations
+of a young Protestant pastor on this point are worth repeating.
+"Protestantism," said he, "is based on individualism: it recognises
+the free action of the human mind; and so long as the mind acts freely
+there will be controversy. The end of controversy is death. True,
+there is much incredulity abroad; but the incredulity is occasioned by
+the incredibilities of Popery. Let the ground once be cleared by free
+inquiry, and our Church will rise up amidst the ruins of superstition
+and unbelief, for man <span class="italic">must</span> have religion; only it must be consistent
+with reason on the one hand, and with Divine revelation on the other.
+I for one do not fear the fullest and freest inquiry, having the most
+perfect confidence in the triumph of the truth."</p>
+
+<p>It is alleged by others that the bald form in which Protestantism is
+for the most part presented abroad, is not conformable with the
+"genius" of the men of Celtic <span class="pagenum"><a id="page418" name="page418"></a>(p. 418)</span> and Latin race. However this
+may be, it is too generally the case that where Frenchmen, like
+Italians and Spaniards, throw off Roman Catholicism, they do not stop
+at rejecting its superstitions, but reject religion itself. They find
+no intermediate standpoint in Protestantism, but fly off into the void
+of utter unbelief. The same tendency characterizes them in politics.
+They seem to oscillate between Cæsarism and Red Republicanism; aiming
+not at reform so much as revolution. They are averse to any <span class="italic">via
+media</span>. When they have tried constitutionalism, they have broken down.
+So it has been with Protestantism, the constitutionalism of
+Christianity. The Huguenots at one time constituted a great power in
+France; but despotism in politics and religion proved too strong for
+them, and they were persecuted, banished, and stamped for a time out
+of existence, or at least out of sight.</p>
+
+<p>Protestantism was more successful in Germany. Was it because it was
+more conformable to the "genius" of its people? When the Germans
+"protested" against the prevailing corruptions in the Church, they did
+not seek to destroy it, but to reform it. They "stood upon the old
+ways," and sought to make them broader, straighter, and purer. They
+have pursued the same course in politics. Cooler and less impulsive
+than their Gallican neighbours, they have avoided revolutions, but are
+constantly seeking reforms. Of this course England itself furnishes a
+notable example.</p>
+
+<p>It is certainly a remarkable fact, that the stronghold of
+Protestantism in France was recently to be found among the population
+of Germanic origin seated along the valley of the Rhine; whereas in
+the western districts Protestantism is split up by the two
+irreconcilable parties of Evangelicals and Rationalists. <span class="pagenum"><a id="page419" name="page419"></a>(p. 419)</span> At
+the same time it should be borne in mind that Alsace did not become
+part of France until the year 1715, and that the Lutherans of that
+province were never exposed to the ferocious persecutions to which the
+Evangelical Protestants of Old France were subjected, before as well
+as after the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes.</p>
+
+<p>In Languedoc, in Dauphiny, and in the southern provinces generally,
+men and women who professed Protestantism were liable to be hanged or
+sent to the galleys, down to nearly the end of the last century. A
+Protestant pastor who exercised his vocation did so at the daily peril
+of his life. Nothing in the shape of a Protestant congregation was
+permitted to exist, and if Protestants worshipped together, it was in
+secret, in caves, in woods, among the hills, or in the "Desert." Yet
+Protestantism nevertheless contrived to exist through this long dark
+period of persecution, and even to increase. And when at length it
+became tolerated, towards the close of the last century, the numbers
+of its adherents appeared surprising to those who had imagined it to
+be altogether extinct.</p>
+
+<p>Indeed, looking at the persistent efforts made by Louis XIV. to
+exterminate the Huguenots, and to the fact that many hundred thousand
+of the best of them emigrated into foreign countries, while an equal
+number are supposed to have perished in prison, on the scaffold, at
+the galleys, and in their attempts to escape, it may almost be
+regarded as matter of wonder that the Église Reformée&mdash;the Church of
+the old Huguenots&mdash;should at the present day number about a thousand
+congregations, besides the five hundred Lutheran congregations of
+Alsatia, and that the Protestants of France should amount, in the
+whole, to about two millions of souls.<a href="#toc"><span class="small">[Back to Contents]</span></a></p>
+
+<h3><span class="pagenum"><a id="page420" name="page420"></a>(p. 420)</span> CHAPTER III.</h3>
+
+<p class="title">VAL LOUISE&mdash;HISTORY OF FELIX NEFF.</p>
+
+
+<p>Some eight miles south of Briançon, on the road to Fort Dauphin, a
+little river called the Gyronde comes down from the glaciers of Mont
+Pelvoux, and falls into the Durance nearly opposite the village of La
+Bessie. This river flows through Val Louise, the entrance into which
+can be discerned towards the northwest. Near the junction of the
+rivers, the ruins of an embattled wall, with entrenchments, are
+observed extending across the valley of the Durance, a little below
+the narrow pass called the "Pertuis-Rostan," evidently designed to
+close it against an army advancing from the south. The country people
+still call those ruins the "Walls of the Vaudois;"<a id="footnotetag101" name="footnotetag101"></a><a href="#footnote101" title="Go to footnote 101"><span class="small">[101]</span></a> and according
+to tradition a great Vaudois battle was fought there; but of any such
+battle history makes no mention.</p>
+
+<p>Indeed, so far as can be ascertained, the Vaudois of Dauphiny rarely
+if ever fought battles. They were too few in number, too much
+scattered among the <span class="pagenum"><a id="page421" name="page421"></a>(p. 421)</span> mountains, and too poor and ill-armed,
+to be able to contend against the masses of disciplined soldiery that
+were occasionally sent into the valleys. All that they did was to
+watch, from their mountain look-outs, their enemies' approach, and
+hide themselves in caves; or flee up to the foot of the glaciers till
+they had passed by. The attitude of the French Vaudois was thus for
+the most part passive; and they very rarely, like the Italian Vaudois,
+offered any determined or organized resistance to persecution. Hence
+they have no such heroic story to tell of battles and sieges and
+victories. Their heroism was displayed in patience, steadfastness, and
+long-suffering, rather than in resisting force by force; and they were
+usually ready to endure death in its most frightful forms rather than
+prove false to their faith.</p>
+
+<p>The ancient people of these valleys formed part of the flock of the
+Archbishop of Embrun. But history exhibits him as a very cruel
+shepherd. Thus, in 1335, there appears this remarkable entry in the
+accounts current of the bailli of Embrun: "Item, for persecuting the
+Vaudois, eight sols and thirty deniers of gold," as if the persecution
+of the Vaudois had become a regular department of the public service.
+What was done with the Vaudois when they were seized and tried at
+Embrun further appears from the records of the diocese. In 1348,
+twelve of the inhabitants of Val Louise were strangled at Embrun by
+the public executioner; and in 1393, a hundred and fifty inhabitants
+of the same valley were burned alive at the same place by order of the
+Inquisitor Borelli. But the most fatal of all the events that befell
+the inhabitants of Val Louise was that which occurred about a century
+later, in 1488, when nearly the whole of the remaining population
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page422" name="page422"></a>(p. 422)</span> of the valley were destroyed in a cavern near the foot of
+Mont Pelvoux.</p>
+
+<p>This dreadful massacre was perpetrated by a French army, under the
+direction of Albert Catanée, the papal legate. The army had been sent
+into Piedmont with the object of subjugating or destroying the Vaudois
+on the Italian side of the Alps, but had returned discomfited to
+Briançon, unable to effect their object. The legate then determined to
+take his revenge by an assault upon the helpless and unarmed French
+Vaudois, and suddenly directed his soldiers upon the valleys of
+Fressinières and Louise. The inhabitants of the latter valley,
+surprised, and unable to resist an army of some twenty thousand men,
+abandoned their dwellings, and made for the mountains with all haste,
+accompanied by their families, and driving their flocks before them.
+On the slope of Mont Pelvoux, about a third of the way up, there was
+formerly a great cavern, on the combe of Capescure, called La
+Balme-Chapelle&mdash;though now nearly worn away by the disintegration of
+the mountain-side&mdash;in which the poor hunted people contrived to find
+shelter. They built up the approaches to the cavern, filled the
+entrance with rocks, and considered themselves to be safe. But their
+confidence proved fatal to them. The Count La Palud, who was in
+command of the troops, seeing that it was impossible to force the
+entrance, sent his men up the mountain provided with ropes; and fixing
+them so that they should hang over the mouth of the cavern, a number
+of the soldiers slid down in full equipment, landing on the ledge
+right in front of the concealed Vaudois. Seized with a sudden panic,
+and being unarmed, many of them precipitated themselves over the rocks
+and were killed. The soldiers slaughtered all whom they could reach,
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page423" name="page423"></a>(p. 423)</span> after which they proceeded to heap up wood at the cavern
+mouth which they set on fire, and thus suffocated the remainder.
+Perrin says four hundred children were afterwards found in the cavern,
+stifled, in the arms of their dead mothers, and that not fewer than
+three thousand persons were thus ruthlessly destroyed. The little
+property of the slaughtered peasants was ordered by the Pope's legate
+to be divided amongst the vagabonds who had carried out his savage
+orders. The population having been thus exterminated, the district was
+settled anew some years later, in the reign of Louis XII., who gave
+his name to the valley; and a number of "good and true Catholics,"
+including many goitres and idiots,<a id="footnotetag102" name="footnotetag102"></a><a href="#footnote102" title="Go to footnote 102"><span class="small">[102]</span></a> occupied the dwellings and
+possessed the lands of the slaughtered Vaudois. There is an old saying
+that "the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the Church," but
+assuredly it does not apply to Val Louise, where the primitive
+Christian Church has been completely extinguished.</p>
+
+<p>There were other valleys in the same neighbourhood, whither we are now
+wending, where the persecution, though equally ferocious, proved less
+destructive; the inhabitants succeeding in making their escape into
+comparatively inaccessible places in the mountains before they could
+be put to the sword. For instance, in Val Fressinières&mdash;also opening
+into the valley of the Durance a little lower down than Val
+Louise&mdash;the Vaudois Church has never ceased to exist, and to this day
+the majority of the inhabitants belong to it. From the earliest times
+the people of the valley were distinguished for their "heresy;" and as
+early as the <span class="pagenum"><a id="page424" name="page424"></a>(p. 424)</span> fourteenth century eighty persons of
+Fressinières and the neighbouring valley of Argentières,&mdash;willing to
+be martyrs rather than apostates,&mdash;were burnt at Embrun because of
+their religion. In the following century (1483) we find ninety-nine
+informations laid before John Lord Archbishop of Embrun against
+supposed heretics of Val Fressinières. The suspected were ordered to
+wear a cross upon their dress, before and behind, and not to appear at
+church without displaying such crosses. But it further appears from
+the records, that, instead of wearing the crosses, most of the persons
+so informed against fled into the mountains and hid themselves away in
+caves for the space of five years.</p>
+
+<p>The nest steps taken by the Archbishop are described in a Latin
+manuscript,<a id="footnotetag103" name="footnotetag103"></a><a href="#footnote103" title="Go to footnote 103"><span class="small">[103]</span></a> of which the following is a translation:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p class="quote">
+     "Also, that in consequence of the above, the monk Francis
+     Splireti, of the order of Mendicants, Professor in Theology, was
+     deputed in the quality of Inquisitor of the said valleys; and
+     that in the year 1489, on the 1st of January, knowing that those
+     of Freyssinier had relapsed into infamous heresy, and had not
+     obeyed their orders, nor carried the cross on their dress, but on
+     the contrary had received their excommunicated and banished
+     brethren without delivering them over to the Church, sent to them
+     new citation, to which not having appeared, an adjournment of
+     their condemnation as hardened heretics, when their goods would
+     be confiscated, and themselves handed over the secular power, was
+     made to the 28th of June; but they remaining more obstinate than
+     ever, so much so that no hope remains of bringing them back, all
+     persons were forbidden to hold any communication whatsoever with
+     them without permission of the Church, and it was ordered by the
+     Procureur Fiscal that the aforesaid Inquisitor do proceed,
+     without further notice, to the execution of his office."</p>
+
+<p>What the execution of the Inquisitor's office meant, is, alas! but too
+well known. Bonds and imprisonment, scourgings and burnings at Embrun.
+The poor people appealed to the King of France for help against
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page425" name="page425"></a>(p. 425)</span> their persecutors, but in vain. In 1498 the inhabitants of
+Fressinières appeared by a procurator at Paris, on the occasion of the
+new sovereign, Louis XII., ascending the throne. But as the King was
+then seeking the favour of a divorce from his wife, Anne of Brittany,
+from Pope Alexander VI., he turned a deaf ear to their petition for
+mercy. On the contrary, Louis confirmed all the decisions of the
+clergy, and in return for the divorce which he obtained, he granted to
+the Pope's son, the infamous Cæsar Borgia, that very part of Dauphiny
+inhabited by the Vaudois, together with the title of Duke of
+Valentinois. They had appealed, as it were, to the tiger for mercy,
+and they were referred to the vulture.</p>
+
+<p>The persecution of the people of the valleys thus suffered no
+relaxation, and all that remained for them was flight into the
+mountains, to places where they were most likely to remain unmolested.
+Hence they fled up to the very edge of the glaciers, and formed their
+settlements at almost the farthest limits of vegetation. There the
+barrenness of the soil, the inhospitality of the climate, and the
+comparative inaccessibility of their villages, proved their security.
+Of them it might be truly said, that they "wandered about in
+sheepskins and goat-skins; being destitute, afflicted, tormented (of
+whom the world was not worthy); they wandered in deserts and in
+mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth." Yet the character of
+these poor peasants was altogether irreproachable. Even Louis XII.
+said of them, "Would to God that I were as good a Christian as the
+worst of these people!" The wonder is that, in the face of their
+long-continued persecutions, extending over so many centuries, any
+remnant of the original population of the valleys <span class="pagenum"><a id="page426" name="page426"></a>(p. 426)</span> should
+have been preserved. Long after the time of Louis XII. and Cæsar
+Borgia, the French historian, De Thou (writing in 1556), thus
+describes the people of Val Fressinières: "Notwithstanding their
+squalidness, it is surprising that they are very far from being
+uncultivated in their morals. They almost all understand Latin; and
+are able to write fairly enough. They understand also as much of
+French as will enable them to read the Bible and to sing psalms; nor
+would you easily find a boy among them who, if he were questioned as
+to the religious opinions which they hold in common with the
+Waldenses, would not be able to give from memory a reasonable account
+of them."<a id="footnotetag104" name="footnotetag104"></a><a href="#footnote104" title="Go to footnote 104"><span class="small">[104]</span></a></p>
+
+<p>After the promulgation of the Edict of Nantes, the Vaudois enjoyed a
+brief respite from their sufferings. They then erected temples,
+appointed ministers, and worshipped openly. This, however, only lasted
+for a short time, and when the Edict was revoked, and persecution
+began again, in the reign of Louis XIV., their worship was suppressed
+wherever practicable. But though the Vaudois temples were pulled down
+and their ministers banished, the Roman Catholics failed to obtain a
+footing in the valley. Some of the pastors continued to brave the fury
+of the persecutors, and wandered about from place to place among the
+scattered flocks, ministering to them at the peril of their lives.
+Rewards were offered for their apprehension, and a sort of "Hue and
+Cry" was issued by the police, describing their age, and height, and
+features, as if they had been veritable criminals. And when they were
+apprehended they were invariably hanged. As late as 1767 the
+parliament of Grenoble <span class="pagenum"><a id="page427" name="page427"></a>(p. 427)</span> condemned their pastor Berenger to
+death for continuing to preach to congregations in the "Desert."</p>
+
+<p>This religious destitution of the Vaudois continued to exist until a
+comparatively recent period. The people were without either pastors or
+teachers, and religion had become a tradition with them rather than an
+active living faith. Still, though poor and destitute, they held to
+their traditional belief, and refused to conform to the dominant
+religion. And so they continued until within the last forty years,
+when the fact of the existence of these remnants of the ancient
+Vaudois in the valleys of the High Alps came to the knowledge of Felix
+Neff, and he determined to go to their help and devote himself to
+their service.</p>
+
+<hr>
+
+<p>One would scarcely expect to find the apostle of the High Alps in the
+person of a young Swiss soldier of artillery. Yet so it was. In his
+boyhood, Neff read Plutarch, which filled his mind with admiration of
+the deeds of the great men of old. While passing through the soldier
+phase of his career the "Memoirs of Oberlin" accidentally came under
+his notice, the perusal of which gave quite a new direction to his
+life. Becoming impressed by religion, his ambition now was to be a
+missionary. Leaving the army, in which he had reached the rank of
+sergeant at nineteen, he proceeded to prepare himself for the
+ministry, and after studying for a time, and passing his preliminary
+examinations, he was, in conformity with the custom of the Geneva
+Church, employed on probation as a lay helper in parochial work. In
+this capacity Neff first went to Mens, in the department of Isère,
+where he officiated in the absence of the regular pastor, as well as
+occasionally at Vizille, for a period of about two years.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page428" name="page428"></a>(p. 428)</span> It was while residing at Mens that the young missionary first
+heard of the existence of the scattered communities of primitive
+Christians on the High Alps, descendants of the ancient Vaudois; and
+his mind became inflamed with the desire of doing for them what
+Oberlin had done for the poor Protestants of the Ban de la Roche. "I
+am always dreaming of the High Alps," he wrote to a friend, "and I
+would rather be stationed there than under the beautiful sky of
+Languedoc."</p>
+
+<p>But it was first necessary that he should receive ordination for the
+ministry; and accordingly in 1823, when in his twenty-fifth year, he
+left Mens with that object. He did not, however, seek ordination by
+the National Church of Geneva, which, in his opinion, had in a great
+measure ceased to hold Evangelical truth; but he came over to London,
+at the invitation of Mr. Cook and Mr. Wilks, two Congregational
+ministers, by whom he was duly ordained a minister in the Independent
+Chapel, Poultry.</p>
+
+<p>Shortly after his return to France, Neff, much to his own
+satisfaction, was invited as pastor to the very district in which he
+so much desired to minister&mdash;the most destitute in the High Alps.
+Before setting out he wrote in his journal, "To-morrow, with the
+blessing of God, I mean to push for the Alps by the sombre and
+picturesque valley of L'Oisan." After a few days, the young pastor was
+in the scene of his future labours; and he proceeded to explore hamlet
+after hamlet in search of the widely-scattered flock committed to his
+charge, and to arrange his plans for the working of his extensive
+parish.</p>
+
+<p>But it was more than a parish, for it embraced several of the most
+extensive, rugged, and mountainous <span class="pagenum"><a id="page429" name="page429"></a>(p. 429)</span> arrondissements of the
+High Alps. Though the whole number of people in his charge did not
+amount to more than six or seven hundred, they lived at great
+distances from each other, the churches to which he ministered being
+in some cases as much as eighty miles apart, separated by gorges and
+mountain-passes, for the most part impassable in winter. Neff's
+district extended in one direction from Vars to Briançon, and in
+another from Champsaur in the valley of the Drac to San Veran on the
+slope of Monte Viso, close to the Italian frontier. His residence was
+fixed at La Chalp, above Queyras, but as he rarely slept more than
+three nights in one place, he very seldom enjoyed its seclusion.</p>
+
+<p>The labour which Neff imposed upon himself was immense; and it was
+especially in the poorest and most destitute districts that he worked
+the hardest. He disregarded alike the summer's heat and the winter's
+cold. His first visit to Dormilhouse, in Val Fressinières, was made in
+January, when the mountain-paths were blocked with ice and snow; but,
+assembling the young men of the village, he went out with them armed
+with hatchets, and cut steps in the ice to enable the worshippers from
+the lower hamlets to climb up to service in the village church. The
+people who first came to hear him preach at Violens brought wisps of
+straw with them, which they lighted to guide them through the snow,
+while others, who had a greater distance to walk, brought pine
+torches.</p>
+
+<p>Nothing daunted, the valiant soldier, furnished with a stout staff and
+shod with heavy-nailed shoes, covered with linen socks to prevent
+slipping on the snow, would set out with his wallet on his back across
+the Col d'Orcières in winter, in the track of the lynx and the
+chamois, with the snow and sleet beating <span class="pagenum"><a id="page430" name="page430"></a>(p. 430)</span> against his face,
+to visit his people on the other side of the mountain. His patience,
+his perseverance, his sweetness of temper, were unfailing. "Ah!" said
+one unbelieving Thomas of Val Fressinières in his mountain patois,
+"you have come among us like a woman who attempts to kindle a fire
+with green wood; she exhausts her breath in blowing it to keep the
+little flame alive, but the moment she quits it, it is instantly
+extinguished."</p>
+
+<p>Neff nevertheless laboured on with hope, and neither discouragement
+nor obstruction slackened his efforts. And such labours could not fail
+of their effect. He succeeded in inspiring the simple mountaineers
+with his own zeal, he evoked their love, and excited their
+enthusiastic admiration. When he returned to Dormilhouse after a brief
+absence, the whole village would turn out and come down the mountain
+to meet and embrace him. "The rocks, the cascades, nay, the very
+glaciers," he wrote to a friend, "all seemed animated, and presented a
+smiling aspect; the savage country became agreeable and dear to me
+from the moment its inhabitants were my brethren."</p>
+
+<p>Unresting and indefatigable, Neff was always at work. He exhorted the
+people in hovels, held schools in barns in which he taught the
+children, and catechised them in stables. His hand was in every good
+work. He taught the people to sing, he taught them to read, he taught
+them to pray. To be able to speak to them familiarly, he learnt their
+native patois, and laboured at it like a schoolboy. He worked as a
+missionary among savages. The poor mountaineers had been so long
+destitute of instruction, that everything had as it were to be begun
+with them from the beginning. Sharing in their hovels and stables,
+with their <span class="pagenum"><a id="page431" name="page431"></a>(p. 431)</span> squalor and smoke, he taught them how to improve
+them by adding chimneys and windows, and showed how warmth might be
+obtained more healthfully than by huddling together in winter-time
+with the cattle. He taught them manners, and especially greater
+respect for women, inculcating the lesson by his own gentleness and
+tender deference. Out of doors, he showed how they might till the
+ground to greater advantage, and introduced an improved culture of the
+potato, which more than doubled the production. Observing how the
+pastures of Dormilhouse were scorched by the summer sun, he urged the
+adoption of a system of irrigation. The villagers were at first most
+obstinate in their opposition to his plans; but he persevered, laid
+out a canal, and succeeded at last in enlisting a body of workmen,
+whom he led out, pickaxe in hand, himself taking a foremost part in
+the work; and at last the waters were let into the canal amidst joy
+and triumph. At Violens he helped to build and finish the chapel,
+himself doing mason-work, smith-work, and carpenter-work by turns. At
+Dormilhouse a school was needed, and he showed the villagers how to
+build one; preparing the design, and taking part in the erection,
+until it was finished and ready for use. In short, he turned his hand
+to everything&mdash;nothing was too high or too low for this noble citizen
+of two worlds. At length, a serious accident almost entirely disabled
+him. While on one of his mountain journeys, he was making a détour
+amongst a mass of rocky débris, to avoid the dangers of an avalanche,
+when he had the misfortune to fall and severely sprain his knee. He
+became laid up for a time, and when able to move, he set out for his
+mother's home at Geneva, in the hope of recovering health and
+strength; for his digestive powers were also by this <span class="pagenum"><a id="page432" name="page432"></a>(p. 432)</span> time
+seriously injured. When he went away, the people of the valleys felt
+as if they should never see him more; and their sorrow at his
+departure was heart-rending. After trying the baths of Plombiéres
+without effect, he proceeded onwards to Geneva, which he reached only
+to die; and thus this good and noble soldier&mdash;one of the bravest of
+earth's heroes&mdash;passed away to his eternal reward at the early age of
+thirty-one.</p>
+
+<hr>
+
+<p>The valley of Fressinières&mdash;the principle scene of Neff's
+labours&mdash;joins the valley of the Durance nearly opposite the little
+hamlet of La Roche. There we leave the high road from Briançon to Fort
+Dauphin, and crossing the river by a timber bridge, ascend the steep
+mountain-side by a mule path, in order to reach the entrance to the
+valley of Fressinières, the level of which is high above that of the
+Durance. Not many years since, the higher valley could only be
+approached from this point by a very difficult mountain-path amidst
+rocks and stones, called the Ladder, or Pas de l'Échelle. It was
+dangerous at all times, and quite impassable in winter. The mule-path
+which has lately been made, though steep, is comparatively easy.</p>
+
+<p>What the old path was, and what were the discomforts of travelling
+through this district in Neff's time, may be appreciated on a perusal
+of the narrative of the young pastor Bost, who in 1840 determined to
+make a sort of pilgrimage to the scenes of his friend's labours some
+seventeen years before. M. Bost, however, rather exaggerates the
+difficulties and discomforts of the valleys than otherwise. He saw no
+beauty nor grandeur in the scenery, only "horrible mountains in a
+state of dissolution" and constantly ready to fall upon the heads
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page433" name="page433"></a>(p. 433)</span> of massing travellers. He had no eyes for the picturesque
+though gloomy lake of La Roche, but saw only the miserable hamlet
+itself. He slept in the dismal little inn, as doubtless Neff had often
+done before, and was horrified by the multitudinous companions that
+shared his bed; and, tumbling out, he spent the rest of the night on
+the floor. The food was still worse&mdash;cold <span class="italic">café noir</span>, and bread
+eighteen months old, soaked in water before it could be eaten. His
+breakfast that morning made him ill for a week. Then his mounting up
+the Pas de l'Échelle, which he did not climb "without profound
+emotion," was a great trouble to him. Of all this we find not a word
+in the journals or letters of Neff, whose early life as a soldier had
+perhaps better inured him to "roughing it" than the more tender
+bringing-up of Pastor Bost.</p>
+
+<p>As we rounded the shoulder of the hill, almost directly overlooking
+the ancient Roman town of Rama in the valley of the Durance
+underneath, we shortly came in sight of the little hamlet of Palons, a
+group of "peasants' nests," overhung by rocks, with the one good house
+in it, the comfortable parsonage of the Protestant pastor, situated at
+the very entrance to the valley. Although the peasants' houses which
+constitute the hamlet of Palons are still very poor and miserable, the
+place has been greatly improved since Neff's time, by the erection of
+the parsonage. It was found that the pastors who were successively
+appointed to minister to the poor congregations in the valley very
+soon became unfitted for their work by the hardships to which they
+were exposed; and being without any suitable domestic accommodation,
+one after another of them resigned their charge.</p>
+
+<p>To remedy this defect, a movement was begun in <span class="pagenum"><a id="page434" name="page434"></a>(p. 434)</span> 1852 by the
+Rev. Mr. Freemantle, rector of Claydon, Bucks, assisted by the Foreign
+Aid Society and a few private friends, with the object of providing
+pastors' dwellings, as well as chapels when required, in the more
+destitute places. The movement has already been attended with
+considerable success; and among its first results was the erection in
+1857 of the comfortable parsonage of Palons, the large lower room of
+which also serves the purpose of a chapel. The present incumbent is M.
+Charpiot, of venerable and patriarchal aspect, whose white hairs are a
+crown of glory&mdash;a man beloved by his extensive flock, for his parish
+embraces the whole valley, about twelve miles in extent, including the
+four villages of Ribes, Violens, Minsals, and Dormilhouse; other
+pastors having been appointed of late years to the more distant
+stations included in the original widely-scattered charge of Felix
+Neff.</p>
+
+<p>The situation of the parsonage and adjoining grounds at Palons is
+charmingly picturesque. It stands at the entrance to the defile which
+leads into Val Fressinières, having a background of bold rocks
+enclosing a mountain plateau known as the "Camp of Catinat," a
+notorious persecutor of the Vaudois. In front of the parsonage extends
+a green field planted with walnut and other trees, part of which is
+walled off as the burying-ground of the hamlet. Alongside, in a deep
+rocky gully, runs the torrent of the Biasse, leaping from rock to rock
+on its way to the valley of the Durance, far below. This fall, or
+cataract, is not inappropriately named the "Gouffouran," or roaring
+gulf; and its sullen roar is heard all through the night in the
+adjoining parsonage. The whole height of the fall, as it tumbles from
+rock to rock, is about four hundred and fifty feet; and about halfway
+down, <span class="pagenum"><a id="page435" name="page435"></a>(p. 435)</span> the water shoots into a deep, dark cavern, where it
+becomes completely lost to sight.</p>
+
+<p>The inhabitants of the hamlet are a poor hard-working people, pursuing
+their industry after very primitive methods. Part of the Biasse, as it
+issues from the defile, is turned aside here and there to drive little
+fulling-mills of the rudest construction, where the people "waulk" the
+cloth of their own making. In the adjoining narrow fields overhanging
+the Gouffouran, where the ploughs are at work, the oxen are yoked to
+them in the old Roman fashion, the pull being by a bar fixed across
+the animals' foreheads.</p>
+
+<p>In the neighbourhood of Palons, as at various other places in the
+valley, there are numerous caverns which served by turns in early
+times as hiding-places and as churches, and which were not
+unfrequently consecrated by the Vaudois with their blood. One of these
+is still known as the "Glesia," or "Église." Its opening is on the
+crest of a frightful precipice, but its diameter has of late years
+been considerably reduced by the disintegration of the adjoining rock.
+Neff once took Captain Cotton up to see it, and chanted the <span class="italic">Te Deum</span>
+in the rude temple with great emotion.</p>
+
+<p>Palons is, perhaps, the most genial and fertile spot in the valley; it
+looks like a little oasis in the desert. Indeed, Neff thought the soil
+of the place too rich for the growth of piety. "Palons," said he in
+his journal, "is more fertile than the rest of the valley, and even
+produces wine: the consequence is, that there is less piety here."
+Neff even entertained the theory that the poorer the people the
+greater was their humility and fervour, and the less their selfishness
+and spiritual pride. Thus, he considered "the fertility of the commune
+of Champsaur, and its proximity to the high road and to <span class="pagenum"><a id="page436" name="page436"></a>(p. 436)</span> Gap,
+great stumbling-blocks." The loftiest, coldest, and most barren
+spots&mdash;such as San Veran and Dormilhouse&mdash;were, in his opinion, by
+far the most promising. Of the former he said, "It is the highest, and
+consequently the most pious, village in the valley of Queyras;" and of
+the inhabitants of the latter he said, "From the first moment of my
+arrival I took them to my heart, and I ardently desired to be unto
+them even as another Oberlin."<a href="#toc"><span class="small">[Back to Contents]</span></a></p>
+
+<h3><span class="pagenum"><a id="page437" name="page437"></a>(p. 437)</span> CHAPTER IV.</h3>
+
+<p class="title">THE VAUDOIS MOUNTAIN-REFUGE OF DORMILHOUSE.</p>
+
+
+<p>The valley of Fressinières could never have maintained a large
+population. Though about twelve miles in extent, it contains a very
+small proportion of arable land&mdash;only a narrow strip, of varying
+width, lying in the bottom, with occasional little patches of
+cultivated ground along the mountain-sides, where the soil has settled
+on the ledges, the fields seeming in many cases to hang over
+precipices. At the upper end of the valley, the mountains come down so
+close to the river Biasse that no space is left for cultivation, and
+the slopes are so rocky and abrupt as to be unavailable even for
+pasturage, excepting of goats.</p>
+
+<p>Yet the valley seems never to have been without a population, more or
+less numerous according to the rigour of the religious persecutions
+which prevailed in the neighbourhood. Its comparative inaccessibility,
+its inhospitable climate, and its sterility, combined to render it one
+of the most secure refuges of the Vaudois in the Middle Ages. It could
+neither be easily entered by an armed force, nor permanently occupied
+by them. The scouts on the hills overlooking the Durance could always
+see their enemies approach, and the inhabitants were enabled to take
+refuge in caves in the mountain-sides, <span class="pagenum"><a id="page438" name="page438"></a>(p. 438)</span> or flee to the upper
+parts of the valley, before the soldiers could clamber up the steep
+Pas de l'Échelle, and reach the barricaded defile through which the
+Biasse rushes down the rocky gorge of the Gouffouran. When the
+invaders succeeded in penetrating this barrier, they usually found the
+hamlets deserted and the people fled. They could then only wreak their
+vengeance on the fields, which they laid waste, and on the dwellings,
+which they burned; and when the "brigands" had at length done their
+worst and departed, the poor people crept back to their ruined homes
+to pray, amidst their ashes, for strength to enable them to bear the
+heavy afflictions which they were thus called upon to suffer for
+conscience' sake.</p>
+
+<p>The villages in the lower part of the valley were thus repeatedly
+ravaged and destroyed. But far up, at its extremest point, a difficult
+footpath led, across the face almost of a precipice, which the
+persecutors never ventured to scale, to the hamlet of Dormilhouse,
+seated on a few ledges of rock on a lofty mountain-side, five thousand
+feet above the level of the sea; and this place, which was for
+centuries a mountain fastness of the persecuted, remains a Vaudois
+settlement to this day.</p>
+
+<p>An excursion to this interesting mountain hamlet having been arranged,
+our little party of five persons set out for the place on the morning
+of the 1st of July, under the guidance of Pastor Charpiot. Though the
+morning was fine and warm, yet, as the place of our destination was
+situated well up amongst the clouds, we were warned to provide
+ourselves with umbrellas and waterproofs, nor did the provision prove
+in vain. We were also warned that there was an utter want of
+accommodation for visitors at Dormilhouse, for which we must be
+prepared. The words scratched on the window <span class="pagenum"><a id="page439" name="page439"></a>(p. 439)</span> of the Norwegian
+inn might indeed apply to it: "Here the stranger may find very good
+entertainment&mdash;<span class="italic">provided he bring it with him</span>!" We accordingly
+carried our entertainment with us, in the form of a store of blankets,
+bread, chocolate, and other articles, which, with the traveller's
+knapsacks, were slung across the back of a donkey.</p>
+
+<p>After entering the defile, an open part of the valley was passed,
+amidst which the little river, at present occupying very narrow
+limits, meandered; but it was obvious from the width of the channel
+and the débris widely strewn about, that in winter it is a roaring
+torrent. A little way up we met an old man coming down driving a
+loaded donkey, with whom one of our party, recognising him as an old
+acquaintance, entered into conversation. In answer to an inquiry made
+as to the progress of the good cause in the valley, the old man
+replied very despondingly. "There was," he said, "a great lack of
+faith, of zeal, of earnestness, amongst the rising generation. They
+were too fond of pleasures, too apt to be led away by the fleeting
+vanities of this world." It was only the old story&mdash;the complaint of
+the aged against the young. When this old peasant was a boy, his
+elders doubtless thought and said the same of him. The generation
+growing old always think the generation still young in a state of
+degeneracy. So it was forty years since, when Felix Neff was amongst
+them, and so it will be forty years hence. One day Neff met an old man
+near Mens, who recounted to him the story of the persecutions which
+his parents and himself had endured, and he added: "In those times
+there was more zeal than there is now; my father and mother used to
+cross mountains and forests by night, in the worst weather, at the
+risk of their lives, to be <span class="pagenum"><a id="page440" name="page440"></a>(p. 440)</span> present at divine service
+performed in secret; but now we are grown lazy: religious freedom is
+the deathblow to piety."</p>
+
+<p>An hour's walking brought us to the principal hamlet of the commune,
+formerly called Fressinières, but now known as Les Ribes, occupying a
+wooded height on the left bank of the river. The population is partly
+Roman Catholic and partly Protestant. The Roman Catholics have a
+church here, the last in the valley, the two other places of worship
+higher up being Protestant. The principal person of Les Ribes is M.
+Baridon, son of the Joseph Baridon, receiver of the commune, so often
+mentioned with such affection in the journal of Neff. He is the only
+person in the valley whose position and education give him a claim to
+the title of "Monsieur;" and his house contains the only decent
+apartment in the Val Fressinières where pastors and visitors could be
+lodged previous to the erection, by Mr. Freemantle, of the pleasant
+little parsonage at Palons. This apartment in the Baridons' house Neff
+used to call the "Prophet's Chamber."</p>
+
+<p>Half an hour higher up the valley we reached the hamlet of Violens,
+where all the inhabitants are Protestants. It was at this place that
+Neff helped to build and finish the church, for which he designed the
+seats and pulpit, and which he opened and dedicated on the 29th of
+August, 1824, the year before he finally left the neighbourhood.
+Violens is a poor hamlet situated at the bottom of a deep glen, or
+rocky abyss, called La Combe; the narrow valleys of Dauphiny, like
+those of Devon, being usually called combes, doubtless from the same
+original Celtic word <span class="italic">cwm</span>, signifying a hollow or dingle.</p>
+
+<p>A little above Violens the valley contracts almost to <span class="pagenum"><a id="page441" name="page441"></a>(p. 441)</span> a
+ravine, until we reach the miserable hamlet of Minsals, so shut in by
+steep crags that for nine months of the year it never sees the sun,
+and during several months in winter it lies buried in snow. The hamlet
+consists for the most part of hovels of mud and stone, without windows
+or chimneys, being little better than stables; indeed, in winter time,
+for the sake of warmth, the poor people share them with their cattle.
+How they contrive to scrape a living out of the patches of soil
+rescued from the rocks, or hung upon the precipices on the
+mountain-side, is a wonder.</p>
+
+<p>One of the horrors of this valley consists in the constant state of
+disintegration of the adjoining rocks, which, being of a slaty
+formation, frequently break away in large masses, and are hurled into
+the lower grounds. This, together with the fall of avalanches in
+winter, makes the valley a most perilous place to live in. A little
+above Minsals, only a few years since, a tremendous fall of rock and
+mud swept over nearly the whole of the cultivated ground, since which
+many of the peasantry have had to remove elsewhere. What before was a
+well-tilled meadow, is now only a desolate waste, covered with rocks
+and débris.</p>
+
+<p>Another of the horrors of the place is its liability to floods, which
+come rushing down, from the mountains, and often work sad havoc.
+Sometimes a fall of rocks from the cliffs above dams up the bed of the
+river, when a lake accumulates behind the barrier until it bursts, and
+the torrent swoops down the valley, washing away fields, and bridges,
+and mills, and hovels.</p>
+
+<p>Even the stouter-built dwelling of M. Baridon at Les Ribes was nearly
+carried away by one of such inundations twelve years ago. It stands
+about a hundred yards from the mountain-stream which comes down
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page442" name="page442"></a>(p. 442)</span> from the Pic de la Séa. One day in summer a storm burst over
+the mountain, and the stream at once became swollen to a torrent. The
+inmates of the dwelling thought the house must eventually be washed
+away, and gave themselves up to prayer. The flood, bearing with it
+rolling rocks, came nearer and nearer, until it reached a few old
+walnut trees on a line with the torrent. A rock of some thirty feet
+square tumbled against one of the trees, which staggered and bent, but
+held fast and stopped the rock. The débris at once rolled upon it into
+a bank, the course of the torrent was turned, and the dwelling and its
+inmates were saved.</p>
+
+<p>Another incident, illustrative of the perils of daily life in Val
+Fressinières, was related to me by Mr. Milsom while passing the scene
+of one of the mud and rock avalanches so common in the valley. Etienne
+Baridon, a member of the same Les Ribes family, an intelligent young
+man, disabled for ordinary work by lameness and deformity, occupied
+himself in teaching the children in the Protestant school at Violens,
+whither he walked daily, accompanied by the pupils from Les Ribes. One
+day, a heavy thunderstorm burst over the valley, and sent down an
+avalanche of mud, débris, and boulders, which rolled quite across the
+valley and extended to the river. The news of the circumstance reached
+Etienne when in school at Violens; the road to Les Ribes was closed;
+and he was accordingly urged to stay over the night with the children.
+But thinking of the anxiety of their parents, he determined to guide
+them back over the fall of rocks if possible. Arrived at the place, he
+found the mass still on the move, rolling slowly down in a ridge of
+from ten to twenty feet high, towards the river. Supported by a stout
+staff; the lame Baridon took first one <span class="pagenum"><a id="page443" name="page443"></a>(p. 443)</span> child and then
+another upon his hump-back; and contrived to carry them across in
+safety; but while making his last journey with the last child, his
+foot slipped and his leg got badly crushed among the still-rolling
+stones. He was, however, able to extricate himself, and reached Les
+Ribes in safety with all the children. "This Etienne," concluded Mr.
+Milsom, "was really a noble fellow, and his poor deformed body covered
+the soul of a hero."</p>
+
+<p>At length, after a journey of about ten miles up this valley of the
+shadow of death, along which the poor persecuted Vaudois were so often
+hunted, we reached an apparent <span class="italic">cul-de-sac</span> amongst the mountains,
+beyond which further progress seemed impracticable. Precipitous rocks,
+with their slopes of débris at foot, closed in the valley all round,
+excepting only the narrow gullet by which we had come; but, following
+the footpath, a way up the mountain-side gradually disclosed itself&mdash;a
+zigzag up the face of what seemed to be a sheer precipice&mdash;and this we
+were told was the road to Dormilhouse. The zigzag path is known as the
+Tourniquet. The ascent is long, steep, and fatiguing. As we passed up,
+we observed that the precipice contained many narrow ledges upon which
+soil has settled, or to which it has been carried. Some of these are
+very narrow, only a few yards in extent, but wherever there is room
+for a spade to turn, the little patches bear marks of cultivation; and
+these are the fields of the people of Dormilhouse!</p>
+
+<p>Far up the mountain, the footpath crosses in front of a lofty
+cascade&mdash;La Pisse du Dormilhouse&mdash;which leaps from the summit of the
+precipice, and sometimes dashes over the roadway itself. Looking down
+into the valley from this point, we see the Biasse meandering
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page444" name="page444"></a>(p. 444)</span> like a thread in the hollow of the mountains, becoming lost
+to sight in the ravine near Minsals. We have now ascended to a great
+height, and the air feels cold and raw. When we left Palons, the sun
+was shining brightly, and its heat was almost oppressive, but now the
+temperature feels wintry. On our way up, rain began to fall; as we
+ascended the Tourniquet the rain became changed to sleet; and at
+length, on reaching the summit of the rising ground from which we
+first discerned the hamlet of Dormilhouse, on the first day of July,
+the snow was falling heavily, and all the neighbouring mountains were
+clothed in the garb of winter.</p>
+
+<p>This, then, is the famous mountain fastness of the Vaudois&mdash;their last
+and loftiest and least accessible retreat when hunted from their
+settlements in the lower valleys hundreds of years ago. Driven from
+rock to rock, from Alp to Alp, they clambered up on to this lofty
+mountain-ledge, five thousand feet high, and made good their
+settlement, though at the daily peril of their lives. It was a place
+of refuge, a fortress and citadel of the faithful, where they
+continued to worship God according to conscience during the long dark
+ages of persecution and tyranny. The dangers and terrors of the
+situation are indeed so great, that it never could have been chosen
+even for a hiding-place, much less for a permanent abode, but from the
+direst necessity. What the poor people suffered while establishing
+themselves on these barren mountain heights no one can tell, but they
+contrived at length to make the place their home, and to become inured
+to their hard life, until it became almost a second nature to them.</p>
+
+<p>The hamlet of Dormilhouse is said to have existed <span class="pagenum"><a id="page445" name="page445"></a>(p. 445)</span> for nearly
+six hundred years, during which the religion of its inhabitants has
+remained the same. It has been alleged that the people are the
+descendants of a colony of refugee Lombards; but M. Muston, and others
+well able to judge, after careful inquiry on the spot, have come to
+the conclusion that they bear all the marks of being genuine
+descendants of the ancient Vaudois. In features, dress, habits, names,
+language, and religious doctrine, they have an almost perfect identity
+with the Vaudois of Piedmont at the present day.</p>
+
+<p>Dormilhouse consists of about forty cottages, inhabited by some two
+hundred persons. The cottages are perched "like eagles' nests," one
+tier ranging over another on the rocky ledges of a steep
+mountain-side. There is very little soil capable of cultivation in the
+neighbourhood, but the villagers seek out little patches in the valley
+below and on the mountain shelves, from which they contrive to grow a
+little grain for home use. The place is so elevated and so exposed,
+that in some seasons even rye will not ripen at Dormilhouse, while the
+pasturages are in many places inaccessible to cattle, and scarcely
+safe for sheep.</p>
+
+<p>The principal food of the people is goats' milk and unsifted rye,
+which they bake into cakes in the autumn, and these cakes last them
+the whole year&mdash;the grain, if left unbaked, being apt to grow mouldy
+and spoil in so damp an atmosphere. Besides, fuel is so scarce that it
+is necessary to exercise the greatest economy in its use, every stick
+burnt in the village having to be brought from a distance of some
+twelve miles, on the backs of donkeys, by the steep mountain-path
+leading up to the hamlet. Hence, also, the unsavoury means which they
+are under the necessity of adopting to economize warmth in the winter,
+by stabling the cattle <span class="pagenum"><a id="page446" name="page446"></a>(p. 446)</span> with themselves in the cottages. The
+huts are for the most part wretched constructions of stone and mud,
+from which fresh air, comfort, and cleanliness seem to be entirely
+excluded. Excepting that the people are for the most part comfortably
+dressed, in clothing of coarse wool, which they dress and weave
+themselves, their domestic accommodation and manner of living are
+centuries behind the age; and were a stranger suddenly to be set down
+in the village, he could with difficulty be made to believe that he
+was in the land of civilised Frenchmen.</p>
+
+<p>The place is dreary, stern, and desolate-looking even in summer. Thus,
+we entered it with the snow falling on the 1st of July! Few of the
+balmy airs of the sweet South of France breathe here. In the hollow of
+the mountains the heat may be like that of an oven; but here, far up
+on the heights, though the air may be fresh and invigorating at times,
+when the wind blows it often rises to a hurricane. Here the summer
+comes late and departs early. While flowers are blooming in the
+valleys, not a bud or blade of corn is to be seen at Dormilhouse. At
+the season when vegetation is elsewhere at its richest, the dominant
+features of the landscape are barrenness and desolation. The very
+shapes of the mountains are rugged, harsh, and repulsive. Right over
+against the hamlet, separated from it by a deep gully, rises up the
+grim, bare Gramusac, as black as a wall, but along the ledges of
+which, the hunters of Dormilhouse, who are very daring and skilful, do
+not fear to stalk the chamois.</p>
+
+<p>But if the place is thus stern and even appalling in summer, what must
+it be in winter? There is scarcely a habitation in the village that is
+not exposed to the danger of being carried away by avalanches or
+falling <span class="pagenum"><a id="page447" name="page447"></a>(p. 447)</span> rocks. The approach to the mountain is closed by ice
+and snow, while the rocks are all tapestried with icicles. The
+<span class="italic">tourmente</span>, or snow whirlwind, occasionally swoops up the valley,
+tears the roofs from the huts, and scatters them in destruction.</p>
+
+<p>Here is a passage from Neff's journal, vividly descriptive of winter
+life at Dormilhouse:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p class="quote">
+     "The weather has been rigorous in the extreme; the falls of snow
+     are very frequent, and when it becomes a little milder, a general
+     thaw takes place, and our hymns are often sung amid the roar of
+     the avalanches, which, gliding along the smooth face of the
+     glacier, hurl themselves from precipice to precipice, like vast
+     cataracts of silver."</p>
+
+<p>Writing in January, he says:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p class="quote">
+     "We have been buried in four feet of snow since of 1st of
+     November. At this very moment a terrible blast is whirling the
+     snow in thick blinding clouds. Travelling is exceedingly
+     difficult and even dangerous among these valleys, particularly in
+     the neighbourhood of Dormilhouse, by reason of the numerous
+     avalanches falling everywhere.... One Sunday evening our scholars
+     and many of the Dormilhouse people, when returning home after the
+     sermon at Violens, narrowly escaped an avalanche. It rolled
+     through a narrow defile between two groups of persons: a few
+     seconds sooner or later, and it would have plunged the flower of
+     our youth into the depths of an unfathomable gorge.... In fact,
+     there are very few habitations in these parts which are not
+     liable to be swept away, for there is not a spot in the narrow
+     corner of the valley which can be considered absolutely safe. But
+     terrible as their situation is, they owe to it their religion,
+     and perhaps their physical existence. If their country had been
+     more secure and more accessible, they would have been
+     exterminated like the inhabitants of Val Louise."</p>
+
+<p>Such is the interesting though desolate mountain hamlet to the service
+of whose hardy inhabitants the brave Felix Neff devoted himself during
+the greater part of his brief missionary career. It was characteristic
+of him to prefer to serve them because their destitution was greater
+than that which existed in any other quarter of his extensive parish;
+and he turned from the grand mountain scenery of Arvieux and his
+comfortable cottage at La Chalp, to spend his winters in the dismal
+hovels and amidst the barren wastes of Dormilhouse.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page448" name="page448"></a>(p. 448)</span> When Neff first went amongst them, the people were in a state
+of almost total spiritual destitution. They had not had any pastor
+stationed amongst them for nearly a hundred and fifty years. During
+all that time they had been without schools of any kind, and
+generation after generation had grown up and passed away in ignorance.
+Yet with all the inborn tenacity of their race, they had throughout
+refused to conform to the dominant religion. They belonged to the
+Vaudois Church, and repudiated Romanism.</p>
+
+<p>There was probably a Protestant church existing at Dormilhouse
+previous to the Revocation, as is shown by the existence of an ancient
+Vaudois church-bell, which was hid away until of late years, when it
+was dug up and hung in the belfry of the present church. In 1745, the
+Roman Catholics endeavoured to effect a settlement in the place, and
+then erected the existing church, with a residence for the curé. But
+the people, though they were on the best of terms with the curé,
+refused to enter his church. During the twenty years that he
+ministered there, it is said the sole congregation consisted of his
+domestic servant, who assisted him at mass.</p>
+
+<p>The story is still told of the curé bringing up from Les Ribes a large
+bag of apples&mdash;an impossible crop at Dormilhouse&mdash;by way of tempting
+the children to come to him and receive instruction. But they went
+only so long as the apples lasted, and when they were gone the
+children disappeared. The curé complained that during the whole time
+he had been in the place he had not been able to get a single person
+to cross himself. So, finding he was not likely to be of any use
+there, he petitioned his bishop to be allowed to leave; on which, his
+request being complied with, the church was closed.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page449" name="page449"></a>(p. 449)</span> This continued until the period of the French Revolution,
+when religious toleration became recognised. The Dormilhouse people
+then took possession of the church. They found in it several dusty
+images, the basin for the holy water, the altar candlesticks, and
+other furniture, just as the curé had left them many years before; and
+they are still preserved as curiosities. The new occupants of the
+church whitewashed the pictures, took down the crosses, dug up the old
+Vaudois bell and hung it up in the belfry, and rang the villagers
+together to celebrate the old worship again. But they were still in
+want of a regular minister until the period when Felix Neff settled
+amongst them. A zealous young preacher, Henry Laget, had before then
+paid them a few visits, and been warmly welcomed; and when, in his
+last address, he told them they would see his face no more, "it
+seemed," said a peasant who related the incident to Neff, "as if a
+gust of wind had extinguished the torch which was to light us in our
+passage by night across the precipice." And even Neff's ministry, as
+we have above seen, only lasted for the short space of about three
+years.</p>
+
+<p>Some years after the death of Neff, another attempt was made by the
+Roman Catholics to establish a mission at Dormilhouse. A priest went
+up from Les Ribes accompanied by a sister of mercy from Gap&mdash;"the
+pearl of the diocese," she was called&mdash;who hired a room for the
+purpose of commencing a school. To give <span class="italic">éclat</span> to their enterprise,
+the Archbishop of Embrun himself went up, clothed in a purple dress,
+riding a white horse, and accompanied by a party of men bearing a
+great red cross, which he caused to be set up at the entrance to the
+village. But when the archbishop appeared, not a single inhabitant
+went out to meet <span class="pagenum"><a id="page450" name="page450"></a>(p. 450)</span> him; they had all assembled in the church
+to hold a prayer-meeting, and it lasted during the whole period of his
+visit. All that he accomplished was to set up the great red cross,
+after which he went down the Tourniquet again; and shortly after, the
+priest and the sister of mercy, finding they could not obtain a
+footing, also left the village. Somehow or other, the red cross which
+had been set up mysteriously disappeared, but how it had been disposed
+of no one would ever reveal. It was lately proposed to commemorate the
+event of the archbishop's visit by the erection of an obelisk on the
+spot where he had set up the red cross; and a tablet, with a suitable
+inscription, was provided for it by the Rev. Mr. Freemantle, of
+Claydon. But when he was told that the site was exposed to the full
+force of the avalanches descending from the upper part of the mountain
+in winter, and would speedily be swept away, the project of the
+memorial pillar was abandoned, and the tablet was inserted, instead,
+in the front wall of the village church, where it reads as follows:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p class="poem center">
+<span class="smcap">À LA GLOIRE DE DIEU<br>
+        DONT DE LES TEMPS ANCIENS<br>
+  ET À TRAVERS LE MARTYR DE LEURS PÈRES<br>
+              A MAINTENU<br>
+            À DORMILHOUSE<br>
+        LA FOI DONNE AUX SAINTS<br>
+    ET LA CONNAISSANCE DE LA PAROLE<br>
+        LES HABITANTS ONT ÉLEVÉ<br>
+              CETTE PIERRE<br>
+               MDCCCLXIV.</span></p>
+
+<p>Having thus described the village and its history, a few words remain
+to be added as to the visit of our little party of travellers from
+Palons. On reaching the elevated point at which the archbishop had set
+up the red cross, the whole of the huts lay before us, and a <span class="pagenum"><a id="page451" name="page451"></a>(p. 451)</span>
+little way down the mountain-side we discerned the village church,
+distinguished by its little belfry. Leaving on our right the
+Swiss-looking châlet with overhanging roof, in which Neff used to
+lodge with the Baridon-Verdure family while at Dormilhouse, and now
+known as "Felix Neff's house," we made our way down a steep and stony
+footpath towards the school-house adjoining the church, in front of
+which we found the large ash trees, shading both church and school,
+which Neff himself had planted. Arrived at the school-house, we there
+found shelter and accommodation for the night. The schoolroom, fitted
+with its forms and desks, was our parlour, and our bedrooms, furnished
+with the blankets we had brought with us, were in the little chambers
+adjoining.</p>
+
+<p>At eight in the evening the church bell rang for service&mdash;the
+summoning bell. The people had been expecting the visit, and turned
+out in full force, so that at nine o'clock, when the last bell rang,
+the church was found filled to the door. Every seat was occupied&mdash;by
+men on one side, and by women on the other. The service was conducted
+by Mr. Milsom, the missionary visitor from Lyons, who opened with
+prayer, then gave out the twenty-third Psalm, which was sung to an
+accompaniment on the harmonium; then another prayer, followed by the
+reading of a chapter in the New Testament, was wound up by an address,
+in which the speaker urged the people to their continuance in
+well-doing. In the course of his remarks he said: "Be not discouraged
+because the results of your Labours may appear but small. Work on and
+faint not, and God will give the spiritual increase. Pastors,
+teachers, and colporteurs are too often ready to despond, because the
+fruit does not seem to ripen while they are <span class="pagenum"><a id="page452" name="page452"></a>(p. 452)</span> watching it. But
+the best fruit grows slowly. Think how the Apostles laboured. They
+were all poor men, but men of brave hearts; and they passed away to
+their rest long before the seed which they planted grew up and ripened
+to perfection. Work on then in patience and hope, and be assured that
+God will at length help you."</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Milsom's address was followed by another from the pastor, and then
+by a final prayer and hymn, after which the service was concluded, and
+the villagers dispersed to their respective homes a little after ten
+o'clock. The snow had ceased falling, but the sky was still overcast,
+and the night felt cold and raw, like February rather than July.</p>
+
+<p>The wonder is, that this community of Dormilhouse should cling to
+their mountain eyrie so long after the necessity for their living
+above the clouds has ceased; but it is their home, and they have come
+to love it, and are satisfied to live and die there. Rather than live
+elsewhere, they will walk, as some of them do, twelve miles in the
+early morning, to their work down in the valley of the Durance, and
+twelve miles home again, in the evenings, to their perch on the rocks
+at Dormilhouse.</p>
+
+<p>They are even proud of their mountain home, and would not change it
+for the most smiling vineyard of the plains. They are like a little
+mountain clan&mdash;all Baridons, or Michels, or Orcieres, or Bertholons,
+or Arnouds&mdash;proud of their descent from the ancient Vaudois. It is
+their boast that a Roman Catholic does not live among them. Once, when
+a young shepherd came up from the valley to pasture his flock in the
+mountains, he fell in love with a maiden of the village, and proposed
+to marry her. "Yes," was the <span class="pagenum"><a id="page453" name="page453"></a>(p. 453)</span> answer, with this condition,
+that he joined the Vaudois Church. And he assented, married the girl,
+and settled for life at Dormilhouse.<a id="footnotetag105" name="footnotetag105"></a><a href="#footnote105" title="Go to footnote 105"><span class="small">[105]</span></a></p>
+
+<hr>
+
+<p>The next morning broke clear and bright overhead. The sun shone along
+the rugged face of the Gramusac right over against the hamlet,
+bringing out its bolder prominences. Far below, the fleecy clouds were
+still rolling themselves up the mountain-sides, or gradually
+dispersing as the sun caught them on their emerging from the valley
+below. The view was bold and striking, displaying the grandeur of the
+scenery of Dormilhouse in one of its best aspects.</p>
+
+<p>Setting out on the return journey to Palons, we descended the face of
+the mountain on which Dormilhouse stands, by a steep footpath right in
+front of it, down towards the falls of the Biasse. Looking back, the
+whole village appeared above us, cottage over cottage, and ledge over
+ledge, with its stern background of rocky mountain.</p>
+
+<p>Immediately under the village, in a hollow between two shoulders of
+rock, the cascade of the Biasse leaps down into the valley. The
+highest leap falls in a jet of about a hundred feet, and the lower,
+divided into two by a projecting ledge, breaks into a shower of spray
+which falls about a hundred and fifty feet more into the abyss below.
+Even in Switzerland this fall would <span class="pagenum"><a id="page454" name="page454"></a>(p. 454)</span> be considered a fine
+object; but in this out-of-the-way place, it is rarely seen except by
+the villagers, who have water and cascades more than enough.</p>
+
+<p>We were told on the spot, that some eighty years since an avalanche
+shot down the mountain immediately on to the plateau on which we
+stood, carrying with it nearly half the village of Dormilhouse; and
+every year the avalanches shoot down at the same place, which is
+strewn with the boulders and débris that extend far down into the
+valley.</p>
+
+<p>At the bottom of the Tourniquet we joined M. Charpiot, accompanying
+the donkey laden with the blankets and knapsacks, and proceeded with
+him on our way down the valley towards his hospitable parsonage at
+Palons.<a href="#toc"><span class="small">[Back to Contents]</span></a></p>
+
+<h3><span class="pagenum"><a id="page455" name="page455"></a>(p. 455)</span> CHAPTER V.</h3>
+
+<p class="title">GUILLESTRE AND THE VALLEY OF QUEYRAS.</p>
+
+
+<p>We left Palons on a sharp, bright morning in July, with the prospect
+of a fine day before us, though there had been a fall of snow in the
+night, which whitened the tops of the neighbouring hills. Following
+the road along the heights on the right bank of the Biasse, and
+passing the hamlet of Chancellas, another favourite station of Neff's,
+a rapid descent led us down into the valley of the Durance, which we
+crossed a little above the village of St. Crepin, with the strong
+fortress of Mont Dauphin before us a few miles lower down the valley.</p>
+
+<p>This remote corner in the mountains was the scene of much fighting in
+early times between the Roman Catholics and the Huguenots, and
+afterwards between the French and the Piedmontese. It was in this
+neighbourhood that Lesdiguières first gave evidence of his skill and
+valour as a soldier. The massacre of St. Bartholomew at Paris in 1572
+had been followed by like massacres in various parts of France,
+especially in the south. The Roman Catholics of Dauphiny, deeming the
+opportunity favourable for the extirpation of the heretical Vaudois,
+dispatched the military commandant of Embrun against the inhabitants
+of Val <span class="pagenum"><a id="page456" name="page456"></a>(p. 456)</span> Fressinières at the head of an army of twelve hundred
+men. Lesdiguières, then scarce twenty-four years old, being informed
+of their march, hastily assembled a Huguenot force in the valley of
+the Drac, and, crossing the Col d'Orcières from Champsaur into the
+valley of the Durance, he suddenly fell upon the enemy at St. Crepin,
+routed them, and drove them down the valley to Embrun. Twelve years
+later, during the wars of the League, Lesdiguières distinguished
+himself in the same neighbourhood, capturing Embrun, Guillestre, and
+Château Queyras, in the valley of the Guil, thereby securing the
+entire province for his royal master, Henry of Navarre.</p>
+
+<p>The strong fortress of Mont Dauphin, at the junction of the Guil with
+the Durance, was not constructed until a century later. Victor-Amadeus
+II., when invading the province with a Piedmontese army, at sight of
+the plateau commanding the entrance of both valleys, exclaimed, "There
+is a pass to fortify." The hint was not neglected by the French
+general, Catinat, under whose directions the great engineer, Vauban,
+traced the plan of the present fortifications. It is a very strong
+place, completely commanding the valley of the Durance, while it is
+regarded as the key of the passage into Italy by the Guil and the Col
+de la Croix.</p>
+
+<p>Guillestre is a small old-fashioned town, situated on the lowest slope
+of the pine-clad mountain, the Tête de Quigoulet, at the junction of
+the Rioubel and the Chagne, rivulets in summer but torrents in winter,
+which join the Guil a little below the town. Guillestre was in ancient
+times a strong place, and had for its lords the Archbishops of Embrun,
+the ancient persecutors of the Vaudois. The castle of the archbishop,
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page457" name="page457"></a>(p. 457)</span> flanked by six towers, occupied a commanding site
+immediately overlooking the town; but at the French Revolution of
+1789, the first thing which the archbishop's flock did was to pull his
+castle in pieces, leaving not one stone upon another; and, strange to
+say, the only walled enclosure now within its precincts is the little
+burying-ground of the Guillestre Protestants. One memorable stone has,
+however, been preserved, the stone trough in which the peasants were
+required to measure the tribute of grain payable by them to their
+reverend seigneurs. It is still to be seen laid against a wall in an
+open space in front of the church.</p>
+
+<p>It happened that the fair of Guillestre, which is held every two
+months, was afoot at the time of our visit. It is frequented by the
+people of the adjoining valleys, of which Guillestre is the centre, as
+well as by Piedmontese from beyond the Italian frontier. On the
+principal day of the fair we found the streets filled with peasants
+buying and selling beasts. They were apparently of many races. Amongst
+them were many well-grown men, some with rings in their
+ears&mdash;horse-dealers from Piedmont, we were told; but the greater
+number were little, dark, thin, and poorly-fed peasants. Some of them,
+dark-eyed and tawny-skinned, looked like Arabs, possibly descendants
+of the Saracens who once occupied the province. There were one or two
+groups of gipsies, differing from all else; but the district is too
+poor to be much frequented by people of that race.</p>
+
+<p>The animals brought for sale showed the limited resources of the
+neighbourhood. One hill-woman came along dragging two goats in milk;
+another led a sheep and a goat; a third a donkey in foal; a fourth a
+cow in <span class="pagenum"><a id="page458" name="page458"></a>(p. 458)</span> milk; and so on. The largest lot consisted of about
+forty lambs, of various sizes and breeds, which had been driven down
+from the cool air of the mountains, and, gasping with heat, were
+cooling their heads against the shady side of a stone wall. There were
+several lots of pigs, of a bad but probably hardy sort&mdash;mostly black,
+round-backed, long-legged, and long-eared. In selling the animals,
+there was the usual chaffering, in shrill patois, at the top of the
+voice&mdash;the seller of some poor scraggy beast extolling its merits, the
+intending buyer running it down as a "misérable bossu," &amp;c., and
+disputing every point raised in its behalf, until the contest of words
+rose to such a height&mdash;men, women, and even children, on both sides,
+taking part in it&mdash;that the bystander would have thought it impossible
+they could separate without a fight. But matters always came to a
+peaceable conclusion, for the French are by no means a quarrelsome
+people.</p>
+
+<p>There were also various other sorts of produce offered for sale&mdash;wool,
+undressed sheepskins, sticks for firewood, onions and vegetable
+produce, and considerable quantities of honeycomb; while the sellers
+of scythes, whetstones, caps, and articles of dress, seemed to meet
+with a ready sale for their wares, arranged on stalls in the open
+space in front of the church. Altogether, the queer collection of
+beasts and their drivers, who were to be seen drinking together
+greedily and promiscuously from the fountains in the market-place; the
+steep streets, crowded with lean goats and cows and pigs, and their
+buyers and sellers; the braying of donkeys and the shrieking of
+chafferers, with here and there a goitred dwarf of hideous aspect,
+presented a picture of an Alpine mountain fair, which, once seen, is
+not readily forgotten.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page459" name="page459"></a>(p. 459)</span> There is a similar fair held at the village of La Bessie,
+before mentioned, a little higher up the Durance, on the road to
+Briançon; but it is held only once a year, at the end of October, when
+the inhabitants of Dormilhouse come down in a body to lay in their
+stock of necessaries for the winter. "There then arrives," says M.
+Albert, "a caravan of about the most singular character that can be
+imagined. It consists of nearly the whole population of the mountain
+hamlet, who resort thither to supply themselves with the articles
+required for family use during the winter, such as leather, lint,
+salt, and oil. These poor mountaineers are provided with very little
+money, and, to procure the necessary commodities, they have recourse
+to barter, the most ancient and primitive method of conducting trade.
+Hence they bring with them rye, barley, pigs, lambs, chamois skins and
+horns, and the produce of their knitting during the past year, to
+exchange for the required articles, with which they set out homeward,
+laden as they had come."</p>
+
+<hr>
+
+<p>The same circumstances which have concurred in making Guillestre the
+seat of the principal fair of the valleys, led Felix Neff to regard it
+as an important centre of missionary operations amongst the Vaudois.
+In nearly all the mountain villages in its neighbourhood descendants
+of the ancient Vaudois are to be found, sometimes in the most remote
+and inaccessible places, whither they had fled in the times of the
+persecutions. Thus at Vars, a mountain hamlet up the torrent Rioubel,
+about nine miles from Guillestre, there is a little Christian
+community, which, though under the necessity of long concealing their
+faith, <span class="pagenum"><a id="page460" name="page460"></a>(p. 460)</span> never ceased to be Vaudois in spirit.<a id="footnotetag106" name="footnotetag106"></a><a href="#footnote106" title="Go to footnote 106"><span class="small">[106]</span></a> Then, up
+the valley of the Guil, and in the lateral valleys which join it,
+there are, in some places close to the mountain barrier which divides
+France from Italy, other villages and hamlets, such as Arvieux, San
+Veran, Fongilarde, &amp;c., the inhabitants of which, though they
+concealed their faith subsequent to the Revocation of the Edict of
+Nantes, never conformed to Roman Catholicism, but took the earliest
+opportunity of declaring themselves openly so soon as the dark period
+of persecution had passed by.</p>
+
+<p>The people of these scattered and distant hamlets were, however, too
+poor to supply themselves with religious instructors, and they long
+remained in a state of spiritual destitution. Felix Neff's labours
+were too short, and scattered over too extensive a field, to produce
+much permanent effect. Besides, they were principally confined to the
+village of Dormilhouse, which, as being the most destitute, had, he
+thought, the greatest claim upon his help; and at his death
+comparatively little had been done or attempted in the Guillestre
+district. But he left behind him what was worth more than any
+endowment of money, a noble example, which still lives, and inspires
+the labourers who have come after him.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page461" name="page461"></a>(p. 461)</span> It was not until within the last twenty years that a few
+Vaudois families of Guillestre began to meet together for religious
+purposes, which they did at first in the upper chamber of an inn.
+There the Rev. Mr. Freemantle found them when paying his first visit
+to the valleys in 1851. He was rejoiced to see the zeal of the people,
+holding to their faith in the face of considerable opposition and
+opprobrium; and he exerted himself to raise the requisite funds
+amongst his friends in England to provide the Guillestre Vaudois with
+a place of worship of their own. His efforts were attended with
+success; and in 1854 a comfortable parsonage, with a commodious room
+for public worship, was purchased for their use. A fund was also
+provided for the maintenance of a settled ministry; a pastor was
+appointed; and in 1857 a congregation of from forty to seventy persons
+attended worship every Sunday. Mr. Freemantle, in a communication with
+which he has favoured us, says: "Our object has not been to make an
+aggression upon the Roman Catholics, but to strengthen the hands and
+establish the faith of the Vaudois. And in so doing we have found, not
+unfrequently, that when an interest has been excited among the Roman
+Catholic population of the district, there has been some family or
+hereditary connection with ancestors who were independent of the see
+of Rome, and such have again joined themselves to the faith of their
+fathers."</p>
+
+<p>The new movement was not, however, allowed to proceed without great
+opposition. The "Momiers," or mummers&mdash;the modern nickname of the
+Vaudois&mdash;were denounced by the curé of the place, and the people were
+cautioned, as they valued their souls' safety, against giving any
+countenance to their proceedings. <span class="pagenum"><a id="page462" name="page462"></a>(p. 462)</span> The curé was doubtless
+seriously impressed by the gravity of the situation; and to protect
+the parish against the assaults of the evil one, he had a large number
+of crosses erected upon the heights overlooking the town. On one
+occasion he had a bad dream, in which he beheld the valley filled with
+a vast assembly come to be judged; and on the site of the
+judgment-seat which he saw in his dream, he set up, on the summit of
+the Come Chauve, a large tin cross hearted with wood. We were
+standing in the garden in front of the parsonage at Guillestre late in
+the evening, when M. Schell, the pastor, pointing up to the height,
+said, "There you see it now; that is the curé's erection." The valley
+below lay in deep shadow, while the cross upon the summit brightly
+reflected the last rays of the setting sun.</p>
+
+<p>The curé, finding that the "Momiers" did not cease to exist, next
+adopted the expedient of preaching them down. On the occasion of the
+Fête Napoleon, 1862, when the Rev. Mr. Freemantle visited Guillestre
+for the purpose of being present at the Vaudois services on Sunday,
+the 10th of August, the curé preached a special sermon to his
+congregation at early morning mass, telling them that an Englishman
+had come into the town with millions of francs to buy up the souls of
+Guillestre, and warning them to abstain from such men.</p>
+
+<p>The people were immediately filled with curiosity to know what it was
+that this stranger had come all the way from England to do, backed by
+"millions of francs." Many of them did not as yet know that there was
+such a thing as a Vaudois church in Guillestre; but now that they did
+know, they were desirous of ascertaining something about the doctrines
+taught there. The consequence was, that a crowd of people&mdash;amongst
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page463" name="page463"></a>(p. 463)</span> whom were some of the highest authorities in the town, the
+registrar, the douaniers, the chief of a neighbouring commune, and
+persons of all classes&mdash;assembled at noon to hear M. de Faye, the
+Protestant pastor, who preached to them an excellent sermon under the
+trees of the parsonage orchard, while a still larger number attended
+in the afternoon.</p>
+
+<p>When the curé heard of the conduct of his flock he was greatly
+annoyed. "What did you hear from the heretics?" he asked of one of the
+delinquents. "I heard <span class="italic">your</span> sermon in the morning, and a sermon <span class="italic">upon
+charity</span> in the afternoon," was the reply.</p>
+
+<p>Great were the surprise and excitement in Guillestre when it became
+known that the principal sergeant of gendarmerie&mdash;the very embodiment
+of law and order in the place&mdash;had gone over and joined the "Momiers"
+with his wife and family. M. Laugier was quite a model gendarme. He
+was a man of excellent character, steady, sensible, and patient, a
+diligent self-improver, a reader of books, a botanist, and a bit of a
+geologist. He knew all the rare mountain plants, and had a collection
+of those that would bear transplantation, in his garden at the back of
+the town. No man was more respected in Guillestre than the sergeant.
+His long and faithful service entitled him to the <span class="italic">médaille
+militaire</span>, and it would have been awarded to him, but for the
+circumstance which came to light, and which he did not seek to
+conceal, that he had joined the Protestant connexion. Not only was the
+medal withheld, but influence was used to get him sent away from the
+place; and he was packed off to a station in the mountains at Château
+Queyras.</p>
+
+<p>Though this banishment from Guillestre was intended as a punishment,
+it only served to bring out the sterling <span class="pagenum"><a id="page464" name="page464"></a>(p. 464)</span> qualities of the
+sergeant, and to ensure his eventual reward. It so happened that the
+station at Château Queyras commanded the approaches into an extensive
+range of mountain pasturage. Although not required specially to attend
+to their safety, our sergeant had nevertheless carefully noted the
+flocks and herds as they went up the valleys in the spring. When
+winter approached, they were all brought down again from the mountains
+for safety.</p>
+
+<p>The winter of that year set in early and severely. The sergeant,
+making his observations on the flocks as they passed down the valley,
+noted that one large flock of about three thousand sheep had not yet
+made its appearance. The mountains were now covered with snow, and he
+apprehended that the sheep and their shepherds had been storm-stayed.
+Summoning to his assistance a body of men, he set out at their head in
+search of the lost flock. After a long, laborious, and dangerous
+journey&mdash;for the snow by this time lay deep in the hollows of the
+hills&mdash;he succeeded in discovering the shepherds and the sheep, almost
+reduced to their last gasp&mdash;the sheep, for want of food, actually
+gnawing each other's tails. With great difficulty the whole were
+extricated from their perilous position, and brought down the
+mountains in safety.</p>
+
+<p>No representation was made to head-quarters by the authorities of
+Guillestre of the conduct of the Protestant sergeant in the matter;
+but when the shepherds got down to Gap, they were so full of the
+sergeant's praises, and of his bravery in rescuing them and their
+flock from certain death, that a paragraph descriptive of the affair
+was inserted in the local papers, and was eventually copied into the
+Parisian journals. Then it was that an inquiry was made into his
+conduct, and the <span class="pagenum"><a id="page465" name="page465"></a>(p. 465)</span> result was so satisfactory that the
+sergeant was at once decorated not only with the <span class="italic">médaille militaire</span>,
+but with the <span class="italic">médaille de sauvetage</span>&mdash;a still higher honour; and,
+shortly after, he was allowed to retire from the service on full pay.
+He then returned to his home and family at Guillestre, where he now
+officiates as <span class="italic">Regent</span> of the Vaudois church, reading the prayers and
+conducting the service in the absence of the stated minister.</p>
+
+<hr>
+
+<p>We spent a Sunday in the comfortable parsonage at Guillestre. There
+was divine service in the temple at half-past ten <span class="smcap">A.M.</span>, conducted by
+the regular pastor, M. Schell, and instruction and catechizing of the
+children in the afternoon. The pastor's regular work consists of two
+services at Guillestre and Vars on alternate Sundays, with
+Sunday-school and singing lesson; and on week days he gives religious
+instruction in the Guillestre school. The missionary's wife is a true
+"helpmeet," and having been trained as a deaconess at Strasbourg, she
+regularly visits the poor, occasionally assisting them with medical
+advice.</p>
+
+<p>Another important part of the work at Guillestre is the girls' school,
+for which suitable premises have been taken; and it is conducted by an
+excellent female teacher. Here not only the usual branches of
+education are taught, but domestic industry of different kinds.
+Through the instrumentality of Mr. Milsom, glove-sewing has been
+taught to the girls, and it is hoped that by this and similar efforts
+this branch of home manufacture may become introduced in the High
+Alps, and furnish profitable employment to many poor persons during
+their long and dreary winter.</p>
+
+<p>By the aid of a special fund, a few girl boarders, belonging to
+scattered Protestant families who have no <span class="pagenum"><a id="page466" name="page466"></a>(p. 466)</span> other means for
+the education of their children, are also received at the school. The
+girls seem to be extremely well taken care of, and the house, which we
+went over, is a very pattern of cleanliness and comfort.</p>
+
+<hr>
+
+<p>The route from Guillestre into Italy lies up the valley of the Guil,
+through one of the wildest and deepest gorges, or rather chasms, to be
+found in Europe. Brockedon says it is "one of the finest in the Alps."
+M. Bost compares it to the Moutier-Grand-Val, in the canton of Berne,
+but says it is much wilder. He even calls it frightful, which it is
+not, except in rainy weather, when the rocks occasionally fall from
+overhead. At such times people avoid travelling through the gorge. M.
+Bost also likens it to the Via Mala, though here the road, at the
+narrowest and most precipitous parts, runs in the <span class="italic">bottom</span> of the
+gorge, in a ledge cut in the rock, there being room only for the river
+and the road. It is only of late years that the road has been
+completed, and it is often partly washed away in winter, or covered
+with rock and stones brought down by the torrent. When Neff travelled
+the gorge, it was passable only on foot, or on mule-back. Yet
+light-footed armies have passed into Italy by this route. Lesdiguières
+clambered over the mountains and along the Guil to reach Château
+Queyras, which he assaulted and took. Louis XIII. once accompanied a
+French army about a league up the gorge, but he turned back, afraid to
+go farther; and the hamlet at which his progress was arrested is still
+called Maison du Roi. About three leagues higher up, after crossing
+the Guil from bank to bank several times, in order to make use of such
+ledges of the rock as are suitable for the road, the gorge opens into
+the Combe du Queyras, and very shortly the picturesque-looking
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page467" name="page467"></a>(p. 467)</span> Castle of Queyras comes in sight, occupying the summit of a
+lofty conical rock in the middle of the valley.</p>
+
+<p>As we approached Château Queyras the ruins of a building were pointed
+out by Mr. Milsom in the bottom of the valley, close by the
+river-side. "That," said he, "was once the Protestant temple of the
+place. It was burnt to the ground at the Revocation. You see that old
+elm-tree growing near it. That tree was at the same time burnt to a
+black stump. It became a saying in the valley that Protestantism was
+as dead as that stump, and that it would only reappear when that dead
+stump came to life! And, strange to say, since Felix Neff has been
+here, the stump <span class="italic">has</span> come to life&mdash;you see how green it is&mdash;and again
+Protestantism is like the elm-tree, sending out its vigorous
+offshoots, in the valley."</p>
+
+<p>Château Queyras stands in the centre of the valley of the Guil, which
+is joined near this point by two other valleys, the Combe of Arvieux
+joining it on the right bank, and that of San Veran on the left. The
+heads of the streams which traverse these valleys have their origin in
+the snowy range of the Cottian Alps, which form the boundary between
+France and Italy. As in the case of the descendants of the ancient
+Vaudois at Dormilhouse, they are here also found at the farthest limit
+of vegetation, penetrating almost to the edge of the glacier, where
+they were least likely to be molested. The inhabitants of Arvieux were
+formerly almost entirely Protestant, and had a temple there, which was
+pulled down at the Revocation. From that time down to the Revolution
+they worshipped only in secret, occasionally ministered to by Vaudois
+pastors, who made precarious visits to them from the Italian valleys
+at the risk of their lives.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page468" name="page468"></a>(p. 468)</span> Above Arvieux is the hamlet of La Chalp, containing a
+considerable number of Protestants, and where Neff had his home&mdash;a
+small, low cottage undistinguishable from the others save by its
+whitewashed front. Its situation is cheerful, facing the south, and
+commanding a pleasant mountain prospect, contrasting strongly with the
+barren outlook and dismal hovels of Dormilhouse. But Neff never could
+regard the place as his home. "The inhabitants," he observed in his
+journal, "have more traffic, and the mildness of the climate appears
+somehow or other not favourable to the growth of piety. They are
+zealous Protestants, and show me a thousand attentions, but they are
+at present absolutely impenetrable." The members of the congregation
+at Arvieux, indeed, complained of his spending so little of his time
+among them; but the comfort of his cottage at La Chalp, and the
+comparative mildness of the climate of Arvieux, were insufficient to
+attract him from the barren crags but warm hearts of Dormilhouse.</p>
+
+<p>The village of San Veran, which lies up among the mountains some
+twelve miles to the east of Arvieux, on the opposite side of the Val
+Queyras, was another of the refuges of the ancient Vaudois. It is at
+the foot of the snowy ridge which divides France from Italy. Dr. Gilly
+says, "There is nothing fit for mortal to take refuge in between San
+Veran and the eternal snows which mantle the pinnacles of Monte Viso."
+The village is 6,692 feet above the level of the sea, and there is a
+provincial saying that San Veran is the highest spot in Europe where
+bread is eaten. Felix Neff said, "It is the highest, and consequently
+the most pious, in the valley of Queyras." Dr. Gilly was the second
+Englishman who had ever found his way to the place, and he was
+accompanied on the occasion by Mrs. Gilly. <span class="pagenum"><a id="page469" name="page469"></a>(p. 469)</span> "The sight of a
+female," he says, "dressed entirely in linen, was a phenomenon so new
+to those simple peasants, whose garments are never anything but
+woollen, that Pizarro and his mail-clad companions were not greater
+objects of curiosity to the Peruvians than we were to these
+mountaineers."</p>
+
+<p>Not far distant from San Veran are the mountain hamlets of Pierre
+Grosse and Fongillarde, also ancient retreats of the persecuted
+Vaudois, and now for the most part inhabited by Protestants. The
+remoteness and comparative inaccessibility of these mountain hamlets
+may be inferred from the fact that in 1786, when the Protestants of
+France were for the first time since the Revocation of the Edict of
+Nantes permitted to worship in public without molestation, four years
+elapsed before the intelligence reached San Veran.</p>
+
+<p>We have now reached almost the extreme limits of France; Italy lying
+on the other side of the snowy peaks which shut in the upper valleys
+of the Alps. In Neff's time the parish of which he had charge extended
+from San Veran, on the frontier, to Champsaur, in the valley of the
+Drac, a distance of nearly eighty miles. His charge consisted of the
+scattered population of many mountain hamlets, to visit which in
+succession involved his travelling a total distance of not less than
+one hundred and eighty miles. It was, of course, impossible that any
+single man, no matter how inspired by zeal and devotion, could do
+justice to a charge so extensive. The difficulties of passing through
+a country so wild and rugged were also very great, especially in
+winter. Neff records that on one occasion he took six hours to make
+the journey, in the midst of a snow-storm which completely hid the
+footpath, from <span class="pagenum"><a id="page470" name="page470"></a>(p. 470)</span> his cottage at La Chalp to San Veran, a
+distance of only twelve miles.</p>
+
+<p>The pastors who succeeded Neff had the same difficulties to encounter,
+and there were few to be found who could brave them. The want of
+proper domestic accommodation for the pastors was also felt to be a
+great hindrance. Accordingly, one of the first things to which the
+Rev. Mr. Freemantle directed his attention, when he entered upon his
+noble work of supplying the spiritual destitution of the French
+Vaudois, was to take steps not only to supply the poor people with
+more commodious temples, but also to provide dwelling-houses for the
+pastors. And in the course of a few years, helped by friends in
+England, he has been enabled really to accomplish a very great deal.
+The extensive parish of Neff is now divided into five
+sub-parishes&mdash;that of Fressinières, which includes Palons, Violins,
+and Dormilhouse, provided with three temples, a parsonage, and
+schools; Arvieux, with the hamlets of Brunissard (where worship was
+formerly conducted in a stable) and La Chalp, provided with two
+temples, a parsonage, and schools; San Veran, with Fongillarde and
+Pierre Grosse, provided with three temples, a parsonage, and a school;
+St. Laurent du Cros and Champsaur, in the valley of the Drac, provided
+with a temple, school, &amp;c., principally through the liberality of Lord
+Monson; and Guillestre and Vars, provided with two temples, a
+parsonage, and a girls' school. A temple, with a residence for a
+pastor, has also of late years been provided at Briançon, with a
+meeting-place also at the village of Villeneuve.</p>
+
+<p>Such are the agencies now at work in the district of the High Alps,
+helped on by a few zealous workers in England and abroad. While the
+object of the <span class="pagenum"><a id="page471" name="page471"></a>(p. 471)</span> pastors, in the words of Mr. Freemantle, is
+"not to regard themselves as missionaries to proselytize Roman
+Catholics, but as ministers residing among their own people, whose
+faith, and love, and holiness they have to promote," they also
+endeavour to institute measures with the object of improving the
+social and domestic condition of the Vaudois. Thus, in one
+district&mdash;that of St. Laurent du Cros&mdash;a <span class="italic">banque de prévoyance</span>, or
+savings-bank, has been established; and though it was at first
+regarded with suspicion, it has gradually made its way and proved of
+great value, being made use of by the indigent Roman Catholics as well
+as Protestant families of the district. Such efforts and such agencies
+as these cannot fail to be followed by blessings, and to be greatly
+instrumental for good.</p>
+
+<p>Our last night in France was spent in the miserable little town of
+Abries, situated immediately at the foot of the Alpine ridge which
+separates France from Italy. On reaching the principal hotel, or
+rather auberge, we found every bed taken; but a peep into the dark and
+dirty kitchen, which forms the entrance-hall of the place, made us
+almost glad that there was no room for us in that inn. We turned out
+into the wet streets to find a better; but though we succeeded in
+finding beds in a poor house in a back lane, little can be said in
+their praise. We were, however, supplied with a tolerable dinner, and
+contrived to pass the night in rest, and to start refreshed early on
+the following morning on our way to the Vaudois valleys of Piedmont.<a href="#toc"><span class="small">[Back to Contents]</span></a></p>
+
+
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page472" name="page472"></a>(p. 472)</span>
+
+<a id="img003" name="img003"></a>
+<div class="figcenter">
+<a href="images/img003.jpg">
+<img src="images/img003tb.jpg" width="400" height="231" alt="" title=""></a>
+<p>Valley of Luserne.</p></div>
+
+<h3>CHAPTER VI.</h3>
+
+<p class="title">THE VALLEY OF THE PELICE&mdash;LA TOUR&mdash;ANGROGNA&mdash;THE PRA DU TOUR.</p>
+
+
+<p>The village of Abries is situated close to the Alpine ridge, the
+summit of which marks the boundary between France and Italy. On the
+other side lie the valleys of Piedmont, in which the French Vaudois
+were accustomed to take refuge when persecution ravaged their own
+valleys, passing by the mountain-road we were now about to travel, as
+far as La Tour, in the valley of the Pelice.</p>
+
+<p>Although there are occasional villages along the route, there is no
+good resting-place for travellers short of La Tour, some twenty-six
+miles distant from Abries; and as it was necessary that we should walk
+the distance, the greater part of the road being merely a track,
+scarcely practicable for mules, we were up betimes in the morning, and
+on our way. The sun had <span class="pagenum"><a id="page473" name="page473"></a>(p. 473)</span> scarcely risen above the horizon.
+The mist was still hanging along the mountain-sides, and the stillness
+of the scene was only broken by the murmur of the Guil running in its
+rocky bed below. Passing through the hamlet of Monta, where the French
+douane has its last frontier station, we began the ascent; and soon,
+as the sun rose and the mists cleared away, we saw the profile of the
+mountain up which we were climbing cast boldly upon the range behind
+us on the further side of the valley. A little beyond the ravine of
+the Combe de la Croix, along the summit of which the road winds, we
+reached the last house within the French frontier&mdash;a hospice, not very
+inviting in appearance, for the accommodation of travellers. A little
+further is the Col, and passing a stone block carved with the
+fleur-de-lis and cross of Savoy, we crossed the frontier of France and
+entered Italy.</p>
+
+<p>On turning a shoulder of the mountain, we looked down upon the head of
+the valley of the Pelice, a grand and savage scene. The majestic,
+snow-capped Monte Viso towers up on the right, at the head of the
+valley, amidst an assemblage of other great mountain masses. From its
+foot seems to steal the river Pelice, now a quiet rivulet, though in
+winter a raging torrent. Right in front, lower down the valley, is the
+rocky defile of Mirabouc, a singularly savage gorge, seemingly rent
+asunder by some tremendous convulsion of nature; beyond and over which
+extends the valley of the Pelice, expanding into that of the Po, and
+in the remote distance the plains of Piedmont; while immediately
+beneath our feet, as it were, but far below, lies a considerable
+breadth of green pasture, the Bergerie of Pra, enclosed on all sides
+by the mountains over which we look.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page474" name="page474"></a>(p. 474)</span> The descent from the Col down into the Pra is very difficult,
+in some places almost precipitous&mdash;far more abrupt than on the French
+side, where the incline up to the summit is comparatively easy.</p>
+
+<p>The zigzag descends from one rock to another, along the face of a
+shelving slope, by a succession of notches (from which the footpath is
+not inappropriately termed <span class="italic">La Coche</span>) affording a very insecure
+footing for the few mules which occasionally cross the pass. Dr. Gilly
+crossed here from La Tour with Mrs. Gilly in 1829, when about to visit
+the French valleys; but he found the path so difficult and dangerous,
+that the lady had to walk nearly the whole way.</p>
+
+<p>As we descended the mountain almost by a succession of leaps, we
+overtook M. Gariod, deputy judge of Gap, engaged in botanizing among
+the rocks; and he informed us that among the rarer specimens he had
+collected in the course of his journey on the summit were the
+<span class="italic">Polygonum alpinum</span> and <span class="italic">Silene vallesia</span>, above Monta; the
+<span class="italic">Leucanthemum alpinum</span>, near the Hospice; the <span class="italic">Linaria alpina</span> and
+<span class="italic">Cirsium spinosissimus</span> on the Col; while the <span class="italic">Lloydia serotina</span>,
+<span class="italic">Arabis alpina</span>, <span class="italic">Phyteuma hemisphericum</span>, and <span class="italic">Rhododendrum
+ferrugineum</span>, were found all over the face of the rocky descent to the
+Pra.</p>
+
+<p>At the foot of the <span class="italic">Coche</span> we arrived at the first house in Italy, the
+little auberge of the Pra, a great resort of sportsmen, who come to
+hunt the chamois in the adjoining mountains during the season. Here is
+also the usual customs station, with a few officers of the Italian
+douane, to watch the passage of merchandise across the frontier.</p>
+
+<p>The road from hence to la Tour is along the river Pelice, which is
+kept in sight nearly the whole way. A little below the Pra, where it
+enters the defile of <span class="pagenum"><a id="page475" name="page475"></a>(p. 475)</span> Mirabouc, the path merely follows what
+is the bed of the torrent in winter. The descent is down ledges and
+notches, from rock to rock, with rugged precipices overhanging the
+ravine for nearly a mile. At its narrowest part stand the ruins of the
+ancient fort of Mirabouc, built against the steep escarpments of the
+mountain, which, in ancient times, completely commanded and closed the
+defile against the passage of an enemy from that quarter. And
+difficult though the Col de la Croix is for the passage of an army, it
+has on more than one occasion been passed by French detachments in
+their invasion of Italy.</p>
+
+<p>It is not until we reach Bobi, or Bobbio, several miles lower down the
+Pelice, that we at last feel we are in Italy. Here the valley opens
+out, the scenery is soft and inviting, the fields are well tilled, the
+vegetation is rich, and the clusters of chestnut-trees in magnificent
+foliage. We now begin to see the striking difference between the
+French and the Italian valleys. The former are precipitous and
+sterile, constant falls of slaty rock blocking up the defiles; while
+here the mountains lay aside their savage aspects, and are softened
+down into picturesquely wooded hills, green pastures, and fertile
+fields stretching along the river-sides, yielding a rich territory for
+the plough.</p>
+
+<p>Yet, beautiful and peaceful though this valley of the Pelice now
+appears, there is scarcely a spot in it but has been consecrated by
+the blood of martyrs to the cause of liberty and religion. In the
+rugged defile of the Mirabouc, which we have just passed, is the site
+of a battle fought between the Piedmontese troops and the Vaudois
+peasants, at a place called the Pian-del-Mort, where the persecuted,
+turning upon the persecutors, drove them back, and made good their
+retreat to their <span class="pagenum"><a id="page476" name="page476"></a>(p. 476)</span> mountain fastnesses. Bobi itself was the
+scene of many deadly struggles. A little above the village, on a rocky
+plateau, are the remains of an ancient fort, near the hamlet of
+Sibaud, where the Vaudois performed one of their bravest exploits
+under Henri Arnaud, after their "Glorious Return" from exile,&mdash;near
+which, on a stone still pointed out, they swore fidelity to each
+other, and that they would die to the last man rather than abandon
+their country and their religion.</p>
+
+<p>Near Bobi is still to be seen a remarkable illustration of English
+interest long ago felt in the people of these valleys. This is the
+long embankment or breakwater, built by a grant from Oliver Cromwell,
+for the purpose of protecting the village against the inundations of
+the Pelice, by one of which it was nearly destroyed in the time of the
+Protectorate. It seems strange indeed that England should then have
+stretched out its hand so far, to help a people so poor and
+uninfluential as the Vaudois; but their sufferings had excited the
+sympathies of all Europe, and of Protestant England in particular,
+which not only sent them sympathy, but substantial succour. Cromwell
+also, through the influence of Cardinal Mazarin, compelled the Duke of
+Savoy to suspend for a time the persecution of his subjects,&mdash;though
+shortly after the Protector's death it waxed hotter than ever.</p>
+
+<p>All down the valley of the Pelice, we come upon village after
+village&mdash;La Piante, Villar, and Cabriol&mdash;which have been the scenes
+sometimes of heroic combats, and sometimes of treacherous massacres.
+Yet all the cruelty of Grand Dukes and Popes during centuries did not
+avail in turning the people of the valley from their faith. For they
+continue to worship after the same primitive forms as they did a
+thousand years ago; and <span class="pagenum"><a id="page477" name="page477"></a>(p. 477)</span> in the principal villages and
+hamlets, though Romanism has long been supported by the power of the
+State and the patronage of the Church, the Protestant Vaudois continue
+to constitute the majority of the population.</p>
+
+<p>Rising up on the left of the road, between Villar and La Tour, are
+seen the bold and almost perpendicular rocks of Castelluzzo,
+terminating in the tower-like summit which has given to them their
+name. On the face of these rocks is one of the caverns in which the
+Vaudois were accustomed to hide their women and children when they
+themselves were forced to take the field. When Dr. Gilly first
+endeavoured to discover this famous cavern in 1829, he could not find
+any one who could guide him to it. Tradition said it was half way down
+the perpendicular face of the rock, and it was known to be very
+difficult to reach; but the doctor could not find any traces of it.
+Determined, however, not to be baffled, he made a second attempt a
+month later, and succeeded. He had to descend some fifty feet from the
+top of the cliff by a rope ladder, until a platform of rock was
+reached, from which the cavern was entered. It was found to consist of
+an irregular, rugged, sloping gallery in the face of the rock, of
+considerable extent, roofed in by a projecting crag. It is quite open
+to the south, but on all other sides it is secure; and it can only be
+entered from above. Such were the places to which the people of the
+valleys were driven for shelter in the dark days so happily passed
+away.</p>
+
+<p>One of the best indications of the improved <span class="italic">régime</span> that now
+prevails, shortly presented itself in the handsome Vaudois church,
+situated at the western entrance of the town of La Tour, near to which
+is the college for the education of Vaudois pastors, together with
+residences <span class="pagenum"><a id="page478" name="page478"></a>(p. 478)</span> for the clergy and professors. The founding of
+this establishment, as well as of the hospital for the poor and infirm
+Vaudois, is in a great measure due to the energetic zeal of the Dr.
+Gilly so often quoted above, whose writings on behalf of the faithful
+but destitute Protestants of the Piedmontese valleys, about forty
+years since, awakened an interest in their behalf in England, as well
+as in foreign countries, which has not yet subsided.</p>
+
+<p>More enthusiastic, if possible, even than Dr. Gilly, was the late
+General Beckwith, who followed up, with extraordinary energy, the work
+which the other had so well begun. The general was an old Peninsular
+veteran, who had followed the late Duke of Wellington through most of
+his campaigns, and lost a leg while serving under him at the battle of
+Waterloo. Hence the designation of him by a Roman Catholic bishop in
+an article published by him in one of the Italian journals, as "the
+adventurer with the wooden leg."</p>
+
+<p>The general's attention was first attracted to the subject of the
+Vaudois in the following curiously accidental way. Being a regular
+visitor at Apsley House, he called on the Duke one morning, and,
+finding him engaged, he strolled into the library to spend an idle
+half-hour among the books. The first he took up was Dr. Gilly's
+"Narrative," and what he read excited so lively an interest in his
+mind that he went direct to his bookseller and ordered all the
+publications relative to the Vaudois Church that could be procured.</p>
+
+<p>The general's zeal being thus fired, he set out shortly after on a
+visit to the Piedmontese valleys. He returned to them again and again,
+and at length settled at La Tour, where he devoted the remainder of
+his life and a large portion of his fortune to the service of the
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page479" name="page479"></a>(p. 479)</span> Vaudois Church and people. He organized a movement for the
+erection of schools, of which not fewer than one hundred and twenty
+were provided mainly through his instrumentality in different parts of
+the valleys, besides restoring and enlarging the college at La Tour,
+erecting the present commodious dwellings for the professors,
+providing a superior school for the education of pastors' daughters,
+and contributing towards the erection of churches wherever churches
+were needed.</p>
+
+<p>The general was so zealous a missionary, so eager for the propagation
+of the Gospel, that some of his friends asked him why he did not
+preach to the people. "No," said he; "men have their special gifts,
+and mine is <span class="italic">a brick-and-mortar gift</span>." The general was satisfied to
+go on as he had begun, helping to build schools, colleges, and
+churches for the Vaudois, wherever most needed. His crowning work was
+the erection of the grand block of buildings on the Viale del Ré at
+Turin, which not only includes a handsome and commodious Vaudois
+church, but an English church, and a Vaudois hospital and schools,
+erected at a cost of about fourteen thousand pounds, principally at
+the cost of the general himself, generously aided by Mr. Brewin and
+other English contributors.</p>
+
+<p>Nor were the people ungrateful to their benefactor. "Let the name of
+General Beckwith be blessed by all who pass this way," says an
+inscription placed upon one of the many schools opened through his
+efforts and generosity; and the whole country responds to the
+sentiment.</p>
+
+<p>To return to La Tour. The style of the buildings at its western
+end&mdash;the church, college, residences, and adjoining cottages, with
+their pretty gardens in front, designed, as they have been, by English
+architects&mdash;give <span class="pagenum"><a id="page480" name="page480"></a>(p. 480)</span> one the idea of the best part of an English
+town. But this disappears as you enter the town itself, and proceed
+through the principal street, which is long, narrow, and thoroughly
+Italian. The situation of the town is exceedingly fine, at the foot of
+the Vandalin Mountain, near the confluence of the river Angrogna with
+the Pelice. The surrounding scenery is charming; and from the high
+grounds, north and south of the town, extensive views may be had in
+all directions&mdash;especially up the valley of the Pelice, and eastward
+over the plains of Piedmont&mdash;the whole country being, as it were,
+embroidered with vineyards, corn-fields, and meadows, here and there
+shaded with groves and thickets, spread over a surface varied by
+hills, and knolls, and undulating slopes.</p>
+
+<p>The size, importance, industry, and central situation of La Tour have
+always caused it to be regarded as the capital of the valleys.
+One-half of the Vaudois population occupies the valley of the Pelice
+and the lateral valley of Angrogna; the remainder, more widely
+scattered, occupying the valleys of Pérouse and Pragela, and the
+lateral valley of St. Martin&mdash;the entire number of the Protestant
+population in the several valleys amounting to about twenty thousand.</p>
+
+<p>Although, as we have already said, there is scarcely a hamlet in the
+valleys but has been made famous by the resistance of its inhabitants
+in past times to the combined tyranny of the Popes of Rome and the
+Dukes of Savoy, perhaps the most interesting events of all have
+occurred in the neighbourhood of La Tour, but more especially in the
+valley of Angrogna, at whose entrance it stands.</p>
+
+<p>The wonder is, that a scattered community of half-armed peasantry,
+without resources, without magazines, <span class="pagenum"><a id="page481" name="page481"></a>(p. 481)</span> without fortresses,
+should have been able for any length of time to resist large bodies of
+regular troops&mdash;Italian, French, Spanish, and even Irish!&mdash;led by the
+most experienced commanders of the day, and abundantly supplied with
+arms, cannon, ammunition, and stores of all kinds. All that the people
+had on their side&mdash;and it compensated for much&mdash;was a good cause,
+great bravery, and a perfect knowledge of the country in which, and
+for which, they fought.</p>
+
+<p>Though the Vaudois had no walled towns, their district was a natural
+fortress, every foot of which was known to them&mdash;every pass, every
+defile, every barricade, and every defensible position. Resistance in
+the open country, they knew, would be fatal to them. Accordingly,
+whenever assailed by their persecutors, they fled to their mountain
+strongholds, and there waited the attack of the enemy.</p>
+
+<p>One of the strongest of such places&mdash;the Thermopylæ of the
+Vaudois&mdash;was the valley of Angrogna, up which the inhabitants of La
+Tour were accustomed to retreat on any sudden invasion by the army of
+Savoy. The valley is one of exquisite beauty, presenting a combination
+of mingled picturesqueness and sublimity, the like of which is rarely
+to be seen. It is hemmed in by mountains, in some places rounded and
+majestic, in others jagged and abrupt. The sides of the valley are in
+many places finely wooded, while in others well-tilled fields,
+pastures, and vineyards slope down to the river-side. Orchards are
+succeeded by pine-woods, and these again by farms and gardens.
+Sometimes a little cascade leaps from a rock on its way to the valley
+below; and little is heard around, save the rippling of water, and the
+occasional lowing of cattle in the pastures, mingled with the music of
+their bells.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page482" name="page482"></a>(p. 482)</span> Shortly after entering the valley, we passed the scene of
+several terrible struggles between the Vaudois and their persecutors.
+One of the most famous spots is the plateau of Rochemalan, where the
+heights of St. John abut upon the mountains of Angrogna. It was
+shortly after the fulmination of a bull of extermination against the
+Vaudois by Pope Innocent VIII., in 1486, that an army of eighteen
+thousand regular French and Piedmontese troops, accompanied by a horde
+of brigands to whom the remission of sins was promised on condition of
+their helping to slay the heretics, encircled the valleys and
+proceeded to assail the Vaudois in their fastnesses. The Papal legate,
+Albert Catanée, Archdeacon of Cremona, had his head-quarters at
+Pignerol, from whence he superintended the execution of the Pope's
+orders. First, he sent preaching monks up the valleys to attempt the
+conversion of the Vaudois before attacking them with arms. But the
+peasantry refused to be converted, and fled to their strongholds in
+the mountains.</p>
+
+<p>Then Catanée took the field at the head of his army, advancing upon
+Angrogna. He extended his lines so as to enclose the entire body of
+heretics, with the object of cutting them off to a man. The Vaudois,
+however, defended themselves resolutely, though armed only with pikes,
+swords, and bows and arrows, and everywhere beat back the assailants.
+The severest struggle occurred at Rochemalan, which the crusaders
+attacked with great courage. But the Vaudois had the advantage of the
+higher ground, and, encouraged by the cries and prayers of the women,
+children, and old men whom they were defending, they impetuously
+rushed forward and drove the Papal troops downhill in disorder,
+pursuing them into the very plain.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page483" name="page483"></a>(p. 483)</span> The next day the Papalini renewed the attack, ascending by
+the bottom of the valley, instead of by the plateau on which they had
+been defeated. But one of those dense mists, so common in the Alps,
+having settled down upon the valley, the troops became confused,
+broken up, and entangled in difficult paths; and in this state,
+marching apprehensively, they were fallen upon by the Vaudois and
+again completely defeated. Many of the soldiers slid over the rocks
+and were drowned in the torrent,&mdash;the chasm into which the captain of
+the detachment (Saquet de Planghère) fell, being still known as
+<span class="italic">Toumpi de Saquet</span>, or Saquet's Hole.</p>
+
+<p>The resistance of the mountaineers at other points, in the valleys of
+Pragela and St. Martin, having been almost equally successful, Catanée
+withdrew the Papal army in disgust, and marched it back into France,
+to wreak his vengeance on the defenceless Vaudois of the Val Louise,
+in the manner described in a preceding chapter.</p>
+
+<p>Less than a century later, a like attempt was made to force the
+entrance to the valley of Angrogna, by an army of Italians and
+Spaniards, under the command of the Count de la Trinité. A
+proclamation had been published, and put up in the villages of
+Angrogna, to the effect that all would be destroyed by fire and sword
+who did not forthwith return to the Church of Rome. And as the
+peasantry did not return, on the 2nd November, 1560, the Count
+advanced at the head of his army to extirpate the heretics. The
+Vaudois were provided with the rudest sort of weapons; many of them
+had only slings and cross-bows. But they felt strong in the goodness
+of their cause, and prepared to defend themselves to the death.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page484" name="page484"></a>(p. 484)</span> As the Count's army advanced, the Vaudois retired until they
+reached the high ground near Rochemalan, where they took their stand.
+The enemy followed, and halted in the valley beneath, lighting their
+bivouac fires, and intending to pass the night there. Before darkness
+fell, however, an accidental circumstance led to an engagement. A
+Vaudois boy, who had got hold of a drum, began beating it in a ravine
+close by. The soldiers, thinking a hostile troop had arrived, sprang
+up in disorder and seized their arms. The Vaudois, on their part,
+seeing the movement, and imagining that an attack was about to be made
+on them, rushed forward to repel it. The soldiers, surprised and
+confused, for the most part threw away their arms, and fled down the
+valley. Irritated by this disgraceful retreat of some twelve hundred
+soldiers before two hundred peasants, the Count advanced a second
+time, and was again, repulsed by the little band of heroes, who
+charged his troops with loud shouts of "Viva Jesu Christo!" driving
+the invaders in confusion down the valley.</p>
+
+<p>It may be mentioned that the object of the Savoy general, in making
+this attack, was to force the valley, and capture the strong position
+of the Pra du Tour, the celebrated stronghold of the Vaudois, from
+whence we shall afterwards find them, again driven back, baffled and
+defeated.</p>
+
+<p>A hundred years passed, and still the Vaudois remained unconverted and
+unexterminated. The Marquis of Pianesse now advanced upon
+Angrogna&mdash;always with the same object, "ad extirpandos hereticos," in
+obedience to the order of the Propaganda. On this occasion not only
+Italian and Spanish but Irish troops were engaged in a combined effort
+to exterminate the Vaudois. The Irish were known as <span class="pagenum"><a id="page485" name="page485"></a>(p. 485)</span> "the
+assassins" by the people of the valleys, because of their almost
+exceptional ferocity; and the hatred they excited by their outrages on
+women and children was so great, that on the assault and capture of
+St. Legont by the Vaudois peasantry, an Irish regiment surprised in
+barracks was completely destroyed.</p>
+
+<p>A combined attack was made on Angrogna on the 15th of June, 1655. On
+that day four separate bodies of troops advanced up the heights from
+different directions, thereby enclosing the little Vaudois army of
+three hundred men assembled there, and led by the heroic Javanel. This
+leader first threw himself upon the head of the column which advanced
+from Rocheplate, and drove it downhill. Then he drew off his little
+body towards Rochemalan, when he suddenly found himself opposed by the
+two bodies which had come up from St. John and La Tour. Retiring
+before them, he next found himself face to face with the fourth
+detachment, which had come up from Pramol. With the quick instinct of
+military genius, Javanel threw himself upon it before the beaten
+Rocheplate detachment were able to rally and assail him in flank; and
+he succeeded in cutting the Pramol force in two and passing through
+it, rushing up to the summit of the hill, on which he posted himself.
+And there he stood at bay.</p>
+
+<p>This hill is precipitous on one side, but of comparatively easy ascent
+on the side up which the little band of heroes had ascended. At the
+foot of the slope the four detachments, three thousand against three
+hundred, drew up and attacked him; but firing from a distance, their
+aim was not very deadly. For five hours Javanel resisted them as he
+best could, and then, seeing signs of impatience and hesitation in the
+enemy's ranks, he <span class="pagenum"><a id="page486" name="page486"></a>(p. 486)</span> called out to his men, "Forward, my
+friends!" and they rushed downhill like an avalanche. The three
+thousand men recoiled, broke, and fled before the three hundred; and
+Javanel returned victorious to his entrenchments before Angrogna.</p>
+
+<p>Yet, again, some eight years later, in 1663, was this neighbourhood
+the scene of another contest, and again was Javanel the hero. On this
+occasion, the Marquis de Fleury led the troops of the Duke of Savoy,
+whose object, as before, was to advance up the valley, and assail the
+Vaudois stronghold of Pra du Tour; and again the peasantry resisted
+them successfully, and drove them back into the plains. Javanel then
+went to rejoin a party of the men whom he had posted at the "Gates of
+Angrogna" to defend the pass up the valley; and again he fell upon the
+enemy engaged in attempting to force a passage there, and defeated
+them with heavy loss.</p>
+
+<p>Such are among the exciting events which have occurred in this one
+locality in connection with the Vaudois struggle for country and
+liberty.</p>
+
+<p>Let us now proceed up the valley of Angrogna, towards the famous
+stronghold of the Pra du Tour, the object of those repeated attacks of
+the enemy in the neighbourhood of Rochemalan. As we advance, the
+mountains gradually close in upon the valley, leaving a comparatively
+small width of pasture land by the river-side. At the hamlet of Serre
+the carriage road ends; and from thence the valley grows narrower, the
+mountains which enclose it become more rugged and abrupt, until there
+is room enough only for a footpath along a rocky ledge, and the
+torrent running in its deep bed alongside. This continues for a
+considerable distance, the path in some places being overhung by
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page487" name="page487"></a>(p. 487)</span> precipices, or encroached upon by rocks and boulders fallen
+from the heights, until at length we emerge from the defile, and find
+ourselves in a comparatively open space, the famous Pra du Tour; the
+defile we have passed, alongside the torrent and overhung by the
+rocks, being known as the Barricade.</p>
+
+<p>The Pra du Tour, or Meadow of the Tower, is a little amphitheatre
+surrounded by rugged and almost inaccessible mountains, situated at
+the head of the valley of Angrogna. The steep slopes bring down into
+this deep dell the headwaters of the torrent, which escape among the
+rocks down the defile we have just ascended. The path up the defile
+forms the only approach to the Pra from the valley, but it is so
+narrow, tortuous, and difficult, that the labours of only a few men in
+blocking up the pathway with rocks and stones that lie ready at hand,
+might at any time so barricade the approach as to render it
+impracticable. The extremely secluded position of the place, its
+natural strength and inaccessibility, and its proximity to the
+principal Vaudois towns and villages, caused it to be regarded from
+the earliest times as their principal refuge. It was their fastness,
+their fortress, and often their home. It was more&mdash;it was their school
+and college; for in the depths of the Pra du Tour the pastors, or
+<span class="italic">barbas</span>,<a id="footnotetag107" name="footnotetag107"></a><a href="#footnote107" title="Go to footnote 107"><span class="small">[107]</span></a> educated young men for the ministry, and provided for
+the religious instruction of the Vaudois population.</p>
+
+<p>It was the importance of the Pra du Tour as a stronghold that rendered
+it so often the object of attack through the valley of Angrogna. When
+the hostile troops of Savoy advanced upon La Tour, the <span class="pagenum"><a id="page488" name="page488"></a>(p. 488)</span>
+inhabitants of the neighbouring valleys at once fled to the Pra, into
+which they drove their cattle, and carried what provisions they could;
+there constructing mills, ovens, houses, and all that was requisite
+for subsistence, as in a fort. The men capable of bearing arms stood
+on their guard to defend the passes of the Vachére and Roussine, at
+the extreme heads of the valley, as well as the defile of the
+Barricade, while other bodies, stationed lower down, below the
+Barricade, prepared to resist the troops seeking to force an entrance
+up the valley; and hence the repeated battles in the neighbourhood of
+Rochemalan above described.</p>
+
+<p>On the occasion of the defeat of the Count de la Trinité by the little
+Vaudois band near the village of Angrogna, in November, 1560, the
+general drew off, and waited the arrival of reinforcements. A large
+body of Spanish veterans having joined him, in the course of the
+following spring he again proceeded up the valley, determined, if
+possible, to force the Barricade&mdash;the royal forces now numbering some
+seven thousand men, all disciplined troops. The peasants, finding
+their first position no longer tenable in the face of such numbers,
+abandoned Angrogna and the lower villages, and retired, with the whole
+population, to the Pra du Tour. The Count followed them with his main
+army, at the same time directing two other bodies of troops to advance
+upon the place round by the mountains, one by the heights of the
+Vachére, and another by Les Fourests. The defenders of the Pra would
+thus be assailed from three sides at once, their forces divided, and
+victory rendered certain.</p>
+
+<p>But the Count did not calculate upon the desperate bravery of the
+defenders. All three bodies were beaten back in succession. For four
+days the Count <span class="pagenum"><a id="page489" name="page489"></a>(p. 489)</span> made every effort to force the defile, and
+failed. Two colonels, eight captains, and four hundred men fell in
+these desperate assaults, without gaining an inch of ground. On the
+fifth day a combined attack was made with the reserve, composed of
+Spanish companies, but this, too, failed; and the troops, when ordered
+to return to the charge, refused to obey. The Count, who commanded, is
+said to have wept as he sat on a rock and looked upon so many of his
+dead&mdash;the soldiers themselves exclaiming, "God fights for these
+people, and we do them wrong!"</p>
+
+<p>About a hundred years later, the Marquis de Pianesse, who, like the
+Count de la Trinité, had been defeated at Rochemalan, made a similar
+attempt to surprise the Vaudois stronghold, with a like result. The
+peasants were commanded on this occasion by John Leger, the pastor and
+historian. Those who were unarmed hurled rocks and stones on the
+assailants from the heights; and the troops being thus thrown into
+confusion, the Vaudois rushed from behind their ramparts, and drove
+them in a state of total rout down the valley.</p>
+
+<p>On entering the Pra du Tour, one of the most prominent objects that
+meets the eye is the Roman Catholic chapel recently erected there,
+though the few inhabitants of the district are still almost entirely
+Protestant. The Roman Catholic Church has, however, now done what the
+Roman Catholic armies failed to do&mdash;established itself in the midst of
+the Vaudois stronghold, though by no means in the hearts of the
+people.</p>
+
+<p>Desirous of ascertaining, if possible, the site of the ancient
+college, we proceeded up the Pra, and hailed a young woman whom we
+observed crossing the rustic bridge over the Pêle, one of the mountain
+rivulets <span class="pagenum"><a id="page490" name="page490"></a>(p. 490)</span> running into the torrent of Angrogna. Inquiring of
+her as to the site of the college, she told us we had already passed
+it, and led us back to the place&mdash;up the rocky side of the hill
+leading to the Vachére&mdash;past the cottage where she herself lived, and
+pointed to the site: "There," she said, "is where the ancient college
+of the Vaudois stood." The old building has, however, long since been
+removed, the present structure being merely part of a small
+farmsteading. Higher up the steep hill-side, on successive ledges of
+rock, are the ruins of various buildings, some of which may have been
+dwellings, and one, larger than the rest, on a broader plateau, with
+an elder-tree growing in the centre, may possibly have been the
+temple.</p>
+
+<p>From the higher shelves on this mountain-side the view is extremely
+wild and grand. The acclivities which surround the head of the Pra
+seem as if battlemented walls; the mountain opposite throws its sombre
+shadow over the ravine in which the torrent runs; whilst, down the
+valley, rock seems piled on rock, and mountain on mountain. All is
+perfectly still, and the silence is only audible by the occasional
+tinkling of a sheep-bell, or the humming of a bee in search of flowers
+on the mountain-side. So peaceful and quiet is the place, that it is
+difficult to believe it could ever have been the scene of such deadly
+strife, and rung with the shouts of men thirsting for each other's
+blood.</p>
+
+<p>After lingering about the place until the sun was far on his way
+towards the horizon, we returned, by the road we had come, the valley
+seeming more beautiful than ever under the glow of evening, and
+arrived at our destination about dusk, to find the fireflies darting
+about the streets of La Tour.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page491" name="page491"></a>(p. 491)</span> The next day saw us at Turin, and our summer excursion at an
+end. Mr. Milsom, who had so pleasantly accompanied me through the
+valleys, had been summoned to attend the death-bed of a friend at
+Antibes, and he set out on the journey forthwith. While still there,
+he received a telegram intimating the death of his daughter at
+Allevard, near Grenoble, and he arrived only in time to attend her
+funeral. Two months later, he lost another dear daughter; shortly
+after, his mother-in-law died; and in the following December he
+himself died suddenly of heart disease, and followed them to the
+grave.</p>
+
+<p>One could not but conceive a hearty liking for Edward Milsom&mdash;he was
+such a thoroughly good man. He was a native of London, but spent the
+greater part of his life at Lyons, in France, where he long since
+settled and married. He there carried on a large business as a silk
+merchant, but was always ready to give a portion of his time and money
+to help forward any good work. He was an "ancien," or elder, of the
+Evangelical church at Lyons, originally founded by Adolphe Monod, to
+whom he was also related by marriage.</p>
+
+<p>Some years since he was very much interested by the perusal of Pastor
+Bost's account of his visit to the scene of Felix Neff's labours in
+the High Alps. He felt touched by the simple, faithful character of
+the people, and keenly sympathised with their destitute condition.
+"Here," said he, "is a field in which I may possibly be of some use."
+And he at once went to their help. He visited the district of
+Fressinières, including the hamlet of Dormilhouse, as well as the more
+distant villages of Arvieux and Sans Veran, up the vale of Queyras;
+and nearly every year thereafter <span class="pagenum"><a id="page492" name="page492"></a>(p. 492)</span> he devoted a certain
+portion of his time in visiting the poorer congregations of the
+district, giving them such help and succour as lay in his power.</p>
+
+<p>His repeated visits made him well known to the people of the valleys,
+who valued him as a friend, if they did not even love him as a
+brother. His visits were also greatly esteemed by the pastors, who
+stood much in need of encouragement and help. He cheered the wavering,
+strengthened the feeble-hearted, and stimulated all to renewed life
+and action. Wherever he went, a light seemed to shine in his path; and
+when he departed, he was followed by many blessings.</p>
+
+<p>In one place he would arrange for the opening of a new place of
+worship; in another, for the opening of a boys' school; in a third,
+for the industrial employment of girls; and wherever there was any
+little heartburning or jealousy to be allayed, he would set himself to
+remove it. His admirable tact, his unfailing temper, and excellent
+good sense, rendered him a wise counsellor and a most successful
+conciliator.</p>
+
+<p>The last time Mr. Milsom visited England, towards the end of 1869, he
+was occupied, as usual, in collecting subscriptions for the poor
+Vaudois of the High Alps. Now that the good "merchant missionary" has
+rested from his labours, they will indeed feel the loss of their
+friend. Who is to assume his mantle?<a href="#toc"><span class="small">[Back to Contents]</span></a></p>
+
+
+<h3><span class="pagenum"><a id="page493" name="page493"></a>(p. 493)</span> CHAPTER VII.</h3>
+
+<p class="title">THE GLORIOUS RETURN:<br>
+
+AN EPISODE IN THE HISTORY OF THE ITALIAN VAUDOIS.</p>
+
+
+<p>What is known as The Glorious Return, or re-entry of the exiled
+Vaudois in 1689 to resume possession of the valleys from which they
+had been banished, will always stand out as one of the most remarkable
+events in history.</p>
+
+<p>If ever a people fairly established their right to live in their own
+country, and to worship God after their own methods, the Vaudois had
+surely done so. They had held conscientiously and consistently to
+their religion for nearly five hundred years, during which they
+laboured under many disabilities and suffered much persecution. But
+the successive Dukes of Savoy were no better satisfied with them as
+subjects than before. They could not brook that any part of their
+people should be of a different form of religion from that professed
+by themselves; and they continued, at the instance of successive
+popes, to let slip the dogs of war upon the valleys, in the hopes of
+eventually compelling the Vaudois to "come in" and make their peace
+with the Church.</p>
+
+<p>The result of these invasions was almost uniform. At the first sudden
+inroad of the troops, the people, <span class="pagenum"><a id="page494" name="page494"></a>(p. 494)</span> taken by surprise, usually
+took to flight; on which their dwellings were burnt and their fields
+laid waste. But when they had time to rally and collect their forces,
+the almost invariable result was that the Piedmontese were driven out
+of the valleys again with ignominy and loss. The Duke's invasion of
+1655 was, however, attended with greater success than usual. His
+armies occupied the greater part of the valleys, though the Vaudois
+still held out, and made occasional successful sallies from their
+mountain fastnesses. At length, the Protestants of the Swiss
+Confederation, taking compassion on their co-religionists in Piedmont,
+sent ambassadors to the Duke of Savoy at Turin to intercede for their
+relief; and the result was the amnesty granted to them in that year
+under the title of the "Patents of Grace." The terms were very hard,
+but they were agreed to. The Vaudois were to be permitted to re-occupy
+their valleys, conditional on their rebuilding all the Catholic
+churches which had been destroyed, paying to the Duke an indemnity of
+fifty thousand francs, and ceding to him the richest lands in the
+valley of Luzerna&mdash;the last relics of their fortunes being thus taken
+from them to remunerate the barbarity of their persecutors.</p>
+
+<p>It was also stipulated by this treaty, that the pastors of the Vaudois
+churches were to be natives of the district only, and that they were
+to be at liberty to administer religious instruction in their own
+manner in all the Vaudois parishes, excepting that of St. John, near
+La Tour, where their worship was interdicted. The only persons
+excepted from the terms of the amnesty were Javanel, the heroic old
+captain, and Jean Leger, the pastor-historian, the most prominent
+leaders of the Vaudois in the recent war, both of <span class="pagenum"><a id="page495" name="page495"></a>(p. 495)</span> whom were
+declared to be banished the ducal dominions.</p>
+
+<p>Under this treaty the Vaudois enjoyed peace for about thirty years,
+during which they restored the cultivation of the valleys, rebuilt the
+villages, and were acknowledged to be among the most loyal, peaceable,
+and industrious of the subjects of Savoy.</p>
+
+<p>There were, however, certain parts of the valleys to which the amnesty
+granted by the Duke did not apply. Thus, it did not apply to the
+valleys of Pérouse and Pragela, which did not then form part of the
+dominions of Savoy, but were included within the French frontier. It
+was out of this circumstance that a difficulty arose with the French
+monarch, which issued in the revival of the persecution in the
+valleys, the banishment of the Vaudois into Switzerland, and their
+eventual "Glorious Return" in the manner we are about briefly to
+narrate.</p>
+
+<p>When Louis XIV. of France revoked the Edict of Nantes in 1685, and
+interdicted all Protestant worship throughout his dominions, the law
+of course applied to the valleys of Pérouse and Pragela as to the
+other parts of France. The Vaudois pastors were banished, and the
+people were forbidden to profess any other religion than that
+prescribed by the King, under penalty of confiscation of their goods,
+imprisonment, or banishment. The Vaudois who desired to avoid these
+penalties while they still remained staunch to their faith, did what
+so many Frenchmen then did&mdash;they fled across the frontier and took
+refuge in foreign lands. Some of the inhabitants of the French valleys
+went northward into Switzerland, while others passed across the
+mountains towards the south, and took refuge in the valley of the
+Pelice, where the Vaudois <span class="pagenum"><a id="page496" name="page496"></a>(p. 496)</span> religion continued to be tolerated
+under the terms of the amnesty above referred to, which had been
+granted by the Duke of Savoy.</p>
+
+<p>The French king, when he found his Huguenot subjects flying in all
+directions rather than remain in France and be "converted" to Roman
+Catholicism, next tried to block up the various avenues of escape, and
+to prevent the rulers of the adjoining countries from giving the
+fugitives asylum. Great was his displeasure when he heard of the
+flight of the Vaudois of Pérouse and Pragela into the adjoining
+valleys. He directed the French ambassador at Turin to call upon the
+Duke of Savoy, and require him to prevent their settlement within his
+dominions. At the same time, he called upon the Duke to take steps to
+compel the conversion of his people from the pretended reformed faith,
+and offered the aid of his troops to enforce their submission, "at
+whatever cost."</p>
+
+<p>The Duke was irritated at the manner in which he was approached. Louis
+XIV. was treating him as a vassal of France rather than as an
+independent sovereign. But he felt himself to be weak, and
+comparatively powerless to resent the insult. So he first temporised,
+then vacillated, and being again pressed by the French king, he
+eventually yielded. The amnesty was declared to be at an end, and the
+Vaudois were ordered forthwith to become members of the Church of
+Rome. An edict was issued on the 31st of January, 1686, forbidding the
+exercise by the Vaudois of their religion, abolishing their ancient
+privileges, and ordering the demolition of all their places of
+worship. Pastors and schoolmasters who refused to be converted were
+ordered to quit the country within fifteen days, on pain of death and
+confiscation of their goods. All <span class="pagenum"><a id="page497" name="page497"></a>(p. 497)</span> refugee Protestants from
+France were ordered to leave under the same penalty. All children born
+of Protestant parents were to be compulsorily educated as Roman
+Catholics. This barbarous measure was merely a repetition by the Duke
+of Savoy in Piedmont of what his master Louis XIV. had already done in
+France.</p>
+
+<p>The Vaudois expostulated with their sovereign, but in vain. They
+petitioned, but there was no reply. They requested the interposition
+of the Swiss Government as before, but the Duke took no notice of
+their memorial. The question of resistance was then discussed; but the
+people were without leaders. Javanel was living in banishment at
+Geneva&mdash;old and worn out, and unable to lead them. Besides, the
+Vaudois, before taking up arms, wished to exhaust every means of
+conciliation. Ambassadors next came from Switzerland, who urged them
+to submit to the clemency of the Duke, and suggested that they should
+petition him for permission to leave the country! The Vaudois were
+stupefied by the proposal. They were thus asked, without a contest, to
+submit to all the ignominy and punishment of defeat, and to terminate
+their very existence as a people! The ambassadors represented that
+resistance to the combined armies of Savoy, France, and Spain, without
+leaders, and with less than three thousand combatants, was little
+short of madness.</p>
+
+<p>Nevertheless, a number of the Vaudois determined not to leave their
+valleys without an attempt to hold them, as they had so often
+successfully done before. The united armies of France and Savoy then
+advanced upon the valleys, and arrangements were made for a general
+attack upon the Vaudois position on Easter <span class="pagenum"><a id="page498" name="page498"></a>(p. 498)</span> Monday, 1686, at
+break of day,&mdash;the Duke of Savoy assailing the valley of Luzerna,
+while Catinat, commander of the French troops, advanced on St. Martin.
+Catinat made the first attack on the village of St. Germain, and was
+beaten back with heavy loss after six hours' fighting. Henry Arnaud,
+the Huguenot pastor from Die in Dauphiny, of which he was a native,
+particularly distinguished himself by his bravery in this affair, and
+from that time began to be regarded as one of the most promising of
+the Vaudois leaders.</p>
+
+<p>Catinat renewed the attack on the following day with the assistance of
+fresh troops; and he eventually succeeded in overcoming the resistance
+of the handful of men who opposed him, and sweeping the valley of St.
+Martin. Men, women, and children were indiscriminately put to the
+sword. In some of the parishes no resistance was offered, the
+inhabitants submitting to the Duke's proclamation; but whether they
+submitted or not, made no difference in their treatment, which was
+barbarous in all cases.</p>
+
+<p>Meanwhile, the Duke of Savoy's army advanced from the vale of Luzerna
+upon the celebrated heights of Angrogna, and assailed the Vaudois
+assembled there at all points. The resistance lasted for an entire
+day, and when night fell, both forces slept on the ground upon which
+they had fought, kindling their bivouac fires on both sides. On the
+following day the attack was renewed, and again the battle raged until
+night. Then Don Gabriel of Savoy, who was in command, resolved to
+employ the means which Catinat had found so successful: he sent
+forward messengers to inform the Vaudois that their brethren of the
+Val St. Martin had laid down their arms and been pardoned, inviting
+them to follow their example. The result of further parley <span class="pagenum"><a id="page499" name="page499"></a>(p. 499)</span>
+was, that on the express promise of his Royal Highness that they
+should receive pardon, and that neither their persons nor those of
+their wives or children should be touched, the credulous Vaudois,
+still hoping for fair treatment, laid down their arms, and permitted
+the ducal troops to take possession of their entrenchments!</p>
+
+<p>The same treacherous strategy proved equally successful against the
+defenders of the Pra du Tour. After beating back their assailants and
+firmly holding their ground for an entire day, they were told of the
+surrender of their compatriots, promised a full pardon, and assured of
+life and liberty, on condition of immediately ceasing further
+hostilities. They accordingly consented to lay down their arms, and
+the impregnable fastness of the Pra du Tour, which had never been
+taken by force, thus fell before falsehood and perfidy. "The defenders
+of this ancient sanctuary of the Church," says Dr. Huston, "were
+loaded with irons; their children were carried off and scattered
+through the Roman Catholic districts; their wives and daughters were
+violated, massacred, or made captives. As for those that still
+remained, all whom the enemy could seize became a prey devoted to
+carnage, spoliation, fire, excesses which cannot be told, and outrages
+which it would be impossible to describe."<a id="footnotetag108" name="footnotetag108"></a><a href="#footnote108" title="Go to footnote 108"><span class="small">[108]</span></a></p>
+
+<p>"All the valleys are now exterminated," wrote a French officer to his
+friends; "the people are all killed, hanged, or massacred." The Duke,
+Victor Amadeus, issued a decree, declaring the Vaudois to be guilty of
+high treason, and confiscating all their property. Arnaud says as many
+as eleven thousand persons were killed, or perished in prison, or died
+of want, in consequence <span class="pagenum"><a id="page500" name="page500"></a>(p. 500)</span> of this horrible Easter festival of
+blood. Six thousand were taken prisoners, and the greater number of
+these died in gaol of hunger and disease. When the prisons were
+opened, and the wretched survivors were ordered to quit the country,
+forbidden to return to it on pain of death, only about two thousand
+six hundred contrived to struggle across the frontier into
+Switzerland.</p>
+
+<p>And thus at last the Vaudois Church seemed utterly uprooted and
+destroyed. What the Dukes of Savoy had so often attempted in vain was
+now accomplished. A second St. Bartholomew had been achieved, and Rome
+rang with <span class="italic">Te Deums</span> in praise of the final dispersion of the Vaudois.
+The Pope sent to Victor Amadeus II. a special brief, congratulating
+him on the extirpation of heresy in his dominions; and Piedmontese and
+Savoyards, good Catholics, were presented with the lands from which
+the Vaudois had been driven. Those of them who remained in the country
+"unconverted" were as so many scattered fugitives in the
+mountains&mdash;sheep wandering about without a shepherd. Some of the
+Vaudois, for the sake of their families and homes, pretended
+conversion; but these are admitted to have been comparatively few in
+number. In short, the "Israel of the Alps" seemed to be no more, and
+its people utterly and for ever dispersed. Pierre Allix, the Huguenot
+refugee pastor in England, in his "History of the Ancient Churches of
+Piedmont," dedicated to William III., regarded the Vaudois Church as
+obliterated&mdash;"their present desolation seeming so universal, that the
+world looks upon them no otherwise than as irrecoverably lost, and
+finally destroyed."</p>
+
+<p>Three years passed. The expelled Vaudois reached <span class="pagenum"><a id="page501" name="page501"></a>(p. 501)</span> Switzerland
+in greatly reduced numbers, many women and children having perished on
+their mountain journey. The inhabitants of Geneva received them with
+great hospitality, clothing and feeding them until they were able to
+proceed on their way northward. Some went into Brandenburg, some into
+Holland, while others settled to various branches of industry in
+different parts of Switzerland. Many of them, however, experienced
+great difficulty in obtaining a settlement. Those who had entered the
+Palatinate were driven thence by war, and those who had entered
+Wurtemburg were expelled by the Grand Duke, who feared incurring the
+ire of Louis XIV. by giving them shelter and protection. Hence many
+little bands of the Vaudois refugees long continued to wander along
+the valley of the Rhine, unable to find rest for their weary feet.
+There were others trying to earn, a precarious living in Geneva and
+Lausanne, and along the shores of Lake Leman. Some of these were men
+who had fought under Javanel in his heroic combats with the
+Piedmontese; and they thought with bitter grief of the manner in which
+they had fallen into the trap of Catinat and the Duke of Savoy, and
+abandoned their country almost without a struggle.</p>
+
+<p>Then it was that the thought occurred to them whether they might not
+yet strike a blow for the recovery of their valleys! The idea seemed
+chimerical in the extreme. A few hundred destitute men, however
+valiant, to think of recovering a country defended by the combined
+armies of France and Savoy! Javanel, the old Vaudois hero, disabled by
+age and wounds, was still alive&mdash;an exile at Geneva&mdash;and he was
+consulted on the subject. Javanel embraced the project with,
+enthusiasm; and the invasion of the <span class="pagenum"><a id="page502" name="page502"></a>(p. 502)</span> valleys was resolved
+upon! A more daring, and apparently more desperate enterprise, was
+never planned.</p>
+
+<p>Who was to be their leader? Javanel himself was disabled. Though his
+mind was clear, and his patriotic ardour unquenched, his body was
+weak; and all that he could do was to encourage and advise. But he
+found a noble substitute in Henry Arnaud, the Huguenot refugee, who
+had already distinguished himself in his resistance to the troops of
+Savoy. And Arnaud was now ready to offer up his life for the recovery
+of the valleys.</p>
+
+<p>The enterprise was kept as secret as possible, yet not so close as to
+prevent the authorities of Berne obtaining some inkling of their
+intentions. Three confidential messengers were first dispatched to the
+valleys to ascertain the disposition of the population, and more
+particularly to examine the best route by which an invasion might be
+made. On their return with the necessary information, the plan was
+settled by Javanel, as it was to be carried out by Arnaud. In the
+meantime, the magistrates of Geneva, having obtained information as to
+the intended movement, desirous of averting the hostility of France
+and Savoy, required Javanel to leave their city, and he at once
+retired to Ouchy, a little farther up the lake.</p>
+
+<p>The greatest difficulty experienced by the Vaudois in carrying out
+their enterprise was the want of means. They were poor, destitute
+refugees, without arms, ammunition, or money to buy them. To obtain
+the requisite means, Arnaud made a journey into Holland, for the
+purpose of communicating the intended project to William of Orange.
+William entered cordially into the proposed plan, recommended Arnaud
+to several Huguenot officers, who afterwards took part in the
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page503" name="page503"></a>(p. 503)</span> expedition, supplied him with assistance in money, and
+encouraged him to carry out the design. Several private persons in
+Holland&mdash;amongst others the post-master-general at Leyden&mdash;also
+largely contributed to the enterprise.</p>
+
+<p>At length all was ready. The men who intended to take part in the
+expedition came together from various quarters. Some came from
+Brandenburg, others from Bavaria and distant parts of Switzerland; and
+among those who joined them was a body of French Huguenots, willing to
+share in their dangers and their glory. One of their number, Captain
+Turrel, like Arnaud, a native of Die in Dauphiny, was even elected as
+the general of the expedition. Their rendez-vous was in the forest of
+Prangins, near Nyon, on the north bank of the Lake of Geneva; and
+there, on the night of the 16th of August, 1689, they met in the
+hollow recesses of the wood. Fifteen boats had been got together, and
+lay off the shore. After a fervent prayer by the pastor-general
+Arnaud, imploring a blessing upon the enterprise, as many of the men
+as could embark got into the boats. As the lake is there at its
+narrowest, they soon rowed across to the other side, near the town of
+Yvoire, and disembarked on the shore of Savoy. Arnaud had posted
+sentinels in all directions, and the little body waited the arrival of
+the remainder of their comrades from the opposite shore. They had all
+crossed the lake by two o'clock in the morning; and about eight
+hundred men, divided into nineteen companies,<a id="footnotetag109" name="footnotetag109"></a><a href="#footnote109" title="Go to footnote 109"><span class="small">[109]</span></a> each provided with
+its captain, were now ready to march.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page504" name="page504"></a>(p. 504)</span> At the very commencement, however, they met with a
+misfortune. One of the pastors, having gone to seek a guide in the
+village near at hand, was seized as a prisoner by the local
+authorities, and carried off. On this, the Vaudois, seeing that they
+were treated as enemies, sent a party to summon Yvoire to open its
+gates, and it obeyed. The lord of the manor and the receiver of taxes
+were taken as hostages, and made to accompany the troop until they
+reached the next commune, when they were set at liberty, and replaced
+by other hostages.</p>
+
+<p>When it became known that the little army of Vaudois had set out on
+their march, troops were dispatched from all quarters to intercept
+them and cut them off; and it was believed that their destruction was
+inevitable. "What possible chance is there," asked the <span class="italic">Historic
+Mercury</span> of the day, "of this small body of men penetrating to their
+native country through the masses of French and Piedmontese troops
+accumulating from all sides, without being crushed and exterminated?"
+"It is impossible," wrote the <span class="italic">Leyden Gazette</span>, "notwithstanding
+whatever precautions they may take, that the Vaudois can extricate
+themselves without certain death, and the Court of Savoy may therefore
+regard itself safe so far as they are concerned."</p>
+
+<p>No sooner had the boats left the shore at Nyon for the further side of
+the lake than the young seigneur of Prangins, who had been watching
+their movements, <span class="pagenum"><a id="page505" name="page505"></a>(p. 505)</span> rode off at full speed to inform the French
+resident at Geneva of the departure of the Vaudois; and orders were at
+once dispatched to Lyons for a strong body of cavalry to march
+immediately towards Savoy to cut them off. But the Vaudois had well
+matured their plans, and took care to keep out of reach of the
+advancing enemy. Their route at first lay up the valleys towards the
+mountains, whose crests they followed, from glacier to glacier, in
+places almost inaccessible to regular troops, and thus they eluded the
+combined forces of France and Savoy, which, vainly endeavoured to bar
+their passage.</p>
+
+<p>The first day's march led them into the valley of the Arve, by the Col
+de Voirons, from which they took their last view of the peaceful Lake
+of Geneva; thence they proceeded by the pyramidal mountain called the
+Mole to the little town of Viu, where they rested for two hours,
+starting again by moonlight, and passing through St. Joire, where the
+magistrates brought out a great cask of wine, and placed it in the
+middle of the street for their refreshment. The little army, however,
+did not halt there, but marched on to the bare hill of Carman, where,
+after solemn prayer, they encamped about midnight, sleeping on the
+bare ground. Next day found them in front of the small walled town of
+Cluse, in the rocky gorge of the Arve. The authorities shut the gates,
+on which the Vaudois threatened to storm the place, when the gates
+were opened, and they marched through the town, the inhabitants
+standing under arms along both sides of the street. Here the Vaudois
+purchased a store of food and wine, which they duly paid for.</p>
+
+<p>They then proceeded on to Sallanches, where resistance was threatened.
+They found a body of men posted <span class="pagenum"><a id="page506" name="page506"></a>(p. 506)</span> on the wooden bridge which
+there separated the village of St. Martin from Sallanches; but rushing
+forward, the defenders of the bridge fled, and the little army passed
+over and proceeded to range themselves in order of battle over against
+the town, which was defended by six hundred troops. The Vaudois having
+threatened to burn the town, and kill the hostages whom they had taken
+on the slightest show of resistance, the threat had its effect, and
+they were permitted to pass without further opposition, encamping for
+the night at a little village about a league further on. And thus
+closed the second day's march.</p>
+
+<p>The third day they passed over the mountains of Lez Pras and Haute
+Luce, seven thousand feet above the sea-level, a long and fatiguing
+march. At one place the guide lost his way, and rain fell heavily,
+soaking the men to the skin. They spent a wretched night in some empty
+stables at the hamlet of St. Nicholas de Verose; and started earlier
+than usual on the following morning, addressing themselves to the
+formidable work of climbing the Col Bonhomme, which they passed with
+the snow up to their knees. They were now upon the crest of the Alps,
+looking down upon the valley of the Isère, into which they next
+descended. They traversed the valley without resistance, passing
+through St. Germain and Scez, turning aside at the last-mentioned
+place up the valley of Tignes, thereby avoiding the French troops
+lying in wait for them in the neighbourhood of Moutiers, lower down
+the valley of the Isère. Later in the evening they reached Laval, at
+the foot of Mont Iseran; and here Arnaud, for the first time during
+eight days, snatched a few hours' sleep on a bed in the village.</p>
+
+<p>The sixth day saw the little army climbing the <span class="pagenum"><a id="page507" name="page507"></a>(p. 507)</span> steep slopes
+of Mont Iseran, where the shepherds gave them milk and wished them
+God-speed; but they warned them that a body of troops lay in their way
+at Mont Cenis. On they went&mdash;over the mountain, and along the crest of
+the chain, until they saw Bonneval in the valley beneath them, and
+there they descended, passing on to Bessant in the valley of the Arc,
+where they encamped for the night.</p>
+
+<p>Next day they marched on Mont Cenis, which they ascended. As they were
+crossing the mountain a strange incident occurred. The Vaudois saw
+before them a large convoy of mules loaded with baggage. And shortly
+after there came up the carriage and equipage of some grand personage.
+It proved to be Cardinal Ranuzzi, on his way to Rome to take part in
+the election of Pope Alexander VIII. The Vaudois seized the mules
+carrying the baggage, which contained important documents compromising
+Louis XIV. with Victor Amadeus; and it is said that in consequence of
+their loss, the Cardinal, who himself aspired to the tiara, afterwards
+died of chagrin, crying in his last moments, "My papers! oh, my
+papers!"</p>
+
+<p>The passage of the Great and Little Cenis was effected with great
+difficulty. The snow lay thick on the ground, though it was the month
+of August, and the travellers descended the mountain of Tourliers by a
+precipice rather than a road. When night fell, they were still
+scattered on the mountain, and lay down to snatch a brief sleep,
+overcome with hunger and fatigue. Next morning they gathered together
+again, and descended into the sterile valley of the Gaillon, and
+shortly after proceeded to ascend the mountain opposite.</p>
+
+<p>They were now close upon the large towns. Susa <span class="pagenum"><a id="page508" name="page508"></a>(p. 508)</span> lay a little
+to the east, and Exilles was directly in their way. The garrison of
+the latter place came out to meet them, and from the crest of the
+mountain rolled large stones and flung grenades down upon the
+invaders. Here the Vaudois lost some men and prisoners, and finding
+the further ascent impracticable, they retreated into the valley from
+which they had come, and again ascended the steep slope of Tourliers
+in order to turn the heights on which the French troops were posted.
+At last, after great fatigue and peril, unable to proceed further,
+they gained the crest of the mountain, and sounded their clarions to
+summon the scattered body.</p>
+
+<p>After a halt of two hours they proceeded along the ridge, and
+perceived through the mist a body of soldiers marching along with
+drums beating; it was the garrison of Exilles. The Vaudois were
+recognised and followed by the soldiers at a distance. Proceeding a
+little further, they came in sight of the long valley of the Doire,
+and looking down into it, not far from the bridge of Salabertrans,
+they discerned some thirty-six bivouac fires burning on the plain,
+indicating the presence of a large force. These were their enemies&mdash;a
+well-appointed army of some two thousand five hundred men&mdash;whom they
+were at last to meet in battle. Nothing discouraged, they descended
+into the valley, and the advanced guard shortly came in contact with
+the enemy's outposts. Firing between them went on for an hour and a
+half, and then night fell.</p>
+
+<p>The Vaudois leaders held a council to determine what they should do;
+and the result was, that an immediate attack was resolved upon, in
+three bodies. The principal attack was made on the bridge, the passage
+of which was defended by a strong body of French soldiers, under the
+command of Colonel de Larrey. <span class="pagenum"><a id="page509" name="page509"></a>(p. 509)</span> On the advance of the Vaudois
+in the darkness, they were summoned to stand, but continued to
+advance, when the enemy fired a volley on them, killing three men.
+Then the Vaudois brigade rushed to the bridge, but seeing a strong
+body on the other side preparing to fire again, Arnaud called upon his
+men to lie down, and the volley went over their heads. Then Turrel,
+the Vaudois captain, calling out "Forward! the bridge is won!" the
+Vaudois jumped to their feet and rushed on. The two wings at the same
+time concentrated their fire on the defenders, who broke and retired,
+and the bridge was won. But at the further side, where the French were
+in overpowering numbers, they refused to give way, and poured down
+their fire on their assailants. The Vaudois boldly pressed on. They
+burst through the French, force, cutting it in two; and fresh men
+pouring over, the battle was soon won. The French, commander was
+especially chagrined at having been beaten by a parcel of cowherds.
+"Is it possible," he exclaimed, "that I have lost both the battle and
+my honour?"</p>
+
+<p>The rising moon showed the ground strewed with about seven hundred
+dead; the Vaudois having lost only twenty-two killed and eight
+wounded. The victors filled their pouches with ammunition picked up on
+the field, took possession of as many arms and as much provisions as
+they could carry, and placing the remainder in a heap over some
+barrels of powder, they affixed a lighted match and withdrew. A
+tremendous explosion shook the mountains, and echoed along the valley,
+and the remains of the French camp were blown to atoms. The Vaudois
+then proceeded at once to climb the mountain of Sci, which had to be
+crossed in order to enter the valley of Pragelas.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page510" name="page510"></a>(p. 510)</span> It was early on a Sabbath morning, the ninth day of their
+march, that the Vaudois reached the crest of the mountain overlooking
+Fenestrelles, and saw spread out before them the beloved country which
+they had come to win. They halted for the stragglers, and when these
+had come up, Arnaud made them kneel down and thank God for permitting
+them again to see their native land; himself offering up an eloquent
+prayer, which cheered and strengthened them for further effort. And
+then they descended into the valley of Pragelas, passing the river
+Clusone, and halting to rest at the little village of La Traverse.
+They were now close to the Vaudois strongholds, and in a country every
+foot of which was familiar to most of them. But their danger was by no
+means over; for the valleys were swarming with dragoons and
+foot-soldiers; and when they had shaken off those of France, they had
+still to encounter the troops of Savoy.</p>
+
+<p>Late in the afternoon the little army again set out for the valley of
+St. Martin, passing the night in the mountain hamlet of Jussand, the
+highest on the Col du Pis. Next day they descended the Col near Seras,
+and first came in contact with the troops of Savoy; but these having
+taken to flight, no collision occurred; and on the following day the
+Vaudois arrived, without further molestation, at the famous Balsille.</p>
+
+<p>This celebrated stronghold is situated in front of the narrow defile
+of Macel, which leads into the valley of St. Martin. It is a rampart
+of rock, standing at the entrance to the pass, and is of such natural
+strength, that but little art was needed to make it secure against any
+force that could be brought against it. There is only one approach to
+it from the valley of St. Martin, which is very difficult; a portion
+of the way being in <span class="pagenum"><a id="page511" name="page511"></a>(p. 511)</span> a deep wooded gorge, where a few men
+could easily arrest the progress of an army. The rock itself consists
+of three natural stages or terraces, the highest part rising steep as
+a wall, being surmounted by a natural platform. The mountain was well
+supplied with water, which gushed forth in several places. Caverns had
+been hollowed out in the sides of the rocks, which served as
+hiding-places during the persecutions which so often ravaged the
+valleys; and these were now available for storehouses and barracks.</p>
+
+<p>The place was, indeed, so intimately identified with the past
+sufferings and triumphs of the Vaudois, and it was, besides, so
+centrally situated, and so secure, that they came to regard its
+possession as essential to the success of their enterprise. The aged
+Javanel, who drew up the plan of the invasion before the eight hundred
+set out on their march, attached the greatest importance to its early
+occupation. "Spare no labour nor pains," he said, in the memorandum of
+directions which he drew up, "in fortifying this post, which will be
+your most secure fortress. Do not quit it unless in the utmost
+extremity.... You will, of course, be told that you cannot hold it
+always, and that rather than not succeed in their object, all France
+and Italy will gather together against you.... But were it the whole
+world, and only yourselves against all, fear ye the Almighty alone,
+who is your protection."</p>
+
+<p>On the arrival of the Vaudois at the Balsille, they discerned a small
+body of troops advancing towards them by the Col du Pis, higher up the
+valley. They proved to be Piedmontese, forty-six in number, sent to
+occupy the pass. They were surrounded, disarmed, and put to death, and
+their arms were hid away amongst the rocks. No quarter was given on
+either <span class="pagenum"><a id="page512" name="page512"></a>(p. 512)</span> side during this war; the Vaudois had no prisons in
+which to place their captives; and they themselves, when taken, were
+treated not as soldiers, but as bandits, being instantly hung on the
+nearest trees. The Vaudois did not, however, yet take up their
+permanent position at the Balsille, being desirous of rousing the
+valleys towards the south. The day following, accordingly, they
+marched to Pralis, in the valley of the Germanasca, when, for the
+first time since their exile, they celebrated Divine worship in one of
+the temples of their ancestors.</p>
+
+<p>They were now on their way towards the valley of the Pelice, to reach
+which it was necessary that they should pass over the Col Julian. An
+army of three thousand Piedmontese barred their way, but nothing
+daunted by the great disparity of force, the Vaudois, divided into
+three bodies, as at Salabertrans, mounted to the assault. As they
+advanced, the Piedmontese cried, "Come on, ye devil's Barbets, there
+are more than three thousand of us, and we occupy all the posts!" In
+less than half an hour the whole of the posts were carried, the pass
+was cleared, and the Piedmontese fled down the further side of the
+mountain, leaving all their stores behind them. On the following day
+the Vaudois reached Bobi, drove out the new settlers, and resumed
+possession of the lands of the commune. Thus, after the lapse of only
+fourteen days, this little band of heroes had marched from the shores
+of the Lake of Geneva, by difficult mountain-passes, through bands of
+hostile troops, which they had defeated in two severe fights, and at
+length reached the very centre of the Vaudois valleys, and entered
+into possession of the "Promised Land."</p>
+
+<p>They resolved to celebrate their return to the country of their
+fathers by an act of solemn worship <span class="pagenum"><a id="page513" name="page513"></a>(p. 513)</span> on the Sabbath
+following. The whole body assembled on the hill of Silaoud, commanding
+an extensive prospect of the valley, and with their arms piled, and
+resting under the shade of the chestnut-trees which crown the hill,
+they listened to an eloquent sermon from the pastor Montoux, who
+preached to them standing on a platform, consisting of a door resting
+upon two rocks, after which they chanted the 74th Psalm, to the clash
+of arms. They then proceeded to enter into a solemn covenant with each
+other, renewing the ancient oath of union of the valleys, and swearing
+never to rest from their enterprise, even if they should be reduced to
+only three or four in number, until they had "re-established in the
+valleys the kingdom of the Gospel." Shortly after, they proceeded to
+divide themselves into two bodies, for the purpose of occupying
+simultaneously, as recommended by Javanel, the two valleys of the
+Pelice and St. Martin.</p>
+
+<p>But the trials and sufferings they had already endured were as nothing
+compared with those they were now about to experience. Armies
+concentrated on them from all points. They were pressed by the French
+on the north and west, and by the Piedmontese on the south and east.
+Encouraged by their success at Bobi, the Vaudois rashly attacked
+Villar, lower down the valley, and were repulsed with loss. From
+thence they retired up the valley of Rora, and laid it waste; the
+enemy, in like manner, destroying the town of Bobi and laying waste
+the neighbourhood.</p>
+
+<p>The war now became one of reprisals and mutual devastation, the two
+parties seeking to deprive each other of shelter and the means of
+subsistence. The Vaudois could only obtain food by capturing the
+enemy's convoys, levying contributions from the plains, <span class="pagenum"><a id="page514" name="page514"></a>(p. 514)</span> and
+making incursions into Dauphiny. The enterprise on which they had
+entered seemed to become more hopeless from day to day. This handful
+of men, half famished and clothed in rags, had now arrayed against
+them twenty-two thousand French and Sardinians, provided with all the
+munitions of war. That they should have been able to stand against
+them for two whole months, now fighting in one place, and perhaps the
+next day some twenty miles across the mountains in another, with
+almost invariable success, seems little short of a miracle. But flesh
+and blood could not endure such toil and privations much longer. No
+wonder that the faint-hearted began to despair. Turrel, the military
+commander, seeing no chance of a prosperous issue, withdrew across the
+French frontier, followed by the greater number of the Vaudois from
+Dauphiny;<a id="footnotetag110" name="footnotetag110"></a><a href="#footnote110" title="Go to footnote 110"><span class="small">[110]</span></a> and there remained only the Italian Vaudois, still
+unconquered in spirit, under the leadership of their pastor-general
+Arnaud, who never appeared greater than in times of difficulty and
+danger.</p>
+
+<p>With his diminished forces, and the increasing numbers of the enemy,
+Arnaud found it impossible to hold both the valleys, as intended;
+besides, winter was approaching, and the men must think of shelter and
+provisions during that season, if resistance was to be prolonged. It
+was accordingly determined to concentrate their little force upon the
+Balsille, and all haste was made to reach that stronghold without
+further delay. Their knowledge of the mountain heights and passes
+enabled them to evade their enemies, who were watching for them along
+the valleys, and they passed <span class="pagenum"><a id="page515" name="page515"></a>(p. 515)</span> from the heights of Rodoret to
+the summit of the Balsille by night, before it was known that they
+were in the neighbourhood. They immediately set to work to throw up
+entrenchments and erect barricades, so as to render the place as
+secure as possible. Foraging parties were sent out for provisions, to
+lay in for the winter, and they returned laden with corn from the
+valley of Pragelas. At the little hamlet of Balsille they repaired the
+mill, and set it a-going, the rivulet which flowed down from the
+mountain supplying abundance of water-power.</p>
+
+<p>It was at the end of October that the little band of heroes took
+possession of the Balsille, and they held it firmly all through the
+winter. For more than six months they beat back every force that was
+sent against them. The first attack was made by the Marquis
+d'Ombrailles at the head of a French detachment; but though the enemy
+reached the village of Balsille, they were compelled to retire, partly
+by the bullets of the defenders, and partly by the snow, which was
+falling heavily. The Marquis de Parelles next advanced, and summoned
+the Vaudois to surrender; but in vain. "Our storms are still louder
+than your cannon," replied Arnaud, "and yet our rocks are not shaken."
+Winter having set in, the besiegers refrained for a time from further
+attacks, but strictly guarded all the passes leading to the fortress;
+while the garrison, availing themselves of their knowledge of the
+locality, made frequent sorties into the adjoining valleys, as well as
+into those of Dauphiny, for the purpose of collecting provisions, in
+which they were usually successful.</p>
+
+<p>When the fine weather arrived, suitable for a mountain campaign, the
+French general, Catinat, assembled a strong force, and marched into
+the valley, <span class="pagenum"><a id="page516" name="page516"></a>(p. 516)</span> determined to make short work of this little
+nest of bandits on the Balsille. On Sunday morning, the 30th of April,
+1690, while Arnaud was preaching to his flock, the sentinels on the
+look-out discovered the enemy's forces swarming up the valley. Soon
+other bodies were seen approaching by the Col du Pis and the Col du
+Clapier, while a French regiment, supported by the Savoyard militia,
+climbed Mont Guinevert, and cut off all retreat in that quarter. In
+short, the Balsille was completely invested.</p>
+
+<p>A general assault was made on the position on the 2nd of May, under
+the direction of General Catinat in person. Three French regiments,
+supported by a regiment of dragoons, opened the attack in front;
+Colonel de Parat, who commanded the leading regiment, saying to his
+soldiers as they advanced, "My friends, we must sleep to-night in that
+barrack," pointing to the rude Vaudois fort on the summit of the
+Balsille. They advanced with great bravery; but the barricade could
+not be surmounted, while they were assailed by a perfect storm of
+bullets from the defenders, securely posted above.</p>
+
+<p>Catinat next ordered the troops stationed on the Guinevert to advance
+from that direction, so as to carry the position from behind. But the
+assailants found unexpected intrenchments in their way, from behind
+which the Vaudois maintained a heavy fire, that eventually drove them
+back, their retreat being accelerated by a shower of stones and a
+blinding fall of snow and hail. In the meantime, the attack on the
+bastion in front continued, and the Vaudois, seeing the French troops
+falling back in disorder, made a vigorous sortie, and destroyed the
+whole remaining force, excepting fifteen men, who fled, bare-headed
+and <span class="pagenum"><a id="page517" name="page517"></a>(p. 517)</span> without arms, and carried to the camp the news of their
+total defeat.</p>
+
+<p>A Savoyard officer thus briefly described the issue of the disastrous
+affair in a letter to a friend: "I have only time to tell you that the
+French have failed in their attack on the Balsille, and they have been
+obliged to retire after having lost one hundred and fifty soldiers,
+three captains, besides subalterns and wounded, including a colonel
+and a lieutenant-colonel who have been made prisoners, with the two
+sergeants who remained behind to help them. The lieutenant-colonel was
+surprised at finding in the fort some nineteen or twenty officers in
+gold and silver lace, who treated him as a prisoner of war and very
+humanely, even allowing him to go in search of the surgeon-major of
+his regiment for the purpose of bringing him into the place, and doing
+all that was necessary."</p>
+
+<p>Catinat did not choose again to renew the attack in person, or to
+endanger his reputation by a further defeat at the hands of men whom
+he had described as a nest of paltry bandits, but entrusted the
+direction of further operations to the Marquis de Féuquières, who had
+his laurels still to win, while Catinat had his to lose. The Balsille
+was again completely invested by the 12th of May, according to the
+scheme of operations prepared by Catinat, and the Marquis received by
+anticipation the title of "Conqueror of the Barbets." The entire
+mountain was surrounded, all the passes were strongly guarded, guns
+were planted in positions which commanded the Vaudois fort, more
+particularly on the Guinevert; and the capture or extermination of the
+Vaudois was now regarded as a matter of certainty. The attacking army
+was divided into five corps. Each soldier was accompanied by a pioneer
+carrying a <span class="pagenum"><a id="page518" name="page518"></a>(p. 518)</span> fascine, in order to form a cover against the
+Vaudois bullets as they advanced.</p>
+
+<p>Several days elapsed before all the preliminaries for the grand attack
+were completed, and then the Marquis ordered a white flag to be
+hoisted, and a messenger was sent forward, inviting a parley with the
+defenders of the Balsille. The envoy was asked what he wanted. "Your
+immediate surrender!" was the reply. "You shall each of you receive
+five hundred louis d'or, and good passports for your retirement to a
+foreign country; but if you resist, you will be infallibly destroyed."
+"That is as the Lord shall will," replied the Vaudois messenger.</p>
+
+<p>The defenders refused to capitulate on any terms. The Marquis himself
+then wrote to the Vaudois, offering them terms on the above basis, but
+threatening, in case of refusal, that every man of them would be hung.
+Arnaud's reply was heroic. "We are not subjects," he said, "of the
+King of France; and that monarch not being master of this country, we
+can enter into no treaty with his servants. We are in the heritage
+which our fathers have left to us, and we hope, with the help of the
+God of armies, to live and die in it, even though there may remain
+only ten of us to defend it." That same night the Vaudois made a
+vigorous sortie, and killed a number of the besiegers: this was their
+final answer to the summons to surrender.</p>
+
+<p>On the 14th of May the battery on Mont Guinevert was opened, and the
+enemy's cannon began to play upon the little fort and bastions, which,
+being only of dry stones, were soon dismantled. The assault was then
+made simultaneously on three sides; and after a stout resistance, the
+Vaudois retired from their lower <span class="pagenum"><a id="page519" name="page519"></a>(p. 519)</span> intrenchments, and
+retreated to those on the higher ledges of the mountain. They
+continued their resistance until night, and then, taking counsel
+together, and feeling that the place was no longer defensible in the
+face of so overpowering a force, commanded, as it was, at the same
+time by the cannon on the adjoining heights, they determined to
+evacuate the Balsille, after holding it for a period of nearly seven
+months.</p>
+
+<p>A thick mist having risen up from the valley, the Vaudois set out,
+late at night, under the guidance of Captain Poulat, a native of the
+district, who well knew the paths in the mountains. They climbed up on
+to the heights above, over icy slopes, passing across gaping crevices
+and along almost perpendicular rocks, admitting of their passage only
+in single file, sometimes dragging themselves along on their bellies,
+clinging to the rocks or to the tufts of grass, occasionally resting
+and praying, but never despairing. At length they succeeded, after a
+long détour of the mountain crests, in gaining the northern slope of
+Guinevert. Here they came upon and surprised the enemy's outpost,
+which fled towards the main body; and the Vaudois passed on, panting
+and half dead with fatigue. When the morning broke, and the French
+proceeded to penetrate the last redoubt on the Balsille, lo, it was
+empty! The defenders had abandoned it, and they could scarcely believe
+their eyes when they saw the dangerous mountain escarpment by which
+they had escaped in the night. Looking across the valley, far off,
+they saw the fugitives, thrown into relief by the snow amidst which
+they marched, like a line of ants, apparently making for the mass of
+the central Alps.</p>
+
+<p>For three days they wandered from place to place, gradually moving
+southwards, their object now being <span class="pagenum"><a id="page520" name="page520"></a>(p. 520)</span> to take up their position
+at the Pra du Tour, the ancient fortress of the Barbas in the valley
+of Angrogna. Before, however, they could reach this stronghold, and
+while they were still at Pramol in the valley of Perosa, news of the
+most unexpected kind reached them, which opened up the prospect of
+their deliverance. The news was no other than this&mdash;Savoy had declared
+war against France!</p>
+
+<p>A rupture between the two powers had for some time been imminent.
+Louis XIV. had become more and more exacting in his demands on the
+Duke of Savoy, until the latter felt himself in a position of
+oppressive vassalage. Louis had even intimated his intention of
+occupying Verrua and the citadel of Turin; and the Duke, having
+previously ascertained through his cousin, Prince Eugène, the
+willingness of the Emperor of Austria, pressed by William of Orange,
+to assist him in opposing the pretensions of France, he at length took
+up his stand and declared war against Louis.</p>
+
+<p>The Vaudois were now a power in the state, and both parties alike
+appealed to them for help, promising them great favours. But the
+Vaudois, notwithstanding the treachery and cruelty of successive Dukes
+of Savoy, were true to their native prince. They pledged themselves to
+hold the valleys and defend the mountain passes against France.</p>
+
+<p>In the first engagements which took place between the French and the
+Piedmontese, the latter were overpowered, and the Duke became a
+fugitive. Where did he find refuge? In the valleys of the Vaudois, in
+a secluded spot in the village of Rora, behind the Pelice, he found a
+safe asylum amidst the people whose fathers he had hunted, proscribed,
+and condemned to death.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page521" name="page521"></a>(p. 521)</span> But the tide of war turned, and the French were eventually
+driven out of Piedmont. Many of the Vaudois, who had settled in
+Brandenburg, Holland, and Switzerland, returned and settled in the
+valleys; and though the Dukes of Savoy, with their accustomed
+treachery, more than once allowed persecution to recommence, their
+descendants continue to enjoy the land, and to worship after the
+manner of their fathers down to the present day.</p>
+
+<p>The Vaudois long laboured under disabilities, and continued to be
+deprived of many social and civil rights. But they patiently bided
+their time; and the time at length arrived. In 1848 their emancipation
+was one of the great questions of North Italy. It was taken up and
+advocated by the most advanced minds of Piedmont. The petition to
+Charles Albert in their favour was in a few days covered with the
+names of its greatest patriots, including those of Balbo, Cavour, and
+D'Azeglio. Their emancipation was at length granted, and the Vaudois
+now enjoy the same rights and liberties as the other subjects of
+Victor Emanuel.</p>
+
+<p>Nor is the Vaudois Church any longer confined to the valleys, but it
+has become extended of late years all over Italy&mdash;to Milan, Florence,
+Brescia, Verona, Genoa, Leghorn, Naples, Palermo, Cataneo, Venice, and
+even to Rome itself. In most of these places there are day-schools and
+Sunday-schools, besides churches. The new church at Venice, held in
+the Cavagnis palace, seems to have proved especially successful, the
+Sunday services being regularly attended by from three to four hundred
+persons; while the day-schools in connection with the churches at
+Turin, Leghorn, Naples, and Cataneo have proved very successful.</p>
+
+<p>Thus, in the course of a few years, thirty-three <span class="pagenum"><a id="page522" name="page522"></a>(p. 522)</span> Vaudois
+churches and stations, with about an equal number of schools, have
+been established in various parts of Italy. The missionaries report
+that the greatest difficulties they have to encounter arise from the
+incredulity and indifference which are the natural heritage of the
+Romish Church; but that, nevertheless, the work makes satisfactory
+progress&mdash;the good seed is being planted, and will yet bring forth its
+increase in God's due time.</p>
+
+<p>Finally, it cannot but be acknowledged that the people of the valleys,
+in so tenaciously and conscientiously adhering to their faith, through
+good and through evil, during so many hundred years, have set a
+glorious example to Piedmont, and have possibly been in no small
+degree instrumental in establishing the reign of right and of liberty
+in Italy.<a href="#toc"><span class="small">[Back to Contents]</span></a></p>
+
+
+
+
+<h2><span class="pagenum"><a id="page523" name="page523"></a>(p. 523)</span> INDEX.</h2>
+
+<div class="noindent">
+<p>
+  Aiguesmortes, Huguenot prison at,
+<a href="#page193">193</a>,
+<a href="#page273">273</a>,
+<a href="#page300">300</a><br>
+
+  Albigenses,
+<a href="#page075">75</a><br>
+
+  Anabaptists of Munster,
+<a href="#page282">282</a>-3<br>
+
+  Anduze, visit to,
+<a href="#page125">125</a><br>
+
+  Angrogna, valley of,
+<a href="#page481">481</a>;<br>
+<span class="add1em">fighting in,
+<a href="#page481">481</a>-86,
+<a href="#page498">498</a></span><br>
+
+  Arnaud, Henry,
+<a href="#page215">215</a>,
+<a href="#page512">512</a>;<br>
+<span class="add1em">leads back the Vaudois,
+<a href="#page503">503</a>-15;</span><br>
+<span class="add1em">defends the Balsille,
+<a href="#page515">515</a>-19</span><br>
+
+  Athlone, siege of,
+<a href="#page349">349</a>-50,
+<a href="#page355">355</a>-8</p>
+
+
+<p class="p2">Balsille, the,
+<a href="#page510">510</a>;<br>
+<span class="add1em">defence of,
+<a href="#page515">515</a>-19;</span><br>
+<span class="add1em">given up,
+<a href="#page519">519</a></span><br>
+
+  Baridon, Etienne,
+<a href="#page442">442</a>-3<br>
+
+  Barillon, M. de,
+<a href="#page323">323</a>,
+<a href="#page330">330</a>-1<br>
+
+  Baville on the Protestants of Languedoc,
+<a href="#page077">77</a>,
+<a href="#page086">86</a>;<br>
+<span class="add1em">occupies the Cevennes,
+<a href="#page087">87</a>;</span><br>
+<span class="add1em">at Pont-de-Montvert,
+<a href="#page092">92</a></span><br>
+
+  Beauval, Basnage de,
+<a href="#page364">364</a><br>
+
+  Beauvau, Prince de,
+<a href="#page273">273</a>-4<br>
+
+  Beckwith, General,
+<a href="#page478">478</a><br>
+
+  Berwick, Duke of,
+<a href="#page310">310</a>-11,
+<a href="#page333">333</a>,
+<a href="#page351">351</a><br>
+
+  Bibles, destruction and scarcity of,
+<a href="#page215">215</a>-16<br>
+
+  Boileau, General,
+<a href="#page351">351</a>-2<br>
+
+  Bonnafoux repulsed by Camisards,
+<a href="#page142">142</a><br>
+
+  Book-burning,
+<a href="#page215">215</a>,
+<a href="#page235">235</a>-6<br>
+
+  Bordeille, Raphaël,
+<a href="#page318">318</a><br>
+
+  Bourg d'Oisans,
+<a href="#page409">409</a>-10<br>
+
+  Boyne, battle of the,
+<a href="#page341">341</a>-7<br>
+
+  Briançon,
+<a href="#page414">414</a>-16<br>
+
+  Briset, Lieut., death of,
+<a href="#page335">335</a><br>
+
+  Broglie, Count,
+<a href="#page143">143</a>-4,
+<a href="#page148">148</a>;<br>
+<span class="add1em">superseded,
+<a href="#page149">149</a></span><br>
+
+  Brousson, Claude,
+<a href="#page030">30</a>;<br>
+<span class="add1em">advocate for Protestant church at Nismes,
+<a href="#page031">31</a>;</span><br>
+<span class="add1em">meeting in house of,
+<a href="#page034">34</a>;</span><br>
+<span class="add1em">petition by,
+<a href="#page035">35</a>;</span><br>
+<span class="add1em">escape from Nismes,
+<a href="#page042">42</a>;</span><br>
+<span class="add1em">at Lausanne,
+<a href="#page043">43</a>,
+<a href="#page046">46</a>;</span><br>
+<span class="add1em">at Berlin,
+<a href="#page044">44</a>; in the Cevennes,
+<a href="#page050">50</a>-2,
+<a href="#page054">54</a>;</span><br>
+<span class="add1em">reward offered for,
+<a href="#page056">56</a>;</span><br>
+<span class="add1em">at Nismes,
+<a href="#page057">57</a>;</span><br>
+<span class="add1em">preaching of,
+<a href="#page058">58</a>-9;</span><br>
+<span class="add1em">to Lausanne, England, and Holland,
+<a href="#page061">61</a>-2;</span><br>
+<span class="add1em">at Sedan,
+<a href="#page064">64</a>;</span><br>
+<span class="add1em">through France,
+<a href="#page066">66</a>-7;</span><br>
+<span class="add1em">portraiture of,
+<a href="#page068">68</a> (note);</span><br>
+<span class="add1em">to Nismes again,
+<a href="#page069">69</a>;</span><br>
+<span class="add1em">taken, tried, and executed,
+<a href="#page070">70</a>-3</span><br>
+
+  Browne, Col. Lyde,
+<a href="#page380">380</a><br>
+
+  Brueys on fanaticism in Languedoc,
+<a href="#page091">91</a><br>
+
+  Bull of Clement XI. against Camisards,
+<a href="#page160">160</a></p>
+
+
+<p class="p2">Caillemotte, Col.,
+<a href="#page339">339</a>;<br>
+<span class="add1em">death of,
+<a href="#page345">345</a>,
+<a href="#page348">348</a></span><br>
+
+  Calas, Jean,
+<a href="#page257">257</a>;<br>
+<span class="add1em">executed,
+<a href="#page258">258</a>;</span><br>
+<span class="add1em">case taken up by Voltaire,
+<a href="#page259">259</a>-62;</span><br>
+<span class="add1em">reversal of judgment on,
+<a href="#page262">262</a>-3</span><br>
+
+  Calvinism and race,
+<a href="#page100">100</a> (note)<br>
+
+  Calvinists, French and Scotch, compared,
+<a href="#page100">100</a><br>
+
+  Cambon, Col.,
+<a href="#page357">357</a><br>
+
+<a id="camisards" name="camisards"></a>
+  Camisards, the origin of name,
+<a href="#page107">107</a>;<br>
+    <span class="add1em">led by Laporte,
+<a href="#page109">109</a>;</span><br>
+    <span class="add1em">organization of,
+<a href="#page112">112</a>-13;</span><br>
+    <span class="add1em">encounter troops,
+<a href="#page113">113</a>-14,
+<a href="#page117">117</a>;</span><br>
+    <span class="add1em">war-song of,
+<a href="#page115">115</a>;</span><br>
+    <span class="add1em">organized by Roland,
+<a href="#page123">123</a>-4;</span><br>
+    <span class="add1em">successes of,
+<a href="#page134">134</a>-40,
+<a href="#page142">142</a>,
+<a href="#page146">146</a>-50;</span><br>
+    <span class="add1em">spread of insurrection of,
+<a href="#page138">138</a>-9;</span><br>
+    <span class="add1em">measures against,
+<a href="#page139">139</a>,
+<a href="#page146">146</a>-7;</span><br>
+    <span class="add1em">defeat of, at Vagnas,
+<a href="#page150">150</a>;</span><br>
+    <span class="add1em">defeat of, near Pompignan,
+<a href="#page152">152</a>;</span><br>
+    <span class="add1em">success of, at Martinargues,
+<a href="#page162">162</a>-4;</span><br>
+    <span class="add1em">bull against,
+<a href="#page160">160</a>;</span><br>
+    <span class="add1em">success at Salindres,
+<a href="#page164">164</a>-5;</span><br>
+    <span class="add1em">defeated near Nismes,
+<a href="#page168">168</a>-9;</span><br>
+    <span class="add1em">reverses of,
+<a href="#page170">170</a>-1;</span><br>
+    <span class="add1em">success at Font-morte,
+<a href="#page176">176</a>-7;</span><br>
+    <span class="add1em">defeated at Pont-de-Montvert, and end of insurrection,
+<a href="#page187">187</a>-9</span><br>
+
+  Camisards, White,
+<a href="#page160">160</a>-1<br>
+
+  Carrickfergus, siege of,
+<a href="#page335">335</a><br>
+
+  Castanet, André,
+<a href="#page111">111</a>,
+<a href="#page113">113</a>,
+<a href="#page118">118</a>,
+<a href="#page123">123</a>,
+<a href="#page189">189</a><br>
+
+  Cavalier, John, joins insurgents,
+<a href="#page108">108</a>,
+<a href="#page111">111</a>;<br>
+    <span class="add1em">family of,
+<a href="#page121">121</a>;</span><br>
+    <span class="add1em">to Geneva,
+<a href="#page121">121</a>;</span><br>
+    <span class="add1em">to the Cevennes,
+<a href="#page122">122</a>;</span><br>
+    <span class="add1em">portrait of,
+<a href="#page124">124</a>;</span><br>
+    <span class="add1em">in Lower Languedoc,
+<a href="#page133">133</a>;</span><br>
+    <span class="add1em">defeats Royalists,
+<a href="#page134">134</a>-5;</span><br>
+    <span class="add1em">takes Château Servas,
+<a href="#page136">136</a>-7;</span><br>
+    <span class="add1em">repulses Bonnafoux,
+<a href="#page142">142</a>;</span><br>
+    <span class="add1em">at Nismes,
+<a href="#page144">144</a>-5;</span><br>
+    <span class="add1em">successes of,
+<a href="#page148">148</a>;</span><br>
+    <span class="add1em">winter campaign,
+<a href="#page148">148</a>-9;</span><br>
+    <span class="add1em">at Vagnas,
+<a href="#page150">150</a>-1,
+<a href="#page153">153</a>;</span><br>
+    <span class="add1em">betrayed at Tower of Belliot,
+<a href="#page156">156</a>-8;</span><br>
+    <span class="add1em">at Martinargues,
+<a href="#page162">162</a>-4;</span><br>
+    <span class="add1em">at Rosni,
+<a href="#page169">169</a>;</span><br>
+    <span class="add1em">his cave magazines,
+<a href="#page170">170</a>-1;</span><br>
+    <span class="add1em">his interview with Lalande,
+<a href="#page173">173</a>-6;</span><br>
+    <span class="add1em">attempts peace,
+<a href="#page177">177</a>;</span><br>
+    <span class="add1em">his interviews with Villars,
+<a href="#page177">177</a>-83;</span><br>
+    <span class="add1em">deserted by followers,
+<a href="#page183">183</a>-5;</span><br>
+    <span class="add1em">to England, and subsequent career,
+<a href="#page186">186</a></span><br>
+
+  Caves in the Cevennes,
+<a href="#page125">125</a>,
+<a href="#page127">127</a>-9;<br>
+    <span class="add1em">at La Tour,
+<a href="#page477">477</a></span><br>
+
+  Cazenove, Raoul de,
+<a href="#page321">321</a>,
+<a href="#page367">367</a><br>
+
+<a id="cevennes" name="cevennes"></a>
+  Cevennes, the, persecutions in,
+<a href="#page039">39</a>,
+<a href="#page052">52</a>-3,
+<a href="#page085">85</a>;<br>
+    <span class="add1em">secret meetings in,
+<a href="#page054">54</a>,
+<a href="#page084">84</a>-8;</span><br>
+    <span class="add1em">executions in,
+<a href="#page059">59</a>,
+<a href="#page067">67</a>-8;</span><br>
+    <span class="add1em">description of,
+<a href="#page079">79</a>-82;</span><br>
+    <span class="add1em">arming of the people,
+<a href="#page085">85</a>-6;</span><br>
+    <span class="add1em">occupied by troops,
+<a href="#page088">88</a>;</span><br>
+    <span class="add1em">prophetic mania in,
+<a href="#page088">88</a>;</span><br>
+    <span class="add1em">encounter at Pont-de-Montvert,
+<a href="#page092">92</a>;</span><br>
+    <span class="add1em">outbreak against Du Chayla,
+<a href="#page096">96</a>-7;</span><br>
+    <span class="add1em">map of,
+<a href="#page098">98</a>;</span><br>
+    <span class="add1em">Protestants of, compared with Covenanters,
+<a href="#page100">100</a>-1;</span><br>
+    <span class="add1em">organization in,
+<a href="#page123">123</a>-5;</span><br>
+    <span class="add1em">caves in,
+<a href="#page125">125</a>,
+<a href="#page127">127</a>-9;</span><br>
+    <span class="add1em">visit to,
+<a href="#page125">125</a>-9;</span><br>
+    <span class="add1em">present inhabitants of,
+<a href="#page129">129</a>,
+<a href="#page131">131</a>-2;</span><br>
+    <span class="add1em">devastation of,
+<a href="#page154">154</a>-5</span><br>
+
+  Champ Domergue, battle at,
+<a href="#page114">114</a><br>
+
+  Charlemont, capture of,
+<a href="#page339">339</a><br>
+
+  Château Queyras,
+<a href="#page467">467</a><br>
+
+  Chaumont,
+<a href="#page271">271</a><br>
+
+  Chayla, Du,
+<a href="#page093">93</a>-4,
+<a href="#page097">97</a><br>
+
+<a id="chenevix" name="chenevix"></a>
+  Chenevix,
+<a href="#page015">15</a> (note)<br>
+
+  Choiseul, Duc de,
+<a href="#page268">268</a><br>
+
+  Claris,
+<a href="#page237">237</a><br>
+
+  Colognac, execution of,
+<a href="#page059">59</a><br>
+
+  Comiers,
+<a href="#page407">407</a><br>
+
+  Conderc, Salomon,
+<a href="#page119">119</a>,
+<a href="#page123">123</a><br>
+
+  "Conversions," rapid,
+<a href="#page289">289</a><br>
+
+  Converts,
+<a href="#page019">19</a>-23,
+<a href="#page038">38</a>-9<br>
+
+  Cook, Captain, last voyage round the world,
+<a href="#page371">371</a>;<br>
+    <span class="add1em">cruel death,
+<a href="#page371">371</a></span><br>
+
+  Court profligacy,
+<a href="#page275">275</a> (note)<br>
+
+  Court, Antoine,
+<a href="#page206">206</a>-17;<br>
+<span class="add1em">organizes school for preachers,
+<a href="#page224">224</a>;</span><br>
+    <span class="add1em">marriage of,
+<a href="#page231">231</a>;</span><br>
+    <span class="add1em">retires to Switzerland,
+<a href="#page232">232</a>;</span><br>
+    <span class="add1em">results of his work,
+<a href="#page233">233</a>-4;</span><br>
+    <span class="add1em">in Languedoc,
+<a href="#page239">239</a></span><br>
+
+  Covenanters compared with Protestants of the Cevennes,
+<a href="#page100">100</a>-2<br>
+
+  Cromwell,
+<a href="#page391">391</a>-2,
+<a href="#page476">476</a></p>
+
+
+<p class="p2">D'Aguesseau's opinion of Protestants of Languedoc,
+<a href="#page076">76</a>-7<br>
+
+  Dauphiny, map of,
+<a href="#page382">382</a>;<br>
+<span class="add1em">aspect of,</span>
+<a href="#page383">383</a>-4<br>
+
+  Delada, Mdlle. de,
+<a href="#page295">295</a><br>
+
+  Denbeck, Abbé of,
+<a href="#page322">322</a>-3<br>
+
+  Denèse, Rotolf de la,
+<a href="#page364">364</a><br>
+
+  Desert, assemblies in the,
+<a href="#page083">83</a>-8,
+<a href="#page218">218</a>-23<br>
+
+  Desparvés, M.,
+<a href="#page297">297</a><br>
+
+  Dormilhouse,
+<a href="#page438">438</a>,
+<a href="#page443">443</a>-54<br>
+
+  Dortial,
+<a href="#page238">238</a><br>
+
+  Douglas, Lieut.-General,
+<a href="#page349">349</a>-51,
+<a href="#page355">355</a><br>
+
+  Dragonnades,
+<a href="#page036">36</a>-7,
+<a href="#page042">42</a>,
+<a href="#page054">54</a>-5,
+<a href="#page288">288</a>;<br>
+    <span class="add1em">horrors of,
+<a href="#page291">291</a></span><br>
+
+  Drogheda, surrender of,
+<a href="#page349">349</a><br>
+
+  Dumas, death of,
+<a href="#page052">52</a><br>
+
+  Dundalk, Schomberg's army at,
+<a href="#page337">337</a>-8<br>
+
+  Durand, Pierre,
+<a href="#page236">236</a></p>
+
+
+<p class="p2">Easter massacre of the Vaudois,
+<a href="#page390">390</a>-92<br>
+
+  England attempts to assist the Camisards,
+<a href="#page166">166</a>-7<br>
+
+  Enniskilleners, the,
+<a href="#page336">336</a><br>
+
+  Evertzen, Vice-Admiral,
+<a href="#page325">325</a><br>
+
+  Execution of Pastors,
+<a href="#page027">27</a></p>
+
+
+<p class="p2">Fabre, Jean,
+<a href="#page265">265</a>;<br>
+<span class="add1em">sent to galleys,</span>
+<a href="#page266">266</a>-9;<br>
+    <span class="add1em">obtains leave of absence,
+<a href="#page269">269</a>;</span><br>
+    <span class="add1em">exonerated,
+<a href="#page270">270</a>;</span><br>
+    <span class="add1em">life dramatized, and result,
+<a href="#page270">270</a></span><br>
+
+  Fermaud, Pastor,
+<a href="#page407">407</a><br>
+
+  Freemantle, Rev. Mr., visits of, to the Vaudois,
+<a href="#page395">395</a>,
+<a href="#page450">450</a>,
+<a href="#page462">462</a><br>
+
+  French labouring classes, present condition of,
+<a href="#page397">397</a>-400<br>
+
+  Freney, gorge of,
+<a href="#page411">411</a><br>
+
+  Fusiliers, missionary,
+<a href="#page293">293</a></p>
+
+
+<p class="p2">Galley, description of,
+<a href="#page197">197</a>-8;<br>
+    <span class="add1em">use in war,
+<a href="#page200">200</a>-4</span><br>
+
+  Galley-slaves, treatment of,
+<a href="#page194">194</a>-204;<br>
+    <span class="add1em">liberation of Protestants,
+<a href="#page204">204</a>,
+<a href="#page264">264</a> (note),
+<a href="#page271">271</a>-3</span><br>
+
+  Galway, Earl of,
+<a href="#page360">360</a><br>
+
+  Gilly, Dr., visit to the Vaudois,
+<a href="#page393">393</a>-4,
+<a href="#page468">468</a>,
+<a href="#page477">477</a><br>
+
+  Ginckel, Lieut.-General,
+<a href="#page347">347</a>,
+<a href="#page354">354</a> <span class="italic">et seq.</span><br>
+
+  Glorious Return of the Vaudois,
+<a href="#page493">493</a>-5<br>
+
+  Grace, Col. Richard,
+<a href="#page351">351</a><br>
+
+  Guarrison, Mdlle. de,
+<a href="#page294">294</a><br>
+
+  Guerin, death of,
+<a href="#page067">67</a><br>
+
+  Guignon betrays Cavalier,
+<a href="#page156">156</a>; executed,
+<a href="#page159">159</a><br>
+
+  Guil, valley of the,
+<a href="#page466">466</a><br>
+
+  Guillestre,
+<a href="#page456">456</a>-66<br>
+
+  Guion executed,
+<a href="#page057">57</a></p>
+
+
+<p class="p2">Herbert, Admiral,
+<a href="#page325">325</a><br>
+
+  Homel, tortures and death of,
+<a href="#page040">40</a><br>
+
+  Hood, Lord,
+<a href="#page376">376</a><br>
+
+  Huguenots, the (see <span class="italic"><a href="#camisards">Camisards</a></span>);
+    emigrations of,
+<a href="#page043">43</a>,
+<a href="#page076">76</a>-8,
+<a href="#page083">83</a>,
+<a href="#page287">287</a>,
+<a href="#page316">316</a>;<br>
+    <span class="add1em">persecution of, after Camisard insurrection,
+<a href="#page190">190</a>-204;</span><br>
+    <span class="add1em">as galley-slaves,
+<a href="#page194">194</a>-204;</span><br>
+    <span class="add1em">brought together by Court,
+<a href="#page210">210</a>-17;</span><br>
+    <span class="add1em">reorganization of,
+<a href="#page218">218</a>-228;</span><br>
+    <span class="add1em">outrages on,
+<a href="#page228">228</a>;</span><br>
+    <span class="add1em">great assemblies of,
+<a href="#page239">239</a>-40;</span><br>
+    <span class="add1em">last of the executions,
+<a href="#page258">258</a>;</span><br>
+    <span class="add1em">last of the galley-slaves,
+<a href="#page265">265</a>-273;</span><br>
+    <span class="add1em">character of,
+<a href="#page274">274</a>-5;</span><br>
+    <span class="add1em">later history of,
+<a href="#page276">276</a>-283;</span><br>
+    <span class="add1em">decrees against,
+<a href="#page286">286</a>-6;</span><br>
+    <span class="add1em">in England,
+<a href="#page309">309</a>;</span><br>
+    <span class="add1em">foreign services of,
+<a href="#page316">316</a>-17</span></p>
+
+
+<p class="p2">Ireland and James II.,
+<a href="#page331">331</a> <span class="italic">et seq.</span><br>
+
+  Irish Brigade,
+<a href="#page140">140</a>-2,
+<a href="#page359">359</a><br>
+
+  Iron Boot, the,
+<a href="#page102">102</a></p>
+
+
+<p class="p2">James II., flight of,
+<a href="#page309">309</a>,
+<a href="#page329">329</a>;<br>
+    <span class="add1em">lands with an army in Ireland,
+<a href="#page309">309</a>,
+<a href="#page332">332</a>;</span><br>
+    <span class="add1em">campaign against William III.,
+<a href="#page309">309</a> <span class="italic">et seq.</span>,
+<a href="#page333">333</a> <span class="italic">et seq.</span>;</span><br>
+    <span class="add1em">deserted,
+<a href="#page328">328</a>;</span><br>
+    <span class="add1em">taken prisoner,
+<a href="#page329">329</a>;</span><br>
+    <span class="add1em">his last proclamation,
+<a href="#page330">330</a>;</span><br>
+    <span class="add1em">at the French court,
+<a href="#page331">331</a>;</span><br>
+    <span class="add1em">cowardice,
+<a href="#page337">337</a>,
+<a href="#page347">347</a>-8;</span><br>
+    <span class="add1em">Catholic estimate of his character,
+<a href="#page348">348</a></span><br>
+
+  Joany, Nicholas, insurgent leader,
+<a href="#page120">120</a>,
+<a href="#page123">123</a>,
+<a href="#page151">151</a><br>
+
+  Johannot,
+<a href="#page269">269</a><br>
+
+  Julien, Brigadier,
+<a href="#page147">147</a>,
+<a href="#page150">150</a>-1</p>
+
+
+<p class="p2">Lagier, Jean,
+<a href="#page452">452</a>,
+<a href="#page453">453</a> (note)<br>
+
+  Lajonquière defeated at Martinargues,
+<a href="#page162">162</a>-4<br>
+
+  Lalande, his interview with Cavalier,
+<a href="#page173">173</a>-6<br>
+
+  Languedoc (see <span class="italic"><a href="#cevennes">Cevennes</a></span>), early liberty in,
+<a href="#page075">75</a>;<br>
+    <span class="add1em">Albigenses in,
+<a href="#page075">75</a>;</span><br>
+    <span class="add1em">Protestants of,
+<a href="#page076">76</a>-7;</span><br>
+    <span class="add1em">industry of,
+<a href="#page076">76</a>;</span><br>
+    <span class="add1em">emigration from, after Revocation,
+<a href="#page078">78</a>,
+<a href="#page289">289</a>;</span><br>
+    <span class="add1em">arming of people of,
+<a href="#page085">85</a>-6;</span><br>
+    <span class="add1em">outbreak of fanaticism in,
+<a href="#page088">88</a>-92;</span><br>
+    <span class="add1em">present inhabitants of,
+<a href="#page280">280</a>-3</span><br>
+
+  Laporte, leader of Camisards,
+<a href="#page109">109</a>-10;<br>
+    <span class="add1em">organizes insurgents,
+<a href="#page112">112</a>;</span><br>
+    <span class="add1em">at Collet,
+<a href="#page113">113</a>;</span><br>
+    <span class="add1em">at Champ Domergue,
+<a href="#page114">114</a>;</span><br>
+    <span class="add1em">killed at Molezon,
+<a href="#page117">117</a></span><br>
+
+  La Salette,
+<a href="#page404">404</a>;<br>
+    <span class="add1em">miracle of,
+<a href="#page405">405</a>-6</span><br>
+
+  La Tour,
+<a href="#page476">476</a>-80<br>
+
+  Laugier at Guillestre,
+<a href="#page463">463</a>;<br>
+    <span class="add1em">at Château Queyras,
+<a href="#page464">464</a></span><br>
+
+  Lausanne, school for preachers at,
+<a href="#page224">224</a>;<br>
+    <span class="add1em">Society of Help at,
+<a href="#page224">224</a>-5</span><br>
+
+  Lauteret, Col de,
+<a href="#page413">413</a><br>
+
+  Lauzun, Count,
+<a href="#page339">339</a>,
+<a href="#page358">358</a><br>
+
+  Lesdiguières, Duc de,
+<a href="#page402">402</a>-3,
+<a href="#page455">455</a><br>
+
+  Limerick, siege of,
+<a href="#page351">351</a>-4,
+<a href="#page359">359</a><br>
+
+  Lintarde, Marie, imprisonment of,
+<a href="#page054">54</a><br>
+
+  Locke, John, on Protestants of Nismes,
+<a href="#page031">31</a> (note)<br>
+
+  Londonderry, siege of,
+<a href="#page333">333</a><br>
+
+  Louis XIV.,
+<a href="#page002">2</a>,
+<a href="#page010">10</a>,
+<a href="#page146">146</a>,
+<a href="#page205">205</a><br>
+
+  Louis XV.,
+<a href="#page275">275</a><br>
+
+  Louis XVI.,
+<a href="#page276">276</a>;<br>
+    <span class="add1em">maxim of,
+<a href="#page285">285</a>;</span><br>
+    <span class="add1em">his decrees against Protestants,
+<a href="#page285">285</a>-6;</span><br>
+    <span class="add1em">his mode of stopping the emigration of Huguenots,
+<a href="#page287">287</a>-8;</span><br>
+    <span class="add1em">expulsion of Protestants,
+<a href="#page316">316</a>;</span><br>
+    <span class="add1em">assists James II.,
+<a href="#page332">332</a></span><br>
+
+  Luttrell, Capt., brilliant naval achievement of,
+<a href="#page372">372</a></p>
+
+
+<p class="p2">Mackay, Major-General,
+<a href="#page355">355</a>,
+<a href="#page357">357</a><br>
+
+  Marillac, Michel de, inventor of the dragonnades,
+<a href="#page288">288</a><br>
+
+  Marion on influence of Camisard prophets,
+<a href="#page119">119</a><br>
+
+  Marlborough, Earl of,
+<a href="#page354">354</a><br>
+
+  Marteilhe, autobiography of,
+<a href="#page195">195</a>,
+<a href="#page201">201</a>-4<br>
+
+  Martinargues, battle at,
+<a href="#page162">162</a>-4<br>
+
+  Massillon on Louis XIV.,
+<a href="#page010">10</a><br>
+
+  Mazel, Abraham,
+<a href="#page120">120</a>,
+<a href="#page123">123</a><br>
+
+  Mialet, visit to,
+<a href="#page127">127</a>-8<br>
+
+  Milsom, Edward,
+<a href="#page395">395</a>,
+<a href="#page451">451</a>,
+<a href="#page490">490</a>-92<br>
+
+  Missionaries, booted,
+<a href="#page288">288</a><br>
+
+  Montandre, Marquis de,
+<a href="#page314">314</a><br>
+
+  Montauban, persecutions at,
+<a href="#page289">289</a>-90<br>
+
+  Montpellier, Protestant Church at,
+<a href="#page032">32</a>-3;<br>
+    <span class="add1em">the Peyron at,
+<a href="#page072">72</a>;</span><br>
+    <span class="add1em">execution of Brousson at,
+<a href="#page073">73</a>,
+<a href="#page300">300</a></span><br>
+
+  Montrevel, Marshal, in Languedoc,
+<a href="#page149">149</a>;<br>
+    <span class="add1em">at Pompignan,
+<a href="#page152">152</a>;</span><br>
+    <span class="add1em">adopts extermination,
+<a href="#page153">153</a>;</span><br>
+    <span class="add1em">at Tower of Belliot,
+<a href="#page156">156</a>-8;</span><br>
+    <span class="add1em">character of,
+<a href="#page159">159</a>;</span><br>
+    <span class="add1em">recalled,
+<a href="#page167">167</a>;</span><br>
+    <span class="add1em">defeats Cavalier,
+<a href="#page168">168</a>-9</span><br>
+
+
+  Nantes, Revocation of Edict of, and its results,
+<a href="#page001">1</a>-19,
+<a href="#page024">24</a>,
+<a href="#page044">44</a>-5,
+<a href="#page078">78</a>;<br>
+    <span class="add1em">contemporary opinion upon,
+<a href="#page001">1</a>-10;</span><br>
+    <span class="add1em">enactments of Edict of Revocation,
+<a href="#page012">12</a>-15,
+<a href="#page285">285</a>-6</span><br>
+
+  Neff, Felix,
+<a href="#page427">427</a>-32;<br>
+    <span class="add1em">life of,
+<a href="#page394">394</a>,
+<a href="#page404">404</a>;</span><br>
+    <span class="add1em">his account of winter at Dormilhouse,
+<a href="#page447">447</a>;</span><br>
+    <span class="add1em">his charge,
+<a href="#page469">469</a></span><br>
+
+  Nelson, Lord, eulogium on Capt. Riou,
+<a href="#page368">368</a>;<br>
+    <span class="add1em">at the battle of Copenhagen,
+<a href="#page378">378</a>-9</span><br>
+
+  Ners, visit to,
+<a href="#page131">131</a><br>
+
+  Newton Butler, engagement at,
+<a href="#page333">333</a><br>
+
+  Nismes, Protestant Church at,
+<a href="#page031">31</a>;<br>
+    <span class="add1em">petition from,
+<a href="#page041">41</a>;</span><br>
+    <span class="add1em">Brousson at,
+<a href="#page057">57</a>,
+<a href="#page069">69</a>;</span><br>
+    <span class="add1em">Guion at,
+<a href="#page057">57</a>;</span><br>
+    <span class="add1em">country about,
+<a href="#page081">81</a>,
+<a href="#page130">130</a>-2;</span><br>
+    <span class="add1em">success of Camisards near,
+<a href="#page143">143</a>;</span><br>
+    <span class="add1em">Cavalier at,
+<a href="#page144">144</a>-5,
+<a href="#page177">177</a>-83;</span><br>
+    <span class="add1em">treaty of,
+<a href="#page179">179</a>-80;</span><br>
+    <span class="add1em">Huguenot meetings at,
+<a href="#page265">265</a></span></p>
+
+
+<p class="p2">Ormond, Duke of,
+<a href="#page349">349</a></p>
+
+
+<p class="p2">Palons,
+<a href="#page433">433</a>-6<br>
+
+  Paulet, Mdlle., forgeries in name of,
+<a href="#page032">32</a>-4<br>
+
+  Pechell, Augustus,
+<a href="#page315">315</a><br>
+
+  Pechell, Capt. William Cecil,
+<a href="#page315">315</a><br>
+
+  Pechell, Col. Jacob,
+<a href="#page313">313</a><br>
+
+  Pechell, Paul,
+<a href="#page314">314</a><br>
+
+  Pechell, Samuel, extraordinary probity of,
+<a href="#page314">314</a><br>
+
+  Pechell, Sir G. R. Brooke,
+<a href="#page315">315</a><br>
+
+  Pechell, Sir Thomas,
+<a href="#page315">315</a><br>
+
+  Péchels de la Boissonade, Samuel de, narrative of his persecutions,
+<a href="#page291">291</a> <span class="italic">et seq.</span>;<br>
+    <span class="add1em">imprisonment,
+<a href="#page296">296</a>,
+<a href="#page299">299</a>-301;</span><br>
+    <span class="add1em">meeting with his wife,
+<a href="#page297">297</a>;</span><br>
+    <span class="add1em">condemned to banishment,
+<a href="#page299">299</a>;</span><br>
+    <span class="add1em">embarkation,
+<a href="#page302">302</a>;</span><br>
+    <span class="add1em">sails for America,
+<a href="#page303">303</a>;</span><br>
+    <span class="add1em">sufferings,
+<a href="#page304">304</a>-5;</span><br>
+    <span class="add1em">reaches the West Indies,
+<a href="#page305">305</a>;</span><br>
+    <span class="add1em">illness and arrival in London,
+<a href="#page307">307</a>;</span><br>
+    <span class="add1em">accepts a commission in the English army,
+<a href="#page309">309</a>;</span><br>
+    <span class="add1em">campaign in Ireland,
+<a href="#page310">310</a>;</span><br>
+    <span class="add1em">return to London,
+<a href="#page311">311</a>;</span><br>
+    <span class="add1em">removal with his wife and son to Dublin,
+<a href="#page312">312</a>;</span><br>
+    <span class="add1em">death of,
+<a href="#page312">312</a>;</span><br>
+    <span class="add1em">his descendants,
+<a href="#page313">313</a></span><br>
+
+  Péchels, family of,
+<a href="#page290">290</a><br>
+
+  Péchels, Madame de, inhumanity towards,
+<a href="#page294">294</a>-5;<br>
+    <span class="add1em">touching interview with her husband,
+<a href="#page297">297</a>;</span><br>
+    <span class="add1em">further trials,
+<a href="#page297">297</a>;</span><br>
+<span class="add1em">escape to Geneva,
+<a href="#page298">298</a>;</span><br>
+   <span class="add1em">in London,
+<a href="#page308">308</a>;</span><br>
+<span class="add1em">reunited to her husband,
+<a href="#page311">311</a></span><br>
+
+  Pelice, Valley of the,
+<a href="#page472">472</a><br>
+
+  Pélisson,
+<a href="#page323">323</a><br>
+
+  Pont-de-Montvert, outbreak at,
+<a href="#page092">92</a>-7;<br>
+    <span class="add1em">description of,
+<a href="#page093">93</a>-4;</span><br>
+    <span class="add1em">end of Camisard insurrection at,
+<a href="#page187">187</a>-9</span><br>
+
+  Portland, Earl of,
+<a href="#page361">361</a>,
+<a href="#page363">363</a><br>
+
+  Portland Vase,
+<a href="#page363">363</a><br>
+
+  Poul, Captain, in Upper Cevennes,
+<a href="#page108">108</a>;<br>
+    <span class="add1em">at Champ Domergue,
+<a href="#page114">114</a>-16;</span><br>
+    <span class="add1em">takes Laporte at Molezon,
+<a href="#page117">117</a>;</span><br>
+    <span class="add1em">defeated and killed near Nismes,
+<a href="#page143">143</a>-4</span><br>
+
+  Pra du Tour,
+<a href="#page486">486</a>-90,
+<a href="#page499">499</a><br>
+
+  Preachers, education of,
+<a href="#page221">221</a>-4;<br>
+    <span class="add1em">hardships of,
+<a href="#page225">225</a>-9,
+<a href="#page236">236</a>-8</span><br>
+
+  Project, the,
+<a href="#page034">34</a><br>
+
+  "Protestant wind," the,
+<a href="#page325">325</a><br>
+
+  Protestantism in France, present chances of,
+<a href="#page417">417</a></p>
+
+
+<p class="p2">Quoite, execution of,
+<a href="#page053">53</a></p>
+
+
+<p class="p2">Rapin, Capt. Paul, birth and education,
+<a href="#page321">321</a>-2;<br>
+    <span class="add1em">emigrates to England,
+<a href="#page322">322</a>;</span><br>
+    <span class="add1em">embarks for Holland,
+<a href="#page323">323</a>;</span><br>
+    <span class="add1em">a cadet in the Dutch army,
+<a href="#page324">324</a>;</span><br>
+    <span class="add1em">sails for England,
+<a href="#page325">325</a>;</span><br>
+    <span class="add1em">encounters a storm,
+<a href="#page326">326</a>;</span><br>
+    <span class="add1em">with the army of William III.,
+<a href="#page335">335</a> <span class="italic">et seq.</span>;</span><br>
+    <span class="add1em">aide-de-camp,
+<a href="#page350">350</a>;</span><br>
+    <span class="add1em">wounded and promoted,
+<a href="#page354">354</a>;</span><br>
+    <span class="add1em">conciliatory spirit,
+<a href="#page358">358</a>-9;</span><br>
+    <span class="add1em">at Kinsale,
+<a href="#page359">359</a>;</span><br>
+    <span class="add1em">tutor to Lord Woodstock,
+<a href="#page360">360</a>;</span><br>
+    <span class="add1em">presented to the King,
+<a href="#page371">371</a>;</span><br>
+    <span class="add1em">makes the "grand tour" with his pupil,
+<a href="#page362">362</a>-3;</span><br>
+    <span class="add1em">secures the Portland Vase,
+<a href="#page363">363</a>;</span><br>
+    <span class="add1em">marriage,
+<a href="#page363">363</a>;</span><br>
+    <span class="add1em">at the Hague and Wesel,
+<a href="#page364">364</a>;</span><br>
+    <span class="add1em">his "Dissertation on the Origin and Nature of the English Constitution,"
+<a href="#page364">364</a>;</span><br>
+    <span class="add1em">"History of England,"
+<a href="#page364">364</a>-7;</span><br>
+    <span class="add1em">death of,
+<a href="#page366">366</a></span><br>
+
+  Rapin, Daniel de,
+<a href="#page324">324</a><br>
+
+  Rapin family,
+<a href="#page317">317</a>-21,
+<a href="#page367">367</a><br>
+
+  Rapin, Solomon,
+<a href="#page354">354</a>,
+<a href="#page360">360</a><br>
+
+  Ravanel, insurgent leader, defeats Royalists near Nismes,
+<a href="#page143">143</a>;<br>
+    <span class="add1em">near Bouquet,
+<a href="#page145">145</a>;</span><br>
+    <span class="add1em">supplants Cavalier,
+<a href="#page182">182</a>-5;</span><br>
+    <span class="add1em">death of,
+<a href="#page189">189</a></span><br>
+
+  Redothière, Isabeau,
+<a href="#page053">53</a><br>
+
+  Rességuerie, M. de la,
+<a href="#page297">297</a><br>
+
+  Rey, Fulcran, his preaching and death,
+<a href="#page025">25</a>-7<br>
+
+  Riou, Capt., R.N., Lord Nelson's opinion of,
+<a href="#page368">368</a>;<br>
+    <span class="add1em">ancestry,
+<a href="#page368">368</a>-70;</span><br>
+    <span class="add1em">birth and education,
+<a href="#page370">370</a>;</span><br>
+    <span class="add1em">becomes a midshipman,
+<a href="#page370">370</a>;</span><br>
+    <span class="add1em">accompanies Capt. Cook in his last voyage,
+<a href="#page371">371</a>;</span><br>
+    <span class="add1em">witnesses the murder of the captain,
+<a href="#page371">371</a>;</span><br>
+    <span class="add1em">return to England and appointed lieutenant,
+<a href="#page372">372</a>;</span><br>
+    <span class="add1em">a sharer in the glory of Capt. Luttrell's brilliant achievement,
+<a href="#page372">372</a>;</span><br>
+    <span class="add1em">appointed to the command of the <span class="italic">Guardian</span>,
+<a href="#page373">373</a>;</span><br>
+    <span class="add1em">letters to his mother,
+<a href="#page373">373</a>,
+<a href="#page377">377</a>;</span><br>
+    <span class="add1em">his ship strikes upon an iceberg,
+<a href="#page374">374</a>;</span><br>
+    <span class="add1em">remains with the vessel,
+<a href="#page375">375</a>;</span><br>
+    <span class="add1em">letter to the Admiralty,
+<a href="#page375">375</a>;</span><br>
+    <span class="add1em">extract from his log,
+<a href="#page376">376</a>;</span><br>
+    <span class="add1em">rescued by Dutch whalers, and return to England,
+<a href="#page376">376</a>;</span><br>
+    <span class="add1em">receives the special thanks of the Admiralty,
+<a href="#page377">377</a>;</span><br>
+    <span class="add1em">commander of the royal yacht <span class="italic">Princess Augusta</span>,
+<a href="#page378">378</a>;</span><br>
+    <span class="add1em">at the battle of Copenhagen,
+<a href="#page378">378</a>-9;</span><br>
+    <span class="add1em">death of,
+<a href="#page379">379</a>;</span><br>
+    <span class="add1em">his character,
+<a href="#page379">379</a>-80;</span><br>
+    <span class="add1em">monument in St. Paul's Cathedral,
+<a href="#page380">380</a></span><br>
+
+  Rochemalan, Vaudois struggles at,
+<a href="#page482">482</a>-6<br>
+
+  Roger, Jacques,
+<a href="#page213">213</a><br>
+
+  Roland, nephew of Laporte,
+<a href="#page111">111</a>;<br>
+    <span class="add1em">insurgent leader,
+<a href="#page113">113</a>;</span><br>
+    <span class="add1em">succeeds Laporte,
+<a href="#page118">118</a>;</span><br>
+    <span class="add1em">in Lower Cevennes,
+<a href="#page122">122</a>;</span><br>
+    <span class="add1em">organizes Camisards,
+<a href="#page123">123</a>-5;</span><br>
+    <span class="add1em">takes Sauvé,
+<a href="#page137">137</a>;</span><br>
+    <span class="add1em">at Pompignan,
+<a href="#page152">152</a>;</span><br>
+    <span class="add1em">at Salindres,
+<a href="#page164">164</a>-5;</span><br>
+    <span class="add1em">at Font-Morte,
+<a href="#page176">176</a>-7;</span><br>
+    <span class="add1em">at Pont-de-Montvert,
+<a href="#page187">187</a>;</span><br>
+    <span class="add1em">death of,
+<a href="#page188">188</a></span><br>
+
+  Romanche, Valley of the,
+<a href="#page401">401</a>,
+<a href="#page408">408</a><br>
+
+  Rosen, Count,
+<a href="#page332">332</a>;<br>
+    <span class="add1em">indignation against King James,
+<a href="#page337">337</a></span><br>
+
+  Rostan, Alpine missionary,
+<a href="#page460">460</a> (note)<br>
+
+  Rou, Jean,
+<a href="#page363">363</a>-4<br>
+
+  Roussel, Alexandre,
+<a href="#page232">232</a><br>
+
+  Ruvigny, Major-General,
+<a href="#page357">357</a></p>
+
+
+<p class="p2">St. Bartholomew, doubt thrown upon massacre of,
+<a href="#page027">27</a><br>
+
+  Saint-Etienne, Rabout,
+<a href="#page276">276</a>-7<br>
+
+  St. Hypolite, meeting at,
+<a href="#page035">35</a><br>
+
+  Saint-Ruth, Marshal,
+<a href="#page038">38</a>;<br>
+    <span class="add1em">in Ireland,
+<a href="#page038">38</a> (note),
+<a href="#page354">354</a> <span class="italic">et seq.</span></span><br>
+
+  Saint-Simon on the treatment of converts,
+<a href="#page023">23</a><br>
+
+  Sands, Captain,
+<a href="#page357">357</a><br>
+
+  San Veran,
+<a href="#page468">468</a><br>
+
+  Sarsfield, General,
+<a href="#page351">351</a>-3,
+<a href="#page356">356</a><br>
+
+  Savoy and France, war declared,
+<a href="#page520">520</a><br>
+
+  Savoy, Duke of, takes refuge with the Vaudois,
+<a href="#page520">520</a><br>
+
+  Schomberg, Marshal,
+<a href="#page309">309</a> <span class="italic">et seq.</span>,
+<a href="#page317">317</a>,
+<a href="#page344">344</a> <span class="italic">et seq.</span>;<br>
+    <span class="add1em">death of,
+<a href="#page345">345</a></span><br>
+
+  Schomberg, Count,
+<a href="#page348">348</a><br>
+
+  Sedan, prosperity of, before Revocation,
+<a href="#page064">64</a>-5;<br>
+    <span class="add1em">Brousson at,
+<a href="#page065">65</a>-6</span><br>
+
+  Seguier, Pierre, insurgent leader,
+<a href="#page096">96</a>,
+<a href="#page103">103</a>;<br>
+    <span class="add1em">at Frugères,
+<a href="#page104">104</a>;</span><br>
+    <span class="add1em">at Font-Morte,
+<a href="#page106">106</a>;</span><br>
+    <span class="add1em">taken, tried, and executed,
+<a href="#page106">106</a>-7</span><br>
+
+  Sirven,
+<a href="#page263">263</a>;<br>
+    <span class="add1em">case of, taken up by Voltaire,
+<a href="#page264">264</a></span><br>
+
+  Society of Friends in Languedoc,
+<a href="#page281">281</a>-2<br>
+
+  Souverain executed,
+<a href="#page052">52</a><br>
+
+  Squeezers, the,
+<a href="#page101">101</a> (note)<br>
+
+  Synod of French Protestant Church,
+<a href="#page283">283</a></p>
+
+
+<p class="p2">Talmash, Major-General,
+<a href="#page357">357</a><br>
+
+  Telford, anecdote of,
+<a href="#page082">82</a><br>
+
+  Testart, Marie Anne,
+<a href="#page363">363</a><br>
+
+  Tetleau, Major-General,
+<a href="#page357">357</a><br>
+
+  Toleration, Edict of,
+<a href="#page276">276</a><br>
+
+  "Troopers' Lane,"
+<a href="#page310">310</a><br>
+
+  Tyrconnel, Earl of,
+<a href="#page331">331</a>-2<br>
+
+  Tyrconnel, Lady, retort to King James,
+<a href="#page348">348</a></p>
+
+
+<p class="p2">Val Fressinières,
+<a href="#page423">423</a>-5,
+<a href="#page432">432</a>-43<br>
+
+  Val Louise,
+<a href="#page420">420</a>;<br>
+    <span class="add1em">massacre at,
+<a href="#page422">422</a></span><br>
+
+  Vaudois, the country of,
+<a href="#page385">385</a>;<br>
+    <span class="add1em">early Christianity of,
+<a href="#page386">386</a>-6;</span><br>
+    <span class="add1em">early persecutions of,
+<a href="#page388">388</a>;</span><br>
+    <span class="add1em">Easter massacre of,
+<a href="#page390">390</a>-1;</span><br>
+    <span class="add1em">visits of Dr. Gilly to,
+<a href="#page393">393</a>-4,
+<a href="#page468">468</a>,
+<a href="#page477">477</a>;</span><br>
+    <span class="add1em">passiveness of,
+<a href="#page420">420</a>-1;</span><br>
+    <span class="add1em">massacre of, at Val Louise,
+<a href="#page422">422</a>;</span><br>
+    <span class="add1em">persecutions of,
+<a href="#page424">424</a>-6,
+<a href="#page455">455</a>,
+<a href="#page481">481</a>,
+<a href="#page495">495</a>-500,
+<a href="#page513">513</a>-20;</span><br>
+    <span class="add1em">refuges of,
+<a href="#page459">459</a>,
+<a href="#page467">467</a>,
+<a href="#page475">475</a>,
+<a href="#page477">477</a>,
+<a href="#page481">481</a>;</span><br>
+    <span class="add1em">struggles of, at Rochemalan,
+<a href="#page482">482</a>-6;</span><br>
+    <span class="add1em">flight at the Revocation,
+<a href="#page495">495</a>;</span><br>
+    <span class="add1em">apparently exterminated,
+<a href="#page500">500</a>;</span><br>
+    <span class="add1em">in Switzerland,
+<a href="#page501">501</a>;</span><br>
+    <span class="add1em">prepare to return,
+<a href="#page502">502</a>;</span><br>
+    <span class="add1em">Arnaud appointed leader,
+<a href="#page502">502</a>;</span><br>
+    <span class="add1em">assisted by William of Orange,
+<a href="#page503">503</a>;</span><br>
+    <span class="add1em">The Glorious Return of,
+<a href="#page504">504</a>-13;</span><br>
+    <span class="add1em">struggles of, at the Balsille,
+<a href="#page515">515</a>;</span><br>
+    <span class="add1em">assist Duke of Savoy,
+<a href="#page520">520</a>;</span><br>
+    <span class="add1em">emancipation of,
+<a href="#page521">521</a>-2</span><br>
+
+  Venours, Marquis de, death of,
+<a href="#page335">335</a><br>
+
+  Vesson,
+<a href="#page212">212</a>,
+<a href="#page214">214</a><br>
+
+  Vidal, Isaac, preacher,
+<a href="#page048">48</a><br>
+
+  Villars, Marshal, on prophetic mania in Languedoc,
+<a href="#page090">90</a>;<br>
+    <span class="add1em">appointed to command in Languedoc,
+<a href="#page167">167</a>;</span><br>
+    <span class="add1em">at Nismes,
+<a href="#page169">169</a>;</span><br>
+    <span class="add1em">clemency of,
+<a href="#page172">172</a>-86;</span><br>
+    <span class="add1em">treats with Cavalier,
+<a href="#page177">177</a>,
+<a href="#page185">185</a>;</span><br>
+    <span class="add1em">suppresses insurrection of Camisards,
+<a href="#page188">188</a></span><br>
+
+  Vincent, Isabel, prophetess,
+<a href="#page089">89</a>,
+<a href="#page090">90</a><br>
+
+  Vivens, death of,
+<a href="#page056">56</a><br>
+
+  Voltaire, takes up case of Calas,
+<a href="#page259">259</a>-63;<br>
+    <span class="add1em">takes up case of Sirven,
+<a href="#page264">264</a>;</span><br>
+    <span class="add1em">case of Chaumont,
+<a href="#page271">271</a></span></p>
+
+
+<p class="p2">Waldenses, the,
+<a href="#page384">384</a><br>
+
+  Walker, Dr. George, death of,
+<a href="#page348">348</a><br>
+
+  Waller, Sir James,
+<a href="#page359">359</a><br>
+
+  Wheel, punishment of the,
+<a href="#page258">258</a> (note)<br>
+
+  William of Orange lands in England,
+<a href="#page308">308</a>;<br>
+    <span class="add1em">proclaimed King,
+<a href="#page309">309</a>;</span><br>
+    <span class="add1em">campaign against James II.,
+<a href="#page309">309</a> <span class="italic">et seq.</span>,
+<a href="#page340">340</a> <span class="italic">et seq.</span>;</span><br>
+    <span class="add1em">his fleet,
+<a href="#page325">325</a>-7;</span><br>
+   <span class="add1em"> wounded,
+<a href="#page342">342</a>;</span><br>
+    <span class="add1em">death of,
+<a href="#page364">364</a></span><br>
+
+  Woodstock, Lord,
+<a href="#page360">360</a>-3<br>
+
+  Wurtemberg, Duke of,
+<a href="#page340">340</a>,
+<a href="#page357">357</a></p>
+</div>
+
+<p class="p4 center">PRINTED BY VIRTUE AND CO., LIMITED, CITY ROAD, LONDON.</p>
+
+<div class="noindent">
+<p class="p4"><a id="footnote1" name="footnote1"></a>
+<strong>Footnote 1:</strong> M. Simiot's speech before the National Assembly, 16th
+March, 1873.<a href="#footnotetag1"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p>
+
+<p><a id="footnote2" name="footnote2"></a>
+<strong>Footnote 2:</strong> Bossuet, "Oraison Funèbre du Chancelier Letellier."<a href="#footnotetag2"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p>
+
+<p><a id="footnote3" name="footnote3"></a>
+<strong>Footnote 3:</strong> Bourdaloue had just been sent from the Jesuit Church of
+St. Louis at Paris, to Montpellier, to aid the dragoons in converting
+the Protestants, and bringing them back to the Church.<a href="#footnotetag3"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p>
+
+<p><a id="footnote4" name="footnote4"></a>
+<strong>Footnote 4:</strong> Sir John Reresby's Travels and Memoirs.<a href="#footnotetag4"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p>
+
+<p><a id="footnote5" name="footnote5"></a>
+<strong>Footnote 5:</strong> Pope Innocent XI.'s Letter of November 13th, 1685.<a href="#footnotetag5"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p>
+
+<p><a id="footnote6" name="footnote6"></a>
+<strong>Footnote 6:</strong> "Louvois et les Protestants," par Adolphe Michel, p.
+286.<a href="#footnotetag6"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p>
+
+<p><a id="footnote7" name="footnote7"></a>
+<strong>Footnote 7:</strong> <span class="italic">Quarterly Review.</span><a href="#footnotetag7"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p>
+
+<p><a id="footnote8" name="footnote8"></a>
+<strong>Footnote 8:</strong> "Memoirs of the Duke of Saint-Simon," translated by Bayle
+St. John, vol. III. p 250.<a href="#footnotetag8"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p>
+
+<p><a id="footnote9" name="footnote9"></a>
+<strong>Footnote 9:</strong> Funeral Oration on Louis XIV.<a href="#footnotetag9"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p>
+
+<p><a id="footnote10" name="footnote10"></a>
+<strong>Footnote 10:</strong> Such was, in fact, the end of a man so distinguished as
+M. Paul Chenevix, Councillor of the Court of Metz, who died in 1686,
+the year after the Revocation. Although of the age of eighty, and so
+illustrious for his learning, his dead body was dragged along the
+streets on a hurdle and thrown upon a dunghill. See "Huguenot Refugees
+and their Descendants," under the name <span class="italic"><a href="#chenevix">Chenevix</a></span>. The present
+Archbishop of Dublin is descended from his brother Philip Chenevix,
+who settled in England shortly after the Revocation.<a href="#footnotetag10"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p>
+
+<p><a id="footnote11" name="footnote11"></a>
+<strong>Footnote 11:</strong> It is believed that 400,000 emigrants left France
+through religious persecution during the twenty years previous to the
+Revocation, and that 600,000 escaped during the twenty years after
+that event. M. Charles Coquerel estimates the number of Protestants in
+France at that time to have been two millions of <span class="italic">men</span> ("Églises du
+Désert," i. 497) The number of Protestant pastors was about one
+thousand&mdash;of whom six hundred went into exile, one hundred were
+executed or sent to the galleys, and the rest are supposed to have
+accepted pensions as "new converts."<a href="#footnotetag11"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p>
+
+<p><a id="footnote12" name="footnote12"></a>
+<strong>Footnote 12:</strong> We refer to "The Huguenots: their Settlements, Churches,
+and Industries in England and Ireland," where a great many incidents
+are given relative to the escape of refugees by land and sea, which
+need not here be repeated.<a href="#footnotetag12"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p>
+
+<p><a id="footnote13" name="footnote13"></a>
+<strong>Footnote 13:</strong> Letter to the President de Moulceau, November 24th,
+1685.<a href="#footnotetag13"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p>
+
+<p><a id="footnote14" name="footnote14"></a>
+<strong>Footnote 14:</strong> Thumbscrews were used in the reign of James II. Louis
+and James borrowed from each other the means of converting heretics;
+but whether the origin of the thumbscrew be French or Scotch is not
+known.<a href="#footnotetag14"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p>
+
+<p><a id="footnote15" name="footnote15"></a>
+<strong>Footnote 15:</strong> "Memoirs of the Duke of Saint-Simon," Bayle St. John's
+Translation, iii. 259.<a href="#footnotetag15"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p>
+
+<p><a id="footnote16" name="footnote16"></a>
+<strong>Footnote 16:</strong> See "The Huguenots: their Settlements, &amp;c., in England
+and Ireland," chap. xvi.<a href="#footnotetag16"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p>
+
+<p><a id="footnote17" name="footnote17"></a>
+<strong>Footnote 17:</strong> "Histoire de l'Édit de Nantes," par Elie Bénoît.<a href="#footnotetag17"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p>
+
+<p><a id="footnote18" name="footnote18"></a>
+<strong>Footnote 18:</strong> "Histoire des Églises du Désert," par Charles Coquerel,
+i. 498.<a href="#footnotetag18"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p>
+
+<p><a id="footnote19" name="footnote19"></a>
+<strong>Footnote 19:</strong> De Felice's "History of the Protestants of France," book
+iii. sect. 17.<a href="#footnotetag19"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p>
+
+<p><a id="footnote20" name="footnote20"></a>
+<strong>Footnote 20:</strong> John Locke passed through Nismes about this time. "The
+Protestants at Nismes," he said, "have now but one temple, the other
+being pulled down by the King's order about four years since. The
+Protestants had built themselves an hospital for the sick, but that is
+taken from them; a chamber in it is left for the sick, but never used,
+because the priests trouble them when there. Notwithstanding these
+discouragements [this was in 1676, <span class="italic">before</span> the Revocation], I do not
+find many go over; one of them told me, when I asked them the
+question, that the Papists did nothing but by force or by
+money."&mdash;<span class="smcap">King's</span> <span class="italic">Life of Locke</span>, i. 100.<a href="#footnotetag20"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p>
+
+<p><a id="footnote21" name="footnote21"></a>
+<strong>Footnote 21:</strong> When released from prison, Gaultier escaped to Berlin
+and became minister of a large Protestant congregation there. Isaac
+Dubourdieu escaped to England, and was appointed one of the ministers
+of the Savoy Church in London.<a href="#footnotetag21"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p>
+
+<p><a id="footnote22" name="footnote22"></a>
+<strong>Footnote 22:</strong> Claude Brousson, "Apologie du Projet des Réformés."<a href="#footnotetag22"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p>
+
+<p><a id="footnote23" name="footnote23"></a>
+<strong>Footnote 23:</strong> The grandfather of this Chamier drew up for Henry IV.
+the celebrated Edict of Nantes. The greater number of the Chamiers
+left France. Several were ministers in London and Maryland, U.S.
+Captain Chamier is descended from the family.<a href="#footnotetag23"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p>
+
+<p><a id="footnote24" name="footnote24"></a>
+<strong>Footnote 24:</strong> Saint-Ruth was afterwards, in 1691, sent to Ireland to
+take the command of the army fighting for James II. against William
+III. There, Saint-Ruth had soldiers, many of them Huguenots banished
+from France, to contend with; and he was accordingly somewhat less
+successful than in Viverais, where his opponents were mostly peasants
+and workmen, armed (where armed at all) with stones picked from the
+roads. Saint-Ruth and his garrison were driven from Athlone, where a
+Huguenot soldier was the first to mount the breach. The army of
+William III., though eight thousand fewer in number, followed
+Saint-Ruth and his Irish army to the field of Aughrim. His host was
+there drawn up in an almost impregnable position&mdash;along the heights of
+Kilcommeden, with the Castle of Aughrim on his left wing, a deep bog
+on his right, and another bog of about two miles extending along the
+front, and apparently completely protecting the Irish encampment.
+Nevertheless, the English and Huguenot army under Ginckle, bravely
+attacked it, forced the pass to the camp, and routed the army of
+Saint-Ruth, who himself was killed by a cannon-ball. The principal
+share of this victory was attributed to the gallant conduct of the
+three regiments of Huguenot horse, under the command of the Marquess
+de Ruvigny (himself a banished Huguenot nobleman) who, in consequence
+of his services, was raised to the Irish peerage, under the title of
+Earl of Galway.<a href="#footnotetag24"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p>
+
+<p><a id="footnote25" name="footnote25"></a>
+<strong>Footnote 25:</strong> The prisons of Languedoc were already crowded with
+Protestants, and hundreds had been sent to the galleys at Marseilles.<a href="#footnotetag25"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p>
+
+<p><a id="footnote26" name="footnote26"></a>
+<strong>Footnote 26:</strong> Within about three weeks no fewer than seventeen
+thousand five hundred French emigrants passed into Lausanne. Two
+hundred Protestant ministers fled to Switzerland, the greater number
+of whom settled in Lausanne, until they could journey elsewhere.<a href="#footnotetag26"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p>
+
+<p><a id="footnote27" name="footnote27"></a>
+<strong>Footnote 27:</strong> Ancillon was an eminently learned man. His library was
+one of the choicest that had ever been collected, and on his expulsion
+from Metz it was pillaged by the Jesuits. Metz, now part of German
+Lorraine, was probably not so ferociously dragooned as other places.
+Yet the inhabitants were under the apprehension that the massacre of
+St. Bartholomew was about to be repeated upon them on Christmas Day,
+1685, the soldiers of the garrison having been kept under arms all
+night. The Protestant churches were all pulled down, the ministers
+were expelled, and many of their people followed them into Germany.
+There were numerous Protestant soldiers in the Metz garrison, and the
+order of the King was that, like the rest of his subjects, they should
+become converted. Many of the officers resigned and entered the
+service of William of Orange, and many of the soldiers deserted. The
+bribe offered for the conversion of privates was as follows: Common
+soldiers and dragoons, two pistoles per head; troopers, three pistoles
+per head. The Protestants of Alsace were differently treated. They
+constituted a majority of the population; Alsace and Strasbourg having
+only recently been seized by Louis XIV. It was therefore necessary to
+be cautious in that quarter; for violence would speedily have raised a
+revolution in the province which would have driven them over to
+Germany, whose language they spoke. Louvois could therefore only
+proceed by bribing; and he was successful in buying over some of the
+most popular and influential men.<a href="#footnotetag27"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p>
+
+<p><a id="footnote28" name="footnote28"></a>
+<strong>Footnote 28:</strong> Many of these extraordinary escapes are given in the
+author's "Huguenots: their Settlements, Churches, and Industries, in
+England and Ireland."<a href="#footnotetag28"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p>
+
+<p><a id="footnote29" name="footnote29"></a>
+<strong>Footnote 29:</strong> There were from eighty to ninety establishments for the
+manufacture of broadcloth in Sedan, giving employment to more than two
+thousand persons. These, together with the iron and steel
+manufactures, were entirely ruined at the Revocation, when the whole
+of the Protestant mechanics went into exile, and settled for the most
+part in Holland and England.<a href="#footnotetag29"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p>
+
+<p><a id="footnote30" name="footnote30"></a>
+<strong>Footnote 30:</strong> The following was the portraiture of Brousson, issued to
+the spies and police: "Brousson is of middle stature, and rather
+spare, aged forty to forty-two, nose large, complexion dark, hair
+black, hands well formed."<a href="#footnotetag30"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p>
+
+<p><a id="footnote31" name="footnote31"></a>
+<strong>Footnote 31:</strong> The only favour which Brousson's judges showed him at
+death was as regarded the manner of carrying his sentence into
+execution. He was condemned to be broken alive on the wheel, and then
+strangled; whereas by special favour the sentence was commuted into
+strangulation first and the breaking of his bones afterwards. So that
+while Brousson's impassive body remained with his persecutors to be
+broken, his pure unconquered spirit mounted in triumph towards
+heaven.<a href="#footnotetag31"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p>
+
+<p><a id="footnote32" name="footnote32"></a>
+<strong>Footnote 32:</strong> There are still Gaussens at St. Mamert, in the
+department of Gard; and some of the Bosanquet family must have
+remained on their estates or returned to Protestantism, as we find a
+Bosanquet of Caila broken alive at Nismes, because of his religion, on
+the 7th September, 1702, after which his corpse was publicly exposed
+on the Montpellier high road.<a href="#footnotetag32"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p>
+
+<p><a id="footnote33" name="footnote33"></a>
+<strong>Footnote 33:</strong> October 20, 1686.<a href="#footnotetag33"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p>
+
+<p><a id="footnote34" name="footnote34"></a>
+<strong>Footnote 34:</strong> Noailles to Baville, 29th October, 1686.<a href="#footnotetag34"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p>
+
+<p><a id="footnote35" name="footnote35"></a>
+<strong>Footnote 35:</strong> "Vie du Maréchal de Villars," i. 125.<a href="#footnotetag35"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p>
+
+<p><a id="footnote36" name="footnote36"></a>
+<strong>Footnote 36:</strong> Brueys, "Histoire du Fanaticisme de Notre Temps."<a href="#footnotetag36"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p>
+
+<p><a id="footnote37" name="footnote37"></a>
+<strong>Footnote 37:</strong> Whether it be that Calvinism is eclectic as regards races
+and individuals, or that it has (as is most probably the case) a
+powerful formative influence upon individual character, certain it is
+that the Calvinists of all countries have presented the strongest
+possible resemblance to each other&mdash;the Calvinists of Geneva and
+Holland, the Huguenots of France, the Covenanters of Scotland, and the
+Puritans of Old and New England, seeming, as it were, to be but
+members of the same family. It is curious to speculate on the
+influence which the religion of Calvin&mdash;himself a Frenchman&mdash;might
+have exercised on the history of France, as well as on the individual
+character of Frenchmen, had the balance of forces carried the nation
+bodily over to Protestantism (as was very nearly the case) towards the
+end of the sixteenth century. Heinrich Heine has expressed the opinion
+that the western races contain a large proportion of men for whom the
+moral principle of Judaism has a strong elective affinity; and in the
+sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, the Old Testament certainly seems
+to have exercised a much more powerful influence on the minds of
+religious reformers than the New. "The Jews," says Heine, "were the
+Germans of the East, and nowadays the Protestants in German countries
+(England, Scotland, America, Germany, Holland) are nothing more nor
+less than ancient Oriental Jews."<a href="#footnotetag37"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p>
+
+<p><a id="footnote38" name="footnote38"></a>
+<strong>Footnote 38:</strong> The instrument is thus described by Cavalier, in his
+"Memoirs of the Wars of the Cevennes," London, 1726: "This inhuman man
+had invented a rack (more cruel, if it be possible, than that usually
+made use of) to torment these poor unfortunate gentlemen and ladies;
+which was a beam he caused to be split in two, with vices at each end.
+Every morning he would send for these poor people, in order to examine
+them, and if they refused to confess what he desired, he caused their
+legs to be put in the slit of the beam, and there squeezed them till
+the bones cracked," &amp;c., &amp;c. (p. 35).<a href="#footnotetag38"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p>
+
+<p><a id="footnote39" name="footnote39"></a>
+<strong>Footnote 39:</strong> Brueys, "Histoire de Fanatisme;" Peyrat, "Histoire des
+Pasteurs du Désert."<a href="#footnotetag39"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p>
+
+<p><a id="footnote40" name="footnote40"></a>
+<strong>Footnote 40:</strong> The "Barbets" (or "Water-dogs") was the nickname by
+which the Vaudois were called, against whom Poul had formerly been
+employed in the Italian valleys.<a href="#footnotetag40"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p>
+
+<p><a id="footnote41" name="footnote41"></a>
+<strong>Footnote 41:</strong> "Memoirs of the Wars of the Cevennes," p. 74.<a href="#footnotetag41"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p>
+
+<p><a id="footnote42" name="footnote42"></a>
+<strong>Footnote 42:</strong> O'Callaghan's "History of the Irish Brigades in the
+service of France," p. 29.<a href="#footnotetag42"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p>
+
+<p><a id="footnote43" name="footnote43"></a>
+<strong>Footnote 43:</strong> Ibid., p. 180.<a href="#footnotetag43"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p>
+
+<p><a id="footnote44" name="footnote44"></a>
+<strong>Footnote 44:</strong> Cavalier's "Memoirs of the Wars of the Cevennes," pp.
+111-114.<a href="#footnotetag44"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p>
+
+<p><a id="footnote45" name="footnote45"></a>
+<strong>Footnote 45:</strong> The Nismes Theatre now occupies part of the Jardin des
+Récollets.<a href="#footnotetag45"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p>
+
+<p><a id="footnote46" name="footnote46"></a>
+<strong>Footnote 46:</strong> In the Viverais and elsewhere they sang the song of the
+persecuted Church:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p class="poem30">
+<span class="add2em">"Nos filles dans les monastères,</span><br>
+<span class="add2em">Nos prisonniers dans les cachots.</span><br>
+Nos martyrs dont le sang se répand à grands flots,<br>
+<span class="add2em">Nos confesseurs sur les galères,</span><br>
+<span class="add2em">Nos malades persécutés,</span><br>
+Nos mourants exposés à plus d'une furie,<br>
+<span class="add2em">Nos morts traînés à la voierie,</span><br>
+<span class="add2em">Te disent (ô Dieu!) nos calamités."</span><a href="#footnotetag46"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p>
+
+<p><a id="footnote47" name="footnote47"></a>
+<strong>Footnote 47:</strong> "Autobiography of a French Protestant condemned to the
+Galleys because of his Religion." Rotterdam, 1757. (Since reprinted by
+the Religious Tract Society.)<a href="#footnotetag47"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p>
+
+<p><a id="footnote48" name="footnote48"></a>
+<strong>Footnote 48:</strong> Le comite ou chef de chiourme, aidé de deux
+<span class="italic">sous-comites</span>, allait et venait sans cesse sur le coursier, frappant
+les forçats à coup de nerfs de b&oelig;uf, comme un cocher ses chevaux.
+Pour rendre les coups plus sensible et pour économiser les vêtements,
+<span class="italic">les galériens étaient nus</span> quand ils ramaient.&mdash;<span class="smcap">Athanase Coquerel
+fils.</span> <span class="italic">Les Forçats pour la Foi</span>, 64.<a href="#footnotetag48"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p>
+
+<p><a id="footnote49" name="footnote49"></a>
+<strong>Footnote 49:</strong> "The Autobiography of a French Protestant," 68.<a href="#footnotetag49"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p>
+
+<p><a id="footnote50" name="footnote50"></a>
+<strong>Footnote 50:</strong> "Autobiography of a French Protestant," 112-21.<a href="#footnotetag50"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p>
+
+<p><a id="footnote51" name="footnote51"></a>
+<strong>Footnote 51:</strong> Saint-Simon and Dangeau.<a href="#footnotetag51"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p>
+
+<p><a id="footnote52" name="footnote52"></a>
+<strong>Footnote 52:</strong> Amongst the many satires and epigrams with which Louis
+XIV. was pursued to the grave, the following epitaph may be given:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p class="poem30">
+"Ci gist le mari de Thérèse<br>
+De la Montespan le Mignon,<br>
+L'esclave de la Maintenon,<br>
+Le valet du père La Chaise."</p>
+
+<p>At the death of Louis XIV., Voltaire, an <span class="italic">élève</span> of the Jesuits, was
+appropriately coming into notice. At the age of about twenty he was
+thrown into the Bastille; for having written a satire on Louis XIV.,
+of which the following is an extract:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p class="poem30">
+"J'ai vu sous l'habit d'une femme<br>
+<span class="add2em">Un démon nous donner la loi;</span><br>
+Elle sacrifia son Dieu, sa foi, son âme,<br>
+Pour séduire l'esprit d'un trop crédule roi.</p>
+
+<p class="p2 poem30">
+J'ai vu l'hypocrite honoré:<br>
+J'ai vu, c'est dire tout, le jésuite adoré:<br>
+J'ai vu ces maux sous le règne funeste<br>
+D'un prince que jadis la colère céleste<br>
+Accorda, par vengeance, à nos désirs ardens:<br>
+<span class="add2em">J'ai vu ces maux, et je n'ai pas vingt ans."</span></p>
+
+<p>Voltaire denied having written this satire.<a href="#footnotetag52"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p>
+
+<p><a id="footnote53" name="footnote53"></a>
+<strong>Footnote 53:</strong> Edmund Hughes says the preachers were probably Rouviere
+(or Crotte), Jean Huc, Jean Vesson, Etienne Arnaud, and Durand.<a href="#footnotetag53"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p>
+
+<p><a id="footnote54" name="footnote54"></a>
+<strong>Footnote 54:</strong> C. Coquerel, "Église du Désert," i. 105.<a href="#footnotetag54"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p>
+
+<p><a id="footnote55" name="footnote55"></a>
+<strong>Footnote 55:</strong> It has since been published in the "Bulletin de la
+Société du Protestantisme Français."<a href="#footnotetag55"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p>
+
+<p><a id="footnote56" name="footnote56"></a>
+<strong>Footnote 56:</strong> Edmund Hughes, "Histoire de la Restauration du
+Protestantisme en France," ii. 94.<a href="#footnotetag56"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p>
+
+<p><a id="footnote57" name="footnote57"></a>
+<strong>Footnote 57:</strong> Bénoît, "Edit de Nantes," v. 987.<a href="#footnotetag57"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p>
+
+<p><a id="footnote58" name="footnote58"></a>
+<strong>Footnote 58:</strong> In 1726, a deputation from Guyenne, Royergue, and
+Poitou, appeared before the Languedoc synod, requesting preachers and
+pastors to be sent to them. The synod agreed to send Maroger as
+preacher. Bètrine (the first of the Lausanne students) and Grail were
+afterwards sent to join him. Protestantism was also reawakening in
+Saintonge and Picardy, and pastors from Languedoc journeyed there to
+administer the sacrament. Preachers were afterwards sent to join them,
+to awaken the people, and reorganize the congregations.<a href="#footnotetag58"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p>
+
+<p><a id="footnote59" name="footnote59"></a>
+<strong>Footnote 59:</strong> E. Hughes, "Histoire de la Restauration, du
+Protestantisme en France," ii. 96.<a href="#footnotetag59"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p>
+
+<p><a id="footnote60" name="footnote60"></a>
+<strong>Footnote 60:</strong> E. Hughes, ii. 99. Coquerel, "L'Église dans le Désert,"
+i. 258.<a href="#footnotetag60"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p>
+
+<p><a id="footnote61" name="footnote61"></a>
+<strong>Footnote 61:</strong> Although marriages by the pastors had long been declared
+illegal, they nevertheless married and baptized in the Desert. After
+1730, the number of Protestant marriages greatly multiplied, though it
+was known that the issue of such marriages were declared, by the laws
+of France to be illegal. Many of the Protestants of Dauphiny went
+across the frontier into Switzerland, principally to Geneva, and were
+there married.<a href="#footnotetag61"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p>
+
+<p><a id="footnote62" name="footnote62"></a>
+<strong>Footnote 62:</strong> Of the preachers about this time (1740-4) the best known
+were Morel, Foriel, Mauvillon, Voulaud, Corteiz, Peyrot, Roux, Gauch,
+Coste, Dugnière, Blachon, Gabriac, Déjours, Rabaut, Gibert, Mignault,
+Désubas, Dubesset, Pradel, Morin, Defferre, Loire, Pradon,&mdash;with many
+more. Defferre restored Protestantism in Berne. Loire (a native of St.
+Omer, and formerly a Catholic), Viala, Préneuf, and Prudon, were the
+apostles of Normandy, Rouergue, Guyenne, and Poitou.<a href="#footnotetag62"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p>
+
+<p><a id="footnote63" name="footnote63"></a>
+<strong>Footnote 63:</strong> E. Hughes, "Histoire de la Restauration," &amp;c., ii. 202.<a href="#footnotetag63"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p>
+
+<p><a id="footnote64" name="footnote64"></a>
+<strong>Footnote 64:</strong> On the 1st of November, 1746, the ministers of Languedoc
+met in haste, and wrote to the Intendant, Le Nain: "Monseigneur, nous
+n'avons aucune connaissance de ces gens qu'on appelle émissaires, et
+qu'on dit être envoyés des pays étrangers pour solliciter les
+Protestants à la révolte. Nous avons exhorté, et nous nous proposons
+d'exhorter encore dans toutes les occasions, nos troupeaux à la
+soumission au souverain et à la patience dans les afflictions, et de
+nous écarter jamais de la pratique de ce précepte: Craignez Dieu et
+honorez le roi."<a href="#footnotetag64"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p>
+
+<p><a id="footnote65" name="footnote65"></a>
+<strong>Footnote 65:</strong> Près de Saint-Ambroix (Cevennes) se tint un jour une
+assemblée. Survint un détachement. Les femmes et les filles furent
+dépouillées, violées, et quelques hommes furent blessés.&mdash;<span class="smcap">E. Hughes</span>,
+<span class="italic">Histoire de la Restauration, &amp;c.</span>, ii. 212.<a href="#footnotetag65"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p>
+
+<p><a id="footnote66" name="footnote66"></a>
+<strong>Footnote 66:</strong> Antoine Court, "Mémoire Historique," 140.<a href="#footnotetag66"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p>
+
+<p><a id="footnote67" name="footnote67"></a>
+<strong>Footnote 67:</strong> See "Memorial of General Assembly of Clergy to the
+King," in <span class="italic">Collection des procès-verbaux</span>, 345.<a href="#footnotetag67"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p>
+
+<p><a id="footnote68" name="footnote68"></a>
+<strong>Footnote 68:</strong> The King granted 480 livres of reward to the spy who
+detected Benezet and procured his apprehension by the soldiers.<a href="#footnotetag68"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p>
+
+<p><a id="footnote69" name="footnote69"></a>
+<strong>Footnote 69:</strong> Ripert de Monclar, procureur-général, writing in 1755,
+says: "According to the jurisprudence of this kingdom, there are no
+French Protestants, and yet, according to the truth of facts, there
+are three millions. These imaginary beings fill the towns, provinces,
+and rural districts, and the capital alone contains sixty thousand of
+them."<a href="#footnotetag69"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p>
+
+<p><a id="footnote70" name="footnote70"></a>
+<strong>Footnote 70:</strong> Athanase Coquerel, "Les Forçats pour la Foi," 91.<a href="#footnotetag70"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p>
+
+<p><a id="footnote71" name="footnote71"></a>
+<strong>Footnote 71:</strong> "Madame de Pompadour découvrit que Louis XV. pourrait
+lui-même s'amuser à faire l'éducation de ces jeunes malheureuses. De
+petites filles de neuf à douze ans, lorsqu'elles avaient attiré les
+regards de la police par leur beauté, étaient enlevées à leurs mères
+par plusieurs artifices, conduites à Versailles, et retenues dans les
+parties les plus élevées et les plus inaccessibles des petits
+appartements du roi.... Le nombre des malheureuses qui passèrent
+successivement à Parc-aux-Cerfs est immense; à leur sortie elles
+étaient mariées à des hommes vils ou crédules auxquels elles
+apportaient une bonne dot. Quelques unes conservaient un traitement
+fort considerable." "Les dépenses du Parc-aux-Cerfs, dit Lacratelle,
+se payaient avec des acquits du comptant. Il est difficile de les
+évaluer; mais il ne peut y avoir aucune exagération à affirmer
+qu'elles coûtèrent plus de 100 millions à l'État. Dans quelques
+libelles on les porte jusqu'à un milliard."&mdash;<span class="smcap">Sismondi</span>, <span class="italic">Histoire de
+Française</span>, Brussels, 1844, xx. 153-4. The account given by Sismondi
+of the debauches of this persecutor of the Huguenots is very full. It
+is <span class="italic">not</span> given in the "Old Court Life of France," recently written by
+a lady.<a href="#footnotetag71"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p>
+
+<p><a id="footnote72" name="footnote72"></a>
+<strong>Footnote 72:</strong> Sismondi, xx. 157.<a href="#footnotetag72"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p>
+
+<p><a id="footnote73" name="footnote73"></a>
+<strong>Footnote 73:</strong> Sismondi, xx. 328.<a href="#footnotetag73"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p>
+
+<p><a id="footnote74" name="footnote74"></a>
+<strong>Footnote 74:</strong> To be broken alive on the wheel was one of the most
+horrible of tortures, a bequest from ages of violence and barbarism.
+It was preserved in France mainly for the punishment of Protestants.
+The prisoner was extended on a St. Andrew's cross, with eight notches
+cut on it&mdash;one below each arm between the elbow and wrist, another
+between each elbow and the shoulders, one under each thigh, and one
+under each leg. The executioner, armed with a heavy triangular bar of
+iron, gave a heavy blow on each of these eight places, and broke the
+bone. Another blow was given in the pit of the stomach. The mangled
+victim was lifted from the cross and stretched on a small wheel placed
+vertically at one of the ends of the cross, his back on the upper part
+of the wheel, his head and feet hanging down. There the tortured
+creature hung until he died. Some lingered five or six hours, others
+much longer. This horrible method of torture was only abolished at the
+French Revolution in 1790.<a href="#footnotetag74"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p>
+
+<p><a id="footnote75" name="footnote75"></a>
+<strong>Footnote 75:</strong> While Voltaire lived at Lausanne, one of the baillies
+(the chief magistrates of the city) said to him: "Monsieur de
+Voltaire, they say that you have written against the good God: it is
+very wrong, but I hope He will pardon you.... But, Monsieur de
+Voltaire, take very good care not to write against their excellencies
+of Berne, our sovereign lords, for be assured that they will <span class="italic">never</span>
+forgive you."<a href="#footnotetag75"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p>
+
+<p><a id="footnote76" name="footnote76"></a>
+<strong>Footnote 76:</strong> It may be added that, after the reversal of the
+sentence, David, the judge who had first condemned Calas, went insane,
+and died in a madhouse.<a href="#footnotetag76"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p>
+
+<p><a id="footnote77" name="footnote77"></a>
+<strong>Footnote 77:</strong> The Huguenots sometimes owed their release from the
+galleys to money payments made by Protestants (but this was done
+secretly), the price of a galley-slave being about a thousand crowns;
+sometimes they owed it to the influence of Protestant princes; but
+never to the voluntary mercy of the Catholics. In 1742, while France
+was at war with England, and Prussia was quietly looking on, Antoine
+Court made an appeal to Frederick the Great, and at his intervention
+with Louis XV. thirty galley-slaves were liberated. The Margrave of
+Bayreuth, Culmbach and his wife, the sister of the Great Frederick,
+afterwards visited the galleys at Toulon, and succeeded in obtaining
+the liberation of several galley-slaves.<a href="#footnotetag77"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p>
+
+<p><a id="footnote78" name="footnote78"></a>
+<strong>Footnote 78:</strong> This secret meeting-place of the Huguenots is well known
+from the engraved picture of Boze.<a href="#footnotetag78"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p>
+
+<p><a id="footnote79" name="footnote79"></a>
+<strong>Footnote 79:</strong> Letter of Jean Fabre, in Athanase Coquerel's "Forçats
+pour la Foi," 201-3.<a href="#footnotetag79"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p>
+
+<p><a id="footnote80" name="footnote80"></a>
+<strong>Footnote 80:</strong> "Voltaire et les Genevois," par J. Gaberel, 74-5.<a href="#footnotetag80"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p>
+
+<p><a id="footnote81" name="footnote81"></a>
+<strong>Footnote 81:</strong> "Lettres inédites des Voltaire," publiées par Athanase
+Coquerel fils, 247.<a href="#footnotetag81"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p>
+
+<p><a id="footnote82" name="footnote82"></a>
+<strong>Footnote 82:</strong> Froissard, "Nismes et ses Environs," ii. 217.<a href="#footnotetag82"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p>
+
+<p><a id="footnote83" name="footnote83"></a>
+<strong>Footnote 83:</strong> Such was the dissoluteness of the manners of the court,
+that no less than 500,000,000 francs of the public debt, or
+£20,000,000 sterling, had been incurred for expenses too ignominious
+to bear the light, or even to be named in the public accounts. It
+appears from an authentic document, quoted in Soulavie's history, that
+in the sixteen months immediately preceding the death of Louis XV.,
+Madame du Barry (originally a courtesan,) had drawn from the royal
+treasury no less than 2,450,000 francs, or equal to about £200,000 of
+our present money. ["Histoire de la Décadence de la Monarchie
+Française," par Soulavie l'Aîné, iii. 330.] "La corruption," says
+Lacretelle, "entrait dans les plus paisibles ménages, dans les
+familles les plus obscures. Elle [Madame du Barri] était savamment et
+longtemps combinée par ceux qui servaient les débauches de Louis. Des
+émissaires étaient employées à séduire des filles qui n'étaient point
+encore nubiles, à combattre dans de jeunes femmes des principes de
+pudeur et de fidélité. Amant de grade, il livrait à la prostitution
+publique celles de ses sujettes qu'il avait prématurement corrompues.
+Il souffrait que les enfans de ses infâmes plaisirs partageassent la
+destinée obscure et dangereuse de ceux qu'un père n'avoue point."
+<span class="smcap">Lacretelle</span>, <span class="italic">Histoire de France pendant le xviii Siècle</span>, iii.
+171-173.<a href="#footnotetag83"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p>
+
+<p><a id="footnote84" name="footnote84"></a>
+<strong>Footnote 84:</strong> "History of the Protestants of France," by G. de Félice,
+book v. sect. i.<a href="#footnotetag84"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p>
+
+<p><a id="footnote85" name="footnote85"></a>
+<strong>Footnote 85:</strong> See the Rev. Mark Wilks's "History of the Persecutions
+endured by the Protestants of the South of France, 1814, 1815, 1816."
+Longmans, 1821.<a href="#footnotetag85"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p>
+
+<p><a id="footnote86" name="footnote86"></a>
+<strong>Footnote 86:</strong> "Life of Stephen Grellet," third edition. London, 1870.<a href="#footnotetag86"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p>
+
+<p><a id="footnote87" name="footnote87"></a>
+<strong>Footnote 87:</strong> Michel, "Les Anabaptistes des Vosges." Paris, 1862.<a href="#footnotetag87"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p>
+
+<p><a id="footnote88" name="footnote88"></a>
+<strong>Footnote 88:</strong> The best account of the proceedings at this synod is
+given in <span class="italic">Blackwood's Magazine</span> for January, 1873.<a href="#footnotetag88"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p>
+
+<p><a id="footnote89" name="footnote89"></a>
+<strong>Footnote 89:</strong> The French livre was worth three francs, or about two
+shillings and sixpence English money.<a href="#footnotetag89"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p>
+
+<p><a id="footnote90" name="footnote90"></a>
+<strong>Footnote 90:</strong> In "The Huguenots in England and Ireland," 319, 323,
+last edition.<a href="#footnotetag90"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p>
+
+<p><a id="footnote91" name="footnote91"></a>
+<strong>Footnote 91:</strong> This china is now at Castle Goring, and, with the whole
+of the family documents, is in the possession of the Dowager Lady
+Burrell.<a href="#footnotetag91"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p>
+
+<p><a id="footnote92" name="footnote92"></a>
+<strong>Footnote 92:</strong> The ancient Vaudois had a saying, known in other
+countries&mdash;"Religion brought forth wealth, and the daughter devoured
+the mother;" and another of like meaning, but less known&mdash;"When the
+bishops' croziers became golden, the bishops themselves became
+Wooden."<a href="#footnotetag92"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p>
+
+<p><a id="footnote93" name="footnote93"></a>
+<strong>Footnote 93:</strong> Sismondi, "Littérature du Midi de l'Europe," i. 159.<a href="#footnotetag93"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p>
+
+<p><a id="footnote94" name="footnote94"></a>
+<strong>Footnote 94:</strong> It has been surmised by some writers that the Waldenses
+derived their name from this martyr; but being known as "heretics"
+long before his time, it is more probable that they gave the name to
+him than that he did to them.<a href="#footnotetag94"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p>
+
+<p><a id="footnote95" name="footnote95"></a>
+<strong>Footnote 95:</strong> Jean Leger, "Histoire Générale des Églises Évangéliques
+des Vallées de Piedmont, ou Vaudoises." Leyde, 1669. Part ii. 330.<a href="#footnotetag95"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p>
+
+<p><a id="footnote96" name="footnote96"></a>
+<strong>Footnote 96:</strong> Leger, ii. 8-20.<a href="#footnotetag96"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p>
+
+<p><a id="footnote97" name="footnote97"></a>
+<strong>Footnote 97:</strong> It was at this time that Milton wrote his noble sonnet,
+beginning&mdash;</p>
+
+<p class="poem30">
+"Avenge, O Lord, Thy slaughter'd saints, whose bones<br>
+Lie scattered on the Alpine mountains cold," &amp;c.<a href="#footnotetag97"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p>
+
+<p><a id="footnote98" name="footnote98"></a>
+<strong>Footnote 98:</strong> Dr. Gilly's narrative of his second visit to the valleys
+was published in 1831, under the title of "Waldensian Researches."<a href="#footnotetag98"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p>
+
+<p><a id="footnote99" name="footnote99"></a>
+<strong>Footnote 99:</strong> I find the following under the signature of "An
+Operative Bricklayer," in the <span class="italic">Times</span> of the 30th July, 1867: "I found
+there were a great number of men in Paris that worked on the buildings
+who were not residents of the city. The bricklayers are called
+<span class="italic">limousins</span>; they come from the old province Le Limousin, where they
+keep their home, and many of them are landowners. They work in Paris
+in the summer time; they come up in large numbers, hire a place in
+Paris, and live together, and by so doing they live cheap. In the
+winter time, when they cannot work on the buildings, they go back home
+again and take their savings, and stop there until the spring, which
+is far better than it is in London; when the men cannot work they are
+hanging about the streets. It was with regret that I saw so many
+working on the Sunday desecrating the Sabbath. I inquired why they
+worked on Sunday; they told me it was to make up the time they lose
+through wet and other causes. I saw some working with only their
+trousers and shoes on, with a belt round their waist to keep their
+trousers up. Their naked back was exposed to the sun, and was as brown
+as if it had been dyed, and shone as if it had been varnished. I asked
+if they had any hard-working hearty old men. They answered me "No; the
+men were completely worn out by the time they reached forty years."
+That was a clear proof that they work against the laws of nature. I
+thought to myself&mdash;Glory be to you, O Englishmen, you know the Fourth
+Commandment; you know the value of the seventh day, the day of rest!"<a href="#footnotetag99"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p>
+
+<p><a id="footnote100" name="footnote100"></a>
+<strong>Footnote 100:</strong> An authorised account was prepared by Cardinal Wiseman
+for English readers, entitled "Manual of the Association of our Lady
+of Reconciliation of La Salette," and published as a tract by Burns,
+17, Portman Street, in 1853. Since I passed through the country in
+1869, the Germans have invaded France, the surrender has occurred at
+Sedan, the Commune has been defeated at Paris, but Our Lady of La
+Salette is greater than ever. A temple of enormous dimensions has
+risen in her honour; the pilgrims number over 100,000 yearly, and the
+sale of the water from the Holy Well, said to have sprung from the
+Virgin's tears, realises more than £12,000. Since the success of La
+Salette, the Virgin has been making repeated appearances in France.
+Her last appearance was in a part of Alsace which is strictly
+Catholic. The Virgin appeared, as usual, to a boy of the mature age of
+six, "dressed in black, floating in the air, her hands bound with
+chains,"&mdash;a pretty strong religio-political hint. When a party of the
+5th Bavarian Cavalry was posted in Bettweiler, the Virgin ceased to
+make her appearance.<a href="#footnotetag100"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p>
+
+<p><a id="footnote101" name="footnote101"></a>
+<strong>Footnote 101:</strong> A gap in the mountain-wall to the left, nearly over La
+Bessie, is still known as "La Porte de Hannibal," through which, it is
+conjectured, that general led his army. But opinion, which is much
+divided as to the route he took, is more generally in favour of his
+marching up the Isère, and passing into Italy by the Little St.
+Bernard.<a href="#footnotetag101"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p>
+
+<p><a id="footnote102" name="footnote102"></a>
+<strong>Footnote 102:</strong> It has been noted that these unfortunates abound most
+in the villages occupied by the new settlers. Thus, of the population
+of the village of St. Crepin, in the valley of the Durance, not fewer
+than one-tenth are deaf and dumb, with a large proportion of idiots.<a href="#footnotetag102"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p>
+
+<p><a id="footnote103" name="footnote103"></a>
+<strong>Footnote 103:</strong> This was one of the MSS deposited by Samuel Morland
+(Oliver Cromwell's ambassador to Piedmont) at Cambridge in 1658, and
+is quoted by Jean Leger in his History of the Vaudois Churches.<a href="#footnotetag103"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p>
+
+<p><a id="footnote104" name="footnote104"></a>
+<strong>Footnote 104:</strong> De Thou's History, book xxvii.<a href="#footnotetag104"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p>
+
+<p><a id="footnote105" name="footnote105"></a>
+<strong>Footnote 105:</strong> Since the date of our visit, we learn that a sad
+accident&mdash;strikingly illustrative of the perils of village life at
+Dormilhouse&mdash;has befallen this young shepherd, by name Jean Joseph
+Lagier. One day in October, 1869, while engaged in gathering wood near
+the brink of the precipice overhanging Minsals, he accidently fell
+over and was killed on the spot, leaving behind him a widow and a
+large family. He was a person of such excellent character and conduct,
+that he had been selected as colporteur for the neighbourhood.<a href="#footnotetag105"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p>
+
+<p><a id="footnote106" name="footnote106"></a>
+<strong>Footnote 106:</strong> The well-known Alpine missionary, J. L. Rostan, of whom
+an interesting biography has recently been published by the Rev. A. J.
+French, for the Wesleyan Conference, was a native of Vars. He was one
+of the favourite pupils of Felix Neff, with whom he resided at
+Dormilhouse in 1825-7; Neff saying of him: "Among the best of my
+pupils, as regards spiritual things and secular too, is Jean Rostan,
+of Vars: he is probably destined for the ministry; such at least is my
+hope." Neff bequeathed to him the charge of his parish during his
+temporary absence, but he never returned; and shortly after, Rostan
+left, to pursue his studies at Montauban. He joined the Methodist
+Church, settled and ministered for a time in La Vaunage and the
+Cevennes, afterwards labouring as a missionary in the High Alps, and
+eventually settled as minister of the church at Lisieux, Jersey, in
+charge of which he died, July, 1859.<a href="#footnotetag106"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p>
+
+<p><a id="footnote107" name="footnote107"></a>
+<strong>Footnote 107:</strong> <span class="italic">Barba</span>&mdash;a title of respect; in the Vaudois dialect
+literally signifying an <span class="italic">uncle</span>.<a href="#footnotetag107"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p>
+
+<p><a id="footnote108" name="footnote108"></a>
+<strong>Footnote 108:</strong> Huston's "Israel of the Alps," translated by
+Montgomery; Glasgow, 1857; vol. i. p. 446.<a href="#footnotetag108"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p>
+
+<p><a id="footnote109" name="footnote109"></a>
+<strong>Footnote 109:</strong> Of the nineteen companies three were composed of the
+Vaudois of Angrogna; those of Bobi and St. John furnished two each;
+and those of La Tour, Villar, Prarustin, Prali, Macel, St. Germain,
+and Pramol, furnished one each. The remaining six companies were
+composed of French Huguenot refugees from Dauphiny and Languedoc under
+their respective officers. Besides these, there were different smaller
+parties who constituted a volunteer company. The entire force of about
+eight hundred men was marshalled in three divisions&mdash;vanguard, main
+body, and rearguard&mdash;and this arrangement was strictly observed in the
+order of march.<a href="#footnotetag109"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p>
+
+<p><a id="footnote110" name="footnote110"></a>
+<strong>Footnote 110:</strong> The greater number of them, including Turrel, were
+taken prisoners and shot, or sent to the galleys, where they died.
+This last was the fate of Turrel.<a href="#footnotetag110"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p>
+</div>
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+<pre>
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's The Huguenots in France, by Samuel Smiles
+
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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Huguenots in France, by Samuel Smiles
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The Huguenots in France
+
+Author: Samuel Smiles
+
+Release Date: September 4, 2008 [EBook #26524]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE HUGUENOTS IN FRANCE ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Eric Hutton, Christine P. Travers and the
+Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+
+
+
+[Transcriber's note: Obvious printer's errors have been corrected, all
+other inconsistencies are as in the original. The author's spelling
+has been maintained.]
+
+
+
+
+THE HUGUENOTS IN FRANCE
+
+
+By Dr. SAMUEL SMILES
+
+Author of "Self Help"
+
+
+
+
+LONDON
+
+GEORGE ROUTLEDGE AND SONS, LIMITED
+
+BROADWAY HOUSE, LUDGATE HILL
+
+MDCCCCIII
+
+
+LONDON AND COUNTY PRINTING WORKS,
+
+BAZAAR BUILDINGS, LONDON, W.C.
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS.
+
+
+THE HUGUENOTS IN FRANCE AFTER THE REVOCATION OF THE EDICT OF NANTES.
+
+  CHAPTER                                                         PAGE
+
+     I. REVOCATION OF THE EDICT OF NANTES........................... 1
+
+    II. EFFECTS OF THE REVOCATION--CHURCH IN THE DESERT............ 12
+
+   III. CLAUDE BROUSSON, THE HUGUENOT ADVOCATE..................... 30
+
+    IV. CLAUDE BROUSSON, PASTOR AND MARTYR......................... 50
+
+     V. OUTBREAK IN LANGUEDOC...................................... 75
+
+    VI. INSURRECTION OF THE CAMISARDS.............................. 99
+
+   VII. EXPLOITS OF CAVALIER...................................... 130
+
+  VIII. END OF THE CAMISARD INSURRECTION.......................... 166
+
+    IX. GALLEY-SLAVES FOR THE FAITH............................... 190
+
+     X. ANTOINE COURT............................................. 205
+
+    XI. REORGANIZATION OF THE CHURCH IN THE DESERT................ 218
+
+   XII. THE CHURCH IN THE DESERT--PAUL RABAUT..................... 235
+
+  XIII. END OF THE PERSECUTIONS--THE FRENCH REVOLUTION............ 253
+
+
+MEMOIRS OF DISTINGUISHED HUGUENOT REFUGEES.
+
+     I. STORY OF SAMUEL DE PECHELS................................ 285
+
+    II. CAPTAIN RAPIN, AUTHOR OF THE "HISTORY OF ENGLAND"......... 316
+
+   III. CAPTAIN RIOU, R.N......................................... 368
+
+
+A VISIT TO THE COUNTRY OF THE VAUDOIS.
+
+     I. INTRODUCTORY--EARLY PERSECUTIONS OF THE VAUDOIS........... 383
+
+    II. THE VALLEY OF THE ROMANCHE--BRIANCON...................... 401
+
+   III. VAL LOUISE--HISTORY OF FELIX NEFF......................... 420
+
+    IV. THE VAUDOIS MOUNTAIN-REFUGE OF DORMILHOUSE................ 437
+
+     V. GUILLESTRE AND THE VALLEY OF QUEYRAS...................... 455
+
+    VI. THE VALLEY OF THE PELICE -- LA TOUR -- ANGROGNA -- THE
+        PRA DE TOUR............................................... 472
+
+   VII. THE GLORIOUS RETURN: AN EPISODE IN THE HISTORY OF THE
+        ITALIAN VAUDOIS........................................... 493
+
+
+MAPS.
+
+
+                                         PAGE
+
+  THE COUNTRY OF THE CEVENNES...................................... 98
+
+  "THE COUNTRY OF FELIX NEFF" (Dauphiny).......................... 382
+
+  THE VALLEY OF LUSERNE........................................... 472
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE.
+
+
+In preparing this edition for the press, I have ventured to add three
+short memoirs of distinguished Huguenot Refugees and their
+descendants.
+
+Though the greatest number of Huguenots banished from France at the
+Revocation of the Edict of Nantes were merchants and manufacturers,
+who transferred their skill and arts to England, which was not then a
+manufacturing country; a large number of nobles and gentry emigrated
+to this and other countries, leaving their possessions to be
+confiscated by the French king.
+
+The greater number of the nobles entered the armies of the countries
+in which they took refuge. In Holland, they joined the army of the
+Prince of Orange, afterwards William III., King of England. After
+driving the armies of Louis XIV. out of Ireland, they met the French
+at Ramilies, Blenheim, and Malplacquet, and other battles in the Low
+Countries. A Huguenot engineer directed the operations at the siege of
+Namur, which ended in its capture. Another conducted the siege of
+Lille, which was also taken.
+
+But perhaps the greatest number of Huguenot nobles entered the
+Prussian service. Their descendants revisited France on more than one
+occasion. They overran the northern and eastern parts of France in
+1814 and 1815; and last of all they vanquished the descendants of
+their former persecutors at Sedan in 1870. Sedan was, prior to the
+Revocation of the Edict of Nantes, the renowned seat of Protestant
+learning; while now it is known as the scene of the greatest military
+catastrophe which has occurred in modern history.
+
+The Prime Minister of France, M. Jules Simon, not long ago recorded
+the fateful effects of Louis XIV.'s religious intolerance. In
+discussing the perpetual ecclesiastical questions which still disturb
+France, he recalled the fact that not less than eighty of the German
+staff in the late war were representatives of Protestant families,
+driven from France by the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes.
+
+The first of the appended memoirs is that of Samuel de Pechels, a
+noble of Languedoc, who, after enduring great privations, reached
+England through Jamaica, and served as a lieutenant in Ireland under
+William III. Many of his descendants have been distinguished soldiers
+in the service of England. The second is Captain Rapin, who served
+faithfully in Ireland, and was called away to be tutor to the young
+Duke of Portland. He afterwards spent his time at Wesel on the Rhine,
+where he wrote his "History of England." The third is Captain Riou,
+"the gallant and the good," who was killed at the battle of
+Copenhagen. These memoirs might be multiplied to any extent; but those
+given are enough to show the good work which the Huguenots and their
+descendants have done in the service of England.
+
+
+
+
+INTRODUCTION.
+
+
+Six years since, I published a book entitled _The Huguenots: their
+Settlements, Churches, and Industries, in England and Ireland_. Its
+object was to give an account of the causes which led to the large
+migrations of foreign Protestants from Flanders and France into
+England, and to describe their effects upon English industry as well
+as English history.
+
+It was necessary to give a brief _resume_ of the history of the
+Reformation in France down to the dispersion of the Huguenots, and the
+suppression of the Protestant religion by Louis XIV. under the terms
+of the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes.
+
+Under that Act, the profession of Protestantism was proclaimed to be
+illegal, and subject to the severest penalties. Hence, many of the
+French Protestants who refused to be "converted," and had the means of
+emigrating, were under the necessity of leaving France and
+endeavouring to find personal freedom and religious liberty elsewhere.
+
+The refugees found protection in various countries. The principal
+portion of the emigrants from Languedoc and the south-eastern
+provinces of France crossed the frontier into Switzerland, and settled
+there, or afterwards proceeded into the states of Prussia, Holland,
+and Denmark, as well as into England and Ireland. The chief number of
+emigrants from the northern and western seaboard provinces of France,
+emigrated directly into England, Ireland, America, and the Cape of
+Good Hope. In my previous work, I endeavoured to give as accurate a
+description as was possible of the emigrants who settled in England
+and Ireland, to which, the American editor of the work (the Hon. G. P.
+Disosway) has added an account of those who settled in the United
+States of America.
+
+But besides the Huguenots who contrived to escape from Franco during
+the dragonnades which preceded and the persecutions which followed the
+Revocation of the Edict of Nantes, there was still a very large number
+of Huguenots remaining in France who had not the means wherewith to
+fly from their country. These were the poorer people, the peasants,
+the small farmers, the small manufacturers, many of whom were spoiled
+of their goods for the very purpose of preventing them from
+emigrating. They were consequently under the necessity of remaining in
+their native country, whether they changed their religion by force or
+not. It is to give an account of these people, as a supplement to my
+former book, that the present work is written.
+
+It is impossible to fix precisely the number of the Huguenots who
+left France to avoid the cruelties of Louis XIV., as well as of those
+who perforce remained to endure them. It shakes one's faith in history
+to observe the contradictory statements published with regard to
+French political or religious facts, even of recent date. A general
+impression has long prevailed that there was a Massacre of St.
+Bartholemew in Paris in the year 1572; but even that has recently been
+denied, or softened down into a mere political squabble. It is not,
+however, possible to deny the fact that there was a Revocation of the
+Edict of Nantes in 1685, though it has been vindicated as a noble act
+of legislation, worthy even of the reputation and character of Louis
+the Great.
+
+No two writers agree as to the number of French citizens who were
+driven from their country by the Revocation. A learned Roman Catholic,
+Mr. Charles Butler, states that only 50,000 persons "retired" from
+France; whereas M. Capefigue, equally opposed to the Reformation, who
+consulted the population tables of the period (although the intendants
+made their returns as small as possible in order to avoid the reproach
+of negligence), calculates the emigration at 230,000 souls, namely,
+1,580 ministers, 2,300 elders, 15,000 gentlemen, the remainder
+consisting almost entirely of traders and artisans.
+
+These returns, quoted by M. Capefigue, were made only a few years
+after the Revocation, although the emigration continued without
+intermission for many years later. M. Charles Coquerel says that
+whatever horror may be felt for the Massacre of St. Bartholomew of
+1572, the persecutions which preceded and followed the Act of
+Revocation in 1685, "kept France under a perpetual St. Bartholomew for
+about sixty years." During that time it is believed that more than
+1,000,000 Frenchmen either left the kingdom, or were killed,
+imprisoned, or sent to the galleys in their efforts to escape.
+
+The Intendant of Saintonge, a King's officer, not likely to exaggerate
+the number of emigrants, reported in 1698, long before the emigration
+had ceased, that his province had lost 100,000 Reformers. Languedoc
+suffered far more; whilst Boulainvilliers reports that besides the
+emigrants who succeeded in making their escape, the province lost not
+fewer than 100,000 persons by premature death, the sword,
+strangulation, and the wheel.
+
+The number of French emigrants who resorted to England may be inferred
+from the fact that at the beginning of last century there were not
+fewer than _thirty-five_ French Protestant churches in London alone,
+at a time when the population of the metropolis was not one-fourth of
+what it is now; while there were other large French settlements at
+Canterbury, Norwich, Southampton, Bristol, Exeter, &c., as well as at
+Dublin, Lisburn, Portarlington, and other towns in Ireland.
+
+Then, with respect to the much larger number of Protestants who
+remained in France after the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes, there
+is the same difference of opinion. A deputation of Huguenot pastors
+and elders, who waited upon the Duc de Noailles in 1682 informed him
+that there were then 1,800,000 Protestant _families_ in France. Thirty
+years after that date, Louis XIV. proclaimed that there were no
+Protestants whatever in France; that Protestantism had been entirely
+suppressed, and that any one found professing that faith must be
+considered as a "relapsed heretic," and sentenced to imprisonment, the
+galleys, or the other punishments to which Protestants were then
+subject.
+
+After an interval of about seventy-five years, during which
+Protestantism (though suppressed by the law) contrived to lead a sort
+of underground life--the Protestants meeting by night, and sometimes
+by day, in caves, valleys, moors, woods, old quarries, hollow beds of
+rivers, or, as they themselves called it, "in the Desert"--they at
+length contrived to lift their heads into the light of day, and then
+Rabaut St. Etienne stood up in the Constituent Assembly at Paris, in
+1787, and claimed the rights of his Protestant fellow-countrymen--the
+rights of "2,000,000 useful citizens." Louis XVI. granted them an
+Edict of Tolerance, about a hundred years after Louis XIV. had revoked
+the Edict of Nantes; but the measure proved too late for the King, and
+too late for France, which had already been sacrificed to the
+intolerance of Louis XIV. and his Jesuit advisers.
+
+After all the sufferings of France--after the cruelties to which her
+people have been subjected by the tyranny of her monarchs and the
+intolerance of her priests,--it is doubtful whether she has yet learnt
+wisdom from her experience and trials. France was brought to ruin a
+century ago by the Jesuits who held the entire education of the
+country in their hands. They have again recovered their ground, and
+the Congreganistes are now what the Jesuits were before. The
+Sans-Culottes of 1793 were the pupils of the priests; so were the
+Communists of 1871.[1] M. Edgar Quinet has recently said to his
+countrymen: "The Jesuitical and clerical spirit which has sneaked in
+among you and all your affairs has ruined you. It has corrupted the
+spring of life; it has delivered you over to the enemy.... Is this to
+last for ever? For heaven's sake spare us at least the sight of a
+Jesuits' Republic as the coronation of our century."
+
+         [Footnote 1: M. Simiot's speech before the National Assembly,
+         16th March, 1873.]
+
+In the midst of these prophecies of ruin, we have M. Veuillot frankly
+avowing his Ultramontane policy in the _Univers_. He is quite willing
+to go back to the old burnings, hangings, and quarterings, to prevent
+any freedom of opinion about religious matters. "For my part," he
+says, "I frankly avow my regret not only that John Huss was not burnt
+sooner, but that Luther was not burnt too. And I regret further that
+there has not been some prince sufficiently pious and politic to have
+made a crusade against the Protestants."
+
+M. Veuillot is perhaps entitled to some respect for boldly speaking
+out what he means and thinks. There are many amongst ourselves who
+mean the same thing, without having the courage to say so--who hate
+the Reformation quite as much as M. Veuillot does, and would like to
+see the principles of free examination and individual liberty torn up
+root and branch.
+
+With respect to the proposed crusade against Protestantism, it will be
+seen from the following work what the "pious and politic" Louis XIV.
+attempted, and how very inefficient his measures eventually proved in
+putting down Protestantism, or in extending Catholicism. Louis XIV.
+found it easier to make martyrs than apostates; and discovered that
+hanging, banishment, the galleys, and the sword were not amongst the
+most successful of "converters."
+
+The history of the Huguenots during the time of their submergence as
+an "underground church" is scarcely treated in the general histories
+of France. Courtly writers blot them out of history as Louis XIV.
+desired to blot them out of France. Most histories of France published
+in England contain little notice of them. Those who desire to pursue
+the subject further, will obtain abundant information, more
+particularly from the following works:--
+
+ELIE BENOIT: _Histoire de l'Edit de Nantes._ CHARLES COQUEREL:
+_Histoire des Eglises du Desert._ NAPOLEON PEYRAT: _Histoire des
+Pasteurs du Desert._ ANTOINE COURT: _Histoire des Troubles de
+Cevennes._ EDMUND HUGHES: _Histoire de la Restauration du
+Protestantisme en France au xviii. Siecle._ A. BONNEMERE: _Histoire
+des Camisardes._ ADOLPHE MICHEL: _Louvois et Les Protestantes._
+ATHANASE COQUEREL FILS; _Les Forcats pour La Foi, &c., &c._
+
+It remains to be added that part of this work--viz., the "Wars of the
+Camisards," and the "Journey in the Country of the Vaudois"--originally
+appeared in _Good Words_.
+
+                                                  S.S.
+
+LONDON, _October_, 1873.
+
+
+
+
+THE HUGUENOTS IN FRANCE.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+REVOCATION OF THE EDICT OF NANTES.
+
+
+The Revocation of the Edict of Nantes was signed by Louis XIV. of
+France, on the 18th of October, 1685, and published four days
+afterwards.
+
+Although the Revocation was the personal act of the King, it was
+nevertheless a popular measure, approved by the Catholic Church of
+France, and by the great body of the French people.
+
+The King had solemnly sworn, at the beginning of his reign, to
+maintain, the tolerating Edict of Henry IV.--the Huguenots being
+amongst the most industrious, enterprising, and loyal of his subjects.
+But the advocacy of the King's then Catholic mistress, Madame de
+Maintenon, and of his Jesuit Confessor, Pere la Chaise, overcame his
+scruples, and the deed of Revocation of the Edict was at length signed
+and published.
+
+The aged Chancellor, Le Tellier, was so overjoyed at the measure, that
+on affixing the great seal of France to the deed, he exclaimed, in the
+words of Simeon, "Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace,
+for mine eyes have seen the salvation."
+
+Three months later, the great Bossuet, the eagle of Meaux, preached
+the funeral sermon of Le Tellier; in the course of which he testified
+to the immense joy of the Church at the Revocation of the Edict. "Let
+us," said he, "expand our hearts in praises of the piety of Louis. Let
+our acclamations ascend to heaven, and let us say to this new
+Constantine, this new Theodosius, this new Marcian, this new
+Charlemagne, what the thirty-six fathers formerly said in the Council
+of Chalcedon: 'You have affirmed the faith, you have exterminated the
+heretics; it is a work worthy of your reign, whose proper character it
+is. Thanks to you, heresy is no more. God alone can have worked this
+marvel. King of heaven, preserve the King of earth: it is the prayer
+of the Church, it is the prayer of the Bishops.'"[2]
+
+         [Footnote 2: Bossuet, "Oraison Funebre du Chancelier
+         Letellier."]
+
+Madame de Maintenon also received the praises of the Church. "All good
+people," said the Abbe de Choisy, "the Pope, the bishops, and all the
+clergy, rejoice at the victory of Madame de Maintenon." Madame enjoyed
+the surname of Director of the Affairs of the Clergy; and it was said
+by the ladies of St. Cyr (an institution founded by her), that "the
+cardinals and the bishops knew no other way of approaching the King
+save through her."
+
+It is generally believed that her price for obtaining the King's
+consent to the Act of Revocation, was the withdrawal by the clergy of
+their opposition to her marriage with the King; and that the two were
+privately united by the Archbishop of Paris at Versailles, a few days
+after, in the presence of Pere la Chaise and two more witnesses. But
+Louis XIV. never publicly recognised De Maintenon as his wife--never
+rescued her from the ignominious position in which she originally
+stood related to him.
+
+People at court all spoke with immense praises of the King's
+intentions with respect to destroying the Huguenots. "Killing them
+off" was a matter of badinage with the courtiers. Madame de Maintenon
+wrote to the Duc de Noailles, "The soldiers are killing numbers of the
+fanatics--they hope soon to free Languedoc of them."
+
+That picquante letter-writer, Madame de Sevigne, often referred to the
+Huguenots. She seems to have classed them with criminals or wild
+beasts. When residing in Low Brittany during a revolt against the
+Gabelle, a friend wrote to her, "How dull you must be!" "No," replied
+Madame de Sevigne, "we are not so dull--hanging is quite a refreshment
+to me! They have just taken twenty-four or thirty of these men, and
+are going to throw them off."
+
+A few days after the Edict had been revoked, she wrote to her cousin
+Bussy, at Paris: "You have doubtless seen the Edict by which the King
+revokes that of Nantes. There is nothing so fine as that which it
+contains, and never has any King done, or ever will do, a more
+memorable act." Bussy replied to her: "I immensely admire the conduct
+of the King in destroying the Huguenots. The wars which have been
+waged against them, and the St. Bartholomew, have given some
+reputation to the sect. His Majesty has gradually undermined it; and
+the edict he has just published, maintained by the dragoons and by
+Bourdaloue,[3] will soon give them the _coup de grace_."
+
+         [Footnote 3: Bourdaloue had just been sent from the Jesuit
+         Church of St. Louis at Paris, to Montpellier, to aid the
+         dragoons in converting the Protestants, and bringing them
+         back to the Church.]
+
+In a future letter to Count Bussy, Madame de Sevigne informed him of
+"a dreadfully fatiguing journey which her son-in-law M. de Grignan had
+made in the mountains of Dauphiny, to pursue and punish the miserable
+Huguenots, who issued from their holes, and vanished like ghosts to
+avoid extermination."
+
+De Baville, however, the Lieutenant of Languedoc, kept her in good
+heart. In one of his letters, he said, "I have this morning condemned
+seventy-six of these wretches (Huguenots), and sent them to the
+galleys." All this was very pleasant to Madame de Sevigne.
+
+Madame de Scuderi, also, more moderately rejoiced in the Act of
+Revocation. "The King," she wrote to Bussy, "has worked great marvels
+against the Huguenots; and the authority which he has employed to
+unite them to the Church will be most salutary to themselves and to
+their children, who will be educated in the purity of the faith; all
+this will bring upon him the benedictions of Heaven."
+
+Even the French Academy, though originally founded by a Huguenot,
+publicly approved the deed of Revocation. In a discourse uttered
+before it, the Abbe Tallemand exclaimed, when speaking of the Huguenot
+temple at Charenton, which had just been destroyed by the mob, "Happy
+ruins, the finest trophy France ever beheld!" La Fontaine described
+heresy as now "reduced to the last gasp." Thomas Corneille also
+eulogized the zeal of the King in "throttling the Reformation."
+Barbier D'Aucourt heedlessly, but truly, compared the emigration of
+the Protestants "to the departure of the Israelites from Egypt." The
+Academy afterwards proposed, as the subject of a poem, the Revocation
+of the Edict of Nantes, and Fontenelle had the fortune, good or bad,
+of winning the prize.
+
+The philosophic La Bruyere contributed a maxim in praise of the
+Revocation. Quinault wrote a poem on the subject; and Madame
+Deshoulieres felt inspired to sing "The Destruction of Heresy." The
+Abbe de Rance spoke of the whole affair as a prodigy: "The Temple of
+Charenton destroyed, and no exercise of Protestantism, within the
+kingdom; it is a kind of miracle, such as we had never hoped to have
+seen in our day."
+
+The Revocation was popular with the lower class, who went about
+sacking and pulling down the Protestant churches. They also tracked
+the Huguenots and their pastors, where they found them evading or
+breaking the Edict of Revocation; thus earning the praises of the
+Church and the fines offered by the King for their apprehension. The
+provosts and sheriffs of Paris represented the popular feeling, by
+erecting a brazen statue of the King who had rooted out heresy; and
+they struck and distributed medals in honour of the great event.
+
+The Revocation was also popular with the dragoons. In order to
+"convert" the Protestants, the dragoons were unduly billeted upon
+them. As both officers and soldiers were then very badly paid, they
+were thereby enabled to live at free quarters. They treated everything
+in the houses they occupied as if it were their own, and an assignment
+of billets was little loss than the consignment of the premises to the
+military, to use for their own purposes, during the time they occupied
+them.[4]
+
+         [Footnote 4: Sir John Reresby's Travels and Memoirs.]
+
+The Revocation was also approved by those who wished to buy land
+cheap. As the Huguenots were prevented holding their estates unless
+they conformed to the Catholic religion, and as many estates were
+accordingly confiscated and sold, land speculators, as well as grand
+seigneurs who wished to increase their estates, were constantly on the
+look-out for good bargains. Even before the Revocation, when the
+Huguenots were selling their land in order to leave the country,
+Madame de Maintenon wrote to her nephew, for whom she had obtained
+from the King a grant of 800,000 francs, "I beg of you carefully to
+use the money you are about to receive. Estates in Poitou may be got
+for nothing; the desolation of the Huguenots will drive them to sell
+more. You may easily acquire extensive possessions in Poitou."
+
+The Revocation was especially gratifying to the French Catholic
+Church. The Pope, of course, approved of it. _Te Deums_ were sung at
+Rome in thanksgiving for the forced conversion of the Huguenots. Pope
+Innocent XI. sent a brief to Louis XIV., in which he promised him the
+unanimous praises of the Church, "Amongst all the proofs," said he,
+"which your Majesty has given of natural piety, not the least
+brilliant is the zeal, truly worthy of the most Christian King, which
+has induced you to revoke all the ordinances issued in favour of the
+heretics of your kingdom."[5]
+
+         [Footnote 5: Pope Innocent XI.'s Letter of November 13th,
+         1685.]
+
+The Jesuits were especially elated by the Revocation. It had been
+brought about by the intrigues of their party, acting on the King's
+mind through Madame de Maintenon and Pere la Chaise. It enabled them
+to fill their schools and nunneries with the children of Protestants,
+who were compelled by law to pay for their education by Jesuit
+priests. To furnish the required accommodation, nearly the whole of
+the Protestant temples that had not been pulled down were made over
+to the Jesuits, to be converted into monastic schools and nunneries.
+Even Bossuet, the "last father of the Church," shared in the spoils of
+the Huguenots. A few days after the Edict had been revoked, Bossuet
+applied for the materials of the temples of Nauteuil and Morcerf,
+situated in his diocese; and his Majesty ordered that they should be
+granted to him.[6]
+
+         [Footnote 6: "Louvois et les Protestants," par Adolphe
+         Michel, p. 286.]
+
+Now that Protestantism had been put down, and the officers of Louis
+announced from all parts of the kingdom that the Huguenots were
+becoming converted by thousands, there was nothing but a clear course
+before the Jesuits in France. For their religion was now the favoured
+religion of the State.
+
+It is true there were the Jansenists--declared to be heretical by the
+Popes, and distinguished for their opposition to the doctrines and
+moral teaching of the Jesuits--who were suffering from a persecution
+which then drove some of the members of Port Royal into exile, and
+eventually destroyed them. But even the Jansenists approved the
+persecution of the Protestants. The great Arnault, their most
+illustrious interpreter, though in exile in the Low Countries,
+declared that though the means which Louis XIV. had employed had been
+"rather violent, they had in nowise been unjust."
+
+But Protestantism being declared destroyed, and Jansenism being in
+disgrace, there was virtually no legal religion in France but
+one--that of the Roman Catholic Church. Atheism, it is true, was
+tolerated, but then Atheism was not a religion. The Atheists did not,
+like the Protestants, set up rival churches, or appoint rival
+ministers, and seek to draw people to their assemblies. The Atheists,
+though they tacitly approved the religion of the King, had no
+opposition to offer to it--only neglect, and perhaps concealed
+contempt.
+
+Hence it followed that the Court and the clergy had far more
+toleration for Atheism than for either Protestantism or Jansenism. It
+is authentically related that Louis XIV. on one occasion objected to
+the appointment of a representative on a foreign mission on account of
+the person being supposed to be a Jansenist; but on its being
+discovered that the nominee was only an Atheist, the objection was at
+once withdrawn.[7]
+
+         [Footnote 7: _Quarterly Review._]
+
+At the time of the Revocation, when the King and the Catholic Church
+were resolved to tolerate no religion other than itself, the Church
+had never seemed so powerful in France. It had a strong hold upon the
+minds of the people. It was powerful in its leaders and its great
+preachers; in fact, France has never, either before or since,
+exhibited such an array of preaching genius as Bossuet, Bourdaloue,
+Flechier, and Massillon.
+
+Yet the uncontrolled and enormously increased power conferred upon the
+French Church at that time, most probably proved its greatest
+calamity. Less than a hundred years after the Revocation, the Church
+had lost its influence over the people, and was despised. The Deists
+and Atheists, sprung from the Church's bosom, were in the ascendant;
+and Voltaire, Rousseau, Diderot, and Mirabeau, were regarded as
+greater men than either Bossuet, Bourdaloue, Flechier, or Massillon.
+
+Not one of the clergy we have named, powerful orators though they
+were, ever ventured to call in question the cruelties with which the
+King sought to compel the Protestants to embrace the dogmas of their
+Church. There were no doubt many Catholics who deplored the force
+practised on the Huguenots; but they were greatly in the minority,
+and had no power to make their opposition felt. Some of them
+considered it an impious sacrilege to compel the Protestants to take
+the Catholic sacrament--to force them to accept the host, which
+Catholics believed to be the veritable body of Christ, but which the
+Huguenots could only accept as bread, over which some function had
+been performed by the priests, in whose miraculous power of conversion
+they did not believe.
+
+Fenelon took this view of the forcible course employed by the Jesuits;
+but he was in disgrace as a Jansenist, and what he wrote on the
+subject remained for a long time unknown, and was only first published
+in 1825. The Duc de Saint-Simon, also a Jansenist, took the same view,
+which he embodied in his "Memoirs;" but these were kept secret by his
+family, and were not published for nearly a century after his death.
+
+Thus the Catholic Church remained triumphant. The Revocation was
+apparently approved by all, excepting the Huguenots. The King was
+flattered by the perpetual conversions reported to be going on
+throughout the country--five thousand persons in one place, ten
+thousand in another, who had abjured and taken the communion--at once,
+and sometimes "instantly."
+
+"The King," says Saint-Simon, "congratulated himself on his power and
+his piety. He believed himself to have renewed the days of the
+preaching of the Apostles, and attributed to himself all the honour.
+The Bishops wrote panegyrics of him; the Jesuits made the pulpits
+resound with his praises.... He swallowed their poison in deep
+draughts."[8]
+
+         [Footnote 8: "Memoirs of the Duke of Saint-Simon," translated
+         by Bayle St. John, vol. III. p 250.]
+
+Louis XIV. lived for thirty years after the Edict of Nantes had been
+revoked. He had therefore the fullest opportunity of observing the
+results of the policy he had pursued. He died in the hands of the
+Jesuits, his body covered with relics of the true cross. Madame de
+Maintenon, the "famous and fatal witch," as Saint-Simon called her,
+abandoned him at last; and the King died, lamented by no one.
+
+He had banished, or destroyed, during-his reign, about a million of
+his subjects, and those who remained did not respect him. Many
+regarded him as a self-conceited tyrant, who sought to save his own
+soul by inflicting penance on the backs of others. He loaded his
+kingdom with debt, and overwhelmed his people with taxes. He destroyed
+the industry of France, which had been mainly supported by the
+Huguenots. Towards the end of his life he became generally hated; and
+while his heart was conveyed to the Grand Jesuits, his body, which was
+buried at St. Denis, was hurried to the grave accompanied by the
+execrations of the people.
+
+Yet the Church remained faithful to him to the last. The great
+Massillon preached his funeral sermon; though the message was draped
+in the livery of the Court. "How far," said he, "did Louis XIV. carry
+his zeal for the Church, that virtue of sovereigns who have received
+power and the sword only that they may be props of the altar and
+defenders of its doctrine! Specious reasons of State! In vain did you
+oppose to Louis the timid views of human wisdom, the body of the
+monarchy enfeebled by the flight of so many citizens, the course of
+trade slackened, either by the deprivation of their industry, or by
+the furtive removal of their wealth! Dangers fortify his zeal. The
+work of God fears not man. He believes even that he strengthens his
+throne by overthrowing that of error. The profane temples are
+destroyed, the pulpits of seduction are cast down. The prophets of
+falsehood are torn from their flocks. At the first blow dealt to it by
+Louis, heresy falls, disappears, and is reduced either to hide itself
+in the obscurity whence it issued, or to cross the seas, and to bear
+with it into foreign lands its false gods, its bitterness, and its
+rage."[9]
+
+         [Footnote 9: Funeral Oration on Louis XIV.]
+
+Whatever may have been the temper which the Huguenots displayed when
+they were driven from France by persecution, they certainly carried
+with them something far more valuable than rage. They carried with
+them their virtue, piety, industry, and valour, which proved the
+source of wealth, spirit, freedom, and character, in all those
+countries--Holland, Prussia, England, and America--in which these
+noble exiles took refuge.
+
+We shall next see whether the Huguenots had any occasion for
+entertaining the "rage" which the great Massillon attributed to them.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+EFFECTS OF THE REVOCATION.
+
+
+The Revocation struck with civil death the entire Protestant
+population of France. All the liberty of conscience which they had
+enjoyed under the Edict of Nantes, was swept away by the act of the
+King. They were deprived of every right and privilege; their social
+life was destroyed; their callings were proscribed; their property was
+liable to be confiscated at any moment; and they were subjected to
+mean, detestable, and outrageous cruelties.
+
+From the day of the Revocation, the relation of Louis XIV. to his
+Huguenot subjects was that of the Tyrant and his Victims. The only
+resource which remained to the latter was that of flying from their
+native country; and an immense number of persons took the opportunity
+of escaping from France.
+
+The Edict of Revocation proclaimed that the Huguenot subjects of
+France must thenceforward be of "the King's religion;" and the order
+was promulgated throughout the kingdom. The Prime Minister, Louvois,
+wrote to the provincial governors, "His Majesty desires that the
+severest rigour shall be shown to those who will not conform to His
+Religion, and those who seek the foolish glory of wishing to be the
+last, must be pushed to the utmost extremity."
+
+The Huguenots were forbidden, under the penalty of death, to worship
+publicly after their own religious forms. They were also forbidden,
+under the penalty of being sent to the galleys for life, to worship
+privately in their own homes. If they were overheard singing their
+favourite psalms, they were liable to fine, imprisonment, or the
+galleys. They were compelled to hang out flags from their houses on
+the days of Catholic processions; but they were forbidden, under a
+heavy penalty, to look out of their windows when the Corpus Domini was
+borne along the streets.
+
+The Huguenots were rigidly forbidden to instruct their children in
+their own faith. They were commanded to send them to the priest to be
+baptized and brought up in the Roman Catholic faith, under the penalty
+of five hundred livres fine in each case. The boys were educated in
+Jesuit schools, the girls in nunneries, the parents being compelled to
+pay the required expenses; and where the parents were too poor to pay,
+the children were at once transferred to the general hospitals. A
+decree of the King, published in December, 1685, ordered that every
+child of _five years_ and upwards was to be taken possession of by the
+authorities, and removed from its Protestant parents. This decree
+often proved a sentence of death, not only to the child, but to its
+parents.
+
+The whole of the Protestant temples throughout France were subject to
+demolition. The expelled pastors were compelled to evacuate the
+country within fifteen days. If, in the meantime, they were found
+performing their functions, they were liable to be sent to the galleys
+for life. If they undertook to marry Protestants, the marriages were
+declared illegal, and the children bastards. If, after the expiry of
+the fifteen days, they were found lingering in France, the pastors
+were then liable to the penalty of death.
+
+Protestants could neither be born, nor live, nor die, without state
+and priestly interference. Protestant _sages-femmes_ were not
+permitted to exercise their functions; Protestant doctors were
+prohibited from practising; Protestant surgeons and apothecaries were
+suppressed; Protestant advocates, notaries, and lawyers were
+interdicted; Protestants could not teach, and all their schools,
+public and private, were put down. Protestants were no longer employed
+by the Government in affairs of finance, as collectors of taxes, or
+even as labourers on the public roads, or in any other office. Even
+Protestant grocers were forbidden to exercise their calling.
+
+There must be no Protestant librarians, booksellers, or printers.
+There was, indeed, a general raid upon Protestant literature all over
+France. All Bibles, Testaments, and books of religious instruction,
+were collected and publicly burnt. There were bonfires in almost every
+town. At Metz, it occupied a whole day to burn the Protestant books
+which had been seized, handed over to the clergy, and condemned to be
+destroyed.
+
+Protestants were even forbidden to hire out horses, and Protestant
+grooms were forbidden to give riding lessons. Protestant domestics
+were forbidden to hire themselves as servants, and Protestant
+mistresses were forbidden to hire them under heavy penalties. If they
+engaged Protestant servants, they were liable to be sent to the
+galleys for life. They were even prevented employing "new converts."
+
+Artisans were forbidden to work without certificates that their
+religion was Catholic. Protestant apprenticeships were suppressed.
+Protestant washerwomen were excluded from their washing-places on the
+river. In fact, there was scarcely a degradation that could be
+invented, or an insult that could be perpetrated, that was not
+practised upon those poor Huguenots who refused to be of "the King's
+religion."
+
+Even when Protestants were about to take refuge in death, their
+troubles were not over. The priests had the power of forcing their way
+into the dying man's house, where they presented themselves at his
+bedside, and offered him conversion and the viaticum. If the dying man
+refused these, he was liable to be seized after death, dragged from
+the house, pulled along the streets naked, and buried in a ditch, or
+thrown upon a dunghill.[10]
+
+         [Footnote 10: Such was, in fact, the end of a man so
+         distinguished as M. Paul Chenevix, Councillor of the Court of
+         Metz, who died in 1686, the year after the Revocation.
+         Although of the age of eighty, and so illustrious for his
+         learning, his dead body was dragged along the streets on a
+         hurdle and thrown upon a dunghill. See "Huguenot Refugees and
+         their Descendants," under the name _Chenevix_. The present
+         Archbishop of Dublin is descended from his brother Philip
+         Chenevix, who settled in England shortly after the
+         Revocation.]
+
+For several years before the Revocation, while the persecutions of the
+Huguenots had been increasing, many had realised their means, and fled
+abroad into Switzerland, Germany, Holland, and England. But after the
+Revocation, emigration from France was strictly forbidden, under
+penalty of confiscation of the whole goods and property of the
+emigrant. Any person found attempting to leave the country, was liable
+to the seizure of all that belonged to him, and to perpetual
+imprisonment at the galleys; one half the amount realised by the sale
+of the property being paid to the informers, who thus became the most
+active agents of the Government. The Act also ordered that all landed
+proprietors who had left France before the Revocation, should return
+within four months, under penalty of confiscation of all their
+property.
+
+Amongst those of the King's subjects who were the most ready to obey
+his orders were some of the old Huguenot noble families, such as the
+members of the houses of Bouillon, Coligny, Rohan, Tremouille, Sully,
+and La Force. These great vassals, whom a turbulent feudalism had
+probably in the first instance induced to embrace Protestantism, were
+now found ready to change their profession of religion in servile
+obedience to the monarch.
+
+The lesser nobility were more faithful and consistent. Many of them
+abandoned their estates and fled across the frontier, rather than live
+a daily lie to God by forswearing the religion of their conscience.
+Others of this class, on whom religion sat more lightly, as the only
+means of saving their property from confiscation, pretended to be
+converted to Roman Catholicism; though, we shall find, that these "new
+converts," as they were called, were treated with as much suspicion on
+the one side as they were regarded with contempt on the other.
+
+There were also the Huguenot manufacturers, merchants, and employers of
+labour, of whom a large number closed their workshops and factories,
+sold off their goods, converted everything into cash, at whatever
+sacrifice, and fled across the frontier into Switzerland--either
+settling there, or passing through it on their way to Germany, Holland,
+or England.
+
+It was necessary to stop this emigration, which was rapidly
+diminishing the population, and steadily impoverishing the country. It
+was indeed a terrible thing for Frenchmen, to tear themselves away
+from their country--Frenchmen, who have always clung so close to
+their soil that they have rarely been able to form colonies of
+emigration elsewhere--it was breaking so many living fibres to leave
+France, to quit the homes of their fathers, their firesides, their
+kin, and their race. Yet, in a multitude of cases, they were compelled
+to tear themselves by the roots out of the France they so loved.
+
+Yet it was so very easy for them to remain. The King merely required
+them to be "converted." He held that loyalty required them to be of
+"his religion." On the 19th of October, 1685, the day after he had
+signed the Act of Revocation, La Reynee, lieutenant of the police of
+Paris, issued a notice to the Huguenot tradespeople and
+working-classes, requiring them to be converted instantly. Many of
+them were terrified, and conformed accordingly. Next day, another
+notice was issued to the Huguenot bourgeois, requiring them to
+assemble on the following day for the purpose of publicly making a
+declaration of their conversion.
+
+The result of those measures was to make hypocrites rather than
+believers, and they took effect upon the weakest and least-principled
+persons. The strongest, most independent, and high-minded of the
+Huguenots, who would _not_ be hypocrites, resolved passively to resist
+them, and if they could not be allowed to exercise freedom of
+conscience in their own country, they determined to seek it elsewhere.
+Hence the large increase in the emigration from all parts of France
+immediately after the Act of Revocation had been proclaimed.[11] All
+the roads leading to the frontier or the sea-coast streamed with
+fugitives. They went in various forms and guises--sometimes in bodies
+of armed men, at other times in solitary parties, travelling at night
+and sleeping in the woods by day. They went as beggars, travelling
+merchants, sellers of beads and chaplets, gipsies, soldiers,
+shepherds, women with their faces dyed and sometimes dressed in men's
+clothes, and in all manner of disguises.
+
+         [Footnote 11: It is believed that 400,000 emigrants left
+         France through religious persecution during the twenty years
+         previous to the Revocation, and that 600,000 escaped during
+         the twenty years after that event. M. Charles Coquerel
+         estimates the number of Protestants in France at that time to
+         have been two millions of _men_ ("Eglises du Desert," i. 497)
+         The number of Protestant pastors was about one thousand--of
+         whom six hundred went into exile, one hundred were executed
+         or sent to the galleys, and the rest are supposed to have
+         accepted pensions as "new converts."]
+
+To prevent this extensive emigration, more violent measures were
+adopted. Every road out of France was posted with guards. The towns,
+highways, bridges, and ferries, were all watched; and heavy rewards
+were promised to those who would stop and bring back the fugitives.
+Many were taken, loaded with irons, and dispatched by the most public
+roads through France--as a sight to be seen by other Protestants--to
+the galleys at Marseilles, Brest, and other ports. As they went along
+they were subject to every sort of indignity in the towns and villages
+through which they passed. They were hooted, stoned, spit upon, and
+loaded with insult.
+
+Many others went by sea, in French as well as in foreign ships. Though
+the sailors of France were prohibited the exercise of the reformed
+religion, under the penalty of fines, corporal punishment, and seizure
+of the vessels where the worship was allowed, yet many of the
+emigrants contrived to get away by the help of French ship captains,
+masters of sloops, fishing-boats, and coast pilots--who most probably
+sympathized with the views of those who wished to fly their country
+rather than become hypocrites and forswear their religion. A large
+number of emigrants, who went hurriedly off to sea in little boats,
+must have been drowned, as they were never afterwards heard of.
+
+There were also many English ships that appeared off the coast to take
+the flying Huguenots away by night. They also escaped in foreign ships
+taking in their cargoes in the western harbours. They got cooped up in
+casks or wine barraques, with holes for breathing places; others
+contrived to get surreptitiously into the hold, and stowed themselves
+away among the goods. When it became known to the Government that many
+Protestants were escaping in this way, provision was made to meet the
+case; and a Royal Order was issued that, before any ship was allowed
+to set sail for a foreign port, the hold should be fumigated with
+deadly gas, so that any hidden Huguenot who could not otherwise be
+detected, might thus be suffocated![12]
+
+         [Footnote 12: We refer to "The Huguenots: their Settlements,
+         Churches, and Industries in England and Ireland," where a
+         great many incidents are given relative to the escape of
+         refugees by land and sea, which need not here be repeated.]
+
+In the meantime, however, numerous efforts were being made to convert
+the Huguenots. The King, his ministers, the dragoons, the bishops, and
+clergy used all due diligence. "Everybody is now missionary," said the
+fascinating Madame de Sevigne; "each has his mission--above all the
+magistrates and governors of provinces, _helped by the dragoons_. It
+is the grandest and finest thing that has ever been imagined and
+executed."[13]
+
+         [Footnote 13: Letter to the President de Moulceau, November
+         24th, 1685.]
+
+The conversions effected by the dragoons were much more sudden than
+those effected by the priests. Sometimes a hundred or more persons
+were converted by a single troop within an hour. In this way Murillac
+converted thousands of persons in a week. The regiment of Ashfeld
+converted the whole province of Poitou in a month.
+
+De Noailles was very successful in his conversions. He converted
+Nismes in twenty-four hours; the day after he converted Montpellier;
+and he promised in a few weeks to deliver all Lower Languedoc from the
+leprosy of heresy. In one of his dispatches soon after the Revocation,
+he boasted that he had converted 350 nobility and gentry, 54
+ministers, and 25,000 individuals of various classes.
+
+The quickness of the conversions effected by the dragoons is easily to
+be accounted for. The principal cause was the free quartering of
+soldiers in the houses of the Protestants. The soldiers knew what was
+the object for which they were thus quartered. They lived freely in
+all ways. They drank, swore, shouted, beat the heretics, insulted
+their women, and subjected them to every imaginable outrage and
+insult.
+
+One of their methods of making converts was borrowed from the
+persecutions of the Vaudois. It consisted in forcing the feet of the
+intended converts into boots full of boiling grease, or they would
+hang them up by the feet, sometimes forgetting to cut them down until
+they were dead. They would also force them to drink water perpetually,
+or make them sit under a slow dripping upon their heads until they
+died of madness. Sometimes they placed burning coals in their hands,
+or used an instrument of torture resembling that known in Scotland as
+the thumbscrews.[14] Many of their attempts at conversion were
+accompanied by details too hideous to be recorded.
+
+         [Footnote 14: Thumbscrews were used in the reign of James II.
+         Louis and James borrowed from each other the means of
+         converting heretics; but whether the origin of the thumbscrew
+         be French or Scotch is not known.]
+
+Of those who would not be converted, the prisons were kept full. They
+were kept there without the usual allowance of straw, and almost
+without food. In winter they had no fire, and at night no lamp. Though
+ill, they had no doctors. Besides the gaoler, their only visitors were
+priests and monks, entreating them to make abjuration. Of course many
+died in prison--feeble women, and aged and infirm men. In the society
+of obscene criminals, with whom many were imprisoned, they prayed for
+speedy deliverance by death, and death often came to their help.
+
+More agreeable, but still more insulting, methods of conversion were
+also attempted. Louis tried to bribe the pastors by offering them an
+increase of annual pay beyond their former stipends. If there were a
+Protestant judge or advocate, Louvois at once endeavoured to bribe him
+over. For instance, there was a heretical syndic of Strasbourg, to
+whom Louvois wrote, "Will you be converted? I will give you 6,000
+livres of pension.--Will you not? I will dismiss you."
+
+Of course many of the efforts made to convert the Huguenots proved
+successful. The orders of the Prime Minister, the free quarters
+afforded to the dragoons, the preachings and threatenings of the
+clergy, all contributed to terrify the Protestants. The fear of being
+sent to the galleys for life--the threat of losing the whole of one's
+goods and property--the alarm of seeing one's household broken up, the
+children seized by the priests and sent to the nearest monkery or
+nunnery for maintenance and education--all these considerations
+doubtless had their effect in increasing the number of conversions.
+
+Persecution is not easy to bear. To have all the powers and
+authorities employed against one's life, interests, and faith, is
+what few can persistently oppose. And torture, whether it be slow or
+sudden, is what many persons, by reason of their physical capacity,
+have not the power to resist. Even the slow torment of dragoons
+quartered in the houses of the heretics--their noise and shoutings,
+their drinking and roistering, the insults and outrages they were
+allowed to practise--was sufficient to compel many at once to declare
+themselves to be converted.
+
+Indeed, pain is, of all things, one of the most terrible of
+converters. One of the prisoners condemned to the galleys, when he saw
+the tortures which the victims about him had to endure by night and by
+day, said that sufferings such as these were "enough to make one
+conform to Buddhism or Mahommedanism as well as to Popery"; and
+doubtless it was force and suffering which converted the Huguenots,
+far more than love of the King or love of the Pope.
+
+By all these means--forcible, threatening, insulting, and
+bribing--employed for the conversion of the Huguenots, the Catholics
+boasted that in the space of three months they had received an
+accession of five hundred thousand new converts to the Church of Rome.
+
+But the "new converts" did not gain much by their change. They were
+forced to attend mass, but remained suspected. Even the dragoons who
+converted them, called them dastards and deniers of their faith. They
+tried, if they could, to avoid confession, but confess they must.
+There was the fine, confiscation of goods, and imprisonment at the
+priest's back.
+
+Places were set apart for them in the churches, where they were penned
+up like lepers. A person was stationed at the door with a roll of
+their names, to which they were obliged to answer. During the service,
+the most prominent among them were made to carry the lights, the holy
+water, the incense, and such things, which to Huguenots were an
+abomination. They were also required to partake of the Host, which
+Protestants regarded as an awful mockery of the glorious Godhead.
+
+The Duc de Saint-Simon, in his memoirs, after referring to the unmanly
+cruelties practised by Louis XIV. on the Huguenots, "without the
+slightest pretext or necessity," characterizes this forced
+participation in the Eucharist as sacrilegious and blasphemous folly,
+notwithstanding that nearly all the bishops lent themselves to the
+practice. "From simulated abjuration," he says, "they [the Huguenots]
+are dragged to endorse what they do not believe in, and to receive the
+divine body of the Saint of saints whilst remaining persuaded that
+they are only eating bread which they ought to abhor. Such is the
+general abomination born of flattery and cruelty. From torture to
+abjuration, and from that to the communion, there were only
+twenty-four hours' distance; and the executioners were the conductors
+of the converts, and their witnesses. Those who in the end appeared to
+have become reconciled, when more at leisure did not fail, by their
+flight or their behaviour, to contradict their pretended
+conversion."[15]
+
+         [Footnote 15: "Memoirs of the Duke of Saint-Simon," Bayle St.
+         John's Translation, iii. 259.]
+
+Indeed, many of the new converts, finding life in France to be all but
+intolerable, determined to follow the example of the Huguenots who had
+already fled, and took the first opportunity of disposing of their
+goods and leaving the country. One of the first things they did on
+reaching a foreign soil, was to attend a congregation of their
+brethren, and make "reconnaisances," or acknowledgment of their
+repentance for having attended mass and pretended to be converted to
+the Roman Catholic Church.[16] At one of the sittings of the
+Threadneedle Street Huguenot Church in London, held in May, 1687--two
+years after the Revocation--not fewer than 497 members were again
+received into the Church which, by force, they had pretended to
+abandon.
+
+         [Footnote 16: See "The Huguenots: their Settlements, &c., in
+         England and Ireland," chap. xvi.]
+
+Not many pastors abjured. A few who yielded in the first instance
+through terror and stupor, almost invariably returned to their ancient
+faith. They were offered considerable pensions if they would conform
+and become Catholics. The King promised to augment their income by
+one-third, and if they became advocates or doctors in law, to dispense
+with their three years' study, and with the right of diploma.
+
+At length, most of the pastors had left the country. About seven
+hundred had gone into Switzerland, Holland, Prussia, England, and
+elsewhere. A few remained going about to meetings of the peasantry, at
+the daily risk of death; for every pastor taken was hung. A reward of
+5,500 livres was promised to whoever should take a pastor, or cause
+him to be taken. The punishment of death was also pronounced against
+all persons who should be discovered attending such meetings.
+
+Nevertheless, meetings of the Protestants continued to be held, with
+pastors or without. They were, for the most part, held at night,
+amidst the ruins of their pulled-down temples. But this exposed them
+to great danger, for spies were on the alert to inform upon them and
+have them apprehended.
+
+At length they selected more sheltered places in remote quarters,
+where they met for prayer and praise, often resorting thither from
+great distances. They were, however, often surprised, cut to pieces by
+the dragoons, who hung part of the prisoners on the neighbouring
+trees, and took the others to prison, from whence they were sent to
+the galleys, or hung on the nearest public gibbet.
+
+Fulcran Rey was one of the most celebrated of the early victims. He
+was a native of Nismes, twenty-four years old. He had just completed
+his theological studies; but there were neither synods to receive him
+to pastoral ordination, nor temples for him to preach in. The only
+reward he could earn by proceeding on his mission was death, yet he
+determined to preach. The first assemblies he joined were in the
+neighbourhood of Nismes, where his addresses were interrupted by
+assaults of the dragoons. The dangers to his co-religionaries were too
+great in the neighbourhood of this populous town; and he next went to
+Castres and the Vaunage; after which he accepted an invitation to
+proceed into the less populous districts of the Cevennes.
+
+He felt the presentiment of death upon him in accepting the
+invitation; but he went, leaving behind him a letter to his father,
+saying that he was willing, if necessary, to give his life for the
+cause of truth. "Oh! what happiness it would give me," he said, "if I
+might be found amongst the number of those whom the Lord has reserved
+to announce his praise and to die for his cause!"
+
+His apostolate was short but glorious. He went from village to village
+in the Cevennes, collected the old worshippers together, prayed and
+preached to them, encouraging all to suffer in the name of Christ. He
+remained at this work for about six weeks, when a spy who accompanied
+him--one whom he had regarded as sincere a Huguenot as himself--informed
+against him for the royal reward, and delivered him over to the
+dragoons.
+
+Rey was at first thrown into prison at Anduze, when, after a brief
+examination by the local judge, he was entrusted to thirty soldiers,
+to be conveyed to Alais. There he was subjected to further
+examination, avowing that he had preached wherever he had found
+faithful people ready to hear him. At Nismes, he was told that he had
+broken the law, in preaching contrary to the King's will. "I obey the
+law of the King of kings," he replied; "it is right that I should obey
+God rather than man. Do with me what you will; I am ready to die."
+
+The priests, the judges, and other persons of influence endeavoured to
+induce him to change his opinions. Promises of great favours were
+offered him if he would abjure; and when the intendant Baville
+informed him of the frightful death before him if he refused, he
+replied, "My life is not of value to me, provided I gain Christ." He
+remained firm. He was ordered to be put to the torture. He was still
+unshaken. Then he was delivered over to the executioner. "I am
+treated," he said, "more mildly than my Saviour."
+
+On his way to the place of execution, two monks walked by his side to
+induce him to relent, and to help him to die. "Let me alone," he said,
+"you annoy me with your consolations." On coming in sight of the
+gallows at Beaucaire, he cried, "Courage, courage! the end of my
+journey is at hand. I see before me the ladder which leads to
+heaven."
+
+The monks wished to mount the ladder with him. "Return," said he, "I
+have no need of your help. I have assistance enough from God to take
+the last step of my journey." When he reached the upper platform, he
+was about, before dying, to make public his confession of faith. But
+the authorities had arranged beforehand that this should be prevented.
+When he opened his mouth, a roll of military drums muffled his voice.
+His radiant look and gestures spoke for him. A few minutes more, and
+he was dead; and when the paleness of death spread over his face, it
+still bore the reflex of joy and peace in which he had expired. "There
+is a veritable martyr," said many even of the Catholics who were
+witnesses of his death.
+
+It was thought that the public hanging of a pastor would put a stop to
+all further ministrations among the Huguenots. But the sight of the
+bodies of their brethren hung on the nearest trees, and the heads of
+their pastors rolling on the scaffold, did not deter them from
+continuing to hold religious meetings in solitary places, more
+especially in Languedoc, Viverais, and the provinces in the south-east
+of France.
+
+Between the year 1686, when Fulcran Rey was hanged at Beaucaire, and
+the year 1698, when Claude Brousson was hanged at Montpellier, not
+fewer than seventeen pastors were publicly executed; namely, three at
+Nismes, two at St. Hippolyte and Marsillargues in the Cevennes, and
+twelve on the Peyrou at Montpellier--the public place on which
+Protestant Christians in the South of France were then principally
+executed.
+
+There has been some discussion lately as to the massacre of the
+Huguenots about a century before this period. It has been held that
+the St. Bartholomew Massacre was only a political squabble, begun by
+the Huguenots, in which they got the worst of it. The number of
+persons killed on the occasion has been reduced to a very small
+number. It has been doubted whether the Pope had anything to do with
+the medal struck at Rome, bearing the motto _Ugonottorum Strages_
+("Massacre of the Huguenots"), with the Pope's head on one side, and
+an angel on the other pursuing and slaying a band of flying heretics.
+
+Whatever may be said of the massacre of St. Bartholomew, there can be
+no mistake about the persecutions which preceded and followed the
+Revocation of the Edict of Nantes. They were continued for more than
+half a century, and had the effect of driving from France about a
+million of the best, most vigorous, and industrious of Frenchmen. In
+the single province of Languedoc, not less than a hundred thousand
+persons (according to Boulainvilliers) were destroyed by premature
+death, one-tenth of whom perished by fire, strangulation, or the
+wheel.
+
+It could not be said that Louis XIV. and the priests were destroying
+France and tearing its flesh, and that Frenchmen did not know it. The
+proclamations, edicts and laws published against the Huguenots were
+known to all Frenchmen. Benoit[17] gives a list of three hundred and
+thirty-three issued by Louis XIV. during the ten years subsequent to
+the Revocation, and they were continued, as we shall find, during the
+succeeding reign.
+
+         [Footnote 17: "Histoire de l'Edit de Nantes," par Elie
+         Benoit.]
+
+"We have," says M. Charles Coquerel, "a horror of St. Bartholomew!
+Will foreigners believe it, that France observed a code of laws framed
+in the same infernal spirit, which maintained _a perpetual St.
+Bartholomew's day in this country for about sixty years_! If they
+cannot call us the most barbarous of people, their judgment will be
+well founded in pronouncing us the most inconsistent."[18]
+
+         [Footnote 18: "Histoire des Eglises du Desert," par Charles
+         Coquerel, i. 498.]
+
+M. De Felice, however, will not believe that the Revocation of the
+Edict of Nantes was popular in France. He takes a much more patriotic
+view of the French people. He cannot believe them to have been
+wilfully guilty of the barbarities which the French Government
+committed upon the Huguenots. It was the King, the priests, and the
+courtiers only! But he forgets that these upper barbarians were
+supported by the soldiers and the people everywhere. He adds, however,
+that if the Revocation _were_ popular, "it would be the most
+overwhelming accusation against the Church of Rome, that it had thus
+educated and fashioned France."[19] There is, however, no doubt
+whatever that the Jesuits, during the long period that they had the
+exclusive education of the country in their hands, _did_ thus fashion
+France; for, in 1793, the people educated by them treated King,
+Jesuits, priests, and aristocracy, in precisely the same manner that
+they had treated the Huguenots about a century before.
+
+         [Footnote 19: De Felice's "History of the Protestants of
+         France," book iii. sect. 17.]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+CLAUDE BROUSSON, THE HUGUENOT ADVOCATE.
+
+
+To give an account in detail of the varieties of cruelty inflicted on
+the Huguenots, and of the agonies to which they were subjected for
+many years before and after the passing of the Act of Revocation,
+would occupy too much space, besides being tedious through the mere
+repetition of like horrors. But in order to condense such an account,
+we think it will be more interesting if we endeavour to give a brief
+history of the state of France at that time, in connection with the
+biography of one of the most celebrated Huguenots of his period, both
+in his life, his piety, his trials, and his endurance--that of Claude
+Brousson, the advocate, the pastor, and the martyr of Languedoc.
+
+Claude Brousson was born at Nismes in 1647. He was designed by his
+parents for the profession of the law, and prosecuted his studies at
+the college of his native town, where he graduated as Doctor of Laws.
+
+He commenced his professional career about the time when Louis XIV.
+began to issue his oppressive edicts against the Huguenots. Protestant
+advocates were not yet forbidden to practise, but they already
+laboured under many disabilities. He continued, however, for some time
+to exercise his profession, with much ability, at Castres,
+Castelnaudry, and Toulouse. He was frequently employed in defending
+Protestant pastors, and in contesting the measures for suppressing
+their congregations and levelling their churches under existing
+edicts, some time before the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes had
+been finally resolved upon.
+
+Thus, in 1682, he was engaged in disputing the process instituted
+against the ministers and elders of the church at Nismes, with the
+view of obtaining an order for the demolition of the remaining
+Protestant temple of that city.[20] The pretext for suppressing this
+church was, that a servant girl from the country, being a Catholic,
+had attended worship and received the sacrament from the hands of M.
+Peyrol, one of the ministers.
+
+         [Footnote 20: John Locke passed through Nismes about this
+         time. "The Protestants at Nismes," he said, "have now but one
+         temple, the other being pulled down by the King's order about
+         four years since. The Protestants had built themselves an
+         hospital for the sick, but that is taken from them; a chamber
+         in it is left for the sick, but never used, because the
+         priests trouble them when there. Notwithstanding these
+         discouragements [this was in 1676, _before_ the Revocation],
+         I do not find many go over; one of them told me, when I asked
+         them the question, that the Papists did nothing but by force
+         or by money."--KING'S _Life of Locke_, i. 100.]
+
+Brousson defended the case, observing, at the conclusion of his
+speech, that the number of Protestants was very great at Nismes; that
+the ministers could not be personally acquainted with all the people,
+and especially with occasional visitors and strangers; that the
+ministers were quite unacquainted with the girl, or that she professed
+the Roman Catholic religion: "facts which rendered it probable that
+she was sent to the temple for the purpose of furnishing an occasion
+for the prosecution." Sentence was for the present suspended.
+
+Another process was instituted during the same year for the
+suppression of the Protestant church at Uzes, and another for the
+demolition of the large Protestant temple at Montpellier. The pretext
+for destroying the latter was of a singular character.
+
+A Protestant pastor, M. Paulet, had been bribed into embracing the
+Roman Catholic religion, in reward for which he was appointed
+counsellor to the Presidial Court of Montpellier. But his wife and one
+of his daughters refused to apostatize with him. The daughter, though
+only between ten and eleven years old, was sent to a convent at
+Teirargues, where, after enduring considerable persecution, she
+persisted in her steadfastness, and was released after a twelvemonth's
+confinement. Five years later she was again seized and sent to another
+convent; but, continuing immovable against the entreaties and threats
+of the abbess and confessor, she was again set at liberty.
+
+An apostate priest, however, who had many years before renounced the
+Protestant faith, and become director and confessor of the nuns at
+Teirargues, forged two documents; the one to show that while at the
+convent, Mdlle. Paulet had consented to embrace the Catholic religion,
+and the other containing her formal abjuration. It was alleged that
+her abjuration had been signified to Isaac Dubourdieu, of Montpellier,
+one of the most distinguished pastors of the French Church; but that,
+nevertheless, he had admitted her to the sacrament. This, if true, was
+contrary to law; upon which the Catholic clergy laid information
+against the pastor and the young lady before the Parliament of
+Toulouse, when they obtained sentence of imprisonment against the
+former, and the penance of _amende honorable_ against the latter.
+
+The demolition of temples was the usual consequence of convictions
+like these. The Duc de Noailles, lieutenant-general of the province,
+entered the city on the 16th of October, 1682, accompanied by a strong
+military force; and at a sitting of the Assembly of the States which
+shortly followed, the question of demolishing the Protestant temple at
+Montpellier was brought under consideration. Four of the Protestant
+pastors and several of the elders had before waited upon De Noailles
+to claim a respite until they should have submitted their cause to the
+King in Council.
+
+The request having been refused, one of the deputation protested
+against the illegality of the proceedings, and had the temerity to ask
+his excellency whether he was aware that there were eighteen hundred
+thousand Protestant families in France? Upon which the Duke, turning
+to the officer of his guard, said, "Whilst we wait to see what will
+become of these eighteen hundred thousand Protestant families, will
+you please conduct these gentlemen to the citadel?"[21]
+
+         [Footnote 21: When released from prison, Gaultier escaped to
+         Berlin and became minister of a large Protestant congregation
+         there. Isaac Dubourdieu escaped to England, and was appointed
+         one of the ministers of the Savoy Church in London.]
+
+The great temple of Montpellier was destroyed immediately on receipt
+of the King's royal mandate. It required the destruction of the place
+within twenty-four hours; "but you will give me pleasure," added the
+King, in a letter to De Noailles, "if you accomplish it in two."
+
+It was, perhaps, scarcely necessary, after the temple had been
+destroyed, to make any effort to justify these high-handed
+proceedings. But Mdlle. Paulet, on whose pretended conversion to
+Catholicism the proceedings had been instituted, was now requested to
+admit the authenticity of the documents. She was still imprisoned in
+Toulouse; and although entreated and threatened by turns to admit
+their truth, she steadfastly denied their genuineness, and asking for
+a pen, she wrote under each of them, "I affirm that the above
+signature was not written by my hand.--Isabeau de Paulet."
+
+Of course the documents were forged; but they had answered their
+purpose. The Protestant temple of Montpellier lay in ruins, and
+Isabeau de Paulet was recommitted to prison. On hearing of this
+incident, Brousson remarked, "This is what is called instituting a
+process against persons _after_ they have been condemned"--a sort of
+"Jedwood justice."
+
+The repetition of these cases of persecution--the demolition of their
+churches, and the suppression of their worship--led the Protestants of
+the Cevennes, Viverais, and Dauphiny to combine for the purpose of
+endeavouring to stem the torrent of injustice. With this object, a
+meeting of twenty-eight deputies took place in the house of Brousson,
+at Toulouse, in the month of May, 1683. As the Assembly of the States
+were about to take steps to demolish the Protestant temple at
+Montauban and other towns in the south, and as Brousson was the
+well-known advocate of the persecuted, the deputies were able to meet
+at his house to conduct their deliberations, without exciting the
+jealousy of the priests and the vigilance of the police.
+
+What the meeting of Protestant deputies recommended to their brethren
+was embodied in a measure, which was afterwards known as "The
+Project." The chief objects of the project were to exhort the
+Protestant people to sincere conversion, and the exhibition of the
+good life which such conversion implies; constant prayer to the Holy
+Spirit to enable them to remain steadfast in their profession and in
+the reading and meditation of the Scriptures; encouragements to them
+to hold together as congregations for the purpose of united worship;
+"submitting themselves unto the common instructions and to the yoke of
+Christ, in all places wheresoever He shall have established the true
+discipline, although the edicts of earthly magistrates be contrary
+thereto."
+
+At the same time, Brousson drew up a petition to the Sovereign, humbly
+requesting him to grant permission to the Huguenots to worship God in
+peace after their consciences, copies of which were sent to Louvois
+and the other ministers of State. On this and other petitions,
+Brousson observes, "Surely all the world and posterity will be
+surprised, that so many respectful petitions, so many complaints of
+injuries, and so many solid reasons urged for their removal, produced
+no good result whatever in favour of the Protestants."
+
+The members of the churches which had been interdicted, and whose
+temples had been demolished, were accordingly invited to assemble in
+private, in the neighbouring fields or woods--not in public places,
+nor around the ruins of their ancient temples--for the purpose of
+worshipping God, exciting each other to piety by prayer and singing,
+receiving instruction, and celebrating the Lord's Supper.
+
+Various meetings were accordingly held, in the following month of
+July, in the Cevennes and Viverais. At St. Hypolite, where the temple
+of the Protestants had been destroyed, about four thousand persons met
+in a field near the town, when the minister preached to them from the
+text--"Render unto Caesar the things which are Caesar's, and unto God
+the things which are God's." The meeting was conducted with the utmost
+solemnity; and a Catholic priest who was present, on giving
+information to the Bishop of Nismes of the transaction, admitted that
+the preacher had advanced nothing but what the bishop himself might
+have spoken.
+
+The dragoons were at once sent to St. Hypolite to put an end to these
+meetings, and to "convert" the Protestants. The town was almost wholly
+Protestant. The troops were quartered in numbers in every house; and
+the people soon became "new converts."
+
+The losses sustained by the inhabitants of the Cevennes from this
+forced quartering of the troops upon them--and Anduze, Sauve, St.
+Germain, Vigan, and Ganges were as full of them as St. Hypolite--may
+be inferred from the items charged upon the inhabitants of St.
+Hypolite alone[22]:--
+
+  To the regiment of Montpezat, for a billet for
+     sixty-five days                             50,000 livres.
+  To the three companies of Red Dragoons,
+     for ninety-five days                        30,000    "
+  To three companies of Villeneuve's Dragoons,
+     for thirty days                              6,000    "
+  To three companies of the Blue Dragoons of
+     Languedoc, for three months and nine days   37,000    "
+  To a company of Cravates (troopers) for
+     fourteen days                                1,400    "
+  To the transport of three hundred and nine
+     companies of cavalry and infantry           10,000    "
+  To provisions for the troops                   60,000    "
+  To damage sustained by the destruction done
+     by the soldiers, of furniture, and losses
+     by the seizure of property, &c.             50,000    "
+                                               ----------
+                                          Total 244,400
+
+         [Footnote 22: Claude Brousson, "Apologie du Projet des
+         Reformes."]
+
+Meetings of the persecuted were also held, under the terms of "The
+Project," in Viverais and Dauphiny. These meetings having been
+repeated for several weeks, the priests of the respective districts
+called upon their bishops for help to put down this heretical display.
+The Bishop of Valence (Daniel de Cosmac) accordingly informed them
+that he had taken the necessary steps, and that he had been apprised
+that twenty thousand soldiers were now on their march to the South to
+put down the Protestant movement.
+
+On their arrival, the troops were scattered over the country, to watch
+and suppress any meetings that might be held. The first took place on
+the 8th of August, at Chateaudouble, a manufacturing village in Drome.
+The assembly was surprised by a troop of dragoons; but most of the
+congregation contrived to escape. Those who were taken were hung upon
+the nearest trees.
+
+Another meeting was held about a fortnight later at Bezaudun, which
+was attended by many persons from Bourdeaux, a village about half a
+league distant. While the meeting was at prayer, intelligence was
+brought that the dragoons had entered Bourdeaux, and that it was a
+scene of general pillage. The Bourdeaux villagers at once set out for
+the protection of their families. The troopers met them, and suddenly
+fell upon them. A few of the villagers were armed, but the principal
+part defended themselves with stones. Of course they were overpowered;
+many were killed by the sword, and those taken prisoners were
+immediately hanged.
+
+A few, who took to flight, sheltered themselves in a barn, where the
+soldiers found them, set fire to the place, and murdered them as they
+endeavoured to escape from the flames. One young man was taken
+prisoner, David Chamier,[23] son of an advocate, and related to some
+of the most eminent Protestants in France. He was taken to the
+neighbouring town of Montelimar, and, after a summary trial, he was
+condemned to be broken to death upon the wheel. The sentence was
+executed before his father's door; but the young man bore his
+frightful tortures with astonishing courage.
+
+         [Footnote 23: The grandfather of this Chamier drew up for
+         Henry IV. the celebrated Edict of Nantes. The greater number
+         of the Chamiers left France. Several were ministers in London
+         and Maryland, U.S. Captain Chamier is descended from the
+         family.]
+
+The contumacious attitude of the Protestants after so many reports had
+reached Louis XIV. of their entire "conversion," induced him to take
+more active measures for their suppression. He appointed Marshal
+Saint-Ruth commander of the district--a man who was a stranger to
+mercy, who breathed only carnage, and who, because of his ferocity,
+was known as "The Scourge of the Heretics."
+
+Daniel de Cosmac, Bishop of Valence, had now the help of Saint-Ruth
+and his twenty thousand troops. The instructions Saint-Ruth received
+from Louvois were these: "Amnesty has no longer any place for the
+Viverais, who continue in rebellion after having been informed of the
+King's gracious designs. In one word, you are to cause such a
+desolation in that country that its example may restrain all other
+Huguenots, and may teach them how dangerous it is to rebel against the
+King."
+
+This was a work quite congenial to Saint-Ruth[24]--rushing about the
+country, scourging, slaughtering, laying waste, and suppressing the
+assemblies--his soldiers rushing upon their victims with cries of
+"Death or the Mass!"
+
+         [Footnote 24: Saint-Ruth was afterwards, in 1691, sent to
+         Ireland to take the command of the army fighting for James
+         II. against William III. There, Saint-Ruth had soldiers, many
+         of them Huguenots banished from France, to contend with; and
+         he was accordingly somewhat less successful than in Viverais,
+         where his opponents were mostly peasants and workmen, armed
+         (where armed at all) with stones picked from the roads.
+         Saint-Ruth and his garrison were driven from Athlone, where a
+         Huguenot soldier was the first to mount the breach. The army
+         of William III., though eight thousand fewer in number,
+         followed Saint-Ruth and his Irish army to the field of
+         Aughrim. His host was there drawn up in an almost impregnable
+         position--along the heights of Kilcommeden, with the Castle
+         of Aughrim on his left wing, a deep bog on his right, and
+         another bog of about two miles extending along the front, and
+         apparently completely protecting the Irish encampment.
+         Nevertheless, the English and Huguenot army under Ginckle,
+         bravely attacked it, forced the pass to the camp, and routed
+         the army of Saint-Ruth, who himself was killed by a
+         cannon-ball. The principal share of this victory was
+         attributed to the gallant conduct of the three regiments of
+         Huguenot horse, under the command of the Marquess de Ruvigny
+         (himself a banished Huguenot nobleman) who, in consequence of
+         his services, was raised to the Irish peerage, under the
+         title of Earl of Galway.]
+
+Tracking the Protestants in this way was like "a hunt in a great
+enclosure." When the soldiers found a meeting of the people going on,
+they shot them down at once, though unarmed. If they were unable to
+fly, they met death upon their knees. Antoine Court recounts meetings
+in which as many as between three and four hundred persons, old men,
+women, and children, were shot dead on the spot.
+
+De Cosmac, the bishop, was very active in the midst of these
+massacres. When he went out to convert the people, he first began by
+sending out Saint-Ruth with the dragoons. Afterwards he himself
+followed to give instructions for their "conversion," partly through
+favours, partly by money. "My efforts," he himself admitted, "were not
+always without success; yet I must avow that the fear of the dragoons,
+and of their being quartered in the houses of the heretics,
+contributed much more to their conversion than anything that I did."
+
+The same course was followed throughout the Cevennes. It would be a
+simple record of cruelty to describe in detail the military
+proceedings there: the dispersion of meetings; the hanging of persons
+found attending them; the breaking upon the wheel of the pastors
+captured, amidst horrible tortures; the destruction of dwellings and
+of the household goods which they contained. But let us take the
+single instance of Homel, formerly pastor of the church at Soyon.
+
+Homel was taken prisoner, and found guilty of preaching to his flock
+after his temple had been destroyed. For this offence he was sentenced
+to be broken to death upon the wheel. To receive this punishment he
+was conducted to Tournon, in Viverais, where the Jesuits had a
+college. He first received forty blows of the iron bar, after which he
+was left to languish with his bones broken, for forty hours, until he
+died. During his torments, he said: "I count myself happy that I can
+die in my Master's service. What! did my glorious Redeemer descend
+from heaven and suffer an ignominious death for my salvation, and
+shall I, to prolong a miserable life, deny my blessed Saviour and
+abandon his people?" While his bones were being broken on the wheel,
+he said to his wife: "Farewell, once more, my beloved spouse! Though
+you witness my bones broken to shivers, yet is my soul filled with
+inexpressible joy." After life was finally extinct, his heart was
+taken to Chalencon to be publicly exhibited, and his body was exposed
+in like manner at Beauchatel.
+
+De Noailles, the governor, when referring in one of his dispatches to
+the heroism displayed by the tortured prisoners, said: "These wretches
+go to the wheel with the firm assurance of dying martyrs, and ask no
+other favour than that of dying quickly. They request pardon of the
+soldiers, but there is not one of them that will ask pardon of the
+King."
+
+To return to Claude Brousson. After his eloquent defence of the
+Huguenots of Montauban--the result of which, of course, was that the
+church was ordered to be demolished--and the institution of processes
+for the demolition of fourteen more Protestant temples, Brousson at
+last became aware that the fury of the Catholics and the King was not
+to be satisfied until they had utterly crushed the religion which he
+served.
+
+Brousson was repeatedly offered the office of counsellor of
+Parliament, equivalent to the office of judge, if he would prove an
+apostate; but the conscience of Brousson was not one that could be
+bought. He also found that his office of defender of the doomed
+Huguenots could not be maintained without personal danger, whilst (as
+events proved) his defence was of no avail to them; and he resolved,
+with much regret, to give up his profession for a time, and retire for
+safety and rest to his native town of Nismes.
+
+He resided there, however, only about four months. Saint-Ruth and De
+Noailles were now overawing Upper Languedoc with their troops. The
+Protestants of Nismes had taken no part in "The Project;" their
+remaining temple was still open. But they got up a respectful petition
+to the King, imploring his consideration of their case. Roman
+Catholics and Protestants, they said, had so many interests in common,
+that the ruin of the one must have the effect of ruining the
+other,--the flourishing manufactures of the province, which were
+mostly followed by the Protestants, being now rapidly proceeding to
+ruin. They, therefore, implored his Majesty to grant them permission
+to prosecute their employments unmolested on account of their
+religious profession; and lastly, they conjured the King, by his
+piety, by his paternal clemency, and by every law of equity, to grant
+them freedom of religious worship.
+
+It was of no use. The hearts of the King, his clergy, and his
+ministers, were all hardened against them. A copy of the above
+petition was presented by two ministers of Nismes and several
+influential gentlemen of Lower Languedoc to the Duke de Noailles, the
+governor of the province. He treated the deputation with contempt, and
+their petition with scorn. Writing to Louvois, the King's prime
+minister, De Noailles said: "Astonished at the effrontery of these
+wretched persons, I did not hesitate to send them all prisoners to the
+Citadel of St. Esprit (in the Cevennes), telling them that if there
+had been _petites maisons_[25] enough in Languedoc I should not have
+sent them there."
+
+         [Footnote 25: The prisons of Languedoc were already crowded
+         with Protestants, and hundreds had been sent to the galleys
+         at Marseilles.]
+
+Nismes was now placed under the same ban as Vivarais, and denounced as
+"insurrectionary." To quell the pretended revolt, as well as to
+capture certain persons who were supposed to have been accessory to
+the framing of the petition, a detachment of four hundred dragoons was
+ordered into the place. One of those to be apprehended was Claude
+Brousson. Hundreds of persons knew of his abode in the city, but
+notwithstanding the public proclamation (which he himself heard from
+the window of the house where he was staying), and the reward offered
+for his apprehension, no one attempted to betray him.
+
+After remaining in the city for three days, he adopted a disguised
+dress, passed out of the Crown Gate, and in the course of a few days
+found a safe retreat in Switzerland.
+
+Peyrol and Icard, two of the Protestant ministers whom the dragoons
+were ordered to apprehend, also escaped into Switzerland, Peyrol
+settling at Lausanne, and Icard becoming the minister of a Huguenot
+church in Holland. But although the ministers had escaped, all the
+property they had left behind them was confiscated to the Crown.
+Hideous effigies of them were prepared and hung on gibbets in the
+market-place of Nismes by the public executioner, the magistrates and
+dragoons attending the sham proceeding with the usual ceremony.
+
+At Lausanne, where Claude Brousson settled for a time, he first
+attempted to occupy himself as a lawyer; but this he shortly gave up
+to devote himself to the help of the persecuted Huguenots. Like Jurieu
+and others in Holland, who flooded Europe with accounts of the hideous
+cruelties of Louis XIV. and his myrmidons the clergy and dragoons, he
+composed and published a work, addressed to the Roman Catholic party
+as well as to the Protestants of all countries, entitled, "The State
+of the Reformed Church of France." He afterwards composed a series of
+letters specially addressed to the Roman Catholic clergy of France.
+
+But expostulation was of no use. With each succeeding year the
+persecution became more bitter, until at length, in 1685, the Edict
+was revoked. In September of that year Brousson learnt that the
+Protestant church of his native city had been suppressed, and their
+temple given over to a society of female converters; that the wives
+and daughters of the Protestants who refused to abjure their faith had
+been seized and imprisoned in nunneries and religious seminaries; and
+that three hundred of their husbands and fathers were chained together
+and sent off in one day for confinement in the galleys at Marseilles.
+
+The number of Huguenots resorting to Switzerland being so great,[26]
+and they often came so destitute, that a committee was formed at
+Lausanne to assist the emigrants, and facilitate their settlement in
+the canton, or enable them to proceed elsewhere. Brousson was from the
+first an energetic member of this committee. Part of their work was to
+visit the Protestant states of the north, and find out places to which
+the emigrants might be forwarded, as well as to collect subscriptions
+for their conveyance.
+
+         [Footnote 26: Within about three weeks no fewer than
+         seventeen thousand five hundred French emigrants passed into
+         Lausanne. Two hundred Protestant ministers fled to
+         Switzerland, the greater number of whom settled in Lausanne,
+         until they could journey elsewhere.]
+
+In November 1685, a month after the Revocation, Brousson and La Porte
+set out for Berlin with this object. La Porte was one of the ministers
+of the Cevennes, who had fled before a sentence of death pronounced
+against him for having been concerned in "The Project." At Berlin they
+were received very cordially by the Elector of Brandenburg, who had
+already given great assistance to the Huguenot emigrants, and
+expressed himself as willing to do all that he could for their
+protection. Brousson and La Porte here met the Rev. David Ancillon,
+who had been for thirty-three years pastor at Metz,[27] and was now
+pastor of the Elector at Berlin; Gaultier, banished from Montpellier;
+and Abbadie, banished from Saumur--all ministers of the Huguenot
+Church there; with a large number of banished ministers and emigrant
+Protestants from all the provinces of France.
+
+         [Footnote 27: Ancillon was an eminently learned man. His
+         library was one of the choicest that had ever been collected,
+         and on his expulsion from Metz it was pillaged by the
+         Jesuits. Metz, now part of German Lorraine, was probably not
+         so ferociously dragooned as other places. Yet the inhabitants
+         were under the apprehension that the massacre of St.
+         Bartholomew was about to be repeated upon them on Christmas
+         Day, 1685, the soldiers of the garrison having been kept
+         under arms all night. The Protestant churches were all pulled
+         down, the ministers were expelled, and many of their people
+         followed them into Germany. There were numerous Protestant
+         soldiers in the Metz garrison, and the order of the King was
+         that, like the rest of his subjects, they should become
+         converted. Many of the officers resigned and entered the
+         service of William of Orange, and many of the soldiers
+         deserted. The bribe offered for the conversion of privates
+         was as follows: Common soldiers and dragoons, two pistoles
+         per head; troopers, three pistoles per head. The Protestants
+         of Alsace were differently treated. They constituted a
+         majority of the population; Alsace and Strasbourg having only
+         recently been seized by Louis XIV. It was therefore necessary
+         to be cautious in that quarter; for violence would speedily
+         have raised a revolution in the province which would have
+         driven them over to Germany, whose language they spoke.
+         Louvois could therefore only proceed by bribing; and he was
+         successful in buying over some of the most popular and
+         influential men.]
+
+The Elector suggested to Brousson that while at Berlin he should
+compose a summary account of the condition of the French Protestants,
+such as should excite the interest and evoke the help of the
+Protestant rulers and people of the northern States. This was done by
+Brousson, and the volume was published, entitled "Letters of the
+Protestants of France who have abandoned all for the cause of the
+Gospel, to other Protestants; with a particular Letter addressed to
+Protestant Kings, Electors, Rulers, and Magistrates." The Elector
+circulated this volume, accompanying it with a letter written in his
+name, to all the princes of the Continent professing the Augsburg
+Confession; and it was thus mainly owing to the Elector's intercession
+that the Huguenots obtained the privilege of establishing
+congregations in several of the states of Germany, as well as in
+Sweden and Denmark.
+
+Brousson remained nearly five months at Berlin, after which he
+departed for Holland to note the progress of the emigration in that
+country, and there he met a large number of his countrymen. Nearly two
+hundred and fifty Huguenot ministers had taken refuge in Holland;
+there were many merchants and manufacturers who had set up their
+branches of industry in the country; and there were many soldiers who
+had entered the service of William of Orange. While in Holland,
+Brousson resided principally with his brother, a banished Huguenot,
+who had settled at Amsterdam as a merchant.
+
+Having accomplished all that he could for his Huguenot brethren in
+exile, Brousson returned to Lausanne, where he continued his former
+labours. He bethought him very much of the Protestants still remaining
+in France, wandering like sheep without shepherds, deprived of
+guidance, books, and worship--the prey of ravenous wolves,--and it
+occurred to him whether the Protestant pastors had done right in
+leaving their flocks, even though by so doing they had secured the
+safety of their own lives. Accordingly, in 1686, he wrote and
+published a "Letter to the Pastors of France at present in Protestant
+States, concerning the Desolation of their own Churches, and their own
+Exile."
+
+In this letter he says:--"If, instead of retiring before your
+persecutors, you had remained in the country; if you had taken refuge
+in forests and caverns; if you had gone from place to place, risking
+your lives to instruct and rally the people, until the first shock of
+the enemy was past; and had you even courageously exposed yourselves
+to martyrdom--as in fact those have done who have endeavoured to
+perform your duties in your absence--perhaps the examples of
+constancy, or zeal, or of piety you had discovered, might have
+animated your flocks, revived their courage, and arrested the fury of
+your enemies." He accordingly exhorted the Protestant ministers who
+had left France to return to their flocks at all hazards.
+
+This advice, if acted on, was virtually condemning the pastors to
+death. Brousson was not a pastor. Would _he_ like to return to France
+at the daily risk of the rack and the gibbet? The Protestant ministers
+in exile defended themselves. Benoit, then residing in Germany,
+replied in a "History and Apology for the Retreat of the Pastors."
+Another, who did not give his name, treated Brousson's censure as that
+of a fanatic, who meddled with matters beyond his vocation. "You who
+condemn the pastors for not returning to France at the risk of their
+lives," said he, "_why do you not first return to France yourself?_"
+
+Brousson was as brave as his words. He was not a pastor, but he might
+return to the deserted flocks, and encourage and comfort them. He
+could no longer be happy in his exile at Lausanne. He heard by night
+the groans of the prisoners in the Tower of Constance, and the noise
+of the chains borne by the galley slaves at Toulon and Marseilles. He
+reproached himself as if it were a crime with the repose which he
+enjoyed. Life became insupportable to him and he fell ill. His health
+was even despaired of; but one day he suddenly rose up and said to his
+wife, "I must set out; I will go to console, to relieve, to strengthen
+my brethren, groaning under their oppressions."
+
+His wife threw herself at his feet. "Thou wouldst go to certain
+death," she said; "think of me and thy little children." She implored
+him again and again to remain. He loved his wife and children, but he
+thought a higher duty called him away from them. When his friends told
+him that he would be taken prisoner and hung, he said, "When God
+permits his servants to die for the Gospel, they preach louder from
+the grave than they did during life." He remained unshaken. He would
+go to the help of the oppressed with the love of a brother, the faith
+of an apostle, and the courage of a martyr.
+
+Brousson knew the danger of the office he was about to undertake.
+There had, as we have seen, been numerous attempts made to gather the
+Protestant people together, and to administer consolation to them by
+public prayers and preaching. The persons who conducted these services
+were not regular pastors, but only private members of their former
+churches. Some of them were very young men, and they were nearly all
+uneducated as regards clerical instruction. One of the most successful
+was Isaac Vidal, a lame young man, a mechanic of Colognac, near St.
+Hypolite, in the Cevennes. His self-imposed ministrations were
+attended by large numbers of people. He preached for only six months
+and then died--a natural death, for nearly all who followed him were
+first tortured and then hung.
+
+We have already referred to Fulcran Rey, who preached for about nine
+months, and was then executed. In the same year were executed
+Meyrueis, by trade a wool-carder, and Rocher, who had been a reader in
+one of the Protestant churches. Emanuel Dalgues, a respectable
+inhabitant of Salle, in the Cevennes, also received the crown of
+martyrdom. Ever since the Revocation of the Edict, he had proclaimed
+the Gospel o'er hill and dale, in woods and caverns, to assemblies of
+the people wherever he could collect them. He was executed in 1687.
+Three other persons--Gransille, Mercier, and Esclopier--who devoted
+themselves to preaching, were transported as slaves to America; and
+David Mazel, a boy twelve years of age, who had a wonderful memory,
+and preached sermons which he had learned by heart, was transported,
+with his father and other frequenters of the assemblies, to the
+Carribee Islands.
+
+At length Brousson collected about him a number of Huguenots willing
+to return with him into France, in order to collect the Protestant
+people together again, to pray with them, and even to preach to them
+if the opportunity occurred. Brousson's companions were these: Francis
+Vivens, formerly a schoolmaster in the Cevennes; Anthony Bertezene, a
+carpenter, brother of a preacher who had recently been condemned to
+death; and seven other persons named Papus, La Pierre, Serein,
+Dombres, Poutant, Boisson, and M. de Bruc, an aged minister, who had
+been formerly pastor of one of the churches in the Cevennes. They
+prepared to enter France in four distinct companies, in the month of
+July, 1689.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+CLAUDE BROUSSON, PASTOR AND MARTYR.
+
+
+Brousson left Lausanne on the 22nd of July, accompanied by his dear
+friend, the Rev. M. de Bruc. The other members of the party had
+preceded them, crossing the frontier at different places. They all
+arrived in safety at their destination, which was in the mountain
+district of the Cevennes. They resorted to the neighbourhood of the
+Aigoual, the centre of a very inaccessible region--wild, cold, but
+full of recesses for hiding and worship. It was also a district
+surrounded by villages, the inhabitants of which were for the most
+part Protestant.
+
+The party soon became diminished in number. The old pastor, De Bruc,
+found himself unequal to the fatigue and privations attending the
+work. He was ill and unable to travel, and was accordingly advised by
+his companions to quit the service and withdraw from the country.
+
+Persecution also destroyed some of them. When it became known that
+assemblies for religious observances were again on foot, an increased
+force of soldiers was sent into the district, and a high price was set
+on the heads of all the preachers that could be apprehended. The
+soldiers scoured the country, and, helped by the paid spies, they
+shortly succeeded in apprehending Boisson and Dombres, at St. Paul's,
+north of Anduze, in the Cevennes. They were both executed at Nismes,
+being first subjected to torture on the rack, by which their limbs
+were entirely dislocated. They were then conveyed to the place of
+execution, praying and singing psalms on the way, and finished their
+course with courage and joy.
+
+When Brousson first went into the Cevennes, he did not undertake to
+preach to the people. He was too modest to assume the position of a
+pastor; he merely undertook, as occasion required, to read the
+Scriptures in Protestant families and in small companies, making his
+remarks and exhortations thereupon. He also transcribed portions of
+his own meditations on the Scriptures, and gave them away for
+distribution from hand to hand amongst the people.
+
+When it was found that his instructions were much appreciated, and
+that numbers of people assembled to hear him read and exhort, he was
+strongly urged to undertake the office of public instructor amongst
+them, especially as their ministers were being constantly diminished
+by execution.
+
+He had been about five months in the Cevennes, and was detained by a
+fall of snow on one of the mountains, where his abode was a sheepcote,
+when the proposal that he should become a preacher was first made to
+him. Vivens was one of those who most strongly supported the appeal
+made to Brousson. He spent many hours in private prayer, seeking the
+approval of God for the course he was about to undertake. Vivens also
+prayed in the several assemblies that Brousson might be confirmed, and
+that God would be pleased to pour upon him his Holy Spirit, and
+strengthen him so that he might become a faithful and successful
+labourer in this great calling.
+
+Brousson at length consented, believing that duty and conscience alike
+called upon him to give the best of his help to the oppressed and
+persecuted Protestants of the mountains. "Brethren," he said to them,
+when they called upon him to administer to them the Holy Sacrament of
+the Eucharist--"Brethren, I look above you, and hear the most High God
+calling me through your mouths to this most responsible and sacred
+office; and I dare not be disobedient to his heavenly call. By the
+grace of God I will comply with your pious desires; dedicate and
+devote myself to the work of the ministry, and spend the remainder of
+my life in unwearied pains and endeavours for promoting God's glory,
+and the consolation of precious souls."
+
+Brousson received his call to the ministry in the Cevennes amidst the
+sound of musketry and grapeshot which spread death among the ranks of
+his brethren. He was continuously tracked by the spies of the Jesuits,
+who sought his apprehension and death; and he was hunted from place to
+place by the troops of the King, who followed him in his wanderings
+into the most wild and inaccessible places.
+
+The perilous character of his new profession was exhibited only a few
+days after his ordination, by the apprehension of Olivier Souverain at
+St. Jean de Gardonenque, for preaching the Gospel to the assemblies.
+He was at once conducted to Montpellier and executed on the 15th of
+January, 1690.
+
+During the same year, Dumas, another preacher in the Cevennes, was
+apprehended and fastened by the troopers across a horse in order to be
+carried to Montpellier. His bowels were so injured and his body so
+crushed by this horrible method of conveyance, that Dumas died before
+he was half way to the customary place of martyrdom.
+
+Then followed the execution of David Quoite, a wandering and hunted
+pastor in the Cevennes for several years. He was broken on the wheel
+at Montpellier, and then hanged. "The punishment," said Louvreleuil,
+his tormentor, "which broke his bones, did not break his hardened
+heart: he died in his heresy." After Quoite, M. Bonnemere, a native of
+the same city, was also tortured and executed in like manner on the
+Peyrou.
+
+All these persons were taken, executed, destroyed, or imprisoned,
+during the first year that Brousson commenced his perilous ministry in
+the Cevennes.
+
+About the same time three women, who had gone about instructing the
+families of the destitute Protestants, reading the Scriptures and
+praying with them, were apprehended by Baville, the King's intendant,
+and punished. Isabeau Redothiere, eighteen years of age, and Marie
+Lintarde, about a year younger, both the daughters of peasants, were
+taken before Baville at Nismes.
+
+"What! are you one of the preachers, forsooth?" said he to Redothiere.
+"Sir," she replied, "I have exhorted my brethren to be mindful of
+their duty towards God, and when occasion offered, I have sought God
+in prayer for them; and, if your lordship calls that preaching, I have
+been a preacher." "But," said the Intendant, "you know that the King
+has forbidden this." "Yes, my lord," she replied, "I know it very
+well, but the King of kings, the God of heaven and earth, He hath
+commanded it." "You deserve death," replied Baville.
+
+But the Intendant awarded her a severer fate. She was condemned to be
+imprisoned for life in the Tower of Constance, a place echoing with
+the groans of women, most of whom were in chains, perpetually
+imprisoned there for worshipping God according to conscience.
+
+Lintarde was in like manner condemned to imprisonment for life in the
+castle of Sommieres, and it is believed she died there. Nothing,
+however, is known of the time when she died. When a woman was taken
+and imprisoned in one of the King's torture-houses, she was given up
+by her friends as lost.
+
+A third woman, taken at the same time, was more mercifully dealt with.
+Anne Montjoye was found assisting at one of the secret assemblies. She
+was solicited in vain to abjure her faith, and being condemned to
+death, was publicly executed.
+
+Shortly after his ordination, Brousson descended from the Upper
+Cevennes, where the hunt for Protestants was becoming very hot, into
+the adjacent valleys and plains. There it was necessary for him to be
+exceedingly cautious. The number of dragoons in Languedoc had been
+increased so as to enable them regularly to patrol the entire
+province, and a price had been set upon Brousson's head, which was
+calculated to quicken their search for the flying pastor.
+
+Brousson was usually kept informed by his Huguenot friends of the
+direction taken by the dragoons in their patrols, and hasty assemblies
+were summoned in their absence. The meetings were held in some secret
+place--some cavern or recess in the rocks. Often they were held at
+night, when a few lanterns were hung on the adjacent trees to give
+light. Sentinels were set in the neighbourhood, and all the adjoining
+roads were watched. After the meeting was over the assemblage
+dispersed in different directions, and Brousson immediately left for
+another district, travelling mostly by night, so as to avoid
+detection. In this manner he usually presided at three or four
+assemblies each week, besides two on the Sabbath day--one early in the
+morning and another at night.
+
+At one of his meetings, held at Boucoiran on the Gardon, about half
+way between Nismes and Anduze, a Protestant nobleman--a _nouveau
+convertis_, who had abjured his religion to retain his estates--was
+present, and stood near the preacher during the service. One of the
+Government spies was present, and gave information. The name of the
+Protestant nobleman was not known. But the Intendant, to strike terror
+into others, seized six of the principal landed proprietors in the
+neighbourhood--though some of them had never attended any of the
+assemblies since the Revocation--and sent two of them to the galleys,
+and the four others to imprisonment for life at Lyons, besides
+confiscating the estates of the whole to the Crown.
+
+Brousson now felt that he was bringing his friends into very great
+trouble, and, out of consideration for them, he began to think of
+again leaving France. The dragoons were practising much cruelty on the
+Protestant population, being quartered in their houses, and at liberty
+to plunder and extort money to any extent. They were also incessantly
+on the look out for the assemblies, being often led by mounted priests
+and spies to places where they had been informed that meetings were
+about to be held. Their principal object, besides hanging the persons
+found attending, was to seize the preachers, more especially Brousson
+and Vivens, believing that the country would be more effectually
+"converted," provided they could be seized and got out of the way.
+
+Brousson, knowing that he might be seized and taken prisoner at any
+moment, had long considered whether he ought to resist the attempts
+made to capture him. He had at first carried a sword, but at length
+ceased to wear it, being resolved entirely to cast himself on
+Providence; and he also instructed all who resorted to his meetings to
+come to them unarmed.
+
+In this respect Brousson differed from Vivens, who thought it right to
+resist force by force; and in the event of any attempt being made to
+capture him, he considered it expedient to be constantly provided with
+arms. Yet he had only once occasion to use them, and it was the first
+and last time. The reward of ten thousand livres being now offered for
+the apprehension of Brousson and Vivens, or five thousand for either,
+an active search was made throughout the province. At length the
+Government found themselves on the track of Vivens. One of his known
+followers, Valderon, having been apprehended and put upon the rack,
+was driven by torture to reveal his place of concealment. A party of
+soldiers went in pursuit, and found Vivens with three other persons,
+concealed in a cave in the neighbourhood of Alais.
+
+Vivens was engaged in prayer when the soldiers came upon him. His hand
+was on his gun in a moment. When asked to surrender he replied with a
+shot, not knowing the number of his opponents. He followed up with two
+other shots, killing a man each time, and then exposing himself, he
+was struck by a volley, and fell dead. The three other persons in the
+cave being in a position to hold the soldiers at defiance for some
+time, were promised their lives if they would surrender. They did so,
+and with the utter want of truth, loyalty, and manliness that
+characterized the persecutors, the promise was belied, and the three
+prisoners were hanged, a few days after, at Alais. Vivens' body was
+taken to the same place. The Intendant sat in judgment upon it, and
+condemned it to be drawn through the streets upon a hurdle and then
+burnt to ashes.
+
+Brousson was becoming exhausted by the fatigues and privations he had
+encountered during his two years' wanderings and preachings in the
+Cevennes; and he not only desired to give the people a relaxation from
+their persecution, but to give himself some absolutely necessary rest.
+He accordingly proceeded to Nismes, his birthplace, where many people
+knew him; and where, if they betrayed him, they might easily have
+earned five thousand livres. But so much faith was kept by the
+Protestants amongst one another, that Brousson felt that his life was
+quite as safe amongst his townspeople as it had been during the last
+two years amongst the mountaineers of the Cevennes.
+
+It soon became known to the priests, and then to the Intendant, that
+Brousson was resident in concealment at Nismes; and great efforts were
+accordingly made for his apprehension. During the search, a letter of
+Brousson's was found in the possession of M. Guion, an aged minister,
+who had returned from Switzerland to resume his ministry, according as
+he might find it practicable. The result of this discovery was, that
+Guion was apprehended, taken before the Intendant, condemned to be
+executed, and sent to Montpellier, where he gave up his life at
+seventy years old--the drums beating, as usual, that nobody might hear
+his last words. The house in which Guion had been taken at Nismes was
+ordered to be razed to the ground, in punishment of the owner who had
+given him shelter.
+
+After spending about a month at Nismes, Brousson was urged by his
+friends to quit the city. He accordingly succeeded in passing through
+the gates, and went to resume his former work. His first assembly was
+held in a commodious place on the Gardon, between Valence, Brignon,
+and St. Maurice, about ten miles distant from Nismes. Although he had
+requested that only the Protestants in the immediate neighbourhood
+should attend the meeting, so as not to excite the apprehensions of
+the authorities, yet a multitude of persons came from Uzes and Nismes,
+augmented by accessions from upwards of thirty villages. The service
+was commenced about ten o'clock, and was not completed until midnight.
+
+The concourse of persons from all quarters had been so great that the
+soldiers could not fail to be informed of it. Accordingly they rode
+towards the place of assemblage late at night, but they did not arrive
+until the meeting had been dissolved. One troop of soldiers took
+ambush in a wood through which the worshippers would return on their
+way back to Uzes. The command had been given to "draw blood from the
+conventicles." On the approach of the people the soldiers fired, and
+killed and wounded several. About forty others wore taken prisoners.
+The men were sent to the galleys for life, and the women were thrown
+into gaol at Carcassone--the Tower of Constance being then too full of
+prisoners.
+
+After this event, the Government became more anxious in their desire
+to capture Brousson. They published far and wide their renewed offer
+of reward for his apprehension. They sent six fresh companies of
+soldiers specially to track him, and examine the woods and search the
+caves between Uzes and Alais. But Brousson's friends took care to
+advise him of the approach of danger, and he sped away to take shelter
+in another quarter. The soldiers were, however, close upon his heels;
+and one morning, in attempting to enter a village for the purpose of
+drying himself--having been exposed to the winter's rain and cold all
+night--he suddenly came upon a detachment of soldiers! He avoided them
+by taking shelter in a thicket, and while there, he observed another
+detachment pass in file, close to where he was concealed. The soldiers
+were divided into four parties, and sent out to search in different
+directions, one of them proceeding to search every house in the
+village into which Brousson had just been about to enter.
+
+The next assembly was held at Sommieres, about eight miles west of
+Nismes. The soldiers were too late to disperse the meeting, but they
+watched some of the people on their return. One of these, an old
+woman, who had been observed to leave the place, was shot on entering
+her cottage; and the soldier, observing that she was attempting to
+rise, raised the butt end of his gun and brained her on the spot.
+
+The hunted pastors of the Cevennes were falling off one by one.
+Bernard Saint Paul, a young man, who had for some time exercised the
+office of preacher, was executed in 1692. One of the brothers Du Plans
+was executed in the same year, having been offered his life if he
+would conform to the Catholic religion. In the following year Paul
+Colognac was executed, after being broken to death on the wheel at
+Masselargais, near to which he had held his last assembly. His arms,
+thighs, legs, and feet were severally broken with the iron bar some
+hours before the _coup de grace_, or deathblow, was inflicted.
+Colognac endured his sufferings with heroic fortitude. He was only
+twenty-four. He had commenced to preach at twenty, and laboured at the
+work for only four years.
+
+Brousson's health was fast giving way. Every place that he frequented
+was closely watched, so that he had often to spend the night under the
+hollow of a rock, or under the shelter of a wood, exposed to rain and
+snow,--and sometimes he had even to contend with a wolf for the
+shelter of a cave. Often he was almost perishing for want of food; and
+often he found himself nearly ready to die for want of rest. And yet,
+even in the midst of his greatest perils, his constant thought was of
+the people committed to him, and for whose eternal happiness he
+continued to work.
+
+As he could not visit all who wished to hear him, he wrote out sermons
+that might be read to them. His friend Henry Poutant, one of those who
+originally accompanied him from Switzerland and had not yet been taken
+prisoner by the soldiers, went about holding meetings for prayer, and
+reading to the people the sermons prepared for them by Brousson.
+
+For the purpose of writing out his sermons, Brousson carried about
+with him a small board, which he called his "Wilderness Table." With
+this placed upon his knees, he wrote the sermons, for the most part in
+woods and caves. He copied out seventeen of these sermons, which he
+sent to Louis XIV., to show him that what "he preached in the deserts
+contained nothing but the pure word of God, and that he only exhorted
+the people to obey God and to give glory to Him."
+
+The sermons were afterwards published at Amsterdam, in 1695, under
+the title of "The Mystic Manna of the Desert." One would have expected
+that, under the bitter persecutions which Brousson had suffered during
+so many years, they would have been full of denunciation; on the
+contrary, they were only full of love. His words were only burning
+when he censured his hearers for not remaining faithful to their
+Church and to their God.
+
+At length, the fury of Brousson's enemies so increased, and his health
+was so much impaired, that he again thought of leaving France. His
+lungs were so much injured by constant exposure to cold, and his voice
+had become so much impaired, that he could not preach. He also heard
+that his family, whom he had left at Lausanne, required his
+assistance. His only son was growing up, and needed education. Perhaps
+Brousson had too long neglected those of his own household; though he
+had every confidence in the prudence and thoughtfulness of his wife.
+
+Accordingly, about the end of 1693, Brousson made arrangements for
+leaving the Cevennes. He set out in the beginning of December, and
+arrived at Lausanne about a fortnight later, having been engaged on
+his extraordinary mission of duty and peril for four years and five
+months. He was received like one rescued from the dead. His health was
+so injured, that his wife could scarcely recognise her husband in that
+wan, wasted, and weatherbeaten creature who stood before her. In fact,
+he was a perfect wreck.
+
+He remained about fifteen months in Switzerland, during which he
+preached in the Huguenots' church; wrote out many of his pastoral
+letters and sermons; and, when his health had become restored, he
+again proceeded on his travels into foreign countries. He first went
+into Holland. He had scarcely arrived there, when intelligence reached
+him from Montpellier of the execution, after barbarous torments, of
+his friend Papus,--one of those who had accompanied him into the
+Cevennes to preach the Gospel some six years before. There were now
+very few of the original company left.
+
+On hearing of the martyrdom of Papus, Brousson, in a pastoral letter
+which he addressed to his followers, said: "He must have died some
+day; and as he could not have prolonged his life beyond the term
+appointed, how could his end have been more happy and more glorious?
+His constancy, his sweetness of temper, his patience, his humility,
+his faith, his hope, and his piety, affected even his judges and the
+false pastors who endeavoured to seduce him, as also the soldiers and
+all that witnessed his execution. He could not have preached better
+than he did by his martyrdom; and I doubt not that his death, will
+produce abundance of fruit."
+
+While in Holland, Brousson took the opportunity of having his sermons
+and many of his pastoral letters printed at Amsterdam; after which he
+proceeded to make a visit to his banished Huguenot friends in England.
+He also wished to ascertain from personal inquiry the advisability of
+forwarding an increased number of French emigrants--then resident in
+Switzerland--for settlement in this country. In London, he met many of
+his friends from the South of France--for there were settled there as
+ministers, Graverol of Nismes, Satur of Montauban, four ministers from
+Montpellier for whom he had pleaded in the courts at Toulouse--the two
+Dubourdieus and the two Berthaus--fathers and sons. There were also La
+Coux from Castres, De Joux from Lyons, Roussillon from Montredon,
+Mestayer from St. Quentin, all settled in London as ministers of
+Huguenot churches.
+
+After staying in England for only about a month, Brousson was suddenly
+recalled to Holland to assume the office to which he was appointed
+without solicitation, of preacher to the Walloon church at the Hague.
+Though his office was easy--for he had several colleagues to assist
+him in the duties--and the salary was abundant for his purposes, while
+he was living in the society of his wife and family--Brousson
+nevertheless very soon began to be ill at ease. He still thought of
+the abandoned Huguenots "in the Desert"; without teachers, without
+pastors, without spiritual help of any kind. When he had undertaken
+the work of the ministry, he had vowed that he would devote his time
+and talents to the support and help of the afflicted Church; and now
+he was living at ease in a foreign country, far removed from those to
+whom he considered his services belonged. These thoughts were
+constantly recurring and pressing upon his mind; and at length he
+ceased to have any rest or satisfaction in his new position.
+
+Accordingly, after only about four months' connection with the Church
+at the Hague, Brousson decided to relinquish the charge, and to devote
+himself to the service of the oppressed and afflicted members of his
+native Church in France. The Dutch Government, however, having been
+informed of his perilous and self-sacrificing intention, agreed to
+continue his salary as a pastor of the Walloon Church, and to pay it
+to his wife, who henceforth abode at the Hague.
+
+Brousson determined to enter France from the north, and to visit
+districts that were entirely new to him. For this purpose he put
+himself in charge of a guide. At that time, while the Protestants
+were flying from France, as they continued to do for many years, there
+were numerous persons who acted as guides for those not only flying
+from, but entering the country. Those who guided Protestant pastors on
+their concealed visits to France, were men of great zeal and
+courage--known to be faithful and self-denying--and thoroughly
+acquainted with the country. They knew all the woods, and fords, and
+caves, and places of natural shelter along the route. They made the
+itinerary of the mountains and precipices, of the byways and deserts,
+their study. They also knew of the dwellings of the faithful in the
+towns and villages where Huguenots might find relief and shelter for
+the night. They studied the disguises to be assumed, and were prepared
+with a stock of phrases and answers adapted for every class of
+inquiries.
+
+The guide employed by Brousson was one James Bruman--an old Huguenot
+merchant, banished at the Revocation, and now employed in escorting
+Huguenot preachers back to France, and escorting flying Huguenot men,
+women, and children from it.[28] The pastor and his guide started
+about the end of August, 1695. They proceeded by way of Liege; and
+travelling south, they crossed the forest of Ardennes, and entered
+France near Sedan.
+
+         [Footnote 28: Many of these extraordinary escapes are given
+         in the author's "Huguenots: their Settlements, Churches, and
+         Industries, in England and Ireland."]
+
+Sedan, recently the scene of one of the greatest calamities that has
+ever befallen France, was, about two centuries ago, a very prosperous
+place. It was the seat of a great amount of Protestant learning and
+Protestant industry. One of the four principal Huguenot academies of
+France was situated in that town. It was suppressed in 1681, shortly
+before the Revocation, and its professors, Bayle, Abbadie, Basnage,
+Brazy, and Jurieu, expelled the country. The academy buildings
+themselves had been given over to the Jesuits--the sworn enemies of
+the Huguenots.
+
+At the same time, Sedan had been the seat of great woollen
+manufactures, originally founded by Flemish Protestant families, and
+for the manufacture of arms, implements of husbandry, and all kinds of
+steel and iron articles.[29] At the Revocation, the Protestants packed
+up their tools and property, suddenly escaped across the frontier,
+near which they were, and went and established themselves in the Low
+Countries, where they might pursue their industries in safety. Sedan
+was ruined, and remained so until our own day, when it has begun to
+experience a little prosperity from the tourists desirous of seeing
+the place where the great French Army surrendered.
+
+         [Footnote 29: There were from eighty to ninety establishments
+         for the manufacture of broadcloth in Sedan, giving employment
+         to more than two thousand persons. These, together with the
+         iron and steel manufactures, were entirely ruined at the
+         Revocation, when the whole of the Protestant mechanics went
+         into exile, and settled for the most part in Holland and
+         England.]
+
+When Brousson visited the place, the remaining Protestants resided
+chiefly in the suburban villages of Givonne and Daigny. He visited
+them in their families, and also held several private meetings, after
+which he was induced to preach in a secluded place near Sedan at
+night.
+
+This assembly, however, was reported to the authorities, who
+immediately proceeded to make search for the heretic preacher. A party
+of soldiers, informed by the spies, next morning invested the house in
+which Brousson slept. They first apprehended Bruman, the guide, and
+thought that in him they had secured the pastor. They next rummaged
+the house, in order to find the preacher's books. But Brousson,
+hearing them coming in, hid himself behind the door, which, being
+small, hardly concealed his person.
+
+After setting a guard all round the house, ransacking every room in
+it, and turning everything upside down, they left it; but two of the
+children, seeing Brousson's feet under the door, one of them ran after
+the officer of the party, and exclaimed to him, pointing back, "Here,
+sir, here!" But the officer, not understanding what the child meant,
+went away with his soldiers, and Brousson's life was, for the time,
+saved.
+
+The same evening, Brousson changed his disguise to that of a
+wool-comber, and carrying a parcel on his shoulder, he set out on the
+same evening with another guide. He visited many places in which
+Protestants were to be found--in Champagne, Picardy, Normandy,
+Nevernois, and Burgundy. He also visited several of his friends in the
+neighbourhood of Paris.
+
+We have not many details of his perils and experiences during his
+journey. But the following passage is extracted from a letter
+addressed by him to a friend in Holland: "I assure you that in every
+place through which I passed, I witnessed the poor people truly
+repenting their fault (_i.e._ of having gone to Mass), weeping day and
+night, and imploring the grace and consolations of the Gospel in their
+distress. Their persecutors daily oppress them, and burden them with
+taxes and imposts; but the more discerning of the Roman Catholics
+acknowledge that the cruelties and injustice done towards so many
+innocent persons, draw down misery and distress upon the kingdom. And
+truly it is to be apprehended that God will abandon its inhabitants to
+their wickedness, that he may afterwards pour down his most terrible
+judgments upon that ungrateful and vaunting country, which has
+rejected his truth and despised the day of visitation."
+
+During the twelve months that Brousson was occupied with his perilous
+journey through France, two more of his friends in the Cevennes
+suffered martyrdom--La Porte on the 7th of February, 1696, and Henri
+Guerin on the 22nd of June following. Both were broken alive on the
+wheel before receiving the _coup de grace_.
+
+Towards the close of the year, Brousson arrived at Basle, from whence
+he proceeded to visit his friends throughout the cantons of
+Switzerland, and then he returned to Holland by way of the Rhine, to
+rejoin his family at the Hague.
+
+At that time, the representatives of the Allies were meeting at
+Ryswick the representatives of Louis XIV., who was desirous of peace.
+Brousson and the French refugee ministers resident in Holland
+endeavoured to bring the persecutions of the French Protestants under
+the notice of the Conference. But Louis XIV. would not brook this
+interference. He proposed going on dealing with the heretics in his
+own way. "I do not pretend," he said, "to prescribe to William III.
+rules about his subjects, and I expect the same liberty as to my own."
+
+Finding it impossible to obtain redress for his fellow-countrymen
+under the treaty of Ryswick, which was shortly after concluded,
+Brousson at length prepared to make his third journey into France in
+the month of August 1697. He set out greatly to the regret of his
+wife, who feared it might be his last journey, as indeed it proved to
+be. In a letter which he wrote to console her, from some remote place
+where he was snowed up about the middle of the following December, he
+said: "I cannot at present enter into the details of the work the
+Lord has given me grace to labour in; but it is the source of much
+consolation to a large number of his poor people. It will be expedient
+that you do not mention where I am, lest I should be traced. It may be
+that I cannot for some time write to you; but I walk under the conduct
+of my God, and I repeat that I would not for millions of money that
+the Lord should refuse me the grace which renders it imperative for me
+to labour as I now do in His work."[30]
+
+         [Footnote 30: The following was the portraiture of Brousson,
+         issued to the spies and police: "Brousson is of middle
+         stature, and rather spare, aged forty to forty-two, nose
+         large, complexion dark, hair black, hands well formed."]
+
+When the snow had melted sufficiently to enable Brousson to escape
+from the district of Dauphiny, near the High Alps, where he had been
+concealed, he made his way across the country to the Viverais, where
+he laboured for some time. Here he heard of the martyrdom of the third
+of the brothers Du Plans, broken on the wheel and executed like the
+others on the Peyrou at Montpellier.
+
+During the next nine months, Brousson laboured in the north-eastern
+provinces of Languedoc (more particularly in the Cevennes and
+Viverais), Orange, and Dauphiny. He excited so much interest amongst
+the Protestants, who resorted from a great distance to attend his
+assemblies, that the spies (who were usually pretended Protestants)
+soon knew of his presence in the neighbourhood, and information was at
+once forwarded to the Intendant or his officers.
+
+Persecution was growing very bitter about this time. By orders of the
+bishops the Protestants were led by force to Mass before the dragoons
+with drawn swords, and the shops of merchants who refused to go to
+Mass regularly were ordered to be closed. Their houses were also
+filled with soldiers. "The soldiers or militia," said Brousson to a
+friend in Holland, "frequently commit horrible ravages, breaking open
+the cabinets, removing every article that is saleable, which are often
+purchased by the priests at insignificant prices; the rest they burn
+and break up, after which the soldiers are removed; and when the
+sufferers think themselves restored to peace, fresh billets are
+ordered upon them. Many are consequently induced to go to Mass with
+weeping and lamentation, but a great number remain inflexible, and
+others fly the kingdom."
+
+When it became known that Brousson, in the course of his journeyings,
+had arrived, about the end of August, 1698, in the neighbourhood of
+Nismes, Baville was greatly mortified; and he at once offered a reward
+of six hundred louis d'or for his head. Brousson nevertheless entered
+Nismes, and found refuge amongst his friends. He had, however, the
+imprudence to post there a petition to the King, signed by his own
+hand, which had the effect of at once setting the spies upon his
+track. Leaving the city itself, he took refuge in a house not far from
+it, whither the spies contrived to trace him, and gave the requisite
+information to the Intendant. The house was soon after surrounded by
+soldiers, and was itself entered and completely searched.
+
+Brousson's host had only had time to make him descend into a well,
+which had a niche in the bottom in which he could conceal himself. The
+soldiers looked down the well a dozen times, but could see nothing.
+Brousson was not in the house; he was not in the chimneys; he was not
+in the outhouses. He _must_ be in the well! A soldier went down the
+well to make a personal examination. He was let down close to the
+surface of the water, and felt all about. There was nothing! Feeling
+awfully cold, and wishing to be taken out, he called to his friends,
+"There is nothing here, pull me up." He was pulled up accordingly, and
+Brousson was again saved.
+
+The country about Nismes being beset with spies to track the
+Protestants and prevent their meetings, Brousson determined to go
+westward and visit the scattered people in Rouerge, Pays de Foix, and
+Bigorre, proceeding as far as Bearn, where a remnant of Huguenots
+still lingered, notwithstanding the repeated dragooning to which the
+district had been subjected. It was at Oberon that he fell into the
+hands of a spy, who bore the same name as a Protestant friend to whom
+his letter was addressed. Information was given to the authorities,
+and Brousson was arrested. He made no resistance, and answered at once
+to his name.
+
+When the Judas who had betrayed him went to M. Penon, the intendant of
+the province, to demand the reward set upon Brousson's head, the
+Intendant replied with indignation, "Wretch! don't you blush to look
+upon the man in whose blood you traffic? Begone! I cannot bear your
+presence!"
+
+Brousson was sent to Pau, where he was imprisoned in the castle of
+Foix, at one time the centre of the Reformation movement in the South
+of France--where Calvin had preached, where Jeanne d'Albret had lived,
+and where Henry IV. had been born.
+
+From Pau, Brousson was sent to Montpellier, escorted by dragoons. At
+Toulouse the party took passage by the canal of Languedoc, which had
+then been shortly open. At Somail, during the night, Brousson saw that
+all the soldiers were asleep. He had but to step on shore to regain
+his liberty; but he had promised to the Intendant of Bearn, who had
+allowed him to go unfettered, that he would not attempt to escape. At
+Agade there was a detachment of a hundred soldiers, ready to convey
+the prisoner to Baville, Intendant of Languedoc. He was imprisoned in
+the citadel of Montpellier, on the 30th October, 1698.
+
+Baville, who knew much of the character of Brousson--his peacefulness,
+his piety, his self-sacrifice, and his noble magnanimity--is said to
+have observed on one occasion, "I would not for a world have to judge
+that man." And yet the time had now arrived when Brousson was to be
+judged and condemned by Baville and the Presidial Court. The trial was
+a farce, because it had been predetermined that Brousson should die.
+He was charged with preaching in France contrary to the King's
+prohibition. This he admitted; but when asked to whom he had
+administered the Sacrament, he positively refused to disclose, because
+he was neither a traitor nor informer to accuse his brethren. He was
+also charged with having conspired to introduce a foreign army into
+France under the command of Marshal Schomberg. This he declared to be
+absolutely false, for he had throughout his career been a man of
+peace, and sought to bring back Christ's followers by peaceful means
+only.
+
+His defence was of no avail. He was condemned to be racked, then to be
+broken on the wheel, and afterwards to be executed. He received the
+sentence without a shudder. He was tied on the rack, but when he
+refused to accuse his brethren he was released from it. Attempts were
+made by several priests and friars to add him to the number of "new
+converts," but these were altogether fruitless. All that remained was
+to execute him finally on the public place of execution--the Peyrou.
+
+The Peyrou is the pride of modern Montpellier. It is the favourite
+promenade of the place, and is one of the finest in Europe. It
+consists of a broad platform elevated high above the rest of the town,
+and commanding extensive views of the surrounding country. In clear
+weather, Mont Ventoux, one of the Alpine summits, may be seen across
+the broad valley of the Rhone on the east, and the peak of Mont
+Canizou in the Pyrenees on the west. Northward stretches the mountain
+range of the Cevennes, the bold Pic de Saint-Loup the advanced
+sentinel of the group; while in the south the prospect is bounded by
+the blue line of the Mediterranean.
+
+The Peyrou is now pleasantly laid out in terraced walks and shady
+groves, with gay parterres of flowers--the upper platform being
+surrounded with a handsome stone balustrade. An equestrian statue of
+Louis XIV. occupies the centre of the area; and a triumphal arch
+stands at the entrance to the promenade, erected to commemorate the
+"glories" of the same monarch, more particularly the Revocation by him
+of the Edict of Nantes--one of the entablatures of the arch displaying
+a hideous figure, intended to represent a Huguenot, lying trampled
+under foot of the "Most Christian King."
+
+The Peyrou was thus laid out and ornamented in the reign of his
+successor, Louis XV., "the Well-beloved," during which the same policy
+for which Louis XIV. was here glorified by an equestrian statue and a
+triumphal arch continued to be persevered in--of imprisoning,
+banishing, hanging, or sending to the galleys such of the citizens of
+France as were not of "the King's religion."
+
+But during the reign of Louis XIV. himself, the Peyrou was anything
+but a pleasure-ground. It was the infamous place of the city--the
+_place de Greve_--a desert, barren, blasted table-land, where
+sometimes half-a-dozen decaying corpses might be seen swinging from
+the gibbets on which they had been hung. It was specially reserved,
+because of its infamy, for the execution of heretics against Rome; and
+here, accordingly, hundreds of Huguenot martyrs--whom power, honour,
+and wealth failed to bribe or to convert--were called upon to seal
+their faith with their blood.
+
+Brousson was executed at this place on the 4th of November, 1698. It
+was towards evening, while the sun was slowly sinking behind the
+western mountains, that an immense multitude assembled on the Peyrou
+to witness the martyrdom of the devoted pastor. Not fewer than twenty
+thousand persons were there, including the principal nobility of the
+city and province, besides many inhabitants of the adjoining mountain
+district of the Cevennes, some of whom had come from a great distance
+to be present. In the centre of the plateau, near where the equestrian
+statue of the great King now stands, was a scaffold, strongly
+surrounded by troops to keep off the crowd. Two battalions, drawn up
+in two lines facing each other, formed an avenue of bayonets between
+the citadel, near at hand, and the place of execution.
+
+A commotion stirred the throng; and the object of the breathless
+interest excited shortly appeared in the person of a middle-sized,
+middle-aged man, spare, grave, and dignified in appearance, dressed in
+the ordinary garb of a pastor, who walked slowly towards the
+scaffold, engaged in earnest prayer, his eyes and hands lifted towards
+heaven. On mounting the platform, he stood forward to say a few last
+words to the people, and give to many of his friends, whom he knew to
+be in the crowd, his parting benediction. But his voice was instantly
+stifled by the roll of twenty drums, which continued to beat a quick
+march until the hideous ceremony was over, and the martyr, Claude
+Brousson, had ceased to live.[31]
+
+         [Footnote 31: The only favour which Brousson's judges showed
+         him at death was as regarded the manner of carrying his
+         sentence into execution. He was condemned to be broken alive
+         on the wheel, and then strangled; whereas by special favour
+         the sentence was commuted into strangulation first and the
+         breaking of his bones afterwards. So that while Brousson's
+         impassive body remained with his persecutors to be broken,
+         his pure unconquered spirit mounted in triumph towards
+         heaven.]
+
+Strange are the vicissitudes of human affairs! Not a hundred years
+passed after this event, before the great grandson of the monarch, at
+whose instance Brousson had laid down his life, appeared upon a
+scaffold in the Place Louis XIV. in Paris, and implored permission to
+say his few last words to the people. In vain! His voice was drowned
+by the drums of Santerre!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+OUTBREAK IN LANGUEDOC.
+
+
+Although the arbitrary measures of the King were felt all over France,
+they nowhere excited more dismay and consternation than in the
+province of Languedoc. This province had always been inhabited by a
+spirited and energetic people, born lovers of liberty. They were among
+the earliest to call in question the despotic authority over mind and
+conscience claimed by the see of Rome. The country is sown with the
+ashes of martyrs. Long before the execution of Brousson, the Peyrou at
+Montpellier had been the Calvary of the South of France.
+
+As early as the twelfth century, the Albigenses, who inhabited the
+district, excited the wrath of the Popes. Simple, sincere believers in
+the Divine providence, they rejected Rome, and took their stand upon
+the individual responsibility of man to God. Count de Foix said to the
+legate of Innocent III.: "As to my religion, the Pope has nothing to
+do with it. Every man's conscience must be free. My father has always
+recommended to me this liberty, and I am content to die for it."
+
+A crusade was waged against the Albigenses, which lasted for a period
+of about sixty years. Armies were concentrated upon Languedoc, and
+after great slaughter the heretics were supposed to be exterminated.
+
+But enough of the people survived to perpetuate the love of liberty in
+their descendants, who continued to exercise a degree of independence
+in matters of religion and politics almost unknown in other parts of
+France. Languedoc was the principal stronghold of the Huguenots in the
+sixteenth and seventeenth centuries; and when, in 1685, Louis XIV.
+revoked the Edict of Nantes, which interdicted freedom of worship
+under penalty of confiscation, banishment, and death, it is not
+surprising that such a policy should have occasioned widespread
+consternation, if not hostility and open resistance.
+
+At the period of the Revocation there were, according to the Intendant
+of the province, not fewer than 250,000 Protestants in Languedoc, and
+these formed the most skilled, industrious, enterprising, and wealthy
+portion of the community. They were the best farmers, vine-dressers,
+manufacturers, and traders. The valley of Vaunage, lying to the
+westward of Nismes, was one of the richest and most highly cultivated
+parts of France. It contained more than sixty temples, its population
+being almost exclusively Protestant; and it was known as "The Little
+Canaan," abounding as it did in corn, and wine, and oil.
+
+The greater part of the commerce of the South of France was conducted
+by the Protestant merchants of Nismes, of whom the Intendant wrote to
+the King in 1699, "If they are still bad Catholics, at any rate they
+have not ceased to be very good traders."
+
+The Marquis d'Aguesseau bore similar testimony to the intelligent
+industry of the Huguenot population. "By an unfortunate fatality,"
+said he, "in nearly every kind of art the most skilful workmen, as
+well as the richest merchants, belong to the pretended reformed
+religion."
+
+The Marquis, who governed Languedoc for many years, was further of
+opinion that the intelligence of the Protestants was in a great
+measure due to the instructions of their pastors. "It is certain,"
+said he, "that one of the things which holds the Huguenots to their
+religion is the amount of information which they receive from their
+instructors, and which it is not thought necessary to give in ours.
+The Huguenots _will_ be instructed, and it is a general complaint
+amongst the new converts not to find in our religion the same mental
+and moral discipline they find in their own."
+
+Baville, the intendant, made an observation to a similar effect in a
+confidential communication which he made to the authorities at Paris
+in 1697, in which he boasted that the Protestants had now all been
+converted, and that there were 198,483 new converts in Languedoc.
+"Generally speaking," he said, "the new converts are much better off,
+being more laborious and industrious than the old Catholics of the
+province. The new converts must not be regarded as Catholics; they
+almost all preserve in their heart their attachment to their former
+religion. They may confess and communicate as much as you will,
+because they are menaced and forced to do so by the secular power. But
+this only leads to sacrilege. To gain them, _their hearts must be
+won_. It is there that religion resides, and it can only be solely
+established by effecting that conquest."
+
+From the number, as well as the wealth and education, of the
+Protestants of Languedoc, it is reasonable to suppose that the
+emigration from this quarter of France should have been very
+considerable during the persecutions which followed the Revocation. Of
+course nearly all the pastors fled, death being their punishment if
+they remained in France. Hence many of the most celebrated French
+preachers in Holland, Germany, and England were pastors banished from
+Languedoc. Claude and Saurin both belonged to the province; and among
+the London preachers were the Dubourdieus, the Bertheaus, Graverol,
+and Pegorier.
+
+It is also interesting to find how many of the distinguished Huguenots
+who settled in England came from Languedoc. The Romillys and Layards
+came from Montpellier; the Saurins from Nismes; the Gaussens from
+Lunel; and the Bosanquets from Caila;[32] besides the Auriols,
+Arnauds, Pechels, De Beauvoirs, Durands, Portals, Boileaus, D'Albiacs,
+D'Oliers, Rious, and Vignoles, all of whom belonged to the Huguenot
+landed gentry of Languedoc, who fled and sacrificed everything rather
+than conform to the religion of Louis XIV.
+
+         [Footnote 32: There are still Gaussens at St. Mamert, in the
+         department of Gard; and some of the Bosanquet family must
+         have remained on their estates or returned to Protestantism,
+         as we find a Bosanquet of Caila broken alive at Nismes,
+         because of his religion, on the 7th September, 1702, after
+         which his corpse was publicly exposed on the Montpellier high
+         road.]
+
+When Brousson was executed at Montpellier, it was believed that
+Protestantism was finally dead. At all events, it was supposed that
+those of the Protestants who remained, without becoming converted,
+were at length reduced to utter powerlessness. It was not believed
+that the smouldering ashes contained any sparks that might yet be
+fanned into flames. The Huguenot landed proprietors, the principal
+manufacturers, the best of the artisans, had left for other countries.
+Protestantism was now entirely without leaders. The very existence of
+Protestantism in any form was denied by the law; and it might perhaps
+reasonably have been expected that, being thus crushed out of sight,
+it would die.
+
+But there still remained another important and vital element--the
+common people--the peasants, the small farmers, the artisans, and
+labouring classes--persons of slender means, for the most part too
+poor to emigrate, and who remained, as it were, rooted to the soil on
+which they had been born. This was especially the case in the
+Cevennes, where, in many of the communes, almost the entire
+inhabitants were Protestants; in others, they formed a large
+proportion of the population; while in all the larger towns and
+villages they were very numerous, as well as widely spread over the
+whole province.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The mountainous district of the Cevennes is the most rugged, broken,
+and elevated region in the South of France. It fills the department of
+Lozere, as well as the greater part of Gard and Herault. The principal
+mountain-chain, about a hundred leagues in length, runs from
+north-east to south-west, and may almost be said to unite the Alps
+with the Pyrenees. From the centre of France the surface rises with a
+gradual slope, forming an inclined plane, which reaches its greatest
+height in the Cevennic chain, several of the summits of which are
+about five thousand five hundred feet above the sea level. Its
+connection with the Alpine range is, however, broken abruptly by the
+deep valley of the Rhone, running nearly due north and south.
+
+The whole of this mountain district maybe regarded as a triangular
+plateau rising gradually from the northwest, and tilted up at its
+south-eastern angle. It is composed for the most part of granite,
+overlapped by strata belonging to the Jurassic-system; and in many
+places, especially in Auvergne, the granitic rocks have been burst
+through by volcanoes, long since extinct, which rise like enormous
+protuberances from the higher parts of the platform. Towards the
+southern border of the district, the limestone strata overlapping the
+granite assume a remarkable development, exhibiting a series of
+flat-topped hills bounded by perpendicular cliffs some six or eight
+hundred feet high.
+
+"These plateaux," says Mr. Scrope, in his interesting account of the
+geology of Central France, "are called 'causses' in the provincial
+dialect, and they have a singularly dreary and desert aspect from the
+monotony of their form and their barren and rocky character. The
+valleys which separate them are rarely of considerable width. Winding,
+narrow, and all but impassable cliff-like glens predominate, giving to
+the Cevennes that peculiarly intricate character which enabled its
+Protestant inhabitants, in the beginning of the last century, to offer
+so stubborn and gallant a resistance to the atrocious persecutions of
+Louis XIV."
+
+Such being the character of this mountain district--rocky, elevated,
+and sterile--the people inhabiting it, though exceedingly industrious,
+are for the most very poor. Sheep-farming is the principal occupation
+of the people of the hill country; and in the summer season, when the
+lower districts are parched with drought, tens of thousands of sheep
+may be seen covering the roads leading to the Upper Cevennes, whither
+they are driven for pasture. There is a comparatively small breadth of
+arable land in the district. The mountains in many places contain only
+soil enough to grow juniper-bushes. There is very little verdure to
+relieve the eye--few turf-clad slopes or earth-covered ledges to
+repay the tillage of the farmer. Even the mountains of lower elevation
+are for the most part stony deserts. Chestnut-trees, it is true, grow
+luxuriantly in the sheltered places, and occasionally scanty crops of
+rye on the lower mountain-sides. Mulberry-trees also thrive in the
+valleys, their leaves being used for the feeding of silkworms, the
+rearing of which forms one of the principal industries of the
+district.
+
+Even in the immediate neighbourhood of Nismes--a rich and beautiful
+town, abounding in Roman remains, which exhibit ample evidences of its
+ancient grandeur--the country is arid, stony, and barren-looking,
+though here the vine, the olive, and the fig-tree, wherever there is
+soil enough, grow luxuriantly in the open air. Indeed, the country
+very much resembles in its character the land of Judea, being rocky,
+parched, and in many places waste, though in others abounding in corn
+and wine and oil. In the interior parts of the district the scenery is
+wild and grand, especially in the valleys lying under the lofty
+mountain of Lozere. But the rocks and stones are everywhere in the
+ascendant.
+
+A few years ago we visited the district; and while proceeding in the
+old-fashioned diligence which runs between Alais and Florac--for the
+district is altogether beyond the reach of railways--a French
+contractor, accompanying a band of Italian miners, whom he was taking
+into the mountains to search for minerals, pointing to the sterile
+rocks, exclaimed to us, "Messieurs, behold the very poorest district
+in France! It contains nothing but juniper-bushes! As for its
+agriculture, it produces nothing; manufactures, nothing; commerce,
+nothing! _Rien, rien, rien!_"
+
+The observation of this French _entrepreneur_ reminds us of an
+anecdote that Telford, the Scotch engineer, used to relate of a
+countryman with reference to his appreciation of Scotch mountain
+beauty. An English artist, enraptured by the scenery of Ben MacDhui,
+was expatiating on its magnificence, and appealed to the native guide
+for confirmation of his news. "I dinna ken aboot the scenery," replied
+the man, "but there's plenty o' big rocks and stanes; an' the kintra's
+awfu' puir." The same observation might doubtless apply to the
+Cevennes. Yet, though the people may be poor, they are not miserable
+or destitute, for they are all well-clad and respectable-looking
+peasants, and there is not a beggar to be seen in the district.
+
+But the one country, as the other, grows strong and brave men. These
+barren mountain districts of the Cevennes have bred a race of heroes;
+and the men are as simple and kind as they are brave. Hospitality is a
+characteristic of the people, which never fails to strike the visitor
+accustomed to the exactions which are so common along the hackneyed
+tourist routes.
+
+As in other parts of France, the peasantry here are laborious almost
+to excess. Robust and hardy, they are distinguished for their
+perseverance against the obstacles which nature constantly opposes to
+them. Out-door industry being suspended in winter, during which they
+are shut up in their cabins for nearly six months by the ice and snow,
+they occupy themselves in preparing their wool for manufacture into
+cloth. The women card, the children spin, the men weave; and each
+cottage is a little manufactory of drugget and serge, which is taken
+to market in spring, and sold in the low-country towns. Such was the
+industry of the Cevennes nearly two hundred years since, and such it
+remains to the present day.
+
+The people are of a contented nature, and bear their poverty with
+cheerfulness and even dignity. While they partake of the ardour and
+strong temper which characterize the inhabitants of the South of
+France, they are probably, on the whole, more grave and staid than
+Frenchmen generally, and are thought to be more urbane and
+intelligent; and though they are unmanageable by force, they are
+remarkably accessible to kindness and moral suasion.
+
+Such, in a few words, are the more prominent characteristics of the
+country and people of the Cevennes.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+When the popular worship of the mountain district of Languedoc--in
+which the Protestants constituted the majority of the population--was
+suppressed, great dismay fell upon the people; but they made no signs
+of resistance to the royal authority. For a time they remained
+comparatively passive, and it was at first thought they were
+indifferent. Their astonished enemies derisively spoke of them as
+displaying "the patience of a Huguenot,"--the words having passed into
+a proverb.
+
+But their persecutors did not know the stuff of which these
+mountaineers were made. They had seen their temples demolished one
+after another, and their pastors banished, leaving them "like poor
+starved sheep looking for the pasture of life." Next they heard that
+such of their pastors as had been apprehended for venturing to
+minister to them in "the Desert" had been taken to Nismes and
+Montpellier and hanged. Then they began to feel excited and indignant.
+For they could not shake off their own belief and embrace another
+man's, even though that man was their king. If Louis XIV. had ordered
+them to believe that two and two make six, they could not possibly
+believe, though they might pretend to do so, that it made any other
+number than four. And so it was with the King's order to them to
+profess a faith which they could not bring their minds to believe in.
+
+These poor people entertained the conviction that they possessed
+certain paramount rights as men. Of these they held the right of
+conscience to be one of the principal. They were willing to give unto
+Caesar the things that were Caesar's; but they could not give him those
+which belonged unto God. And if they were forced to make a choice,
+then they must rather disobey their King than the King of kings.
+
+Though deprived of their leaders and pastors, the dispossessed
+Huguenots emerged by degrees from their obscurity, and began to
+recognise each other openly. If their temples were destroyed, there
+remained the woods and fields and mountain pastures, where they might
+still meet and worship God, even though it were in defiance of the
+law. Having taken counsel together, they resolved "not to forsake the
+assembling of themselves together;" and they proceeded, in all the
+Protestant districts in the South of France--in Viverais, Dauphiny,
+and the Cevennes--to hold meetings of the people, mostly by night, for
+worship--in woods, in caves, in rocky gorges, and in hollows of the
+hills. Then began those famous assemblies of "the Desert," which were
+the nightmare of Louvois and the horror of Louis XIV.
+
+When it came to the knowledge of the authorities that such meetings
+were being held, large bodies of troops were sent into the southern
+provinces, with orders to disperse them and apprehend the ringleaders.
+These orders were carried out with much barbarity. Amongst various
+assemblies which were discovered and attacked in the Cevennes, were
+those of Auduze and Vigan, where the soldiers fell upon the
+defenceless people, put the greater number to the sword, and hanged
+upon the nearest trees those who did not succeed in making their
+escape.
+
+The authorities waited to see the effect of these "vigorous measures;"
+but they were egregiously disappointed. The meetings in the Desert
+went on as before, and even increased in number. Then milder means
+were tried. Other meetings were attacked in like manner, and the
+people found attending them taken prisoners. They were then threatened
+with death unless they became converted, and promised to attend Mass.
+They declared that they preferred death. A passion for martyrdom even
+seemed to be spreading amongst the infatuated people!
+
+Then the peasantry began secretly to take up arms for their defence.
+They had thus far been passive in their resistance, and were content
+to brave death provided they could but worship together. At length
+they felt themselves driven in their despair to resist force by
+force--acting, however, in the first place, entirely on the
+defensive--"leaving the issue," to use the words of one of their
+solemn declarations, "to the providence of God."
+
+They began--these poor labourers, herdsmen, and wool-carders--by
+instituting a common fund for the purpose of helping their distressed
+brethren in surrounding districts. They then invited such as were
+disposed to join them to form themselves into companies, so as to be
+prepared to come together and give their assistance as occasion
+required. When meetings in the Desert were held, it became the duty of
+these enrolled men to post themselves as sentinels on the surrounding
+heights, and give notice of the approach of their enemies. They also
+constituted a sort of voluntary police for their respective districts,
+taking notice of the changes of the royal troops, and dispatching
+information by trusty emissaries, intimating the direction of their
+march.
+
+The Intendant, Baville, wrote to Louvois, minister of Louis XIV.
+during the persecutions, expressing his surprise and alarm at the
+apparent evidences of organization amongst the peasantry. "I have just
+learned," said he in one letter,[33] "that last Sunday there was an
+assembly of nearly four hundred men, many of them armed, at the foot
+of the mountain of Lozere. I had thought," he added, "that the great
+lesson taught them at Vigan and Anduze would have restored
+tranquillity to the Cevennes, at least for a time. But, on the
+contrary, the severity of the measures heretofore adopted seems only
+to have had the effect of exasperating and hardening them in their
+iniquitous courses."
+
+         [Footnote 33: October 20, 1686.]
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+As the massacres had failed, the question next arose whether the
+inhabitants might not be driven into exile, and the country entirely
+cleared of them. "They pretend," said Louvois, "to meet in 'the
+Desert;' why not take them at their word, and make the Cevennes
+_really_ a Desert?" But there were difficulties in the way of
+executing this plan. In the first place, the Protestants of Languedoc
+were a quarter of a million in number. And, besides, if they were
+driven out of it, what would become of the industry and the wealth of
+this great province--what of the King's taxes?
+
+The Duke de Noailles advised that it would be necessary to proceed
+with some caution in the matter. "If his Majesty," he wrote to
+Baville, "thinks there is no other remedy than changing the whole
+people of the Cevennes, it would be better to begin by expelling those
+who are not engaged in commerce, who inhabit inaccessible mountain
+districts, where the severity of the climate and the poverty of the
+soil render them rude and barbarous, as in the case of those people
+who recently met at the foot of the Lozere. Should the King consent to
+this course, it will be necessary to send here at least four
+additional battalions of foot to execute his orders."[34]
+
+         [Footnote 34: Noailles to Baville, 29th October, 1686.]
+
+An attempt was made to carry out this measure of deportation of the
+people, but totally failed. With the aid of spies, stimulated by high
+rewards, numerous meetings in the Desert were fallen upon by the
+troops, and those who were not hanged were transported--some to Italy,
+some to Switzerland, and some to America. But transportation had no
+terrors for the people, and the meetings continued to be held as
+before.
+
+Baville then determined to occupy the entire province with troops, and
+to carry out a general disarmament of the population. Eight
+regiments of regular infantry were sent into the Cevennes, and fifty
+regiments of militia were raised throughout the province, forming
+together an army of some forty thousand men. Strong military posts
+were established in the mountains, and new forts and barracks were
+erected at Alais, Anduze, St. Hyppolyte, and Nismes. The
+mountain-roads being almost impassable, many of them mere mule paths,
+Baville had more than a hundred new high-roads and branch-roads
+constructed and made practicable for the passage of troops and
+transport of cannon.
+
+By these means the whole country became strongly occupied, but still
+the meetings in the Desert went on. The peasantry continued to brave
+all risks--of exile, the galleys, the rack, and the gibbet--and
+persevered in their assemblies, until the very ferocity of their
+persecutors became wearied. The people would not be converted either
+by the dragoons or the priests who were stationed amongst them. In the
+dead of the night they would sally forth to their meetings in the
+hills; though their mountains were not too steep, their valleys not
+too secluded, their denies not too impenetrable to protect them from
+pursuit and attack, for they were liable at any moment to be fallen
+upon and put to the sword.
+
+The darkness, the dangers, the awe and mystery attending these
+midnight meetings invested them with an extraordinary degree of
+interest and even fascination. It is not surprising that under such
+circumstances the devotion of these poor people should have run into
+fanaticism and superstition. Singing the psalms of Marot by night,
+under the shadow of echoing rocks, they fancied they heard the sounds
+of heavenly voices filling the air. At other times they would meet
+amidst the ruins of their fallen sanctuaries, and mysterious sounds of
+sobbing and wailing and groaning would seem as if to rise from the
+tombs of their fathers.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Under these distressing circumstances--in the midst of poverty,
+suffering, and terror--a sort of religious hysteria suddenly developed
+itself amongst the people, breaking out and spreading like many other
+forms of disease, and displaying itself chiefly in the most persecuted
+quarters of Dauphiny, Viverais, and the Cevennes. The people had lost
+their pastors; they had not the guidance of sober and intelligent
+persons; and they were left merely to pray and to suffer. The terrible
+raid of the priests against the Protestant books had even deprived
+most of the Huguenots of their Bibles and psalm-books, so that they
+were in a great measure left to profit by their own light, such as it
+was.
+
+The disease to which we refer, had often before been experienced,
+under different forms, amongst uneducated people when afflicted by
+terror and excitement; such, for instance, as the Brotherhood of the
+Flagellants, which followed the attack of the plague in the Middle
+Ages; the Dancing Mania, which followed upon the Black Death; the
+Child's Pilgrimages, the Convulsionaires, the Revival epilepsies and
+swoons, which have so often accompanied fits of religious devotion
+worked up into frenzy; these diseases being merely the result of
+excitement of the senses, which convulse the mind and powerfully
+affect the whole nervous system.
+
+The "prophetic malady," as we may call it, which suddenly broke out
+amongst the poor Huguenots, began with epileptic convulsions. They
+fell to the ground senseless, foamed at the mouth, sobbed, and
+eventually revived so far as to be able to speak and "prophesy," like
+a mesmerised person in a state of _clairvoyance_. The disease spread
+rapidly by the influence of morbid sympathy, which, under the peculiar
+circumstances we have described, exercises an amazing power over human
+minds. Those who spoke with power were considered "inspired." They
+prayed and preached ecstatically, the most inspired of the whole being
+women, boys, and even children.
+
+One of the first "prophets" who appeared was Isabel Vincent, a young
+shepherdess of Crest, in Dauphiny, who could neither read nor write.
+Her usual speech was the patois of her country, but when she became
+inspired she spoke perfectly, and, according to Michelet, with great
+eloquence. "She chanted," he says, "at first the Commandments, then a
+psalm, in a low and fascinating voice. She meditated a moment, then
+began the lamentation of the Church, tortured, exiled, at the galleys,
+in the dungeons: for all those evils she blamed our sins only, and
+called all to penitence. Then, starting anew, she spoke angelically of
+the Divine goodness."
+
+Boucher, the intendant of the province, had her apprehended and
+examined. She would not renounce. "You may take my life," she said,
+"but God will raise up others to speak better things than I have
+done." She was at last imprisoned at Grenoble, and afterwards in the
+Tower of Constance.
+
+As Isabel Vincent had predicted, many prophets followed in her steps,
+but they did not prophesy as divinely as she. They denounced "Woe,
+woe" upon their persecutors. They reviled Babylon as the oppressor of
+the House of Israel. They preached the most violent declamations
+against Rome, drawn from the most lugubrious of the prophets, and
+stirred the minds of their hearers into the most furious indignation.
+
+The rapidity with which the contagion of convulsive prophesying spread
+was extraordinary. The adherents were all of the poorer classes, who
+read nothing but the Bible, and had it nearly by heart. It spread from
+Dauphiny to Viverais, and from thence into the Cevennes. "I have
+seen," said Marshal Villars, "things that I could never have believed
+if they had not passed under my own eyes--an entire city, in which all
+the women and girls, without exception, appeared possessed by the
+devil; they quaked and prophesied publicly in the streets."[35]
+
+         [Footnote 35: "Vie du Marechal de Villars," i. 125.]
+
+Flottard says there were eight thousand persons in one province who
+had inspiration. All were not, however, equally inspired. There were
+four degrees of ecstasy: first, the being called; next, the
+inspiration; then, the prophesy; and, lastly, the gift, which was the
+inspiration in the highest degree.
+
+All this may appear ludicrous to some. And yet the school of credulity
+is a very wide one. Even in these enlightened times in which we live,
+we hear of tables turning, spelling out words, and "prophesying" in
+their own way. There are even philosophers, men of science, and
+literati who believe in spiritualists that rise on sofas and float
+about in the air, who project themselves suddenly out of one window
+and enter by another, and do many other remarkable things. And though
+our spiritual table-rapping and floating about may seem to be of no
+possible use, the "prophesying" of the Camisards was all but essential
+to the existence of the movement in which they were engaged.
+
+The population became intensely excited by the prevalence of this
+enthusiasm or fanaticism. "When a Huguenot assembly," says Brueys,
+"was appointed, even before daybreak, from all the hamlets round, the
+men, women, boys, girls, and even infants, came in crowds, hurrying
+from their huts, pierced through the woods, leapt over the rocks, and
+flew to the place of appointment."[36]
+
+         [Footnote 36: Brueys, "Histoire du Fanaticisme de Notre
+         Temps."]
+
+Mere force was of no avail against people who supposed themselves to
+be under supernatural influences. The meetings in the Desert,
+accordingly, were attended with increased and increasing fascination,
+and Baville, who had reported to the King the entire pacification and
+conversion of Languedoc, to his dismay found the whole province
+bursting with excitement, which a spark at any moment might fire into
+frenzy. And that spark was shortly afterwards supplied by the
+archpriest Chayla, director of missions at Pont-de-Montvert.
+
+Although it was known that many of the peasantry attended the meetings
+armed, there had as yet been no open outbreak against the royal
+authority in the Cevennes. At Cheilaret, in the Vivarais, there had
+been an encounter between the troops and the peasantry; but the people
+were speedily dispersed, leaving three hundred dead and fifty wounded
+on the field.
+
+The Intendant Baville, after thus pacifying the Vivarais, was
+proceeding on his way back to Montpellier, escorted by some companies
+of dragoons and militia, passing through the Cevennes by one of the
+new roads he had caused to be constructed along the valley of the
+Tarn, by Pont-de-Montvert to Florac. What was his surprise, on passing
+through the village of Pont-de-Montvert, to hear the roll of a drum,
+and shortly after to perceive a column of rustics, some three or four
+hundred in number, advancing as if to give him battle. Baville at once
+drew up his troops and charged the column, which broke and fled into
+an adjoining wood. Some were killed and others taken prisoners, who
+were hanged next day at St. Jean-du-Gard. A reward of five hundred
+louis d'or was advertised for the leader, who was shortly after
+tracked to his hiding-place in a cavern situated between Anduze and
+Alais, and was there shot, but not until after he had killed three
+soldiers with his fusil.
+
+After this event persecution was redoubled throughout the Cevennes.
+The militia ran night and day after the meetings in the Desert. All
+persons found attending them, who could be captured, were either
+killed on the spot or hanged. Two companies of militia were quartered
+in Pont-de-Montvert at the expense of the inhabitants; and they acted
+under the direction of the archpriest Du Chayla. This priest, who was
+a native of the district, had been for some time settled as a
+missionary in Siam engaged in the conversion of Buddhists, and on his
+return to France he was appointed to undertake the conversion of the
+people of the Cevennes to the faith of Rome.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The village of Pont-de-Montvert is situated in the hollow of a deep
+valley formed by the mountain of Lozere on the north, and of Bouges on
+the south, at the point at which two streams, descending from their
+respective summits, flow into the Tarn. The village is separated by
+these streams into three little hamlets, which are joined together by
+the bridge which gives its name to the place. The addition of "Mont
+Vert," however, is a misnomer; for though seated at the foot of a
+steep mountain, it is not green, but sterile, rocky, and verdureless.
+The village is best reached from Florac, from which it is about twenty
+miles distant. The valley runs east and west, and is traversed by a
+tolerably good road, which at the lower part follows the windings of
+the Tarn, and higher up runs in and out along the mountain ledges, at
+every turn presenting new views of the bold, grand, and picturesque
+scenery which characterizes the wilder parts of the Cevennes. Along
+this route the old mule-road is still discernible in some places--a
+difficult, rugged, mountain path, which must have kept the district
+sealed up during the greater part of the year, until Baville
+constructed the new road for the purpose of opening up the country for
+the easier passage of troops and munitions of war.
+
+A few poor hamlets occur at intervals along the road, sometimes
+perched on apparently inaccessible rocks, and at the lower part of the
+valley an occasional chateau is to be seen, as at Miral, picturesquely
+situated on a height. But the country is too poor by nature--the
+breadth of land in the bottom of the ravine being too narrow and that
+on the mountain ledges too stony and sterile--ever to have enabled it
+to maintain a considerable population. On all sides little is to be
+seen but rocky mountain sides, stony and precipitous, with bold
+mountain peaks extending beyond them far away in the distance.
+
+Pont-de-Montvert is the centre of a series of hamlets, the inhabitants
+of which were in former times almost exclusively Protestant, as they
+are now; and where meetings in the Desert were of the most frequent
+occurrence. Strong detachments of troops were accordingly stationed
+there and at Florac for the purpose of preventing the meetings and
+overawing the population. Besides soldiers, the authorities also
+established missions throughout the Cevennes, and the principal
+inspector of these missions was the archpriest Chayla. The house in
+which he resided at Pont-de-Montvert is still pointed out. It is
+situated near the north end of the bridge over the Tarn; but though
+the lower part of the building remains as it was in his time, the
+upper portion has been for the most part rebuilt.
+
+Chayla was a man of great force of character--zealous, laborious, and
+indefatigable--but pitiless, relentless, and cruel. He had no bowels
+of compassion. He was deaf to all appeals for mercy. With him the
+penalty of non-belief in the faith of Rome was imprisonment, torture,
+death. Eight young priests lived with him, whose labours he directed;
+and great was his annoyance to find that the people would not attend
+his ministrations, but continued to flock after their own
+prophet-preachers in the Desert.
+
+Moral means having failed, he next tried physical. He converted the
+arched cellars of his dwelling into dungeons, where he shut up those
+guilty of contumacy; and day by day he put them to torture. It seems
+like a satire on religion to say that, in his attempt to convert
+souls, this vehement missionary made it one of his principal studies
+to find out what amount of agony the bodies of those who differed from
+him would bear short of actual death. He put hot coals into their
+hands, which they were then made to clench; wrapped round their
+fingers cotton steeped in oil, which was then set on fire; besides
+practising upon them the more ordinary and commonplace tortures. No
+wonder that the archpriest came to be detested by the inhabitants of
+Pont-de-Montvert.
+
+At length, a number of people in the district, in order to get beyond
+reach of Chayla's cruelty, determined to emigrate from France and take
+refuge in Geneva. They assembled one morning secretly, a cavalcade of
+men and women, and set out under the direction of a guide who knew the
+mountain paths towards the east. When they had travelled a few hours,
+they fell into an ambuscade of militia, and were marched back to the
+archpriest's quarters at Pont-de-Montvert. The women were sent to
+Mende to be immured in convents, and the men were imprisoned in the
+archpriest's dungeons. The parents of some of the captives ran to
+throw themselves at his feet, and implored mercy for their sons; but
+Chayla was inexorable. He declared harshly that the prisoners must
+suffer according to the law--that the fugitives must go the galleys,
+and their guide to the gibbet.
+
+On the following Sunday, the 23rd of July, 1702, one of the preaching
+prophets, Pierre Seguier of Magistavols, a hamlet lying to the south
+of Pont-de-Montvert, preached to an assembly on the neighbouring
+mountain of Bouges; and there he declared that the Lord had ordered
+him to take up arms to deliver the captives and exterminate the
+archpriest of Moloch. Another and another preacher followed in the
+same strain, the excited assembly encouraging them by their cries, and
+calling upon them to execute God's vengeance on the persecutors of
+God's people.
+
+That same night Seguier and his companions went round amongst the
+neighbouring hamlets to summon an assemblage of their sworn followers
+for the evening of the following day. They met punctually in the
+Altefage Wood, and under the shadow of three gigantic beech trees, the
+trunks of which were standing but a few years ago, they solemnly swore
+to deliver their companions and destroy the archpriest.
+
+When night fell, a band of fifty determined men marched down the
+mountain towards the bridge, led by Seguier. Twenty of them were armed
+with guns and pistols. The rest carried scythes and hatchets. As they
+approached the village, they sang Marot's version of the
+seventy-fourth Psalm. The archpriest heard the unwonted sound as they
+came marching along. Thinking it was a nocturnal assembly, he cried to
+his soldiers, "Run and see what this means." But the doors of the
+house were already invested by the mountaineers, who shouted out for
+"The prisoners! the prisoners!" "Back, Huguenot canaille!" cried
+Chayla from the window. But they only shouted the louder for "The
+prisoners!"
+
+The archpriest then directed the militia to fire, and one of the
+peasants fell dead. Infuriated, they seized the trunk of a tree, and
+using it as a battering-ram, at once broke in the door. They next
+proceeded to force the entrance to the dungeon, in which they
+succeeded, and called upon the prisoners to come forth. But some of
+them were so crippled by the tortures to which they had been
+subjected, that they could not stand. At sight of their sufferings the
+fury of the assailants increased, and, running up the staircase, they
+called out for the archpriest. "Burn the priest and the satellites of
+Baal!" cried their leader; and heaping together the soldiers' straw
+beds, the chairs, and other combustibles, they set the whole on fire.
+
+Chayla, in the hope of escaping, jumped from a window into the garden,
+and in the fall broke his leg. The peasants discovered him by the
+light of the blazing dwelling. He called for mercy. "No," said
+Seguier, "only such mercy as you have shown to others;" and he struck
+him the first blow.
+
+The others followed. "This for my father," said the next, "whom you
+racked to death!"
+
+"This for my brother," said another, "whom you sent to the galleys!"
+
+"This for my mother, who died of grief!"
+
+This for my sister, my relatives, my friends, in exile, in prison, in
+misery!
+
+And thus blow followed blow, fifty-two in all, half of which would
+probably have been mortal, and the detested Chayla lay a bleeding mass
+at their feet!
+
+[Illustration: Map of the Country of the Cevennes.]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+INSURRECTION OF THE CAMISARDS.
+
+
+The poor peasants, wool-carders, and neatherds of the Cevennes, formed
+only a small and insignificant section of the great body of men who
+were about the same time engaged in different countries of Europe in
+vindicating the cause of civil and religious liberty. For this cause,
+a comparative handful of people in the Low Countries, occupying the
+Dutch United Provinces, had banded themselves together to resist the
+armies of Spain, then the most powerful monarchy in the world. The
+struggle had also for some time been in progress in England and
+Scotland, where it culminated in the Revolution of 1688; and it was
+still raging in the Vaudois valleys of Piedmont.
+
+The object contended for in all these cases was the same. It was the
+vindication of human freedom against royal and sacerdotal despotism.
+It could only have been the direst necessity that drove a poor,
+scattered, unarmed peasantry, such as the people of the Cevennes, to
+take up arms against so powerful a sovereign as Louis XIV. Their
+passive resistance had lasted for fifteen long years, during which
+many of them had seen their kindred racked, hanged, or sent to the
+galleys; and at length their patience was exhausted, and the
+inevitable outburst took place. Yet they were at any moment ready to
+lay down their arms and return to their allegiance, provided only a
+reasonable degree of liberty of worship were assured to them. This,
+however, their misguided and bigoted monarch, would not tolerate; for
+he had sworn that no persons were to be suffered in his dominions save
+those who were of "the King's religion."
+
+The circumstances accompanying the outbreak of the Protestant
+peasantry in the Cevennes in many respects resembled those which
+attended the rising of the Scotch Covenanters in 1679. Both were
+occasioned by the persistent attempts of men in power to enforce a
+particular form of religion at the point of the sword. The resisters
+of the policy were in both cases Calvinists;[37] and they were alike
+indomitable and obstinate in their assertion of the rights of
+conscience. They held that religion was a matter between man and his
+God, and not between man and his sovereign or the Pope. The peasantry
+in both cases persevered in their own form of worship. In Languedoc,
+the mountaineers of the Cevennes held their assemblies in "The
+Desert;" and in Scotland, the "hill-folk" of the West held their
+meetings on the muirs. In the one country as in the other, the
+monarchy sent out soldiers as their missionaries--Louis XIV. employing
+the dragoons of Louvois and Baville, and Charles II. those of
+Claverhouse and Dalzell. These failing, new instruments of torture
+were invented for their "conversion." But the people, in both cases,
+continued alike stubborn in their adherence to their own simple and,
+as some thought, uncouth form of faith.
+
+         [Footnote 37: Whether it be that Calvinism is eclectic as
+         regards races and individuals, or that it has (as is most
+         probably the case) a powerful formative influence upon
+         individual character, certain it is that the Calvinists of
+         all countries have presented the strongest possible
+         resemblance to each other--the Calvinists of Geneva and
+         Holland, the Huguenots of France, the Covenanters of
+         Scotland, and the Puritans of Old and New England, seeming,
+         as it were, to be but members of the same family. It is
+         curious to speculate on the influence which the religion of
+         Calvin--himself a Frenchman--might have exercised on the
+         history of France, as well as on the individual character of
+         Frenchmen, had the balance of forces carried the nation
+         bodily over to Protestantism (as was very nearly the case)
+         towards the end of the sixteenth century. Heinrich Heine has
+         expressed the opinion that the western races contain a large
+         proportion of men for whom the moral principle of Judaism has
+         a strong elective affinity; and in the sixteenth and
+         seventeenth centuries, the Old Testament certainly seems to
+         have exercised a much more powerful influence on the minds of
+         religious reformers than the New. "The Jews," says Heine,
+         "were the Germans of the East, and nowadays the Protestants
+         in German countries (England, Scotland, America, Germany,
+         Holland) are nothing more nor less than ancient Oriental
+         Jews."]
+
+The French Calvinist peasantry, like the Scotch, were great in their
+preachers and their prophets. Both devoted themselves with enthusiasm
+to psalmody, insomuch that "psalm-singers" was their nickname in both
+countries. The one had their Clement Marot by heart, the other their
+Sternhold and Hopkins. Huguenot prisoners in chains sang psalms in
+their dungeons, galley slaves sang them as they plied at the oar,
+fugitives in the halting-places of their flight, the condemned as they
+marched to the gallows, and the Camisards as they rushed into battle.
+It was said of the Covenanters that "they lived praying and preaching,
+and they died praying and fighting;" and the same might have been said
+of the Huguenot peasantry of the Cevennes.
+
+The immediate cause of the outbreak of the insurrection in both
+countries was also similar. In the one case, it was the cruelty of the
+archpriest Chayla, the inventor of a new machine of torture called
+"the Squeezers,"[38] and in the other the cruelty of Archbishop
+Sharpe, the inventor of that horrible instrument called "the Iron
+Boot," that excited the fury of the people; and the murder of the one
+by Seguier and his band at Pont-de-Montvert, as of the other by
+Balfour of Burley and his companions on Magus Muir, proved the signal
+for a general insurrection of the peasantry in both countries. Both
+acts were of like atrocity; but they corresponded in character with
+the cruelties which had provoked them. Insurrections, like
+revolutions, are not made of rose-water. In such cases, action and
+reaction are equal; the violence of the oppressors usually finding its
+counterpart in the violence of the oppressed.
+
+         [Footnote 38: The instrument is thus described by Cavalier,
+         in his "Memoirs of the Wars of the Cevennes," London, 1726:
+         "This inhuman man had invented a rack (more cruel, if it be
+         possible, than that usually made use of) to torment these
+         poor unfortunate gentlemen and ladies; which was a beam he
+         caused to be split in two, with vices at each end. Every
+         morning he would send for these poor people, in order to
+         examine them, and if they refused to confess what he desired,
+         he caused their legs to be put in the slit of the beam, and
+         there squeezed them till the bones cracked," &c., &c. (p.
+         35).]
+
+The insurrection of the French peasantry proved by far the most
+determined and protracted of the two; arising probably from the more
+difficult character of the mountain districts which they occupied and
+the quicker military instincts of the people, as well as because
+several of their early leaders and organizers were veteran soldiers
+who had served in many campaigns. The Scotch insurgents were
+suppressed by the English army under the Duke of Monmouth in less than
+two months after the original outbreak, though their cause eventually
+triumphed in the Revolution of 1688; whereas the peasantry of the
+Cevennes, though deprived of all extraneous help, continued to
+maintain a heroic struggle for several years, but were under the
+necessity of at last succumbing to the overpowering military force of
+Louis XIV., after which the Huguenots of France continued to be
+stamped out of sight, and apparently out of existence, for nearly a
+century.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+In the preceding chapter, we left the archpriest Chayla a corpse at
+the feet of his murderers. Several of the soldiers found in the
+chateau were also killed, as well as the cook and house-steward, who
+had helped to torture the prisoners. But one of the domestics, and a
+soldier, who had treated them with kindness, were, at their
+intercession, pardoned and set at liberty. The corpses were brought
+together in the garden, and Seguier and his companions, kneeling round
+them--a grim and ghastly sight--sang psalms until daybreak, the
+uncouth harmony mingling with the crackling of the flames of the
+dwelling overhead, and the sullen roar of the river rushing under the
+neighbouring bridge.
+
+When the grey of morning appeared, the men rose from their knees,
+emerged from the garden, crossed the bridge, and marched up the main
+street of the village. The inhabitants had barricaded themselves in
+their houses, being in a state of great fear lest they should be
+implicated in the murder of the archpriest. But Seguier and his
+followers made no further halt in Pont-de-Montvert, but passed along,
+still singing psalms, towards the hamlet of Frugeres, a little further
+up the valley of the Tarn.
+
+Seguier has been characterised as "the Danton of the Cevennes." This
+fierce and iron-willed man was of great stature--bony and
+dark-visaged, without upper teeth, his hair hanging loose over his
+shoulders--and of a wild and mystic appearance, occasioned probably by
+the fits of ecstasy to which he was subject, and the wandering life he
+had for so many years led as a prophet-preacher in the Desert. This
+terrible man had resolved upon a general massacre of the priests, and
+he now threw himself upon Frugeres for the purpose of carrying out the
+enterprise begun by him at Pont-de-Montvert. The cure of the hamlet,
+who had already heard of Chayla's murder, fled from his house at sound
+of the approaching psalm-singers, and took refuge in an adjoining
+rye-field. He was speedily tracked thither, and brought down by a
+musket-ball; and a list of twenty of his parishioners, whom he had
+denounced to the archpriest, was found under his cassock.
+
+From Frugeres the prophet and his band marched on to St. Maurice de
+Ventalong, so called because of the winds which at certain seasons
+blow so furiously along the narrow valley in which it is situated; but
+the prior of the convent, having been warned of the outbreak, had
+already mounted his horse and taken to flight. Here Seguier was
+informed of the approach of a body of militia who were on his trail;
+but he avoided them by taking refuge on a neighbouring mountain-side,
+where he spent the night with his companions in a thicket.
+
+Next morning, at daybreak, he descended the mountain, crossed the
+track of his pursuers, and directed himself upon St. Andre de Lanceze.
+The whole country was by this time in a state of alarm; and the cure
+of the place, being on the outlook, mounted the clock-tower and rang
+the tocsin. But his parishioners having joined the insurgents, the
+cure was pursued, captured in the belfry, and thrown from its highest
+window. The insurgents then proceeded to gut the church, pull down the
+crosses, and destroy all the emblems of Romanism on which they could
+lay their hands.
+
+Seguier and his band next hurried across the mountains towards the
+south, having learnt that the cures of the neighbourhood had assembled
+at St. Germain to assist at the obsequies of the archpriest Chayla,
+whose body had been brought thither from Pont-de-Montvert on the
+morning after his murder. When Seguier was informed that the town and
+country militia were in force in the place, he turned aside and went
+in another direction. The cures, however, having heard that Seguier
+was in the neighbourhood, fled panic-stricken, some to the chateau of
+Portes, others to St. Andre, while a number of them did not halt until
+they had found shelter within the walls of Alais, some twenty miles
+distant.
+
+Thus four days passed. On the fifth night Seguier appeared before the
+chateau of Ladeveze, and demanded the arms which had been deposited
+there at the time of the disarmament of the peasantry. The owner
+replied by a volley of musketry, which killed and wounded several of
+the insurgents, at the same time ringing the alarm-bell. Seguier,
+furious at this resistance, at once burst open the gates, and ordered
+a general massacre of the household. This accomplished, he ransacked
+the place of its arms and ammunition, and before leaving set the
+castle on fire, the flames throwing a lurid glare over the surrounding
+country. Seguier's band then descended the mountain on which the
+chateau is situated, and made for the north in the direction of
+Cassagnas, arriving at the elevated plateau of Font-Morte a little
+before daybreak.
+
+In the meantime, Baville, the intendant of the province, was hastening
+to Pont-de-Montvert to put down the insurrection and avenge the death
+of the archpriest. The whole country was roused. Troops were
+dispatched in hot haste from Alais; the militia were assembled from
+all quarters and marched upon the disturbed district. The force was
+placed under the orders of Captain Poul, an old soldier of fortune,
+who had distinguished himself in the German wars, and in the recent
+crusade against the Italian Vaudois. It was because of the individual
+prowess which Captain Poul had displayed in his last campaign, that,
+at the peace of Ryswick, Baville requested that he should be attached
+to the army of Languedoc, and employed in putting down the insurgents
+of the Cevennes.
+
+Captain Poul was hastening with his troops to Florac when, having been
+informed of the direction in which Seguier and his band had gone, he
+turned aside at Barre, and after about an hour's march eastward, he
+came up with them at Font-Morte. They suddenly started up from amongst
+the broom where they had lain down to sleep, and, firing off their
+guns upon the advancing host, without offering any further resistance,
+fled in all directions. Poul and his men spurred after them, cutting
+down the fugitives. Coming up with Seguier, who was vainly trying to
+rally his men, Poul took him prisoner with several others, and they
+were forthwith chained and marched to Florac. As they proceeded along
+the road, Poul said to Seguier, "Well, wretch! now I have got you, how
+do you expect to be treated after the crimes you have committed?" "As
+I would myself have treated you, had I taken you prisoner," was the
+reply.
+
+Seguier stood before his judges calm and fearless. "What is your
+name?" he was asked. "Pierre Seguier." "Why do they call you Esprit?"
+"Because the Spirit of God is in me." "Your abode?" "In the Desert,
+and shortly in heaven." "Ask pardon of the King!" "We have no other
+King but the Eternal." "Have you no feeling of remorse for your
+crimes?" "My soul is as a garden full of shady groves and of peaceful
+fountains."
+
+Seguier was condemned to have his hands cut off at the wrist, and he
+burnt alive at Pont-de-Montvert. Nouvel, another of the prisoners, was
+broken alive at Ladeveze, and Bonnet, a third, was hanged at St.
+Andre. They all suffered without flinching. Seguier's last words,
+spoken amidst the flames, were, "Brethren, wait, and hope in the
+Eternal. The desolate Carmel shall yet revive, and the solitary
+Lebanon shall blossom as the rose!" Thus perished the grim,
+unflinching prophet of Magistavols, the terrible avenger of the
+cruelties of Chayla, the earliest leader in the insurrection of the
+Camisards!
+
+It is not exactly known how or when the insurgents were first called
+Camisards. They called themselves by no other name than "The Children of
+God" (_Enfants de Dieu_); but their enemies variously nicknamed them
+"The Barbets," "The Vagabonds," "The Assemblers," "The Psalm-singers,"
+"The Fanatics," and lastly, "The Camisards." This name is said to have
+been given them because of the common blouse or camisole which they
+wore--their only uniform. Others say that it arose from their wearing a
+white shirt, or camise, over their dress, to enable them to distinguish
+each other in their night attacks; and that this was not the case, is
+partly countenanced by the fact that in the course of the insurrection a
+body of peasant royalists took the field, who designated themselves the
+"_White_ Camisards," in contradistinction from the others. Others say
+the word is derived from _camis_, signifying a roadrunner. But whatever
+the origin of the word may be, the Camisards was the name most commonly
+applied to the insurgents, and by which they continue to be known in
+local history.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Captain Poul vigorously followed up the blow delivered at Font-Morte.
+He apprehended all suspected persons in the Upper Cevennes, and sent
+them before the judges at Florac. Unable to capture the insurgents who
+had escaped, he seized their parents, their relations, and families,
+and these were condemned to various punishments. But what had become
+of the insurgents themselves? Knowing that they had nothing but death
+to expect, if taken, they hid themselves in caves known only to the
+inhabitants of the district, and so secretly that Poul thought they
+had succeeded in making their escape from France. The Intendant
+Baville arrived at the same conclusion, and he congratulated himself
+accordingly on the final suppression of the outbreak. Leaving sundry
+detachments of troops posted in the principal villages, he returned to
+Alais, and invited the fugitive priests at once to return to their
+respective parishes.
+
+After remaining in concealment for several days, the surviving
+insurgents met one night to consult as to the steps they were to take,
+with a view to their personal safety. They had by this time been
+joined by several sympathizers, amongst others by three veteran
+soldiers--Laporte, Esperandieu, and Rastelet--and by young Cavalier,
+who had just returned from Geneva, where he had been in exile, and was
+now ready to share in the dangers of his compatriots. The greater
+number of those present were in favour of bidding a final adieu to
+France, and escaping across the frontier into Switzerland, considering
+that the chances of their offering any successful resistance to their
+oppressors, were altogether hopeless. But against this craven course
+Laporte raised his voice.
+
+"Brethren," said he, "why depart into the land of the stranger? Have
+we not a country of our own, the country of our fathers? It is, you
+say, a country of slavery and death! Well! Free it! and deliver your
+oppressed brethren. Never say, 'What can we do? we are few in number,
+and without arms!' The God of armies shall be our strength. Let us
+sing aloud the psalm of battles, and from the Lozere even to the sea
+Israel will arise! As for arms, have we not our hatchets? These will
+bring us muskets! Brethren, there is only one course worthy to be
+pursued. It is to live for our country; and, if need be, to die for
+it. Better die by the sword than by the rack or the gallows!"
+
+From this moment, not another word was said of flight. With one voice,
+the assembly cried to the speaker, "Be our chief! It is the will of
+the Eternal!" "The Eternal be the witness of your promises," replied
+Laporte; "I consent to be your chief!" He assumed forthwith the title
+of "Colonel of the Children of God," and named his camp "The camp of
+the Eternal!"
+
+Laporte belonged to an old Huguenot family of the village of
+Massoubeyran, near Anduze. They were respectable peasants, some of
+whom lived by farming and others by trade. Old John Laporte had four
+sons, of whom the eldest succeeded his father as a small farmer and
+cattle-breeder, occupying the family dwelling at Massoubeyran, still
+known there as the house of "Laporte-Roland." It contains a secret
+retreat, opening from a corner of the floor, called the "Cachette de
+Roland," in which the celebrated chief of this name, son of the
+owner, was accustomed to take refuge; and in this cottage, the old
+Bible of Roland's father, as well as the halbert of Roland himself,
+continue to be religiously preserved.
+
+Two of Laporte's brothers were Protestant ministers. One of them was
+the last pastor of Collet-de-Deze in the Cevennes. Banished because of
+his faith, he fled from France at the Revocation, joined the army of
+the Prince of Orange in Holland, and came over with him to England as
+chaplain of one of the French regiments which landed at Torbay in
+1688. Another brother, also a pastor, remained in the Cevennes,
+preaching to the people in the Desert, though at the daily risk of his
+life, and after about ten years' labour in this vocation, he was
+apprehended, taken prisoner to Montpellier, and strangled on the
+Peyrou in the year 1696.
+
+The fourth brother was the Laporte whom we have just described in
+undertaking the leadership of the hunted insurgents remaining in the
+Upper Cevennes. He had served as a soldier in the King's armies, and
+at the peace of Ryswick returned to his native village, the year after
+his elder brother had suffered martyrdom at Montpellier. He settled
+for a time at Collet-de-Deze, from which his other brother had been
+expelled, and there he carried on the trade of an ironworker and
+blacksmith. He was a great, brown, brawny man, of vehement piety, a
+constant frequenter of the meetings in the Desert, and a mighty
+psalm-singer--one of those strong, massive, ardent-natured men who so
+powerfully draw others after them, and in times of revolution exercise
+a sort of popular royalty amongst the masses. The oppression which had
+raged so furiously in the district excited his utmost indignation,
+and when he sought out the despairing insurgents in the mountains,
+and found that they were contemplating flight, he at once gave
+utterance to the few burning words we have cited, and fixed their
+determination to strike at least another blow for the liberty of their
+country and their religion.
+
+The same evening on which Laporte assumed the leadership (about the
+beginning of August, 1702) he made a descent on three Roman Catholic
+villages in the neighbourhood of the meeting-place, and obtained
+possession of a small stock of powder and balls. When it became known
+that the insurgents were again drawing together, others joined them.
+Amongst these were Castonet, a forest-ranger of the Aigoal mountain
+district in the west, who brought with him some twelve recruits from
+the country near Vebron. Shortly after, there arrived from Vauvert the
+soldier Catinet, bringing with him twenty more. Next came young
+Cavalier, from Ribaute, with another band, armed with muskets which
+they had seized from the prior of St. Martin, with whom they had been
+deposited.
+
+Meanwhile Laporte's nephew, young Roland, was running from village to
+village in the Vaunage, holding assemblies and rousing the people to
+come to the help of their distressed brethren in the mountains. Roland
+was a young man of bright intelligence, gifted with much of the
+preaching power of his family. His eloquence was of a martial sort,
+for he had been bred a soldier, and though young, had already fought
+in many battles. He was everywhere received with open arms in the
+Vaunage.
+
+"My brethren," said he, "the cause of God and the deliverance of
+Israel is at stake. Follow us to the mountains. No country is better
+suited for war--we have the hill-tops for camps, gorges for
+ambuscades, woods to rally in, caves to hide in, and, in case of
+flight, secret tracts trodden only by the mountain goat. All the
+people there are your brethren, who will throw open their cabins to
+you, and share their bread and milk and the flesh of their sheep with
+you, while the forests will supply you with chestnuts. And then, what
+is there to fear? Did not God nourish his chosen people with manna in
+the desert? And does He not renew his miracles day by day? Will not
+his Spirit descend upon his afflicted children? He consoles us, He
+strengthens us, He calls us to arms, He will cause his angels to march
+before us! As for me, I am an old soldier, and will do my duty!"[39]
+
+         [Footnote 39: Brueys, "Histoire de Fanatisme;" Peyrat,
+         "Histoire des Pasteurs du Desert."]
+
+These stirring words evoked an enthusiastic response. Numbers of the
+people thus addressed by Roland declared themselves ready to follow
+him at once. But instead of taking with him all who were willing to
+join the standard of the insurgents, he directed them to enrol and
+organize themselves, and await his speedy return; selecting for the
+present only such as were in his opinion likely to make efficient
+soldiers, and with these he rejoined his uncle in the mountains.
+
+The number of the insurgents was thus raised to about a hundred and
+fifty--a very small body of men, contemptible in point of numbers
+compared with the overwhelming forces by which they were opposed, but
+all animated by a determined spirit, and commanded by fearless and
+indomitable leaders. The band was divided into three brigades of fifty
+each; Laporte taking the command of the companions of Seguier; the
+new-comers being divided into two bodies of like number, who elected
+Roland and Castanet as their respective chiefs.
+
+Laporte occupied the last days of August in drilling his troops, and
+familiarising them with the mountain district which was to be the
+scene of their operations. While thus engaged, he received an urgent
+message from the Protestant herdsmen of the hill-country of Vebron,
+whose cattle, sheep, and goats a band of royalist militia, under
+Colonel Miral, had captured, and were driving northward towards
+Florac. Laporte immediately ran to their help, and posted himself to
+intercept them at the bridge of Tarnon, which they must cross. On the
+militia coming up, the Camisards fell upon them furiously, on which
+they took to flight, and the cattle were driven back in triumph to the
+villages.
+
+Laporte then led his victorious troops towards Collet, the village in
+which his brother had been pastor. The temple in which he ministered
+was still standing--the only one in the Cevennes that had not been
+demolished, the Seigneur of the place intending to convert it into a
+hospital. Collet was at present occupied by a company of fusiliers,
+commanded by Captain Cabrieres. On nearing the place, Laporte wrote to
+this officer, under an assumed name, intimating that a religious
+assembly was to be held that night in a certain wood in the
+neighbourhood. The captain at once marched thither with his men, on
+which Laporte entered the village, and reopened the temple, which had
+continued unoccupied since the day on which his brother had gone into
+exile. All that night Laporte sang psalms, preached, and prayed by
+turns, solemnly invoking the help of the God of battles in this holy
+war in which he was engaged for the liberation of his country. Shortly
+before daybreak, Laporte and his companions retired from the temple,
+and after setting fire to the Roman Catholic church, and the houses of
+the consul, the captain, and the cure, he left the village, and
+proceeded in a northerly direction.
+
+That same morning, Captain Poul arrived at the neighbouring valley of
+St. Germain, for the purpose of superintending the demolition of
+certain Protestant dwellings, and then he heard of Laporte's midnight
+expedition. He immediately hastened to Collet, assembled all the
+troops he could muster, and put himself on the track of the Camisards.
+After a hot march of about two hours in the direction of Coudouloux,
+Poul discerned Laporte and his band encamped on a lofty height, from
+the scarped foot of which a sloping grove of chestnuts descended into
+the wide grassy plain, known as the "Champ Domergue."
+
+The chestnut grove had in ancient times been one of the sacred places
+of the Druids, who celebrated their mysterious rites in its recesses,
+while the adjoining mountains were said to have been the honoured
+haunts of certain of the divinities of ancient Gaul. It was therefore
+regarded as a sort of sacred place, and this circumstance was probably
+not without its influence in rendering it one of the most frequent
+resorts of the hunted Protestants in their midnight assemblies, as
+well as because it occupied a central position between the villages of
+St. Frezal, St. Andeol, Deze, and Violas. Laporte had now come hither
+with his companions to pray, and they were so engaged when the scouts
+on the look-out announced the approach of the enemy.
+
+Poul halted his men to take breath, while Laporte held a little
+council of war. What was to be done? Laporte himself was in favour of
+accepting battle on the spot, while several of his lieutenants advised
+immediate flight into the mountains. On the other hand, the young and
+impetuous Cavalier, who was there, supported the opinion of his chief,
+and urged an immediate attack; and an attack was determined on
+accordingly.
+
+The little band descended from their vantage-ground on the hill, and
+came down into the chestnut wood, singing the sixty-eighth Psalm--"Let
+God arise, let his enemies be scattered." The following is the song
+itself, in the words of Marot. When the Huguenots sang it, each
+soldier became a lion in courage.
+
+  "Que Dieu se montre seulement
+   Et l'on verra dans un moment
+     Abandonner la place;
+   Le camp des ennemies epars,
+   Epouvante de toutes parts,
+     Fuira devant sa face.
+
+   On verra tout ce camp s'enfuir,
+   Comme l'on voit s'evanouir;
+     Une epaisse fumee;
+   Comme la cire fond au feu,
+   Ainsi des mechants devant
+     Dieu, La force est consumee.
+
+   L'Eternel est notre recours;
+   Nous obtenons par son secours,
+     Plus d'une deliverance.
+   C'est Lui qui fut notre support,
+   Et qui tient les clefs de la mort,
+     Lui seul en sa puissance.
+
+   A nous defendre toujours prompt,
+   Il frappe le superbe front
+     De la troupe ennemie;
+   On verra tomber sous ses coups
+   Ceux qui provoquent son courroux
+     Par leur mechante vie."
+
+This was the "Marseillaise" of the Camisards, their war-song in many
+battles, sung by them as a _pas de charge_ to the music of Goudimal.
+Poul, seeing them approach from under cover of the wood, charged them
+at once, shouting to his men, "Charge, kill, kill the Barbets!"[40]
+But "the Barbets," though they were only as one to three of their
+assailants, bravely held their ground. Those who had muskets kept up a
+fusillade, whilst a body of scythemen in the centre repulsed Poul, who
+attacked them with the bayonet. Several of these terrible scythemen
+were, however, slain, and three were taken prisoners.
+
+         [Footnote 40: The "Barbets" (or "Water-dogs") was the
+         nickname by which the Vaudois were called, against whom Poul
+         had formerly been employed in the Italian valleys.]
+
+Laporte, finding that he could not drive Poul back, retreated slowly
+into the wood, keeping up a running fire, and reascended the hill,
+whither Poul durst not follow him. The Royalist leader was satisfied
+with remaining master of the hard-fought field, on which many of his
+soldiers lay dead, together with a captain of militia.
+
+The Camisard chiefs then separated, Laporte and his band taking a
+westerly direction. The Royalists, having received considerable
+reinforcements, hastened from different directions to intercept him, but
+he slipped through their fingers, and descended to Pont-de-Montvert,
+from whence he threw himself upon the villages situated near the sources
+of the western Gardon. At the same time, to distract the attention of
+the Royalists, the other Camisard leaders descended, the one towards the
+south, and the other towards the east, disarming the Roman Catholics,
+carrying off their arms, and spreading consternation wherever they went.
+
+Meanwhile, Count Broglie, Captain Poul, Colonel Miral, and the
+commanders of the soldiers and militia all over the Cevennes, were
+hunting the Protestants and their families wherever found, pillaging
+their houses, driving away their cattle, and burning their huts; and
+it was evident that the war on both sides was fast drifting into one
+of reprisal and revenge. Brigands, belonging to neither side,
+organized themselves in bodies, and robbed Protestants and Catholics
+with equal impartiality.
+
+One effect of this state of things was rapidly to increase the numbers
+of the disaffected. The dwellings of many of the Protestants having
+been destroyed, such of the homeless fugitives as could bear arms fled
+into the mountains to join the Camisards, whose numbers were thus
+augmented, notwithstanding the measures taken for their extermination.
+
+Laporte was at last tracked by his indefatigable enemy, Captain Poul,
+who burned to wipe out the disgrace which he conceived himself to have
+suffered at Champ-Domergue. Information was conveyed to him that
+Laporte and his band were in the neighbourhood of Molezon on the
+western Gardon, and that they intended to hold a field-meeting there
+on Sunday, the 22nd of October.
+
+Poul made his dispositions accordingly. Dividing his force into two
+bodies, he fell upon the insurgents impetuously from two sides, taking
+them completely by surprise. They hastily put themselves in order of
+battle, but their muskets, wet with rain, would not fire, and Laporte
+hastened with his men to seek the shelter of a cliff near at hand.
+While in the act of springing from one rock to another, he was seen to
+stagger and fall. He had been shot dead by a musket bullet, and his
+career was thus brought to a sudden close. His followers at once fled
+in all directions.
+
+Poul cut off Laporte's head, as well as the heads of the other
+Camisards who had been killed, and sent them in two baskets to Count
+Broglie. Next day the heads were exposed on the bridge of Anduze; the
+day after on the castle wall of St. Hypolite; after which these
+ghastly trophies of Poul's victory were sent to Montpellier to be
+permanently exposed on the Peyrou.
+
+Such was the end of Laporte, the second leader of the Camisards.
+Seguier, the first, had been chief for only six days; Laporte, the
+second, for only about two months. Again Baville supposed the
+pacification of the Cevennes to be complete. He imagined that Poul, in
+cutting off Laporte's head, had decapitated the insurrection. But the
+Camisard ranks had never been so full as now, swelled as they were by
+the persecutions of the Royalists, who, by demolishing the homes of
+the peasantry, had in a measure forced them into the arms of the
+insurgents. Nor were they ever better supplied with leaders, even
+though Laporte had fallen. No sooner did his death become known, than
+the "Children of God" held a solemn assembly in the mountains, at
+which Roland, Castanet, Salomon, Abraham, and young Cavalier were
+present; and after lamenting the death of their chief, they with one
+accord elected Laporte's nephew, Roland, as his successor.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+A few words as to the associates of Roland, whose family and origin
+have already been described. Andre Castanet of Massavaque, in the
+Upper Cevennes, had been a goatherd in his youth, after which he
+worked at his father's trade of a wool-carder. An avowed Huguenot, he
+was, shortly after the peace of Ryswick, hunted out of the country
+because of his attending the meetings in the Desert; but in 1700 he
+returned to preach and to prophesy, acting also as a forest-ranger in
+the Aigoal Mountains. Of all the chiefs he was the greatest
+controversialist, and in his capacity of preacher he distinguished
+himself from his companions by wearing a wig. There must have been
+something comical in his appearance, for Brueys describes him as a
+little, squat, bandy-legged man, presenting "the figure of a little
+bear." But it was an enemy who drew the picture.
+
+Next there was Salomon Conderc, also a wool-carder, a native of the
+hamlet of Mazelrode, south of the mountain of Bouges. For twenty years
+the Condercs, father and son, had been zealous worshippers in the
+Desert--Salomon having acted by turns as Bible-reader, precentor,
+preacher, and prophet. We have already referred to the gift of
+prophesying. All the leaders of the Camisards were prophets. Elie
+Marion, in his "Theatre Sacre de Cevennes," thus describes the
+influence of the prophets on the Camisard War:--
+
+"We were without strength and without counsel," says he; "but our
+inspirations were our succour and our support. They elected our
+leaders, and conducted them; they were our military discipline. It was
+they who raised us, even weakness itself, to put a strong bridle upon
+an army of more than twenty thousand picked soldiers. It was they who
+banished sorrow from our hearts in the midst of the greatest peril, as
+well as in the deserts and the mountain fastnesses, when cold and
+famine oppressed us. Our heaviest crosses were but lightsome burdens,
+for this intimate communion that God allowed us to have with Him bore
+up and consoled us; it was our safety and our happiness."
+
+Many of the Condercs had suffered for their faith. The archpriest
+Chayla had persecuted them grievously. One of their sisters was seized
+by the soldiery and carried off to be immured in a convent at Mende,
+but was rescued on the way by Salomon and his brother Jacques. Of the
+two, Salomon, though deformed, had the greatest gift in prophesying,
+and hence the choice of him as a leader.
+
+Abraham Mazel belonged to the same hamlet as Conderc. They were both
+of the same age--about twenty-five--of the same trade, and they were
+as inseparable as brothers. They had both been engaged with Seguier's
+band in the midnight attack on Pont-de-Montvert, and were alike
+committed to the desperate enterprise they had taken in hand. The
+tribe of Mazel abounds in the Cevennes, and they had already given
+many martyrs to the cause. Some emigrated to America, some were sent
+to the galleys; Oliver Mazel, the preacher, was hanged at Montpellier
+in 1690, Jacques Mazel was a refugee in London in 1701, and in all the
+combats of the Cevennes there were Mazels leading as well as
+following.
+
+Nicholas Joany, of Genouillac, was an old soldier, who had seen much
+service, having been for some time quartermaster of the regiment of
+Orleans. Among other veterans who served with the Camisards, were
+Esperandieu and Rastelet, two old sub-officers, and Catinat and
+Ravenel, two thorough soldiers. Of these Catinat achieved the greatest
+notoriety. His proper name was Mauriel--Abdias Mauriel; but having
+served as a dragoon under Marshal Catinat in Italy, he conceived such
+an admiration for that general, and was so constantly eulogizing him,
+that his comrades gave him the nickname of Catinat, which he continued
+to bear all through the Camisard war.
+
+But the most distinguished of all the Camisard chiefs, next to Roland,
+was the youthful John Cavalier, peasant boy, baker's apprentice, and
+eventually insurgent leader, who, after baffling and repeatedly
+defeating the armies of Louis XIV., ended his remarkable career as
+governor of Jersey and major-general in the British service.
+
+Cavalier was a native of Ribaute, a village on the Gardon, a little
+below Anduze. His parents were persons in humble circumstances, as may
+be inferred from the fact that when John was of sufficient age he was
+sent into the mountains to herd cattle, and when a little older he was
+placed apprentice to a baker at Anduze.
+
+His father, though a Protestant at heart, to avoid persecution,
+pretended to be converted to Romanism, and attended Mass. But his
+mother, a fervent Calvinist, refused to conform, and diligently
+trained her sons in her own views. She was a regular attender of
+meetings in the Desert, to which she also took her children.
+
+Cavalier relates that on one occasion, when a very little fellow, he
+went with her to an assembly which was conducted by Claude Brousson;
+and when he afterwards heard that many of the people had been
+apprehended for attending it, of whom some were hanged and others sent
+to the galleys, the account so shocked him that he felt he would then
+have avenged them if he had possessed the power.
+
+As the boy grew up, and witnessed the increasing cruelty with which
+conformity was enforced, he determined to quit the country; and,
+accompanied by twelve other young men, he succeeded in reaching Geneva
+after a toilsome journey of eight days. He had not been at Geneva more
+than two months, when--heart-sore, solitary, his eyes constantly
+turned towards his dear Cevennes--he accidentally heard that his
+father and mother had been thrown into prison because of his
+flight--his father at Carcassone, and his mother in the dreadful tower
+of Constance, near Aiguesmortes, one of the most notorious prisons of
+the Huguenots.
+
+He at once determined to return, in the hope of being able to get them
+set at liberty. On his reaching Ribaute, to his surprise he found them
+already released, on condition of attending Mass. As his presence in
+his father's house might only serve to bring fresh trouble upon
+them--he himself having no intention of conforming--he went up for
+refuge into the mountains of the Cevennes.
+
+The young Cavalier was present at the midnight meeting on the Bouges,
+at which it was determined to slay the archpriest Chayla. He implored
+leave to accompany the band; but he was declared to be too young for
+such an enterprise, being a boy of only sixteen, so he was left behind
+with his friends.
+
+Being virtually an outlaw, Cavalier afterwards joined the band of
+Laporte, under whom he served as lieutenant during his short career.
+At his death the insurrection assumed larger proportions, and recruits
+flocked apace to the standard of Roland, Laporte's successor.
+Harvest-work over, the youths of the Lower Cevennes hastened to join
+him, armed only with bills and hatchets. The people of the Vaunage
+more than fulfilled their promise to Roland, and sent him five hundred
+men. Cavalier also brought with him from Ribaute a further number of
+recruits, and by the end of autumn the Camisards under arms, such as
+they were, amounted to over a thousand men.
+
+Roland, unable to provide quarters or commissariat for so large a
+number, divided them into five bodies, and sent them into their
+respective cantonments (so to speak) for the winter. Roland himself
+occupied the district known as the Lower Cevennes, comprising the
+Gardonnenque and the mountain district situated between the rivers
+Vidourle and the western Gardon. That part of the Upper Cevennes,
+which extends between the Anduze branch of the Gardon and the river
+Tarn, was in like manner occupied by a force commanded by Abraham
+Hazel and Solomon Conderc, while Andrew Castanet led the people of the
+western Cevennes, comprising the mountain region of the Aigoal and the
+Esperou, near the sources of the Gardon d'Anduze and the Tarnon. The
+rugged mountain district of the Lozere, in which the Tarn, the Ceze,
+and the Alais branch of the Gardon have their origin, was placed under
+the command of Joany. And, finally, the more open country towards the
+south, extending from Anduze to the sea-coast, including the districts
+around Alais, Uzes, Nismes, as well as the populous valley of the
+Vaunage, was placed under the direction of young Cavalier, though he
+had scarcely yet completed his seventeenth year.
+
+These chiefs were all elected by their followers, who chose them, not
+because of any military ability they might possess, but entirely
+because of their "gifts" as preachers and "prophets." Though Roland
+and Joany had been soldiers, they were also preachers, as were
+Castanet, Abraham, and Salomon; and young Cavalier had already given
+remarkable indications of the prophetic gift. Hence, when it became
+the duty of the band to which he belonged to select a chief, they
+passed over the old soldiers, Esperandieu, Raslet, Catinat, and
+Ravenel, and pitched upon the young baker lad of Ribaute, not because
+he could fight, but because he could preach; and the old soldiers
+cheerfully submitted themselves to his leadership.
+
+The portrait of this remarkable Camisard chief represents him as a
+little handsome youth, fair and ruddy complexioned, with lively and
+prominent blue eyes, and a large head, from whence his long fair hair
+hung floating over his shoulders. His companions recognised in him a
+supposed striking resemblance to the scriptural portrait of David, the
+famous shepherd of Israel.
+
+The Camisard legions, spread as they now were over the entire Cevennes,
+and embracing Lower Languedoc as far as the sea, were for the most part
+occupied during the winter of 1702-3 in organizing themselves, obtaining
+arms, and increasing their forces. The respective districts which they
+occupied were so many recruiting-grounds, and by the end of the season
+they had enrolled nearly three thousand men. They were still, however,
+very badly armed. Their weapons included fowling-pieces, old matchlocks,
+muskets taken from the militia, pistols, sabres, scythes, hatchets,
+billhooks, and even ploughshares. They were very short of powder, and
+what they had was mostly bought surreptitiously from the King's
+soldiers, or by messengers sent for the purpose to Nismes and Avignon.
+But Roland, finding that such sources of supply could not be depended
+upon, resolved to manufacture his own powder.
+
+A commissariat was also established, and the most spacious caves in
+the most sequestered places were sought out and converted into
+magazines, hospitals, granaries, cellars, arsenals, and powder
+factories. Thus Mialet, with its extensive caves, was the
+head-quarters of Roland; Bouquet and the caves at Euzet, of Cavalier;
+Cassagnacs and the caves at Magistavols, of Salomon; and so on with
+the others. Each chief had his respective canton, his granary, his
+magazine, and his arsenal. To each retreat was attached a special body
+of tradesmen--millers, bakers, shoemakers, tailors, armourers, and
+other mechanics; and each had its special guards and sentinels.
+
+We have already referred to the peculiar geological features of the
+Cevennes, and to the limestone strata which embraces the whole
+granitic platform of the southern border almost like a frame. As is
+almost invariably the case in such formations, large caves, occasioned
+by the constant dripping of water, are of frequent occurrence; and
+those of the Cevennes, which are in many places of great extent,
+constituted a peculiar feature in the Camisard insurrection. There is
+one of such caves in the neighbourhood of the Protestant town of
+Ganges, on the river Herault, which often served as a refuge for the
+Huguenots, though it is now scarcely penetrable because of the heavy
+falls of stone from the roof. This cavern has two entrances, one from
+the river Herault, the other from the Mendesse, and it extends under
+the entire mountain, which separates the two rivers. It is still known
+as the "Camisards' Grotto." There are numerous others of a like
+character all over the district; but as those of Mialet were of
+special importance--Mialet, "the Metropolis of the Insurrection,"
+being the head-quarters of Roland--it will be sufficient if we briefly
+describe a visit paid to them in the month of June, 1870.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The town of Anduze is the little capital of the Gardonnenque, a
+district which has always been exclusively Protestant. Even at the
+present day, of the 5,200 inhabitants of Anduze, 4,600 belong to that
+faith; and these include the principal proprietors, cultivators, and
+manufacturers of the town and neighbourhood. During the wars of
+religion, Anduze was one of the Huguenot strongholds. After the death
+of Henry IV. the district continued to be held by the Duc de Rohan,
+the ruins of whose castle are still to be seen on the summit of a
+pyramidal hill on the north of the town. Anduze is jammed in between
+the precipitous mountain of St. Julien, which rises behind it, and the
+river Gardon, along which a modern quay-wall extends, forming a
+pleasant promenade as well as a barrier against the furious torrents
+which rush down from the mountains in winter.
+
+A little above the town, the river passes through a rocky gorge formed
+by the rugged grey cliffs of Peyremale on the one bank and St. Julien
+on the other. The bare precipitous rocks rise up on either side like
+two cyclopean towers, flanking the gateway of the Cevennes. The gorge
+is so narrow at bottom that there is room only for the river running
+in its rocky bed below, and a roadway along either bank--that on the
+eastern side having been partly formed by blasting out the cliff which
+overhangs it.
+
+After crossing the five-arched bridge which spans the Gardon, the road
+proceeds along the eastern bank, up the valley towards Mialet. It
+being market-day at Anduze, well-clad peasants were flocking into the
+town, some in their little pony-carts, others with their baskets or
+bundles of produce, and each had his "Bon jour, messieurs!" for us as
+we passed. So long as the road held along the bottom of the valley,
+passing through the scattered hamlets and villages north of the town,
+our little springless cart got along cleverly enough. But after we had
+entered the narrower valley higher up, and the cultivated ground
+became confined to a little strip along either bank, then the mountain
+barriers seemed to rise in front of us and on all sides, and the road
+became winding, steep, and difficult.
+
+A few miles up the valley, the little hamlet of Massoubeyran,
+consisting of a group of peasant cottages--one of which was the
+birthplace of Roland, the Camisard chief--was seen on a hill-side to
+the right; and about two miles further on, at a bend of the road, we
+came in sight of the village of Mialet, with its whitewashed,
+flat-roofed cottages--forming a little group of peasants' houses lying
+in the hollow of the hills. The principal building in it is the
+Protestant temple, which continues to be frequented by the
+inhabitants; the _Annuaire Protestant_ for 1868-70, stating the
+Protestant population of the district to be 1,325. Strange to say, the
+present pastor, M. Seguier, bears the name of the first leader of the
+Camisard insurrection; and one of the leading members of the
+consistory, M. Laporte, is a lineal descendant of the second and third
+leaders.
+
+From its secluded and secure position among the hills, as well as
+because of its proximity to the great Temelac road constructed by
+Baville, which passed from Anduze by St. Jean-de-Gard into the Upper
+Cevennes, Mialet was well situated as the head-quarters of the
+Camisard chief. But it was principally because of the numerous
+limestone caves abounding in the locality, which afforded a ready
+hiding-place for the inhabitants in the event of the enemies'
+approach, as well as because they were capable of being adapted for
+the purpose of magazines, stores, and hospitals, that Mialet became of
+so much importance as the citadel of the insurgents. One of such
+caverns or grottoes is still to be seen about a mile below Mialet, of
+extraordinary magnitude. It extends under the hill which rises up on
+the right-hand side of the road, and is entered from behind, nearly
+at the summit. The entrance is narrow and difficult, but the interior
+is large and spacious, widening out in some places into dome-shaped
+chambers, with stalactites hanging from the roof. The whole extent of
+this cavern cannot be much less than a quarter of a mile, judging from
+the time it took to explore it and to return from the furthest point
+in the interior to the entrance. The existence of this place had been
+forgotten until a few years ago, when it was rediscovered by a man of
+Anduze, who succeeded in entering it, but, being unable to find his
+way out, he remained there for three days without food, until the
+alarm was given and his friends came to his rescue and delivered him.
+
+Immediately behind the village of Mialet, under the side of the hill,
+is another large cavern, with other grottoes branching out of it,
+capable, on an emergency, of accommodating the whole population. This
+was used by Roland as his principal magazine. But perhaps the most
+interesting of these caves is the one used as a hospital for the sick
+and wounded. It is situated about a mile above Mialet, in a limestone
+cliff almost overhanging the river. The approach to it is steep and
+difficult, up a footpath cut in the face of the rock. At length a
+little platform is reached, about a hundred feet above the level of
+the river, behind which is a low wall extending across the entrance to
+the cavern. This wall is pierced with two openings, intended for two
+culverins, one of which commanded the road leading down the pass, and
+the other the road up the valley from the direction of the village.
+The outer vault is large and roomy, and extends back into a lofty
+dome-shaped cavern about forty feet high, behind which a long tortuous
+vault extends for several hundred feet. The place is quite dry, and
+sufficiently spacious to accommodate a large number of persons; and
+there can be no doubt as to the uses to which it was applied during
+the wars of the Cevennes.
+
+The person who guided us to the cave was an ordinary working man of
+the village--apparently a blacksmith--a well-informed, intelligent
+person--who left his smithy, opposite the Protestant temple at which
+our pony-cart drew up, to show us over the place; and he took pride in
+relating the traditions which continue to be handed down from father
+to son relating to the great Camisard war of the Cevennes.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+EXPLOITS OF CAVALIER.
+
+
+The country round Nismes, which was the scene of so many contests
+between the Royalists and the Camisard insurgents at the beginning of
+last century, presents nearly the same aspect as it did then,
+excepting that it is traversed by railways in several directions. The
+railway to Montpellier on the west, crosses the fertile valley of the
+Vaunage, "the little Canaan," still rich in vineyards as of old. That
+to Alais on the north, proceeds for the most part along the valley of
+the Gardon, the names of the successive stations reminding the passing
+traveller of the embittered contests of which they were the scenes in
+former times: Nozieres, Boucoiran, Ners, Vezenobres, and Alais itself,
+now a considerable manufacturing town, and the centre of an important
+coal-mining district.
+
+The country in the neighbourhood of Nismes is by no means picturesque.
+Though undulating, it is barren, arid, and stony. The view from the
+Tour Magne, which is very extensive, is over an apparently skeleton
+landscape, the bare rocks rising on all sides without any covering of
+verdure. In summer the grass is parched and brown. There are few trees
+visible; and these mostly mulberry, which, when, cropped, have a
+blasted look. Yet, wherever soil exists, in the bottoms, the land is
+very productive, yielding olives, grapes, and chestnuts in great
+abundance.
+
+As we ascend the valley of the Gardon, the country becomes more
+undulating and better wooded. The villages and farmhouses have all an
+old-fashioned look; not a modern villa is to be seen. We alight from
+the train at the Ners station--Ners, where Cavalier drove Montrevel's
+army across the river, and near which, at the village of Martinargues,
+he completely defeated the Royalists under Lajonquiere. We went to see
+the scene of the battle, some three miles to the south-east, passing
+through a well-tilled country, with the peasants busily at work in the
+fields. From the high ground behind Ners a fine view is obtained of
+the valley of the Gardon, overlooking the junction of its two branches
+descending by Alais and Anduze, the mountains of the Cevennes rising
+up in the distance. To the left is the fertile valley of Beaurivage,
+celebrated in the Pastorals of Florian, who was a native of the
+district.
+
+Descending the hill towards Ners, we were overtaken by an aged peasant
+of the village, with a scythe over his shoulder, returning from his
+morning's work. There was the usual polite greeting and exchange of
+salutations--for the French peasant is by nature polite--and a ready
+opening was afforded for conversation. It turned out that the old man
+had been a soldier of the first empire, and fought under Soult in the
+desperate battle of Toulouse in 1814. He was now nearly eighty, but
+was still able to do a fair day's work in the fields. Inviting us to
+enter his dwelling and partake of his hospitality, he went down to his
+cellar and fetched therefrom a jug of light sparkling wine, of which
+we partook. In answer to an inquiry whether there were any Protestants
+in the neighbourhood, the old man replied that Ners was "all
+Protestant." His grandson, however, who was present, qualified this
+sweeping statement by the remark, _sotto voce_, that many of them were
+"nothing."
+
+The conversation then turned upon the subject of Cavalier and his
+exploits, when our entertainer launched out into a description of the
+battle of Martinargues, in which the Royalists had been "toutes
+abattus." Like most of the Protestant peasantry of the Cevennes, he
+displayed a very familiar acquaintance with the events of the civil
+war, and spoke with enthusiasm and honest pride of the achievements of
+the Camisards.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+We have in previous chapters described the outbreak of the
+insurrection and its spread throughout the Upper Cevennes; and we have
+now rapidly to note its growth and progress to its culmination and
+fall.
+
+While the Camisards were secretly organizing their forces under cover
+of the woods and caves of the mountain districts, the governor of
+Languedoc was indulging in the hope that the insurrection had expired
+with the death of Laporte and the dispersion of his band. But, to his
+immense surprise, the whole country was suddenly covered with
+insurgents, who seemed as if to spring from the earth in all quarters
+simultaneously. Messengers brought him intelligence at the same time
+of risings in the mountains of the Lozere and the Aigoal, in the
+neighbourhoods of Anduze and Alais, and even in the open country about
+Nismes and Calvisson, down almost to the sea-coast.
+
+Wherever the churches had been used as garrisons and depositories of
+arms, they were attacked, stormed, and burnt. Cavalier says he never
+meddled with any church which had not been thus converted into a "den
+of thieves;" but the other leaders were less scrupulous. Salomon and
+Abraham destroyed all the establishments and insignia of their enemies
+on which they could lay hands--crosses, churches, and presbyteries.
+The cure of Saint-Germain said of Castanet in the Aigoal that he was
+"like a raging torrent." Roland and Joany ran from village to village
+ransacking dwellings, chateaux, churches, and collecting arms. Knowing
+every foot of the country, they rapidly passed by mountain tracks from
+one village to another; suddenly appearing in the least-expected
+quarters, while the troops in pursuit of them had passed in other
+directions.
+
+Cavalier had even the hardihood to descend upon the low country, and
+to ransack the Catholic villages in the neighbourhood of Nismes. By
+turns he fought, preached, and sacked churches. About the middle of
+November, 1702, he preached at Aiguevives, a village not far from
+Calvisson, in the Vaunage. Count Broglie, commander of the royal
+troops, hastened from Nismes to intercept him. But pursuing Cavalier
+was like pursuing a shadow; he had already made his escape into the
+mountains. Broglie assembled the inhabitants of the village in the
+church, and demanded to be informed who had been present with the
+Camisard preacher. "All!" was the reply: "we are all guilty." He
+seized the principal persons of the place and sent them to Baville.
+Four were hanged, twelve were sent to the galleys, many more were
+flogged, and a heavy fine was levied on the entire village.
+
+Meanwhile, Cavalier had joined Roland near Mialet, and again descended
+upon the low country, marching through the villages along the valley
+of the Vidourle, carrying off arms and devastating churches. Broglie
+sent two strong bodies of troops to intercept them; but the
+light-footed insurgents had already crossed the Gardon.
+
+A few days later (December 5th), they were lying concealed in the
+forest of Vaquieres, in the neighbourhood of Cavalier's head-quarters
+at Euzet. Their retreat having been discovered, a strong force of
+soldiers and militia was directed upon them, under the command of the
+Chevalier Montarnaud (who, being a new convert, wished to show his
+zeal), and Captain Bimard of the Nismes militia.
+
+They took with them a herdsman of the neighbourhood for their guide,
+not knowing that he was a confederate of the Camisards. Leading the
+Royalists into the wood, he guided them along a narrow ravine, and
+hearing no sound of the insurgents, it was supposed that they were
+lying asleep in their camp.
+
+Suddenly three sentinels on the outlook fired off their pieces. At
+this signal Ravenel posted himself at the outlet of the defile, and
+Cavalier and Catinat along its two sides. Raising their war-song, the
+sixty-eighth psalm the Camisards furiously charged the enemy. Captain
+Bimard fell at the first fire. Montarnaud turned and fled with such of
+the soldiers and militia as could follow him; and not many of them
+succeeded in making their escape from the wood.
+
+"After which complete victory," says Cavalier, "we returned to the
+field of battle to give our hearty thanks to Almighty God for his
+extraordinary assistance, and afterwards stripped the corpses of the
+enemy, and secured their arms. We found a purse of one hundred
+pistoles in Captain Bimard's pocket, which was very acceptable, for we
+stood in great need thereof, and expended part of it in buying hats,
+shoes, and stockings for those who wanted them, and with the
+remainder bought six great mule loads of brandy, for our winter's
+supply, from a merchant who was sending it to be sold at Anduze
+market."[41]
+
+         [Footnote 41: "Memoirs of the Wars of the Cevennes," p. 74.]
+
+On the Sunday following, Cavalier held an assembly for public worship
+near Monteze on the Gardon, at which about five hundred persons were
+present. The governor of Alais, being informed of the meeting,
+resolved to put it down with a strong hand; and he set out for the
+purpose at the head of a force of about six hundred horse and foot. A
+mule accompanied him, laden with ropes with which to bind or hang the
+rebels. Cavalier had timely information, from scouts posted on the
+adjoining hills, of the approach of the governor's force, and though
+the number of fighting men in the Camisard assembly was comparatively
+small, they resolved to defend themselves.
+
+Sending away the women and others not bearing arms, Cavalier posted
+his little band behind an old entrenchment on the road along which the
+governor was approaching, and awaited his attack. The horsemen came on
+at the charge; but the Camisards, firing over the top of the
+entrenchment, emptied more than a dozen saddles, and then leaping
+forward, saluted them with a general discharge. At this, the horsemen
+turned and fled, galloping through the foot coming up behind them, and
+throwing them into complete disorder. The Camisards pulled off their
+coats, in order the better to pursue the fugitives.
+
+The Royalists were in full flight, when they were met by a
+reinforcement of two hundred men of Marsilly's regiment of foot. But
+these, too, were suddenly seized by the panic, and turned and fled
+with the rest, the Camisards pursuing them for nearly an hour, in the
+course of which they slew more than a hundred of the enemy. Besides
+the soldiers' clothes, of which they stripped the dead, the Camisards
+made prize of two loads of ammunition and a large quantity of arms,
+which they were very much in need of, and also of the ropes with which
+the governor had intended to hang them.
+
+Emboldened by these successes, Cavalier determined on making an attack
+on the strong castle of Servas, occupying a steep height on the east
+of the forest of Bouquet. Cavalier detested the governor and garrison
+of this place because they too closely watched his movements, and
+overlooked his head-quarters, which were in the adjoining forest; and
+they had, besides, distinguished themselves by the ferocity with which
+they attacked and dispersed recent assemblies in the Desert.
+
+Cavalier was, however, without the means of directly assaulting the
+place, and he waited for an opportunity of entering it, if possible,
+by stratagem. While passing along the road between Alais and Lussan
+one day, he met a detachment of about forty men of the royal army,
+whom he at once attacked, killing a number of them, and putting the
+rest to flight. Among the slain was the commanding officer of the
+party, in whose pockets was found an order signed by Count Broglie
+directing all town-majors and consuls to lodge him and his men along
+their line of march. Cavalier at once determined on making use of this
+order as a key to open the gates of the castle of Servas.
+
+He had twelve of his men dressed up in the clothes of the soldiers who
+had fallen, and six others in their ordinary Camisard dress bound with
+ropes as prisoners of war. Cavalier himself donned the uniform of the
+fallen officer; and thus disguised and well armed, the party moved up
+the steep ascent to the castle. On reaching the outer gate Cavalier
+presented the order of Count Broglie, and requested admittance for the
+purpose of keeping his pretended Camisard prisoners in safe custody
+for the night. He was at once admitted with his party. The governor
+showed him round the ramparts, pointing out the strength of the place,
+and boasting of the punishments he had inflicted on the rebels.
+
+At supper Cavalier's soldiers took care to drop into the room, one by
+one, apparently for orders, and suddenly, on a signal being given, the
+governor and his attendants were seized and bound. At the same time
+the guard outside was attacked and overpowered. The outer gates were
+opened, the Camisards rushed in, the castle was taken, and the
+garrison put to the sword.
+
+Cavalier and his band carried off with them to their magazine at
+Bouquet all the arms, ammunition, and provisions they could find, and
+before leaving they set fire to the castle. There must have been a
+large store of gunpowder in the vaults of the place besides what the
+Camisards carried away, for they had scarcely proceeded a mile on
+their return journey when a tremendous explosion took place, shaking
+the ground like an earthquake, and turning back, they saw the
+battlements of the detested Chateau Servas hurled into the air.
+
+Shortly after, Roland repeated at Sauve, a little fortified town hung
+along the side of a rocky hill a few miles to the south of Anduze, the
+stratagem which Cavalier had employed at Servas, and with like
+success. He disarmed the inhabitants, and carried off the arms and
+provisions in the place: and though he released the commandant and
+the soldiers whom he had taken prisoners, he shot a persecuting priest
+and a Capuchin monk, and destroyed all the insignia of Popery in
+Sauve.
+
+These terrible measures caused a new stampede of the clergy all over
+the Cevennes. The nobles and gentry also left their chateaux, the
+merchants their shops and warehouses, and took refuge in the fortified
+towns. Even the bishops of Mende, Uzes, and Alais barricaded and
+fortified their episcopal palaces, and organized a system of defence
+as if the hordes of Attila had been at their gates.
+
+With each fresh success the Camisards increased in daring, and every
+day the insurrection became more threatening and formidable. It
+already embraced the whole mountain district of the Cevennes, as well
+as a considerable extent of the low country between Nismes and
+Montpellier. The Camisard troops, headed by their chiefs, marched
+through the villages with drums beating in open day, and were
+quartered by billet on the inhabitants in like manner as the royal
+regiments. Roland levied imposts and even tithes throughout his
+district, and compelled the farmers, at the peril of their lives, to
+bring their stores of victual to the "Camp of the Eternal." In the
+midst of all, they held their meetings in the Desert, at which the
+chiefs preached, baptized, and administered the sacrament to their
+flocks.
+
+The constituted authorities seemed paralyzed by the extent of the
+insurrection, and the suddenness with which it spread. The governor of
+the province had so repeatedly reported to his royal master the
+pacification of Languedoc, that when this last and worst outbreak
+occurred he was ashamed to announce it. The peace at Ryswick had set at
+liberty a large force of soldiers, who had now no other occupation than
+to "convert" the Protestants and force them to attend Mass. About five
+hundred thousand men were now under arms for this purpose--occupied as a
+sort of police force, very much to their own degradation as soldiers.
+
+A large body of this otherwise unoccupied army had been placed under
+the direction of Baville for the purpose of suppressing the
+rebellion--an army of veteran horse and foot, whose valour had been
+tried in many hard-fought battles. Surely it was not to be said that
+this immense force could be baffled and defied by a few thousand
+peasants, cowherds, and wool-carders, fighting for what they
+ridiculously called their "rights of conscience!" Baville could not
+believe it; and he accordingly determined again to apply himself more
+vigorously than ever to the suppression of the insurrection, by means
+of the ample forces placed at his disposal.
+
+Again the troops were launched against the insurgents, and again and
+again they were baffled in their attempts to overtake and crush them.
+The soldiers became worn out by forced marches, in running from one
+place to another to disperse assemblies in the Desert. They were
+distracted by the number of places in which the rebels made their
+appearance. Cavalier ran from town to town, making his attacks
+sometimes late at night, sometimes in the early morning; but before
+the troops could come up he had done all the mischief he intended, and
+was perhaps fifty miles distant on another expedition. If the
+Royalists divided themselves into small bodies, they were in danger of
+being overpowered; and if they kept together in large bodies, they
+moved about with difficulty, and could not overtake the insurgents,
+"by reason," said Cavalier, "we could go further in three hours than
+they could in a whole day; regular troops not being used to march
+through woods and mountains as we did."
+
+At length the truth could not be concealed any longer. The States of
+Languedoc were summoned to meet at Montpellier, and there the
+desperate state of affairs was fully revealed. The bishops of the
+principal dioceses could with difficulty attend the meeting, and were
+only enabled to do so by the assistance of strong detachments of
+soldiers--the Camisards being masters of the principal roads. They
+filled the assembly with their lamentations, and declared that they
+had been betrayed by the men in power. At their urgent solicitation,
+thirty-two more companies of Catholic fusiliers and another regiment
+of dragoons were ordered to be immediately embodied in the district.
+The governor also called to his aid an additional regiment of dragoons
+from Rouergue; a battalion of marines from the ships-of-war lying at
+Marseilles and Toulon; a body of Miguelets from Roussillon, accustomed
+to mountain warfare; together with a large body of Irish officers and
+soldiers, part of the Irish Brigade.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+And how did it happen that the self-exiled Irish patriots were now in
+the Cevennes, helping the army of Louis XIV. to massacre the Camisards
+by way of teaching them a better religion? It happened thus: The
+banishment of the Huguenots from France, and their appearance under
+William III. in Ireland to fight at the Boyne and Augrhim, contributed
+to send the Irish Brigade over to France--though it must be confessed
+that the Irish Brigade fought much better for Louis XIV. than they had
+ever done for Ireland.
+
+After the surrender of Limerick in 1691, the principal number of the
+Irish followers of James II. declared their intention of abandoning
+Ireland and serving their sovereign's ally the King of France. The
+Irish historians allege that the number of the brigade at first
+amounted to nearly thirty thousand men.[42] Though, they fought
+bravely for France, and conducted themselves valiantly in many of her
+great battles, they were unfortunately put forward to do a great deal
+of dirty work for Louis XIV. One of the first campaigns they were
+engaged in was in Savoy, under Catinat, in repressing the Vaudois or
+Barbets.
+
+         [Footnote 42: O'Callaghan's "History of the Irish Brigades in
+         the service of France," p. 29.]
+
+The Vaudois peasantry were for the most part unarmed, and their only
+crime was their religion. The regiments of Viscount Clare and Viscount
+Dillon, principally distinguished themselves against the Vaudois. The
+war was one of extermination, in which many of the Barbets were
+killed. Mr. O'Connor states that between the number of the Alpine
+mountaineers cut off, and the extent of devastation and pillage
+committed amongst them by the Irish, Catinat's commission was executed
+with terrible fidelity; the memory of which "has rendered their name
+and nation odious to the Vaudois. Six generations," he remarks, "have
+since passed, away, but neither time nor subsequent calamities have
+obliterated the impression made by the waste and desolation of this
+military incursion."[43] Because of the outrages and destruction
+committed upon the women and children in the valleys in the absence of
+their natural defenders, the Vaudois still speak of the Irish as "the
+foreign assassins."
+
+         [Footnote 43: Ibid., p. 180.]
+
+The Brigade having thus faithfully served Louis XIV. in Piedmont,
+were now occupied in the same work in the Cevennes. The historian of
+the Brigade does not particularise the battles in which they were
+engaged with the Camisards, but merely announces that "on several
+occasions, the Irish appear to have distinguished themselves,
+especially their officers."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+When Cavalier heard of the vast additional forces about to be thrown
+into the Cevennes, he sought to effect a diversion by shifting the
+theatre of war. Marching down towards the low country with about two
+hundred men, he went from village to village in the Vaunage, holding
+assemblies of the people. His whereabouts soon became known to the
+Royalists, and Captain Bonnafoux, of the Calvisson militia, hearing
+that Cavalier was preaching one day at the village of St. Comes,
+hastened to capture him.
+
+Bonnafoux had already distinguished himself in the preceding year, by
+sabring two assemblies surprised by him at Vauvert and Caudiac, and
+his intention now was to serve Cavalier and his followers in like
+manner. Galloping up to the place of meeting, the Captain was
+challenged by the Camisard sentinel; and his answer was to shoot the
+man dead with his pistol. The report alarmed the meeting, then
+occupied in prayer; but rising from their knees, they at once formed
+in line and advanced to meet the foe, who turned and fled at their
+first discharge.
+
+Cavalier next went southward to Caudiac, where he waited for an
+opportunity of surprising Aimargues, and putting to the sword the
+militia, who had long been the scourge of the Protestants in that
+quarter. He entered the latter town on a fair day, and walked about
+amongst the people; but, finding that his intention was known, and
+that his enterprise was not likely to succeed, he turned aside and
+resolved upon another course. But first it was necessary that his
+troops should be supplied with powder and ammunition, of which they
+had run short. So, disguising himself as a merchant, and mounted on a
+horse with capacious saddlebags, he rode off to Nismes, close at hand,
+to buy gunpowder. He left his men in charge of his two lieutenants,
+Ravanel and Catinat, who prophesied to him that during his absence
+they would fight a battle and win a victory.
+
+Count Broglie had been promptly informed by the defeated Captain
+Bonnafoux that the Camisards were in the neighbourhood; and he set out
+in pursuit of them with a strong body of horse and foot. After several
+days' search amongst the vineyards near Nismes and the heathery hills
+about Milhaud, Broglie learnt that the Camisards were to be found at
+Caudiac. But when he reached that place he found the insurgents had
+already left, and taken a northerly direction. Broglie followed their
+track, and on the following day came up with them at a place called
+Mas de Gaffarel, in the Val de Bane, about three miles west of Nismes,
+The Royalists consisted of two hundred militia, commanded by the Count
+and his son, and two troops of dragoons, under Captain la Dourville
+and the redoubtable Captain Poul.
+
+The Camisards had only time to utter a short prayer, and to rise from
+their knees and advance singing their battle psalm, when Poul and his
+dragoons were upon them. Their charge was so furious that Ravanel and
+his men were at first thrown into disorder; but rallying, and bravely
+fighting, they held their ground. Captain Poul was brought to the
+ground by a stone hurled from a sling by a young Vauvert miller named
+Samuelet; Count Broglie himself was wounded by a musket-ball, and many
+of his dragoons lay stretched on the field. Catinat observing the fall
+of Poul, rushed forward, cut off his head with a sweep of his sabre,
+and mounting Poul's horse, almost alone chased the Royalists, now
+flying in all directions. Broglie did not draw breath until he had
+reached the secure shelter of the castle of Bernis.
+
+While these events were in progress, Cavalier was occupied on his
+mission of buying gunpowder in Nismes. He was passing along the
+Esplanade--then, as now, a beautiful promenade--when he observed from
+the excitement of the people, running about hither and thither, that
+something alarming had occurred. On making inquiry he was told that
+"the Barbets" were in the immediate neighbourhood, and it was even
+feared they would enter and sack the city. Shortly after, a trooper
+was observed galloping towards them at full speed along the
+Montpellier Road, without arms or helmet. He was almost out of breath
+when he came up, and could only exclaim that "All is lost! Count
+Broglie and Captain Poul are killed, and the Barbets are pursuing the
+remainder of the royal troops into the city!"
+
+The gates were at once ordered to be shut and barricaded; the
+_generale_ was beaten; the troops and militia were mustered; the
+priests ran about in the streets crying, "We are undone!" Some of the
+Roman Catholics even took shelter in the houses of the Protestants,
+calling upon them to save their lives. But the night passed, and with
+it their alarm, for the Camisards did not make their appearance. Next
+morning a message arrived from Count Broglie, shut up in the castle
+of Bernis, ordering the garrison to come to his relief.
+
+In the meantime, Cavalier, with the assistance of his friends in
+Nismes, had obtained the articles of which he was in need, and
+prepared to set out on his return journey. The governor and his
+detachment were issuing from the western gate as he left, and he
+accompanied them part of the way, still disguised as a merchant, and
+mounted on his horse, with a large portmanteau behind him, and
+saddlebags on either side full of gunpowder and ammunition. The
+Camisard chief mixed with the men, talking with them freely about the
+Barbets and their doings. When he came to the St. Hypolite road he
+turned aside; but they warned him that if he went that way he would
+certainly fall into the hands of the Barbets, and lose not only his
+horse and his merchandise, but his life. Cavalier thanked them for
+their advice, but said he was not afraid of the Barbets, and proceeded
+on his way, shortly rejoining his troop at the appointed rendez-vous.
+
+The Camisards crossed the Gardon by the bridge of St. Nicholas, and
+were proceeding towards their head-quarters at Bouquet, up the left
+bank of the river, when an attempt was made by the Chevalier de St.
+Chaptes, at the head of the militia of the district, to cut off their
+retreat. But Ravanel charged them with such fury as to drive the
+greater part into the Gardon, then swollen by a flood, and those who
+did not escape by swimming were either killed or drowned.
+
+Thus the insurrection seemed to grow, notwithstanding all the measures
+taken to repress it. The number of soldiers stationed in the province
+was from time to time increased; they were scattered in detachments
+all over the country, and the Camisards took care to give them but
+few opportunities of exhibiting their force, and then only when at a
+comparative disadvantage. The Royalists, at their wits' end,
+considered what was next to be done in order to the pacification of
+the country. The simple remedy, they knew, was to allow these poor
+simple people to worship in their own way without molestation. Grant
+them this privilege, and they were at any moment ready to lay down
+their arms, and resume their ordinary peaceful pursuits.
+
+But this was precisely what the King would not allow. To do so would
+be an admission of royal fallibility which neither he nor his advisers
+were prepared to make. To enforce conformity on his subjects, Louis
+XIV. had already driven some half-a-million of the best of them into
+exile, besides the thousands who had perished on gibbets, in dungeons,
+or at the galleys. And was he now to confess, by granting liberty of
+worship to these neatherds, carders, and peasants, that the rigorous
+policy of "the Most Christian King" had been an entire mistake?
+
+It was resolved, therefore, that no such liberty should be granted,
+and that these peasants, like the rest of the King's subjects, were to
+be forced, at the sword's point if necessary, to worship God in _his_
+way, and not in theirs. Viewed in this light, the whole proceeding
+would appear to be a ludicrous absurdity, but for its revolting
+impiety and the abominable cruelties with which it was accompanied.
+Yet the Royalists even blamed themselves for the mercy which they had
+hitherto shown to the Protestant peasantry; and the more virulent
+amongst them urged that the whole of the remaining population that
+would not at once conform to the Church of Rome, should forthwith be
+put to the sword!
+
+Brigadier Julien, an apostate Protestant, who had served under William
+of Orange in Ireland, and afterwards under the Duke of Savoy in
+Piedmont, disappointed with the slowness of his promotion, had taken
+service under Louis XIV., and was now employed as a partizan chief in
+the suppression of his former co-religionists in Languedoc. Like all
+renegades, he was a bitter and furious persecutor; and in the councils
+of Baville his voice was always raised for the extremest measures. He
+would utterly exterminate the insurgents, and, if necessary, reduce
+the country to a desert. "It is not enough," said he, "merely to kill
+those bearing arms; the villages which supply the combatants, and
+which give them shelter and sustenance, ought to be burnt down: thus
+only can the insurrection be suppressed."
+
+In a military point of view Julien was probably right; but the savage
+advice startled even Baville. "Nothing can be easier," said he, "than
+to destroy the towns and villages; but this would be to make a desert
+of one of the finest and most productive districts of Languedoc." Yet
+Baville himself eventually adopted the very policy which he now
+condemned.
+
+In the first place, however, it was determined to pursue and destroy
+Cavalier and his band. Eight hundred men, under the Count de Touman,
+were posted at Uzes; two battalions of the regiment of Hainault, under
+Julien, at Anduze; while Broglie, with a strong body of dragoons and
+militia, commanded the passes at St. Ambrose. These troops occupied,
+as it were, the three sides of a triangle, in the centre of which
+Cavalier was known to be in hiding in the woods of Bouquet. Converging
+upon him simultaneously, they hoped to surround and destroy him.
+
+But the Camisard chief was well advised of their movements. To draw
+them away from his magazines, Cavalier marched boldly to the north,
+and slipping through between the advancing forces, he got into
+Broglie's rear, and set fire to two villages inhabited by Catholics.
+The three bodies at once directed themselves upon the burning
+villages; but when they reached them Cavalier had made his escape, and
+was nowhere to be heard of. For four days they hunted the country
+between the Garden and the Ceze, beating the woods and exploring the
+caves; and then they returned, harassed and vexed, to their respective
+quarters.
+
+While the Royalists were thus occupied, Cavalier fell upon a convoy of
+provisions which Colonel Marsilly was leading to the castle of
+Mendajols, scattered and killed the escort, and carried off the mules
+and their loads to the magazines at Bouquet. During the whole of the
+month of January, the Camisards, notwithstanding the inclemency of the
+weather, were constantly on the move, making their appearance in the
+most unexpected quarters; Roland descending from Mialet on Anduze, and
+rousing Broglie from his slumbers by a midnight fusillade; Castanet
+attacking St. Andre, and making a bonfire of the contents of the
+church; Joany disarming Genouillac; and Lafleur terrifying the
+villages of the Lozere almost to the gates of Mende.
+
+Although the winters in the South of France, along the shores of the
+Mediterranean, are comparatively mild and genial, it is very different
+in the mountain districts of the interior, where the snow lies thick
+upon the ground, and the rivers are bound up by frost. Cavalier, in
+his Memoirs, describes the straits to which his followers were reduced
+in that inclement season, being "destitute of houses or beds,
+victuals, bread, or money, and left to struggle with hunger, cold,
+snow, misery, and poverty."
+
+     "General Broglie," he continues, "believed and hoped that though
+     he had not been able to destroy us with the sword, yet the
+     insufferable miseries of the winter would do him that good
+     office. Yet God Almighty prevented it through his power, and by
+     unexpected means his Providence ordered the thing so well that at
+     the end of the winter we found ourselves in being, and in a
+     better condition than we expected.... As for our retiring places,
+     we were used in the night-time to go into hamlets or sheepfolds
+     built in or near the woods, and thought ourselves happy when we
+     lighted upon a stone or piece of timber to make our pillows
+     withal, and a little straw or dry leaves to lie upon in our
+     clothes. We did in this condition sleep as gently and soundly as
+     if we had lain upon a down bed. The weather being extremely cold,
+     we had a great occasion for fire; but residing mostly in woods,
+     we used to get great quantity of faggots and kindle them, and so
+     sit round about them and warm ourselves. In this manner we spent
+     a quarter of a year, running up and down, sometimes one way and
+     sometimes another, through great forests and upon high mountains,
+     in deep snow and upon ice. And notwithstanding the sharpness of
+     the weather, the small stock of our provisions, and the marches
+     and counter-marches we were continually obliged to make, and
+     which gave us but seldom the opportunity of washing the only
+     shirt we had upon our back, not one amongst us fell sick. One
+     might have perceived in our visage a complexion as fresh as if we
+     had fed upon the most delicious meats, and at the end of the
+     season we found ourselves in a good disposition heartily to
+     commence the following campaign."[44]
+
+         [Footnote 44: Cavalier's "Memoirs of the Wars of the
+         Cevennes," pp. 111-114.]
+
+The campaign of 1703, the third year of the insurrection, began
+unfavourably for the Camisards. The ill-success of Count Broglie as
+commander of the royal forces in the Cevennes, determined Louis
+XIV.--from whom the true state of affairs could no longer be
+concealed--to supersede him by Marshal Montrevel, one of the ablest of
+his generals. The army of Languedoc was again reinforced by ten
+thousand of the best soldiers of France, drawn from the armies of
+Germany and Italy. It now consisted of three regiments of dragoons and
+twenty-four battalions of foot--of the Irish Brigade, the Miguelets,
+and the Languedoc fusiliers--which, with the local militia,
+constituted an effective force of not less than sixty thousand men!
+
+Such was the irresistible army, commanded by a marshal of France,
+three lieutenant-generals, three major-generals, and three
+brigadier-generals, now stationed in Languedoc, to crush the peasant
+insurrection. No wonder that the Camisard chiefs were alarmed when the
+intelligence reached them of this formidable force having been set in
+motion for their destruction.
+
+The first thing they determined upon was to effect a powerful
+diversion, and to extend, if possible, the area of the insurrection.
+For this purpose, Cavalier, at the head of eight hundred men,
+accompanied by thirty baggage mules, set out in the beginning of
+February, with the object of raising the Viverais, the north-eastern
+quarter of Languedoc, where the Camisards had numerous partizans. The
+snow was lying thick upon the ground when they set out; but the little
+army pushed northward, through Rochegude and Barjac. At the town of
+Vagnas they found their way barred by a body of six hundred militia,
+under the Count de Roure. These they attacked with great fury and
+speedily put to flight.
+
+But behind the Camisarde was a second and much stronger royalist
+force, eighteen hundred men, under Brigadier Julien, who had hastened
+up from Lussan upon Cavalier's track, and now hung upon his rear in
+the forest of Vagnas. Next morning the Camisards accepted battle,
+fought with their usual bravery, but having been trapped into an
+ambuscade, they were overpowered by numbers, and at length broke and
+fled in disorder, leaving behind them their mules, baggage, seven
+drums, and a quantity of arms, with some two hundred dead and
+wounded. Cavalier himself escaped with difficulty, and, after having
+been given up for lost, reached the rendez-vous at Bouquet in a state
+of complete exhaustion, Ravanel and Catinat having preceded him
+thither with, the remains of his broken army.
+
+Roland and Cavalier now altered their tactics. They resolved to avoid
+pitched battles such as that at Vagnas, where they were liable to be
+crushed at a blow, and to divide their forces into small detachments
+constantly on the move, harassing the enemy, interrupting their
+communications, and falling upon detached bodies whenever an
+opportunity for an attack presented itself.
+
+To the surprise of Montrevel, who supposed the Camisards finally
+crushed at Vagnas, the intelligence suddenly reached him of a
+multitude of attacks on fortified posts, burning of chateaux and
+churches, captures of convoys, and defeats of detached bodies of
+Royalists.
+
+Joany attacked Genouillac, cut to pieces the militia who defended it,
+and carried off their arms and ammunition, with other spoils, to the
+camp at Faux-des-Armes. Shortly after, in one of his incursions, he
+captured a convoy of forty mules laden with cloth, wine, and
+provisions for Lent; and, though hotly pursued by a much superior
+force, he succeeded in making his escape into the mountains.
+
+Castanet was not less active in the west--sacking and burning Catholic
+villages, and putting their inhabitants to the sword by way of
+reprisal for similar atrocities committed by the Royalists. At the
+same time, Montrevel pillaged and burned Euzet and St. Jean de
+Ceirarges, villages inhabited by Protestants; and there was not a
+hamlet but was liable at any moment to be sacked and destroyed by one
+or other of the contending parties.
+
+Nor was Roland idle. Being greatly in want of arms and ammunition, as
+well as of shoes and clothes for his men, he collected a considerable
+force, and made a descent, for the purpose of obtaining them, on the
+rich and populous towns of the south; more particularly on the
+manufacturing town of Ganges, where the Camisards had many friends.
+Although Roland, to divert the attention of Montrevel from Ganges,
+sent a detachment of his men into the neighbourhood of Nismes to raise
+the alarm there, it was not long before a large royalist force was
+directed against him.
+
+Hearing that Montrevel was marching upon Ganges, Roland hastily left
+for the north, but was overtaken near Pompignan by the marshal at the
+head of an army of regular horse and foot, including several regiments
+of local militia, Miguelets, marines, and Irish. The Royalists were
+posted in such a manner as to surround the Camisards, who, though they
+fought with their usual impetuosity, and succeeded in breaking through
+the ranks of their enemies, suffered a heavy loss in dead and wounded.
+Roland himself escaped with difficulty, and with his broken forces
+fled through Durfort to his stronghold at Mialet.
+
+After the battle, Marshal Montrevel returned to Ganges, where he
+levied a fine of ten thousand livres on the Protestant population,
+giving up their houses to pillage, and hanging a dozen of those who
+had been the most prominent in abetting the Camisards during their
+recent visit. At the game time, he reported to head-quarters at Paris
+that he had entirely destroyed the rebels, and that Languedoc was now
+"pacified."
+
+Much to his surprise, however, not many weeks elapsed before
+Cavalier, who had been laid up by the small-pox during Roland's
+expedition to Ganges, again appeared in the field, attacking convoys,
+entering the villages and carrying off arms, and spreading terror anew
+to the very gates of Nismes. He returned northwards by the valley of
+the Rhone, driving before him flocks and herds for the provisioning of
+his men, and reached his retreat at Bouquet in safety. Shortly after,
+he issued from it again, and descended upon Ners, where he destroyed a
+detachment of troops under Colonel de Jarnaud; next day he crossed the
+Gardon, and cut up a reinforcement intended for the garrison of
+Sommieres; and the day after he was heard of in another place,
+attacking a convoy, and carrying off arms, ammunition, and provisions.
+
+Montrevel was profoundly annoyed at the failure of his efforts thus
+far to suppress the insurrection. It even seemed to increase and
+extend with every new measure taken to crush it. A marshal of France,
+at the head of sixty thousand men, he feared lest he should lose
+credit with his friends at court unless he were able at once to root
+out these miserable cowherds and wool-carders who continued to bid
+defiance to the royal authority which he represented; and he
+determined to exert himself with renewed vigour to exterminate them
+root and branch.
+
+In this state of irritation the intelligence was one day brought to
+the marshal while sitting over his wine after dinner at Nismes, that
+an assembly of Huguenots was engaged in worship in a mill situated on
+the canal outside the Port-des-Carmes. He at once ordered out a
+battalion of foot, marched on the mill, and surrounded it. The
+soldiers burst open the door, and found from two to three hundred
+women, children, and old men engaged in prayer; and proceeded to put
+them to the sword. But the marshal, impatient at the slowness of the
+butchery, ordered the men to desist and to fire the place. This order
+was obeyed, and the building, being for the most part of wood, was
+soon wrapped in flames, from amidst which rose the screams of women
+and children. All who tried to escape were bayoneted, or driven back
+into the burning mill. Every soul perished--all excepting a girl, who
+was rescued by one of Montrevel's servants. But the pitiless marshal
+ordered both the girl and her deliverer to be put to death. The former
+was hanged forthwith, but the lackey's life was spared at the
+intercession of some sisters of mercy accidentally passing the place.
+
+In the same savage and relentless spirit, Montrevel proceeded to
+extirpate the Huguenots wherever found. He caused all suspected
+persons in twenty-two parishes in the diocese of Nismes to be seized
+and carried off. The men were transported to North America, and the
+women and children imprisoned in the fortresses of Roussillon.
+
+But the most ruthless measures were those which were adopted in the
+Upper Cevennes: there nothing short of devastation would satisfy the
+marshal. Thirty-two parishes were completely laid waste; the cattle,
+grain, and produce which they contained were seized and carried into
+the towns of refuge garrisoned by the Royalists--Alais, Anduze,
+Florac, St. Hypolite, and Nismes--so that nothing should be left
+calculated to give sustenance to the rebels. Four hundred and
+sixty-six villages and hamlets were reduced to mere heaps of ashes and
+blackened ruins, and such of their inhabitants as were not slain by
+the soldiery fled with their families into the wilderness.
+
+All the principal villages inhabited by the Protestants were thus
+completely destroyed, together with their mills and barns, and every
+building likely to give them shelter. Mialet was sacked and
+burnt--Roland, still suffering from his wounds, being unable to strike
+a blow in defence of his stronghold. St. Julien was also plundered and
+levelled, and its inhabitants carried captive to Montpellier, where
+the women and children were imprisoned, and the men sent to the
+galleys.
+
+When Cavalier heard of the determination of Montrevel to make a desert
+of the country, he sent word to him that for every Huguenot village
+destroyed he would destroy two inhabited by the Romanists. Thus the
+sacking and burning on the one side was immediately followed by
+increased sacking and burning on the other. The war became one of
+mutual destruction and extermination, and the unfortunate inhabitants
+on both sides were delivered over to all the horrors of civil war.
+
+So far, however, from the Camisards being suppressed, the destruction
+of the dwellings of the Huguenots only served to swell their numbers,
+and they descended from their mountains upon the Catholics of the
+plains in increasing force and redoubled fury. Montlezan was utterly
+destroyed--all but the church, which was strongly barricaded, and
+resisted Cavalier's attempts to enter it. Aurillac, also, was in like
+manner sacked and gutted, and the destroying torrent swept over all
+the towns and villages of the Cevennes.
+
+Cavalier was so ubiquitous, so daring, and often so successful in his
+attacks, that of all the Camisard leaders he was held to be the most
+dangerous, and a high price was accordingly set upon his head by the
+governor. Hence many attempts were made to betray him. He was haunted
+by spies, some of whom even succeeded in obtaining admission to his
+ranks. More than once the spies were detected--it was pretended
+through prophetic influence--and immediately shot. But on one occasion
+Cavalier and his whole force narrowly escaped destruction through the
+betrayal of a pretended follower.
+
+While the Royalists were carrying destruction through the villages of
+the Upper Cevennes, Cavalier, Salomon, and Abraham, in order to divert
+them from their purpose, resolved upon another descent into the low
+country, now comparatively ungarrisoned. With this object they
+gathered together some fifteen hundred men, and descended from the
+mountains by Collet, intending to cross the Gardon at Beaurivage. On
+Sunday, the 29th of April, they halted in the wood of Malaboissiere, a
+little north of Mialet, for a day's preaching and worship; and after
+holding three services, which were largely attended, they directed
+their steps to the Tower of Belliot, a deserted farmhouse on the south
+of the present high road between Alais and Anduze.
+
+The house had been built on the ruins of a feudal castle, and took its
+name from one of the old towers still standing. It was surrounded by a
+dry stone wall, forming a court, the entrance to which was closed by
+hurdles. On their arrival at this place late at night, the Camisards
+partook of the supper which had been prepared for them by their
+purveyor on the occasion--a miller of the neighbourhood, named
+Guignon--whose fidelity was assured not only by his apparent piety,
+but by the circumstance that two of his sons belonged to Cavalier's
+band.
+
+No sooner, however, had the Camisards lain down to sleep than the
+miller, possessed by the demon of gold, set out directly for Alais,
+about three miles distant, and, reaching the quarters of Montrevel,
+sold the secret of Cavalier's sleeping-place to the marshal for fifty
+pieces of gold, and together with it the lives of his own sons and
+their fifteen hundred companions.
+
+The marshal forthwith mustered all the available troops in Alais,
+consisting of eight regiments of foot (of which one was Irish) and two
+of dragoons, and set out at once for the Tower of Belliot, taking the
+precaution to set a strict guard upon all the gates, to prevent the
+possibility of any messenger leaving the place to warn Cavalier of his
+approach. The Royalists crept towards the tower in three bodies, so as
+to cut off their retreat in every direction. Meanwhile, the Camisards,
+unapprehensive of danger, lay wrapped in slumber, filling the tower,
+the barns, the stables, and outhouses.
+
+The night was dark, and favoured the Royalists' approach. Suddenly,
+one of their divisions came upon the advanced Camisard sentinels. They
+fired, but were at once cut down. Those behind fled back to the
+sleeping camp, and raised the cry of alarm. Cavalier started up,
+calling his men "to arms," and, followed by about four hundred, he
+precipitated himself on the heads of the advancing columns. Driven
+back, they rallied again, more troops coming up to their support, and
+again they advanced to the attack.
+
+To his dismay, Cavalier found the enemy in overwhelming force,
+enveloping his whole position. By great efforts he held them back
+until some four or five hundred more of his men had joined him, and
+then he gave way and retired behind a ravine or hollow, probably
+forming part of the fosse of the ancient chateau. Having there rallied
+his followers, he recrossed the ravine to make another desperate
+effort to relieve the remainder of his troop shut up in the tower.
+
+A desperate encounter followed, in the midst of which two of the
+royalist columns, mistaking each other for enemies in the darkness,
+fired into each other and increased the confusion and the carnage. The
+moon rose on this dreadful scene, and revealed to the Royalists the
+smallness of the force opposed to them. The struggle was renewed again
+and again; Cavalier still seeking to relieve those shut up in the
+tower, and the Royalists, now concentrated and in force, to surround
+and destroy him.
+
+At length, after the struggle had lasted for about five hours,
+Cavalier, in order to save the rest of his men, resolved on retiring
+before daybreak; and he succeeded in effecting his retreat without
+being pursued by the enemy.
+
+The three hundred Camisards who continued shut up in the tower refused
+to surrender. They transformed the ruin into a fortress, barricading
+every entrance, and firing from every loophole. When their ammunition
+was expended, they hurled stones, joists, and tiles down upon their
+assailants from the summit of the tower. For four more hours they
+continued to hold out. Cannon were sent for from Alais, to blow in the
+doors; but before they arrived all was over. The place had been set on
+fire by hand grenades, and the imprisoned Camisards, singing psalms
+amidst the flames to their last breath, perished to a man.
+
+This victory cost Montrevel dear. He lost some twelve hundred dead and
+wounded before the fatal Tower of Belliot; whilst Cavalier's loss was
+not less than four hundred dead, of whom a hundred and eighteen were
+found at daybreak along the brink of the ravine. One of these was
+mistaken for the body of Cavalier; on which Montrevel, with
+characteristic barbarity, ordered the head to be cut off and sent to
+_Cavalier's mother_ for identification!
+
+From the slight glimpses we obtain of the _man_ Montrevel in the
+course of these deplorable transactions, there seems to have been
+something ineffably mean and spiteful in his nature. Thus, on another
+occasion, in a fit of rage at having been baffled by the young
+Camisard leader, he dispatched a squadron of dragoons to Ribaute for
+the express purpose of pulling down the house in which Cavalier had
+been born!
+
+A befitting sequel to this sanguinary struggle at the Tower of Belliot
+was the fate of Guignon, the miller, who had betrayed the sleeping
+Camisards to Montrevel. His crime was discovered. The gold was found
+upon him. He was tried, and condemned to death. The Camisards, under
+arms, assembled to see the sentence carried out. They knelt round the
+doomed man, while the prophets by turn prayed for his soul, and
+implored the clemency of the Sovereign Judge. Guignon professed the
+utmost contrition, besought the pardon of his brethren, and sought
+leave to embrace for the last time his two sons--privates in the
+Camisard ranks. The two young men, however, refused the proffered
+embrace with a gesture of apparent disgust; and they looked on, the
+sad and stern spectators of the traitor's punishment.
+
+Again Montrevel thought he had succeeded in crushing the insurrection,
+and that he had cut off its head with that of the Camisard chief. But
+his supposed discovery of the dead body proved an entire mistake; and
+not many days elapsed before Cavalier made his appearance before the
+gates of Alais, and sent in a challenge to the governor to come out
+and fight him. And it is to be observed that by this time a fiercely
+combative spirit, of fighting for fighting's sake, began to show
+itself among the Camisards. Thus, Castanet appeared one day before the
+gates of Meyreuis, where the regiment of Cordes was stationed, and
+challenged the colonel to come out and fight him in the open; but the
+challenge was declined. On another occasion, Cavalier in like manner
+challenged the commander of Vic to bring out thirty of his soldiers
+and fight thirty Camisards. The challenge was accepted, and the battle
+took place; they fought until ten men only remained alive on either
+side, but the Camisards were masters of the field.
+
+Montrevel only redoubled his efforts to exterminate the Camisards. He
+had no other policy. In the summer of 1703 the Pope (Clement XI.) came
+to his assistance, issuing a bull against the rebels as being of "the
+execrable race of the ancient Albigenses," and promising "absolute and
+general remission of sins" to all such as should join the holy militia
+of Louis XIV. in "exterminating the cursed heretics and miscreants,
+enemies alike of God and of Caesar."
+
+A special force was embodied with this object--the Florentines, or
+"White Camisards"--distinguished by the white cross which they wore in
+front of their hats. They were for the most part composed of
+desperadoes and miscreants, and went about pillaging and burning, with
+so little discrimination between friend and foe, that the Catholics
+themselves implored the marshal to suppress them. These Florentines
+were the perpetrators of such barbarities that Roland determined to
+raise a body of cavalry to hunt them down; and with that object,
+Catinat, the old dragoon, went down to the Camargues--a sort of
+island-prairies lying between the mouths of the Rhone--where the Arabs
+had left a hardy breed of horses; and there he purchased some two
+hundred steeds wherewith to mount the Camisard horse, to the command
+of which Catinat was himself appointed.
+
+It is unnecessary to particularise the variety of combats, of
+marchings and countermarchings, which occurred during the progress of
+the insurrection. Between the contending parties, the country was
+reduced to a desert. Tillage ceased, for there was no certainty of the
+cultivator reaping the crop; more likely it would be carried off or
+burnt by the conflicting armies. Beggars and vagabonds wandered about
+robbing and plundering without regard to party or religion; and social
+security was entirely at an end.
+
+Meanwhile, Montrevel still called for more troops. Of the twenty
+battalions already entrusted to him, more than one-third had perished;
+and still the insurrection was not suppressed. He hoped, however, that
+the work was now accomplished; and, looking to the wasted condition of
+the country, that the famine and cold of the winter of 1703-4 would
+complete the destruction of such of the rebels as still survived.
+
+During the winter, however, the Camisard chiefs had not only been able
+to keep their forces together, but to lay up a considerable store of
+provisions and ammunition, principally by captures from the enemy; and
+in the following spring they were in a position to take the field in
+even greater force than ever. They, indeed, opened the campaign by
+gaining two important victories over the Royalists; but though they
+were their greatest, they were also nearly their last.
+
+The battle of Martinargues was the Cannae of the Camisards. It was
+fought near the village of that name, not far from Ners, early in the
+spring of 1704. The campaign had been opened by the Florentines, who,
+now that they had made a desert of the Upper Cevennes, were burning
+and ravaging the Protestant villages of the plain. Cavalier had put
+himself on their track, and pursued and punished them so severely,
+that in their distress they called upon Montrevel to help them,
+informing him of the whereabouts of the Camisards.
+
+A strong royalist force of horse and foot was immediately sent in
+pursuit, under the command of Brigadier Lajonquiere. He first marched
+upon the Protestant village of Lascours, where Cavalier had passed the
+previous night. The brigadier severely punished the inhabitants for
+sheltering the Camisards, putting to death four persons, two of them
+girls, whom he suspected to be Cavalier's prophetesses. On the people
+refusing to indicate the direction in which the Camisards had gone, he
+gave the village up to plunder, and the soldiers passed several hours
+ransacking the place, in the course of which they broke open and
+pillaged the wine-cellars.
+
+Meanwhile, Cavalier and his men had proceeded in a northerly
+direction, along the right bank of the little river Droude, one of the
+affluents of the Gardon. A messenger from Lascours overtook him,
+telling him of the outrages committed on the inhabitants of the
+village; and shortly after, the inhabitants of Lascours themselves
+came up--men, women, and children, who had been driven from their
+pillaged homes by the royalist soldiery. Cavalier was enraged at the
+recital of their woes; and though his force was not one-sixth the
+strength of the enemy, he determined to meet their advance and give
+them battle.
+
+Placing the poor people of Lascours in safety, the Camisard leader
+took up his position on a rising ground at the head of a little valley
+close to the village of Martinargues. Cavalier himself occupied the
+centre, his front being covered by a brook running in the hollow of a
+ravine. Ravanel and Catinat, with a small body of men, were posted
+along the two sides of the valley, screened by brushwood. The
+approaching Royalists, seeing before them only the feeble force of
+Cavalier, looked upon his capture as certain.
+
+"See!" cried Lajonquiere, "at last we have hold of the Barbets we have
+been so long looking for!" With his dragoons in the centre, flanked by
+the grenadiers and foot, the Royalists advanced with confidence to the
+charge. At the first volley, the Camisards prostrated themselves, and
+the bullets went over their heads. Thinking they had fallen before his
+fusillade, the commander ordered his men to cross the ravine and fall
+upon the remnant with the bayonet. Instantly, however, Cavalier's men
+started to their feet, and smote the assailants with a deadly volley,
+bringing down men and horses. At the same moment, the two wings, until
+then concealed, fired down upon the Royalists and completed their
+confusion. The Camisards, then raising their battle-psalm, rushed
+forward and charged the enemy. The grenadiers resisted stoutly, but
+after a few minutes the entire body--dragoons, grenadiers, marines,
+and Irish--fled down the valley towards the Gardon, and the greater
+number of those who were not killed were drowned, Lajonquiere himself
+escaping with difficulty.
+
+In this battle perished a colonel, a major, thirty-three captains and
+lieutenants, and four hundred and fifty men, while Cavalier's loss was
+only about twenty killed and wounded. A great booty was picked up on
+the field, of gold, silver, jewels, ornamented swords, magnificent
+uniforms, scarfs, and clothing, besides horses, as well as the plunder
+brought from Lascours.
+
+The opening of the Lascours wine-cellars proved the ruin of the
+Royalists, for many of the men were so drunk that they were unable
+either to fight or fly. After returning thanks to God on the
+battle-field, Cavalier conducted the rejoicing people of Lascours back
+to their village, and proceeded to his head-quarters at Bouquet with
+his booty and his trophies.
+
+Another encounter shortly followed at the Bridge of Salindres, about
+midway between Auduze and St. Jean du Gard, in which Roland inflicted
+an equally decisive defeat on a force commanded by Brigadier Lalande.
+Informed of the approach of the Royalists, Roland posted his little
+army in the narrow, precipitous, and rocky valley, along the bottom of
+which runs the river Gardon. Dividing his men into three bodies, he
+posted one on the bridge, another in ambuscade at the entrance to the
+defile, and a third on the summit of the precipice overhanging the
+road.
+
+The Royalists had scarcely advanced to the attack of the bridge, when
+the concealed Camisards rushed out and assailed their rear, while
+those stationed above hurled down rocks and stones, which threw them
+into complete disorder. They at once broke and fled, rushing down to
+the river, into which they threw themselves; and but for Roland's
+neglect in guarding the steep footpath leading to the ford at the
+mill, the whole body would have been destroyed. As it was, they
+suffered heavy loss, the general himself escaping with difficulty,
+leaving his white-plumed hat behind him in the hands of the Camisards.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+END OF THE CAMISARD INSURRECTION.
+
+
+The insurrection in the Cevennes had continued for more than two
+years, when at length it began to excite serious uneasiness at
+Versailles. It was felt to be a source of weakness as well as danger
+to France, then at war with Portugal, England, and Savoy. What
+increased the alarm of the French Government was the fact that the
+insurgents were anxiously looking abroad for help, and endeavouring to
+excite the Protestant governments of the North to strike a blow in
+their behalf.
+
+England and Holland had been especially appealed to. Large numbers of
+Huguenot soldiers were then serving in the English army; and it was
+suggested that if they could effect a landing on the coast of
+Languedoc, and co-operate with the Camisards, it would at the same
+time help the cause of religious liberty, and operate as a powerful
+diversion in favour of the confederate armies, then engaged with the
+armies of France in the Low Countries and on the Rhine.
+
+In order to ascertain the feasibility of the proposed landing, and the
+condition of the Camisard insurgents, the ministry of Queen Anne sent
+the Marquis de Miremont, a Huguenot refugee in England, on a mission
+to the Cevennes; and he succeeded in reaching the insurgent camp at
+St. Felix, where he met Roland and the other leaders, and arranged
+with them for the descent of a body of Huguenot soldiers on the coast.
+
+In the month of September, 1703, the English fleet was descried in the
+Gulf of Lyons, off Aiguesmortes, making signals, which, however, were
+not answered. Marshal Montrevel had been warned of the intended
+invasion; and, summoning troops from all quarters, he so effectually
+guarded the coast, that a landing was found impracticable. Though
+Cavalier was near at hand, he was unable at any point to communicate
+with the English ships; and after lying off for a few days, they
+spread their sails, and the disheartened Camisards saw their intended
+liberators disappear in the distance.
+
+The ministers of Louis XIV. were greatly alarmed by this event. The
+invasion had been frustrated for the time, but the English fleet might
+return, and eventually succeed in effecting a landing. The danger,
+therefore, had to be provided against, and at once. It became clear,
+even to Louis XIV. himself, that the system of terror and coercion
+which had heretofore been exclusively employed against the insurgents,
+had proved a total failure. It was accordingly determined to employ
+some other means, if possible, of bringing this dangerous insurrection
+to an end. In pursuance of this object, Montrevel, to his intense
+mortification, was recalled, and the celebrated Marshal Villars, the
+victor of Hochstadt and Friedlingen, was appointed in his stead, with
+full powers to undertake and carry out the pacification of Languedoc.
+
+Villars reached Nismes towards the end of August, 1704; but before his
+arrival, Montrevel at last succeeded in settling accounts with
+Cavalier, and wiped out many old scores by inflicting upon him the
+severest defeat the Camisard arms had yet received. It was his first
+victory over Cavalier, and his last.
+
+Cavalier's recent successes had made him careless. Having so often
+overcome the royal troops against great odds, he began to think
+himself invincible, and to despise his enemy. His success at
+Martinargues had the effect of greatly increasing his troops; and he
+made a descent upon the low country in the spring of 1704, at the head
+of about a thousand foot and two hundred horse.
+
+Appearing before Bouciran, which he entered without resistance, he
+demolished the fortifications, and proceeded southwards to St. Genies,
+which he attacked and took, carrying away horses, mules, and arms.
+Next day he marched still southward to Caveirac, only about three
+miles east of Nismes.
+
+Montrevel designedly published his intention of taking leave of his
+government on a certain day, and proceeding to Montpellier with only a
+very slender force--pretending to send the remainder to Beaucaire, in
+the opposite direction, for the purpose of escorting Villars, his
+successor, into the city. His object in doing this was to deceive the
+Camisard leader, and to draw him into a trap.
+
+The intelligence became known to Cavalier, who now watched the
+Montpellier road, for the purpose of inflicting a parting blow upon
+his often-baffled enemy. Instead, however, of Montrevel setting out
+for Montpellier with a small force, he mustered almost the entire
+troops belonging to the garrison of Nismes--over six thousand horse
+and foot--and determined to overwhelm Cavalier, who lay in his way.
+Montrevel divided his force into several bodies, and so disposed them
+as completely to surround the comparatively small Camisard force,
+near Langlade. The first encounter was with the royalist regiment of
+Firmarcon, which Cavalier completely routed; but while pursuing them
+too keenly, the Camisards were assailed in flank by a strong body of
+foot posted in vineyards along the road, and driven back upon the main
+body. The Camisards now discovered that a still stronger battalion was
+stationed in their rear; and, indeed, wherever they turned, they saw
+the Royalists posted in force. There was no alternative but cutting
+their way through the enemy; and Cavalier, putting himself at the head
+of his men, led the way, sword in hand.
+
+A terrible struggle ensued, and the Camisards at last reached the
+bridge at Rosni; but there, too, the Royalists were found blocking the
+road, and crowding the heights on either side. Cavalier, to avoid
+recognition, threw off his uniform, and assumed the guise of a simple
+Camisard. Again he sought to force his way through the masses of the
+enemy. His advance was a series of hand-to-hand fights, extending over
+some six miles, and the struggle lasted for nearly the entire day.
+More than a thousand dead strewed the roads, of whom one half were
+Camisards. The Royalists took five drums, sixty-two horses, and four
+mules laden with provisions, but not one prisoner.
+
+When Villars reached Nismes and heard of this battle, he went to see
+the field, and expressed his admiration at the skill and valour of the
+Camisard chief. "Here is a man," said he, "of no education, without
+any experience in the art of war, who has conducted himself under the
+most difficult and delicate circumstances as if he had been a great
+general. Truly, to fight such a battle were worthy of Caesar!"
+
+Indeed, the conduct of Cavalier in this struggle so impressed Marshal
+Villars, that he determined, if possible, to gain him over, together
+with his brave followers, to the ranks of the royal army. Villars was
+no bigot, but a humane and honourable man, and a thorough soldier. He
+deplored the continuance of this atrocious war, and proceeded to take
+immediate steps to bring it, if possible, to a satisfactory
+conclusion.
+
+In the meantime, however, the defeat of the Camisards had been
+followed by other reverses. During the absence of Cavalier in the
+South, the royalist general Lalande, at the head of five thousand
+troops, fell upon the joint forces of Roland and Joany at Brenoux, and
+completely defeated them. The same general lay in wait for the return
+of Cavalier with his broken forces, to his retreat near Euzet; and on
+his coming up, the Royalists, in overpowering numbers, fell upon the
+dispirited Camisards, and inflicted upon them another heavy loss.
+
+But a greater calamity, if possible, was the discovery and capture of
+Cavalier's magazines in the caverns near Euzet. The royalist soldiers,
+having observed an old woman frequently leaving the village for the
+adjoining wood with a full basket and returning with an empty one,
+suspected her of succouring the rebels, arrested her, and took her
+before the general. When questioned at first she would confess
+nothing; on which she was ordered forthwith to be hanged. When taken
+to the gibbet in the market-place, however, the old woman's resolution
+gave way, and she entreated to be taken back to the general, when she
+would confess everything. She then acknowledged that she had the care
+of an hospital in the adjoining wood, and that her daily errands had
+been thither. She was promised pardon if she led the soldiers at once
+to the place; and she did so, a battalion following at her heels.
+
+Advancing into the wood, the old woman led the soldiers to the mouth
+of a cavern, into which she pointed, and the men entered. The first
+sight that met their eyes was a number of sick and wounded Camisards
+lying upon couches along ledges cut in the rock. They were immediately
+put to death. Entering further into the cavern, the soldiers were
+surprised to find in an inner vault an immense magazine of grain,
+flour, chestnuts, beans, barrels of wine and brandy; farther in,
+stores of drugs, ointment, dressings, and hospital furnishings; and
+finally, an arsenal containing a large store of sabres, muskets,
+pistols, and gunpowder, together with the materials for making it; all
+of which the Royalists seized and carried off.
+
+Lalande, before leaving Euzet, inflicted upon it a terrible
+punishment. He gave it up to pillage, then burnt it to the ground, and
+put the inhabitants to the sword--all but the old woman, who was left
+alone amidst the corpses and ashes of the ruined village. Lalande
+returned in triumph to Alais, some of his soldiers displaying on the
+points of their bayonets the ears of the slain Camisards.
+
+Other reverses followed in quick succession. Salomon was attacked near
+Pont-de-Montvert, the birthplace of the insurrection, and lost some
+eight hundred of his men. His magazines at Magistavols were also
+discovered and ransacked, containing, amongst other stores, twenty
+oxen and a hundred sheep.
+
+Thus, in four combats, the Camisards lost nearly half their forces,
+together with a large part of their arms, ammunition, and provisions.
+The country occupied by them had been ravaged and reduced to a state
+of desert, and there seemed but little prospect of their again being
+able to make head against their enemies.
+
+The loss of life during the last year of the insurrection had been
+frightful. Some twenty thousand men had perished--eight thousand
+soldiers, four thousand of the Roman Catholic population, and from
+seven to eight thousand Protestants.
+
+Villars had no sooner entered upon the functions of his office than he
+set himself to remedy this dreadful state of things. He was encouraged
+in his wise intentions by the Baron D'Aigalliers, a Protestant
+nobleman of high standing and great influence, who had emigrated into
+England at the Revocation, but had since returned. This nobleman
+entertained the ardent desire of reconciling the King with his
+Protestant subjects; and he was encouraged by the French Court to
+endeavour to bring the rebels of the Cevennes to terms.
+
+One of the first things Villars did, was to proceed on a journey
+through the devastated districts; and he could not fail to be
+horrified at the sight of the villages in ruins, the wasted vineyards,
+the untilled fields, and the deserted homesteads which met his eyes on
+every side. Wherever he went, he gave it out that he was ready to
+pardon all persons--rebels as well as their chiefs--who should lay
+down their arms and submit to the royal clemency; but that, if they
+continued obstinate and refused to submit, he would proceed against
+them to the last extremity. He even offered to put arms in the hands
+of such of the Protestant population as would co-operate with him in
+suppressing the insurrection.
+
+In the meantime, the defeated Camisards under Roland were reorganizing
+their forces, and preparing again to take the field. They were
+unwilling to submit themselves to the professed clemency of Villars,
+without some sufficient guarantee that their religious rights--in
+defence of which they had taken up arms--would be respected. Roland
+was already establishing new magazines in place of those which had
+been destroyed; he was again recruiting his brigades from the
+Protestant communes, and many of those who had recovered from their
+wounds again rallied under his standard.
+
+At this juncture, D'Aigalliers suggested to Villars that a negotiation
+should be opened directly with the Camisard chiefs to induce them to
+lay down their arms. Roland refused to listen to any overtures; but
+Cavalier was more accessible, and expressed himself willing to
+negotiate for peace provided his religion was respected and
+recognised.
+
+And Cavalier was right. He saw clearly that longer resistance was
+futile, that it could only end in increased devastation and
+destruction; and he was wise in endeavouring to secure the best
+possible terms under the circumstances for his suffering
+co-religionists. Roland, who refused all such overtures, was the more
+uncompromising and tenacious of purpose; but Cavalier, notwithstanding
+his extreme youth, was by far the more practical and politic of the
+two.
+
+There is no doubt also that Cavalier had begun to weary of the
+struggle. He became depressed and sad, and even after a victory he
+would kneel down amidst the dead and wounded, and pray to God that He
+would turn the heart of the King to mercy, and help to re-establish
+the ancient temples throughout the land.
+
+An interview with Cavalier was eventually arranged by Lalande. The
+brigadier invited him to a conference, guaranteeing him safe conduct,
+and intimating that if he refused the meeting, he would be regarded as
+the enemy of peace, and held responsible before God and man for all
+future bloodshed. Cavalier replied to Lalande's invitation, accepting
+the interview, indicating the place and the time of meeting.
+
+Catinat, the Camisard general of horse, was the bearer of Cavalier's
+letter, and he rode on to Alais to deliver it, arrayed in magnificent
+costume. Lalande was at table when Catinat was shown in to him.
+Observing the strange uniform and fierce look of the intruder, the
+brigadier asked who he was. "Catinat!" was the reply. "What," cried
+Lalande, "are you the Catinat who killed so many people in Beaucaire?"
+"Yes, it is I," said Catinat, "and I only endeavoured to do my duty."
+"You are hardy, indeed, to dare to show yourself before me." "I have
+come," said the Camisard, "in good faith, persuaded that you are an
+honest man, and on the assurance of my brother Cavalier that you would
+do me no harm. I come to deliver you his letter." And so saying, he
+handed it to the brigadier. Hastily perusing the letter, Lalande said,
+"Go back to Cavalier, and tell him that in two hours I shall be at the
+Bridge of Avene with only ten officers and thirty dragoons."
+
+The interview took place at the time appointed, on the bridge over the
+Avene, a few miles south of Alais. Cavalier arrived, attended by three
+hundred foot and sixty Camisard dragoons. When the two chiefs
+recognised each other, they halted their escorts, dismounted, and,
+followed by some officers, proceeded on foot to meet each other.
+
+Lalande had brought with him Cavalier's younger brother, who had been
+for some time a prisoner, and presented him, saying, "The King gives
+him to you in token of his merciful intentions." The brothers, who
+had not met since their mother's death, embraced and wept. Cavalier
+thanked the general; and then, leaving their officers, the two went on
+one side, and conferred together alone.
+
+"The King," said Lalande, "wishes, in the exercise of his clemency, to
+terminate this war amongst his subjects; what are your terms and your
+demands?" "They consist of three things," replied Cavalier: "liberty
+of worship; the deliverance of our brethren who are in prison and at
+the galleys; and, if the first condition be refused, then free
+permission to leave France." "How many persons would wish to leave the
+kingdom?" asked Lalande. "Ten thousand of various ages and both
+sexes." "Ten thousand! It is impossible! Leave might possibly be
+granted for two, but certainly not for ten." "Then," said Cavalier,
+"if the King will not allow us to leave the kingdom, he will at least
+re-establish our ancient edicts and privileges?"
+
+Lalande promised to report the result of the conference to the
+marshal, though he expressed a doubt whether he could agree to the
+terms proposed. The brigadier took leave of Cavalier by expressing the
+desire to be of service to him at any time; but he made a gross and
+indelicate mistake in offering his purse to the Camisard chief. "No,
+no!" said Cavalier, rejecting it with a look of contempt, "I wish for
+none of your gold, but only for religious liberty, or, if that be
+refused, for a safe conduct out of the kingdom."
+
+Lalande then asked to be taken up to the Camisard troop, who had been
+watching the proceedings of their leader with great interest. Coming
+up to them in the ranks, he said, "Here is a purse of a hundred louis
+with which to drink the King's health." Their reply was like their
+leader's, "We want no money, but liberty of conscience." "It is not
+in my power to grant you that," said the general, "but you will do
+well to submit to the King's will." "We are ready," said they, "to
+obey his orders, provided he grants our just demands; but if not, we
+are prepared to die arms in hand." And thus ended this memorable
+interview, which lasted for about two hours; Lalande and his followers
+returning to Alais, while Cavalier went with his troop in the
+direction of Vezenobres.
+
+Cavalier's enemies say that in the course of his interview with
+Lalande he was offered honours, rewards, and promotion, if he would
+enter the King's service; and it is added that Cavalier was tempted by
+these offers, and thereby proved false to his cause and followers. But
+it is more probable that Cavalier was sincere in his desire to come to
+fair terms with the King, observing the impossibility, under the
+circumstances, of prolonging the struggle against the royal armies
+with any reasonable prospect of success. If Cavalier were really
+bribed by any such promises of promotion, at all events such promises
+were never fulfilled; nor did the French monarch reward him in any way
+for his endeavours to bring the Camisard insurrection to an end.
+
+It was characteristic of Roland to hold aloof from these negotiations,
+and refuse to come to any terms whatever with "Baal." As if to
+separate himself entirely from Cavalier, he withdrew into the Upper
+Cevennes to resume the war. At the very time that Cavalier was holding
+the conference with the royalist general at the Bridge of the Avene,
+Roland and Joany, with a body of horse and foot, waylaid the Count de
+Tournou at the plateau of Font-morte--the place where Seguier, the
+first Camisard leader, had been defeated and captured--and suddenly
+fell upon the Royalists, putting them to flight.
+
+A rich booty fell into the hands of the Camisards, part of which
+consisted of the quarter's rental of the confiscated estate of Salgas,
+in the possession of the King's collector, Viala, whom the royalist
+troops were escorting to St. Jean de Gard. The collector, who had made
+himself notorious for his cruelty, was put to death after frightful
+torment, and his son and nephew were also shot. So far, therefore, as
+Roland and his associates were concerned, there appeared to be no
+intention of surrender or compromise; and Villars was under the
+necessity of prosecuting the war against them to the last extremity.
+
+In the meantime, Cavalier was hailed throughout the low country as the
+pacificator of Languedoc. The people on both sides had become heartily
+sick of the war, and were glad to be rid of it on any terms that
+promised peace and security for the future. At the invitation of
+Marshal Villars, Cavalier proceeded towards Nismes, and his march from
+town to town was one continuous ovation. He was eagerly welcomed by
+the population; and his men were hospitably entertained by the
+garrisons of the places through which they passed. Every liberty was
+allowed him; and not a day passed without a religious meeting being
+held, accompanied with public preaching, praying, and psalm-singing.
+At length Cavalier and his little army approached the neighbourhood of
+Nismes, where his arrival was anticipated with extraordinary interest.
+
+The beautiful old city had witnessed many strange sights; but probably
+the entry of the young Camisard chief was one of the most remarkable
+of all. This herd-boy and baker's apprentice of the Cevennes, after
+holding at bay the armies of France for nearly three years, had come
+to negotiate a treaty of peace with its most famous general. Leaving
+the greater part of his cavalry and the whole of his infantry at St.
+Cesaire, a few miles from Nismes, Cavalier rode towards the town
+attended by eighteen horsemen commanded by Catinat. On approaching the
+southern gate, he found an immense multitude waiting his arrival. "He
+could not have been more royally welcomed," said the priest of St.
+Germain, "had he been a king."
+
+Cavalier rode at the head of his troop gaily attired; for fine dress
+was one of the weaknesses of the Camisard chiefs. He wore a
+tight-fitting doeskin coat ornamented with gold lace, scarlet
+breeches, a muslin cravat, and a large beaver with a white plume; his
+long fair hair hanging over his shoulders. Catinat rode by his side on
+a high-mettled charger, attracting all eyes by his fine figure, his
+martial air, and his magnificent costume. Cavalier's faithful friend,
+Daniel Billard, rode on his left; and behind followed his little
+brother in military uniform, between the Baron d'Aigalliers and
+Lacombe, the agents for peace.
+
+The cavalcade advanced through the dense crowd, which could with
+difficulty be kept back, past the Roman Amphitheatre, and along the
+Rue St. Antoine, to the Garden of the Recollets, a Franciscan convent,
+nearly opposite the elegant Roman temple known as the Maison
+Carree.[45] Alighting from his horse at the gate, and stationing his
+guard there under the charge of Catinat, Cavalier entered the garden,
+and was conducted to Marshal Villars, with whom was Baville, intendant
+of the province; Baron Sandricourt, governor of Nismes; General
+Lalande, and other dignitaries. Cavalier looked such a mere boy, that
+Villars at first could scarcely believe that it was the celebrated
+Camisard chief who stood before him. The marshal, however, advanced
+several steps, and addressed some complimentary words to Cavalier, to
+which he respectfully replied.
+
+         [Footnote 45: The Nismes Theatre now occupies part of the
+         Jardin des Recollets.]
+
+The conference then began and proceeded, though not without frequent
+interruptions from Baville, who had so long regarded Cavalier as a
+despicable rebel, that he could scarcely brook the idea of the King's
+marshal treating with him on anything like equal terms. But the
+marshal checked the intendant by reminding him that he had no
+authority to interfere in a matter which the King had solely entrusted
+to himself. Then turning to Cavalier, he asked him to state his
+conditions for a treaty of peace.
+
+Cavalier has set forth in his memoirs the details of the conditions
+proposed by him, and which he alleges were afterwards duly agreed to
+and signed by Villars and Baville, on the 17th of May, 1704, on the
+part of the King. The first condition was liberty of conscience, with
+the privilege of holding religious assemblies in country places. This
+was agreed to, subject to the Protestant temples not being rebuilt.
+The second--that all Protestants in prison or at the galleys should be
+set at liberty within six weeks from the date of the treaty--was also
+agreed to. The third--that all who had left the kingdom on account of
+their religion should have liberty to return, and be restored to their
+estates and privileges--was agreed to, subject to their taking the
+oath of allegiance. The fourth--as to the re-establishment of the
+parliament of Languedoc on its ancient footing--was promised
+consideration. The fifth and sixth--that the province should be free
+from capitation tax for ten years, and that the Protestants should
+hold Montpellier, Cette, Perpignan, and Aiguesmortes, as cautionary
+towns--were refused. The seventh--that those inhabitants of the
+Cevennes whose houses had been burnt during the civil war should pay
+no imposts for seven years--was granted. And the eighth--that Cavalier
+should raise a regiment of dragoons to serve the King in Portugal--was
+also granted.
+
+These conditions are said to have been agreed to on the distinct
+understanding that the insurrection should forthwith cease, and that
+all persons in arms against the King should lay them down and submit
+themselves to his majesty's clemency.
+
+The terms having been generally agreed to, Cavalier respectfully took
+his leave of the marshal, and returned to his comrades at the gate.
+But Catinat and the Camisard guard had disappeared. The conference had
+lasted two hours, during which Cavalier's general of horse had become
+tired of waiting, and gone with his companions to refresh himself at
+the sign of the Golden Cup. On his way thither, he witched the world
+of Nismes with his noble horsemanship, making his charger bound and
+prance and curvet, greatly to the delight of the immense crowd that
+followed him.
+
+On the return of the Camisard guard to the Recollets, Cavalier mounted
+his horse, and, escorted by them, proceeded to the Hotel de la Poste,
+where he rested. In the evening, he came out on the Esplanade, and
+walked freely amidst the crowd, amongst whom were many ladies, eager
+to see the Camisard hero, and happy if they could but hear him speak,
+or touch his dress. He then went to visit the mother of Daniel, his
+favourite prophet, a native of Nismes, whose father and brother were
+both prisoners because of their religion. Returning to the hotel,
+Cavalier mustered his guard, and set out for Calvisson, followed by
+hundreds of people, singing together as they passed through the town
+gate the 133rd Psalm--"Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for
+brethren to dwell together in unity!"
+
+Cavalier remained with his companions at Calvisson for eight days,
+during which he enjoyed the most perfect freedom of action. He held
+public religious services daily, at first amidst the ruins of the
+demolished Protestant temple, and afterwards, when the space was
+insufficient, in the open plain outside the town walls. People came
+from all quarters to attend them--from the Vaunage, from Sommieres,
+from Lunel, from Nismes, and even from Montpellier. As many as forty
+thousand persons are said to have resorted to the services during
+Cavalier's sojourn at Calvisson. The plains resounded with preaching
+and psalmody from morning until evening, sometimes until late at
+night, by torchlight.
+
+These meetings were a great cause of offence to the more bigoted of
+the Roman Catholics, who saw in them the triumph of their enemies.
+They muttered audibly against the policy of Villars, who was
+tolerating if not encouraging heretics--worthy, in their estimation,
+only of perdition. Flechier, Bishop of Nismes, was full of
+lamentations on the subject, and did not scruple to proclaim that war,
+with all its horrors, was even more tolerable than such a peace as
+this.
+
+Unhappily, the peace proved only of short duration, and Cavalier's
+anticipations of unity and brotherly love were not destined to be
+fulfilled. Whether Roland was jealous of the popularity achieved by
+Cavalier, or suspected treachery on the part of the Royalists, or
+whether he still believed in the ability of his followers to conquer
+religious liberty and compel the re-establishment of the ancient
+edicts by the sword, does not clearly appear. At all events, he
+refused to be committed in any way by what Cavalier had done; and when
+the treaty entered into with Villars was submitted to Roland for
+approval, he refused to sign it. A quarrel had almost occurred between
+the chiefs, and hot words passed between them. But Cavalier controlled
+himself, and still hoped to persuade Roland to adopt a practicable
+course, and bring the unhappy war to a conclusion.
+
+It was at length agreed between them that a further effort should be
+made to induce Villars to grant more liberal terms, particularly with
+respect to the rebuilding of the Protestant temples; and Cavalier
+consented that Salomon should accompany him to an interview with the
+marshal, and endeavour to obtain such a modification of the treaty as
+should meet Roland's views. Accordingly, another meeting shortly after
+took place in the Garden of the Recollets at Nismes, Cavalier leaving
+it to Salomon to be the spokesman on the occasion.
+
+But Salomon proved as uncompromising as his chief. He stated his
+_ultimatum_ bluntly and firmly--re-establishment of the Edict of
+Nantes, and complete liberty of conscience. On no other terms, he
+said, would the Camisards lay down their arms. Villars was courtly and
+polite as usual, but he was as firm as Salomon. He would adhere to the
+terms that had been agreed to, but could not comply with the
+conditions proposed. The discussion lasted for two hours, and at
+length became stormy and threatening on the part of Salomon, on which
+the marshal turned on his heel and left the apartment.
+
+Cavalier's followers had not yet been informed of the conditions of
+the treaty into which he had entered with Villars, but they had been
+led to believe that the Edict was to be re-established and liberty of
+worship restored. Their suspicions had already been roused by the
+hints thrown out by Ravanel, who was as obdurate as Roland in his
+refusal to lay down his arms until the Edict had been re-established.
+
+While Cavalier was still at Nismes, on his second mission to Villars,
+accompanied by Salomon, Ravanel, who had been left in charge of the
+troop at Calvisson, assembled the men, and told them he feared they
+were being betrayed--that they were to be refused this free exercise
+of their religion in temples of their own, but were to be required to
+embark as King's soldiers on shipboard, perhaps to perish at sea.
+"Brethren," said he, "let us cling by our own native land, and live
+and die for the Eternal." The men enthusiastically applauded the stern
+resolve of Ravanel, and awaited with increasing impatience the return
+of the negotiating chief.
+
+On Cavalier's return to his men, he found, to his dismay, that instead
+of being welcomed back with the usual cordiality, they were drawn up
+in arms under Ravanel, and received him in silence, with angry and
+scowling looks. He upbraided Ravanel for such a reception, on which
+the storm immediately burst. "What is the treaty, then," cried
+Ravanel, "that thou hast made with this marshal?"
+
+Cavalier, embarrassed, evaded the inquiry; but Ravanel, encouraged by
+his men, proceeded to press for the information. "Well," said
+Cavalier, "it is arranged that we shall go to serve in Portugal."
+There was at once a violent outburst from the ranks. "Traitor! coward!
+then thou hast sold us! But we shall have no peace--no peace without
+our temples."
+
+At sound of the loud commotion and shouting, Vincel, the King's
+commissioner, who remained at Calvisson pending the negotiations, came
+running up, and the men in their rage would have torn him to pieces,
+but Cavalier threw himself in their way, exclaiming, "Back, men! Do
+him no harm, kill me instead." His voice, his gesture, arrested the
+Camisards, and Vincel turned and fled for his life.
+
+Ravanel then ordered the _generale_ to be beaten. The men drew up in
+their ranks, and putting himself at their head, Ravanel marched them
+out of Calvisson by the northern gate. Cavalier, humiliated and
+downcast, followed the troop--their leader no more. He could not part
+with them thus--the men he had so often led to victory, and who had
+followed him so devotedly--but hung upon their rear, hoping they would
+yet relent and return to him as their chief.
+
+Catinat, his general of horse, observing Cavalier following the men,
+turned upon him. "Whither wouldst thou go, traitor?" cried Catinat.
+What! Catinat, of all others, to prove unfaithful? Yet it was so!
+Catinat even, presented his pistol at his former chief, but he did not
+fire.
+
+Cavalier would not yet turn back. He hung upon the skirts of the
+column, entreating, supplicating, adjuring the men, by all their
+former love for him, to turn, and follow him. But they sternly marched
+on, scarcely even deigning to answer him. Ravanel endeavoured to drive
+him back by reproaches, which at length so irritated Cavalier, that he
+drew his sword, and they were about to rush at each other, when one
+of the prophets ran between them and prevented bloodshed.
+
+Cavalier did not desist from following them for several miles, until
+at length, on reaching St. Esteve, the men were appealed to as to whom
+they would follow, and they declared themselves for Ravanel. Cavalier
+made a last appeal to their allegiance, and called out, "Let those who
+love me, follow me!" About forty of his old adherents detached
+themselves from the ranks, and followed Cavalier in the direction of
+Nismes. But the principal body remained with Ravanel, who, waving his
+sabre in the air, and shouting, "Vive l'Epee de l'Eternel!" turned his
+men's faces northward and marched on to rejoin Roland in the Upper
+Cevennes.
+
+Cavalier was completely prostrated by the desertion of his followers.
+He did not know where next to turn. He could not rejoin the Camisard
+camp nor enter the villages of the Cevennes, and he was ashamed to
+approach Villars, lest he should be charged with deceiving him. But he
+sent a letter to the marshal, informing him of the failure of his
+negotiations, the continued revolt of the Camisards, and their
+rejection of him as their chief. Villars, however, was gentle and
+generous; he was persuaded that Cavalier had acted loyally and in good
+faith throughout, and he sent a message by the Baron d'Aigalliers,
+urgently inviting him to return to Nismes and arrange as to the
+future. Cavalier accordingly set out forthwith, accompanied by his
+brother and the prophet Daniel, and escorted by the ten horsemen and
+thirty foot who still remained faithful to his person.
+
+It is not necessary further to pursue the history of Cavalier.
+Suffice it to say that, at the request of Marshal Villars, he
+proceeded to Paris, where he had an unsatisfactory interview with
+Louis XIV.; that fearing an intention on the part of the Roman
+Catholic party to make him a prisoner, he fled across the frontier
+into Switzerland; that he eventually reached England, and entered the
+English army, with the rank of Colonel; that he raised a regiment of
+refugee Frenchmen, consisting principally of his Camisard followers,
+at the head of whom he fought most valiantly at the battle of Almanza;
+that he was afterwards appointed governor of Jersey, and died a
+major-general in the British service in the year 1740, greatly
+respected by all who knew him.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Although Cavalier failed in carrying the treaty into effect, so far as
+he was concerned, his secession at this juncture proved a deathblow to
+the insurrection. The remaining Camisard leaders endeavoured in vain
+to incite that enthusiasm amongst their followers which had so often
+before led them to victory. The men felt that they were fighting
+without hope, and as it were with halters round their necks. Many of
+them began to think that Cavalier had been justified in seeking to
+secure the best terms practicable; and they dropped off, by tens and
+fifties, to join their former leader, whose head-quarters for some
+time continued to be at Vallabergue, an island in the Rhone a little
+above Beaucaire.
+
+The insurgents were also in a great measure disarmed by Marshal
+Villars, who continued to pursue a policy of clemency, and at the same
+time of severity. He offered a free pardon to all who surrendered
+themselves, but threatened death to all who continued to resist the
+royal troops. In sign of his clemency, he ordered the gibbets which
+had for some years stood _en permanence_ in all the villages of the
+Cevennes, to be removed; and he went from town to town, urging all
+well-disposed people, of both religions, to co-operate with him in
+putting an end to the dreadful civil war that had so long desolated
+the province.
+
+Moved by the marshal's eloquent appeals, the principal towns along the
+Gardon and the Vidourle appointed deputies to proceed in a body to the
+camp of Roland, and induce him if possible to accept the proffered
+amnesty. They waited upon him accordingly at his camp of St. Felix and
+told him their errand. But his answer was to order them at once to
+leave the place on pain of death.
+
+Villars himself sent messengers to Roland--amongst others the Baron
+d'Aigalliers--offering to guarantee that no one should be molested on
+account of his religion, provided he and his men would lay down their
+arms; but Roland remained inflexible--nothing short of complete
+religious liberty would induce him to surrender.
+
+Roland and Joany were still at the head of about a thousand men in the
+Upper Cevennes. Pont-de-Montvert was at the time occupied by a body of
+Miguelets, whom they determined if possible to destroy. Dividing their
+army into three bodies, they proceeded to assail simultaneously the
+three quarters of which the village is composed. But the commander of
+the Miguelets, informed of Roland's intention, was prepared to receive
+him. One of the Camisard wings was attacked at the same time in front
+and rear, thrown into confusion and defeated; and the other wings were
+driven back with heavy loss.
+
+This was Roland's last battle. About a month later--in August,
+1704--while a body of Camisards occupied the Chateau of Castelnau, not
+far from Ners, the place was suddenly surrounded at night by a body of
+royalist dragoons. The alarm was raised, and Roland, half-dressed,
+threw himself on horseback and fled. He was pursued, overtaken, and
+brought to a stand in a wood, where, setting his back to a tree he
+defended himself bravely for a time against overpowering numbers, but
+was at last shot through the heart by a dragoon, and the Camisard
+chief lay dead upon the ground.
+
+The insurrection did not long survive the death of Roland. The other
+chiefs wandered about from place to place with their followers, but
+they had lost heart and hope, and avoided further encounters with the
+royal forces. One after another of them surrendered. Castanet and
+Catinat both laid down their arms, and were allowed to leave France
+for Switzerland, accompanied by twenty-two of their men. Joany also
+surrendered with forty-six of his followers.
+
+One by one the other chiefs laid down their arms--all excepting
+Abraham and Ravanel, who preferred liberty and misery at home to peace
+and exile abroad. They continued for some time to wander about in the
+Upper Cevennes, hiding in the woods by day and sleeping in caves by
+night--hunted, deserted, and miserable. And thus at last was Languedoc
+pacified; and at the beginning of January, 1705, Marshal Villars
+returned to Versailles to receive the congratulations and honours of
+the King.
+
+Several futile attempts were afterwards made by the banished leaders
+to rekindle the insurrection from its embers, Catinat and Castanet,
+wearied of their inaction at Geneva, stole back across the frontier
+and rejoined Ravanel in the Cevennes; but their rashness cost them
+their lives. They were all captured and condemned to death. Castanet
+and Salomon were broken alive on the wheel on the Peyrou at
+Montpellier, and Catinat, Ravanel, with several others, were burnt
+alive on the Place de la Beaucaire at Nismes.
+
+The last to perish were Abraham and Joany. The one was shot while
+holding the royal troops at bay, firing upon them from the roof of a
+cottage at Mas-de-Couteau; the other was captured in the mountains
+near the source of the Tarn. He was on his way to prison, tied behind
+a trooper, like Rob Roy in Scott's novel, when, suddenly freeing
+himself from his bonds while crossing the bridge of Pont-de-Montvert,
+he slid from the horse, and leapt over the parapet into the Tarn. The
+soldiers at once opened fire upon the fugitive, and he fell, pierced
+with many balls, and was carried away in the torrent. And thus
+Pont-de-Montvert, which had seen the beginning, also saw the end of
+the insurrection.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+GALLEY-SLAVES FOR THE FAITH.
+
+
+After the death of the last of the Camisard leaders, there was no
+further effort at revolt. The Huguenots seemed to be entirely put
+down, and Protestantism completely destroyed. There was no longer any
+resistance nor protest. If there were any Huguenots who had not become
+Catholics, they remained mute. Force had at last succeeded in stifling
+them.
+
+A profound quiet reigned for a time throughout France. The country had
+become a circle, closely watched by armed men--by dragoons, infantry,
+archers, and coastguards--beyond which the Huguenots could not escape
+without running the risk of the prison, the galley, or the gibbet.
+
+The intendants throughout the kingdom flattered Louis XIV., and Louis
+XIV. flattered himself, that the Huguenots had either been converted,
+extirpated, or expelled the kingdom. The King had medals struck,
+announcing the "_extinction of heresy_." A proclamation to this effect
+was also published by the King, dated the 8th of March, 1715,
+declaring the entire conversion of the French Huguenots, and
+sentencing those who, after that date, relapsed from Catholicism to
+Protestantism, to all the penalties of heresy.
+
+What, then, had become of the Huguenots? They were for the moment
+prostrate, but their life had not gone out of them. Many were no doubt
+"converted." They had not strength to resist the pains and penalties
+threatened by the State if they refused. They accordingly attended
+Mass, and assisted in ceremonies which at heart they detested. Though
+they blushed at their apostasy, they were too much broken down and
+weary of oppression and suffering to attempt to be free.
+
+But though many Huguenots pretended to be "converted," the greater
+number silently refrained. They held their peace and bided their time.
+Meanwhile, however, they were subject to all the annoyances of
+persecution. Persecution had seized them from the day of their birth,
+and never relaxed its hold until the day of their death. Every
+new-born child must be taken to the priest to be baptized. When the
+children had grown into boys and girls, they must go to school and be
+educated, also by the priest. If their parents refused to send them,
+the children were forcibly seized, taken away, and brought up in the
+Jesuit schools and nunneries. And lastly, when grown up into young men
+and women, they must be married by the priest, or their offspring be
+declared illegitimate.
+
+The Huguenots refused to conform to all this. Nevertheless, it was by
+no means easy to continue to refuse obeying the priest. The priest was
+well served with spies, though the principal spy in every parish was
+himself. There were also numerous other professional spies--besides
+idlers, mischief-makers, and "good-natured friends." In time of peace,
+also, soldiers were usually employed in performing the disgraceful
+duty of acting as spies upon the Huguenots.
+
+The Huguenot was ordered to attend Mass under the penalty of fine and
+imprisonment. Supposing he refused, because he did not believe that
+the priest had the miraculous power of converting bread and wine into
+something the very opposite. The priest insisted that he did possess
+this power, and that he was supported by the State in demanding that
+the Huguenot _must_ come and worship his transubstantiation of bread
+into flesh and wine into blood. "I do not believe it," said the
+Huguenot. "But I _order_ you to come, for Louis XIV. has proclaimed
+you to be a converted Catholic, and if you refuse you will be at once
+subject to all the penalties of heresy." It was certainly very
+difficult to argue with a priest who had the hangman at his back, or
+with the King who had his hundred thousand dragoons. And so, perhaps,
+the threatened Huguenot went to Mass, and pretended to believe all
+that the priest had said about his miraculous powers.
+
+But many resolutely continued to refuse, willing to incur the last and
+heaviest penalties. Then it came to be seen that Protestantism,
+although, declared defunct by the King's edict, had not in fact expired,
+but was merely reposing for a time in order to make a fresh start
+forward. The Huguenots who still remained in France, whether as "new
+converts" or as "obstinate heretics," at length began to emerge from
+their obscurity. They met together in caves and solitary places--in deep
+and rocky gorges--in valleys among the mountains--where they prayed
+together, sang together their songs of David, and took counsel one with
+another.
+
+At length, from private meetings for prayer, religious assemblies
+began to be held in the Desert, and preachers made their appearance.
+The spies spread about the country informed the intendants. The
+meetings were often surprised by the military. Sometimes the soldiers
+would come upon them suddenly, and fire into the crowd of men, women,
+and children. On some occasions a hundred persons or more would be
+killed upon the spot. Of those taken prisoners, the preachers were
+hanged or broken on the wheel, the women were sent to prison, and the
+children, to nunneries, while the men were sent to be galley-slaves
+for life.[46]
+
+         [Footnote 46: In the Viverais and elsewhere they sang the
+         song of the persecuted Church:--
+
+                "Nos filles dans les monasteres,
+                 Nos prisonniers dans les cachots.
+             Nos martyrs dont le sang se repand a grands flots,
+                 Nos confesseurs sur les galeres,
+                 Nos malades persecutes,
+             Nos mourants exposes a plus d'une furie,
+                 Nos morts traines a la voierie,
+                 Te disent (o Dieu!) nos calamites."]
+
+The persecutions to which Huguenot women and children were exposed
+caused a sudden enlargement of all the prisons and nunneries in
+France. Many of the old castles were fitted up as gaols, and even
+their dungeons were used for the incorrigible heretics. One of the
+worst of these was the Tour de Constance in the town of Aiguesmortes,
+which is to this day remembered with horror as the principal dungeon
+of the Huguenot women.
+
+The town of Aiguesmortes is situated in the department of Gard, close
+to the Mediterranean, whose waters wash into the salt marshes and
+lagunes by which it is surrounded. It was erected in the thirteenth
+century for Philip the Bold, and is still interesting as an example of
+the ancient feudal fortress. The fosse has since been filled up, on
+account of the malaria produced by the stagnant water which it
+contained.
+
+The place is approached by a long causeway raised above the marsh, and
+the entrance to the tower is spanned by an ancient gatehouse. In
+advance of the tower, to the north, in an angle of the wall, is a
+single, large round tower, which served as a citadel. It is sixty-six
+feet in diameter and ninety feet high, surmounted by a lighthouse
+turret of thirty-four feet. It consists of two large vaulted
+apartments, the staircase from the one to the other being built within
+the wall itself, which is about eighteen feet thick. The upper chamber
+is dimly lighted by narrow chinks through the walls. The lowest of the
+apartments is the dungeon, which is almost without light and air. In
+the centre of the floor is a hole connected with a reservoir of water
+below.
+
+This Tour de Constance continued to be the principal prison for
+Huguenot women in France for a period of about a hundred years. It was
+always horribly unhealthy; and to be condemned to this dungeon was
+considered almost as certain though a slower death than to be
+condemned to the gallows. Sixteen Huguenot women confined there in
+1686 died within five months. Most of them were the wives of merchants
+of Nismes, or of men of property in the district. When the prisoners
+died off, the dungeon was at once filled up again with more victims,
+and it was rarely, if ever, empty, down to a period within only a few
+years before the outbreak of the French Revolution.
+
+The punishment of the men found attending religious meetings, and
+taken prisoners by the soldiers, was to be sentenced to the galleys,
+mostly for life. They were usually collected in large numbers, and
+sent to the seaports attached together by chains. They were sent
+openly, sometimes through the entire length of the kingdom, by way of
+a show. The object was to teach the horrible delinquency of professing
+Protestantism; for it could not be to show the greater beautifulness
+and mercifulness of Catholicism.
+
+The punishment of the Chain varied in degree. Sometimes it was more
+cruel than at other times. This depended upon the drivers of the
+prisoners. Marteilhe describes the punishment during his conveyance
+from Havre to Marseilles in the winter of 1712.[47] The Chain to which
+he belonged did not reach Marseilles until the 17th January, 1713. The
+season was bitterly cold; but that made no difference in the treatment
+of Huguenot prisoners.
+
+         [Footnote 47: "Autobiography of a French Protestant condemned
+         to the Galleys because of his Religion." Rotterdam, 1757.
+         (Since reprinted by the Religious Tract Society.)]
+
+The Chain consisted of a file of prisoners, chained one to another in
+various ways. On this occasion, each pair was fastened by the neck
+with a thick chain three feet long, in the middle of which was a round
+ring. After being thus chained, the pairs were placed in file, couple
+behind couple, when another long thick chain was passed through the
+rings, thus running along the centre of the gang, and the whole were
+thus doubly-chained together. There were no less than four hundred
+prisoners in the chain described by Marteilhe. The number had,
+however, greatly fallen off through deaths by barbarous treatment
+before it reached Marseilles.
+
+It must, however, be added, that the whole gang did not consist of
+Huguenots, but only a part of it--the Huguenots being distinguished by
+their red jackets. The rest consisted of murderers, thieves,
+deserters, and criminals of various sorts.
+
+The difficulty which the prisoners had in marching along the roads was
+very great; the weight of chain which each member had to carry being
+no less than one hundred and fifty pounds. The lodging they had at
+night was of the worst description. While at Paris, the galley-slaves
+were quartered in the Chateau de la Tournelle, which was under the
+spiritual direction of the Jesuits. The gaol consisted of a large
+cellar or dungeon, fitted with huge beams of oak fixed close to the
+floor. Thick iron collars were attached by iron chains to the beams.
+The collar being placed round the prisoner's neck, it was closed and
+riveted upon an anvil with heavy blows of a hammer.
+
+Twenty men in pairs were thus chained to each beam. The dungeon was so
+large that five hundred men could thus be fastened up. They could not
+sleep lying at full length, nor could they sleep sitting or standing
+up straight; the beam to which they were chained being too high in the
+one case and too low in the other. The torture which they endured,
+therefore, is scarcely to be described. The prisoners were kept there
+until a sufficient number could be collected to set out in a great
+chain for Marseilles.
+
+When they arrived at the first stage out of Paris, at Charenton, after
+a heavy day's fatigue, their lodging was no better than before. A
+stable was found in which they were chained up in such a way that they
+could with difficulty sit down, and then only on a dung-heap. After
+they had lain there for a few hours, the prisoners' chains were taken
+off, and they were turned out into the spacious courtyard of the inn,
+where they were ordered to strip off their clothes, put them down at
+their feet, and march over to the other side of the courtyard.
+
+The object of this proceeding was to search the pockets of the
+prisoners, examine their clothes, and find whether they contained any
+knives, files, or other tools which might be used for cutting the
+chains. All money and other valuables or necessaries that the clothes
+contained were at the same time taken away.
+
+The night was cold and frosty, with a keen north wind blowing; and
+after the prisoners had been exposed to it for about half an hour,
+their bodies became so benumbed that they could scarcely move across
+the yard to where their clothes were lying. Next morning it was found
+that eighteen of the unfortunates were happily released by death.
+
+It is not necessary to describe the tortures endured by the
+galley-slaves to the end of their journey. One little circumstance
+may, however, be mentioned. While marching towards the coast, the
+exhausted Huguenots, weary and worn out by the heaviness of their
+chains, were accustomed to stretch out their little wooden cups for a
+drop of water to the inhabitants of the villages through which they
+passed. The women, whom they mostly addressed, answered their
+entreaties with the bitterest spite. "Away, away!" they cried; "you
+are going where you will have _water enough_!"
+
+When the gang or chain reached the port at which the prisoners were to
+be confined, they were drafted on board the different galleys. These
+were for the most part stationed at Toulon, but there were also other
+galleys in which Huguenots were imprisoned--at Marseilles, Dunkirk,
+Brest, St. Malo, and Bordeaux. Let us briefly describe the galley of
+those days.
+
+The royal galley was about a hundred and fifty feet long and forty feet
+broad, and was capable of containing about five hundred men. It had
+fifty benches for rowers, twenty-five on each side. Between these two
+rows of benches was the raised middle gallery, commonly called the waist
+of the ship, four feet high and about three or four feet broad. The oars
+were fifty feet long, of which thirty-seven feet were outside the ship
+and thirteen within. Six men worked at each oar, all chained to the same
+bench. They had to row in unison, otherwise they would be heavily struck
+by the return rowers both before and behind them. They were under the
+constant command of the _comite_ or galley-slave-driver, who struck all
+about him with his long whip in urging them to work. To enable his
+strokes to _tell_, the men sat naked while they rowed.[48] Their dress
+was always insufficient, summer and winter--the lower part of their
+bodies being covered with a short red jacket and a sort of apron, for
+their manacles prevented them wearing any other dress.
+
+         [Footnote 48: Le comite ou chef de chiourme, aide de deux
+         _sous-comites_, allait et venait sans cesse sur le coursier,
+         frappant les forcats a coup de nerfs de boeuf, comme un
+         cocher ses chevaux. Pour rendre les coups plus sensible et
+         pour economiser les vetements, _les galeriens etaient nus_
+         quand ils ramaient.--ATHANASE COQUEREL FILS. _Les Forcats
+         pour la Foi_, 64.]
+
+The chain which bound each rower to his bench was fastened to his leg,
+and was of such a length as to enable his feet to come and go whilst
+rowing. At night, the galley-slave slept where he sat--on the bench on
+which he had been rowing all day. There was no room for him to lie
+down. He never quitted his bench except for the hospital or the grave;
+yet some of the Huguenot rowers contrived to live upon their benches
+for thirty or forty years!
+
+During all these years they toiled in their chains in a hell of foul
+and disgusting utterance, for they were mixed up with thieves and the
+worst of criminals. They ate the bread and drank the waters of
+bitterness. They seemed to be forsaken by the world. They had no one
+to love them, for most had left their families behind them at home, or
+perhaps in convents or prisons. They lived under the constant threats
+of their keepers, who lashed them to make them row harder, who lashed
+them to make them sit up, or lashed them to make them lie down. The
+Chevalier Langeron, captain of _La Palme_, of which Marteilhe was at
+first a rower, used to call the _comite_ to him and say, "Go and
+refresh the backs of these Huguenots with a salad of strokes of the
+whip." For the captain, it seems, "held the most Jesuitical
+sentiments," and hated his Huguenot prisoners far worse than his
+thieves or his murderers.[49]
+
+         [Footnote 49: "The Autobiography of a French Protestant,"
+         68.]
+
+And yet, at any moment, a word spoken would have made these Huguenots
+free. The Catholic priests frequently visited the galleys and
+entreated them to become converted. If "converted," and the Huguenots
+would only declare that they believed in the miraculous powers of the
+clergy, their chains would fall away from their limbs at once; and
+they would have been restored to the world, to their families, and to
+liberty! And who would not have declared themselves "converted,"
+rather than endure these horrible punishments? Yet by far the greater
+number of the Huguenots did not. They could not be hypocrites. They
+would not lie to God. Rather than do this, they had the heroism--some
+will call it the obstinacy--to remain galley-slaves for life!
+
+Many of the galley-slaves did not survive their torture long. Men of
+all ages and conditions, accustomed to indoor life, could not bear the
+exposure to the sun, rain, and snow, which the punishment of the
+galley-slave involved. The old men and the young soon succumbed and
+died. Middle-aged men survived the longest. But there was always a
+change going on. When the numbers of a galley became thinned by death,
+there were other Huguenots ready to be sent on board--perhaps waiting
+in some inland prison until another "Great Chain" could be made up for
+the seaports, to go on board the galley-ships, to be manacled,
+tortured, and killed off as before.
+
+Such was the treatment of the galley-slaves in time of peace. But the
+galleys were also war-ships. They carried large numbers of armed men
+on board. Sometimes they scoured the Mediterranean, and protected
+French merchant-ships against the Sallee rovers. At other times they
+were engaged in the English channel, attacking Dutch and English
+ships, sometimes picking up a prize, at other times in actual
+sea-fight.
+
+When the service required, they were compelled to row incessantly
+night and day, without rest, save in the last extremity; and they were
+treated as if, on the first opportunity, in sight of the enemy, they
+would revolt and betray the ship; hence they were constantly watched
+by the soldiers on board, and if any commotion appeared amongst them,
+they were shot down without ceremony, and their bodies thrown into the
+sea. Loaded cannons were also placed at the end of the benches of
+rowers, so as to shoot them down in case of necessity.
+
+Whenever an enemy's ship came up, the galley-slaves were covered over
+with a linen screen, so as to prevent them giving signals to the
+enemy. When an action occurred, they were particularly exposed to
+danger, for the rowers and their oars were the first to be shot
+at--just as the boiler or screw of a war-steamer would be shot at
+now--in order to disable the ship. The galley-slaves thus suffered
+much more from the enemy's shot than the other armed men of the ship.
+The rowers benches were often filled with dead, before the soldiers
+and mariners on board had been touched.
+
+Marteilhe, while a galley-slave on board _La Palme_, was engaged in an
+adventure which had nearly cost him his life. Four French galleys,
+after cruising along the English coast from Dover to the Downs, got
+sight of a fleet of thirty-five merchant vessels on their way from the
+Texel to the Thames, under the protection of one small English
+frigate. The commanders of the galleys, taking counsel together,
+determined to attack the frigate (which they thought themselves easily
+able to master), and so capture the entire English fleet.
+
+The captain of the frigate, when he saw the galleys approach him,
+ordered the merchantmen to crowd sail and make for the Thames, the
+mouth of which they had nearly reached. He then sailed down upon the
+galleys, determined to sacrifice his ship if necessary for the safety
+of his charge. The galleys fired into him, but he returned never a
+shot. The captain of the galley in which Marteilhe was, said, "Oh, he
+is coming to surrender!" The frigate was so near that the French
+musqueteers were already firing full upon her. All of a sudden the
+frigate tacked and veered round as if about to fly from the galleys.
+The Frenchmen called out that the English were cowards in thus trying
+to avoid the battle. If they did not surrender at once, they would
+sink the frigate!
+
+The English captain took no notice. The frigate then turned her stern
+towards the galley, as if to give the Frenchmen an opportunity of
+boarding her. The French commander ordered the galley at once to run
+at the enemy's stern, and the crew to board the frigate. The rush was
+made; the galley-slaves, urged by blows of the whip, rowing with great
+force. The galley was suddenly nearing the stern of the frigate, when
+by a clever stroke of the helm the ship moved to one side, and the
+galley, missing it, rushed past. All the oars on that side were
+suddenly broken off, and the galley was placed immediately under the
+broadside of the enemy.
+
+Then began the English part of the game. The French galley was seized
+with grappling irons and hooked on to the English broadside. The men
+on board the galley were as exposed as if they had been upon a raft or
+a bridge. The frigate's guns, which were charged with grapeshot, were
+discharged full upon them, and a frightful carnage ensued. The English
+also threw hand grenades, which went down amongst the rowers and
+killed many. They next boarded the galley, and cut to pieces all the
+armed men they could lay hold of, only sparing the convicts, who could
+make no attempt at defence.
+
+The English captain then threw off the galley, which he had broadsided
+and disarmed, in order to look after the merchantmen, which some of
+the other galleys had gone to intercept on their way to the mouth of
+the Thames. Some of the ships had already been captured; but the
+commanders of the galleys, seeing their fellow-commodores flying
+signals of distress, let go their prey, and concentrated their attack
+upon the frigate. This they surrounded, and after a very hard struggle
+the frigate was captured, but not until the English captain had
+ascertained that all the fleet of which he had been in charge had
+entered the Thames and were safe.
+
+In the above encounter with the English frigate Marteilhe had nearly
+lost his life. The bench on which he was seated, with five other
+slaves, was opposite one of the loaded guns of the frigate. He saw
+that it must be discharged directly upon them. His fellows tried to
+lie down flat, while Marteilhe himself stood up. He saw the gunner
+with his lighted match approach the touchhole; then he lifted up his
+heart to God; the next moment he was lying stunned and prostrate in
+the centre of the galley, as far as the chain would allow him to
+reach. He was lying across the body of the lieutenant, who was killed.
+A long time passed, during which the fight was still going on, and
+then Marteilhe came to himself, towards dark. Most of his
+fellow-slaves were killed. He himself was bleeding from a large open
+wound on his shoulder, another on his knee, and a third in his
+stomach. Of the eighteen men around him he was the only one that
+escaped, with his three wounds.
+
+The dead were all thrown into the sea. The men were about to throw
+Marteilhe after them, but while attempting to release him from his
+chain, they touched the wound upon his knee, and he groaned heavily.
+They let him remain where he lay. Shortly after, he was taken down to
+the bottom of the hold with the other men, where he long lay amongst
+the wounded and dying. At length he recovered from his wounds, and was
+again returned to his bench, to re-enter the horrible life of a
+galley-slave.
+
+There was another mean and unmanly cruelty, connected with this
+galley-slave service, which was practised only upon the Huguenots. If
+an assassin or other criminal received a wound in the service of the
+state while engaged in battle, he was at once restored to his
+liberty; but if a Huguenot was wounded, he was never released. He was
+returned to his bench and chained as before; the wounds he had
+received being only so many additional tortures to be borne by him in
+the course of his punishment.
+
+Marteilhe, as we have already stated, was disembarked when he had
+sufficiently recovered, and marched through the entire length of
+France, enchained with other malefactors. On his arrival at
+Marseilles, he was placed on board the galley _Grand Reale_, where he
+remained until peace was declared between England and France by the
+Treaty of Utrecht.[50]
+
+         [Footnote 50: "Autobiography of a French Protestant,"
+         112-21.]
+
+Queen Anne of England, at the instigation of the Marquis de Rochegade,
+then made an effort to obtain the liberation of Protestants serving at
+the galleys; and at length, out of seven hundred and forty-two
+Huguenots who were then enslaved, a hundred and thirty-six were
+liberated, of whom Marteilhe was one. He was thus enabled to get rid
+of his inhuman countrymen, and to spend the remainder of his life in
+Holland and England, where Protestants were free.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+ANTOINE COURT
+
+
+Almost at the very time that Louis XIV. was lying on his death-bed at
+Versailles, a young man conceived the idea of re-establishing
+Protestantism in France! Louis XIV. had tried to enter heaven by
+superstition and cruelty. On his death-bed he began to doubt whether
+he "had not carried his authority too far."[51] But the Jesuits tried
+to make death easy for him, covering his body with relics of the true
+cross.
+
+         [Footnote 51: Saint-Simon and Dangeau.]
+
+Very different was the position of the young man who tried to undo all
+that Louis XIV., under the influence of his mistress De Maintenon, and
+his Jesuit confessor, Pere la Chase,[52] had been trying all his life
+to accomplish. He was an intelligent youth, the son of Huguenot
+parents in Viverais, of comparatively poor and humble condition. He
+was, however, full of energy, activity, and a zealous disposition for
+work. Observing the tendency which Protestantism had, while bereft of
+its pastors, to run into gloomy forms of fanaticism, Antoine Court
+conceived the idea of reviving the pastorate, and restoring the
+proscribed Protestant Church of France. It was a bold idea, but the
+result proved that Antoine Court was justified in entertaining it.
+
+         [Footnote 52: Amongst the many satires and epigrams with
+         which Louis XIV. was pursued to the grave, the following
+         epitaph may be given:--
+
+           "Ci gist le mari de Therese
+           De la Montespan le Mignon,
+           L'esclave de la Maintenon,
+           Le valet du pere La Chaise."
+
+         At the death of Louis XIV., Voltaire, an _eleve_ of the
+         Jesuits, was appropriately coming into notice. At the age of
+         about twenty he was thrown into the Bastille; for having
+         written a satire on Louis XIV., of which the following is an
+         extract:--
+
+           "J'ai vu sous l'habit d'une femme
+             Un demon nous donner la loi;
+           Elle sacrifia son Dieu, sa foi, son ame,
+           Pour seduire l'esprit d'un trop credule roi.
+
+             *       *       *       *       *
+
+             J'ai vu l'hypocrite honore:
+           J'ai vu, c'est dire tout, le jesuite adore:
+             J'ai vu ces maux sous le regne funeste
+           D'un prince que jadis la colere celeste
+           Accorda, par vengeance, a nos desirs ardens:
+             J'ai vu ces maux, et je n'ai pas vingt ans."
+
+         Voltaire denied having written this satire.]
+
+Louis XIV. died in August, 1715. During that very month, Court
+summoned together a small number of Huguenots to consider his
+suggestions. The meeting was held at daybreak, in an empty quarry near
+Nismes, which has already been mentioned in the course of this
+history. But it may here be necessary to inform the reader of the
+early life of this enthusiastic young man.
+
+Antoine Court was born at Villeneuve de Berg, in Viverais, in the year
+1696. Religious persecution was then at its height; assemblies were
+vigorously put down; and all pastors taken prisoners were hanged on
+the Peyrou at Montpellier. Court was only four years old when his
+father died, and his mother resolved, if the boy lived, to train him
+up so that he might consecrate himself to the service of God. He was
+still very young while the Camisard war was in progress, but he heard
+a great deal about it, and vividly remembered all that he heard.
+
+Antoine Court, like many Protestant children, was compelled to attend
+a Jesuit school in his neighbourhood. Though but a boy he abhorred the
+Mass. With Protestants the Mass was then the symbol of persecution; it
+was identified with the Revocation of the Edict--the dragonnades, the
+galleys, the prisons, the nunneries, the monkeries, and the Jesuits.
+The Mass was not a matter of knowledge, but of fear, of terror, and of
+hereditary hatred.
+
+At school, the other boys were most bitter against Court, because he
+was the son of a Huguenot. Every sort of mischief was practised upon
+him, for little boys are generally among the greatest of persecutors.
+Court was stoned, worried, railed at, laughed at, spit at. When
+leaving school, the boys called after him "He, he! the eldest son of
+Calvin!" They sometimes pursued him with clamour and volleys of stones
+to the door of his house, collecting in their riotous procession all
+the other Catholic boys of the place. Sometimes they forced him into
+church whilst the Mass was being celebrated. In fact, the boy's hatred
+of the Mass and of Catholicism grew daily more and more vehement.
+
+All these persecutions, together with reading some of the books which
+came under his notice at home, confirmed his aversion to the
+Jesuitical school to which he had been sent. At the same time he
+became desirous of attending the secret assemblies, which he knew were
+being held in the neighbourhood. One day, when his mother set out to
+attend one of them, the boy set out to follow her. She discovered him,
+and demanded whither he was going. "I follow you, mother," said he,
+"and I wish you to permit me to go where you go. I know that you go to
+pray to God, and will you refuse me the favour of going to do so with
+you?"
+
+She shed tears at his words, told him of the danger of attending the
+assembly, and strongly exhorted him to secrecy; but she allowed him to
+accompany her. He was at that time too little and weak to walk the
+whole way to the meeting; but other worshippers coming up, they took
+the boy on their shoulders and carried him along with them.
+
+At the age of seventeen, Court began to read the Bible at the
+assemblies. One day, in a moment of sudden excitement, common enough
+at secret meetings, he undertook to address the assembly. What he said
+was received with much approval, and he was encouraged to go on
+preaching. He soon became famous among the mountaineers, and was
+regarded as a young man capable of accomplishing great things.
+
+As he grew older, he at length determined to devote his life to
+preaching and ministering to the forsaken and afflicted Protestants.
+It was a noble, self-denying work, the only earthly reward for which
+was labour, difficulty, and danger. His mother was in great trouble,
+for Antoine was her only remaining son. She did not, however, press
+him to change his resolution. Court quoted to her the text, "Whoever
+loves father and mother more than me, is not worthy of me." After
+this, she only saw in her son a victim consecrated, like another
+Abraham, to the Divine service.
+
+After arriving at his decision, Court proceeded to visit the Huguenots
+in Low Languedoc, passing by Uzes to Nismes, and preaching wherever he
+could draw assemblies of the people together. His success during this
+rapid excursion induced him to visit Dauphiny. There he met Brunel,
+another preacher, with knapsack on his back, running from place to
+place in order to avoid spies, priests, and soldiers. The two were
+equally full of ardour, and they went together preaching in many
+places, and duly encouraging each other.
+
+From Dauphiny, Court directed his steps to Marseilles, where the royal
+galleys stationed there contained about three hundred Huguenot
+galley-slaves. He penetrated these horrible floating prisons, without
+being detected, and even contrived to organize amongst them a regular
+system of secret worship. Then he returned to Nismes, and from thence
+went through the Cevennes and the Viverais, preaching to people who
+had never met for Protestant worship since the termination of the wars
+of the Camisards. To elude the spies, who began to make hot search for
+him, because of the enthusiasm which he excited, Court contrived to be
+always on the move, and to appear daily in some fresh locality.
+
+The constant fatigue which he underwent undermined his health, and he
+was compelled to remain for a time inactive at the mineral waters of
+Euzet. This retirement proved useful. He began to think over what
+might be done to revivify the Protestant religion in France. Remember
+that he was at that time only nineteen years of age! It might be
+thought presumptuous in a youth, comparatively uninstructed, even to
+dream of such a subject. The instruments of earthly power--King, Pope,
+bishops, priests, soldiers, and spies--were all arrayed against him.
+He had nothing to oppose to them but truth, uprightness, conscience,
+and indefatigable zeal for labour.
+
+When Court had last met the few Protestant preachers who survived in
+Languedoc, they were very undecided about taking up his scheme. They
+had met at Nismes to take the sacrament in the house of a friend.
+There were Bombonnoux (an old Camisard), Crotte, Corteiz, Brunel, and
+Court. Without coming to any decision, they separated, some going to
+Switzerland, and others to the South and West of France. It now rested
+with Court, during his sickness, to study and endeavour to arrange the
+method of reorganization of the Church.
+
+The Huguenots who remained in France were then divided into three
+classes--the "new converts," who professed Catholicism while hating
+it; the lovers of the ancient Protestant faith, who still clung to it;
+and, lastly, the more ignorant, who still clung to prophesying and
+inspiration. These last had done the Protestant Church much injury,
+for the intelligent classes generally regarded them as but mere
+fanatics.
+
+Court found it would be requisite to keep the latter within the
+leading-strings of spiritual instruction, and to encourage the "new
+converts" to return to the church of their fathers by the
+re-establishment of some efficient pastoral service. He therefore
+urged that religious assemblies must be continued, and that discipline
+must be established by the appointment of elders, presbyteries, and
+synods, and also by the training up of a body of young pastors to
+preach amongst the people, and discipline them according to the rules
+of the Protestant Church. Nearly thirty years had passed since it had
+been disorganized by the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes, so that
+synods, presbyteries, and the training of preachers had become almost
+forgotten.
+
+The first synod was convened by Court, and held in the abandoned
+quarry near Nismes, above referred to, in the very same month in which
+Louis XIV. breathed his last. It was a very small beginning. Two or
+three laymen and a few preachers[53] were present, the whole meeting
+numbering only nine persons. The place in which the meeting was held
+had often before been used as a secret place of worship by the
+Huguenots. Religious meetings held there had often been dispersed by
+the dragoons, and there was scarcely a stone in it that had not been
+splashed by Huguenot blood. And now, after Protestantism had been
+"finally suppressed," Antoine Court assembled his first synod to
+re-establish the proscribed religion!
+
+         [Footnote 53: Edmund Hughes says the preachers were probably
+         Rouviere (or Crotte), Jean Huc, Jean Vesson, Etienne Arnaud,
+         and Durand.]
+
+The first meeting took place on the 21st of August, 1715, at daybreak.
+After prayer, Court, as moderator, explained his method of
+reorganization, which was approved. The first elders were appointed
+from amongst those present. A series of rules and regulations was
+resolved upon and ordered to be spread over the entire province. The
+preachers were then charged to go forth, to stir up the people and
+endeavour to bring back the "new converts."
+
+They lost no time in carrying out their mission. The first districts
+in which they were appointed to work were those of Mende, Alais,
+Viviers, Uzes, Nismes, and Montpellier, in Languedoc--districts which,
+fifteen years before, had been the scenes of the Camisard war. There,
+in unknown valleys, on hillsides, on the mountains, in the midst of
+hostile towns and villages, the missionaries sought out the huts, the
+farms, and the dwellings of the scattered, concealed, and
+half-frightened Huguenots. Amidst the open threats of the magistrates
+and others in office, and the fear of the still more hateful priests
+and spies, they went from house to house, and prayed, preached,
+advised, and endeavoured to awaken the zeal of their old allies of the
+"Religion."
+
+The preachers were for the most part poor, and some of them were
+labouring men. They were mostly natives of Languedoc. Jean Vesson, a
+cooper by trade, had in his youth been "inspired," and prophesied in
+his ecstasy. Mazelet, now an elderly man, had formerly been celebrated
+among the Camisards, and preached with great success before the
+soldiers of Roland. At forty he was not able to read or write; but
+having been forced to fly into Switzerland, he picked up some
+education at Geneva, and had studied divinity under a fellow-exile.
+
+Bombonnoux had been a brigadier in the troop of Cavalier. After his
+chief's defection he resolved to continue the war to the end, by
+preaching, if not by fighting. He had been taken prisoner and
+imprisoned at Montpellier, in 1705. Two of his Camisard friends were
+first put upon the rack, and then, while still living, thrown upon a
+pile and burnt to death before his eyes. But the horrible character of
+the punishment did not terrify him. He contrived to escape from prison
+at Montpellier, and then went about convoking assemblies and preaching
+to the people as before.
+
+Besides these, there were Huc, Corteiz, Durand, Arnaud, Brunel, and
+Rouviere or Crotte, who all went about from place to place, convoking
+assemblies and preaching. There were also some local preachers, as
+they might be called--old men who could not move far from home--who
+worked at their looms or trades, sometimes tilling the ground by day,
+and preaching at night. Amongst these were Monteil, Guillot, and
+Bonnard, all more than sixty years of age.
+
+Court, because of his youth and energy, seems to have been among the
+most active of the preachers. One day, near St. Hypolite, a chief
+centre of the Huguenot population, he convoked an assembly on a
+mountain side, the largest that had taken place for many years. The
+priests of the parish gave information to the authorities; and the
+governor of Alais offered a reward of fifty pistoles to anyone who
+would apprehend and deliver up to him the young preacher. Troops were
+sent into the district; upon which Court descended from the mountains
+towards the towns of Low Languedoc, and shortly after he arrived at
+Nismes.
+
+At Nismes, Court first met Jacques Roger, who afterwards proved of
+great assistance to him in his work. Roger had long been an exile in
+Wurtemburg. He was originally a native of Boissieres, in Languedoc,
+and when a young man was compelled to quit France with his parents,
+who were Huguenots. His heart, however, continued to draw him towards
+his native country, although it had treated himself and his family so
+cruelly.
+
+As Roger grew older, he determined to return to France, with the
+object of helping his friends of the "Religion." A plan had occurred
+to him, like that which Antoine Court was now endeavouring to carry
+into effect. The joy with which Roger encountered Court at Nismes, and
+learnt his plans, may therefore be conceived. The result was, that
+Roger undertook to "awaken" the Protestants of Dauphiny, and to
+endeavour to accomplish there what Court was already gradually
+effecting in Languedoc. Roger held his first synod in Dauphiny in
+August, 1716, at which seven preachers and several elders or _anciens_
+assisted.
+
+In the meantime Antoine Court again set out to visit the churches
+which had been reconstructed along the banks of the Gardon. He had
+been suffering from intermittent fever, and started on his journey
+before he was sufficiently recovered. Having no horse, he walked on
+foot, mostly by night, along the least known by-paths, stopping here
+and there upon his way. At length he became so enfeebled and ill as to
+be unable to walk further. He then induced two men to carry him. By
+crossing their hands over each other, they took him up between them,
+and carried him along on this improvised chair.
+
+Court found a temporary lodging with a friend. But no sooner had he
+laid himself down to sleep, than the alarm was raised that he must get
+up and fly. A spy had been observed watching the house. Court rose,
+put on his clothes, and though suffering great pain, started afresh.
+The night was dark and rainy. By turns shivering with cold and in an
+access of fever, he wandered alone for hours across the country,
+towards the house of another friend, where he at last found shelter.
+Such were the common experiences of these wandering, devoted,
+proscribed, and heroic ministers of the Gospel.
+
+Their labours were not carried on without encountering other and
+greater dangers. Now that the Protestants were becoming organized, it
+was not so necessary to incite them to public worship. They even
+required to be restrained, so that they might not too suddenly awaken
+the suspicion or excite the opposition of the authorities. Thus, at
+the beginning of 1717, the preacher Vesson held an open assembly near
+Anduze. It was surprised by the troops; and seventy-two persons made
+prisoners, of whom the men were sent to the galleys for life, and the
+women imprisoned in the Tour de Constance. Vesson was on this occasion
+reprimanded by the synod, for having exposed his brethren to
+unnecessary danger.
+
+While there was the danger of loss of liberty to the people, there was
+the danger of loss of life to the pastors who were bold enough to
+minister to their religious necessities. Etienne Arnaud having
+preached to an assembly near Alais, was taken prisoner by the
+soldiers. They took him to Montpellier, where he was judged,
+condemned, and sent back to Alais to be hanged. This brave young man
+gave up his life with great courage and resignation. His death caused
+much sorrow amongst the Protestants, but it had no effect in
+dissuading the preachers and pastors from the work they had taken in
+hand. There were many to take the place of Arnaud. Young Betrine
+offered himself to the synod, and was accepted.
+
+Scripture readers were also appointed, to read the Bible at meetings
+which preachers were not able to attend. There was, however, a great
+want of Bibles amongst the Protestants. One of the first things done
+by the young King Louis XV.--the "Well-beloved" of the Jesuits--on his
+ascending the throne, was to issue a proclamation ordering the seizure
+of Bibles, Testaments, Psalm-books, and other religious works used by
+the Protestants. And though so many books had already been seized and
+burnt in the reign of Louis XIV., immense piles were again collected
+and given to the flames by the executioners.
+
+"Our need of books is very great," wrote Court to a friend abroad; and
+the same statement was repeated in many of his letters. His principal
+need was of Bibles and Testaments; for every Huguenot knew the greater
+part of the Psalms by heart. When a Testament was obtained, it was
+lent about, and for the most part learnt off. The labour was divided
+in this way. One person, sometimes a boy or girl, of good memory,
+would undertake to learn one or more chapters in the Gospels, another
+a certain number in the Epistles, until at last a large portion of the
+book was committed to memory, and could be recited at the meetings of
+the assemblies. And thus also it happened, that the conversation of
+the people, as well as the sermons of their preachers, gradually
+assumed a strongly biblical form.
+
+Strong appeals were made to foreign Protestants to supply the people
+with books. The refugees who had settled in Switzerland, Holland, and
+England sent the Huguenots remaining in France considerable help in
+this way. They sent many Testaments and Psalm-books, together with
+catechisms for the young, and many devotional works written by French
+divines residing in Holland and England--by Drelincourt, Saurin,
+Claude and others. These were sent safely across the frontier in
+bales, put into the hands of colporteurs, and circulated amongst the
+Protestants all over the South of France. The printing press of Geneva
+was also put in requisition; and Court had many of his sermons printed
+there and distributed amongst the people.
+
+Until this time, Court had merely acted as a preacher; and it was now
+determined to ordain and consecrate him as a pastor. The ceremony,
+though, comparatively unceremonious, was very touching. A large number
+of Protestants in the Vaunage assembled on the night of the 21st
+November, 1718, and, after prayer, Court rose and spoke for some time
+of the responsible duties of the ministry, and of the necessity and
+advantages of preaching. He thanked God for having raised up ministers
+to serve the Church when so many of her enemies were seeking for her
+ruin. He finally asked the whole assembly to pray for grace to enable
+him to fulfil with renewed zeal the duties to which, he was about to
+be called, together with all the virtues needed for success. At these
+touching words the assembled hearers shed tears. Then Corteiz, the old
+pastor, drew near to Court, now upon his knees, and placing a Bible
+upon his head, in the name of Jesus Christ, and with the authority of
+the synod, gave him power to exercise all the functions of the
+ministry. Cries of joy were heard on all sides. Then, after further
+prayer, the assembly broke up in the darkness of the night.
+
+The plague which broke out in 1720 helped the progress of the new
+Church. The Protestants thought the plague had been sent as a
+punishment for their backsliding. Piety increased, and assemblies in
+the Desert were more largely attended than before. The intendants
+ceased to interfere with them, and the soldiers were kept strictly
+within their cantonments. More preachers were licensed, and more
+elders were elected. Many new churches were set up throughout
+Languedoc; and the department of the Lozere, in the Cevennes, became
+again almost entirely Protestant. Roger and Villeveyre were almost
+equally successful in Dauphiny; and Saintonge, Normandy, and Poitou
+were also beginning to maintain a connection with the Protestant
+churches of Languedoc.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+
+REORGANIZATION OF THE CHURCH IN THE DESERT.
+
+
+The organization of the Church in the Desert is one of the most
+curious things in history. Secret meetings of the Huguenots had long
+been held in France. They were began several years before the Act of
+Revocation was proclaimed, when the dragonnades were on foot, and
+while the Protestant temples were being demolished by the Government.
+The Huguenots then arranged to meet and hold their worship in retired
+places.
+
+As the meetings were at first held, for the most part, in Languedoc,
+and as much of that province, especially in the district of the
+Cevennes, is really waste and desert land, the meetings were at first
+called "Assemblies in the Desert," and for nearly a hundred years they
+retained that name.
+
+When Court began to reorganize the Protestant Church in France,
+shortly after the Camisard war, meetings in the Desert had become
+almost unknown. There were occasional prayer-meetings, at which
+chapters of the Bible were read or recited by those who remembered
+them, and psalms were sung; but there were few or no meetings at which
+pastors presided. Court, however, resolved not only to revive the
+meetings of the Church in the Desert, but to reconstitute the
+congregations, and restore the system of governing them according to
+the methods of the Huguenot Church.
+
+The first thing done in reconstituting a congregation, was to appoint
+certain well-known religious men, as _anciens_ or elders. These were
+very important officers. They formed the church in the first instance;
+for where there were no elders, there was no church. They were members
+of the _consistoire_ or presbytery. They looked after the flock,
+visited them in their families, made collections, named the pastors,
+and maintained peace, order, and discipline amongst the people. Though
+first nominated by the pastors, they were elected by the congregation;
+and the reason for their election was their known ability, zeal, and
+piety.
+
+The elder was always present at the assemblies, though the minister
+was absent. He prevented the members from succumbing to temptation and
+falling away; he censured scandal; he kept up the flame of religious
+zeal, and encouraged the failing and helpless; he distributed amongst
+the poorest the collections made and intrusted to him by the Church.
+
+We have said that part of the duty of the elders was to censure
+scandal amongst the members. If their conduct was not considered
+becoming the Christian life, they were not visited by the pastors and
+were not allowed to attend the assemblies, until they had declared
+their determination to lead a better life. What a punishment for
+infraction of discipline! to be debarred attending an assembly, for
+being present at which, the pastor, if detected, might be hanged, and
+the penitent member sent to the galleys for life![54]
+
+         [Footnote 54: C. Coquerel, "Eglise du Desert," i. 105.]
+
+The elders summoned the assemblies. They gave the word to a few
+friends, and these spread the notice about amongst the rest. The news
+soon became known, and in the course of a day or two, the members of
+the congregation, though living perhaps in distant villages, would be
+duly informed of the time and place of the intended meeting. It was
+usually held at night,--in some secret place--in a cave, a hollow in
+the woods, a ravine, or an abandoned farmstead.
+
+Men, women, and even children were taken thither, after one, two, or
+sometimes three leagues' walking. The meetings were always full of
+danger, for spies were lurking about. Catholic priests were constant
+informers; and soldiers were never far distant. But besides the
+difficulties of spies and soldiers, the meetings were often dispersed
+by the rain in summer, or by the snow in winter.
+
+After the Camisard war, and before the appearance of Court, these
+meetings rarely numbered more than a hundred persons. But Court and
+his fellow-pastors often held meetings at which more than two thousand
+people were present. On one occasion, not less than four thousand
+persons attended an assembly in Lower Languedoc.
+
+When the meetings were held by day, they were carefully guarded and
+watched by sentinels on the look-out, especially in those places near
+which garrisons were stationed. The fleetest of the young men were
+chosen for this purpose. They watched the garrison exits, and when the
+soldiers made a sortie, the sentinels communicated by signal from hill
+to hill, thus giving warning to the meeting to disperse. But the
+assemblies were mostly held at night; and even then the sentinels were
+carefully posted about, but not at so great a distance.
+
+The chief of the whole organization was the pastor. First, there were
+the members entitled to church, privileges; next the _anciens_; and
+lastly the pastors. As in Presbyterianism, so in Huguenot Calvinism,
+its form of government was republican. The organization was based upon
+the people who elected their elders; then upon the elders who selected
+and recommended the pastors; and lastly upon the whole congregation of
+members, elders, and pastors (represented in synods), who maintained
+the entire organization of the Church.
+
+There were three grades of service in the rank of pastor--first
+students, next preachers, and lastly pastors. Wonderful that there
+should have been students of a profession, to follow which was almost
+equal to a sentence of death! But there were plenty of young
+enthusiasts ready to brave martyrdom in the service of the proscribed
+Church. Sometimes it was even necessary to restrain them in their
+applications.
+
+Court once wrote to Pierre Durand, at a time when the latter was
+restoring order and organization in Viverais: "Sound and examine well
+the persons offering themselves for your approval, before permitting
+them to enter on this glorious employment. Secure good, virtuous men,
+full of zeal for the cause of truth. It is piety only that inspires
+nobility and greatness of soul. Piety sustains us under the most
+extreme dangers, and triumphs over the severest obstacles. The good
+conscience always marches forward with its head erect."
+
+When the character of the young applicants was approved, their studies
+then proceeded, like everything else connected with the proscribed
+religion, in secret. The students followed the professor and pastor in
+his wanderings over the country, passing long nights in marching,
+sometimes hiding in caves by day, or sleeping under the stars by
+night, passing from meeting to meeting, always with death looming
+before them.
+
+"I have often pitched my professor's chair," said Court, "in a torrent
+underneath a rock. The sky was our roof, and the leafy branches thrown
+out from the crevices in the rock overhead, were our canopy. There I
+and my students would remain for about eight days; it was our hall,
+our lecture-room, and our study. To make the most of our time, and to
+practise the students properly, I gave them a text of Scripture to
+discuss before me--say the first eleven verses of the fifth chapter of
+Luke. I would afterwards propose to them some point of doctrine, some
+passage of Scripture, some moral precept, or sometimes I gave them
+some difficult passages to reconcile. After the whole had stated their
+views upon the question under discussion, I asked the youngest if he
+had anything to state against the arguments advanced; then the others
+were asked in turn; and after they had finished, I stated the views
+which I considered most just and correct. When the more advanced
+students were required to preach, they mounted a particular place,
+where a pole had been set across some rocks in the ravine, and which
+for the time served for a pulpit. And when they had delivered
+themselves, the others were requested by turns to express themselves
+freely upon the subject of the sermon which they had heard."
+
+When the _proposant_ or probationer was considered sufficiently able
+to preach, he was sent on a mission to visit the churches. Sometimes
+he preached the approved sermons of other pastors; sometimes he
+preached his own sermons, after they had been examined by persons
+appointed by the synod. After a time, if approved by the moderator and
+a committee of the synod, the _proposant_ was licensed to preach. His
+work then resembled that of a pastor; but he could not yet administer
+the sacrament. It was only when he had passed the synod, and been
+appointed by the laying on of hands, that he could exercise the higher
+pastoral functions.
+
+Then, with respect to the maintenance of the pastors and preachers,
+Court recounts, not without pride, that for the ten years between 1713
+and 1723 (excepting the years which he spent at Geneva), he served the
+Huguenot churches without receiving a farthing. His family and friends
+saw to the supply of his private wants. With respect to the others,
+they were supported by collections made at the assemblies; and, as the
+people were nearly all poor, the amount collected was very small. On
+one occasion, three assemblies produced a halfpenny and six
+half-farthings.
+
+But a regular system of collecting moneys was framed by the synods
+(consisting of a meeting of pastors and elders), and out of the common
+fund so raised, emoluments were assigned, first to those preachers who
+were married, and afterwards to those who were single. In either case
+the pay was very small, scarcely sufficient to keep the wolf from the
+door.
+
+The students for the ministry were at first educated by Court and
+trained to preach, while he was on his dangerous journeys from one
+assembly in the Desert to another. Nor was the supply of preachers
+sufficient to visit the congregations already organized. Court had
+long determined, so soon as the opportunity offered, of starting a
+school for the special education of preachers and pastors, so that the
+work he was engaged in might be more efficiently carried on. He at
+first corresponded with influential French refugees in England and
+Holland with reference to the subject. He wrote to Basnage and Saurin,
+but they received his propositions coolly. He wrote to William Wake,
+then Archbishop of Canterbury, who promised his assistance. At last
+Court resolved to proceed into Switzerland, to stir up the French
+refugees disposed to help him in his labours.
+
+Arrived at Geneva, Court sought out M. Pictet, to whom he explained
+the state of affairs in France. It had been rumoured amongst the
+foreign Protestants that fanaticism and "inspiration" were now in the
+ascendant among the Protestants of France. Court showed that this was
+entirely a mistake, and that all which the proscribed Huguenots in
+France wanted, was a supply of properly educated pastors. The friends
+of true religion, and the enemies of fanaticism, ought therefore to
+come to their help and supply them with that of which they stood most
+in need. If they would find teachers, Court would undertake to supply
+them with congregations. And Huguenot congregations were rapidly
+increasing, not only in Languedoc and Dauphiny, but in Normandy,
+Picardy, Poitou, Saintonge, Bearn, and the other provinces.
+
+At length the subject became matured. It was not found desirable to
+establish the proposed school at Geneva, that city being closely
+watched by France, and frequently under the censure of its government
+for giving shelter to refugee Frenchmen. It was eventually determined
+that the college for the education of preachers should begin at
+Lausanne. It was accordingly commenced in the year 1726, and
+established under the superintendence of M. Duplan.
+
+A committee of refugees called the "Society of Help for the Afflicted
+Faithful," was formed at Lausanne to collect subscriptions for the
+maintenance of the preachers, the pastors, and the seminary. These
+were in the first place received from Huguenots settled in
+Switzerland, afterwards increased by subscriptions obtained from
+refugees settled in Holland, Germany, and England. The King of England
+subscribed five hundred guineas yearly. Duplan was an indefatigable
+agent. In fourteen years he collected fourteen thousand pounds. By
+these efforts the number of students was gradually increased. They
+came from all parts of France, but chiefly from Languedoc. Between
+1726 (the year in which it was started) and 1753, ninety students had
+passed through the seminary.
+
+When the students had passed the range of study appointed by the
+professors, they returned from Switzerland to France to enter upon the
+work of their lives. They had passed the school for martyrdom, and
+were ready to preach to the assemblies--they had paved their way to
+the scaffold!
+
+The preachers always went abroad with their lives in their hands. They
+travelled mostly by night, shunning the open highways, and selecting
+abandoned routes, often sheep-paths across the hills, to reach the
+scene of their next meeting. The trace of their steps is still marked
+upon the soil of the Cevennes, the people of the country still
+speaking of the solitary routes taken by their instructors when
+passing from parish to parish, to preach to their fathers.
+
+They were dressed, for disguise, in various ways; sometimes as
+peasants, as workmen, or as shepherds. On one occasion, Court and
+Duplan travelled the country disguised as officers! The police heard
+of it, and ordered their immediate arrest, pointing out the town and
+the very house where they were to be taken. But the preachers escaped,
+and assumed a new dress.
+
+When living near Nismes, Court was one day seated under a tree
+composing a sermon, when a party of soldiers, hearing that he was in
+the neighbourhood, came within sight. Court climbed up into the tree,
+where he remained concealed among the branches, and thus contrived to
+escape their search.
+
+On another occasion, he was staying with a friend, in whose house he
+had slept during the previous night. A detachment of troops suddenly
+surrounded the house, and the officer knocked loudly at the door.
+Court made his friend go at once to bed pretending to be ill, while he
+himself cowered down in the narrow space between the bed and the wall.
+His wife slowly answered the door, which the soldiers were threatening
+to blow open. They entered, rummaged the house, opened all the chests
+and closets, sounded the walls, examined the sick man's room, and
+found nothing!
+
+Court himself, as well as the other pastors, worked very hard. On one
+occasion, Court made a round of visits in Lower Languedoc and in the
+Cevennes, at first alone, and afterwards accompanied by a young
+preacher. In the space of two months and a few days he visited
+thirty-one churches, holding assemblies, preaching, and administering
+the sacrament, during which he travelled over three hundred miles. The
+weather did not matter to the pastors--rain nor snow, wind nor storm,
+never hindered them. They took the road and braved all. Even sickness
+often failed to stay them. Sickness might weaken but did not overthrow
+them.
+
+The spies and police so abounded throughout the country, and were so
+active, that they knew all the houses in which the preachers might
+take refuge. A list of these was prepared and placed in the hands of
+the intendant of the province.[55] If preachers were found in them,
+both the shelterers and the sheltered knew what they had to expect.
+The whole property and goods of the former were confiscated and they
+were sent to the galleys for life; and the latter were first tortured
+by the rack, and then hanged. The houses in which preachers were found
+were almost invariably burnt down.
+
+         [Footnote 55: It has since been published in the "Bulletin de
+         la Societe du Protestantisme Francais."]
+
+Notwithstanding the great secrecy with which the whole organization
+proceeded, preachers were frequently apprehended, assemblies were
+often surprised, and many persons were imprisoned and sent to the
+galleys for life. Each village had its chief spy--the priest; and
+beneath the priest there were a number of other spies--spies for
+money, spies for cruelty, spies for revenge.
+
+Was an assembly of Huguenots about to be held? A spy, perhaps a
+traitor, would make it known. The priest's order was sufficient for
+the captain of the nearest troop of soldiers to proceed to disperse
+it. They marched and surrounded the assembly. A sound of volley-firing
+was heard. The soldiers shot down, hanged, or made prisoners of the
+unlawful worshippers. Punishments were sudden, and inquiry was never
+made into them, however brutal. There was the fire for Bibles,
+Testaments, and psalm-books; galleys for men; prisons and convents for
+women; and gibbets for preachers.
+
+In 1720 a large number of prisoners were captured in the famous old
+quarry near Nismes, long the seat of secret Protestant worship. But
+the troops surrounded the meeting suddenly, and the whole were taken.
+The women were sent for life to the Tour de Constance, and the men,
+chained in gangs, were sent all through France to La Rochelle, to be
+imprisoned in the galleys there. The ambassador of England made
+intercession for the prisoners, and their sentence was commuted into
+one of perpetual banishment from France. They were accordingly
+transported to New Orleans on the Mississippi, to populate the rising
+French colony in that quarter of North America.
+
+Thus crimes abounded, and cruelty when practised upon Huguenots was
+never investigated. The seizure and violation of women was common.
+Fathers knew the probable consequence when their daughters were
+seized. The daughter of a Huguenot was seized at Uzes, in 1733, when
+the father immediately died of grief. Two sisters were seized at the
+same place to be "converted," and their immediate relations were
+thrown into gaol in the meantime. This was a common proceeding. The
+Tour de Constance was always filling, and kept full.
+
+The dying were tortured. If they refused the viaticum they were
+treated as "damned persons." When Jean de Molenes of Cahors died,
+making a profession of Protestantism, his body was denounced as
+damned, and it was abandoned without sepulture. A woman who addressed
+some words of consolation to Joseph Martin when dying was condemned to
+pay a fine of six thousand livres, and be imprisoned in the castle of
+Beauregard; and as for Martin, his memory was declared to be damned
+for ever. Many such outrages to the living and dead were constantly
+occurring.[56] Gaolers were accustomed to earn money by exhibiting the
+corpses of Huguenot women at fairs, inviting those who paid for
+admission, to walk up and "see the corpse of a damned person."[57]
+
+         [Footnote 56: Edmund Hughes, "Histoire de la Restauration du
+         Protestantisme en France," ii. 94.]
+
+         [Footnote 57: Benoit, "Edit de Nantes," v. 987.]
+
+Notwithstanding all these cruelties, Protestantism was making
+considerable progress, both in Languedoc and Dauphiny. In reorganizing
+the Church, the whole country had been divided into districts, and
+preachers and pastors endeavoured to visit the whole of their members
+with as much regularity as possible. Thus Languedoc was divided into
+seven districts, and to each of those a _proposant_ or probationary
+preacher was appointed. The presbyteries and synods met regularly and
+secretly in a cave, or the hollow bed of a river, or among the
+mountains. They cheered each other up, though their progress was
+usually over the bodies of their dead friends.
+
+For any pastor or preacher to be apprehended, was, of course, certain
+death. Thus, out of thirteen Huguenots who were found worshipping in a
+private apartment at Montpellier, in 1723, Vesson, the pastor, and
+Bonicel and Antoine Comte, his assistants, were at once condemned and
+hanged on the Peyrou, the other ten persons being imprisoned or sent
+to the galleys for life.
+
+Shortly after, Huc, the aged pastor, was taken prisoner in the
+Cevennes, brought to Montpellier, and hanged in the same place. A
+reward of a thousand livres was offered by Bernage, the intendant, for
+the heads of the remaining preachers, the fatal list comprising the
+names of Court, Cortez, Durand, Rouviere, Bombonnoux, and others. The
+names of these "others" were not mentioned, not being yet thought
+worthy of the gibbet.
+
+And yet it was at this time that the Bishop of Alais made an appeal to
+the government against the toleration shown to the Huguenots! In 1723,
+he sent a long memorial to Paris, alleging that Catholicism was
+suffering a serious injury; that not only had the "new converts"
+withdrawn themselves from the Catholic Church, but that the old
+Catholics themselves were resorting to the Huguenot assemblies; that
+sometimes their meetings numbered from three to four thousand persons;
+that their psalms were sometimes overheard in the surrounding
+villages; that the churches were becoming deserted, the cures in some
+parishes not being able to find a single Catholic to serve at Mass;
+that the Protestants had ceased to send their children to school, and
+were baptized and married without the intervention of the Church.
+
+In consequence of these representations, the then Regent, the Duke of
+Bourbon, sent down an urgent order to the authorities to carry out the
+law--to prevent meetings, under penalty of death to preachers, and
+imprisonment at the galleys to all who attended them, ordering that
+the people should be _forced_ to go to church and the children to
+school, and reviving generally the severe laws against Protestantism
+issued by Louis XIV. The result was that many of the assemblies were
+shortly after attacked and dispersed, many persons were made prisoners
+and sent to the galleys, and many more preachers were apprehended,
+racked, and hanged.
+
+Repeated attempts were made to apprehend Antoine Court, as being the
+soul of the renewed Protestant organization. A heavy reward was
+offered for his head. The spies and police hunted after him in all
+directions. Houses where he was supposed to be concealed were
+surrounded by soldiers at night, and every hole and corner in them
+ransacked. Three houses were searched in one night. Court sometimes
+escaped with great difficulty. On one occasion he remained concealed
+for more than twenty hours under a heap of manure. His friends
+endeavoured to persuade him to leave the country until the activity of
+the search for him had passed.
+
+Since the year 1722, Court had undertaken new responsibilities. He had
+become married, and was now the father of three children. He had
+married a young Huguenot woman of Uzes. He first met her in her
+father's house, while he was in hiding from the spies. While he was
+engaged in his pastoral work his wife and family continued to live at
+Uzes. Court was never seen in her company, but could only visit his
+family secretly. The woman was known to be of estimable character, but
+it gave rise to suspicions that she had three children without a known
+father. The spies were endeavouring to unravel the secret, tempted by
+the heavy reward offered for Court's head.
+
+One day the new commandant of the town, passing before the door of the
+house where Court's wife lived, stopped, and, pointing to the house,
+put some questions to the neighbours. Court was informed of this, and
+immediately supposed that his house had become known, that his wife
+and family had been discovered and would be apprehended. He at once
+made arrangements for having them removed to Geneva. They reached that
+city in safety, in the month of April, 1729.
+
+Shortly after, Court, still wandering and preaching about Languedoc,
+became seriously ill. He feared for his wife, he feared for his
+family, and conceived the design of joining them in Switzerland. A few
+months later, exhausted by his labours and continued illness, he left
+Languedoc and journeyed by slow stages to Geneva. He was still a young
+man, only thirty-three; but he had worked excessively hard during the
+last dozen years. Since the age of fourteen, in fact, he had
+evangelized Languedoc.
+
+Shortly before Court left France for Switzerland, the preacher,
+Alexandre Roussel, was, in the year 1728, added to the number of
+martyrs. He was only twenty-six years of age. The occasion on which he
+was made prisoner was while attending an assembly near Vigan. The
+whole of the people had departed, and Roussel was the last to leave
+the meeting. He was taken to Montpellier, and imprisoned in the
+citadel, which had before held so many Huguenot pastors. He was asked
+to abjure, and offered a handsome bribe if he would become a Catholic.
+He refused to deny his faith, and was sentenced to die. When Antoine
+Court went to offer consolation to his mother, she replied, "If my son
+had given way I should have been greatly distressed; but as he died
+with constancy, I thank God for strengthening him to perform this last
+work in his service."
+
+Court did not leave his brethren in France without the expostulations
+of his friends. They alleged that his affection for his wife and
+family had cooled his zeal for God's service. Duplan and Cortez
+expostulated with him; and the churches of Languedoc, which he himself
+had established, called upon him to return to his duties amongst them.
+
+But Court did not attend to their request. His determination was for
+the present unshaken. He had a long arrears of work to do in quiet. He
+had money to raise for the support of the suffering Church of France,
+and for the proper maintenance of the college for students, preachers,
+and pastors. He had to help the refugees, who still continued to leave
+France for Switzerland, and to write letters and rouse the Protestant
+kingdoms of the north, as Brousson had done before him some thirty
+years ago.
+
+The city of Berne was very generous in its treatment of Court and the
+Huguenots generally. The Bernish Government allotted Court a pension
+of five hundred livres a-year--for he was without the means of
+supporting his family--all his own and his wife's property having been
+seized and sequestrated in France. Court preached with great success
+in the principal towns of Switzerland, more particularly at Berne, and
+afterwards at Lausanne, where he spent the rest of his days.
+
+Though he worked there more peacefully, he laboured as continuously as
+ever in the service of the Huguenot churches. He composed addresses to
+them; he educated preachers and pastors for them; and one of his
+principal works, while at Lausanne, was to compose a history of the
+Huguenots in France subsequent to the Revocation of the Edict of
+Nantes.
+
+What he had done for the reorganization of the Huguenot Church in
+France may be thus briefly stated. Court had begun his work in 1715,
+at which time there was no settled congregation in the South of
+France. The Huguenots were only ministered to by occasional wandering
+pastors. In 1729, the year in which Court finally left France, there
+were in Lower Languedoc 29 organized, though secretly governed,
+churches; in Upper Languedoc, 11; in the Cevennes, 18; in the Lozere
+12; and in Viverais, 42 churches. There were now over 200,000
+recognised Protestants in Languedoc alone. The ancient discipline had
+been restored; 120 churches had been organized; a seminary for the
+education of preachers and pastors had been established; and
+Protestantism was extending in Dauphiny, Bearn, Saintonge,[58] and
+other quarters.
+
+         [Footnote 58: In 1726, a deputation from Guyenne, Royergue,
+         and Poitou, appeared before the Languedoc synod, requesting
+         preachers and pastors to be sent to them. The synod agreed to
+         send Maroger as preacher. Betrine (the first of the Lausanne
+         students) and Grail were afterwards sent to join him.
+         Protestantism was also reawakening in Saintonge and Picardy,
+         and pastors from Languedoc journeyed there to administer the
+         sacrament. Preachers were afterwards sent to join them, to
+         awaken the people, and reorganize the congregations.]
+
+Such were, in a great measure, the results of the labours of Antoine
+Court and his assistants during the previous fifteen years.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+
+THE CHURCH IN THE DESERT, 1730-62--PAUL RABAUT.
+
+
+The persecutions of the Huguenots increased at one time and relaxed at
+another. When France was at war, and the soldiers were fighting in
+Flanders or on the Rhine, the bishops became furious, and complained
+bitterly to the government of the toleration shown to the Protestants.
+The reason was that there were no regiments at liberty to pursue the
+Huguenots and disperse their meetings in the Desert. When the soldiers
+returned from the wars, persecution began again.
+
+It usually began with the seizing and burning of books. The
+book-burning days were considered amongst the great days of fete.
+
+One day in June, 1730, the Intendant of Languedoc visited Nismes,
+escorted by four battalions of troops. On arriving, the principal
+Catholics were selected, and placed as commissaries to watch the
+houses of the suspected Huguenots. At night, while the inhabitants
+slept, the troops turned out, and the commissaries pointed out the
+Huguenot houses to be searched. The inmates were knocked up, the
+soldiers entered, the houses were rummaged, and all the books that
+could be found were taken to the Hotel de Ville.
+
+A few days after a great _auto-da-fe_ was held. The entire Catholic
+population turned out. There were the four battalions of troops, the
+gendarmes, the Catholic priests, and the chief dignitaries; and in
+their presence all the Huguenot books were destroyed. They were thrown
+into a pile on the usual place of execution, and the hangman set fire
+to this great mass of Bibles, psalm-books, catechisms, and
+sermons.[59] The officers laughed, the priests sneered, the multitude
+cheered. These bonfires were of frequent occurrence in all the towns
+of Languedoc.
+
+         [Footnote 59: E. Hughes, "Histoire de la Restauration, du
+         Protestantisme en France," ii. 96.]
+
+But if the priests hated the printed word, still more did they hate
+the spoken word. They did not like the Bible, but they hated the
+preachers. Fines, _auto-da-fes_, condemnation to the galleys, seizures
+of women and girls, and profanation of the dead, were tolerable
+punishments, but there was nothing like hanging a preacher. "Nothing,"
+said Saint-Florentin to the commandant of La Devese, "can produce more
+impression than hanging a preacher; and it is very desirable that you
+should immediately take steps to arrest one of them."
+
+The commandant obeyed orders, and apprehended Pierre Durand. He was on
+his way to baptize the child of one of his congregation, who lived on
+a farm in Viverais. An apparent peasant, who seemed to be waiting his
+approach, offered to conduct him to the farm. Durand followed him. The
+peasant proved to be a soldier in disguise. He led Durand directly
+into the midst of his troop. There he was bound and carried off to
+Montpellier.
+
+Durand was executed at the old place--the Peyrou--the soldiers
+beating their drums to stifle his voice while he prayed. His corpse
+was laid beside that of Alexandre Roussel, under the rampart of the
+fortress of Montpellier. Durand was the last of the preachers in
+France who had attended the synod of 1715. They had all been executed,
+excepting only Antoine Court, who was safe in Switzerland.
+
+The priests were not so successful with Claris, the preacher, who
+contrived to escape their clutches. Claris had just reached France on
+his return from the seminary at Lausanne. He had taken shelter for the
+night with a Protestant friend at Foissac, near Uzes. Scarcely had he
+fallen asleep, when the soldiers, informed by the spies, entered his
+chamber, bound him, and marched him off on foot by night, to Alais. He
+was thrown into gaol, and was afterwards judged and condemned to
+death. His friends in Alais, however, secretly contrived to get an
+iron chisel passed to him in prison. He raised the stone of a chamber
+which communicated with his dungeon, descended to the ground, and
+silently leapt the wall. He was saved.
+
+Pastors and preachers continued to be tracked and hunted with renewed
+ardour in Saintonge, Poitou, Gascony, and Dauphiny. "The Chase," as it
+was called, was better organized than it had been for twenty years
+previously. The Catholic clergy, however, continued to complain. The
+chase, they said, was not productive enough! The hangings of pastors
+were too few. The curates of the Cevennes thus addressed the
+intendants: "You do not perform your duty: you are neither active
+enough nor pitiless enough;"[60] and they requested the government to
+adopt more vigorous measures.
+
+         [Footnote 60: E. Hughes, ii. 99. Coquerel, "L'Eglise dans le
+         Desert," i. 258.]
+
+The intendants, who were thus accused, insisted that they _had_ done
+their duty. They had hanged all the Huguenot preachers that the
+priests and their spies had discovered and brought to them. They had
+also offered increased rewards for the preachers' heads. If
+Protestantism counted so large a number of adherents, _they_ were
+surely not to blame for that! Had the priests themselves done _their_
+duty? Thus the intendants and the cures reproached each other by
+turns.
+
+And yet the pastors and preachers had not been spared. They had been
+hanged without mercy. They knew they were in the peril of constant
+death. "I have slept fifteen days in a meadow," wrote Cortez, the
+pastor, "and I write this under a tree." Morel, the preacher, when
+attending an assembly, was fired at by the soldiers and died of his
+wounds. Pierre Dortial was also taken prisoner when holding an
+assembly. The host with whom he lived was condemned to the galleys for
+life; the arrondissement in which the assembly had been held was
+compelled to pay a fine of three thousand livres; and Dortial himself
+was sentenced to be hanged. When the aged preacher was informed of his
+sentence he exclaimed: "What an honour for me, oh my God! to have been
+chosen from so many others to suffer death because of my constancy to
+the truth." He was executed at Nismes, and died with courage.
+
+In 1742 France was at war, and the Huguenots enjoyed a certain amount
+of liberty. The edicts against them were by no means revoked; their
+execution was merely suspended. The provinces were stripped of troops,
+and the clergy could no longer call upon them to scatter the meetings
+in the Desert. Hence the assemblies increased. The people began to
+think that the commandants of the provinces had received orders to
+shut their eyes, and see nothing of the proceedings of the Huguenots.
+
+At a meeting held in a valley between Calvisson and Langlade, in
+Languedoc, no fewer than ten thousand persons openly met for worship.
+No troops appeared. There was no alarm nor surprise. Everything passed
+in perfect quiet. In many other places, public worship was celebrated,
+the sacrament was administered, children were baptized, and marriages
+were celebrated in the open day.[61]
+
+         [Footnote 61: Although marriages by the pastors had long been
+         declared illegal, they nevertheless married and baptized in
+         the Desert. After 1730, the number of Protestant marriages
+         greatly multiplied, though it was known that the issue of
+         such marriages were declared, by the laws of France to be
+         illegal. Many of the Protestants of Dauphiny went across the
+         frontier into Switzerland, principally to Geneva, and were
+         there married.]
+
+The Catholics again urgently complained to the government of the
+increasing number of Huguenot meetings. The Bishop of Poitiers
+complained that in certain parishes of his diocese there was not now a
+single Catholic. Low Poitou contained thirty Protestant churches,
+divided into twelve arrondissements, and each arrondissement contained
+about seven thousand members. The Procureur-General of Normandy said,
+"All this country is full of Huguenots." But the government had at
+present no troops to spare, and the Catholic bishops and clergy must
+necessarily wait until the war with the English and the Austrians had
+come to an end.
+
+Antoine Court paid a short visit to Languedoc in 1744, to reconcile a
+difference which had arisen in the Church through the irregular
+conduct of Pastor Boyer. Court was received with great enthusiasm, and
+when Boyer was re-established in his position as pastor, after making
+his submission to the synod, a convocation of Huguenots was held near
+Sauzet, at which thousands of people were present. Court remained for
+about a month in France, preaching almost daily to immense audiences.
+At Nismes, he preached at the famous place for Huguenot meetings--in
+the old quarry, about three miles from the town. There were about
+twenty thousand persons present, ranged, as in an amphitheatre, along
+the sides of the quarry. It was a most impressive sight. Peasants and
+gentlemen mixed together. Even the "beau monde" of Nismes was present.
+Everybody thought that there was now an end of the persecution.[62]
+
+         [Footnote 62: Of the preachers about this time (1740-4) the
+         best known were Morel, Foriel, Mauvillon, Voulaud, Corteiz,
+         Peyrot, Roux, Gauch, Coste, Dugniere, Blachon, Gabriac,
+         Dejours, Rabaut, Gibert, Mignault, Desubas, Dubesset, Pradel,
+         Morin, Defferre, Loire, Pradon,--with many more. Defferre
+         restored Protestantism in Berne. Loire (a native of St. Omer,
+         and formerly a Catholic), Viala, Preneuf, and Prudon, were
+         the apostles of Normandy, Rouergue, Guyenne, and Poitou.]
+
+In the meantime the clergy continued to show signs of increasing
+irritation. They complained, denounced, and threatened. Various
+calumnies were invented respecting the Huguenots. The priests of
+Dauphiny gave out that Roger, the pastor, had read an edict purporting
+to be signed by Louis XV. granting complete toleration to the
+Huguenots! The report was entirely without foundation, and Roger
+indignantly denied that he had read any such edict. But the report
+reached the ears of the King, then before Ypres with his army; on
+which he issued a proclamation announcing that the rumour publicly
+circulated that it was his intention to tolerate the Huguenots was
+absolutely false.
+
+No sooner had the war terminated, and the army returned to France,
+than the persecutions recommenced as hotly as ever. The citizens of
+Nismes, for having recently encouraged the Huguenots and attended
+Court's great meeting, were heavily fined. All the existing laws for
+the repression and destruction of Protestantism were enforced.
+Suspected persons were apprehended and imprisoned without trial. A new
+"hunt" was set on foot for preachers. There were now plenty of
+soldiers at liberty to suppress the meetings in the Desert, and they
+were ordered into the infested quarters. In a word, persecution was
+let loose all over France. Nor was it without the usual results. It
+was very hot in Dauphiny. There a detachment of horse police,
+accompanied by regular troops and a hangman, ran through the province
+early in 1745, spreading terror everywhere. One of their exploits was
+to seize a sick old Huguenot, drag him from his bed, and force him
+towards prison. He died upon the road.
+
+In February, it was ascertained that the Huguenots met for worship in
+a certain cavern. The owner of the estate on which the cavern was
+situated, though unaware of the meetings, was fined a thousand crowns,
+and imprisoned for a year in the Castle of Cret.
+
+Next month, Louis Ranc, a pastor, was seized at Livron while baptizing
+an infant, taken to Die, and hanged. He had scarcely breathed his
+last, when the hangman cut the cord, hewed off the head, and made a
+young Protestant draw the corpse along the streets of Die.
+
+In the month of April, 1745, Jacques Roger, the old friend and
+coadjutor of Court--the apostle of Dauphiny as Court had been of
+Languedoc--was taken prisoner and conducted to Grenoble. Roger was
+then eighty years old, worn out with privation and hard work. He was
+condemned to death. He professed his joy at being still able to seal
+with his blood the truths he had so often proclaimed. On his way to
+the scaffold, he sang aloud the fifty-first Psalm. He was executed in
+the Place du Breuil. After he had hung for twenty-four hours, his body
+was taken down, dragged along the streets of Grenoble, and thrown into
+the Isere.
+
+At Grenoble also, in the same year, seven persons were condemned to
+the galleys. A young woman was publicly whipped at the same place for
+attending a Huguenot meeting. Seven students and pastors who could not
+be found, were hanged in effigy. Four houses were demolished for
+having served as asylums for preachers. Fines were levied on all
+sides, and punishments of various kinds were awarded to many hundred
+persons. Thus persecution ran riot in Dauphiny in the years 1745 and
+1746.
+
+In Languedoc it was the same. The prisons and the galleys were always
+kept full. Dragoons were quartered in the Huguenot villages, and by
+this means the inhabitants were soon ruined. The soldiers pillaged the
+houses, destroyed the furniture, tore up the linen, drank all the
+wine, and, when they were in good humour, followed the cattle, swine,
+and fowl, and killed them off sword in hand. Montauban, an old
+Huguenot town, was thus ruined in the course of a very few months.
+
+One day, in a Languedoc village, a soldier seized a young girl with a
+foul intention. She cried aloud, and the villagers came to her rescue.
+The dragoons turned out in a body, and fired upon the people. An old
+man was shot dead, a number of the villagers were taken prisoners,
+and, with their hands tied to the horses' tails, were conducted for
+punishment to Montauban.
+
+All the towns and villages in Upper Languedoc were treated with the
+same cruelty. Nismes was fined over and over again. Viverais was
+treated with the usual severity. M. Desubas, the pastor, was taken
+prisoner there, and conducted to Vernoux. As the soldiers led him
+through the country to prison, the villagers came out in crowds to see
+him pass. Many followed the pastor, thinking they might be able to
+induce the magistrates of Vernoux to liberate him. The villagers were
+no sooner cooped up in a mass in the chief street of the town, than
+they were suddenly fired upon by the soldiers. Thirty persons were
+killed on the spot, more than two hundred were wounded, and many
+afterwards died of their wounds.
+
+Desubas, the pastor, was conducted to Nismes, and from Nismes to
+Montpellier. While on his way to death at Montpellier, some of his
+peasant friends, who lived along the road, determined to rescue him.
+But when Paul Rabaut heard of the proposed attempt, he ran to the
+place where the people had assembled and held them back. He was
+opposed to all resistance to the governing power, and thought it
+possible, by patience and righteousness, to live down all this
+horrible persecution.
+
+Desubas was judged, and, as usual, condemned to death. Though it was
+winter time, he was led to his punishment almost naked; his legs
+uncovered, and only in thin linen vest over his body. Arrived at the
+gallows, his books and papers were burnt before his eyes, and he was
+then delivered over to the executioner. A Jesuit presented a crucifix
+for him to kiss, but he turned his head to one side, raised his eyes
+upwards, and was then hanged.
+
+The same persecution prevailed over the greater part of France. In
+Saintonge, Elie Vivien, the preacher, was taken prisoner, and hanged
+at La Rochelle. His body remained for twenty-four hours on the
+gallows. It was then placed upon a forked gibbet, where it hung until
+the bones were picked clean by the crows and bleached by the wind and
+the sun.[63]
+
+         [Footnote 63: E. Hughes, "Histoire de la Restauration," &c.,
+         ii. 202.]
+
+The same series of persecutions went on from one year to another. It
+was a miserable monotony of cruelty. There was hanging for the
+pastors; the galleys for men attending meetings in the Desert; the
+prisons and convents for women and children. Wherever it was found
+that persons had been married by the Huguenot pastors, they were haled
+before the magistrate, fined and imprisoned, and told that they had
+been merely living in concubinage, and that their children were
+illegitimate.
+
+Sometimes it was thought that the persecutors would relent. France was
+again engaged in a disastrous war with England and Austria; and it was
+feared that England would endeavour to stir up a rebellion amongst the
+Huguenots. But the pastors met in a general synod, and passed
+resolutions assuring the government of their loyalty to the King,[64]
+and of their devotion to the laws of France!
+
+         [Footnote 64: On the 1st of November, 1746, the ministers of
+         Languedoc met in haste, and wrote to the Intendant, Le Nain:
+         "Monseigneur, nous n'avons aucune connaissance de ces gens
+         qu'on appelle emissaires, et qu'on dit etre envoyes des pays
+         etrangers pour solliciter les Protestants a la revolte. Nous
+         avons exhorte, et nous nous proposons d'exhorter encore dans
+         toutes les occasions, nos troupeaux a la soumission au
+         souverain et a la patience dans les afflictions, et de nous
+         ecarter jamais de la pratique de ce precepte: Craignez Dieu
+         et honorez le roi."]
+
+Their "loyalty" proved of no use. The towns of Languedoc were as
+heavily fined as before, for attending meetings in the Desert.[65]
+Children were, as usual, taken away from their parents and placed in
+Jesuit convents. Le Nain apprehended Jean Desjours, and had him hanged
+at Montpellier, on the ground that he had accompanied the peasants
+who, as above recited, went into Vernoux after the martyr Desubas.
+
+         [Footnote 65: Pres de Saint-Ambroix (Cevennes) se tint un
+         jour une assemblee. Survint un detachement. Les femmes et les
+         filles furent depouillees, violees, et quelques hommes furent
+         blesses.--E. HUGHES, _Histoire de la Restauration, &c._, ii.
+         212.]
+
+The Catholics would not even allow Protestant corpses to be buried in
+peace. At Levaur a well-known Huguenot died. Two of his friends went
+to dig a grave for him by night; they were observed by spies and
+informed against. By dint of money and entreaties, however, the
+friends succeeded in getting the dead man buried. The populace,
+stirred up by the White Penitents (monks), opened the grave, took out
+the corpse, sawed the head from the body, and prepared to commit
+further outrages, when the police interfered, and buried the body
+again, in consideration of the large sum that had been paid to the
+authorities for its interment.
+
+The populace were always wild for an exhibition of cruelty. In
+Provence, a Protestant named Montague died, and was secretly interred.
+The Catholics having discovered the place where he was buried
+determined to disinter him. The grave was opened, and the corpse taken
+out. A cord was attached to the neck, and the body was hauled through
+the village to the music of a tambourine and flageolet. At every step
+it was kicked or mauled by the crowd who accompanied it. Under the
+kicks the corpse burst. The furious brutes then took out the entrails
+and attached them to poles, going through the village crying, "Who
+wants preachings? Who wants preachings?"[66]
+
+         [Footnote 66: Antoine Court, "Memoire Historique," 140.]
+
+To such a pitch of brutality had the kings of France and their
+instigators, the Jesuits--who, since the Revocation of the Edict, had
+nearly the whole education of the country in their hands--reduced the
+people; from whom they were themselves, however, to suffer almost an
+equal amount of indignity.
+
+In the midst of these hangings and cruelties, the bishops again
+complained bitterly of the tolerance granted to the Huguenots. M. de
+Montclus, Bishop of Alais, urged "that the true cause of all the evils
+that afflict the country was the relaxation of the laws against heresy
+by the magistrates, that they gave themselves no trouble to persecute
+the Protestants, and that their further emigration from the kingdom
+was no more to be feared than formerly." It was, they alleged, a great
+danger to the country that there should be in it two millions of men
+allowed to live without church and outside the law.[67]
+
+         [Footnote 67: See "Memorial of General Assembly of Clergy to
+         the King," in _Collection des proces-verbaux_, 345.]
+
+The afflicted Church at this time had many misfortunes to contend
+with. In 1748, the noble, self-denying, indefatigable Claris died--one
+of the few Protestant pastors who died in his bed. In 1750, the
+eloquent young preacher, Francois Benezet,[68] was taken and hanged at
+Montpellier. Meetings in the Desert were more vigorously attacked and
+dispersed, and when surrounded by the soldiers, most persons were
+shot; the others were taken prisoners.
+
+         [Footnote 68: The King granted 480 livres of reward to the
+         spy who detected Benezet and procured his apprehension by the
+         soldiers.]
+
+The Huguenot pastors repeatedly addressed Louis XV. and his ministers,
+appealing to them for protection as loyal subjects. In 1750 they
+addressed the King in a new memorial, respectfully representing that
+their meetings for public worship, sacraments, baptisms, and
+marriages, were matters of conscience. They added: "Your troops pursue
+us in the deserts as if we were wild beasts; our property is
+confiscated; our children are torn from us; we are condemned to the
+galleys; and although our ministers continually exhort us to discharge
+our duty as good citizens and faithful subjects, a price is set upon
+their heads, and when they are taken, they are cruelly executed." But
+Louis XV. and his ministers gave no greater heed to this petition than
+they had done to those which had preceded it.
+
+After occasional relays the Catholic persecutions again broke out. In
+1752 there was a considerable emigration in consequence of a new
+intendant having been appointed to Languedoc. The Catholics called
+upon him to put in force the powers of the law. New brooms sweep
+clean. The Intendant proceeded to carry out the law with such ferocity
+as to excite great terror throughout the province. Meetings were
+surrounded; prisoners taken and sent to the galleys; and all the gaols
+and convents were filled with women and children.
+
+The emigration began again. Many hundred persons went to Holland; and
+a still larger number went to settle with their compatriots as silk
+and poplin weavers in Dublin. The Intendant of Languedoc tried to stop
+their flight. The roads were again watched as before. All the outlets
+from the kingdom were closed by the royalist troops. Many of the
+intending emigrants were made prisoners. They were spoiled of
+everything, robbed of their money, and thrown into gaol. Nevertheless,
+another large troop started, passed through Switzerland, and reached
+Ireland at the end of the year.
+
+At the same time, emigration was going on from Normandy and Poitou,
+where persecution was compelling the people to fly from their own
+shores and take refuge in England. This religious emigration of 1752
+was, however, almost the last which took place from France. Though the
+persecutions were drawing to an end, they had not yet come to a close.
+
+In 1754, the young pastor Tessier (called Lafage), had just returned
+from Lausanne, where he had been pursuing his studies for three years.
+He had been tracked by a spy to a certain house, where he had spent
+the night. Next morning the house was surrounded by soldiers. Tessier
+tried to escape by getting out of a top window and running along the
+roofs of the adjoining houses. A soldier saw him escaping and shot at
+him. He was severely wounded in the arm. He was captured, taken before
+the Intendant of Languedoc, condemned, and hanged in the course of the
+same day.
+
+Religious meetings also continued to be surrounded, and were treated
+in the usual brutal manner. For instance, an assembly was held in
+Lower Languedoc on the 8th of August, 1756, for the purpose of
+ordaining to the ministry three young men who had arrived from
+Lausanne, where they had been educated. A number of pastors were
+present, and as many as from ten to twelve thousand men, women, and
+children were there from the surrounding country. The congregation was
+singing a psalm, when a detachment of soldiers approached. The people
+saw them; the singing ceased; the pastors urging patience and
+submission. The soldiers fired; every shot told; and the crowd fled in
+all directions. The meeting was thus dispersed, leaving the
+murderers--in other words, the gallant soldiers--masters of the field;
+a long track of blood remaining to mark the site on which the
+prayer-meeting had been held.
+
+It is not necessary to recount further cruelties and tortures.
+Assemblies surrounded and people shot; preachers seized and hanged;
+men sent to the galleys; women sent to the Tour de Constance; children
+carried off to the convents--such was the horrible ministry of torture
+in France. When Court heard of the re-inflictions of some old form of
+torture--"Alas," said he, "there is nothing new under the sun. In all
+times, the storm of persecution has cleansed the threshing-floor of
+the Lord."
+
+And yet, notwithstanding all the bitterness of the persecution, the
+number of Protestants increased. It is difficult to determine their
+numbers. Their apologists said they amounted to three millions;[69]
+their detractors that they did not amount to four hundred thousand.
+The number of itinerant pastors, however, steadily grew. In 1756 there
+were 48 pastors at work, with 22 probationary preachers and students.
+In 1763 there were 62 pastors, 35 preachers, and 15 students.
+
+         [Footnote 69: Ripert de Monclar, procureur-general, writing
+         in 1755, says: "According to the jurisprudence of this
+         kingdom, there are no French Protestants, and yet, according
+         to the truth of facts, there are three millions. These
+         imaginary beings fill the towns, provinces, and rural
+         districts, and the capital alone contains sixty thousand of
+         them."]
+
+Then followed the death of Antoine Court himself in Switzerland--after
+watching over the education and training of preachers at the Lausanne
+Seminary. Feeling his powers beginning to fail, he had left Lausanne,
+and resided at Timonex. There, assisted by his son Court de Gebelin,
+Professor of Logic at the College, he conducted an immense
+correspondence with French Protestants at home and abroad.
+
+Court's wife died in 1755, to his irreparable loss. His "Rachel,"
+during his many years of peril, had been his constant friend and
+consoler. Unable, after her death, to live at Timonex, so full of
+cruel recollections, Court returned to Lausanne. He did not long
+survive his wife's death. While engaged in writing the history of the
+Reformed Church of France, he was taken ill. His history of the
+Camisards was sent to press, and he lived to revise the first
+proof-sheets. But he did not survive to see the book published. He
+died on the 15th June, 1760, in the sixty-fourth year of his age.
+
+From the time of Court's death--indeed from the time that Court left
+France to settle at Lausanne--Paul Rabaut continued to be looked upon
+as the leader and director of the proscribed Huguenot Church. Rabaut
+originally belonged to Bedarieux in Languedoc. He was a great friend
+of Pradel's. Rabaut served the Church at Nismes, and Pradel at Uzes.
+Both spent two years at Lausanne in 1744-5. Court entertained the
+highest affection for Rabaut, and regarded him as his successor. And
+indeed he nobly continued the work which Court had begun.
+
+Besides being zealous, studious, and pious, Rabaut was firm, active,
+shrewd, and gentle. He stood strongly upon moral force. Once, when the
+Huguenots had become more than usually provoked by the persecutions
+practised on them, they determined to appear armed at the assemblies.
+Rabaut peremptorily forbade it. If they persevered, he would forsake
+their meetings. He prevailed, and they came armed only with their
+Bibles.
+
+The directness of Rabaut's character, the nobility of his sentiments,
+the austerity of his life, and his heroic courage, evidently destined
+him as the head of the work which Court had begun. Antoine Court! Paul
+Rabaut! The one restored Protestantism in France, the other rooted and
+established it.
+
+Rabaut's enthusiasm may be gathered from the following extract of a
+letter which he wrote to a friend at Geneva: "When I fix my attention
+upon the divine fire with which, I will not say Jesus Christ and the
+Apostles, but the Reformed and their immediate successors, burned for
+the salvation of souls, it seems to me that, in comparison with them,
+we are ice. Their immense works astound me, and at the same time cover
+me with confusion. What would I not give to resemble them in
+everything laudable!"
+
+Rabaut had the same privations, perils, and difficulties to undergo as
+the rest of the pastors in the Desert. He had to assume all sorts of
+names and disguises while he travelled through the country, in order
+to preach at the appointed places. He went by the names of M. Paul, M.
+Denis, M. Pastourel, and M. Theophile; and he travelled under the
+disguises of a common labourer, a trader, a journeyman, and a baker.
+
+He was condemned to death, as a pastor who preached in defiance of the
+law; but his disguises were so well prepared, and the people for whom
+he ministered were so faithful to him, that the priests and other
+spies never succeeded in apprehending him. Singularly enough, he was
+in all other respects in favour of the recognition of legal authority,
+and strongly urged his brethren never to adopt any means whatever of
+forcibly resisting the King's orders.
+
+Many of the military commanders were becoming disgusted with the
+despicable and cowardly business which the priests called upon them to
+do. Thus, on one occasion, a number of Protestants had assembled at
+the house of Paul Rabaut at Nismes, and, while they were on their
+knees, the door was suddenly burst open, when a man, muffled up,
+presented himself, and throwing open his cloak, discovered the
+military commandant of the town. "My friends," he said, "you have Paul
+Rabaut with you; in a quarter of an hour I shall be here with my
+soldiers, accompanied by Father ----, who has just laid the
+information against you." When the soldiers arrived, headed by the
+commandant and the father, of course no Paul Rabaut was to be found.
+
+"For more than thirty years," says one of Paul Rabaut's biographers,
+"caverns and huts, whence he was unearthed like a wild animal, were
+his only habitation. For a long time he dwelt in a safe hiding-place
+that one of his faithful guides had provided for him, under a pile of
+stones and thorn-bushes. It was discovered at length by a shepherd,
+and such was the wretchedness of his condition, that, when he was
+forced to abandon the place, he still regretted this retreat, which
+was more fit for savage beasts than men."
+
+Yet this hut of piled stones was for some time the centre of
+Protestant affairs in France. All the faithful instinctively turned to
+Rabaut when assailed by fresh difficulties and persecutions, and acted
+on his advice. He obtained the respect even of the Catholics
+themselves, because it was known that he was a friend of peace, and
+opposed to all risings and rebellions amongst his people.
+
+Once he had the courage to present a petition to the Marquis de
+Paulmy, Minister of War, when changing horses at a post-house between
+Nismes and Montpellier. Rabaut introduced himself by name, and the
+Marquis knew that it was the proscribed pastor who stood before him.
+He might have arrested and hanged Rabaut on the spot; but, impressed
+by the noble bearing of the pastor, he accepted the petition, and
+promised to lay it before the king.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII
+
+END OF THE PERSECUTIONS--THE FRENCH REVOLUTION.
+
+
+In the year 1762, the execution of an unknown Protestant at Toulouse
+made an extraordinary noise in Europe. Protestant pastors had so often
+been executed, that the punishment had ceased to be a novelty.
+Sometimes they were simply hanged; at other times they were racked,
+and then hanged; and lastly, they were racked, had their larger bones
+broken, and were then hanged. Yet none of the various tortures
+practised on the Protestant pastors had up to that time excited any
+particular sensation in France itself, and still less in Europe.
+
+Cruelty against French Huguenots was so common a thing in those days,
+that few persons who were of any other religion, or of no religion at
+all, cured anything about it. The Protestants were altogether outside
+the law. When a Protestant meeting was discovered and surrounded, and
+men, women, and children were at once shot down, no one could call the
+murderers in question, because the meetings were illegal. The persons
+taken prisoners at the meetings were brought before the magistrates
+and sentenced to punishments even worse than death. They might be sent
+to the galleys, to spend the remainder of their lives amongst
+thieves, murderers, and assassins. Women and children found at such
+meetings might also be sentenced to be imprisoned in the Tour de
+Constance. There were even cases of boys of twelve years old having
+been sent to the galleys for life, because of having accompanied their
+parents to "the Preaching."[70]
+
+         [Footnote 70: Athanase Coquerel, "Les Forcats pour la Foi,"
+         91.]
+
+The same cruelties were at that time practised upon the common people
+generally, whether they were Huguenots or not. The poor creatures,
+whose only pleasure consisted in sometimes hunting a Protestant, were
+so badly off in some districts of France that they even fed upon
+grass. The most distressed districts in France were those in which the
+bishops and clergy were the principal owners of land. They were the
+last to abandon slavery, which continued upon their estates until
+after the Revolution.
+
+All these abominations had grown up in France, because the people had
+begun to lose the sense of individual liberty. Louis XIV. had in his
+time prohibited the people from being of any religion different from
+his own. "His Majesty," said his Prime Minister Louvois, "will not
+suffer any person to remain in his kingdom who shall not be of his
+religion." And Louis XV. continued the delusion. The whole of the
+tyrannical edicts and ordinances of Louis XIV. continued to be
+maintained.
+
+It was not that Louis XIV. and Louis XV. were kings of any virtue or
+religion. Both were men of exceedingly immoral habits. We have
+elsewhere described Louis XIV., but Louis XV., the Well-beloved, was
+perhaps the greatest profligate of the two. Madame de Pompadour, when
+she ceased to be his mistress, became his procuress. This infamous
+woman had the command of the state purse, and she contrived to build
+for the sovereign a harem, called the Parc-aux-Cerfs, in the park of
+Versailles, which cost the country at least a hundred millions of
+francs.[71] The number of young girls taken from Paris to this place
+excited great public discontent; and though morals generally were not
+very high at that time, the debauchery and intemperance of the King
+(for he was almost constantly drunk)[72] contributed to alienate the
+nation, and to foster those feelings of hatred which broke forth
+without restraint in the ensuing reign.
+
+         [Footnote 71: "Madame de Pompadour decouvrit que Louis XV.
+         pourrait lui-meme s'amuser a faire l'education de ces jeunes
+         malheureuses. De petites filles de neuf a douze ans,
+         lorsqu'elles avaient attire les regards de la police par leur
+         beaute, etaient enlevees a leurs meres par plusieurs
+         artifices, conduites a Versailles, et retenues dans les
+         parties les plus elevees et les plus inaccessibles des petits
+         appartements du roi.... Le nombre des malheureuses qui
+         passerent successivement a Parc-aux-Cerfs est immense; a leur
+         sortie elles etaient mariees a des hommes vils ou credules
+         auxquels elles apportaient une bonne dot. Quelques unes
+         conservaient un traitement fort considerable." "Les depenses
+         du Parc-aux-Cerfs, dit Lacratelle, se payaient avec des
+         acquits du comptant. Il est difficile de les evaluer; mais il
+         ne peut y avoir aucune exageration a affirmer qu'elles
+         couterent plus de 100 millions a l'Etat. Dans quelques
+         libelles on les porte jusqu'a un milliard."--SISMONDI,
+         _Histoire de Francaise_, Brussels, 1844, xx. 153-4. The
+         account given by Sismondi of the debauches of this persecutor
+         of the Huguenots is very full. It is _not_ given in the "Old
+         Court Life of France," recently written by a lady.]
+
+         [Footnote 72: Sismondi, xx. 157.]
+
+In the midst of all this public disregard for virtue, a spirit of
+ribaldry and disregard for the sanctions of religion had long been
+making its appearance in the literature of the time. The highest
+speculations which can occupy the attention of man were touched with a
+recklessness and power, a brilliancy of touch and a bitterness of
+satire, which forced the sceptical productions of the day upon the
+notice of all who studied, read, or delighted in literature;--for
+those were the days of Voltaire, Rousseau, Condorcet, and the great
+men of "The Encyclopaedia."
+
+While the King indulged in his vicious pleasures, and went reeking
+from his debaucheries to obtain absolution from his confessors, the
+persecution of the Protestants went on as before. Nor was it until
+public opinion (such as it was) was brought to bear upon the hideous
+incongruity that religious persecutions were at once brought summarily
+to an end.
+
+The last executions of Huguenots in France because of their
+Protestantism occurred in 1762. Francis Rochette, a young pastor,
+twenty-six years old, was laid up by sickness at Montauban. He
+recovered sufficiently to proceed to the waters of St. Antonin for the
+recovery of his health, when he was seized, together with his two
+guides or bearers, by the burgess guard of the town of Caussade. The
+three brothers Grenier endeavoured to intercede for them; but the
+mayor of Caussade, proud of his capture, sent the whole of the
+prisoners to gaol.
+
+They were tried by the judges of Toulouse on the 18th of February.
+Rochette was condemned to be hung in his shirt, his head and feet
+uncovered, with a paper pinned on his shirt before and behind, with
+the words written thereon--"_Ministre de la religion pretendue
+reformee._" The three brothers Grenier, who interfered on behalf of
+Rochette, were ordered to have their heads taken off for resisting the
+secular power; and the two guides, who were bearing the sick Rochette
+to St. Antonin for the benefit of the waters, were sent to the galleys
+for life.
+
+Barbarous punishments such as these were so common when Protestants
+were the offenders, that the decision, of the judges did not excite
+any particular sensation. It was only when Jean Calas was shortly
+after executed at Toulouse that an extraordinary sensation was
+produced--and that not because Calas was a Protestant, but because his
+punishment came under the notice of Voltaire, who exposed the inhuman
+cruelty to France, Europe, and the world at large.
+
+The reason why Protestant executions terminated with the death of
+Calas was as follows:--The family of Jean Calas resided at Toulouse,
+then one of the most bigoted cities in France. Toulouse swarmed with
+priests and monks, more Spanish than French in their leanings. They
+were great in relics, processions, and confraternities. While
+"mealy-mouthed" Catholics in other quarters were becoming somewhat
+ashamed of the murders perpetrated during the Massacre of St.
+Bartholomew, and were even disposed to deny them, the more outspoken
+Catholics of Toulouse were even proud of the feat, and publicly
+celebrated the great southern Massacre of St. Bartholomew which took
+place in 1572. The procession then held was one of the finest church
+commemorations in the south; it was followed by bishops, clergy, and
+the people of the neighbourhood, in immense numbers.
+
+Calas was an old man of sixty-four, and reduced to great weakness by a
+paralytic complaint. He and his family were all Protestants excepting
+one son, who had become a Catholic. Another of the sons, however, a
+man of ill-regulated life, dissolute, and involved in pecuniary
+difficulties, committed suicide by hanging himself in an outhouse.
+
+On this, the brotherhood of White Penitents stirred up a great fury
+against the Protestant family in the minds of the populace. The monks
+alleged that Jean Calas had murdered his son because he wished to
+become a Catholic. They gave out that it was a practice of the
+Protestants to keep an executioner to murder their children who wished
+to abjure the reformed faith, and that one of the objects of the
+meetings which they held in the Desert, was to elect this executioner.
+The White Penitents celebrated mass for the suicide's soul; they
+exhibited his figure with a palm branch in his hand, and treated him
+as a martyr.
+
+The public mind became inflamed. A fanatical judge, called David, took
+up the case, and ordered Calas and his whole family to be sent to
+prison. Calas was tried by the court of Toulouse. They tortured the
+whole family to compel them to confess the murder;[73] but they did
+not confess. The court wished to burn the mother, but they ended by
+condemning the paralytic father to be broken alive on the wheel.[74]
+The parliament of Toulouse confirmed the atrocious sentence, and the
+old man perished in torments, declaring to the last his entire
+innocence. The rest of the family were discharged, although if there
+had been any truth in the charge for which Jean Calas was racked to
+death, they must necessarily have been his accomplices, and equally
+liable to punishment.
+
+         [Footnote 73: Sismondi, xx. 328.]
+
+         [Footnote 74: To be broken alive on the wheel was one of the
+         most horrible of tortures, a bequest from ages of violence
+         and barbarism. It was preserved in France mainly for the
+         punishment of Protestants. The prisoner was extended on a St.
+         Andrew's cross, with eight notches cut on it--one below each
+         arm between the elbow and wrist, another between each elbow
+         and the shoulders, one under each thigh, and one under each
+         leg. The executioner, armed with a heavy triangular bar of
+         iron, gave a heavy blow on each of these eight places, and
+         broke the bone. Another blow was given in the pit of the
+         stomach. The mangled victim was lifted from the cross and
+         stretched on a small wheel placed vertically at one of the
+         ends of the cross, his back on the upper part of the wheel,
+         his head and feet hanging down. There the tortured creature
+         hung until he died. Some lingered five or six hours, others
+         much longer. This horrible method of torture was only
+         abolished at the French Revolution in 1790.]
+
+The ruined family left Toulouse and made for Geneva, then the
+head-quarters of Protestants from the South of France. And here it was
+that the murder of Jean Calas and the misfortunes of the Calas family
+came under the notice of Voltaire, then living at Ferney, near Geneva.
+
+In the midst of the persecutions of the Protestants a great many
+changes had been going on in France. Although the clergy had for more
+than a century the sole control of the religious education of the
+people, the people had not become religious. They had become very
+ignorant and very fanatical. The upper classes were anything but
+religious; they were given up for the most part to frivolity and
+libertinage. The examples of their kings had been freely followed.
+Though ready to do honour to the court religion, the higher classes
+did not believe in it. The press was very free for the publication of
+licentious and immoral books, but not for Protestant Bibles. A great
+work was, however, in course of publication, under the editorship of
+D'Alembert and Diderot, to which Voltaire, Rousseau, and others
+contributed, entitled "The Encyclopaedia." It was a description of the
+entire circle of human knowledge; but the dominant idea which pervaded
+it was the utter subversion of religion.
+
+The abuses of the Church, its tyranny and cruelty, the ignorance and
+helplessness in which it kept the people, the frivolity and unbelief
+of the clergy themselves, had already condemned it in the minds of the
+nation. The writers in "The Encyclopaedia" merely gave expression to
+their views, and the publication of its successive numbers was
+received with rapture. In the midst of the free publication of
+obscene books, there had also appeared, before the execution of Calas,
+the Marquis de Mirabeau's "Ami des Hommes," Rousseau's "Emile," the
+"Contrat Social," with other works, denying religion of all kinds, and
+pointing to the general downfall, which was now fast approaching.
+
+When the Calas family took refuge in Geneva, Voltaire soon heard of
+their story. It was communicated to him by M. de Vegobre, a French
+refugee. After he had related it, Voltaire said, "This is a horrible
+story. What has become of the family?" "They arrived in Geneva only
+three days ago." "In Geneva!" said Voltaire; "then let me see them at
+once." Madame Calas soon arrived, told him the whole facts of the
+case, and convinced Voltaire of the entire innocence of the family.
+
+Voltaire was no friend of the Huguenots. He believed the Huguenot
+spirit to be a republican spirit. In his "Siecle de Louis XIV.," when
+treating of the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes, he affirmed that
+the Reformed were the enemies of the State; and though he depicted
+feelingly the cruelties they had suffered, he also stated clearly that
+he thought they had deserved them. Voltaire probably owed his hatred
+of the Protestants to the Jesuits, by whom he was educated. He was
+brought up at the Jesuit College of Louis le Grand, the chief
+persecutor of the Huguenots. Voltaire also owed much of the looseness
+of his principles to his godfather, the Abbe Chateauneuf, grand-prior
+of Vendome, the Abbe de Chalieu, and others, who educated him in an
+utter contempt for the doctrines they were appointed and paid to
+teach. It was when but a mere youth that Father Lejay, one of
+Voltaire's instructors, predicted that he would yet be the Coryphaeus
+of Deism in France.
+
+Nor was Voltaire better pleased with the Swiss Calvinists. He
+encountered some of the most pedantic of them while residing at
+Lausanne and Geneva.[75] At the latter place, he covered with sarcasm
+the "twenty-four periwigs"--the Protestant council of the city. They
+would not allow him to set up a theatre in Geneva, so he determined to
+set up one himself at La Chatelaine, about a mile off, but beyond the
+Genevese frontier. His object, he professed, was "to corrupt the
+pedantic city." The theatre is still standing, though it is now used
+only as a hayloft. The box is preserved from which Voltaire cheered
+the performance of his own and other plays.
+
+         [Footnote 75: While Voltaire lived at Lausanne, one of the
+         baillies (the chief magistrates of the city) said to him:
+         "Monsieur de Voltaire, they say that you have written against
+         the good God: it is very wrong, but I hope He will pardon
+         you.... But, Monsieur de Voltaire, take very good care not to
+         write against their excellencies of Berne, our sovereign
+         lords, for be assured that they will _never_ forgive you."]
+
+But though Voltaire hated Protestantism like every other religion, he
+also hated injustice. It was because of this that he took up the case
+of the Calas family, so soon as he had become satisfied of their
+innocence. But what a difficulty he had to encounter in endeavouring
+to upset the decision of the judges, and the condemnation of Calas by
+the parliament of Toulouse. Moreover, he had to reverse their decision
+against a dead man, and that man a detested Huguenot.
+
+Nevertheless Voltaire took up the case. He wrote letters to his
+friends in all parts of France. He wrote to the sovereigns of Europe.
+He published letters in the newspapers. He addressed the Duke de
+Choiseul, the King's Secretary of State. He appealed to philosophers,
+to men of letters, to ladies of the court, and even to priests and
+bishops, denouncing the sentence pronounced against Calas,--the most
+iniquitous, he said, that any court professing to act in the name of
+justice had ever pronounced. Ferney was visited by many foreigners,
+from Germany, America, England, and Russia; as well as by numerous
+persons of influence in France. To all these he spoke vehemently of
+Calas and his sentence. He gave himself no rest until he had inflamed
+the minds of all men against the horrible injustice.
+
+At length, the case of Calas became known all over France, and in fact
+all over Europe. The press of Paris rang with it. In the boudoirs and
+salons, Calas was the subject of conversation. In the streets, men
+meeting each other would ask, "Have you heard of Calas?" The dead man
+had already become a hero and a martyr!
+
+An important point was next reached. It was decided that the case of
+Calas should be remitted to a special court of judges appointed to
+consider the whole matter. Voltaire himself proceeded to get up the
+case. He prepared and revised the memorials, he revised all the
+pleadings of the advocates, transforming them into brief, conclusive
+arguments, sparkling with wit, reason, and eloquence. The revision of
+the process commenced. The people held their breaths while it
+proceeded.
+
+At length, in the spring of 1766--four years after Calas had been
+broken to death on the wheel--four years after Voltaire had undertaken
+to have the unjust decision of the Toulouse magistrates and parliament
+reversed, the court of judges, after going completely over the
+evidence, pronounced the judgment to have been entirely unfounded!
+
+The decree was accordingly reversed. Jean Calas was declared to have
+been innocent. The man was, however, dead. But in order to compensate
+his family, the ministry granted 36,000 francs to Calas's widow, on
+the express recommendation of the court which reversed the abominable
+sentence.[76]
+
+         [Footnote 76: It may be added that, after the reversal of the
+         sentence, David, the judge who had first condemned Calas,
+         went insane, and died in a madhouse.]
+
+The French people never forgot Voltaire's efforts in this cause.
+Notwithstanding all his offences against morals and religion, Voltaire
+on this occasion acted on his best impulses. Many years after, in
+1778, he visited Paris, where he was received with immense enthusiasm.
+He was followed in the streets wherever he went. One day when passing
+along the Pont Royal, some person asked, "Who is that man the crowd is
+following?" "Ne savez vous pas," answered a common woman, "que c'est
+le sauveur de Calas!" Voltaire was more touched with this simple
+tribute to his fame than with all the adoration of the Parisians.
+
+It was soon found, however, that there were many persons still
+suffering in France from the cruelty of priests and judges; and one of
+these occurred shortly after the death of Calas. One of the ordinary
+practices of the Catholics was to seize the children of Protestants
+and carry them off to some nunnery to be educated at the expense of
+their parents. The priests of Toulouse had obtained a _lettre de
+cachet_ to take away the daughter of a Protestant named Sirven, to
+compel her to change her religion. She was accordingly seized and
+carried off to a nunnery. She manifested such reluctance to embrace
+Catholicism, and she was treated with such cruelty, that she fled from
+the convent in the night, and fell into a well, where she was found
+drowned.
+
+The prejudices of the Catholic bigots being very much excited about
+this time by the case of Calas, blamed the family of Sirven (in the
+same manner as they had done that of Calas) with murdering their
+daughter. Foreseeing that they would be apprehended if they remained,
+the whole family left the city, and set out for Geneva. After they
+left, Sirven was in fact sentenced to death _par contumace_. It was
+about the middle of winter when they set out, and Sirven's wife died
+of cold on the way, amidst the snows of the Jura.
+
+On his arrival at Geneva, Sirven stated his case to Voltaire, who took
+it up as he had done that of Calas. He exerted himself as before.
+Advocates of the highest rank offered to conduct Sirven's case; for
+public opinion had already made considerable progress. Sirven was
+advised to return to Toulouse, and offer himself as a prisoner. He did
+so. The case was tried with the same results as before; the advocates,
+acting under Voltaire's instructions and with his help, succeeded in
+obtaining the judges' unanimous decision that Sirven was innocent of
+the crime for which he had already been sentenced to death.
+
+After this, there were no further executions of Protestants in France.
+But what became of the Huguenots at the galleys, who still continued
+to endure a punishment from day to day, even worse than death
+itself?[77] Although, they were often cut off by fever, starvation,
+and exposure, many of them contrived to live on to a considerable age.
+After the trials of Calas and Sirven, the punishment of the galleys
+was evidently drawing to an end. Only two persons were sent to the
+galleys during the year in which Pastor Rochette was hanged. But a
+circumstance came to light respecting one of the galley-slaves who had
+been liberated in that very year (1762), which had the effect of
+eventually putting an end to the cruelty.
+
+         [Footnote 77: The Huguenots sometimes owed their release from
+         the galleys to money payments made by Protestants (but this
+         was done secretly), the price of a galley-slave being about a
+         thousand crowns; sometimes they owed it to the influence of
+         Protestant princes; but never to the voluntary mercy of the
+         Catholics. In 1742, while France was at war with England, and
+         Prussia was quietly looking on, Antoine Court made an appeal
+         to Frederick the Great, and at his intervention with Louis
+         XV. thirty galley-slaves were liberated. The Margrave of
+         Bayreuth, Culmbach and his wife, the sister of the Great
+         Frederick, afterwards visited the galleys at Toulon, and
+         succeeded in obtaining the liberation of several
+         galley-slaves.]
+
+The punishment was not, however, abolished by Christian feeling, or by
+greater humanity on the part of the Catholics; nor was it abolished
+through the ministers of justice, and still less by the order of the
+King. It was put an end to by the Stage! As Voltaire, the Deist,
+terminated the hanging of Protestants, so did Fenouillot, the player,
+put an end to their serving as galley-slaves. The termination of this
+latter punishment has a curious history attached to it.
+
+It happened that a Huguenot meeting for worship was held in the
+neighbourhood of Nismes, on the first day of January, 1756. The place
+of meeting was called the Lecque,[78] situated immediately north of
+the Tour Magne, from which the greater part of the city has been
+built. It was a favourable place for holding meetings; but it was not
+so favourable for those who wished to escape. The assembly had
+scarcely been constituted by prayer, when the alarm was given that the
+soldiers were upon them! The people fled on all sides. The youngest
+and most agile made their escape by climbing the surrounding rocks.
+
+         [Footnote 78: This secret meeting-place of the Huguenots is
+         well known from the engraved picture of Boze.]
+
+Amongst these, Jean Fabre, a young silk merchant of Nismes, was
+already beyond reach of danger, when he heard that his father had been
+made a prisoner. The old man, who was seventy-eight, could not climb
+as the others had done, and the soldiers had taken him and were
+leading him away. The son, who knew that his father would be sentenced
+to the galleys for life, immediately determined, if possible, to
+rescue him from this horrible fate. He returned to the group of
+soldiers who had his father in charge, and asked them to take him
+prisoner in his place. On their refusal, he seized his father and drew
+him from their grasp, insisting upon them taking himself instead. The
+sergeant in command at first refused to adopt this strange
+substitution; but, conquered at last by the tears and prayers of the
+son, he liberated the aged man and accepted Jean Fabre as his
+prisoner.
+
+Jean Fabre was first imprisoned at Nismes, where he was prevented
+seeing any of his friends, including a certain young lady to whom he
+was about shortly to be married. He was then transferred to
+Montpellier to be judged; where, of course, he was condemned, as he
+expected, to be sent to the galleys for life. With this dreadful
+prospect before him, of separation from all that he loved--from his
+father, for whom he was about to suffer so much; from his betrothed,
+who gave up all hope of ever seeing him again--and having no prospect
+of being relieved from his horrible destiny, his spirits failed, and
+he became seriously ill. But his youth and Christian resignation came
+to his aid, and he finally recovered.
+
+The Protestants of Nismes, and indeed of all Languedoc, were greatly
+moved by the fate of Jean Fabre. The heroism of his devotion to his
+parent soon became known, and the name of the volunteer convict was
+in every mouth. The Duc de Mirepoix, then governor of the province,
+endeavoured to turn the popular feeling to some account. He offered
+pardon to Fabre and Turgis (who had been taken prisoner with him)
+provided Paul Rabaut, the chief pastor of the Desert, a hard-working
+and indefatigable man, would leave France and reside abroad. But
+neither Fabre, nor Rabaut, nor the Huguenots generally, had any
+confidence in the mercy of the Catholics, and the proposal was coldly
+declined.
+
+Fabre was next sent to Toulon under a strong escort of cavalry. He was
+there registered in the class of convicts; his hair was cut close; he
+was clothed in the ignominious dress of the galley-slave, and placed
+in a galley among murderers and criminals, where he was chained to one
+of the worst. The dinner consisted of a porridge of cooked beans and
+black bread. At first he could not touch it, and preferred to suffer
+hunger. A friend of Fabre, who was informed of his starvation, sent
+him some food more savoury and digestible; but his stomach was in such
+a state that he could not eat even that. At length he became
+accustomed to the situation, though the place was a sort of hell, in
+which he was surrounded by criminals in rags, dirt, and vermin, and,
+worst of all, distinguished for their abominable vileness of speech.
+He was shortly after seized with a serious illness, when he was sent
+to the hospital, where he found many Huguenot convicts imprisoned,
+like himself, because of their religion.[79]
+
+         [Footnote 79: Letter of Jean Fabre, in Athanase Coquerel's
+         "Forcats pour la Foi," 201-3.]
+
+Repeated applications were made to Saint-Florentin, the Secretary of
+State, by Fabre's relatives, friends, and fellow Protestants for his
+liberation, but without result. After he had been imprisoned for some
+years, a circumstance happened which more than anything else
+exasperated his sufferings. The young lady to whom he was engaged had
+an offer of marriage made to her by a desirable person, which her
+friends were anxious that she should accept. Her father had been
+struck by paralysis, and was poor and unable to maintain himself as
+well as his daughter. He urged that she should give up Fabre, now
+hopelessly imprisoned for life, and accept her new lover.
+
+Fabre himself was consulted on the subject; his conscience was
+appealed to, and how did he decide? It was only after the bitterest
+struggle, that he determined on liberating his betrothed. He saw no
+prospect of his release, and why should he sacrifice her? Let her no
+longer be bound up with his fearful fate, but be happy with another if
+she could.
+
+The young lady yielded, though not without great misgivings. The day
+for her marriage with her new lover was fixed; but, at the last
+moment, she relented. Her faithfulness and love for the heroic
+galley-slave had never been shaken, and she resolved to remain
+constant to him, to remain unmarried if need be, or to wait for his
+liberation until death!
+
+It is probable that her noble decision determined Fabre and Fabre's
+friends to make a renewed effort for his liberation. At last, after
+having been more than six years a galley-slave, he bethought him of a
+method of obtaining at least a temporary liberty. He proposed--without
+appealing to Saint-Florentin, who was the bitter enemy of the
+Protestants--to get his case made known to the Duc de Choiseul,
+Minister of Marine. This nobleman was a just man, and it had been in a
+great measure through his influence that the judgment of Calas had
+been reconsidered and reversed.
+
+Fabre, while on the rowers' bench, had often met with a M. Johannot, a
+French Protestant, settled at Frankfort-on-Maine, to whom he stated
+his case. It may be mentioned that Huguenot refugees, on their visits
+to France, often visited the Protestant prisoners at the galleys,
+relieved their wants, and made intercession for them with the outside
+world. It may also be incidentally mentioned that this M. Johannot was
+the ancestor of two well-known painters and designers, Alfred and
+Tony, who have been the illustrators of some of our finest artistic
+works.
+
+Johannot made the case of Fabre known to some French officers whom he
+met at Frankfort, interested them greatly in his noble character and
+self-sacrifice, and the result was that before long Fabre obtained,
+directly from the Duc de Choiseul, leave of absence from the position
+of galley-slave. The annoyance of Saint-Florentin, Minister of State,
+was so well-known, that Fabre, on his liberation, was induced to
+conceal himself. Nor could he yet marry his promised wife, as he had
+not been discharged, but was only on leave of absence; and
+Saint-Florentin obstinately refused to reverse the sentence that had
+been pronounced against him.
+
+In the meantime, Fabre's name was becoming celebrated. He had no idea,
+while privately settled at Ganges as a silk stocking maker, that great
+people in France were interesting themselves about his fate. The
+Duchesse de Grammont, sister of the Duc de Choiseul, had heard about
+him from her brother; and the Prince de Beauvau, governor of
+Languedoc, the Duchesse de Villeroy, and many other distinguished
+personages, were celebrating his heroism.
+
+Inquiry was made of the sergeant who had originally apprehended Fabre,
+upon his offering himself in exchange for his father (long since
+dead), and the sergeant confirmed the truth of the noble and generous
+act. At the same time, M. Alison, first consul at Nismes, confirmed
+the statement by three witnesses, in presence of the secretary of the
+Prince de Beauvau. The result was, that Jean Fabre was completely
+exonerated from the charge on account of which he had been sent to the
+galleys. He was now a free man, and at last married the young lady who
+had loved him so long and so devotedly.
+
+One day, to his extreme surprise, Fabre received from the Duc de
+Choiseul a packet containing a drama, in which he found his own
+history related in verse, by Fenouillot de Falbaire. It was entitled
+"The Honest Criminal." Fabre had never been a criminal, except in
+worshipping God according to his conscience, though that had for
+nearly a hundred years been pronounced a crime by the law of France.
+
+The piece, which was of no great merit as a tragedy, was at first
+played before the Duchesse de Villeroy and her friends, with great
+applause, Mdlle. Clairon playing the principal female part.
+Saint-Florentin prohibited the playing of the piece in public,
+protesting to the last against the work and the author. Voltaire
+played it at Ferney, and Queen Marie Antoinette had it played in her
+presence at Versailles. It was not until 1789 that the piece was
+played in the theatres of Paris, when it had a considerable success.
+
+We do not find that any Protestants were sent to be galley-slaves
+after 1762, the year that Calas was executed. A reaction against this
+barbarous method of treating men for differences of opinion seems to
+have set in; or, perhaps, it was because most men were ceasing to
+believe in the miraculous powers of the priests, for which the
+Protestants had so long been hanged and made galley-slaves.
+
+After the liberation of Fabre in 1762, other galley-slaves were
+liberated from time to time. Thus, in the same year, Jean Albiges and
+Jean Barran were liberated after eight years of convict life. They had
+been condemned for assisting at Protestant assemblies. Next year,
+Maurice was liberated; he had been condemned for life for the same
+reason.
+
+While Voltaire had been engaged in the case of Calas he asked the Duc
+de Choiseul for the liberation of a galley-slave. The man for whom he
+interceded, had been a convict twenty years for attending a Protestant
+meeting. Of course, Voltaire cared nothing for his religion, believing
+Catholicism and Protestantism to be only two forms of the same
+superstition. The name of this galley-slave was Claude Chaumont. Like
+nearly all the other convicts he was a working man--a little
+dark-faced shoemaker. Some Protestant friends he had at Geneva
+interceded with Voltaire for his liberation.
+
+On Chaumont's release in 1764, he waited upon his deliverer to thank
+him. "What!" said Voltaire, on first seeing him, "my poor little bit
+of a man, have they put _you_ in the galleys? What could they have
+done with you? The idea of sending a little creature to the
+galley-chain, for no other crime than that of praying to God in bad
+French!"[80] Voltaire ended by handing the impoverished fellow a sum
+of money to set him up in the world again, when he left the house the
+happiest of men.
+
+         [Footnote 80: "Voltaire et les Genevois," par J. Gaberel,
+         74-5.]
+
+We may briefly mention a few of the last of the galley-slaves. Daniel
+Bic and Jean Cabdie, liberated in 1764, for attending religious
+meetings. Both were condemned for life, and had been at the
+galley-chain for ten years.
+
+Jean Pierre Espinas, an attorney, of St. Felix de Chateauneuf, in
+Viverais, who had been condemned for life for having given shelter to
+a pastor, was released in 1765, at the age of sixty-seven, after being
+chained at the galleys for twenty-five years.
+
+Jean Raymond, of Fangeres, the father of six children, who had been a
+galley-slave for thirteen years, was liberated in 1767. Alexandre
+Chambon, a labourer, more than eighty years old, condemned for life in
+1741, for attending a religious meeting, was released in 1769, on the
+entreaty of Voltaire, after being a galley-slave for twenty-eight
+years. His friends had forgotten him, and on his release he was
+utterly destitute and miserable.[81]
+
+         [Footnote 81: "Lettres inedites des Voltaire," publiees par
+         Athanase Coquerel fils, 247.]
+
+In 1772, three galley-slaves were liberated from their chains. Andre
+Guisard, a labourer, aged eighty-two, Jean Roque, and Louis Tregon, of
+the same class, all condemned for life for attending religious
+meetings. They had all been confined at the chain for twenty years.
+
+The two last galley-slaves were liberated in 1775, during the first
+year of the reign of Louis XVI., and close upon the outbreak of the
+French Revolution. They had been quite forgotten, until Court de
+Gebelin, son of Antoine Court, discovered them. When he applied for
+their release to M. de Boyne, Minister of Marine, he answered that
+there were no more Protestant convicts at the galleys; at least, he
+believed so. Shortly after, Turgot succeeded Boyne, and application
+was made to him. He answered that there was no need to recommend such
+objects to him for liberation, as they were liberated already.
+
+On the two old men being told they were released, they burst into
+tears; but were almost afraid of returning to the world which no
+longer knew them. One of them was Antoine Rialle, a tailor of Aoste,
+in Dauphiny, who had been condemned by the parliament of Grenoble to
+the galleys for life "for contravening the edicts of the King
+concerning religion." He was seventy-eight years old, and had been a
+galley-slave for thirty years.
+
+The other, Paul Achard, had been a shoemaker of Chatillon, also in
+Dauphiny. He was condemned to be a galley-slave for life by the
+parliament of Grenoble, for having given shelter to a pastor. Achard
+had also been confined at the galleys for thirty years.
+
+It is not known when the last Huguenot women were liberated from the
+Tour de Constance, at Aiguesmortes. It would probably be about the
+time when the last Huguenots were liberated from the galleys. An
+affecting picture has been left by an officer who visited the prison
+at the release of the last prisoners. "I accompanied," he says, "the
+Prince de Beauvau (the intendant of Languedoc under Louis XVI.) in a
+survey which he made of the coast. Arriving at Aiguesmortes, at the
+gate of the Tour de Constance, we found at the entrance the principal
+keeper, who conducted us by dark steps through a great gate, which
+opened with an ominous noise, and over which was inscribed a motto
+from Dante--'Lasciate ogni speranza voi che'ntrate.'
+
+"Words fail me to describe the horror with which we regarded a scene
+to which we were so unaccustomed--a frightful and affecting picture,
+in which the interest was heightened by disgust. We beheld a large
+circular apartment, deprived of air and of light, in which fourteen
+females still languished in misery. It was with difficulty that the
+Prince smothered his emotion; and doubtless it was the first time that
+these unfortunate creatures had there witnessed compassion depicted
+upon a human countenance; I still seem to behold the affecting
+apparition. They fell at our feet, bathed in tears, and speechless,
+until, emboldened by our expressions of sympathy, they recounted to us
+their sufferings. Alas! all their crime consisted in having been
+attached to the same religion as Henry IV. The youngest of these
+martyrs was more than fifty years old. She was but _eight_ when first
+imprisoned for having accompanied her mother to hear a religious
+service, and her punishment had continued until now!"[82]
+
+         [Footnote 82: Froissard, "Nismes et ses Environs," ii. 217.]
+
+After the liberation of the last of the galley-slaves there were no
+further apprehensions nor punishments of Protestants. The priests had
+lost their power; and the secular authority no longer obeyed their
+behests. The nation had ceased to believe in them; in some places they
+were laughed at; in others they were detested. They owed this partly
+to their cruelty and intolerance, partly to their luxury and
+self-indulgence amidst the poverty of the people, and partly to the
+sarcasms of the philosophers, who had become more powerful in France
+than themselves. "It is not enough," said Voltaire, "that we prove
+intolerance to be horrible; we must also prove to the French that it
+is ridiculous."
+
+In looking back at the sufferings of the Huguenots remaining in France
+since the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes; at the purity,
+self-denial, honesty, and industry of their lives; at the devotion
+with which they adhered to religious duty and the worship of God; we
+cannot fail to regard them--labourers and peasants though they
+were--as amongst the truest, greatest, and worthiest heroes of their
+age. When society in France was falling to pieces; when its men and
+women were ceasing to believe in themselves and in each other; when
+the religion of the State had become a mass of abuse, consistent only
+in its cruelty; when the debauchery of its kings[83] had descended
+through the aristocracy to the people, until the whole mass was
+becoming thoroughly corrupt; these poor Huguenots seem to have been
+the only constant and true men, the only men holding to a great idea,
+for which they were willing to die--for they were always ready for
+martyrdom by the rack, the gibbet, or the galleys, rather than forsake
+the worship of God freely and according to conscience.
+
+         [Footnote 83: Such was the dissoluteness of the manners of
+         the court, that no less than 500,000,000 francs of the public
+         debt, or L20,000,000 sterling, had been incurred for expenses
+         too ignominious to bear the light, or even to be named in the
+         public accounts. It appears from an authentic document,
+         quoted in Soulavie's history, that in the sixteen months
+         immediately preceding the death of Louis XV., Madame du Barry
+         (originally a courtesan,) had drawn from the royal treasury
+         no less than 2,450,000 francs, or equal to about L200,000 of
+         our present money. ["Histoire de la Decadence de la Monarchie
+         Francaise," par Soulavie l'Aine, iii. 330.] "La corruption,"
+         says Lacretelle, "entrait dans les plus paisibles menages,
+         dans les familles les plus obscures. Elle [Madame du Barri]
+         etait savamment et longtemps combinee par ceux qui servaient
+         les debauches de Louis. Des emissaires etaient employees a
+         seduire des filles qui n'etaient point encore nubiles, a
+         combattre dans de jeunes femmes des principes de pudeur et de
+         fidelite. Amant de grade, il livrait a la prostitution
+         publique celles de ses sujettes qu'il avait prematurement
+         corrompues. Il souffrait que les enfans de ses infames
+         plaisirs partageassent la destinee obscure et dangereuse de
+         ceux qu'un pere n'avoue point." LACRETELLE, _Histoire de
+         France pendant le xviii Siecle_, iii. 171-173.]
+
+But their persecution was now in a great measure at an end. It is
+true the Protestants were not recognised, but they nevertheless held
+their worship openly, and were not interfered with. When Louis XVI.
+succeeded to the throne in 1774, on the administration of the oath for
+the extermination of heretics denounced by the Church, the Archbishop
+of Toulouse said to him: "It is reserved for you to strike the final
+blow against Calvinism in your dominions. Command the dispersion of
+the schismatic assemblies of the Protestants, exclude the sectarians,
+without distinction, from all offices of the public administration,
+and you will insure among your subjects the unity of the true
+Christian religion."
+
+No attention was paid to this and similar appeals for the restoration
+of intolerance. On the contrary, an Edict of Toleration was issued by
+Louis XVI. in 1787, which, though granting a legal existence to the
+Protestants, nevertheless set forth that "The Catholic, Apostolic, and
+Roman religion alone shall continue to enjoy the right of public
+worship in our realm."
+
+Opinion, however, moved very fast in those days. The Declaration of
+Rights of 1789 overthrew the barriers which debarred the admission of
+Protestants to public offices. On the question of tolerance, Rabaut
+Saint-Etienne, son of Paul Rabaut, who sat in the National Assembly
+for Nismes, insisted on the freedom of the Protestants to worship God
+after their accustomed forms. He said he represented a constituency of
+360,000, of whom 120,000 were Protestants. The penal laws against the
+worship of the Reformed, he said, had never been formally abolished.
+He claimed the rights of Frenchmen for two millions of useful
+citizens. It was not toleration he asked for, _it was liberty_.
+
+"Toleration!" he exclaimed; "sufferance! pardon! clemency! ideas
+supremely unjust towards the Protestants, so long as it is true that
+difference of religion, that difference of opinion, is not a crime!
+Toleration! I demand that toleration should be proscribed in its turn,
+and deemed an iniquitous word, dealing with us as citizens worthy of
+pity, as criminals to whom pardon is to be granted!"[84]
+
+         [Footnote 84: "History of the Protestants of France," by G.
+         de Felice, book v. sect. i.]
+
+The motion before the House was adopted with a modification, and all
+Frenchmen, without distinction of religious opinions, were declared
+admissible to all offices and employments. Four months later, on the
+15th March, 1790, Rabaut Saint-Etienne himself, son of the long
+proscribed pastor of the Desert, was nominated President of the
+Constituent Assembly, succeeding to the chair of the Abbe Montesquieu.
+
+He did not, however, occupy the position long. In the struggles of the
+Convention he took part with the Girondists, and refused to vote for
+the death of Louis XVI. He maintained an obstinate struggle against
+the violence of the Mountain. His arrest was decreed; he was dragged
+before the revolutionary tribunal, and condemned to be executed within
+twenty-four hours.
+
+The horrors of the French Revolution hide the doings of Protestantism
+and Catholicism alike for several years, until Buonaparte came into
+power. He recognised Catholicism as the established religion, and paid
+for the maintenance of the bishops and priests. He also protected
+Protestantism, the members of which were entitled to all the benefits
+secured to the other Christian communions, "with the exception of
+pecuniary subvention."
+
+The comparative liberty which the Protestants of France had enjoyed
+under the Republic and the Empire seemed to be in some peril at the
+restoration of the Bourbons. The more bigoted Roman Catholics of the
+South hailed their return as the precursors of renewed persecution:
+and they raised the cry of "Un Dieu, un Roi, une Foi."
+
+The Protestant mayor of Nismes was publicly insulted, and compelled to
+resign his office. The mob assembled in the streets and sang ferocious
+songs, threatening to "make black puddings of the blood of the
+Calvinists' children."[85] Another St. Bartholomew was even
+threatened; the Protestants began to conceal themselves, and many fled
+for refuge to the Upper Cevennes. Houses were sacked, their inmates
+outraged, and in many cases murdered.
+
+         [Footnote 85: See the Rev. Mark Wilks's "History of the
+         Persecutions endured by the Protestants of the South of
+         France, 1814, 1815, 1816." Longmans, 1821.]
+
+The same scenes occurred in most of the towns and villages of the
+department of Gard; and the authorities seemed to be powerless to
+prevent them. The Protestants at length began to take up arms for
+their defence; the peasantry of the Cevennes brought from their secret
+places the rusty arms which their fathers had wielded more than a
+century before; and another Camisard war seemed imminent.
+
+In the meantime, the subject of the renewed Protestant persecutions in
+the South of France was, in May, 1816, brought under the notice of the
+British House of Commons by Sir Samuel Romilly--himself the descendant
+of a Languedoc Huguenot--in a powerful speech; and although the
+motion was opposed by the Government, there can be little doubt that
+the discussion produced its due effect; for the Bourbon Government,
+itself becoming alarmed, shortly after adopted vigorous measures, and
+the persecution was brought to an end.
+
+Since that time the Protestants of France have remained comparatively
+unmolested. Evidences have not been wanting to show that the
+persecuting spirit of the priest-party has not become extinct. While
+the author was in France in 1870, to visit the scenes of the wars of
+the Camisards, he observed from the papers that a French deputy had
+recently brought a case before the Assembly, in which a Catholic cure
+of Ville-d'Avray refused burial in the public cemetery to the corpse
+of a young English lady, because she was a Protestant, and remitted it
+to the place allotted for criminals and suicides. The body accordingly
+lay for eighteen days in the cabin of the gravedigger, until it could
+be transported to the cemetery of Sevres, where it was finally
+interred.
+
+But the people of France, as well as the government, have become too
+indifferent about religion generally, to persecute any one on its
+account. The nation is probably even now suffering for its
+indifference, and the spectacle is a sad one. It is only the old, old
+story. The sins of the fathers are being visited on the children.
+Louis XIV. and the French nation of his time sowed the wind, and their
+descendants at the Revolution reaped the whirlwind. And who knows how
+much of the sufferings of France during the last few years may have
+been due to the ferocious intolerance, the abandonment to vicious
+pleasures, the thirst for dominion, and the hunger for "glory," which
+above all others characterized the reign of that monarch who is in
+history miscalled "the Great?"
+
+It will have been noted that the chief scenes of the revival of
+Protestantism described in the preceding pages occurred in Languedoc
+and the South of France, where the chief strength of the Huguenots
+always lay. The Camisard civil war which happened there, was not
+without its influence. The resolute spirit which it had evoked
+survived. The people were purified by suffering, and though they did
+not conquer civil liberty, they continued to live strong, hardy,
+virtuous lives. When Protestantism was at length able to lift up its
+head after so long a period of persecution, it was found that, during
+its long submergence, it had lost neither in numbers, in moral or
+intellectual vigour, nor in industrial power.
+
+To this day the Protestants of Languedoc cherish the memory of their
+wanderings and worshippings in the Desert; and they still occasionally
+hold their meetings in the old frequented places. Not far from Nismes
+are several of these ancient meeting-places of the persecuted, to
+which we have above referred. One of them is about two miles from the
+city, in the bed of a mountain torrent. The worshippers arranged
+themselves along the slopes of the narrow valley, the pastor preaching
+to them from the grassy level in the hollow, while sentinels posted
+on the adjoining heights gave warning of the approach of the enemy.
+Another favourite place of meeting was the hollow of an ancient quarry
+called the Echo, from which the Romans had excavated much of the stone
+used in the building of the city. The congregation seated themselves
+around the craggy sides, the preacher's pulpit being placed in the
+narrow pass leading into the quarry. Notwithstanding all the
+vigilance of the sentinels, many persons of both sexes and various
+ages were often dragged from the Echo to imprisonment or death. Even
+after the persecutions had ceased, these meeting-places continued to
+be frequented by the Protestants of Nismes, and they were sometimes
+attended by five or six thousand persons, and on sacrament days by
+even double that number.
+
+Although the Protestants of Languedoc for the most part belong to the
+National Reformed Church, the independent character of the people has
+led them to embrace Protestantism in other forms. Thus, the
+Evangelical Church is especially strong in the South, whilst the
+Evangelical Methodists number more congregations and worshippers in
+Languedoc than in all the rest of France. There are also in the
+Cevennes several congregations of Moravian Brethren. But perhaps one
+of the most curious and interesting issues of the Camisard war is the
+branch of the Society of Friends still existing in Languedoc--the only
+representatives of that body in France, or indeed on the European
+continent.
+
+When the Protestant peasants of the Cevennes took up arms and
+determined to resist force by force, there were several influential
+men amongst them who kept back and refused to join them. They held
+that the Gospel they professed did not warrant them in taking up arms
+and fighting, even against the enemies who plundered and persecuted
+them. And when they saw the excesses into which the Camisards were led
+by the war of retaliation on which they had entered, they were the
+more confirmed in their view that the attitude which the rebels had
+assumed, was inconsistent with the Christian religion.
+
+After the war had ceased, these people continued to associate
+together, maintaining a faithful testimony against war, refusing to
+take oaths, and recognising silent worship, without dependence on
+human acquirements. They were not aware of the existence of a similar
+body in England and America until the period of the French Revolution,
+when some intercourse began to take place between them.
+
+In 1807, Stephen Grellet, an American Friend, of French origin,
+visited Languedoc, and held many religious meetings in the towns and
+villages of the Lower Cevennes, which were not only attended by the
+Friends of Congenies, St. Hypolite, Granges, St. Grilles, Fontane's,
+Vauvert, Quissac, and other places in the neighbourhood of Nismes, but
+by the inhabitants at large, Roman Catholics as well as Protestants.
+At that time, as now, Congenies was regarded as the centre of the
+district principally inhabited by the Friends, and there they possess
+a large and commodious meeting-house, built for the purpose of
+worship.
+
+At the time of Stephen Grellet's visit, he especially mentioned Louis
+Majolier as "a father and a pillar" amongst the little flock.[86] And
+it may not be unworthy to note that the daughter of the same Louis
+Majolier is at the present time one of the most acceptable female
+preachers of the Society of Friends in England.
+
+         [Footnote 86: "Life of Stephen Grellet," third edition.
+         London, 1870.]
+
+It may also be mentioned, in passing, that there still exist amongst
+the Vosges mountains the remnants of an ancient sect--the Anabaptists
+of Munster--who hold views in many respects similar to those of the
+Friends. Amongst other things, they testify against war as
+unchristian, and refuse under any circumstances to carry arms. Rather
+than do so, they have at different times suffered imprisonment,
+persecution, and even death. The republic of 1793 respected their
+scruples, and did not require the Anabaptists to fight in the ranks,
+but employed them as pioneers and drivers, while Napoleon made them
+look after the wounded on the field of battle, and attend to the
+waggon train and ambulances.[87] And we understand that they continue
+to be similarly employed down to the present time.
+
+         [Footnote 87: Michel, "Les Anabaptistes des Vosges." Paris,
+         1862.]
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+It forms no part of our subject to discuss the present state of the
+French Protestant Church. It has lost no part of its activity during
+the recent political changes. Although its clergy had for some time
+been supported by the State, they had not met in public synod until
+June, 1872, after an interval of more than two hundred years. During
+that period many things had become changed. Rationalism had invaded
+Evangelicalism. Without a synod, or a settled faith, the Protestant
+churches were only so many separate congregations, often representing
+merely individual interests. In fact, the old Huguenot Church required
+reorganization; and great results are expected from the proceedings
+adopted at the recently held synod of the French Protestant
+Church.[88]
+
+         [Footnote 88: The best account of the proceedings at this
+         synod is given in _Blackwood's Magazine_ for January, 1873.]
+
+With respect to the French Catholic Church, its relative position to
+the Protestants remains the same as before. But it has no longer the
+power to persecute. The Gallican Church has been replaced by the
+Ultramontane Church, but its impulses are no kindlier, though it has
+become "Infallible."
+
+The principal movement of the Catholic priests of late years has been
+to get up appearances of the Virgin. The Virgin appears, usually, to
+a child or two, and pilgrimages are immediately got up to the scene of
+her visit. By getting up religious movements of this kind, the priests
+and their followers believe that France will yet be helped towards the
+_Revanche_, which she is said to long for.
+
+But pilgrimages will not make men; and if France wishes to be free,
+she will have to adopt some other methods. Bismarck will never be put
+down by pilgrimages. It was a sad saying of Father Hyacinthe at
+Geneva, that "France is bound to two influences--Superstition and
+Irreligion."
+
+
+
+
+MEMOIRS OF DISTINGUISHED HUGUENOT REFUGEES.
+
+
+
+
+I.
+
+STORY OF SAMUEL DE PECHELS.
+
+
+When Louis XIV. revoked the Edict of Nantes, he issued a number of
+decrees or edicts for the purpose of stamping out Protestantism in
+France. Each decree had the effect of an Act of Parliament. Louis
+combined in himself the entire powers of the State. The King's word
+was law. "_L'etat c'est Moi_" was his maxim.
+
+The Decrees which Louis issued were tyrannical, brutal, and cowardly.
+Some were even ludicrous in their inhumanity. Thus Protestant grooms
+were forbidden to give riding-lessons; Protestant barbers were
+forbidden to cut hair; Protestant washerwomen were forbidden to wash
+clothes; Protestant servants were forbidden to serve either Roman
+Catholic or Protestant mistresses. They must all be "converted." A
+profession of the Roman Catholic faith was required from simple
+artisans--from shoemakers, tailors, masons, carpenters, and
+such-like--before they were permitted to labour at their respective
+callings.
+
+The cruelty went further. Protestants were forbidden to be employed as
+librarians and printers. They could not even be employed as labourers
+upon the King's highway. They could not serve in any public office
+whatever. They were excluded from the collection of the taxes, and
+from all government departments. Protestant apothecaries must shut up
+their shops. Protestant advocates were forbidden to plead before the
+courts. Protestant doctors were forbidden to practise medicine and
+surgery. The _sages-femmes_ must necessarily be of the Roman Catholic
+religion.
+
+The cruelty was extended to the family. Protestant parents were
+forbidden to instruct their children in their own faith. They were
+enjoined, under a heavy penalty, to have their children baptized by
+the Roman Catholic priest, and brought up in the Roman Catholic
+religion. When the law was disobeyed, the priests were empowered to
+seize and carry off the children, and educate them, at the expense of
+the parents, in monasteries and nunneries.
+
+Then, as regards the profession of the Protestant religion:--It was
+decreed by the King, that all the Protestant temples in France should
+be demolished, or converted to other uses. Protestant pastors were
+ordered to quit the country within fifteen days after the date of the
+Revocation of the Edict of Nantes. If found in the country after that
+period, they were condemned to death. A reward of five thousand five
+hundred livres was offered for the apprehension of any Protestant
+pastor. When apprehended he was hung. Protestant worship was
+altogether prohibited. If any Protestants were found singing psalms,
+or engaged in prayer, in their own houses, they were liable to have
+their entire property confiscated, and to be sent to the galleys for
+life.
+
+These monstrous decrees were carried into effect--at a time when
+France reigned supreme in the domain of intellect, poetry, and the
+arts--in the days of Racine, Corneille, Moliere--of Bossuet,
+Bourdaloue, and Fenelon. Louis XIV. had the soldier, the hangman, and
+the priest at his command; but they all failed him. They could
+imprison, they could torture, they could kill, they could make the
+Protestants galley-slaves; they could burn their Bibles, and deprive
+them of everything that they valued; but the impregnable rights of
+conscience defied them.
+
+The only thing left for the Protestants was to fly from France in all
+directions. They took refuge in Switzerland, Germany, Holland, and
+England. The flight from France had begun before the Revocation of the
+Edict of Nantes, but after that act the flight rapidly increased. Not
+less than a million of persons are supposed to have escaped from
+France in consequence of the Revocation.
+
+Steps were, however, taken by the King to stop the emigration. He
+issued a decree ordering that the property and goods of all those
+Protestants who had already escaped should be confiscated to the
+Crown, unless they returned within three months from the date of the
+Revocation. Then, with respect to the Protestants who remained in
+France, he decreed that all French_men_ found attempting to escape
+were to be sent to the galleys for life; and that all French_women_
+found attempting to escape were to be imprisoned for life. The spies
+who denounced the fugitive Protestants were rewarded by the
+apportionment of half their goods.
+
+This decree was not, however, considered sufficiently severe, and it
+was shortly after followed by another, proclaiming that any captured
+fugitives, as well as any person found acting as their guide, should
+be condemned to death. Another royal decree was issued respecting
+those fugitives who attempted to escape by sea. It was to the effect,
+that before any ship was allowed to set sail for a foreign port, the
+hold should be fumigated with a deadly gas, so that any hidden
+Huguenot who could not otherwise be detected, might be suffocated to
+death.
+
+These measures, however, did not seem to have the effect of
+"converting" the French Protestants. The Dragonnades were next
+resorted to. Louis XIV. was pleased to call the dragoons his Booted
+Missionaries, _ses missionnaires bottes_. The dragonnades are said to
+have been the invention of Michel de Marillac, whose name will
+doubtless descend to infamous notoriety, like those of Catherine de
+Medicis, the Guises, and the authors of the Massacre of St.
+Bartholomew.
+
+Yet there was not much genius displayed in the invention of the
+Dragonnades. It merely consisted in this: whenever it was found that a
+town abounded with Huguenots, the dragoons, hussars, and troops of
+various kinds were poured into it, and quartered on the inhabitants.
+Twenty, thirty, or forty were quartered together, according to the
+size of the house. They occupied every room; they beat their drums and
+blew their trumpets; they smoked, drank, and swore, without any regard
+to the infirm, the sick, or the dying, until the inmates were
+"converted."
+
+The whole army of France was let loose upon the Huguenots. They had
+been beaten out of Holland by the Dutch Calvinists; and they could now
+fearlessly take their revenge out of their unarmed Huguenot
+fellow-countrymen. Whenever they quartered themselves in a dwelling,
+it was, for the time being, their own. They rummaged the cellars,
+drank the wines, ordered the best of everything, pillaged the house,
+and treated everybody who belonged to it as a slave. The Huguenots
+were not only compelled to provide for the entertainment of their
+guests, but to pay them their wages. The superior officers were paid
+fifteen francs a day, the lieutenants nine francs, and the common
+soldiers three francs. If the money was not paid, the household
+furniture, the horses and cows, and all the other articles that could
+be seized, were publicly sold.
+
+No wonder that so many Huguenots were "converted" by the dragoons.
+Forty thousand persons were converted in Poitou. The regiment of
+Asfeld was the instrument of their conversion. A company and a half of
+dragoons occupied the house of a single lady at Poitiers until she was
+converted to the Roman Catholic faith. What bravery!
+
+The Huguenots of Languedoc were amongst the most obstinate of all.
+They refused to be converted by the priests; and then Louis XIV.
+determined to dragonnade them. About sixty thousand troops were
+concentrated on the province. Noailles, the governor, shortly after
+wrote to the King that he had converted the city of Nismes in
+twenty-four hours. Twenty thousand converts had been made in
+Montauban; and he promised that by the end of the month there would be
+no more Huguenots left in Languedoc.
+
+Many persons were doubtless converted by force, or by the fear of
+being dragonnaded; but there were also many more who were ready to run
+all risks rather than abjure their faith. Of those who abjured, the
+greater number took the first opportunity of flying from France, by
+land or by sea, and taking refuge in Switzerland, Germany, Holland, or
+England. Many instances might be given of the heroic fortitude with
+which the Huguenots bore the brutality of their enemies; but, for the
+present, it may be sufficient to mention the case of the De Pechels of
+Montauban.
+
+The citizens of Montauban had been terribly treated before and after
+the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes. The town had been one of the
+principal Huguenot places of refuge in France. Hence its population
+was principally Protestant. Its university had been shut up. Its
+churches had been levelled to the ground. Its professors and pastors
+had been banished from France. And now it was to be dragonnaded.
+
+The town was filled with troops, who were quartered on the
+Protestants. One of the burgesses called upon the Intendant, threw
+himself at his feet, and prayed to be delivered from the dragoons. "On
+one condition only!" replied Dubois, "that you become a Catholic." "I
+cannot," said the townsman, "because, if the Sultan quartered twenty
+janissaries on me, I might, for the same reason, be forced to become a
+Turk."
+
+Although many of the townsmen pretended to be converted, the
+Protestant chiefs held firm to their convictions, and resisted all
+persuasions, promises, and threats, to induce them to abjure their
+religion. Amongst them were Samuel de Pechels de la Boissonade and the
+Marquise de Sabonnieres, his wife, who, in the midst of many trials
+and sorrows, preferred to do their duty to every other consideration.
+
+The family of De Pechels had long been settled at Montauban. Being
+regarded as among the heads of the Protestant party in Montauban, they
+were marked out by the King's ministers for the most vigorous
+treatment. When the troops entered the town on the 20th of August,
+1685, they treated the inhabitants as if the town had been taken by
+assault. The officers and soldiers vied with each other in committing
+acts of violence. They were sanctioned by the magistrate, who
+authorised their excesses, in conformity with the King's will. Tumult
+and disorder prevailed everywhere. Houses were broken into. Persons of
+the reformed religion, without regard to age, sex, or condition, were
+treated with indignity. They were sworn at, threatened, and beaten.
+Their families were turned out of doors. Every room in the house was
+entered and ransacked of its plate, silk, linen, and clothes. When the
+furniture was too heavy to be carried away, it was demolished. The
+mirrors were slashed with swords, or shot at with pistols. In short,
+so far as regarded their household possessions, the greater number of
+the Protestants were completely ruined.
+
+Samuel de Pechels de la Boissonade had no fewer than thirty-eight
+dragoons and fusiliers quartered upon him. It was intended at first to
+quarter these troopers on Roupeiroux, the King's adjutant; but having
+promptly changed his religion to avoid the horrors of the dragonnade,
+they were removed to the house of De Pechels, and he was ordered by
+Chevalier Duc, their commander, to pay down the money which he had
+failed to get from Roupeiroux, during the days that the troopers
+should have occupied his house. De Pechels has himself told the story
+of his sufferings, and we proceed to quote his own words:--
+
+"Soon after," he says, "my house was filled with officers, troopers,
+and their horses, who took possession of every room with such
+unfeeling harshness that I could not reserve a single one for the use
+of my family; nor could I make these unfeeling wretches listen to my
+declaration that I was ready to give up all that I possessed without
+resistance. Doors were broken open, boxes and cupboards forced. They
+liked better to carry off what belonged to me in this violent manner
+than to take the keys which my wife and I, standing on either side,
+continued to offer. The granaries served for the reception of their
+horses among the grain and meal, which the wretches, with the greatest
+barbarity, made them trample underfoot. The very bread destined for my
+little children, like the rest, was contemptuously trodden down by the
+horses.
+
+"Nothing could stop the brutality of these madmen. I was thrust out
+into the street with my wife, now very near her confinement, and four
+very young children, taking nothing with me but a little cradle and a
+small supply of linen, for the babe whose birth was almost momentarily
+expected. The street being full of people, diverted at seeing us thus
+exposed, we were delayed some moments near the door, during which we
+were pitilessly drenched by the troopers, who amused themselves at the
+windows with emptying upon our heads pitchers of water, to add to
+their enjoyment of our sad condition.
+
+"From this moment I gave up both house and goods to be plundered,
+without having in view any place of refuge but the street, ill suited,
+it must be owned, for such a purpose, and especially so to a woman
+expecting her confinement hourly, and to little children of too tender
+an age to make their own way--some of them, indeed, being unable to
+walk or speak--and having no hope but in the mercy of God and His
+gracious protection."
+
+De Pechels proceeded to the house of Marshal Boufflers, commander of
+the district, thinking it probable that a man of honour, such as he
+was supposed to be, would discourage such barbarities, and place the
+dragoons under some sort of military control. But no! The Marshal
+could not be found. He carefully kept out of the way of all Protestant
+complainants. De Pechels, however, met Chevalier Duc, who commanded
+the soldiers that had turned him out of his house. In answer to the
+expostulations of De Pechels, the Chevalier gave him to understand
+that the same treatment would be continued unless he "changed his
+religion." "Then," answered De Pechels, "by God's help I never will."
+
+At length, when De Pechels' house had been thoroughly stripped, and
+the dragoons had decamped elsewhere, he received an order to return,
+in order to entertain another detachment of soldiers. The criminal
+judge, who had possession of the keys, entered the house, and found it
+in extreme disorder. "I was obliged to remain in it," says De Pechels,
+"amidst dirt and vermin, in obedience to the Intendant's orders,
+reiterated in the strictest manner by the criminal judge, that I
+should await the arrival of a fresh party of lodgers, who accordingly
+came on the day following."
+
+The new party consisted of six soldiers of the regiment of fusiliers,
+who called themselves simply "missionaries," as distinct from the
+"booted missionaries" who had just left. They were savage at not
+finding anything to plunder, their predecessors having removed
+everything in the shape of booty. The fusiliers were shortly followed
+by six soldiers of Dampier's regiment, who were still more ferocious.
+They gave De Pechels and his wife no peace day or night; they kept the
+house in a constant uproar; swore and sang obscene songs, and carried
+their insolence to the utmost pitch. At length De Pechels was forced
+to quit the house, on account of his wife, who was near the time of
+her confinement. These are his own words:--
+
+"For a long time we were wandering through the streets, no one daring
+to offer us an asylum, as the ordinance of the Intendant imposed a
+fine of four or five hundred livres[89] upon any one who should
+receive Protestants into their houses. My mother's house had long been
+filled with soldiers, as well as that of my sister De Darassus; and
+not knowing where to go, I suffered great agony of mind for fear my
+poor wife should give birth to her infant in the street. In this
+lamentable plight, the good providence of God led us to the house of
+Mdlle. de Guarrison, my wife's sister, from whence, most fortunately,
+a large number of soldiers, with their officers, were issuing. They
+had occupied it for some time, and had allowed the family no rest. Now
+they were changing their quarters, to continue their lawless mission
+in some country town. The stillness of the house after their departure
+induced us to enter it at once, and hardly had my wife accepted the
+bed Mdlle. de Guarrison offered her, than she was happily delivered of
+a daughter, blessed be God, who never leaves Himself without a witness
+to those who fear His name.
+
+         [Footnote 89: The French livre was worth three francs, or
+         about two shillings and sixpence English money.]
+
+"That same evening a great number of soldiers arrived, and took up
+their quarters in M. de Guarrison's house, and two days after, this
+burden was augmented by the addition of a colonel, a captain, and two
+lieutenants, with a large company of soldiers and several servants,
+all of whom conducted themselves with a degree of violence scarcely to
+be described. They had no regard for the owners of the house, but
+robbed them with impunity. They had no pity for my poor wife, weak and
+ill as she was; nor for the helpless children, who suffered much under
+these miserable conditions.
+
+"Officers, soldiers, and servants pillaged the house with odious
+rivalry, took possession of all the rooms, drove out the owners, and
+obliged the poor sick woman (by their continual threats and abominable
+conduct) to get up and try to retire to some other place. She crept
+into the courtyard, where, with her infant, she was detained in the
+cold for a long time by the soldiers, who would not allow her to quit
+the premises. At length, however, my poor wife got into the street,
+still, however, guarded by soldiers, who would not allow her to go out
+of their sight, or to speak with any one. She complained to the
+Intendant of their cruel ways, but instead of procuring her any
+relief, he aggravated her affliction, ordering the soldiers to keep
+strict watch over her, never to leave her, and to inform him with what
+persons she found a refuge, that he might make them pay the penalty."
+
+De Pechels' wife was thus under the necessity of sleeping, with her
+babe and her children, in the street. After all was quiet, they sought
+for a door-step, and lay down for the night under the stars.
+
+Madame de Pechels at length found temporary shelter. Mademoiselle de
+Delada, a friend of the Intendant, touched by the poor woman's sad
+condition, implored the magistrate's permission to give her refuge;
+and being a well-known Roman Catholic, she was at length permitted to
+take Madame de Pechels and her babe into her house, but on condition
+that four soldiers should still keep her in view. She remained there
+for a short time, until she was able to leave her bed, when she was
+privily removed to a country house belonging to Mademoiselle de
+Delada, not far from the town of Montauban.
+
+To return to Samuel de Pechels. His house was still overflowing with
+soldiers. They proceeded to wreck what was left of his household
+effects; they carried off and sold his papers and his library, which
+was considerable. Some of the soldiers of Dampier's regiment carried
+off in a sack a pair of brass chimney dogs, the shovel and tongs, a
+grate, and some iron spits, the wretched remains of his household
+furniture. They proceeded to lay waste his farms and carry off his
+cattle, selling the latter by public auction in the square. They next
+pulled down his house, and sold the materials. After this, ten
+soldiers were quartered in a neighbouring tavern, at De Pechels'
+expense. Not being able to pay the expenses, the Intendant sent some
+archers to him to say that he would be carried off to prison unless
+he changed his religion. To that proposal he answered, as before, that
+"by the help of God he would never make that change, and that he was
+quite prepared to go to any place to which his merciful Saviour might
+lead him."
+
+He was accordingly taken, into custody, and placed, for a time, in the
+Royal Chateau. On the same day, his sister De Darassus was committed
+to prison. Still holding steadfast by his faith, De Pechels was, after
+a month's imprisonment at Montauban, removed to the prison of Cahors,
+where he was put into the lowest dungeon. "By the grace of my
+Saviour," said he, "I strengthened myself more in my determination to
+die rather than renounce the truth."
+
+After lying for more than three months in the dampest mould of the
+lowest dungeon in the prison of Cahors, and being still found
+immovable in his faith, De Pechels was ordered to be taken to the
+citadel of Montpellier, to wait there until he could be transported to
+America. His wife, the Marquise de Sabonnieres, having heard of his
+condemnation (though he was never tried), determined to see him before
+he left France for ever. The road from Cahors to Montpellier did not
+pass through Montauban, but a few miles to the east of it. Having
+spent the night in prayer to God, that He might endow her with
+firmness to sustain the trials of a scene, which was as heroic in her
+as it was touching to those who witnessed it, she went forth in the
+morning to wait along the roadside for the arrival of the illustrious
+body of prisoners, who were on their way, some to the galleys, some to
+banishment, some to imprisonment, and some to death.
+
+At length the glorious band arrived. They were chained two and two.
+They were for the most part ladies and gentlemen who had refused to
+abjure their religion. Among them were M. Desparves, a gentleman from
+the neighbourhood of Laitoure, old and blind, led by his wife; M. de
+la Resseguerie, of Montauban, and many more. Madame de Pechels
+implored leave of the guard who conducted the prisoners to have an
+interview with her husband. It was granted. She had been supplied with
+the fortitude for which she had so ardently and piously prayed to God
+during the whole of the past night. It seemed as if some supernatural
+power had prompted the discourse with her husband, which softened the
+hearts of those who, up to that time, had appeared inaccessible to the
+sentiments of humanity. The superintendent allowed the noble couple to
+pray together; after which they were separated without the least
+weakness betraying itself on the part of Madame de Pechels, who
+remained unmoved, whilst all the bystanders were melted into tears.
+The procession of guards and prisoners then went on its way.
+
+The trials of Madame de Pechels were not yet ended. Though she had
+parted with her husband, who was now on his way to banishment, she had
+still the children with her; and, cruellest torture of all! these were
+now to be torn from her. One evening a devoted friend came to inform
+her that a body of men were to arrive next morning and take her
+children, even the baby from her breast, and immure them in a convent.
+She was also informed that she herself was to be seized and
+imprisoned.
+
+The intelligence fell like a thunderbolt upon the tender mother. What
+was she to do? Was she to abjure her religion? She prayed for help
+from God. Part of the night was thus spent before she could make up
+her mind to part from her innocent children, who were to be brought up
+in a religion at variance with her own. In any case, a separation was
+necessary. Could she not fly, like so many other Protestant women, and
+live in hopes of better days to come? It was better to fly from France
+than encounter the horrors of a French prison. Before she parted with
+her children she embraced them while they slept; she withdrew a few
+steps to tear herself from them, and again she came back to bid them a
+last farewell!
+
+At length, urged by the person who was about to give her a refuge in
+his house, she consented to follow him. The man was a weaver by trade,
+and all day long he carried on his work in the only room which he
+possessed. Madame de Pechels passed the day in a recess, concealed by
+the bed of her entertainers, and in the evening she came out, and the
+good people supplied her with what was necessary. She passed six
+months in this retreat, without any one knowing what had become of
+her. It was thought that she had taken refuge in some foreign country.
+
+Numbers of ladies had already been able to make their escape. The
+frontier was strictly guarded by troops, police, and armed peasantry.
+The high-roads as well as the byways were patrolled day and night, and
+all the bridges were strongly guarded. But the fugitives avoided the
+frequented routes. They travelled at night, and hid themselves during
+the day. There were Protestant guides who knew every pathway leading
+out of France, through forests, wastes, or mountain paths, where no
+patrols were on the watch; and they thus succeeded in leading
+thousands of refugee Protestants across the frontier. And thus it was
+that Madame de Pechels was at length enabled, with the help of a
+guide, to reach Geneva, one of the great refuges of the Huguenots.
+
+On arrival there she felt the loss of her children more than ever.
+She offered to the guide who had conducted her all the money that she
+possessed to bring her one or other of her children. The eldest girl,
+then nine or ten years old, was communicated with, but having already
+tasted the pleasure of being her own mistress, she refused the
+proposal to fly into Switzerland to join her mother. Her son Jacob was
+next communicated with. He was seven years old. He was greatly moved
+at the name of his mother, and he earnestly entreated to be taken to
+where she was. The guide at once proceeded to fulfil his engagement.
+The boy fled with him from France, passing for his son. The way was
+long--some five hundred miles. The journey occupied them about three
+weeks. They rested during the day, and travelled at night. They
+avoided every danger, and at length the faithful guide was able to
+place the loving son in the arms of his noble and affectionate mother.
+
+Samuel de Pechels was condemned to banishment without the shadow of a
+trial. He could not be dragooned into denying his faith, and he was
+therefore imprisoned, preparatory to his expulsion from France. "I was
+told," he said, "by the Sieur Raoul, Roqueton (or chief archer) to the
+Intendant of Montauban, that if I would not change my religion, he had
+orders from the King and the Intendant to convey me to the citadel of
+Montpellier, from thence to be immediately shipped for America. My
+reply was, that I was ready to go forthwith whithersoever it was God's
+pleasure to lead me, and that assuredly, by God's help, I would make
+no change in my religion."
+
+After five months' imprisonment at Cahors, he was taken out and
+marched, as already related, to the citadel of Montpellier. The
+citadel adjoins the Peyrou, a lofty platform of rock, which commands
+a splendid panoramic view of the surrounding country. It is now laid
+out as a pleasure-ground, though it was then the principal
+hanging-place of the Languedoc Protestants. Brousson, and many other
+faithful pastors of the "Church in the Desert," laid down their lives
+there. Half-a-dozen decaying corpses might sometimes be seen swinging
+from the gibbets on which the ministers had been hung.
+
+A more bitter fate was, however, reserved for De Pechels. After about
+a month's imprisonment in the citadel, he was removed to Aiguesmortes,
+under the charge of several mounted archers and foot soldiers. He was
+accompanied by fourteen Protestant ladies and gentlemen, on their way
+to perpetual imprisonment, to the galleys, or to banishment.
+Aiguesmortes was the principal fortified dungeon in the south of
+France, used for the imprisonment of Huguenots who refused to be
+converted. It is situated close to the Mediterranean, and is
+surrounded by lagunes and salt marshes. It is a most unhealthy place;
+and imprisonment at Aiguesmortes was considered a slower but not a
+less certain death than hanging. Sixteen Huguenot women were confined
+there in 1686, and the whole of them died within five months. When the
+prisoners died off, the place was at once filled again. The castle of
+Aiguesmortes was thus used as a prison for nearly a hundred years.
+
+De Pechels gives the following account of his journey from Montpellier
+to Aiguesmortes:--"Mounted on asses, harnessed in the meanest manner,
+without stirrups, and with wretched ropes for halters, we entered
+Aiguesmortes, and were there locked up in the Tower of Constance, with
+thirty other male prisoners and twenty women and girls, who had also
+been brought hither, tied two and two. The men were placed in an
+upper apartment of the tower, and the women and girls below, so that
+we could hear each other pray to God and sing His praises with a loud
+voice."
+
+De Pechels did not long remain a prisoner at Aiguesmortes. He was
+shortly after put on board a king's ship bound for Marseilles. He was
+very ill during the voyage, suffering from seasickness and continual
+fainting fits. On reaching Marseilles he was confined in the hospital
+prison used for common felons and galley-slaves. It was called the
+Chamber of Darkness, because of its want of light. The single
+apartment contained two hundred and thirty prisoners. Some of them
+were chained together, two and two; others, three and three. The
+miserable palliasses on which they slept had been much worn by the
+galley-slaves, who had used them during their illnesses. The women
+were separated from the men by a linen cloth attached to the ceiling,
+which was drawn across every evening, and formed the only partition
+between them.
+
+As may easily be supposed, the condition of the prisoners was
+frightful. The swearing of the common felons was mixed with the
+prayers of the Huguenots. The guards walked about all night to keep
+watch and ward over them. They fell upon any who assembled and knelt
+together, separating them and swearing at them, and mercilessly
+ill-treating them, men and women alike. "But all their strictness and
+rage," says De Pechels, "could not prevent one from seeing always, in
+different parts of the dungeon, little groups upon their knees,
+imploring the mercy of God and singing His praises, whilst others kept
+near the guards so as to hinder them from interfering with the little
+bands of worshippers."
+
+At length the time arrived for the embarkation of the Huguenots for
+America. On the 18th of September, 1687, De Pechels, with fifty-eight
+men and twenty-one women, was put on board a _flute_ called the
+_Mary_--the French _flute_ consisting of a heavy narrow-sterned
+vessel, called in England a "pink." De Pechels was carefully separated
+from all with whom he had formed habits of intimacy, and whose
+presence near him would doubtless have helped him to bear the
+bitterness of his fate. On the same day, ninety prisoners of both
+sexes were embarked in another ship, named the _Concord_, bound for
+the same destination. The two vessels set sail in the first place for
+Toulon, in order to obtain an escort of two ships-of-war.
+
+The voyage was very disastrous. Three hours after the squadron had
+left Toulon, the _Mary_ was nearly dashed against a rock, owing to the
+roughness of the weather. Three days after, a frightful storm arose,
+and dashed the prisoners against each other. All were sick; indeed, De
+Pechels' malady lasted during the entire voyage. The squadron first
+cast anchor amongst the Formentera Islands, off the coast of Spain,
+where they took in water. On the next day they anchored in the Straits
+of Gibraltar for the same purpose. They next sailed for Cadiz, but a
+strong west wind having set in, the ship was forced back to the road
+of Gibraltar. After waiting there for three days they again started,
+under the shelter of a Dutch fleet of eighteen sail, "which," says De
+Pechels, "providentially saved us from falling into the hands of the
+Algerine corsairs, some of whom had appeared in sight, and from whose
+hands God, in His great mercy, delivered us." As if the Algerine
+corsairs would have treated the Huguenots worse than their own king
+was now treating them. The Algerine corsairs would have sold them into
+slavery; whilst the French king was transporting them to America for
+the same purpose.
+
+At length the squadron reached Cadiz roads. Many ships were
+there--English as well as Dutch. When the foreigners heard of the
+state and misfortunes of the Huguenots on board the French ships, they
+came to visit them in their anchoring ground, and were profuse in
+their charity to the prisoners for conscience' sake confined in the
+two French vessels. "God, who never leaves Himself without witness,
+brought us consolation and relief from this town, where superstition
+and bigotry reign in their fullest force." As it was in De Pechels'
+day, so it is now.
+
+At length the French squadron set sail for America. The voyage was
+tedious and miserable. There were about a hundred and thirty prisoners
+on board. Seventy of them were sick felons, chained with heavy irons.
+Being useless for the French galleys, they were now being transported
+to America, to be sold as slaves. The imprisoned Huguenots--men and
+women--were fifty-nine in number. They were crammed into a part of the
+ship that could scarcely hold them. They could not stand upright; nor
+could they lie down. They had to lie upon each other. The den was
+moreover very dark, the only light that entered it being through the
+narrow hatchway; and even this was often closed. The wonder is that
+they were not suffocated outright.
+
+The burning heat of the sun shining on the deck above them, the
+never-ceasing fire of the kitchen, which was situated alongside their
+place of confinement, created such a stifling heat, that the prisoners
+had to take off their shirts to relieve their agony. The horrid stench
+arising from so many persons being crowded together, and the entire
+want of the means of cleanliness, caused the inmates to become covered
+with vermin. They were also tormented by the intolerable thirst which
+no means were taken to allay. Their feeding was horrible; for they
+must be kept alive in some way, in order that the intentions of their
+gracious sovereign might be carried into effect. One day they had
+stinking salt beef; the next, cod fish half boiled; then peas as hard
+as when they were put into the pot; and at other times, dried cod
+fish, or rank cheese. These things, together with the violent motion
+of the sea, occasioned severe sickness, from which many of the
+sufferers were relieved by death. This deplorable voyage extended over
+five months. Here is De Pechels' account of the sufferings of the
+prisoners, written in his own words:--
+
+"The intense and suffocating heat, the horrible odour, the maddening
+swarm of vermin that devoured us, the incessant thirst and wretched
+fare, sufficed not to satisfy our overseers. They sometimes struck us
+rudely, and very often threw down sea-water upon us, when they saw us
+engaged in prayer and praise to God. The common talk of these enemies
+of the truth was how they would hang, when they came to America, every
+man who would not go to mass, and how they would deliver the women to
+the natives. But far from being frightened at these threats, or even
+moved by all the barbarities of which we were the victims, many of us
+felt a secret joy that we were chosen to suffer for the holy name of
+Jesus, who strengthened us with a willingness to die for His sake. For
+myself, these menaces had been so often repeated during my
+imprisonments, that they had become familiar; insomuch that, far from
+being shaken by them any more than by the sufferings to which it had
+pleased my Saviour to call me, I considered them as transient things,
+not worthy to be weighed against the glory to come, and such as would
+procure me a weight of glory supremely excellent. 'Blessed are they
+who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom
+of heaven.'"
+
+On the 2nd of January, 1688, the island of San Domingo came in sight.
+It was for the most part inhabited by savages. The French had a
+settlement on the west coast of the island, and the Spaniards occupied
+the eastern part. Dense forests separated the two settlements. The
+_Mary_ coasted along the island, and afterwards made sail for
+Guadaloupe, another colony belonging to the French. The ship seemed as
+yet to have had no proper destination, for, four days later, the
+_Mary_ weighed her anchor, and sailed to St. Christopher, another
+island partly belonging to the French. "It was well situated," says De
+Pechels, "as may readily be believed, when I add that it possessed a
+colony of Jesuits--an order which never selects a bad situation. The
+Jesuits here are very rich and in high repute. Two of the fraternity,
+having come on board, were received by the crew with every
+demonstration of respect; and on their retirement, three guns were
+fired as a mark of honour to the distinguished visitors."
+
+The Huguenots were still under hatches,--weary, longing, wretched, and
+miserable. They were most anxious to be put on shore--anywhere, even
+among savages. But the _Mary_ had not yet arrived at her destination.
+She again set sail, and passed St. Kitts, St. Eustace, St. Croix,
+Porto Rico, and at length again reached San Domingo. The ship dropped
+anchor before Port au Prince, the residence of the governor. The
+galley-slaves were disembarked and sold. Some of the Huguenots were
+also sold for slaves, though De Pechels was not among them. The rest
+were transferred to the _Maria_, a king's ship, commanded by M. de
+Beauguay, who treated the prisoners with much humanity. The ship then
+set sail for Leogane, another part of the colony, where the remaining
+Huguenots were disembarked. They were quartered on the inhabitants at
+the pleasure of the governor.
+
+De Pechels says that he passed his time at this place in tranquillity,
+waiting till it might please God to afford him an opportunity of
+escaping from his troubles. He visited the inhabitants, especially
+those of his own religious persuasion--a circumstance which gave much
+umbrage to the Dominican monks. They ordered some of the bigots among
+their parishioners to lodge a complaint against him with the governor,
+to the effect that he was hindering his fellow-prisoners from becoming
+Roman Catholics, and preventing those who had become so from going to
+mass. He accordingly received a verbal command from M. Dumas, the
+King's lieutenant, to repair immediately to Avache (probably La
+Vache), an island about a hundred leagues distant from Leogane. He was
+accordingly despatched by ship to Avache, which he reached on the 8th
+of June. He was put in charge of Captain Laurans, a renowned
+freebooter, and was specially lodged under his roof. The captain was
+ordered never to lose sight of his prisoner.
+
+De Pechels suffered much at this place in consequence of the intense
+heat, and the insects, mosquitoes, and horrible flies by which he was
+surrounded. "And yet," he says, "God in His great mercy willed that in
+this very place I should find the means of escaping from my exile, and
+making my way to the English island of Jamaica. On the 13th of August
+a little shallop of that generous nation, in its course from the
+island of St. Thomas to Jamaica, stopped at Avache to water and take
+provisions. Two months already had I watched for such an opportunity,
+and now that God had presented me with this, I thought it should not
+be neglected. So fully was I persuaded of this, that without
+reflecting upon the smallness of the shallop, I put myself on board
+with victuals for four days, although assured that the passage would
+only occupy three. But instead of performing the passage in three
+days, as we had thought, it was ten days before we made the island,
+during the whole of which time I was constantly unwell from bad
+weather and consequent seasickness. During the last three days I
+suffered also from hunger, my provisions being spent, with the
+exception of some little wretched food, salt and smoky, which the
+sailors eat to keep themselves from starving. God, in His great
+compassion, preserved me from all dangers, and brought me happily to
+Jamaica, where, however, I thought to leave my bones."
+
+The voyage was followed by a serious illness. De Pechels was obliged
+to take to his bed, where he lay for fifteen days prostrated by fever,
+accompanied by incessant pains in his head. After the fever had left
+him, he could neither walk nor stand. By slow degrees his strength
+returned. He was at length able to walk; and he then began to make
+arrangements for setting out for England. On the 1st of October he
+embarked on board an English vessel bound for London. During his
+voyage north he suffered from cold, as much as he had before suffered
+from heat. At length the coast of England was sighted. Two days after,
+the ship reached the Downs; and on the 22nd of December it was borne
+up the Thames by the tide, to within about seven miles from London
+Bridge. There the ship stopped to discharge part of her cargo; and De
+Pechels, having taken his place on board a small sloop for the great
+city, arrived there at ten o'clock the same night.
+
+On arrival in London, De Pechels proceeded to make inquiry amongst his
+Huguenot friends--who had by that time reached England in great
+numbers--for his wife, his children, his mother, and his sisters.
+Alas! what disappointment! He found no wife, no child, nor any
+relation ready to welcome him. His wife, however, was living at
+Geneva, with their only son; for the youngest had died at Montauban
+during De Pechels' exile. His daughters were still at Montauban--the
+eldest in a convent. His mother and youngest sister were both in
+prison--the one at Moissac, the other at Auvillard. A message was,
+however, sent to Madame de Pechels, that her husband was now in
+England, and longing to meet her.
+
+It was long before the message reached Madame de Pechels; and still
+longer before she could join her husband in London. While at Geneva,
+she had maintained herself and her son by the work of her hands. On
+receiving the message she immediately set out, but her voyage could
+not fail to be one of hardship to a person in her reduced
+circumstances. We are not informed how she and her son contrived to
+travel the long distance of eight hundred miles (by way of the Rhine
+and Holland) from Geneva to London; but at length she reached the
+English capital, when she had the mortification to find that her
+husband was not there, but had left London for Ireland only four days
+before. During the absence of her husband, Madame de Pechels, whose
+courage never abandoned her, chose rather to stoop to the most
+toilsome labours than to have recourse to the charity of the
+government, of which many, less self-helping, or perhaps more
+necessitous, did not scruple to take advantage.
+
+We must now revert to the circumstances under which De Pechels left
+London for Ireland. At the time when he arrived in England, the
+country was in the throes of a Revolution. Only a month before,
+William of Orange had landed at Torbay, with a large body of troops,
+a considerable proportion of which consisted of Huguenot officers and
+soldiers. There were three strong regiments of Huguenot infantry, and
+a complete squadron of Huguenot cavalry. Marshal Schomberg, next in
+command to William of Orange, was a banished Huguenot; and many of his
+principal officers were French.
+
+James II. had so distinctly shown his disposition to carry back the
+nation to the Roman Catholic religion, that the Prince of Orange, on
+his landing at Torbay, was hailed as the deliverer of England. His
+troops advanced direct upon London. He was daily joined by fresh
+adherents; by the gentry, officers, and soldiers. There was scarcely a
+show of resistance; and when he entered London, James was getting on
+board a smack in the Thames, and slinking ignominiously out of his
+kingdom. Towards the end of June, 1689, William and Mary were
+proclaimed King and Queen of Great Britain; and they were solemnly
+crowned at Westminster about three months after.
+
+But James II. had not yet been got rid of. In the spring of 1689 he
+landed at Kinsale, in Ireland, with substantial help obtained from the
+French king. Before many weeks had elapsed, forty thousand Irish stood
+in arms to support his cause. It was clear that William III. must
+fight for his throne, and that Ireland was to be the battle-field. He
+accordingly called his forces together again--for the greater part had
+been disbanded--when he prepared to take the field in person. Four
+Huguenot regiments were at once raised, three infantry regiments, and
+one cavalry regiment. The cavalry regiment was raised by Marshal
+Schomberg, its colonel. It was composed of French gentlemen, privates
+as well as officers. De Pechels was offered a commission in the
+regiment, which he cheerfully accepted. He assumed the name of his
+barony, La Boissonade, as was common in those days; and he acted as
+lieutenant in the company of La Fontain.
+
+The regiment, when completed, was at once despatched to the north of
+Ireland to join the little army of about ten thousand Protestants, who
+had already laid siege to and taken the fortified town of
+Carrickfergus. Schomberg's regiment embarked from Chester, on Monday,
+the 25th of August, 1689; and on the following Saturday the squadron
+arrived in Belfast Lough. The troopers were landed a little to the
+west of Carrickfergus, and marched along the road towards Belfast,
+which is still known as "Troopers' Lane." Next day the Duke moved on
+in pursuit of the enemy. The regiment passed through Belfast, which
+was then a very small place. It consisted of a few streets of thatched
+cottages, grouped around what is now known as the High Street of
+Belfast. Schomberg's regiment joined the infantry and the
+Enniskilleners, who were encamped in a wood on the west of the town.
+
+Next morning the little army started in pursuit of the enemy, who,
+though in much greater numbers, fled before them, laying waste the
+country. At night Schomberg's troops encamped at Lisburn; on the
+following day at Dromore; on the third at Brickclay (this must be
+Loughbrickland); and then on to Newry. All the villages they passed
+were either burnt or burning. At length they heard that James's Irish
+army was at Newry, and that the Duke of Berwick (James's natural son)
+was in possession of the town with a strong body of horse. But before
+Schomberg could reach the place the Duke of Berwick had evacuated it,
+leaving the town in flames. The Duke had fled with such haste that he
+had left some of his baggage behind him, and thrown his cannon into
+the river. Schomberg ordered his cavalry to advance rapidly upon
+Dundalk, in order to prevent the town from sharing the same fate as
+Newry. This forced march took the enemy by surprise. They suddenly
+abandoned Dundalk, without burning it, and never paused until they had
+reached the entrenched camp of King James.
+
+The weather had now become cold, dreary, and rainy. Provisions were
+scarcely to be had. The people of Dundalk were themselves starving.
+Strong bodies of cavalry foraged the country, but were able to find
+next to nothing in the shape of food for themselves, or corn for their
+horses. The ships from England, laden with provisions which ought to
+have arrived at Belfast, were forced back by contrary winds. Thus the
+army was becoming rapidly famished. Disease soon made its appearance,
+and carried off the men by hundreds. Schomberg's camp, outside
+Dundalk, was situated by the side of a marsh--a most unwholesome
+position; but the marsh protected him from the enemy, who were not far
+off. The rain and snow continued; the men and the horses were
+perpetually drenched; and scouring winds blew across the camp. Ague,
+dysentery, and fever everywhere prevailed. Dalrymple has recorded that
+of fifteen thousand men who belonged to Schomberg's army, not less
+than eight thousand perished. Under these circumstances, the greatly
+reduced force broke up from their cantonments and went into winter
+quarters. Schomberg's cavalry regiment was stationed at Lurgan, then a
+small village, which happily had not been burnt. De Pechels was one of
+those who had been sick in camp, and was disabled from pursuing the
+campaign further. After remaining for some weeks at Lurgan, he
+obtained leave from the Duke of Schomberg to return to London. And
+there, after the lapse of four years, he found and embraced his
+beloved and noble wife.
+
+De Pechels continued invalided, and was unable to rejoin the army of
+King William. "After some stay in London," he says, in the memoir from
+which the above extracts are made, "it was the King's pleasure to
+exempt from further service certain officers specified by name, and to
+assign them a pension. Through a kind Providence I was included in the
+number. When I had lived in London on the pension which it had pleased
+the king to allow those officers who were no longer in a position to
+serve him, until the 1st of August, 1692, I then left that city, in
+company with my wife and son, to remove into Ireland, whither my
+pension was transferred."
+
+De Pechels accordingly arrived in Dublin, where he spent the rest of
+his days in peace and quiet. He lived to experience the truth of the
+promise "that every one that hath forsaken houses, or brethren, or
+sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands for my
+name's sake, shall receive an hundredfold, and shall inherit
+everlasting life." De Pechels died in 1732, at a ripe old age, in his
+eighty-seventh year, and was interred in the Huguenot cemetery in the
+neighbourhood of Dublin.
+
+And what of the children left by De Pechels at Montauban? The two
+daughters who were torn from their mother's care, and immured in a
+convent, were brought up in the Roman Catholic faith. The little boy,
+who was also taken from her, died shortly after. The daughters
+accordingly secured the possession of the family estates. The eldest
+married M. de Cahuzac, and the youngest, who was taken as a babe from
+her mother's breast, married M. de St. Sardos; and the descendants of
+the latter still possess La Boissonade, which exists as an old chateau
+near Montauban.
+
+It was left for Jacob de Pechels, the only son of Samuel de Pechels
+and his wife, the Marquise de Sabonnieres, to build up the family
+fortunes in England. Following the military instincts of the French,
+he entered the English army at an early age. His name was entered
+"Pechell" in his War Office commission. Probably this change of name
+originated in the disposition of the naturalised Huguenots to adopt
+names of an English sound rather than to retain their French names.
+Numerous instances of this have already been given.[90] Jacob Pechell
+was a gallant officer. He rose in the army, step by step. He fought
+through the wars in the Low Countries, under Marlborough and Ligonier,
+the latter being a Huguenot like himself. He rose through the various
+grades of ensign, lieutenant, captain, and major, until he attained
+the rank of colonel of the 16th regiment. Colonel Pechell married an
+Irish heiress, Jane Elizabeth Boyd, descended from the Earls of
+Kilmarnock. By her he had three sons and a daughter. Samuel, the
+eldest, studied law, and became a Master in Chancery. George and Paul
+obedient to their military instincts, entered the army, and became
+distinguished officers. George was killed at Carthagena, and it was
+left for Paul to maintain the fortunes of the family.
+
+         [Footnote 90: In "The Huguenots in England and Ireland," 319,
+         323, last edition.]
+
+In those days the exiled Huguenots and their descendants lived very
+much together. They married into each other's families. The richer
+helped the poorer. There were distinguished French social circles,
+where, though their country was forbidden them, they delighted to
+speak in their own language. Like many others, the Pechells
+intermarried with Huguenot families. Thus Samuel Pechell married the
+daughter of Francois Gaultier, Esq., and his sister Mary married
+Brigadier-General Cailland, of Aston Rowant.
+
+Among the distinguished French nobles in London was the Marquis de
+Montandre, descended from the De la Rochefoucaulds, one of the
+greatest families in France. De Montandre was a field-marshal in the
+English army, having rendered important services in the Spanish war.
+His wife was daughter of Baron de Spanheim, Ambassador Extraordinary
+for the King of Prussia, and descended from another Protestant
+refugee. The field-marshal left his fortune to his wife, and when she
+died, she left Samuel Pechell, Master in Chancery, her sole executor
+and residuary legatee. The sum of money to which he became entitled on
+her decease amounted to upwards of L40,000. But Mr. Pechell, from a
+highly sensitive conscience--such as is rarely equalled--did not feel
+himself perfectly justified in acquiring so large a fortune until he
+knew that there were no relations of the testatrix in existence, whose
+claim to inherit the property might be greater than his own. He
+therefore collected all her effects, and put them into Chancery, in
+order that those who could make good their claims by kindred to the
+Marchioness might do so before the Chancellor. Accordingly, one family
+from Berlin and another from Geneva appeared, and claimed, and
+obtained the inheritance. These relations, in acknowledgment of the
+kindness and honesty of Mr. Pechell, resolved on presenting him with a
+set of Sevres china, which was at that time beyond all price in value.
+It could only be had as a great favour from the manufactory at Sevres,
+and was only purchased by, or presented to, crowned heads.[91]
+
+         [Footnote 91: This china is now at Castle Goring, and, with
+         the whole of the family documents, is in the possession of
+         the Dowager Lady Burrell.]
+
+Paul Pechell, who had entered the army, became a distinguished
+officer, and rose to the rank of general. In 1797 he was created a
+baronet, and married Mary, the only daughter and heiress of Thomas
+Brooke, Esq., of Pagglesham, Essex. His eldest son, Sir Thomas, was a
+major-general in the army, and was for some time M.P. for Downton. The
+second son, Augustus, was appointed Receiver-General of the Post
+Office in 1785, and of the Customs in 1790. Many of his descendants
+still survive, and the baronetcy reverted to his second son. He was
+succeeded by his two sons, one of whom became rear-admiral, and the
+other vice-admiral. The latter, Sir George Richard Brooke Pechell,
+entered the Royal Navy in 1803, and served with distinction in several
+engagements. After the peace, he represented the important borough of
+Brighton in Parliament for twenty-four years. He married the daughter
+and coheir of Cecil, Lord Zouche, and added Castle Goring to part of
+the ancient possessions of the Bisshopp family, which she inherited at
+her father's death.
+
+William Cecil Pechell, the only son of Sir George, again following the
+military instincts of his race, entered the army, and became captain
+of the 77th regiment, with which he served during the Crimean war. He
+fell leading on his men to repel an attack made by the Russians on the
+advanced trenches before Sebastopol, on the 3rd of September, 1855. He
+was beloved and deeply lamented by all who knew him; and sorrow at his
+loss was expressed by the Queen, by the Commander-in-Chief, by the
+whole of the light division, and by the mayor and principal
+inhabitants of Brighton. A statue of Captain Pechell, by Noble, was
+erected by public subscription, and now stands in the Pavilion at
+Brighton.
+
+
+
+
+II.
+
+CAPTAIN RAPIN,
+
+AUTHOR OF THE "HISTORY OF ENGLAND."
+
+
+When Louis XIV. revoked the Edict of Nantes, he expelled from France
+nearly all his subjects who would not conform to the Roman Catholic
+religion. He drove out the manufacturers, who were for the most part
+Protestants, and thus destroyed the manufacturing supremacy of France.
+He expelled Protestants of every class--advocates, judges, doctors,
+artists, scientists, teachers, and professors. And, last of all, he
+expelled the Protestant soldiers and sailors.
+
+According to Vauban, 12,000 tried soldiers, 9,000 sailors, and 600
+officers left France, and entered into foreign service. Some went to
+England, some to Holland, and some to Prussia. Those who took refuge
+in Holland entered the service of William, Prince of Orange. Most of
+them accompanied him to Torbay in 1688. They fought against the armies
+of Louis XIV. at the Boyne, at Athlone, and at Aughrim, and finally
+drove the French out of Ireland.
+
+The sailors also did good service under the flags of England and
+Holland. They distinguished themselves at the sea-fight off La Hogue,
+where the English and Dutch fleets annihilated the expedition
+prepared by Louis XIV. for a descent upon England.
+
+The expatriated French soldiers occasionally revisited the country of
+their birth, not as friends, but as enemies. They encountered the
+armies of Louis XIV. in all the battles of the Low Countries. They
+fought at Ramilies, Blenheim, and Malplacquet. A Huguenot engineer
+directed the operations at the siege of Namur, which ended in the
+capture of the fortress. Another Huguenot engineer conducted the
+operations at Lisle, which was also taken by the allied forces. While
+there, a flying party, consisting chiefly of French Huguenots,
+penetrated as far as the neighbourhood of Paris, when they nearly
+succeeded in carrying off the Dauphin.
+
+The Huguenot officers who took refuge in Prussia entered the service
+of Frederick William, Elector of Brandenburg. Some were raised to the
+highest offices in his army. Marshal Schomberg was one of the number.
+But when he found that William of Orange was assembling a large force
+in Holland for the purpose of making a descent upon England, he
+requested leave to join him; and his friend Prince Frederick William,
+though with great regret, at length granted him permission to leave
+the Prussian service.
+
+The subject of the following narrative was a French refugee, who
+entered the service of William of Orange. To find the beginning of his
+ancestry, we must reach far back into history. The Rapins were
+supposed to have been driven from the Campagna of Rome during the
+persecutions of Nero. They took refuge in one of the wildest and most
+picturesque valleys of the Alps. In 1250 we find the Rapins
+established near Saint-Jean de la Maurienne, in Savoy, close upon the
+French frontier. Saint-Jean de la Maurienne was so called because of
+the supposed relic of the bones of St. John the Baptist, which had
+been deposited there by a female pilgrim, Sainte Thecle, who was, it
+is supposed, a Rapin by birth. The fief of Chaudane en Valloires was
+the patrimony of the Rapins, which they long continued to hold. In
+1692 the descendants of the family endeavoured to prove, from the
+numerous titles which they possessed, that they had been nobles for
+eight or nine hundred years.
+
+The home of the Rapins was situated in the country of the Vaudois. In
+1375 the Vaudois descended from their mountains and preached the
+gospel in the valleys of Savoy. The Pope appealed to the King of
+France, who sent an army into the district. The Vaudois were crushed.
+Those who remained fled back to the mountains. Nevertheless the
+Reformed religion spread in the district. An Italian priest, Raphael
+Bordeille, even preached the gospel in the cathedral of Saint-Jean de
+Maurienne. But he was suddenly arrested. He was seized, tried for the
+crime of heresy, and burnt in front of the cathedral on Holy Thursday,
+in Passion Week, 1550.
+
+Though the Rapin family held many high offices in Church and State,
+several of them attached themselves to the Reformed religion. Three
+brothers at length left their home in Savoy, and established
+themselves in France during the reign of Francis I. Without entering
+into their history during the long-continued religious wars which
+devastated the south of France, it may be sufficient to state that two
+of the brothers took an active part under Conde. Antoine de Rapin held
+important commands at Toulouse, at Montauban, at Castres and
+Montpellier. Philibert de Rapin, his younger brother, was one of the
+most valiant and trusted officers of the Reformed party. He was
+selected by the Prince of Conde to carry into Languedoc the treaty of
+peace signed at Longjumeaux on the 20th March, 1568.
+
+Feeling safe under the royal commission, he presented to the
+Parliament at Toulouse the edict with which he was intrusted. He then
+retired to his country house at Grenade, on the outskirts of Toulouse.
+He was there seized like a criminal, brought before the judges, and
+sentenced to be beheaded in three days. The treaty was thus annulled.
+War went on as before. Two years after, the army of Coligny appeared
+before Toulouse. The houses and chateaux of the councillors of
+Parliament were burnt, and on their smoking ruins were affixed the
+significant words, "_Vengeance de Rapin_."
+
+Philibert de Rapin's son Pierre embraced the career of arms almost
+from his boyhood. He served under the Prince of Navarre. He was almost
+as poor as the Prince. One day he asked him for some pistoles to
+replace a horse which had been killed under him in action. The Prince
+replied, "I should like to give you them, but do you see I have only
+three shirts!" Pierre at length became Seigneur and Baron of Manvers,
+though his chateau was destroyed and burnt during his absence with the
+army. Destructions of the same kind were constantly taking place
+throughout the whole of France. But, to the honour of humanity, it
+must be told that when his chateau was last destroyed, the Catholic
+gentlemen of the neighbourhood brought their labourers to the place,
+and tilled and sowed his abandoned fields. When Rapin arrived eight
+months later, he was surprised and gratified to find his estate in
+perfect order. This was a touching proof of the esteem with which this
+Protestant gentleman was held by his Catholic neighbours.
+
+Pierre de Rapin died in 1647 at the age of eighty-nine. He left
+twenty-two children by his second wife. His eldest son Jean succeeded
+to the estate of Manvers and to the title of baron. Like his father,
+he was a soldier. He first served under the Prince of Orange, who was
+then a French prince, head of the principality of Orange. He served
+under the King of France in the war with Spain. He was a frank and
+loyal soldier, yet firmly attached to the faith of his fathers. He
+belonged to the old Huguenot phalanx, who, as the Duke de Mayenne
+said, "were always ready for death, from father to son." After the
+wars were over, he gave up the sword for the plough. His chateau was
+in ruins, and he had to live in a very humble way until his fortunes
+were restored. He used to say that his riches consisted in his four
+sons, who were all worthy of the name they bore.
+
+Jacques de Rapin, Seigneur de Thoyras, was the second son of Pierre de
+Rapin. Thoyras was a little hamlet near Grenade, adjacent to the
+baronial estate of Manvers. Jacques studied the law. He became an
+advocate, and practised with success, for about fifty years, at
+Castres and other cities and towns in the south of France. When the
+Edict of Nantes was revoked, the Protestants were no longer permitted
+to practise the law, and he was compelled to resign his profession. He
+died shortly after, but the authorities would not even allow his
+corpse to be buried in the family vault. They demolished his place of
+interment, and threw his body into a ditch by the side of the road.
+
+In the meantime Paul de Rapin, son of Jean, Baron de Manvers, had
+married the eldest daughter of Jacques, Seigneur de Thoyras. Paul,
+like many of his ancestors, entered the army. He served with
+distinction under the Duke of Luxembourg in Holland, Flanders, and
+Italy, yet he never rose above the rank of captain. On his death in
+1685, his widow and two daughters (being Protestants) were apprehended
+in their chateau at Manvers, and incarcerated in convents at
+Montpellier and Toulouse. Her sons were also taken away, and placed in
+other convents. They were only liberated after five years'
+confinement.
+
+Madame de Rapin then resolved to quit France entirely. She contrived
+to reach Holland, and established her family at Utrecht. Her
+brother-in-law, Daniel de Rapin, had already escaped from France, and
+achieved the position of colonel in the Dutch service.
+
+Raoul de Cazenove, the author of "Rapin-Thoyras, sa Famille, sa Vie,
+et ses OEuvres," says, "The women of the house of Rapin distinguished
+themselves more than once by like courage. Strengthened and fortified
+by persecutions, the Reformed were willing to die in exile, far from
+their beloved children who had been violently snatched from them, but
+leaving with them a holy heritage of example and of firmness in their
+faith. The pious lessons of their mothers, profoundly engraved on the
+hearts of their daughters, sufficed more than once to save them from
+apostasy, which was rendered all the more easy by the feebleness of
+their youth and the perfidious suggestions by which they were
+surrounded."
+
+We return to Paul de Rapin-Thoyras, second son of Madame de Rapin. He
+was born at Castres in 1661. He received his first lessons at home. He
+learnt the Latin rudiments, but his progress was not such as to
+please his father. He was then sent to the academy at Puylaurens,
+where the Protestant noblesse of the south of France were still
+permitted to send their sons. The celebrated Bayle was educated there.
+But in 1685 the academy of Puylaurens was suppressed, as that of
+Montauban had been a few years before; and then young Rapin was sent
+to Saumur, one of the few remaining schools in France where
+Protestants were allowed to be educated.
+
+Rapin finished his studies and returned home. He wished to enter the
+army, but his father was so much opposed to it, that he at length
+acceded to his desires and commenced the study of the law. He was
+already prepared for being received to the office of advocate, when
+the royal edict was passed which prevented Protestants from practising
+before the courts; and, indeed, prevented them from following any
+profession whatever. Immediately after the death of his father, Paul
+de Rapin, accompanied by his younger brother Solomon, emigrated from
+France and proceeded into England.
+
+It was not without a profound feeling of sadness that Rapin-Thoyras
+left his native country. He left his widowed mother in profound grief,
+arising from the recent death of her husband. She was now exposed to
+persecutions which were bitterer by far than the perils of exile. It
+was at her express wish that Rapin left his native country and
+emigrated to England. And yet it was for France that his fathers had
+shed their blood and laid down their lives. But France now repelled
+the descendants of her noblest sons from her bosom.
+
+Shortly after his arrival in London, Rapin made the acquaintance of
+the Abbe of Denbeck, nephew of the Bishop of Tournay. The Abbe was an
+intimate friend of Rapin's uncle, Pelisson, a man notorious in those
+times for buying up consciences with money. Louis XIV. consecrated to
+this traffic one-third of the benefices which fell to the Crown during
+their vacancy. They were left vacant for the purpose of paying for the
+abjurations of the heretics. Pelisson had the administration of the
+fund. He had been born a Protestant, but he abjured his religion, and
+from a convert he became a converter. Voltaire says of him, in his
+"Siecle de Louis XIV.," "Much more a courtier than a philosopher,
+Pelisson changed his religion and made a fortune."
+
+Pelisson wrote to his friend the Abbe of Denbeck, then in London at
+the court of James II., to look after his nephew Rapin-Thoyras, and
+endeavour to bring him over to the true faith. It is even said that
+Pelisson offered Rapin the priory of Saint-Orens d'Auch if he would
+change his religion. The Abbe did his best. He introduced Rapin to M.
+de Barillon, then ambassador at the English court. James II. was then
+the pensioner of France, and accordingly had many intimate
+transactions with the French ambassador. M. de Barillon received the
+young refugee with great kindness, and, at the recommendation of the
+Abbe and Pelisson, offered to present him to the King. Their object
+was to get Rapin appointed to some public office, and thereby help his
+conversion.
+
+But Rapin fled from the temptation. Though no great theologian, he
+felt it to be wrong to be thus entrapped into a faith which was not
+his own; and without much reasoning about his belief, but merely
+acting from a sense of duty, he left London at once and embarked for
+Holland.
+
+At Utrecht he joined his uncle, Daniel de Rapin, who was in command of
+a company of cadets wholly composed of Huguenot gentlemen and nobles.
+Daniel had left the service of France on the 25th of October, 1685,
+three days after the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes. He was then
+captain of a French regiment in Picardy, but he could no longer,
+without denying his God, serve his country and his King. In fact, he
+was compelled, like all other Protestant officers, to leave France
+unless he would at once conform to the King's faith.
+
+Rapin was admitted to the company of refugee cadets commanded by his
+uncle. He was now twenty-seven years old. His first instincts had been
+military, and now he was about to pursue the profession of arms in his
+adopted country. His first prospects were not brilliant. He was put
+under a course of discipline, his pay amounting to only sixpence a
+day. Indeed, the States-General of Holland were at first unwilling to
+take so large a number of refugee Frenchmen into their service; but on
+the Prince of Orange publicly declaring that he would himself pay the
+expenses of maintaining the military refugees, they hesitated no
+longer, but voted money enough to enrol them in their service.
+
+The Prince of Orange had now a large body of troops at his command. No
+one knew for what purpose they were enrolled. Some thought they were
+intended for an attack upon France in revenge for Louis' devastation
+of Holland a few years before. James II. never dreamt that they were
+intended for a descent upon the coasts of England. Yet he was rapidly
+alienating the loyalty of his subjects by hypocrisy, by infidelity to
+the laws of England, and by unmitigated persecution of those who
+differed from him in religious belief. In this state of affairs
+England looked to the Prince of Orange for help.
+
+William III. was doubly related to the royal family of England. He was
+nephew of Charles I. and son-in-law of James II. His wife was the
+heiress-presumptive to the British throne. Above all, he was a
+Protestant, while James II. was a Roman Catholic. "Here," said the
+Archbishop of Rheims of the latter, "is a good sort of man who has
+lost his three kingdoms for a mass!"
+
+William was at length ready with his troops. Louis XIV. suddenly
+withdrew his army from Flanders and poured them into Germany. William
+seized the opportunity. A fleet of more than six hundred vessels,
+including fifty men-of-war, assembled at Helvoetsluys, near the mouth
+of the Maas. The troops were embarked with great celerity. William
+hoisted his flag with the words emblazoned on it, "The Protestant
+Religion and Liberties of England," and underneath the motto of the
+House of Nassau, _Je maintiendra_--"I will maintain."
+
+The fleet set sail on the 19th October, the English Admiral Herbert
+leading the van, the Prince of Orange commanding the main body of the
+fleet, and the Dutch Vice-Admiral Evertzen bringing up the rear.
+
+The wind was fair. It was the "Protestant wind" that the people of
+England had so long been looking for. In a few hours the strong
+eastern breeze had driven the fleet half across the sea that divides
+the Dutch and English coasts. Then the wind changed. It began to blow
+from the west. The wind increased until it blew a violent tempest. The
+fleet seemed to be in the midst of a cyclone. The ships were blown
+hither and thither, so that in less than two hours the fleet was
+completely dispersed. At daybreak next morning scarce two ships could
+be seen together.
+
+The several ships returned to their rendez-vous at Goeree, in the
+Maas. They returned in a miserable condition--some with their sails
+blown away, some without their bulwarks, some without their masts.
+Many ships were still missing. The horses had suffered severely. They
+had been stowed away in the holds and driven against each other during
+the storm. Many had been suffocated, others had their legs broken, and
+had to be killed when the vessels reached the shore. The banks at
+Goeree were covered with dead horses taken from the ships. Four
+hundred had been lost.
+
+Rapin de Thoyras and M. de Chavernay, commanding two companies of
+French Huguenots, were on board one of the missing ships. The
+frightful tempest had separated them from the fleet. They had been
+driven before the wind as far as the coast of Norway. They thought
+that each moment might be their last. But the sailors were brave, and
+the ship was manageable. After enduring a week's storm the wind at
+last abated. The ship was tacked, and winged its way towards the
+south. At length, after about eight days' absence, they rejoined the
+fleet, which had again assembled in the Maas. There were now only two
+vessels missing, containing four companies of the Holstein regiment,
+and about sixty French Huguenot officers.
+
+In the meantime the Prince of Orange had caused all the damages in the
+combined fleet to be repaired. New horses were embarked, new men were
+added to the army, and new ships were hired for the purpose of
+accommodating them. The men-of-war were also increased. After eleven
+days the fleet was prepared to put to sea again.
+
+On the 1st of November, 1688, the armament started on its second
+voyage for the English coast. The fleet at first steered northward,
+and it was thought to be the Prince's intention to land at the mouth
+of the Humber. But a violent east wind having begun to blow during the
+night, the fleet steered towards the south-eastern coast of England;
+after which the ships shortened sail for fear of accidents.
+
+The same wind that blew the English and Dutch fleet towards the
+Channel, had the effect of keeping King James's fleet in the Thames,
+where they remained anchored at Gunfleet, sixty-one men-of-war, under
+command of Admiral Lord Dartmouth.
+
+On the 3rd of November, the fleet under the Prince of Orange entered
+the English Channel, and lay between Calais and Dover to wait for the
+ships that were behind. "It is easy," says Rapin Thoyras, "to imagine
+what a glorious show the fleet made. Five or six hundred ships in so
+narrow a channel, and both the English and French shores covered with
+numberless spectators, are no common sight. For my part, who was then
+on board the fleet, I own it struck me extremely."
+
+Sunday, the 4th of November, was the Prince's birthday, and it was
+dedicated to devotion. The fleet was then off the Isle of Wight. Sail
+was slackened during the performance of divine service. The fleet then
+sped on its way down-channel, in order that the troops might be landed
+at Dartmouth or Torbay; but during the night the wind freshened, and
+the fleet was carried beyond the desired ports. Soon after, however,
+the wind changed to the south, when the fleet tacked in splendid
+order, and made for the shore in Torbay. The landing was effected with
+such diligence and tranquillity that the whole army was on shore
+before night.
+
+There was no opposition to the landing. King James's army greatly
+outnumbered that of the Prince of Orange. It amounted to about forty
+thousand troops, exclusive of the militia. But the King's forces had
+been sent northward to resist the anticipated landing of the
+delivering army at the mouth of the Humber, so that the south-west of
+England was nearly stripped of troops.
+
+Nor could the King depend upon his forces. The King had already
+outraged and insulted the gallant noblemen and gentlemen who had
+heretofore been the bulwark of his throne. He had imprisoned the
+bishops, dismissed Protestant clergymen from their livings, refused to
+summon a Parliament, and caused terror and dismay throughout England
+and Scotland. He had created discontent throughout the army by his
+dismissal of Protestant officers, and the King now began to fear that
+the common soldiers themselves would fail to serve him in his time of
+need.
+
+His fears proved prophetic. When the army of the Prince of Orange
+advanced from Brixton (where it had landed) to Exeter, and afterwards
+to Salisbury and London, it was joined by noblemen, gentlemen,
+officers, and soldiers. Lord Churchill, afterwards Duke of
+Marlborough, Lord Cornbury, with four regiments of dragoons, passed
+over to the Prince of Orange. The Prince of Denmark, the King's
+son-in-law, deserted him. His councillors abandoned him. His
+mistresses left him. The country was up against him. At length the
+King saw no remedy before him but a precipitate flight.
+
+The account given by Rapin of James's departure from England is
+somewhat ludicrous. The Queen went first. On the night between the 9th
+and 10th of December she crossed the Thames in disguise. She waited
+under the walls of a church at Lambeth until a coach could be got
+ready for her at the nearest inn. She went from thence to Gravesend,
+where she embarked with the Prince of Wales on a small vessel, which
+conveyed them safely to France. The King set out on the following
+night. He entered a small boat at Whitehall, dressed in a plain suit
+and a bob wig, accompanied by a few friends. He threw the Great Seal
+into the water, from whence it was afterwards dragged up by a
+fisherman's net. Before he left, he gave the Earl of Feversham orders
+to disband the army without pay, in order, probably, to create anarchy
+after his flight.
+
+James reached the south shore of the Thames. He travelled, with relays
+of horses, to Emley Ferry, near the Island of Sheppey. He went on
+board the little vessel that was to convey him to a French frigate
+lying in the mouth of the Thames ready to transport him to France. The
+wind blew strong, and the vessel was unable to sail.
+
+The fishermen of the neighbourhood boarded the vessel in which the
+King was. They took him for the chaplain of Sir Edward Hales, one of
+his attendants. They searched the King, and found upon him four
+hundred guineas and several valuable seals and jewels, which they
+seized. A constable was present who knew the King, and he ordered
+restitution of the valuables which had been taken from him. The King
+wished to be gone, but the people by a sort of violence conducted him
+to a public inn in the town of Feversham. He then sent for the Earl of
+Winchelsea, Lord-Lieutenant of the county, who prevailed upon him not
+to leave the kingdom, but to return to London.
+
+And to London he went. The Prince of Orange was by this time at
+Windsor. On the King's arrival in London he was received with
+acclamations, as if he had returned from victory. He resumed
+possession of his palace. He published a proclamation, announcing that
+having been given to understand that divers outrages had been
+committed in various parts of the kingdom, by burning, pulling down,
+and defacing of houses, he commanded all lord-lieutenants, &c., to
+prevent such outrages for the future, and suppress all riotous
+assemblies.
+
+This was his last public act. He was without an army. He had few
+friends. The Dutch Guards arrived in London, and took possession of
+St. James's and Whitehall. The Prince of Orange sent three lords to
+the King to desire his Majesty's departure for Ham--a house belonging
+to the Duchess of Lauderdale; but the King desired them to tell the
+Prince that he wished rather to go to Rochester. The Prince gave his
+consent.
+
+Next morning the King entered his barge, accompanied by four earls,
+six of the Yeomen of his Guard, and about a hundred of the Dutch
+Guard, commanded by a colonel of the regiment. They arrived at
+Gravesend, where the King entered his coach, and proceeded across the
+country to Rochester.
+
+In the meantime, Barillon, the French ambassador, was requested to
+leave England. St. Ledger, a French refugee, was requested to attend
+him and see him embark. While they were on the road St. Ledger could
+not forbear saying to the ambassador, "Sir, had any one told you a
+year ago that a French refugee should be commissioned to see you out
+of England, would you have believed it?" To which the ambassador
+answered, "Sir, cross over with me to Calais, and I will give you an
+answer."
+
+Shortly after, James embarked in a small French ship, which landed him
+safely at Ambleteuse, a few miles north of Boulogne; while the army of
+William marched into London amidst loud congratulations, and William
+himself took possession of the Palace of St. James's, which the
+recreant King had left for his occupation.
+
+James II. fled from England at the end of December, 1688. Louis XIV.
+received him courteously, and entertained him and his family at St.
+Germain and Versailles. But he could scarcely entertain much regard
+for the abdicated monarch. James had left his kingdom in an
+ignominious manner. Though he was at the head of a great fleet and
+army, he had not struck a single blow in defence of his kingly rights
+And now he had come to the court of Louis XIV. to beg for the
+assistance of a French fleet and army to recover his throne.
+
+Though England had rejected James, Ireland was still in his favour.
+The Lord-Deputy Tyrconnel was devoted to him; and the Irish people,
+excepting those of the north, were ready to fight for him. About a
+hundred thousand Irishmen were in arms. Half were soldiers; the rest
+were undrilled Rapparees. James was urged by messengers from Ireland
+to take advantage of this state of affairs. He accordingly begged
+Louis XIV. to send a French army with him into Ireland to help him to
+recover his kingdom.
+
+But the French monarch, who saw before him the prospect of a
+continental war, was unwilling to send a large body of troops out of
+his kingdom. But he did what he could.
+
+He ordered the Brest fleet to be ready. He put on board arms and
+ammunition for ten thousand men. He selected four hundred French
+officers for the purpose of disciplining the Irish levies. Count
+Rosen, a veteran warrior, was placed in command. Over a hundred
+thousand pounds of money was also put on board. When the fleet was
+ready to sail, James took leave of his patron, Louis XIV. "The best
+thing that I can wish you," said the French king, "is that I may never
+see you again in this world."
+
+The fleet sailed from Brest on the 7th of March, 1689, and reached
+Kinsale, in the south of Ireland, four days later. James II. was
+received with the greatest rejoicing. Next day he went on to Cork; he
+was received by the Earl of Tyrconnel, who caused one of the
+magistrates to be executed because he had declared for the Prince of
+Orange.
+
+The news went abroad that the King had landed. He entered Dublin on
+the 24th of March, and was received in a triumphant manner. All Roman
+Catholic Ireland was at his feet. The Protestants in the south were
+disarmed. There was some show of resistance in the north; but no doubt
+was entertained that Enniskillen and Derry, where the Protestants had
+taken refuge, would soon be captured and Protestantism crushed.
+
+The Prince of Orange, who had now been proclaimed King at Westminster,
+found that he must fight for his throne, and that Ireland was to be
+the battle-field. Londonderry was crowded with Protestants, who held
+out for William III. James believed that the place would fall without
+a blow. Count Rosen was of the same opinion. The Irish army proceeded
+northwards without resistance. The country, as far as the walls of
+Derry, was found abandoned by the population. Everything valuable had
+been destroyed by bands of Rapparees. There was great want of food for
+the army.
+
+Nevertheless, James proceeded as far as Derry. Confident of success,
+he approached within a hundred yards of the southern gate, when he was
+received with a shout of "No surrender!" The cannon were fired from
+the nearest bastion. One of James's officers was killed by his side.
+Then he fled. A few days later he was on his way to Dublin,
+accompanied by Count Rosen.
+
+Londonderry, after an heroic contest, was at length relieved. A fleet
+from England, laden with food, broke the boom which had been thrown by
+the Irish army across the entrance to the harbour. The ships reached
+the quay at ten o'clock at night. The whole population were there to
+receive them. The food was unloaded, and the famished people were at
+length fed. Three days after, the Irish army burnt their huts, and
+left the long-beleaguered city. They retreated along the left bunk of
+the Boyne to Strabane.
+
+While the Irish forces were lying there, the news of another disaster
+reached them. The Duke of Berwick lay with a strong detachment of
+Irish troops before Enniskillen. He had already gained some advantage
+over the Protestant colonists, and the command reached him from Dublin
+that he was immediately to attack them. The Irish were five thousand
+in number; the Enniskilleners under three thousand.
+
+An engagement took place at Newton Butler. The Enniskillen horse swept
+the Irish troops before them. Fifteen hundred were put to the sword,
+and four hundred prisoners were taken. Seven pieces of cannon,
+fourteen barrels of powder, and all the drums and colours were left in
+the hands of the victors. The Irish army were then at Strabane, on
+their retreat from Londonderry. They at once struck their tents, threw
+their military stores into the river, and set out in full retreat for
+the south.
+
+In the meantime a French fleet had landed at Bantry Bay, with three
+thousand men on board, and a large convoy of ammunition and
+provisions. William III., on his part, determined, with the consent of
+the English Parliament, to send a force into Ireland to encounter the
+French and Irish forces under King James.
+
+William's troops consisted of English, Scotch, Dutch, and Danes, with
+a large admixture of French Huguenots. There were a regiment of
+Huguenot horse, of eight companies, commanded by the Duke of
+Schomberg, and three regiments of Huguenot foot, commanded by La
+Melloniere, Du Cambon, and La Caillemotte. Schomberg, the old Huguenot
+chief, was put in command of the entire force.
+
+Rapin accompanied the expedition as a cadet. The army assembled at
+Highlake, about sixteen miles from Chester. About ninety vessels of
+all sorts were assembled near the mouth of the Dee. Part of the army
+was embarked on the 12th of August, and set sail for Ireland. About
+ten thousand men, horse and foot, were landed at Bangor, near the
+southern entrance to Belfast Lough. Parties were sent out to scour the
+adjacent country, and to feel for the enemy. This done, the army set
+out for Belfast.
+
+James's forces had abandoned the place, and retired to Carrickfergus,
+some ten miles from Belfast, on the north coast of the Lough.
+Carrickfergus was a fortified town. The castle occupies a strong
+position on a rock overlooking the Lough. The place formed a depot for
+James's troops, and Schomberg therefore determined to besiege the
+fortress.
+
+Rapin has written an account of William's campaigns in England and
+Ireland; but with becoming modesty he says nothing about his own
+achievements. We must therefore supply the deficiency. Before the
+siege of Carrickfergus, he had been appointed ensign in Lord
+Kingston's regiment. He was helped to this office by his uncle Daniel,
+who accompanied the expedition. Several regiments of Schomberg's army
+were detached from Belfast to Carrickfergus, to commence the siege.
+Among these was Lord Kingston's regiment.
+
+On their approach, the enemy beat a parley. They desired to march out
+with arms and baggage. Schomberg refused, and the siege began. The
+trenches were opened, the batteries were raised, and the cannon
+thundered against the walls of the old town. Several breaches were
+made. The attacks were pursued with great vigour for four days, when a
+general assault was made. The besieged hoisted the white flag. After a
+parley, it was arranged that the Irish should surrender the place, and
+march out with their arms, and as much baggage as they could carry on
+their backs.
+
+Carrickfergus was not taken without considerable loss to the
+besiegers. Lieutenant Briset, of the Flemish Guards, was killed by the
+first shot fired from the castle. The Marquis de Venours was also
+killed while leading the Huguenot regiments to the breach. Rapin
+distinguished himself so much during the siege that he was promoted
+to the rank of lieutenant. He was at the same time transferred to
+another regiment, and served under Lieutenant-General Douglas during
+the rest of the campaign.
+
+More troops having arrived from England, Schomberg marched with his
+augmented army to Lisburn, Drummore, and Loughbrickland. Here the
+Enniskillen Horse joined them, and offered to be the advanced guard of
+the army. The Enniskilleners were a body of irregular horsemen, of
+singularly wild and uncouth appearance. They rode together in a
+confused body, each man being attended by a mounted servant, bearing
+his baggage. The horsemen were each mounted and accoutred after their
+own fashion, without any regular dress, or arms, or mode of attack.
+They only assumed a hasty and confused line when about to rush into
+action. They fell on pell-mell. Yet they were the bravest of the
+brave, and were never deterred from attacking by inequality of
+numbers. They were attended by their favourite preachers, who urged
+them on to deeds of valour, and encouraged them "to purge the land of
+idolatry."
+
+Thus reinforced, Schomberg pushed on to Newry. The Irish were in force
+there, under command of the Duke of Berwick. But although it was a
+very strong place, the Irish abandoned the town, first setting fire to
+it. This news having been brought to Schomberg, he sent a trumpet to
+the Duke of Berwick, acquainting him that if they went on to burn
+towns in that barbarous manner, he would give no quarter. This notice
+seems to have had a good effect, for on quitting Dundalk the
+retreating army did no harm to the town. Schomberg encamped about a
+mile north of Dundalk, in a low, moist ground, where he entrenched his
+army. Count Rosen was then at Drogheda with about twenty thousand
+men, far outnumbering the forces under Schomberg.
+
+About the end of September, King James's army approached the lines of
+Dundalk. They drew up in order of battle. The English officers were
+for attacking the enemy, but Schomberg advised them to refrain. A
+large party of horse appeared within cannon shot, but they made no
+further attempt. In a day or two after James drew off his army to
+Ardee, Count Rosen indignantly exclaiming, "If your Majesty had ten
+kingdoms, you would lose them all." In the meantime, Schomberg
+remained entrenched in his camp. The Enniskilleners nevertheless made
+various excursions, and routed a body of James's troops marching
+towards Sligo.
+
+Great distress fell upon Schomberg's army. The marshy land on which
+they were encamped, the wet and drizzly weather, the scarcity and
+badness of the food, caused a raging sickness to break out. Great
+numbers were swept away by disease. Among the officers who died were
+Sir Edward Deering, of Kent; Colonel Wharton, son of Lord Wharton; Sir
+Thomas Gower and Colonel Hungerford, two young gentlemen of
+distinguished merit. Two thousand soldiers died in the camp. Many
+afterwards perished from cold and hunger. Schomberg at length left the
+camp at Dundalk, and the remains of his army went into winter
+quarters.
+
+Rapin shared all the suffering of the campaign. When the army
+retreated northward, Rapin was sent with a party of soldiers to occupy
+a fortified place between Stranorlar and Donegal. It commanded the
+Pass of Barnes Gap. This is perhaps the most magnificent defile in
+Ireland. It is about four miles long. Huge mountains rise on either
+side. The fortalice occupied by Rapin is now in ruins. It stands on a
+height overlooking the northern end of the pass. It is now called
+Barrack Hill. The Rapparees who lived at the lower end of the Gap were
+accustomed to come down upon the farming population of the lowland
+country on the banks of the rivers Finn and Mourne, and carry off all
+the cattle that they could seize; Rapin was accordingly sent with a
+body of troops to defend the lowland farmers from the Rapparees.
+Besides, it was found necessary to defend the pass against the forces
+of King James, who then occupied Sligo and the neighbouring towns,
+under the command of General Sarsfield.
+
+Schomberg was very much blamed by the English Parliament for having
+effected nothing decisive in Ireland. But what could he do? He had to
+oppose an army more than three times stronger in numbers than his own.
+King William, Rapin says, wrote twice to him, "pressing him to put
+somewhat to the venture." But his army was wasted by disease, and had
+he volunteered an encounter and been defeated, his whole army, and
+consequently all Ireland, would have been lost, for he could not have
+made a regular retreat. "His sure way," says Rapin, "was to preserve
+his army, and that would save Ulster and keep matters entire for
+another year. And therefore, though this conduct of his was blamed by
+some, yet better judges thought that the managing of this campaign as
+he did was one of the greatest parts of his life."
+
+Winter passed. Nothing decisive had been accomplished on either side.
+Part of Ulster was in the hands of William; the remainder of Ireland
+was in the hands of James. Schomberg's army was wasted by famine and
+disease. James made no use of his opportunity to convert his athletic
+peasants into good soldiers. On the contrary, Schomberg recruited his
+old regiments, drilled them constantly, and was ready to take the
+field at the approach of spring.
+
+His first achievement was the capture of Charlemont, midway between
+Armagh and Dungannon. It was one of the strongest forts in the north
+of Ireland. It overlooked the Blackwater, and commanded an important
+pass. It was surrounded by a morass, and approachable only by two
+narrow causeways. When Teague O'Regan, who commanded the fort, was
+summoned to surrender, he replied, "Schomberg is an old rogue, and
+shall not have this castle!" But Caillemotte, with his Huguenot
+regiments, sat down before the fortress, and starved the garrison into
+submission. Captain Francis Rapin, cousin of our hero, was killed
+during the siege.
+
+The armies on both sides were now receiving reinforcements. Louis XIV.
+sent seven thousand two hundred and ninety men of all ranks to the
+help of James, under the command of Count Lauzun. They landed at Cork
+in March, 1689, and marched at once to Dublin. Lauzun described the
+country as a chaos such as he had read of in the Book of Genesis. On
+his arrival at Dublin, Lauzun was appointed Commander-in-Chief of the
+Irish army, and took up his residence in the castle.
+
+On the other hand, Schomberg's forces were recruited by seven thousand
+Danes, under a treaty which William III. had entered into with the
+King of Denmark. New detachments of English and Scotch, of Huguenots,
+Dutch, Flemings, and Brandenburgers, were also added to the allied
+army.
+
+William landed at Carrickfergus on the 14th of June. He passed on to
+Belfast, where he met Schomberg, the Prince of Wurtemberg,
+Major-General Kirk, and other general officers. He then pushed on to
+Lisburn, the head-quarters of his army. He there declared that he
+would not let the grass grow under his feet, but would pursue the war
+with the utmost vigour. He ordered the whole army to assemble at
+Loughbrickland. He found them to consist of sixty-two squadrons of
+cavalry and fifty-two battalions of infantry--in all, thirty-six
+thousand English, Dutch, French, Danes, and Germans, well appointed in
+every respect. Lieutenant-General Douglas commanded the
+advance-guard--to which Rapin belonged--and William III., Schomberg,
+and St. Gravenmore commanded the main body.
+
+William III. had no hesitation in entering at once on the campaign. He
+had been kept too long in London by parliamentary turmoil, by
+intrigues between Whigs and Tories, and sometimes by treachery on both
+sides. But now that he was in the field his spirits returned, and he
+determined to lose not a day in measuring swords with his enemy. He
+had very little time to spare. He must lose or win his crown; though
+his determination was to win. Accordingly he marched southward without
+delay.
+
+William had been in Ireland six days before James knew of his arrival.
+The passes between Newry and Dundalk had been left unguarded--passes
+where a small body of well-disciplined troops might easily have
+checked the advance of William's army. Dundalk was abandoned. Ardee
+was abandoned. The Irish army were drawn up in a strong position on
+the south of the Boyne to arrest the progress of the invading army.
+James had all the advantages that nature could give him. He had a deep
+river in front, a morass on his left, and the narrow bridge of Slane
+on his right. Behind was a rising ground stretching along the whole of
+the field. In the rear lay the church and village of Donore, and the
+Pass of Duleek. Drogheda lay towards the mouth of the river, where the
+green and white flags of Ireland and France were flying, emblazoned
+with the harp and the lilies.
+
+William never halted until he reached the summit of a rising ground
+overlooking the beautiful valley of the Boyne. It is about the most
+fertile ground in Ireland. As he looked from east to west, William
+said to one of his staff, "Behold a land worth fighting for!" Rapin
+was there, and has told the story of the crossing of the Boyne. He
+says that the forces of King James, lying on the other side of the
+river, amounted to about the same number as those under King William.
+They included more than seven thousand veteran French soldiers. There
+was a splendid body of Irish horse, and about twenty thousand Irish
+foot.
+
+James's officers were opposed to a battle; they wished to wait for the
+large fleet and the additional forces promised by Louis XIV. But James
+resolved to maintain his position, and thought that he might have one
+fair battle for his crown. "But," says Rapin, "notwithstanding all his
+advantages--the deep river in front, the morass on his right, and the
+rising ground behind him--he ordered a ship to be prepared for him at
+Waterford, that in case of a defeat he might secure his retreat to
+France."
+
+On the morning of the 30th of June, William ordered his whole army to
+move by break of day by three lines towards the river, about three
+miles distant. The King marched in front. By nine o'clock they were
+within two miles of Drogheda. Observing a hill east of the enemy, the
+King rode up to view the enemy's camp. He found it to lie all along
+the river in two lines. Here he had a long consultation with his
+leading officers. He then rode to the pass at Old Bridge, within
+musket-shot of the ford; next he rode westward, so as to take a full
+view of the enemy's camp. He fixed the place where his batteries were
+to be planted, and decided upon the spot where his army was to cross
+the river on the following day.
+
+The Irish on the other side of the river had not been unobservant of
+the King's movements. They could see him riding up and down the banks,
+for they were not sixty yards apart. The Duke of Berwick, the Viceroy
+Tyrconnel, General Sarsfield, and other officers were carefully
+watching his movements. While the army was marching up the river-side,
+William dismounted and sat down upon a rising ground to partake of
+some refreshments, for he had been on horseback since early dawn.
+During this time a party of Irish horse on the other side brought
+forward two field-pieces through a ploughed field, and planted them
+behind a hedge. They took their sight and fired. The first shot killed
+a man and two horses close by the King. William immediately mounted
+his horse. The second gun was not so well aimed. The shot struck the
+water, but rising _en ricochet_, it slanted on the King's right
+shoulder, took a piece out of his coat, and tore the skin and the
+flesh. William rode away stooping in his saddle. The Earl of Coningsby
+put a handkerchief over the wound, but William said "there was no
+necessity, the bullet should have come nearer."
+
+The enemy, seeing the discomfiture of the King's party, and that he
+rode away wounded, spread abroad the news that he was killed. "They
+immediately," says Rapin, "set up a shout all over their camp, and
+drew down several squadrons of their horse upon a plain towards the
+river, as if they meant to pass and pursue the English army. Nay, the
+report of the King's death flew presently to Dublin, and from thence
+spread as far as Paris, where the people were encouraged to express
+their joy by bonfires and illuminations." In the meantime William
+returned to his tent, where he had his wound dressed, and again
+mounted and showed himself to the whole army, in order to dissipate
+their apprehensions. He remained on horseback until nine at night,
+though he had been up since one o'clock in the morning.
+
+William then called a council of war, and declared his resolution of
+forcing the river next day. Schomberg opposed this, but finding the
+King determined, he urged that a strong body of horse and foot should
+be sent to Slane bridge that night, so as to be able to cross the
+bridge and get between the enemy and the Pass of Duleek, which lay
+behind King James's army. This advice, if followed, might perhaps have
+ended the war in one campaign. Such is Rapin's opinion. The proposal
+was, however, rejected; and it was determined to cross the river in
+force on the following morning. William inspected the troops at
+midnight. He rode along the whole army by torchlight, and after giving
+out the password "Westminster," he returned to his tent for a few
+hours' sleep.
+
+The shades of night lay still over that sleeping host. The stars
+looked down in peace on these sixty thousand brethren of the same
+human family, ready to rise with the sun and imbrue their hands in
+each other's blood. Tyrannical factions and warring creeds had set
+them at enmity with each other, and turned the sweetness and joy of
+their nature into gall and bitterness. The night was quiet. The murmur
+of the river fell faintly on the ear. A few trembling lights gleamed
+through the dark from the distant watchtowers of Drogheda. The only
+sounds that rose from the vast host that lay encamped in the valley of
+the Boyne were the challenges of the sentinels to each other as they
+paced their midnight rounds.
+
+The sun rose clear and beautiful. It was the first day of July--a day
+for ever memorable in the history of Ireland as well as England. The
+_generale_ was beat in the camp of William before daybreak, and as
+soon as the sun was up the battle began. Lieutenant-General Douglas
+marched towards the right with six battalions of foot, accompanied by
+Count Schomberg (son of the Marshal) with twenty-four squadrons of
+horse. They crossed the river below the bridge of Slane, and though
+opposed by the Irish, they drove them back and pressed them on towards
+Duleek.
+
+When it was supposed that the left wing had crossed the Boyne, the
+Dutch Blue Guards, beating a march till they reached the river's edge,
+went in eight or ten abreast, the water reaching above their girdles.
+When they had gained the centre of the stream they were saluted with a
+tremendous fire from the Irish foot, protected by the breastworks,
+lanes, and hedges on the farther side of the river. Nevertheless they
+pushed on, formed in two lines, and drove the Irish before them.
+Several Irish battalions were brought to bear upon them, but without
+effect. Then a body of Irish cavalry assailed them, but still they
+held their ground.
+
+William, seeing his troops hardly pressed, sent across two Huguenot
+regiments and one English regiment to their assistance. But a regiment
+of Irish dragoons, at the moment of their reaching the shore, fell
+upon their flank, broke their ranks, and put many of them to the
+sword. Colonel Caillemotte, leader of the Huguenots, received a mortal
+wound. He was laid on a litter and carried to the rear. As he met his
+men coming up to the help of their comrades, he called out, "A la
+gloire, mes enfants! a la gloire!" A squadron of Danish horse forded
+the river, but the Irish dragoons, in one of their dashing charges,
+broke and defeated them, and drove them across the river in great
+confusion.
+
+Duke Schomberg, who was in command of the centre, seeing that the day
+was going against King William, and that the French Huguenots were
+fighting without their leader, crossed the river and put himself at
+their head. Pointing to the Frenchmen in James's ranks, he cried out
+to his men, "Allons, messieurs, voila vos persecuteurs!" The words
+were scarcely out of his mouth when a troop of James's guards,
+returning full speed to their main body, fell furiously upon the Duke
+and inflicted two sword cuts upon his head. The regiment of Cambon
+began at once to fire upon the enemy, but by a miss shot they hit the
+Duke. "They shot the Duke," says Rapin, "through the neck, of which he
+instantly died, and M. Foubert, alighting to receive him, was shot in
+the arm."
+
+The critical moment had arrived. The centre of William's army was in
+confusion. Their leaders, Schomberg and Caillemotte, were killed. The
+men were waiting for orders. They were exposed to the galling fire of
+the Irish infantry and cavalry. King James was in the rear on the hill
+of Dunmore surrounded by his French body-guard. He was looking down
+upon the field of battle, viewing now here, now there. It is even said
+that when he saw the Irish dragoons routing the cavalry and riding
+down the broken infantry of William, he exclaimed, "Spare! oh, spare
+my English subjects!"
+
+The firing had now lasted uninterruptedly for more than an hour, when
+William seized the opportunity of turning the tide of battle against
+his spiritless adversary. Putting himself at the head of the left
+wing, he crossed the Boyne by a dangerous and difficult ford a little
+lower down the river; his cavalry for the most part swimming across
+the tide. The ford had been left unguarded, and the whole soon reached
+the opposite bank in safety. But even there the horse which William
+rode sank in a bog, and he was forced to alight until the horse was
+got out. He was helped to remount, for the wound in his shoulder was
+very painful. So soon as the troops were got into sufficient order,
+William drew his sword, though his wound made it uneasy for him to
+wield it. He then marched on towards the enemy.
+
+When the Irish saw themselves menaced by William's left wing, they
+halted, and retired towards Dunmore. But gaining courage, they faced
+about and fell upon the English horse. They gave way. The King then
+rode up to the Enniskilleners, and asked, "What they would do for
+him?" Not knowing him, the men were about to shoot him, thinking him
+to be one of the enemy. But when their chief officer told them that it
+was the King who wanted their help, they at once declared their
+intention of following him. They marched forward and received the
+enemy's fire. The Dutch troops came up, at the head of whom William
+placed himself. "In this place," says Rapin, "Duke Schomberg's
+regiment of horse, composed of French Protestants, and strengthened by
+an unusual number of officers, behaved with undaunted resolution, like
+men who fought for a nation amongst whom themselves and their friends
+had found shelter against the persecution of France."
+
+Ginckel's troops now arrived on the scene; but they were overpowered
+by the Irish horse, and forced to give way. Sir Albert Cunningham's
+and Colonel Levison's dragoons then came up, and enabled Ginckel's
+troops to rally; and the Irish were driven up the hill, after an
+hour's hard fighting. James's lieutenant-general, Hamilton, was taken
+prisoner and brought before the King. He was asked "Whether the Irish
+would fight any more?" "Yes," he answered; "upon my honour I believe
+they will." The Irish slowly gave way, their dragoons charging again
+and again, to cover the retreat of the foot. At Dunmore they made a
+gallant stand, driving back the troops of William several times. The
+farmstead of Sheephouse was taken and retaken again and again.
+
+At last the Irish troops slowly retreated up the hill. The French
+troops had scarcely been engaged. Sarsfield implored James to put
+himself at their head, and make a last fight for his crown. Six
+thousand fresh men coming into action, when the army of William was
+exhausted by fatigue, might have changed the fortune of the day. But
+James would not face the enemy. He put himself at the head of the
+French troops and Sarsfield's regiment--the first occasion on which he
+had led during the day--and set out for Dublin, leaving the rest of
+his army to shift for themselves.
+
+The Irish army now poured through the Pass of Duleek. They were
+pursued by Count Schomberg at the head of the left wing of William's
+army. The pursuit lasted several miles beyond the village of Duleek,
+when the Count was recalled by express orders of the King. The Irish
+army retreated in good order, and they reached Dublin in safety. James
+was the first to carry thither the news of his defeat. On reaching
+Dublin Castle, he was received by Lady Tyrconnel, the wife of the
+Viceroy. "Madam," said he, "your countrymen can run well." "Not quite
+so well as your Majesty," was her retort, "for I see that you have won
+the race."
+
+The opinion of the Irish soldiers may be understood from their saying,
+after their defeat, "Change generals, and we will fight the battle
+over again." "James had no royal quality about him," says an able
+Catholic historian; "nature had made him a coward, a monk, and a
+gourmand; and, in spite of the freak of fortune that had placed him on
+a throne, and seemed inclined to keep him there, she vindicated her
+authority, and dropped him ultimately in the niche that suited him--
+
+  'The meanest slave of France's despot lord.'"
+
+William halted on the field that James had occupied in the morning.
+The troops remained under arms all night. The loss of life was not so
+great as was expected. On William's side not more than four hundred
+men were killed; but amongst them were Duke Schomberg, Colonel
+Caillemotte, and Dr. George Walker, the defender of Derry. "King
+James's whole loss in this battle," says Rapin, "was generally
+computed at fifteen hundred men, amongst whom were the Lord Dungan,
+the Lord Carlingford, Sir Neil O'Neil, Colonel Fitzgerald, the Marquis
+d'Hocquincourt, and several prisoners, the chief of whom was
+Lieutenant-General Hamilton, who, to do him justice, behaved with
+great courage, and kept the victory doubtful, until he was taken
+prisoner."
+
+On the following day Drogheda surrendered without resistance. The
+garrison laid down their arms, and departed for Athlone. James stayed
+at Dublin for a night, and on the following morning he started for
+Waterford, causing the bridges to be broken down behind him, for fear
+of being pursued by the allied forces. He then embarked on a
+ship-of-war, and was again conveyed to France.
+
+William's army proceeded slowly to Dublin. The Duke of Ormond entered
+the city two days after the battle of the Boyne, at the head of nine
+troops of horse. On the next day the King, with his whole army,
+marched to Finglas, in the neighbourhood of Dublin; and on the 6th of
+July he entered the city, and proceeded to St. Patrick's Church, to
+return thanks for his victory.
+
+The whole of the Irish army proceeded towards Athlone and Limerick,
+intending to carry on the war behind the Shannon. William sent a body
+of his troops, under Lieutenant-General Douglas, to Athlone, while he
+himself proceeded to reduce and occupy the towns of the South. Rapin
+followed his leader, and hence his next appearance at the siege of
+Athlone.
+
+Rapin conducted himself throughout the Irish campaign as a true soldier.
+He was attentive, accurate, skilful, and brave. He did the work he had
+to do without any fuss; but he _did_ it. Lieutenant-General Douglas,
+under whom he served, soon ascertained his merits, saw through his
+character, and became much attached to him. He promoted him to the rank
+of aide-de-camp, so that he might have this able Frenchman continually
+about his person.
+
+Douglas proceeded westward, with six regiments of horse and ten of
+foot, to reduce Athlone. But the place was by far too strong for so
+small a force to besiege, and still less to take it. Athlone had
+always been a stronghold. For centuries the bridge and castle had
+formed the great highway into Connaught. The Irish town is defended on
+the eastern side by the Shannon, a deep and wide river, almost
+impossible to pass in the face of a hostile army.
+
+Douglas summoned the Irish garrison to surrender. Colonel Richard
+Grace, the gallant old governor, returned a passionate defiance.
+"These are my terms," he said, discharging a pistol at the messenger:
+"when my provisions are consumed, I will defend my trust until I have
+eaten my boots."
+
+Abandoning as indefensible the English part of the town, situated on
+the east side of the Shannon, Grace set fire to it, and retired with
+all his forces to the western side, blowing up an arch of the bridge
+behind him. The English then brought up the few cannon they had with
+them, and commenced battering the walls. The Irish had more cannon,
+and defended themselves with vigour. The besiegers made a breach in
+the castle, but it was too high and too small for an assault.
+"Notwithstanding this," says Rapin, "the firing continued very brisk
+on both sides; but the besiegers having lost Mr. Neilson, their best
+gunner, and the cavalry suffering very much for want of forage; and at
+the same time it being reported that Sarsfield was advancing with
+fifteen thousand men to relieve the place, Douglas held a council of
+war, wherein it was thought fit to raise the siege, which he
+accordingly did on the 25th, having lost near four hundred men before
+the town, the greatest part of whom died of sickness."
+
+Thus, after a week's ineffectual siege, Douglas left Athlone, and made
+all haste to rejoin the army of William, which had already reduced the
+most important towns in the south of Ireland. On the 7th of August he
+rejoined William at Cahirconlish, a few miles west of Limerick. The
+flower of the Irish army was assembled at Limerick. The Duke of
+Berwick and General Sarsfield occupied the city with their forces. The
+French general, Boileau, commanded the garrison. The besieged were
+almost as numerous as the besiegers. William, by garrisoning the towns
+of which he took possession, had reduced his forces to about twenty
+thousand men.
+
+Limerick was fortified by walls, batteries, and ramparts. It was also
+defended by a castle and citadel. It had always been a place of great
+strength. The chivalry of the Anglo-Norman monarch, the Ironsides of
+Cromwell, had been defeated under its walls; and now the victorious
+army of William III. was destined to meet with a similar repulse.
+
+Limerick is situated in an extensive plain, watered by the noble
+Shannon. The river surrounds the town on three sides. Like Athlone,
+the city is divided into the English and Irish towns, connected
+together by a bridge. The English town was much the strongest. It was
+built upon an island, surrounded by morasses, which could at any time
+be flooded on the approach of an enemy. The town was well supplied
+with provisions--all Clare and Galway being open to it, from whence
+it could draw supplies.
+
+Notwithstanding the strength of the fortress, William resolved to
+besiege it. He was ill supplied with cannon, having left his heavy
+artillery at Dublin. He had only a field train with him, which was
+quite insufficient for his purpose. William's advance-guards drove the
+Irish outposts before them; the pioneers cutting down the hedges and
+filling up the ditches, until they came to a narrow pass between two
+bogs, where a considerable body of Irish horse and foot were assembled
+to dispute the pass.
+
+Two field-pieces were brought up, which played with such effect upon
+the Irish horse that they soon quitted their post. At the same time
+Colonel Earle, at the head of the English foot, attacked the Irish who
+were firing through the hedges, so that they also retired after two
+hours' fighting. The Irish were driven to the town walls, and
+William's forces took possession of two important positions,
+Cromwell's fort and the old Chapel. The Danes also occupied an old
+Danish fort, built by their ancestors, of which they were not a little
+proud.
+
+The army being thus posted, a trumpeter was sent, on the 9th of
+August, to summon the garrison to surrender. General Boileau answered,
+that he intended to make a vigorous defence of the town with which his
+Majesty had intrusted him. In the meantime, William had ordered up his
+train of artillery from Dublin. They were on their way to join him,
+when a spy from William's camp went over to the enemy, and informed
+them of the route, the motions, and the strength of the convoy.
+Sarsfield at once set out with a strong body of horse. He passed the
+Shannon in the night, nine miles above Limerick, lurked all day in
+the mountains near Ballyneety, and waited for the approach of the
+convoy.
+
+The men of William's artillery, seeing no enemy, turned out their
+horses to graze, and went to sleep in the full sense of security.
+Sarsfield's body of horse came down upon them, slew or dispersed the
+convoy, and took possession of the cannon. Sarsfield could not,
+however, take the prizes into Limerick. He therefore endeavoured to
+destroy them. Cramming the guns with powder up to their muzzles, and
+burying their mouths deep in the earth, then piling the stores,
+waggons, carriages, and baggage over them, he laid a train and fired
+it, just as Sir John Lanier, with a body of cavalry, was arriving to
+rescue the convoy. The explosion was tremendous, and was heard at the
+camp of William, more than seven miles off. Sarsfield's troops
+returned to Limerick in triumph.
+
+Notwithstanding these grievous discouragements, William resolved to
+persevere. He recovered two of the guns, which remained uninjured. He
+obtained others from Waterford. The trenches were opened on the 17th
+of August. A battery was raised below the fort to the right of the
+trenches. Firing went on on both sides. Several redoubts were taken.
+By the 25th, the trenches were advanced to within thirty paces of the
+ditch near St. John's Gate, and a breach was made in the walls about
+twelve yards wide.
+
+The assault was ordered to take place on the 27th. The English
+grenadiers took the lead, supported by a hundred French officers and
+volunteers. The enemy were dislodged from the covered way and the two
+forts which guarded the breach on each side. The assailants entered
+the breach, but they were not sufficiently supported. The Irish
+rallied. They returned to the charge, helped by the women, who pelted
+the besiegers with stones, broken bottles, and such other missiles as
+came readily to hand. A Brandenburg regiment having assailed and taken
+the Black Battery, it was blown up by an explosion, which killed many
+of the men. In fine, the assault was vigorously repulsed; and
+William's troops retreated to the main body, with a loss of six
+hundred men killed on the spot and as many mortally wounded.
+
+Rapin was severely wounded. A musket shot hit him in the shoulder, and
+completely disabled him. His brother Solomon was also wounded. His
+younger brother fell dead by his side. They belonged to the "forlorn
+hope," and were volunteers in the assault on the breach. Rapin was
+raised to the rank of captain.
+
+The siege of Limerick was at once raised. The heavy baggage and cannon
+were sent away on the 30th of August, and the next day the army
+decamped and marched towards Clonmel. The King intrusted the command
+of his army to Lieutenant-General Ginckel, and set sail for England
+from Duncannon Fort, near Waterford, on the 5th of September.
+
+The campaign was not yet over. The Earl of Marlborough landed near
+Cork with four thousand men. Reinforced by four thousand Danes and
+French Huguenots, he shortly succeeded in taking the fortified towns
+of Cork and Kinsale. After garrisoning these places the Earl returned
+to England.
+
+General Ginckel went into winter quarters at Mullingar, in Westmeath.
+The French troops, under command of Count Lauzun, went into Galway.
+Lauzun shortly after returned to France, and St. Ruth was sent over to
+take command of the French and Irish army. But they hung about Galway
+doing nothing. In the meantime Ginckel was carefully preparing for the
+renewal of the campaign. He was reinforced by an excellent body of
+troops from Scotland, commanded by General Mackay. He was also well
+supplied, through the vigilance of William, with all the necessaries
+of war.
+
+Rapin's friend, Colonel Lord Douglas, pressed him to accompany him to
+Flanders as his aide-de-camp; but the wound in his shoulder still
+caused him great pain, and he was forced to decline the appointment.
+Strange to say, his uncle Pelisson--the converter, or rather the
+buyer, of so many Romish converts in France--sent him a present of
+fifty pistoles through his cousin M. de la Bastide, which consoled him
+greatly during his recovery.
+
+General Ginckel broke up his camp at Mullingar at the beginning of
+June, and marched towards Athlone. The Irish had assembled a
+considerable army at Ballymore, about midway between Mullingar and
+Athlone. They had also built a fort there, and intended to dispute the
+passage of Ginckel's army. A sharp engagement took place when his
+forces came up. The Irish were defeated, with the loss of over a
+thousand prisoners and all their baggage.
+
+Ginckel then appeared before Athlone, but the second resistance of the
+besieged was much less successful than the first. St. Ruth, the French
+general, treated the Irish officers and soldiers under his command
+with supercilious contempt. He admitted none of their officers into
+his councils. He was as ignorant of the army which he commanded as of
+the country which he occupied. Nor was he a great general. He had been
+principally occupied in France in hunting and hanging the poor
+Protestants of Dauphiny and the Cevennes. He had never fought a
+pitched battle; and his incapacity led to the defeat of the Irish at
+Athlone, and afterwards at Aughrim.
+
+St. Ruth treated his English adversaries with as much contempt as he
+did his Irish followers. When he heard that the English were about to
+cross the Shannon, he said "it was impossible for them to take the
+town, and be so near with an army to succour it." He added that he
+would give a thousand louis if they _durst_ attempt it. To which
+Sarsfield retorted, "Spare your money and mind your business; for I
+know that no enterprise is too difficult for British courage to
+attempt."
+
+Ginckel took possession of the English town after some resistance,
+when the Irish army retreated to the other side of the Shannon.
+Batteries were planted, pontoons were brought up, and the siege began
+with vigour. Ginckel attempted to get possession of the bridge. One of
+the arches was broken down, on the Connaught side of the river. Under
+cover of a heavy fire, a party of Ginckel's men succeeded in raising a
+plank-work for the purpose of spanning the broken arch. The work was
+nearly completed, when a sergeant and ten bold Scots belonging to
+Maxwell's Brigade on the Irish side, pushed on to the bridge; but they
+were all slain. A second brave party was more successful than the
+first. They succeeded in throwing all the planks and beams into the
+river, only two men escaping with their lives.
+
+Ginckel then attempted to repair the broken arch by carrying a close
+gallery on the bridge, in order to fill up the gap with heavy planks.
+All was ready, and an assault was ordered for next day. It was
+resolved to cross the Shannon in three places--one body to cross by
+the narrow ford below the bridge, another by the pontoons above it,
+while the main body was to force the bridge itself. On the morning of
+the intended crossing, the Irish sent a volley of grenades among the
+wooden work of the bridge, when some of the fascines took fire, and
+the whole fabric was soon in a blaze. The smoke blew into the faces of
+the English, and it was found impossible to cross the river that day.
+
+A council of war was held, to debate whether it was advisable to renew
+the attack or to raise the siege and retreat. The cannonade had now
+continued for eight days, and nothing had been gained. Some of the
+officers were for withdrawing, but the majority were in favour of
+making a general assault on the following day--seeing more danger in
+retreating than in advancing. The Duke of Wurtemberg, Major-Generals
+Mackay, Talmash, Ruvigny, Tetleau, and Colonel Cambon urged "that no
+brave action could be performed without hazard; and that the attempt
+was like to be attended with success." Moreover, they proffered
+themselves to be the first to pass the river and attack the enemy.
+
+The assault was therefore agreed upon. The river was then at the
+lowest state at which it had been for years. Next morning, at six
+o'clock--the usual hour for relieving guards--the detachments were led
+down to the river. Captain Sands led the first party of sixty
+grenadiers. They were supported by another strong detachment of
+grenadiers and six battalions of foot. They went into the water twenty
+abreast, clad in armour, and pushed across the ford a little below the
+bridge. The stream was very rapid, and the passage difficult, by
+reason of the great stones which lay at the bottom of the river. The
+guns played over them from the batteries and covered their passage.
+The grenadiers reached the other side amidst the fire and smoke of
+their enemies. They held their ground and made for the bridge. Some of
+them laid planks over the broken arch, and others helped at preparing
+the pontoons. Thus the whole of the English army were able to cross to
+the Irish side of the river. In less than half an hour they were
+masters of the town. The Irish were entirely surprised. They fled in
+all directions, and lost many men. The besiegers did not lose above
+fifty.
+
+St. Ruth, the Irish commander-in-chief, seemed completely idle during
+the assault. It is true he ordered several detachments to drive the
+English from the town after it had been taken; but, remembering that
+the fortifications of Athlone, nearest to his camp, had not been
+razed, and that they were now in possession of the enemy, he recalled
+his troops, and decamped from before Athlone that very night. In a few
+days Ginckel followed him, and inflicted on his army a terrible defeat
+at the battle of Aughrim. With that, however, we have nothing to do at
+present, but proceed to follow the fortunes of Rapin.
+
+Rapin entered Athlone with his regiment, and conducted himself with
+his usual valour. Ginckel remained only a few days in the place, in
+order to repair the fortifications. That done, he set out in pursuit
+of the enemy. He left two regiments in the castle, one of which was
+that to which Rapin belonged. The soldiers, who belonged to different
+nationalities, had many contentions with each other. The officers
+stood upon their order of precedence. The men were disposed to
+quarrel. Aided by a friend, a captain like himself, Rapin endeavoured
+to pacify the men, and to bring the officers to reason. By his kind,
+gentle, and conciliatory manner, he soon succeeded in restoring quiet
+and mutual confidence; and during his stay at Athlone no further
+disturbance occurred among the garrison.
+
+Rapin was ordered to Kilkenny, where he had a similar opportunity of
+displaying his qualities of conciliation. A quarrel had sprung up
+between the chief magistrate of the town and the officers of the
+garrison. Rapin interceded, and by his firmness and moderation he
+reconciled all differences; and, at the same time, he gained the
+respect and admiration of both the disputing parties.
+
+By this time the second siege of Limerick had occurred. Ginckel
+surrounded the city, and battered the walls and fortresses for six
+weeks. The French and Irish armies at length surrendered. Fourteen
+thousand Irish marched out with the honours of war. A large proportion
+of them joined the army of Louis XIV., and were long after known as
+"The Irish Brigade." Although they fought valiantly and honourably in
+many well-known battles, they were first employed in Louis'
+persecution of the Protestants in the Vaudois and Cevennes mountains.
+Their first encounter was with the Camisards, under Cavalier, their
+peasant leader. They gained no glory in that campaign, but a good deal
+of discredit.
+
+In the meantime Ireland had been restored to peace. After the
+surrender of Limerick no further resistance was offered to the arms of
+William III. A considerable body of English troops remained in Ireland
+to garrison the fortresses. Rapin's regiment was stationed at Kinsale,
+and there he rejoined it in 1693. He made the intimate friendship of
+Sir James Waller, the governor of the town. Sir James was a man of
+much intelligence, a keen observer, and an ardent student. By his
+knowledge of political history, he inspired Rapin with a like taste,
+and determined him at a later period in his life to undertake what was
+a real want at the time, an intelligent and readable history of
+England.
+
+Rapin was suddenly recalled to England. He was required to leave his
+regiment and report himself to King William. No reason was given; but
+with his usual obedience to orders he at once set out. He did not
+leave Ireland without regret. He was attached to his numerous Huguenot
+comrades, and he hoped yet to rise to higher guides in the King's
+service. By special favour he was allowed to hand over his company to
+his brother Solomon, who had been wounded at the first siege of
+Limerick. His brother received the promotion which he himself had
+deserved, and afterwards became lieutenant-colonel of dragoons.
+Rapin's fortune led him in quite another direction.
+
+It turned out that, by the recommendation of the Earl of Galway
+(formerly the Marquis de Ruvigny, another French Huguenot), he had
+been recalled to London for the purpose of being appointed governor
+and tutor to Lord Woodstock, son of Bentinck, Earl of Portland, one of
+King William's most devoted servants. Lord Galway was consulted by the
+King as to the best tutor for the son of his friend. He knew of
+Rapin's valour and courage during his campaigns in Ireland; he also
+knew of his discretion, his firmness, and his conciliatory manners, in
+reconciling the men under his charge at Athlone and Kilkenny; and he
+was also satisfied about his thoughtfulness, his delicacy of spirit,
+his grace and his nobleness--for he had been bred a noble, though he
+had first served as a common soldier in the army of William.
+
+The King immediately approved the recommendation of Lord Galway. He
+knew of Rapin's courage at the battle of the Boyne; and he
+remembered--as every true captain does remember--the serious wound he
+had received while accompanying the forlorn hope at the first siege of
+Limerick. Hence the sudden recall of Rapin from Ireland. On his
+arrival in London he was presented to the King, and immediately after
+he entered upon his new function of conducting the education of the
+future Duke of Portland.
+
+Henry, Lord Woodstock, was then about fifteen. Being of delicate
+health, he had hitherto been the object of his father's tender care,
+and it was not without considerable regret that Lord Portland yielded
+to the request of the King and handed over his son to the government
+of M. Rapin. Though of considerable intelligence, the powers of his
+heart were greater than those of his head. Thus Rapin had no
+difficulty in acquiring the esteem and affection of his pupil.
+
+Portland House was then the resort of the most eminent men of the Whig
+party, through whose patriotic assistance the constitution of England
+was placed in the position which it now occupies. Rapin was introduced
+by Lord Woodstock to his friends. Having already mastered the English
+language, he had no difficulty in understanding the conflicting
+opinions of the times. He saw history developing itself before his
+eyes. He heard with his ears the discussions which eventuated in Acts
+of Parliament, confirming the liberties of the English people, the
+liberty of speech, the liberty of writing, the liberty of doing,
+within the limits of the common law.
+
+All this was of great importance to Rapin. It prepared him for writing
+his afterwards famous works, his "History of England," and his
+Dissertation on the Whigs and Tories. Rapin was not only a man of
+great accomplishments, but he had a remarkable aptitude for
+languages. He knew French and English, as well as Italian, Spanish,
+and German. He had an extraordinary memory, and a continuous
+application and perseverance, which enabled him to suck the contents
+of many volumes, and to bring out the facts in future years during the
+preparation of his works. His memory seems to have been of the same
+order as that of Lord Macaulay, who afterwards made use of his works,
+and complimented his predecessor as to their value.
+
+According to the custom of those days, the time arrived when Rapin was
+required to make "the grand tour" with his pupil and friend, Lord
+Woodstock. This was considered the complement of English education
+amongst the highest classes. It was thought necessary that young
+noblemen should come in contact with foreigners, and observe the
+manners and customs of other countries besides their own; and that
+thus they might acquire a sort of cosmopolitan education. Archbishop
+Leighton even considered a journey of this sort as a condition of
+moral perfection. He quoted the words of the Latin poet: "Homo sum, et
+nihil hominem a me alienum puto."
+
+No one could be better fitted than Rapin to accompany the young lord
+on his foreign travels. They went to Holland, Germany, France, Spain,
+and Italy. Rapin diligently improved himself, while instructing his
+friend. He taught him the languages of the countries through which
+they passed; he rendered him familiar with Greek and Latin; he
+rendered him familiar with the principles of mathematics. He also
+studied with him the destinies of peoples and of kings, and pointed
+out to him the Divine will accomplishing itself amidst the destruction
+of empires. Withal he sought to penetrate the young soul of the friend
+committed to his charge with that firmness of belief and piety of
+sentiment which pervaded his own.
+
+It was while in Italy that the Earl of Portland, at the instigation of
+Rapin, requested copies to be made for him of the rarest and most
+precious medals in point of historic interest; and also to purchase
+for him objects of ancient workmanship. Hence Rapin was able to secure
+for him the _Portland Vase_, now in the British Museum, one of the
+most exquisite products of Roman and Etruscan ceramic art.
+
+In 1699, the Earl of Portland was sent by William III. as ambassador
+to the court of Louis XIV., in connection with the negotiations as to
+the Spanish succession. Lord Woodstock attended the embassy, and Rapin
+accompanied him. They were entertained at Versailles. Persecution was
+still going on in France, although about eight hundred thousand
+persons had already left the country. Rapin at one time thought of
+leaving Lord Woodstock for a few days, and making a rapid journey
+south to visit his friends near Toulouse. But the thought of being
+made a prisoner and sent to the galleys for life stayed him, and he
+remained at Versailles until the return of the embassy.
+
+Rapin remained with Lord Woodstock for thirteen years. In the meantime
+he had married, at the Hague, Marie Anne Testart, a refugee from
+Saint-Quentin. Jean Rou describes her as a true helpmeet for him,
+young, beautiful, rich, and withal virtuous, and of the most pleasing
+and gentle temper in the world. Her riches, however, were not great.
+She had merely, like Rapin, rescued some portion of her heritage from
+the devouring claws of her persecutors. Rapin accumulated very little
+capital during his tutorship of Lord Woodstock; but to compensate him,
+the King granted him a pension of L100 a year, payable by the States
+of Holland, until he could secure some better income.
+
+Rapin lived for some time at the Hague. While there he joined a
+society of learned French refugees. Among them were Rotolf de la
+Denese, Basnage de Beauval, and Jean Rou, secretary to the
+States-General. One of the objects of the little academy was to
+translate the Psalms anew into French verse; but before the version
+was completed, Rapin was under the necessity of leaving the Hague.
+William III., his patron, died in 1701, when his pension was stopped.
+He was promised some remunerative employment, but he was forgotten
+amidst the press of applicants.
+
+At length he removed to the little town of Wesel, on the Lower Rhine,
+in the beginning of May, 1707. He had a wife and four children to
+maintain, and living was much more reasonable at Wesel than at the
+Hague. His wife's modest fortune enabled him to live there to the end
+of his days. Wesel was also a resort of the French refugees--persons
+of learning and taste, though of small means. It was at his modest
+retreat at Wesel that Rapin began to arrange the immense mass of
+documents which he had been accumulating during so many years,
+relating to the history of England. The first work which he published
+was "A Dissertation on the Origin and Nature of the English
+Constitution." It met with great success, and went through many
+editions, besides being translated into nearly all the continental
+languages.
+
+He next proceeded with his great work, "The History of England."
+During his residence in Ireland and England, he had read with great
+interest all books relating to the early history of the Government of
+England. He began with, the history of England after the Norman
+Conquest; but he found that he must begin at the beginning. He studied
+the history of the Anglo-Saxons, but found it "like a vast forest,
+where the traveller, with great difficulty, finds a few narrow paths
+to guide his wandering steps. It was this, however, that inspired him
+with the design of clearing this part of the English history, by
+removing the rubbish, and carrying on the thread so as to give, at
+least, a general knowledge of the earlier history." Then he went back
+to Julius Caesar's account of his invasion of Britain, for the purpose
+of showing how the Saxons came to send troops into this country, and
+now the conquest which had cost them so much was at last abandoned by
+the Romans. He then proceeded, during his residence in England, with
+his work of reading and writing; but when he came to the reign of
+Henry II. he was about to relinquish his undertaking, when an
+unexpected assistance not only induced him to continue it, but to
+project a much larger history of England than he had at first
+intended.
+
+This unexpected assistance was the publication of Rymer's "Foedera,"
+at the expense of the British Government. The volumes as they came out
+were sent to Rapin by Le Clerc (another refugee), a friend of Lord
+Halifax, who was one of the principal promoters of the publication.
+This book was of infinite value to Rapin in enabling him to proceed
+with his history. He prepared abstracts of seventeen volumes (now in
+the Cottonian collection), to show the relation of the acts narrated
+in Rymer's "Foedera" to the history of England. He was also able to
+compare the facts stated by English historians with, those of the
+neighbouring states, whether they were written in Latin, French,
+Italian, or Spanish.
+
+The work was accomplished with great labour. It occupied seventeen
+years of Rapin's life. The work was published at intervals. The first
+two volumes appeared in November, 1723. During the following year six
+more volumes were published. The ninth and tenth volumes were left in
+manuscript ready for the press. They ended with the coronation of
+William and Mary at Westminster. Besides, he left a large number of
+MSS., which were made use of by the editor of the continuation of
+Rapin's history.
+
+Rapin died at Wesel in 1725, at the age of sixty-four. His work, the
+cause of his fatal illness, was almost his only pleasure. He was worn
+out by hard study and sedentary confinement, and at last death came to
+his rescue. He had struggled all his life against persecution; against
+the difficulties of exile; against the enemy; and though he did not
+die on the field of battle, he died on the breach pen in hand, in work
+and duty, striving to commemorate the independence through which a
+noble people had worked their way to ultimate freedom and liberty. The
+following epitaph was inscribed over his grave:--
+
+  "Ici le casque et la science,
+  L'esprit vif, la solidite,
+  La politesse et la sincerite
+  Ont fait une heureuse alliance,
+  Dont le public a profite."
+
+The first edition of Rapin's history, consisting of ten volumes, was
+published at the Hague by Rogessart. The Rev. David Durand added two
+more volumes to the second edition, principally compiled from the
+memoranda left by Rapin at his death. The twelfth volume concluded the
+reign of William III.
+
+The fourth edition appeared in 1733. Being originally composed and
+published in French, the work was translated into English by Mr. N.
+Tindal, who added numerous notes. Two editions wore published
+simultaneously in London, and a third translation was published some
+sixty years later. The book was attacked by the Jacobite authors, who
+defended the Stuart party against the statements of the author. In
+those fanatical times impartiality was nothing to them. A man must be
+emphatically for the Stuarts, or against them. Yet the work of Rapin
+held its ground, and it long continued to be regarded as the best
+history that had up to that time been written.
+
+The Rapin family are now scattered over the world. Some remain in
+Holland, some have settled in Switzerland, some have returned to
+France, but the greater number are Prussian subjects. James, the only
+son of Rapin, studied at Cleves, then at Antwerp, and at thirty-one he
+was appointed to the important office of Director of the French
+Colonies at Stettin and Stargardt. Charles, Rapin's eldest brother,
+was a captain of infantry in the service of Prussia. Two sons of Louis
+de Rapin were killed in the battles of Smolensko and Leipsic.
+
+Many of the Rapins attained high positions in the military service of
+Prussia. Colonel Philip de Rapin-Thoyras was the head of the family in
+Prussia. He was with the Allied Army in their war of deliverance
+against France in the years 1813, 1814, and 1815. He was consequently
+decorated with the Cross and the Military Medal for his long and
+valued services to the country of his adoption.
+
+The handsome volume by Raoul de Cazenove, entitled "Rapin-Thoyras, sa
+Famille, sa Vie, et ses OEuvres," to which we are indebted for much of
+the above information, is dedicated to this distinguished military
+chief.
+
+
+
+
+III.
+
+CAPTAIN RIOU, R.N.
+
+   "Brave hearts! to Britain's pride
+      Once so faithful and so true,
+    On the deck of fame that died,
+      With the gallant good Riou:
+  Soft sigh the winds of heaven o'er their grave!"
+
+      CAMPBELL'S _Battle of the Baltic_.
+
+
+The words in which Campbell describes Captain Riou in his noble ode
+are nearly identical with those used by Lord Nelson himself when
+alluding to his death in the famous despatch relative to the battle of
+Copenhagen. These few but pregnant words, "the gallant and the good,"
+constitute nearly all the record that exists of the character of this
+distinguished officer, though it is no slight glory to have them
+embalmed in the poetry of Campbell and the despatches of Nelson.
+
+Having had the good fortune, in the course of recent inquiries as to
+the descendants of illustrious Huguenots in England, to become
+acquainted with the principal events in Captain Riou's life, drawn
+from family papers, I now propose to supplement Lord Nelson's brief
+epitome of his character by the following memoir of this distinguished
+seaman.
+
+Captain Riou was descended from the ancient Riou family of Vernoux, in
+Languedoc, of whom early mention is made in French history, several
+members of it having specially distinguished themselves as generals in
+the wars in Spain. Like many other noble families of Languedoc in the
+seventeenth century, the Rious were staunch Huguenots; and when, in
+1685, Louis XIV. determined to stamp out Protestantism in France, and
+revoked the Edict of Nantes, the principal members of the family,
+refusing to conform, left the country, and their estates were
+confiscated by the Crown.
+
+Estienne Riou, heir to the estate at Vernoux, was born after the death
+of his father, who was a man of eminent repute in his neighbourhood;
+and he did not leave France until his eleventh year, when he fled with
+his paternal uncle, Matthew Labrune, across the frontier, and took
+refuge with him at Berne, in Switzerland. There the uncle engaged in
+business as a merchant, while the nephew, when of sufficient age,
+desirous of following the usual career of his family, went into
+Piedmont to join the little Huguenot army from England, then engaged
+in assisting the Duke of Savoy against the armies of the French king.
+Estienne was admitted a cadet in Lord Galway's regiment, then engaged
+in the siege of Casale; and he remained with it for two years, when,
+on the army returning to England, he received an honourable discharge,
+and went back to reside for a time with his bachelor uncle at Berne.
+
+In 1698 both uncle and nephew left Switzerland to settle in London as
+merchants, bringing with them a considerable capital. They exported
+English manufactured goods to the East Indies, Holland, Germany, and
+Italy; and imported large quantities of raw silk, principally from
+Spain and Italy, carrying on their business with uniform probity and
+credit. In course of time Estienne married Magdalen Baudoin, the
+daughter of a refugee gentleman from Touraine,--the members of
+refugee families usually intermarrying for several generations after
+their settlement in England. The issue of this marriage was an only
+son, Stephen Riou, who, like his ancestors, embraced the profession of
+arms, rising to be captain in the Horse Grenadier Guards. He
+afterwards attended the Confederate forces in Flanders as an engineer,
+and on the conclusion of peace, he travelled for nearly four years
+through the principal countries of Europe, accompanying Sir P. Ker
+Porter on his embassy to Constantinople. He afterwards settled,
+married, and had two sons,--Philip, the elder, who entered the Royal
+Artillery, and died senior colonel at Woolwich in 1817; and Edward,
+the second son, who entered the navy--the subject of the present
+memoir.
+
+Edward Riou was born at Mount Ephraim, near Faversham, on the 20th
+November, 1762. The family afterwards removed to London, where Edward
+received his education, partly at the Marylebone Grammar School and
+partly at home, where his father superintended his instruction in
+fortification, and navigation. Though of peculiarly sweet and amiable
+disposition, young Riou displayed remarkable firmness and even
+fearlessness as a boy. He rejoiced at all deeds of noble daring, and
+it was perhaps his love of adventure that early determined his choice
+of a profession; for, even when a very little fellow, he was usually
+styled by the servants and by his playmates, "the noble captain."
+
+Accordingly, when only twelve years old, he went to sea as midshipman
+on board Admiral Pye's ship, the _Harfleur_; from whence, in the
+following year, he was removed to the _Romney_, Captain Keith
+Elphinstone, on the Newfoundland station; and on the return of the
+ship to England in 1776, he had the good fortune to be appointed
+midshipman on board the _Discovery_, Captain Charles Clarke, which
+accompanied Captain Cook in the _Resolution_ in his last voyage round
+the world. Nothing could have been more to the mind of our sailor-boy
+than this voyage of adventure and discovery, in company with the
+greatest navigator of the age.
+
+The _Discovery_ sailed from the Downs on the 18th of June, but had no
+sooner entered the Channel than a storm arose which did considerable
+damage to the ship, which was driven into Portland Roads. At Plymouth,
+the _Discovery_ was joined by the _Resolution_; but as the former had
+to go into harbour for repairs, Captain Cook set sail for the Cape
+alone, leaving orders for Captain Clarke to follow him there. The
+_Discovery_ at length put to sea, and after a stormy voyage joined
+Captain Cook in Table Bay on the 11th of August. Before setting sail
+on the longer voyage, Riou had the felicity of being transferred to
+the _Resolution_, under the command of Captain Cook himself.
+
+It is not necessary that we should describe this celebrated voyage,
+with which every boy is familiar--its storms and hurricanes; the
+landings on islands where the white man's face had never been seen
+before; the visits to the simple natives of Huahine and Otaheite, then
+a little Eden; the perilous coasting along the North American seaboard
+to Behring's Straits, in search of the North-Western passage; and
+finally, the wintering of the ships at Owyhee, where Captain Cook met
+his cruel death, of which young Riou was a horror-struck spectator
+from the deck of the _Resolution_, on the morning of the 14th of
+February, 1779.
+
+After about four years' absence on this voyage, so full of adventure
+and peril, Riou returned to England with the _Resolution_, and was
+shortly after appointed lieutenant of the sloop _Scourge_, Captain
+Knatchbull, Commander, which took part, under Lord Rodney, in the
+bombardment and capture of St. Eustatia. Here Riou was so severely
+wounded in the eye by a splinter that he lost his sight for many
+months. In March, 1782, he was removed to the _Mediator_, forty-four
+guns, commanded by Captain Luttrell, and shared in the glory which
+attached to the officers and crew of that ship through its almost
+unparalleled achievement of the 12th of December of that year.
+
+It was at daybreak that the _Mediator_ sighted five sail of the enemy,
+consisting of the _Menagere_, thirty-six guns _en flute_; the
+_Eugene_, thirty-six; and the _Dauphin Royal_, twenty-eight (French);
+in company with the _Alexander_, twenty-eight guns, and another brig,
+fourteen (American), formed in line of battle to receive the
+_Mediator_, which singly bore down upon them. The skilful seamanship
+and dashing gallantry of the English disconcerted the combinations of
+the enemy, and after several hours' fighting two of their vessels fell
+out of the line, and went away, badly crippled, to leeward. About an
+hour later the _Alexander_ was cut off, the _Mediator_ wearing between
+her and her consorts, and in ten minutes she struck. A chase then
+ensued after the larger vessels, and late in the evening the
+_Menagere_, being raked within pistol shot, hailed for quarter. The
+rest of the squadron escaped, and the gallant _Mediator_, having taken
+possession of her two prizes, set sail with them for England, arriving
+in Cawsand Bay on the 17th of December.
+
+In the year following, Captain Luttrell, having been appointed to the
+_Ganges_, took with him Mr. Riou as second lieutenant. He served in
+this ship until the following summer, when he retired for a time on
+half-pay, devoting himself to study and continental travel until
+March, 1786, when we find him serving under Admiral Elliot as second
+lieutenant of the _Salisbury_. It was about this time that he
+submitted to the Admiralty a plan, doubtless suggested by his voyage
+with Captain Cook, "for the discovery and preservation of a passage
+through the continent of North America, and for the increase of
+commerce to this kingdom." The plan was very favourably received, but
+as war seemed imminent, no steps were then taken to carry it into
+effect.
+
+The young officer had, however, by this time recommended himself for
+promotion by his admirable conduct and his good service; and in the
+spring of 1789 he was appointed to the command of the _Guardian_,
+forty-four guns, armed _en flute_, which was under orders to take out
+stores and convicts to New South Wales. In a chatty, affectionate letter
+written to his widowed mother, from on shipboard at the Cape while on
+the voyage out, he says,--"I have no expectation, after the promotion
+that took place before I left England, of finding myself master and
+commander on my return." After speculating as to what might happen in
+the meantime while he was so far from home, and expressing an anxiety
+which was but natural on the part of an enterprising young officer eager
+for advancement in his profession, he proceeded,--"Politics must take a
+great turn, I think, by the time of my return. War will likely be begun;
+in that case we may bring a prize in with us. But our foresight is
+short--and mine particularly so. I hardly ever look forward to beyond
+three months. 'Tis in vain to be otherwise, for Providence, which
+directs all things, is inscrutable." And he concluded his letter
+thus,--"Now for Port Jackson. I shall sail to-night if the wind is fair.
+God for ever bless you."
+
+But neither Riou nor the ill-fated _Guardian_ ever reached Port
+Jackson! A fortnight after setting sail from the Cape, while the ship
+was driving through a thick fog (in lat. 44.5, long. 41) a severe
+shock suddenly called Riou to the deck, where an appalling spectacle
+presented itself. The ship had struck upon an iceberg. A body of
+floating ice twice as high as the masthead was on the lee beam, and
+the ship appeared to be entering a sort of cavern in its side. In a
+few minutes the rudder was torn away, a severe leak was sprung, and
+all hands worked for bare life at the pumps. The ship became
+comparatively unmanageable, and masses of overhanging ice threatened
+every moment to overwhelm her. At length, by dint of incessant
+efforts, the ship was extricated from the ice, but the leak gained
+fearfully, and stores, cattle, guns, booms, everything that could be
+cut away, was thrown overboard.
+
+It was all in vain. The ship seemed to be sinking; and despair sat on
+every countenance save that of the young commander. He continued to
+hope even against hope. At length, after forty-eight hours of
+incessant pumping, a cry arose for "the boats," as presenting the only
+chance of safety. Riou pleaded with the men to persevere, and they
+went on bravely again at the pumps. But the dawn of another day
+revealed so fearful a position of affairs that the inevitable
+foundering of the ship seemed to be a matter of minutes rather than
+of hours. The boats were hoisted out, discipline being preserved to
+the last. Riou's servant hastened to him to ask what boat he would
+select to go in, that he himself might take a place beside him. His
+answer was that "he would stay by the ship, save her if he could, and
+if needs be sink with her, but that the people were at liberty to
+consult their own safety." He then sat down and wrote the following
+letter to the Admiralty, giving it in charge to Mr. Clements, the
+master, whose boat was the only one that ever reached land:--
+
+                                   "Her Majesty's Ship _Guardian_,
+                                        "_December, 1789._
+
+     "If any part of the officers or crew of the _Guardian_ should
+     ever survive to reach home, I have only to say that their
+     conduct, after the fatal stroke against an island of ice, was
+     admirable and wonderful in everything that relates to their
+     duties, considered either as private men or in his Majesty's
+     service. As there seems no possibility of my remaining many hours
+     in this world, I beg leave to recommend to the consideration of
+     the Admiralty a sister, to whom, if my conduct or services should
+     be found deserving any memory, favour might be shown, together
+     with a widowed mother.
+
+     "I am, sir, with great respect,
+               "Your ever obedient servant,
+                                        "EDWARD RIOU.
+
+     "PHILIP STEPHENS, ESQ.,
+        "Admiralty."
+
+About half the crew remained with Riou, some because they determined
+to stand by their commander, and others because they could not get
+away in the boats, which, to avoid being overcrowded, had put off in
+haste, for the most part insufficiently stored and provided. The sea,
+still high, continued to make breaches over the ship, and many were
+drowned in their attempts to reach the boats. Those who remained were
+exhausted by fatigue; and, without the most distant hope of life, some
+were mad with despair. A party of these last contrived to break open
+the spirit-room, and found a temporary oblivion in intoxication. "It
+is hardly a time to be a disciplinarian," wrote Riou in his log, which
+continues a valued treasury in his family, "when only a few more hours
+of life seem to present themselves; but this behaviour greatly hurts
+me." This log gives a detailed account, day by day, of the eight
+weeks' heroic fortitude and scientific seamanship which preserved the
+_Guardian_ afloat until she got into the track of ships, and was
+finally towed by Dutch whalers into Table Bay, Cape of Good Hope.
+
+The master's boat, in which were also the purser and chaplain, had by
+a miracle been picked up, and those officers, on their return to
+England, reported to the Admiralty "the total loss of the _Guardian_".
+They also at the same time spoke of Riou's noble conduct in terms of
+such enthusiasm as to awaken general admiration, and occasion the
+greatest regret at his loss. Accordingly, when the Admiralty received
+from his own hand the unexpected intelligence of his safety, his
+widowed mother and only sister had the affectionate sympathy of all
+England. Lord Hood himself, before unknown to the family, hastened to
+their house with the news, calling to the servants as he ran up the
+stairs to "throw off their mourning!" The following was Riou's brief
+letter to his mother, which he found time to scrawl and send off by a
+ship just leaving Table Bay for England as the poor helpless
+_Guardian_ was being towed in:--
+
+                                   "Cape of Good Hope,
+                                        "_February, 22, 1790_.
+
+     "DEAREST,--God has been merciful. I hope you have no fatal
+     accounts of the _Guardian_. I am safe; I am well, notwithstanding
+     you may hear otherwise. Join with me in prayer to that blessed
+     Saviour who hath hung over my ship for two months, and kept thy
+     dear son safe, to be, I hope, thankful for almost a miracle. I
+     can say no more because I am hurried, and the ship sails for
+     England this afternoon.
+
+     "Yours ever and ever,
+                                        "EDWARD RIOU."
+
+Riou remained many months at the Cape trying to patch up the
+_Guardian_, and repair it so as to bring it back to port; but all his
+exertions were fruitless, and in October the Admiralty despatched the
+_Sphinx_ ship-of-war to bring him and the survivors of his crew to
+England, where they landed shortly after. There was, of course, the
+usual court-martial held upon him for the loss of his ship, but it was
+merely a matter of form. At its conclusion he was complimented by the
+Court in the warmest terms; and "as a mark of the high consideration
+in which the magnanimity of his conduct was held, in remaining by his
+ship from an exalted sense of duty when all reasonable prospects of
+saving her were at an end," he received the special thanks of the
+Admiralty, was made commander, and at the same time promoted to the
+rank of post captain.
+
+No record exists of the services of Captain Riou from the date of his
+promotion until 1794, when we find him in command of his Majesty's
+ship _Rose_, assisting in the reduction of Martinique. He was then
+transferred to the _Beaulieu_, and remained cruising in the West
+Indian seas till his health became so injured by the climate that he
+found himself compelled to solicit his recall, and he consequently
+returned to England in the _Theseus_ in the following year. Shortly
+after, in recognition of his distinguished services, he was appointed
+to the command of the royal yacht, the _Princess Augusta_, in which he
+remained until the spring of 1790. So soon as his health was
+sufficiently re-established, he earnestly solicited active employment,
+and he was accordingly appointed to the command of the fine frigate,
+the _Amazon_, thirty-eight guns, whose name afterwards figured so
+prominently in Nelson's famous battle before Copenhagen.
+
+After cruising about in her on various stations, and picking up a few
+prizes, the _Amazon_, early in 1801, was attached to Sir Hyde Parker's
+fleet, destined for the Baltic. The last letter which Riou wrote home
+to his mother was dated Sunday, the 29th March, "at the entrance to
+the Sound;" and in it he said:--"It yet remains in doubt whether we
+are to fight the Danes, or whether they will be our friends." Already,
+however, Nelson was arranging his plan of attack, and on the following
+day, the 30th, the Admiral and all the artillery officers were on
+board the _Amazon_, which proceeded to examine the northern channel
+outside Copenhagen Harbour. It was on this occasion that Riou first
+became known to Nelson, who was struck with admiration at the superior
+discipline and seamanship which were observable on board the frigate
+during the proceedings of that day.
+
+Early in the evening of the 1st of April the signal to prepare for
+action was made; and Lord Nelson, with Riou and Foley, on board the
+_Elephant_--all the other officers having returned to their
+respective ships--arranged the order of battle on the following day.
+What remains to be told of Riou is matter of history. The science and
+skill in navigation which made Nelson intrust to him the last
+soundings, and place under his command the fire-ships which were to
+lead the way on the following morning,--the gallantry with which the
+captain of the _Amazon_ throw himself, _impar congressus_, under the
+fearful fire of the Trekroner battery, to redeem the failure
+threatened by the grounding of the ships of the line,--have all been
+told with a skilful pen, and forms a picture of a great sailor's last
+hours, which is cherished with equal pride in the affections of his
+family and the annals of his country.
+
+Sir Hyde Parker's signal to "leave off action," which Nelson, putting
+his telescope to his blind eye, refused to see, was seen, by Riou and
+reluctantly obeyed. Indeed, nothing but that signal for retreat saved
+the _Amazon_ from destruction, though it did not save its heroic
+commander. As he unwillingly drew off from the destructive fire of the
+battery he mournfully exclaimed, "What will Nelson think of us!" His
+clerk had been killed by his side. He himself had been wounded in the
+head by a splinter, but continued to sit on a gun encouraging his men,
+who were falling in numbers around him. "Come then, my boys," he
+cried, "let us all die together." Scarcely had he uttered the words,
+when a raking shot cut him in two. And thus, in an instant, perished
+the "gallant good Riou," at the early age of thirty-nine.
+
+Riou was a man of the truest and tenderest feelings, yet the bravest
+of the brave. His private correspondence revealed the most endearing
+qualities of mind and heart, while the nobility of his actions was
+heightened by lofty Christian sentiment, and a firm reliance on the
+power and mercy of God. His chivalrous devotion to duty in the face of
+difficulty and danger heightened the affectionate admiration with
+which he was regarded, and his death before Copenhagen was mourned
+almost as a national bereavement. The monument erected to his memory
+in St. Paul's Cathedral represented, however inadequately, the widely
+felt sorrow which pervaded all classes at the early death of this
+heroic officer. "Except it had been Nelson himself," says Southey,
+"the British navy could not have suffered a severer loss."
+
+Captain Riou's only sister married Colonel Lyde Browne, who closed his
+honourable career of twenty-three years' active service in Dublin, on
+July 23rd, 1803. Within two years of her bitter mourning for the death
+of her brother, she had also to mourn for the loss of her husband. He
+was colonel of the 21st Fusiliers. He was hastening to the assistance
+of Lord Kilwarden on the fatal night of Emmett's rebellion, when he
+was basely assassinated. He was buried in the churchyard of St.
+Paul's, Dublin, where his brother officers erected a marble tablet to
+his memory. He left an only daughter, who was married, in 1826, to M.
+G. Benson, Esq., of Lulwyche Hall, Salop. It is through this lady that
+we have been permitted to inspect the family papers relating to the
+life and death of Captain Riou.
+
+
+
+
+A VISIT TO THE COUNTRY OF THE VAUDOIS.
+
+[Illustration: "The country of Felix Neff." (Dauphiny.)]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+INTRODUCTORY.
+
+
+Dauphiny is one of the least visited of all the provinces of France.
+It occupies a remote corner of the empire, lying completely out of the
+track of ordinary tourists. No great road passes through it into
+Italy, the Piedmontese frontier of which it adjoins; and the annual
+streams of English and American travellers accordingly enter that
+kingdom by other routes. Even to Frenchmen, who travel little in their
+own country and still less in others, Dauphiny is very little known;
+and M. Joanne, who has written an excellent Itinerary of the South of
+France, almost takes the credit of having discovered it.
+
+Yet Dauphiny is a province full of interest. Its scenery almost vies
+with that of Switzerland in grandeur, beauty, and wildness. The great
+mountain masses of the Alps do not end in Savoy, but extend through
+the south-eastern parts of France, almost to the mouths of the Rhone.
+Packed closer together than in most parts of Switzerland, the
+mountains of Dauphiny are furrowed by deep valleys, each with its
+rapid stream or torrent at bottom, in some places overhung by
+precipitous rocks, in others hemmed in by green hills, over which are
+seen the distant snowy peaks and glaciers of the loftier mountain
+ranges. Of these, Mont Pelvoux--whose double pyramid can be seen from
+Lyons on a clear day, a hundred miles off--and the Aiguille du Midi,
+are among the larger masses, rising to a height little short of Mont
+Blanc itself.
+
+From the ramparts of Grenoble the panoramic view is of wonderful
+beauty and grandeur, extending along the valleys of the Isere and the
+Drac, and across that of the Romanche. The massive heads of the Grand
+Chartreuse mountains bound the prospect to the north; and the summits
+of the snow-clad Dauphiny Alps on the south and east present a
+combination of bold valley and mountain scenery, the like of which is
+not to be seen in France, if in Europe.
+
+But it is not the scenery, or the geology, or the flora of the
+province, however marvellous these may be, that constitutes the chief
+interest for the traveller through these Dauphiny valleys, so much as
+the human endurance, suffering, and faithfulness of the people who
+have lived in them in past times, and of which so many interesting
+remnants still survive. For Dauphiny forms a principal part of the
+country of the ancient Vaudois or Waldenses--literally, the people
+inhabiting the _Vaux_, or valleys--who for nearly seven hundred years
+bore the heavy brunt of Papal persecution, and are now, after all
+their sufferings, free to worship God according to the dictates of
+their conscience.
+
+The country of the Vaudois is not confined, as is generally supposed,
+to the valleys of Piedmont, but extends over the greater part of
+Dauphiny and Provence. From the main ridge of the Cottian Alps, which,
+divide France from Italy, great mountain spurs are thrown out, which
+run westward as well as eastward, and enclose narrow strips of
+pasturage, cultivable land, and green shelves on the mountain sides,
+where a poor, virtuous, and hard-working race have long contrived to
+earn a scanty subsistence, amidst trials and difficulties of no
+ordinary kind,--the greatest of which, strange to say, have arisen
+from the pure and simple character of the religion they professed.
+
+The tradition which exists among them is, that the early Christian
+missionaries, when travelling from Italy into Gaul by the Roman road
+passing over Mont Genevre, taught the Gospel in its primitive form to
+the people of the adjoining districts. It is even surmised that St.
+Paul journeyed from Rome into Spain by that route, and may himself
+have imparted to the people of the valleys their first Christian
+instruction. The Italian and Gallic provinces in that quarter were
+certainly Christianized in the second century at the latest, and it is
+known that the early missionaries were in the habit of making frequent
+journeys from the provinces to Rome. Wherefore it is reasonable to
+suppose that the people of the valleys would receive occasional visits
+from the wayfaring teachers who travelled by the mountain passes in
+the immediate neighbourhood of their dwellings.
+
+As years rolled on, and the Church at Rome became rich and allied
+itself with the secular power, it gradually departed more and more
+from its primitive condition,[92] until at length it was scarcely to
+be recognised from the Paganism which it had superseded. The heathen
+gods were replaced by canonised mortals; Venus and Cupid by the Virgin
+and Child; Lares and Penates by images and crucifixes; while incense,
+flowers, tapers, and showy dresses came to be regarded as essential
+parts of the ceremonial of the new religion as they had been of the
+old. Madonnas winked and bled again, as the statues of Juno and Pompey
+had done before; and stones and relics worked miracles as in the time
+of the Augurs.
+
+         [Footnote 92: The ancient Vaudois had a saying, known in
+         other countries--"Religion brought forth wealth, and the
+         daughter devoured the mother;" and another of like meaning,
+         but less known--"When the bishops' croziers became golden,
+         the bishops themselves became Wooden."]
+
+Attempts were made by some of the early bishops to stem this tide of
+innovation. Thus, in the fourth, century, Ambrose, Bishop of Milan,
+and Philastrius, Bishop of Brescia, acknowledging no authority on
+earth as superior to that of the Bible, protested against the
+introduction of images in churches, which they held to be a return to
+Paganism. Four centuries later, Claude, Bishop of Turin, advanced like
+views, and opposed with energy the worship of images, which he
+regarded as absolute idolatry. In the meanwhile, the simple Vaudois,
+shut up in their almost inaccessible valleys, and knowing nothing of
+these innovations, continued to adhere to their original primitive
+form of worship; and it clearly appears, from a passage in the
+writings of St. Ambrose, that, in his time, the superstitions which
+prevailed elsewhere had not at all extended into the mountainous
+regions of his diocese.
+
+The Vaudois Church was never, in the ordinary sense of the word, a
+"Reformed" Church, simply because it had not become corrupted, and did
+not stand in need of "reformation." It was not the Vaudois who left
+the Church, but the Roman Church that left them in search of idols.
+Adhering to their primitive faith, they never recognised the paramount
+authority of the Pope; they never worshipped images, nor used incense,
+nor observed Mass; and when, in the course of time, these corruptions
+became known to them, and they found that the Western Church had
+ceased to be Catholic, and become merely Roman; they openly separated
+from it, as being no longer in conformity with the principles of the
+Gospel as inculcated in the Bible and delivered to them by their
+fathers. Their ancient manuscripts, still extant, attest to the purity
+of their doctrines. They are written, like the Nobla Leycon, in the
+Romance or Provencal--the earliest of the modern classical languages,
+the language of the troubadours--though now only spoken as a _patois_
+in Dauphiny, Piedmont, Sardinia, the north of Spain, and the Balearic
+Isles.[93]
+
+         [Footnote 93: Sismondi, "Litterature du Midi de l'Europe," i.
+         159.]
+
+If the age counts for anything, the Vaudois are justified in their
+claim to be considered one of the oldest churches in Europe. Long
+before the conquest of England by the Normans, before the time of
+Wallace and Bruce in Scotland, before England had planted its foot in
+Ireland, the Vaudois Church existed. Their remoteness, their poverty,
+and their comparative unimportance as a people, for a long time
+protected them from interference; and for centuries they remained
+unnoticed by Rome. But as the Western Church extended its power, it
+became insatiable for uniformity. It would not tolerate the
+independence which characterized the early churches, but aimed at
+subjecting them to the exclusive authority of Rome.
+
+The Vaudois, however, persisted in repudiating the doctrines and
+formularies of the Pope. When argument failed, the Church called the
+secular arm to its aid, and then began a series of persecutions,
+extending over several centuries, which, for brutality and ferocity,
+are probably unexampled in history. To crush this unoffending but
+faithful people, Rome employed her most irrefragable arguments--the
+curses of Lucius and the horrible cruelties of Innocent--and the
+"Vicar of Christ" bathed the banner of the Cross in a carnage from
+which the wolves of Romulus and the eagles of Caesar would have turned
+with loathing.
+
+Long before the period of the Reformation, the Vaudois valleys were
+ravaged by fire and sword because of the alleged heresy of the people.
+Luther was not born until 1483; whereas nearly four centuries before,
+the Vaudois were stigmatized as heretics by Rome. As early as 1096, we
+find Pope Urban II. describing Val Louise, one of the Dauphiny
+valleys--then called Vallis Gyrontana, from the torrent of Gyr, which
+flows through it--as "infested with heresy." In 1179, hot persecution
+raged all over Dauphiny, extending to the Albigeois of the South of
+France, as far as Lyons and Toulouse; one of the first martyrs being
+Pierre Waldo, or Waldensis,[94] of Lyons, who was executed for heresy
+by the Archbishop of Lyons in 1180.
+
+         [Footnote 94: It has been surmised by some writers that the
+         Waldenses derived their name from this martyr; but being
+         known as "heretics" long before his time, it is more probable
+         that they gave the name to him than that he did to them.]
+
+Of one of the early persecutions, an ancient writer says: "In the year
+1243, Pope Innocent II. ordered the Bishop of Metz rigorously to
+prosecute the Vaudois, especially because they read the sacred books
+in the vulgar tongue."[95] From time to time, new persecutions were
+ordered, and conducted with ever-increasing ferocity--the scourge, the
+brand, and the sword being employed by turns. In 1486, while Luther
+was still in his cradle, Pope Innocent VIII. issued a bull of
+extermination against the Vaudois, summoning all true Catholics to the
+holy crusade, promising free pardon to all manner of criminals who
+should take part in it, and concluding with the promise of the
+remission of sins to every one who should slay a heretic.[96] The
+consequence was, the assemblage of an immense horde of brigands, who
+were let loose on the valleys of Dauphiny and Piedmont, which they
+ravaged and pillaged, in company with eighteen thousand regular
+troops, jointly furnished by the French king and the Duke of Savoy.
+
+         [Footnote 95: Jean Leger, "Histoire Generale des Eglises
+         Evangeliques des Vallees de Piedmont, ou Vaudoises." Leyde,
+         1669. Part ii. 330.]
+
+         [Footnote 96: Leger, ii. 8-20.]
+
+Sometimes the valleys were under the authority of the kings of France,
+sometimes under that of the dukes of Savoy, whose armies alternately
+overran them; but change of masters and change of popes made little
+difference to the Vaudois. It sometimes, however, happened, that the
+persecution waxed hotter on one side of the Cottian Alps, while it
+temporarily relaxed on the other; and on such occasions the French and
+Italian Vaudois were accustomed to cross the mountain passes, and take
+refuge in each others' valleys. But when, as in the above case, the
+kings, soldiers, and brigands, on both sides, simultaneously plied the
+brand and the sword, the times were very troublous indeed for these
+poor hunted people. They had then no alternative but to climb up the
+mountains into the least accessible places, or hide themselves away
+in dens and caverns with their families, until their enemies had
+departed. But they were often, tracked to their hiding-places by their
+persecutors, and suffocated, strangled, or shot--men, women, and
+children. Hence there is scarcely a hiding-place along the
+mountain-sides of Dauphiny but has some tradition connected with it
+relating to those dreadful times. In one, so many women and children
+were suffocated; in another, so many perished of cold and hunger; in a
+third, so many were ruthlessly put to the sword. If these caves of
+Dauphiny had voices, what deeds of horror they could tell!
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+What is known as the Easter massacre of 1655 made an unusual sensation
+in Europe, but especially in England, principally through the attitude
+which Oliver Cromwell assumed in the matter. Persecution had followed
+persecution for nearly four hundred years, and still the Vaudois were
+neither converted nor extirpated. The dukes of Savoy during all that
+time pursued a uniform course of treachery and cruelty towards this
+portion of their subjects. Sometimes the Vaudois, pressed by their
+persecutors, turned upon them, and drove them ignominiously out of
+their valleys. Then the reigning dukes would refrain for a time; and,
+probably needing their help in one or other of the wars in which they
+were constantly engaged, would promise them protection and privileges.
+But such promises were invariably broken; and at some moment when the
+Vaudois were thrown off their guard by his pretended graciousness, the
+duke for the time being would suddenly pounce upon them and carry fire
+and sword through their valleys.
+
+Indeed, the dukes of Savoy seem to have been about the most
+wrong-headed line of despots that ever cursed a people by their rule.
+Their mania was soldiering, though they were oftener beaten than
+victorious. They were thrashed out of Dauphiny by France, thrashed out
+of Geneva by the citizens, thrashed out of the valleys by their own
+peasantry; and still they went on raising armies, making war, and
+massacring their Vaudois subjects. Being devoted servants of the Pope,
+in 1655 they concurred with him in the establishment of a branch of
+the society _De Propaganda Fide_ at Turin, which extended over the
+whole of Piedmont, for the avowed purpose of extirpating the heretics.
+On Palm Sunday, the beginning of Holy Week, the society commenced
+active proceedings. The army of Savoy advanced suddenly upon La Tour,
+and were let loose upon the people. A general massacre began,
+accompanied with shocking brutalities, and continued for more than a
+week. In many hamlets not a cottage was left standing, and such of the
+people as had not been able to fly into the upper valleys were
+indiscriminately put to the sword. And thus was Easter celebrated.
+
+The noise of this dreadful deed rang through Europe, and excited a
+general feeling of horror, especially in England. Cromwell, then at
+the height of his power, offered the fugitive Vaudois an asylum in
+Ireland; but the distance which lay between was too great, and the
+Vaudois asked him to help them in some other way. Forthwith, he
+addressed letters, written by his secretary, John Milton,[97] to the
+principal European powers, calling upon them to join him in putting a
+stop to these horrid barbarities committed upon an unoffending
+people. Cromwell did more. He sent the exiles L2,000 out of his own
+purse; appointed a day of humiliation and a general collection all
+over England, by which some L38,000 were raised; and dispatched Sir
+Samuel Morland as his plenipotentiary to expostulate in person with
+the Duke of Savoy. Moreover, a treaty was on the eve of being signed
+with France; and Cromwell refused to complete it until Cardinal
+Mazarin had undertaken to assist him in getting right done to the
+people of the valleys.
+
+         [Footnote 97: It was at this time that Milton wrote his noble
+         sonnet, beginning--
+
+           "Avenge, O Lord, Thy slaughter'd saints, whose bones
+            Lie scattered on the Alpine mountains cold," &c.]
+
+These energetic measures had their effect. The Vaudois who survived
+the massacre were permitted to return to their devastated homes, under
+the terms of the treaty known as the "Patents of Grace," which was
+only observed, however, so long as Cromwell lived. At the Restoration,
+Charles II. seized the public fund collected for the relief of the
+Vaudois, and refused to remit the annuity arising from the interest
+thereon which Cromwell had assigned to them, declaring that he would
+not pay the debts of a usurper!
+
+After that time, the interest felt in the Vaudois was very much of a
+traditional character. Little was known as to their actual condition,
+or whether the descendants of the primitive Vaudois Church continued
+to exist or not. Though English travellers--amongst others, Addison,
+Smollett, and Sterne--passed through the country in the course of last
+century, they took no note of the people of the valleys. And this
+state of general ignorance as to the district continued down to within
+about the last fifty years, when quite a new interest was imparted to
+the subject through the labours and researches of the late Dr. Gilly,
+Prebendary of Durham.
+
+It happened that that gentleman was present at a meeting of the
+Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, in the year 1820, when a
+very touching letter was read to the board, signed "Frederick Peyrani,
+minister of Pramol," requesting the assistance of the society in
+supplying books to the Vaudois churches of Piedmont, who were
+described as maintaining a very hard struggle with poverty and
+oppression. Dr. Gilly was greatly interested by the reading of this
+letter. Indeed, the subject of it so strongly arrested his attention,
+that he says it "took complete possession of him." He proceeded to
+make search for information about the Vaudois, but could find very
+little that was definite or satisfactory respecting them. Then it was
+that he formed the determination of visiting the valleys and
+ascertaining the actual condition of the people in person.
+
+His visit was made in 1823, and in the course of the following year
+Dr. Gilly published the result in his "Narrative of an Excursion to
+the Mountains of Piedmont." The book excited much interest, not only
+in England, but in other countries; and a movement was shortly after
+set on foot for the relief and assistance of the Vaudois. A committee
+was formed, and a fund was raised--to which the Emperor of Russia and
+the Kings of Prussia and Holland contributed--with the object, in the
+first place, of erecting a hospital for the sick and infirm Vaudois at
+La Tour, in the valley of Luzern. It turned out that the money raised
+was not only sufficient for this purpose, but also to provide schools
+and a college for the education of pastors, which were shortly after
+erected at the same place.
+
+In 1829, Dr. Gilly made a second visit to the Piedmontese valleys,
+partly in order to ascertain how far the aid thus rendered to the poor
+Vaudois had proved effectual, and also to judge in what way certain
+further sums placed at his disposal might best be employed for their
+benefit.[98] It was in the course of his second visit that Dr. Gilly
+became aware of the fact that the Vaudois were not confined to the
+valleys of Piedmont, but that numerous traces of them were also to be
+found on the French side of the Alps, in Dauphiny and Provence. He
+accordingly extended his journey across the Col de la Croix into
+France, and cursorily visited the old Vaudois district of Val
+Fressinieres and Val Queyras, of which an account will be given in the
+following chapters. It was while on this journey that Dr. Gilly became
+acquainted with the self-denying labours of the good Felix Neff among
+those poor outlying Christians, with whose life and character he was
+so fascinated that he afterwards wrote and published the memoir of
+Neff, so well known to English readers.
+
+         [Footnote 98: Dr. Gilly's narrative of his second visit to
+         the valleys was published in 1831, under the title of
+         "Waldensian Researches."]
+
+Since that time occasional efforts have been made in aid of the French
+Vaudois, though those on the Italian side have heretofore commanded by
+far the larger share of interest. There have been several reasons for
+this. In the first place, the French valleys are much less accessible;
+the roads through some of the most interesting valleys are so bad that
+they can only be travelled on foot, being scarcely practicable even
+for mules. There is no good hotel accommodation in the district, only
+_auberges_, and these of an indifferent character. The people are also
+more scattered, and even poorer than they are on the Italian side of
+the Alps. Then the climate is much more severe, from the greater
+elevation of the sites of most of the Vaudois villages; so that when
+pastors were induced to settle there, the cold, and sterility, and
+want of domestic accommodation, soon drove them away. It was to the
+rigour of the climate that Felix Neff was eventually compelled to
+succumb.
+
+Yet much has been done of late years for the amelioration of the
+French Vaudois; and among the most zealous workers in their behalf
+have been the Rev. Mr. Freemantle, rector of Claydon, Bucks, and Mr.
+Edward Milsom, the well-known merchant of Lyons. It was in the year
+1851 that the Rev. Mr. Freemantle first visited the Vaudois of
+Dauphiny. His attention was drawn to the subject while editing the
+memoir of a young English clergyman, the Rev. Spencer Thornton, who
+had taken Felix Neff for his model; and he was thereby induced to
+visit the scene of Neff's labours, and to institute a movement on
+behalf of the people of the French valleys, which has issued in the
+erection of schools, churches, and pastors' dwellings in several of
+the most destitute places.
+
+It is curious and interesting to trace the influence of personal
+example on human life and action. As the example of Oberlin in the Ban
+de la Roche inspired Felix Neff to action, so the life of Felix Neff
+inspired that of Spencer Thornton, and eventually led Mr. Freemantle
+to enter upon the work of extending evangelization among the Vaudois.
+In like manner, a young French pastor, M. Bost, also influenced by the
+life and labours of Neff, visited the valleys some years since, and
+wrote a book on the subject, the perusal of which induced Mr. Milsom
+to lend a hand to the work which the young Genevese missionary had
+begun. And thus good example goes on ever propagating itself; and
+though the tombstone may record "Hic jacet" over the crumbling dust of
+the departed, his spirit still lives and works through other
+minds--stimulates them to action, and inspires them with
+hope--"allures to brighter worlds, and leads the way."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+A few words as to the origin of these fragmentary papers. In chalking
+out a summer holiday trip, one likes to get quite away from the
+ordinary round of daily life and business. Half the benefits of such a
+trip consists in getting out of the old ruts, and breathing fresh air
+amidst new surroundings. But this is very difficult if you follow the
+ordinary tourist's track. London goes with you and elbows you on your
+way, accompanied by swarms of commissionaires, guides, and beggars.
+You encounter London people on the Righi, on the Wengern Alp, and
+especially at Chamouni. Think of being asked, as I once was on
+entering the Pavilion at Montanvert, after crossing the Mer de Glace
+from the Mauvais Pas, "Pray, can you tell me what was the price of
+Brighton stock when you left town?"
+
+There is no risk of such rencontres in Dauphiny, whose valleys remain
+in almost as primitive a state as they were hundreds of years ago.
+Accordingly, when my friend Mr. Milsom, above mentioned, invited me to
+accompany him in one of his periodical visits to the country of the
+Vaudois, I embraced the opportunity with pleasure. I was cautioned
+beforehand as to the inferior accommodation provided for travellers
+through the district. Tourists being unknown there, the route is not
+padded and cushioned as it is on all the beaten continental rounds.
+English is not spoken; Bass's pale ale has not yet penetrated into
+Dauphiny; nor do you encounter London tourists carrying their tin
+baths about with them as you do in Switzerland. Only an occasional
+negotiant comes up from Gap or Grenoble, seeking orders in the
+villages, for whom the ordinary auberges suffice.
+
+Where the roads are practicable, an old-fashioned diligence may
+occasionally be seen plodding along, freighted with villagers bound
+for some local market; but the roads are, for the most part, as silent
+as the desert.
+
+Such being the case, the traveller in the valleys must be prepared to
+"rough it" a little. I was directed to bring with me only a light
+knapsack, a pair of stout hob-nailed shoes, a large stock of patience,
+and a small parcel of insect powder. The knapsack and the shoes I
+found exceedingly useful, indeed indispensable; but I had very little
+occasion to draw upon either my stock of patience or insect powder.
+The French are a tidy people, and though their beds, stuffed with
+maize chaff, may be hard, they are tolerably clean. The food provided
+in the auberges is doubtless very different from what one is
+accustomed to at home; but with the help of cheerfulness and a good
+digestion that difficulty too may be got over.
+
+Indeed, among the things that most strikes a traveller through France,
+as characteristic of the people, is the skill with which persons of
+even the poorest classes prepare and serve up food. The French women
+are careful economists and excellent cooks. Nothing is wasted. The
+_pot au feu_ is always kept simmering on the hob, and, with the help
+of a hunch of bread, a good meal may at any time be made from it. Even
+in the humblest auberge, in the least frequented district, the dinner
+served up is of a quality such as can very rarely be had in any
+English public-house, or even in most of our country inns. Cooking
+seems to be one of the lost arts of England, if indeed it ever
+possessed it; and our people are in the habit, through want of
+knowledge, of probably _wasting_ more food than would sustain many
+another nation. But in the great system of National Education that is
+to be, no one dreams of including as a branch of it skill in the
+preparation and economy in the use of human food.
+
+There is another thing that the traveller through France may always
+depend upon, and that is civility. The politeness of even the French
+poor to each other is charming. They respect themselves, and they
+respect each other. I have seen in France what I have not yet seen in
+England--young working men walking out their aged mothers arm in arm
+in the evening, to hear the band play in the "Place," or to take a
+turn on the public promenade. But the French are equally polite to
+strangers. A stranger lady may travel all through the rural districts
+of France, and never encounter a rude look; a stranger gentleman, and
+never receive a rude word. That the French are a self-respecting
+people is also evinced by the fact that they are a sober people.
+Drunkenness is scarcely known in France; and one may travel all
+through it and never witness the degrading sight of a drunken man.
+
+The French are also honest and thrifty, and exceedingly hard-working.
+The industry of the people is unceasing. Indeed it is excessive; for
+they work Sunday and Saturday. Sunday has long ceased to be a Sabbath
+in France. There is no day of rest there. Before the Revolution, the
+saints' days which the Church ordered to be observed so encroached
+upon the hours required for labour, that in course of time Sunday
+became an ordinary working day. And when the Revolution abolished
+saints' days and Sabbath days alike, Sunday work became an established
+practice.
+
+What the so-called friends of the working classes are aiming at in
+England, has already been effected in France. The public museums and
+picture-galleries are open on Sunday. But you look for the working
+people there in vain. They are at work in the factories, whose
+chimneys are smoking as usual; or building houses, or working in the
+fields, or they are engaged in the various departments of labour. The
+government works all go on as usual on Sundays. The railway trains run
+precisely as on week days. In short, the Sunday is secularised, or
+regarded but as a partial holiday.[99]
+
+         [Footnote 99: I find the following under the signature of "An
+         Operative Bricklayer," in the _Times_ of the 30th July, 1867:
+         "I found there were a great number of men in Paris that
+         worked on the buildings who were not residents of the city.
+         The bricklayers are called _limousins_; they come from the
+         old province Le Limousin, where they keep their home, and
+         many of them are landowners. They work in Paris in the summer
+         time; they come up in large numbers, hire a place in Paris,
+         and live together, and by so doing they live cheap. In the
+         winter time, when they cannot work on the buildings, they go
+         back home again and take their savings, and stop there until
+         the spring, which is far better than it is in London; when
+         the men cannot work they are hanging about the streets. It
+         was with regret that I saw so many working on the Sunday
+         desecrating the Sabbath. I inquired why they worked on
+         Sunday; they told me it was to make up the time they lose
+         through wet and other causes. I saw some working with only
+         their trousers and shoes on, with a belt round their waist to
+         keep their trousers up. Their naked back was exposed to the
+         sun, and was as brown as if it had been dyed, and shone as if
+         it had been varnished. I asked if they had any hard-working
+         hearty old men. They answered me "No; the men were completely
+         worn out by the time they reached forty years." That was a
+         clear proof that they work against the laws of nature. I
+         thought to myself--Glory be to you, O Englishmen, you know
+         the Fourth Commandment; you know the value of the seventh
+         day, the day of rest!"]
+
+As you pass through the country on Sundays, as on week-days, you see
+the people toiling in the fields. And as dusk draws on, the dark
+figures may be seen moving about so long as there is light to see by.
+It is the peasants working the land, and it is _their own_. Such is
+the "magical influence of property," said Arthur Young, when he
+observed the same thing.
+
+It is to be feared, however, that the French peasantry are afflicted
+with the disease which Sir Walter Scott called the "earth-hunger;" and
+there is danger of the gravel getting into their souls. Anyhow, their
+continuous devotion to bodily labour, without a seventh day's rest,
+cannot fail to exercise a deteriorating effect upon their physical as
+well as their moral condition; and this we believe it is which gives
+to the men, and especially to the women of the country, the look of a
+prematurely old and overworked race.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+THE VALLEY OF THE ROMANCHE--BRIANCON.
+
+
+The route from Grenoble to the frontier fortress of Briancon lies for
+the most part up the valley of the Romanche, which presents a variety
+of wild and beautiful scenery. In summer the river is confined within
+comparatively narrow limits; but in autumn and spring it is often a
+furious torrent, flooding the low-lying lands, and forcing for itself
+new channels. The mountain heights which bound it, being composed for
+the most part of schist, mica slate, and talcose slate, large masses
+become detached in winter--split off by the freezing of the water
+behind them--when they descend, on the coming of thaw, in terrible
+avalanches of stone and mud. Sometimes the masses are such as to dam
+up the river and form temporary lakes, until the accumulation of force
+behind bursts the barrier, and a furious flood rushes down the valley.
+By one of such floods, which occurred a few centuries since, through
+the bursting of the hike of St. Laurent in the valley of the Romanche,
+a large part of Grenoble was swept away, and many of the inhabitants
+were drowned.
+
+The valley of the Romanche is no sooner entered, a few miles above
+Grenoble, than the mountains begin to close, the scenery becomes
+wilder, and the fury of the torrent is evinced by the masses of debris
+strewed along its bed. Shortly after passing the picturesque defile
+called L'Etroit, where the river rushes through a deep cleft in the
+rocks, the valley opens out again, and we shortly come in sight of the
+ancient town of Vizille--the most prominent building in which is the
+chateau of the famous Duc de Lesdiguieres, governor of the province in
+the reign of Henry IV., and Constable of France in that of Louis XIII.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Wherever you go in Dauphiny, you come upon the footmarks of this great
+soldier. At Grenoble there is the Constable's palace, now the
+Prefecture; and the beautiful grounds adjoining it, laid out by
+himself, are now the public gardens of the town. Between Grenoble and
+Vizille there is the old road constructed by him, still known as "Le
+chemin du Connetable." At St. Bonnet, in the valley of the Drac,
+formerly an almost exclusively Protestant town, known as "the Geneva
+of the High Alps," you are shown the house in which the Constable was
+born; and a little lower down the same valley, in the commune of
+Glaizil, on a hill overlooking the Drac, stand the ruins of the family
+castle; where the Constable was buried. The people of the commune were
+in the practice of carrying away the bones from the family vault,
+believing them to possess some virtue as relics, until the prefect of
+the High Alps ordered it to be walled up to prevent the entire removal
+of the skeletons.
+
+In the early part of his career, Lesdiguieres was one of the most
+trusted chiefs of Henry of Navarre, often leading his Huguenot
+soldiers to victory; capturing town after town, and eventually
+securing possession of the entire province of Dauphiny, of which
+Henry appointed him governor. In that capacity he carried out many
+important public works--made roads, built bridges, erected fourteen
+fortresses, and enlarged and beautified his palace at Grenoble and his
+chateau at Vizille. He enjoyed great popularity during his life, and
+was known throughout his province as "King of the Mountains." But he
+did not continue staunch either to his party or his faith. As in the
+case of many of the aristocratic leaders of those times, Lesdiguieres'
+religion was only skin deep. It was but a party emblem--a flag to
+fight under, not a faith to live by. So, when ambition tempted him,
+and the Constable's baton dangled before his eyes, it cost the old
+soldier but little compunction to abandon the cause which he had so
+brilliantly served in his youth. To secure the prize which he so
+coveted, he made public abjuration of his faith in the church, of St.
+Andrew's at Grenoble in 1622, in the presence of the Marquis de
+Crequi, the minister of Louis XIII., who, immediately after
+Lesdiguieres' first mass, presented him with the Constable's baton.
+
+But the Lesdiguieres family has long since passed away, and left no
+traces. At the Revolution, the Constable's tomb was burst open, and
+his coffin torn up. His monument was afterwards removed to Gap, which,
+when a Huguenot, he had stormed and ravaged. His chateau at Vizille
+passed through different hands, until in 1775 it came into the
+possession of the Perier family, to which the celebrated Casimir
+Perier belonged. The great Gothic hall of the chateau has witnessed
+many strange scenes. In 1623, shortly after his investment as
+Constable, Lesdiguieres entertained Louis XIII. and his court there,
+while on his journey into Italy, in the course of which he so
+grievously ravaged the Vaudois villages. In 1788, the Estates of
+Dauphiny met there, and prepared the first bold remonstrance against
+aristocratic privileges, and in favour of popular representation,
+which, in a measure, proved the commencement of the great Revolution.
+And there too, in 1822, Felix Neff preached to large congregations,
+who were so anxious and attentive that he always after spoke of the
+place as his "dear Vizille;" and now, to wind up the vicissitudes of
+the great hall, it is used as a place for the printing of Bandana
+handkerchiefs!
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+When Neff made his flying visits to Vizille, he was temporarily
+stationed at Mens, which was the scene of his first labours in
+Dauphiny. The place lies not far from Vizille, away among the
+mountains towards the south. During the wars of religion, and more
+especially after the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes, Mens became a
+place of refuge for the Protestants, who still form about one-half of
+its population. Although, during the long dark period of religious
+persecution which followed the Revocation, the Protestants of Mens and
+the neighbouring villages did not dare to show themselves, and
+worshipped, if at all, only in their dwellings, in secret, or in "the
+Desert," no sooner did the Revolution set them at liberty than they
+formed themselves again into churches, and appointed pastors; and it
+was to serve them temporarily in that capacity that Felix Neff first
+went amongst them, and laboured there and at Vizille with such good
+effect.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Not far from Mens is a place which has made much more noise in the
+world--no other than La Salette, the scene of the latest Roman
+"miracle." La Salette is one of the side-valleys of the large valley
+of the Drac, which joins the Romanche a few miles above Grenoble.
+There is no village of La Salette, but a commune, which is somewhat
+appropriately called La Salette-Fallavaux, the latter word being from
+_fallax vallis_, or "the lying valley."
+
+About twenty-seven years ago, on the 19th of September, 1846, two
+children belonging to the hamlet of Abladens--the one a girl of
+fourteen, the other a boy of twelve years old--came down from the
+lofty pasturage of Mont Gargas, where they had been herding cattle,
+and told the following strange story. They had seen the Virgin Mary
+descend from heaven with a crucifix suspended from her neck by a gold
+chain, and a hammer and pincers suspended from the chain, but without
+any visible support. The figure sat down upon a large stone, and wept
+so piteously as shortly to fill a large pool with her tears.
+
+When the story was noised abroad, people came from all quarters, and
+went up the mountain to see where the Virgin had sat. The stone was
+soon broken off in chips and carried away as relics, but the fountain
+filled with the tears is still there, tasting very much, like ordinary
+spring water.
+
+Two priests of Grenoble, disgusted at what they believed to be an
+imposition, accused a young person of the neighbourhood, one Mdlle. de
+Lamerliere, as being the real author of the pretended miracle, on
+which she commenced an action against them for defamation of
+character. She brought the celebrated advocate Jules Favre from Paris
+to plead her cause, but the verdict was given in favour of the two
+priests. The "miracle" was an imposture!
+
+Notwithstanding this circumstance, the miracle came to be generally
+believed in the neighbourhood. The number of persons who resorted to
+the place with money in their pockets steadily increased. The question
+was then taken up by the local priests, who vouched for the
+authenticity of the miracle seen by the two children. The miracle was
+next accepted by Rome.[100] A church was built on the spot by means of
+the contributions of the visitors--L'Eglise de la Salette--and thither
+pilgrims annually resort in great numbers, the more devout climbing
+the hill, from station to station, on their knees. As many as four
+thousand persons of both sexes, and of various ages, have been known
+to climb the hill in one day--on the anniversary of the appearance of
+the apparition--notwithstanding the extreme steepness and difficulties
+of the ascent.
+
+         [Footnote 100: An authorised account was prepared by Cardinal
+         Wiseman for English readers, entitled "Manual of the
+         Association of our Lady of Reconciliation of La Salette," and
+         published as a tract by Burns, 17, Portman Street, in 1853.
+         Since I passed through the country in 1869, the Germans have
+         invaded France, the surrender has occurred at Sedan, the
+         Commune has been defeated at Paris, but Our Lady of La
+         Salette is greater than ever. A temple of enormous dimensions
+         has risen in her honour; the pilgrims number over 100,000
+         yearly, and the sale of the water from the Holy Well, said to
+         have sprung from the Virgin's tears, realises more than
+         L12,000. Since the success of La Salette, the Virgin has been
+         making repeated appearances in France. Her last appearance
+         was in a part of Alsace which is strictly Catholic. The
+         Virgin appeared, as usual, to a boy of the mature age of six,
+         "dressed in black, floating in the air, her hands bound with
+         chains,"--a pretty strong religio-political hint. When a
+         party of the 5th Bavarian Cavalry was posted in Bettweiler,
+         the Virgin ceased to make her appearance.]
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+As a pendant to this story, another may be given of an entirely
+different character, relating to the inhabitants of another commune in
+the same valley, about midway between La Salette and Grenoble. In
+1860, while the discussion about the miracle at La Salette was still
+in progress, the inhabitants of Notre-Dame-de-Comiers, dissatisfied
+with the conduct of their cure, invited M. Fermaud, pastor of the
+Protestant church at Grenoble, to come over and preach to them, as
+they were desirous of embracing Protestantism. The pastor, supposing
+that they were influenced by merely temporary irritation against their
+cure, cautioned the deputation that waited upon him as to the gravity
+of their decision in such a matter, and asked them to reflect further
+upon it.
+
+For several years M. Fermaud continued to maintain the same attitude,
+until, in 1865, a formal petition was delivered to him by the mayor of
+the place, signed by forty-three heads of families, and by nine out of
+the ten members of the council of the commune, urging him to send them
+over a minister of the evangelical religion. Even then he hesitated,
+and recommended the memorialists to appeal to the bishop of the
+diocese for redress of the wrongs of which he knew they complained,
+but in vain, until at length, in the beginning of 1868, with the
+sanction of the consistory of Grenoble a minister was sent over to
+Comiers to perform the first acts of Protestant worship, including
+baptism and marriage; and it was not until October in the same year
+that Pastor Fermaud himself went thither to administer the sacrament
+to the new church.
+
+The service was conducted in the public hall of the commune, and was
+attended by a large number of persons belonging to the town and
+neighbourhood. The local clergy tried in vain to check the movement.
+Quite recently, when the cure entered one of the schools to inscribe
+the names of the children who were to attend their first mass, out of
+fifteen of the proper age eleven answered to the interrogatory of the
+priest, "Monsieur, nous sommes Protestantes." The movement has also
+extended into the neighbouring communes, helped by the zeal of the new
+converts, one of whom is known in the neighbourhood as "Pere la
+Bible," and it is possible that before long it may even extend to La
+Salette itself.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The route from Vizille up the valley of the Romanche continues hemmed
+in by rugged mountains, in some places almost overhanging the river.
+At Sechilienne it opens out sufficiently to afford space for a
+terraced garden, amidst which stands a handsome chateau, flanked by
+two massive towers, commanding a beautiful prospect down the valley.
+The abundant water which rushes down from the mountain behind is
+partly collected in a reservoir, and employed to feed a _jet d'eau_
+which rises in a lofty column under the castle windows. Further up,
+the valley again contracts, until the Gorge de Loiret is passed. The
+road then crosses to the left bank, and used to be continued along it,
+but the terrible torrent of 1868 washed it away for miles, and it has
+not yet been reconstructed. Temporary bridges enable the route to be
+pursued by the old road on the right bank, and after passing through
+several hamlets of little interest, we arrive at length at the
+cultivated plain hemmed in by lofty mountains, in the midst of which
+Bourg d'Oisans lies seated.
+
+This little plain was formerly occupied by the lake of St. Laurent,
+formed by the barrier of rocks and debris which had tumbled down from
+the flank of the Petite Voudene, a precipitous mountain escarpment
+overhanging the river. At this place, the strata are laid completely
+bare, and may be read like a book. For some distance along the valley
+they exhibit the most extraordinary contortions and dislocations,
+impressing the mind with the enormous natural forces that must have
+been at work to occasion such tremendous upheavings and disruptions.
+Elie de Beaumont, the French geologist, who has carefully examined the
+district, says that at the Montagne d'Oisans he found the granite in
+some places resting upon the limestone, cutting through the Calcareous
+beds, rising like a wall and lapping over them.
+
+On arriving at Bourg d'Oisans, we put up at the Hotel de Milan close
+by the bridge; but though dignified with the name of hotel, it is only
+a common roadside inn. Still, it is tolerably clean, and in summer the
+want of carpets is not missed. The people were civil and attentive,
+their bread wholesome, their pottage and bouilli good--being such fare
+as the people of the locality contrive to live and thrive upon. The
+accommodation of the place is, indeed, quite equal to the demand; for
+very few travellers accustomed to a better style of living pass that
+way. When the landlady was asked if many tourists had passed this
+year, she replied, "Tourists! We rarely see such travellers here. You
+are the first this season, and perhaps you may be the last."
+
+Yet these valleys are well worthy of a visit, and an influx of
+tourists would doubtless have the same effect that it has already had
+in Switzerland and elsewhere, of greatly improving the hotel
+accommodation throughout the district. There are many domestic
+arrangements, costing very little money, but greatly ministering to
+cleanliness and comfort, which might very readily be provided. But the
+people themselves are indifferent to them, and they need the requisite
+stimulus of "pressure from without." One of the most prominent
+defects--common to all the inns of Dauphiny--having been brought
+under the notice of the landlady, she replied, "C'est vrai, monsieur;
+mais--il laisse quelque chose a desirer!" How neatly evaded! The very
+defect was itself an advantage! What would life be--what would hotels
+be--if there were not "something left to be desired!"
+
+The view from the inn at the bridge is really charming. The little
+river which runs down the valley, and becomes lost in the distance, is
+finally fringed with trees--alder, birch, and chestnut. Ridge upon
+ridge of mountain rises up behind on the right hand and the left, the
+lower clothed with patches of green larch, and the upper with dark
+pine. Above all are ranges of jagged and grey rocks, shooting up in
+many places into lofty peaks. The setting sun, shining across the face
+of the mountain opposite, brings out the prominent masses in bold
+relief, while the valley beneath hovers between light and shadow,
+changing almost from one second to another as the sun goes down. In
+the cool of the evening, we walked through the fields across the
+plain, to see the torrent, visible from the village, which rushes from
+the rocky gorge on the mountain-side to join its waters to the
+Romanche. All along the valleys, water abounds--sometimes bounding
+from the heights, in jets, in rivulets, in masses, leaping from rock
+to rock, and reaching the ground only in white clouds of spray, or, as
+in the case of the little river which flows alongside the inn at the
+bridge, bursting directly from the ground in a continuous spring;
+these waterfalls, and streams, and springs being fed all the year
+through by the immense glaciers that fill the hollows of the mountains
+on either side the valley.
+
+Though the scenery of Bourg d'Oisans is not, as its eulogists allege,
+equal to that of Switzerland, it will at least stand a comparison
+with that of Savoy. Its mountains are more precipitous and abrupt, its
+peaks more jagged, and its aspect more savage and wild. The scenery of
+Mont Pelvoux, which is best approached from Bourg d'Oisans, is
+especially grand and sublime, though of a wild and desolate character.
+The road from Bourg d'Oisans to Briancon also presents some
+magnificent scenery; and there is one part of it that is not perhaps
+surpassed even by the famous Via Mala leading up to the Spluegen. It is
+about three miles above Bourg d'Oisans, from which we started early
+next morning. There the road leaves the plain and enters the wild
+gorge of Freney, climbing by a steep road up the Rampe des Commieres.
+The view from the height when gained is really superb, commanding an
+extremely bold and picturesque valley, hemmed in by mountains. The
+ledges on the hillsides spread out in some places so as to afford
+sufficient breadths for cultivation; occasional hamlets appear amidst
+the fields and pine-woods; and far up, between you and the sky, an
+occasional church spire peeps up, indicating still loftier
+settlements, though how the people contrive to climb up to those
+heights is a wonder to the spectator who views them from below.
+
+The route follows the profile of the mountain, winding in and out
+along its rugged face, scarped and blasted so as to form the road. At
+one place it passes along a gallery about six hundred feet in length,
+cut through a precipitous rock overhanging the river, which dashes,
+roaring and foaming, more than a thousand feet below, through the
+rocky abyss of the Gorge de l'Infernet. Perhaps there is nothing to be
+seen in Switzerland finer of its kind than the succession of charming
+landscapes which meet the eye in descending this pass.
+
+Beyond the village of Freney we enter another defile, so narrow that
+in places there is room only for the river and the road; and in winter
+the river sometimes plays sad havoc with the engineer's constructions.
+Above this gorge, the Romanche is joined by the Ferrand, an impetuous
+torrent which comes down from the glaciers of the Grand Rousses.
+Immediately over their point of confluence, seated on a lofty
+promontory, is the village of Mizoen--a place which, because of the
+outlook it commands, as well as because of its natural strength, was
+one of the places in which the Vaudois were accustomed to take refuge
+in the times of the persecutions. Further on, we pass through another
+gallery in the rock, then across the little green valley of Chambon to
+Le Dauphin, after which the scenery becomes wilder, the valley--here
+called the Combe de Malaval (the "Cursed Valley")--rocky and sterile,
+the only feature to enliven it being the Cascade de la Pisse, which
+falls from a height of over six hundred feet, first in one jet, then
+becomes split by a projecting rock into two, and finally reaches the
+ground in a shower of spray. Shortly after we pass another cascade,
+that of the Riftort, which also joins the Romanche, and marks the
+boundary between the department of the Isere and that of the Hautes
+Alpes, which we now enter.
+
+More waterfalls--the Sau de la Pucelle, which falls from a height of
+some two hundred and fifty feet, resembling the Staubbach--besides
+rivulets without number, running down the mountain-sides like silver
+threads; until we arrive at La Grave, a village about five thousand
+feet above the sea-level, directly opposite the grand glaciers of
+Tabuchet, Pacave, and Vallon, which almost overhang the Romanche,
+descending from the steep slopes of the gigantic Aiguille du Midi, the
+highest mountain in the French Alps,--being over 13,200 feet above
+the level of the sea.
+
+After resting some two hours at La Grave, we proceeded by the two
+tunnels under the hamlet of Ventelong--one of which is 650 and the
+other 1,800 feet long--to the village of Villard d'Arene, which,
+though some five thousand feet above the level of the sea, is so
+surrounded by lofty mountains that for months together the sun never
+shines on it. From thence a gradual ascent leads up to the summit of
+the Col de Lauteret, which divides the valley of the Romanche from
+that of the Guisanne. The pastures along the mountain-side are of the
+richest verdure; and so many rare and beautiful plants are found
+growing there that M. Rousillon has described it as a "very botanical
+Eden." Here Jean Jacques Rousseau delighted to herborize, and here the
+celebrated botanist Mathonnet, originally a customs officer, born at
+the haggard village of Villard d'Arene, which we have just passed,
+cultivated his taste for natural history, and laid the foundations of
+his European reputation. The variety of temperature which exists along
+the mountain-side, from the bottom to the summit, its exposure to the
+full rays of the sun in some places, and its sheltered aspect in
+others, facilitate the growth of an extraordinary variety of beautiful
+plants and wild flowers. In the low grounds meridional plants
+flourish; on the middle slopes those of genial climates; while on the
+summit are found specimens of the flora of Lapland and Greenland. Thus
+almost every variety of flowers is represented in this brilliant
+natural garden--orchids, cruciferae, leguminae, rosaceae, caryophyllae,
+lilies of various kinds, saxifrages, anemones, ranunculuses, swertia,
+primula, varieties of the sedum, some of which are peculiar to this
+mountain, and are elsewhere unknown.
+
+After passing the Hospice near the summit of the Col, the valley of
+the Guisanne comes in sight, showing a line of bare and rugged
+mountains on the right hand and on the left, with a narrow strip of
+land in the bottom, in many parts strewn with stones carried down by
+the avalanches from the cliffs above. Shortly we come in sight of the
+distant ramparts of Briancon, apparently closing in the valley, the
+snow-clad peak of Monte Viso rising in the distance. Halfway between
+the Col and Briancon we pass through the village of Monestier, where,
+being a saint's day, the bulk of the population are in the street,
+holding festival. The place was originally a Roman station, and the
+people still give indications of their origin, being extremely
+swarthy, black-haired, and large-eyed, evidently much more Italian
+than French.
+
+But though the villagers of Monestier were taking holiday, no one can
+reproach them with idleness. Never was there a more hard-working
+people than the peasantry of these valleys. Every little patch of
+ground that the plough or spade can be got into is turned to account.
+The piles of stone and rock collected by the sides of the fields
+testify to the industry of the people in clearing the soil for
+culture. And their farming is carried on in the face of difficulties
+and discouragements of no ordinary character, for sometimes the soil
+of many of the little farms will be swept away in a night by an
+avalanche of snow in winter or of stones in spring. The wrecks of
+fields are visible all along the valley, especially at its upper part.
+Lower down it widens, and affords greater room for culture; the sides
+of the mountains become better wooded; and, as we approach the
+fortress of Briancon, with its battlements seemingly piled one over
+the other up the mountain-sides, the landscape becomes exceedingly
+bold and picturesque.
+
+When passing the village of Villeneuve la Salle, a few miles from
+Briancon, we were pointed to a spot on the opposite mountain-side,
+over the pathway leading to the Col de l'Echuada, where a cavern was
+discovered a few years since, which, upon examination, was found to
+contain a considerable quantity of human bones. It was one of the
+caves in which the hunted Vaudois were accustomed to take refuge
+during the persecutions; and it continued to be called by the
+peasantry "La Roche armee"--the name being thus perpetuated, though
+the circumstances in which it originated had been forgotten.
+
+The fortress of Briancon, which we entered by a narrow winding roadway
+round the western rampart, is the frontier fortress which guards the
+pass from Italy into France by the road over Mont Genevre. It must
+always have been a strong place by nature, overlooking as it does the
+valley of the Durance on the one hand, and the mountain road from
+Italy on the other, while the river Clairee, running in a deep defile,
+cuts it off from the high ground to the south and east. The highest
+part of the town is the citadel, or Fort du Chateau, built upon a peak
+of rock on the site of the ancient castle. It was doubtless the
+nucleus round which the early town became clustered, until it filled
+the lower plateau to the verge of the walls and battlements. There
+being no room for the town to expand, the houses are closely packed
+together and squeezed up, as it were, so as to occupy the smallest
+possible space. The streets are narrow, dark, gloomy, and steep, being
+altogether impassable for carriages. The liveliest sight in the place
+is a stream of pure water, that rushes down an open conduit in the
+middle of the principal street, which is exceedingly steep and narrow.
+The town is sacrificed to the fortifications, which dominate
+everywhere. With the increasing range and power of cannon, they have
+been extended in all directions, until they occupy the flanks of the
+adjoining mountains and many of their summits, so that the original
+castle now forms but a comparatively insignificant part of the
+fortress. The most important part of the population is the
+soldiery--the red-trousered missionaries of "civilisation," according
+to the gospel of Louis Napoleon, published a short time before our
+visit.
+
+Other missionaries, are, however, at work in the town and
+neighbourhood; and both at Briancon and Villeneuve Protestant stations
+have been recently established, under the auspices of the Protestant
+Society of Lyons. In former times, the population of Briancon included
+a large number of Protestants. In the year 1575, three years after the
+massacre of St. Bartholomew, they were so numerous and wealthy as to
+be able to build a handsome temple, almost alongside the cathedral,
+and it still stands there in the street called Rue du Temple, with the
+motto over the entrance, in old French, "Cerches et vos troveres." But
+at the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes, the temple was seized by the
+King and converted into a granary, and the Protestants of the place
+were either executed, banished, or forced to conform to the Papal
+religion. Since then the voice of Protestantism has been mute in
+Briancon until within the last few years, during which a mission has
+been in operation. Some of the leading persons in the town have
+embraced the Reform faith, amongst others the professor of literature
+in the public college; but he had no sooner acknowledged to the
+authorities the fact of his conversion, than he was dismissed from his
+office, though he has since been appointed to a more important
+profession at Nice. The number of members is, however, as yet very
+small, and the mission has to contend with limited means, and to carry
+on its operations in the face of many obstructions and difficulties.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+What are the prospects of the extension of Protestantism in France?
+Various answers have been given to the question. Some think that the
+prevailing dissensions among French Protestants interpose a serious
+barrier in the way of progress. Others, more hopeful, think, that
+these divisions are only the indications of renewed life and vigour,
+of the friction of mind with mind, which evinces earnestness, and
+cannot fail to lead to increased activity and effort. The observations
+of a young Protestant pastor on this point are worth repeating.
+"Protestantism," said he, "is based on individualism: it recognises
+the free action of the human mind; and so long as the mind acts freely
+there will be controversy. The end of controversy is death. True,
+there is much incredulity abroad; but the incredulity is occasioned by
+the incredibilities of Popery. Let the ground once be cleared by free
+inquiry, and our Church will rise up amidst the ruins of superstition
+and unbelief, for man _must_ have religion; only it must be consistent
+with reason on the one hand, and with Divine revelation on the other.
+I for one do not fear the fullest and freest inquiry, having the most
+perfect confidence in the triumph of the truth."
+
+It is alleged by others that the bald form in which Protestantism is
+for the most part presented abroad, is not conformable with the
+"genius" of the men of Celtic and Latin race. However this may be, it
+is too generally the case that where Frenchmen, like Italians and
+Spaniards, throw off Roman Catholicism, they do not stop at rejecting
+its superstitions, but reject religion itself. They find no
+intermediate standpoint in Protestantism, but fly off into the void of
+utter unbelief. The same tendency characterizes them in politics. They
+seem to oscillate between Caesarism and Red Republicanism; aiming not
+at reform so much as revolution. They are averse to any _via media_.
+When they have tried constitutionalism, they have broken down. So it
+has been with Protestantism, the constitutionalism of Christianity.
+The Huguenots at one time constituted a great power in France; but
+despotism in politics and religion proved too strong for them, and
+they were persecuted, banished, and stamped for a time out of
+existence, or at least out of sight.
+
+Protestantism was more successful in Germany. Was it because it was
+more conformable to the "genius" of its people? When the Germans
+"protested" against the prevailing corruptions in the Church, they did
+not seek to destroy it, but to reform it. They "stood upon the old
+ways," and sought to make them broader, straighter, and purer. They
+have pursued the same course in politics. Cooler and less impulsive
+than their Gallican neighbours, they have avoided revolutions, but are
+constantly seeking reforms. Of this course England itself furnishes a
+notable example.
+
+It is certainly a remarkable fact, that the stronghold of
+Protestantism in France was recently to be found among the population
+of Germanic origin seated along the valley of the Rhine; whereas in
+the western districts Protestantism is split up by the two
+irreconcilable parties of Evangelicals and Rationalists. At the same
+time it should be borne in mind that Alsace did not become part of
+France until the year 1715, and that the Lutherans of that province
+were never exposed to the ferocious persecutions to which the
+Evangelical Protestants of Old France were subjected, before as well
+as after the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes.
+
+In Languedoc, in Dauphiny, and in the southern provinces generally,
+men and women who professed Protestantism were liable to be hanged or
+sent to the galleys, down to nearly the end of the last century. A
+Protestant pastor who exercised his vocation did so at the daily peril
+of his life. Nothing in the shape of a Protestant congregation was
+permitted to exist, and if Protestants worshipped together, it was in
+secret, in caves, in woods, among the hills, or in the "Desert." Yet
+Protestantism nevertheless contrived to exist through this long dark
+period of persecution, and even to increase. And when at length it
+became tolerated, towards the close of the last century, the numbers
+of its adherents appeared surprising to those who had imagined it to
+be altogether extinct.
+
+Indeed, looking at the persistent efforts made by Louis XIV. to
+exterminate the Huguenots, and to the fact that many hundred thousand
+of the best of them emigrated into foreign countries, while an equal
+number are supposed to have perished in prison, on the scaffold, at
+the galleys, and in their attempts to escape, it may almost be
+regarded as matter of wonder that the Eglise Reformee--the Church of
+the old Huguenots--should at the present day number about a thousand
+congregations, besides the five hundred Lutheran congregations of
+Alsatia, and that the Protestants of France should amount, in the
+whole, to about two millions of souls.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+VAL LOUISE--HISTORY OF FELIX NEFF.
+
+
+Some eight miles south of Briancon, on the road to Fort Dauphin, a
+little river called the Gyronde comes down from the glaciers of Mont
+Pelvoux, and falls into the Durance nearly opposite the village of La
+Bessie. This river flows through Val Louise, the entrance into which
+can be discerned towards the northwest. Near the junction of the
+rivers, the ruins of an embattled wall, with entrenchments, are
+observed extending across the valley of the Durance, a little below
+the narrow pass called the "Pertuis-Rostan," evidently designed to
+close it against an army advancing from the south. The country people
+still call those ruins the "Walls of the Vaudois;"[101] and according
+to tradition a great Vaudois battle was fought there; but of any such
+battle history makes no mention.
+
+         [Footnote 101: A gap in the mountain-wall to the left, nearly
+         over La Bessie, is still known as "La Porte de Hannibal,"
+         through which, it is conjectured, that general led his army.
+         But opinion, which is much divided as to the route he took,
+         is more generally in favour of his marching up the Isere, and
+         passing into Italy by the Little St. Bernard.]
+
+Indeed, so far as can be ascertained, the Vaudois of Dauphiny rarely
+if ever fought battles. They were too few in number, too much
+scattered among the mountains, and too poor and ill-armed, to be able
+to contend against the masses of disciplined soldiery that were
+occasionally sent into the valleys. All that they did was to watch,
+from their mountain look-outs, their enemies' approach, and hide
+themselves in caves; or flee up to the foot of the glaciers till they
+had passed by. The attitude of the French Vaudois was thus for the
+most part passive; and they very rarely, like the Italian Vaudois,
+offered any determined or organized resistance to persecution. Hence
+they have no such heroic story to tell of battles and sieges and
+victories. Their heroism was displayed in patience, steadfastness, and
+long-suffering, rather than in resisting force by force; and they were
+usually ready to endure death in its most frightful forms rather than
+prove false to their faith.
+
+The ancient people of these valleys formed part of the flock of the
+Archbishop of Embrun. But history exhibits him as a very cruel
+shepherd. Thus, in 1335, there appears this remarkable entry in the
+accounts current of the bailli of Embrun: "Item, for persecuting the
+Vaudois, eight sols and thirty deniers of gold," as if the persecution
+of the Vaudois had become a regular department of the public service.
+What was done with the Vaudois when they were seized and tried at
+Embrun further appears from the records of the diocese. In 1348,
+twelve of the inhabitants of Val Louise were strangled at Embrun by
+the public executioner; and in 1393, a hundred and fifty inhabitants
+of the same valley were burned alive at the same place by order of the
+Inquisitor Borelli. But the most fatal of all the events that befell
+the inhabitants of Val Louise was that which occurred about a century
+later, in 1488, when nearly the whole of the remaining population of
+the valley were destroyed in a cavern near the foot of Mont Pelvoux.
+
+This dreadful massacre was perpetrated by a French army, under the
+direction of Albert Catanee, the papal legate. The army had been sent
+into Piedmont with the object of subjugating or destroying the Vaudois
+on the Italian side of the Alps, but had returned discomfited to
+Briancon, unable to effect their object. The legate then determined to
+take his revenge by an assault upon the helpless and unarmed French
+Vaudois, and suddenly directed his soldiers upon the valleys of
+Fressinieres and Louise. The inhabitants of the latter valley,
+surprised, and unable to resist an army of some twenty thousand men,
+abandoned their dwellings, and made for the mountains with all haste,
+accompanied by their families, and driving their flocks before them.
+On the slope of Mont Pelvoux, about a third of the way up, there was
+formerly a great cavern, on the combe of Capescure, called La
+Balme-Chapelle--though now nearly worn away by the disintegration of
+the mountain-side--in which the poor hunted people contrived to find
+shelter. They built up the approaches to the cavern, filled the
+entrance with rocks, and considered themselves to be safe. But their
+confidence proved fatal to them. The Count La Palud, who was in
+command of the troops, seeing that it was impossible to force the
+entrance, sent his men up the mountain provided with ropes; and fixing
+them so that they should hang over the mouth of the cavern, a number
+of the soldiers slid down in full equipment, landing on the ledge
+right in front of the concealed Vaudois. Seized with a sudden panic,
+and being unarmed, many of them precipitated themselves over the rocks
+and were killed. The soldiers slaughtered all whom they could reach,
+after which they proceeded to heap up wood at the cavern mouth which
+they set on fire, and thus suffocated the remainder. Perrin says four
+hundred children were afterwards found in the cavern, stifled, in the
+arms of their dead mothers, and that not fewer than three thousand
+persons were thus ruthlessly destroyed. The little property of the
+slaughtered peasants was ordered by the Pope's legate to be divided
+amongst the vagabonds who had carried out his savage orders. The
+population having been thus exterminated, the district was settled
+anew some years later, in the reign of Louis XII., who gave his name
+to the valley; and a number of "good and true Catholics," including
+many goitres and idiots,[102] occupied the dwellings and possessed the
+lands of the slaughtered Vaudois. There is an old saying that "the
+blood of the martyrs is the seed of the Church," but assuredly it does
+not apply to Val Louise, where the primitive Christian Church has been
+completely extinguished.
+
+         [Footnote 102: It has been noted that these unfortunates
+         abound most in the villages occupied by the new settlers.
+         Thus, of the population of the village of St. Crepin, in the
+         valley of the Durance, not fewer than one-tenth are deaf and
+         dumb, with a large proportion of idiots.]
+
+There were other valleys in the same neighbourhood, whither we are now
+wending, where the persecution, though equally ferocious, proved less
+destructive; the inhabitants succeeding in making their escape into
+comparatively inaccessible places in the mountains before they could
+be put to the sword. For instance, in Val Fressinieres--also opening
+into the valley of the Durance a little lower down than Val
+Louise--the Vaudois Church has never ceased to exist, and to this day
+the majority of the inhabitants belong to it. From the earliest times
+the people of the valley were distinguished for their "heresy;" and as
+early as the fourteenth century eighty persons of Fressinieres and
+the neighbouring valley of Argentieres,--willing to be martyrs rather
+than apostates,--were burnt at Embrun because of their religion. In
+the following century (1483) we find ninety-nine informations laid
+before John Lord Archbishop of Embrun against supposed heretics of Val
+Fressinieres. The suspected were ordered to wear a cross upon their
+dress, before and behind, and not to appear at church without
+displaying such crosses. But it further appears from the records,
+that, instead of wearing the crosses, most of the persons so informed
+against fled into the mountains and hid themselves away in caves for
+the space of five years.
+
+The nest steps taken by the Archbishop are described in a Latin
+manuscript,[103] of which the following is a translation:--
+
+     "Also, that in consequence of the above, the monk Francis
+     Splireti, of the order of Mendicants, Professor in Theology, was
+     deputed in the quality of Inquisitor of the said valleys; and
+     that in the year 1489, on the 1st of January, knowing that those
+     of Freyssinier had relapsed into infamous heresy, and had not
+     obeyed their orders, nor carried the cross on their dress, but on
+     the contrary had received their excommunicated and banished
+     brethren without delivering them over to the Church, sent to them
+     new citation, to which not having appeared, an adjournment of
+     their condemnation as hardened heretics, when their goods would
+     be confiscated, and themselves handed over the secular power, was
+     made to the 28th of June; but they remaining more obstinate than
+     ever, so much so that no hope remains of bringing them back, all
+     persons were forbidden to hold any communication whatsoever with
+     them without permission of the Church, and it was ordered by the
+     Procureur Fiscal that the aforesaid Inquisitor do proceed,
+     without further notice, to the execution of his office."
+
+         [Footnote 103: This was one of the MSS deposited by Samuel
+         Morland (Oliver Cromwell's ambassador to Piedmont) at
+         Cambridge in 1658, and is quoted by Jean Leger in his History
+         of the Vaudois Churches.]
+
+What the execution of the Inquisitor's office meant, is, alas! but too
+well known. Bonds and imprisonment, scourgings and burnings at Embrun.
+The poor people appealed to the King of France for help against their
+persecutors, but in vain. In 1498 the inhabitants of Fressinieres
+appeared by a procurator at Paris, on the occasion of the new
+sovereign, Louis XII., ascending the throne. But as the King was then
+seeking the favour of a divorce from his wife, Anne of Brittany, from
+Pope Alexander VI., he turned a deaf ear to their petition for mercy.
+On the contrary, Louis confirmed all the decisions of the clergy, and
+in return for the divorce which he obtained, he granted to the Pope's
+son, the infamous Caesar Borgia, that very part of Dauphiny inhabited
+by the Vaudois, together with the title of Duke of Valentinois. They
+had appealed, as it were, to the tiger for mercy, and they were
+referred to the vulture.
+
+The persecution of the people of the valleys thus suffered no
+relaxation, and all that remained for them was flight into the
+mountains, to places where they were most likely to remain unmolested.
+Hence they fled up to the very edge of the glaciers, and formed their
+settlements at almost the farthest limits of vegetation. There the
+barrenness of the soil, the inhospitality of the climate, and the
+comparative inaccessibility of their villages, proved their security.
+Of them it might be truly said, that they "wandered about in
+sheepskins and goat-skins; being destitute, afflicted, tormented (of
+whom the world was not worthy); they wandered in deserts and in
+mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth." Yet the character of
+these poor peasants was altogether irreproachable. Even Louis XII.
+said of them, "Would to God that I were as good a Christian as the
+worst of these people!" The wonder is that, in the face of their
+long-continued persecutions, extending over so many centuries, any
+remnant of the original population of the valleys should have been
+preserved. Long after the time of Louis XII. and Caesar Borgia, the
+French historian, De Thou (writing in 1556), thus describes the people
+of Val Fressinieres: "Notwithstanding their squalidness, it is
+surprising that they are very far from being uncultivated in their
+morals. They almost all understand Latin; and are able to write fairly
+enough. They understand also as much of French as will enable them to
+read the Bible and to sing psalms; nor would you easily find a boy
+among them who, if he were questioned as to the religious opinions
+which they hold in common with the Waldenses, would not be able to
+give from memory a reasonable account of them."[104]
+
+         [Footnote 104: De Thou's History, book xxvii.]
+
+After the promulgation of the Edict of Nantes, the Vaudois enjoyed a
+brief respite from their sufferings. They then erected temples,
+appointed ministers, and worshipped openly. This, however, only lasted
+for a short time, and when the Edict was revoked, and persecution
+began again, in the reign of Louis XIV., their worship was suppressed
+wherever practicable. But though the Vaudois temples were pulled down
+and their ministers banished, the Roman Catholics failed to obtain a
+footing in the valley. Some of the pastors continued to brave the fury
+of the persecutors, and wandered about from place to place among the
+scattered flocks, ministering to them at the peril of their lives.
+Rewards were offered for their apprehension, and a sort of "Hue and
+Cry" was issued by the police, describing their age, and height, and
+features, as if they had been veritable criminals. And when they were
+apprehended they were invariably hanged. As late as 1767 the
+parliament of Grenoble condemned their pastor Berenger to death for
+continuing to preach to congregations in the "Desert."
+
+This religious destitution of the Vaudois continued to exist until a
+comparatively recent period. The people were without either pastors or
+teachers, and religion had become a tradition with them rather than an
+active living faith. Still, though poor and destitute, they held to
+their traditional belief, and refused to conform to the dominant
+religion. And so they continued until within the last forty years,
+when the fact of the existence of these remnants of the ancient
+Vaudois in the valleys of the High Alps came to the knowledge of Felix
+Neff, and he determined to go to their help and devote himself to
+their service.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+One would scarcely expect to find the apostle of the High Alps in the
+person of a young Swiss soldier of artillery. Yet so it was. In his
+boyhood, Neff read Plutarch, which filled his mind with admiration of
+the deeds of the great men of old. While passing through the soldier
+phase of his career the "Memoirs of Oberlin" accidentally came under
+his notice, the perusal of which gave quite a new direction to his
+life. Becoming impressed by religion, his ambition now was to be a
+missionary. Leaving the army, in which he had reached the rank of
+sergeant at nineteen, he proceeded to prepare himself for the
+ministry, and after studying for a time, and passing his preliminary
+examinations, he was, in conformity with the custom of the Geneva
+Church, employed on probation as a lay helper in parochial work. In
+this capacity Neff first went to Mens, in the department of Isere,
+where he officiated in the absence of the regular pastor, as well as
+occasionally at Vizille, for a period of about two years.
+
+It was while residing at Mens that the young missionary first heard of
+the existence of the scattered communities of primitive Christians on
+the High Alps, descendants of the ancient Vaudois; and his mind became
+inflamed with the desire of doing for them what Oberlin had done for
+the poor Protestants of the Ban de la Roche. "I am always dreaming of
+the High Alps," he wrote to a friend, "and I would rather be stationed
+there than under the beautiful sky of Languedoc."
+
+But it was first necessary that he should receive ordination for the
+ministry; and accordingly in 1823, when in his twenty-fifth year, he
+left Mens with that object. He did not, however, seek ordination by
+the National Church of Geneva, which, in his opinion, had in a great
+measure ceased to hold Evangelical truth; but he came over to London,
+at the invitation of Mr. Cook and Mr. Wilks, two Congregational
+ministers, by whom he was duly ordained a minister in the Independent
+Chapel, Poultry.
+
+Shortly after his return to France, Neff, much to his own
+satisfaction, was invited as pastor to the very district in which he
+so much desired to minister--the most destitute in the High Alps.
+Before setting out he wrote in his journal, "To-morrow, with the
+blessing of God, I mean to push for the Alps by the sombre and
+picturesque valley of L'Oisan." After a few days, the young pastor was
+in the scene of his future labours; and he proceeded to explore hamlet
+after hamlet in search of the widely-scattered flock committed to his
+charge, and to arrange his plans for the working of his extensive
+parish.
+
+But it was more than a parish, for it embraced several of the most
+extensive, rugged, and mountainous arrondissements of the High Alps.
+Though the whole number of people in his charge did not amount to more
+than six or seven hundred, they lived at great distances from each
+other, the churches to which he ministered being in some cases as much
+as eighty miles apart, separated by gorges and mountain-passes, for
+the most part impassable in winter. Neff's district extended in one
+direction from Vars to Briancon, and in another from Champsaur in the
+valley of the Drac to San Veran on the slope of Monte Viso, close to
+the Italian frontier. His residence was fixed at La Chalp, above
+Queyras, but as he rarely slept more than three nights in one place,
+he very seldom enjoyed its seclusion.
+
+The labour which Neff imposed upon himself was immense; and it was
+especially in the poorest and most destitute districts that he worked
+the hardest. He disregarded alike the summer's heat and the winter's
+cold. His first visit to Dormilhouse, in Val Fressinieres, was made in
+January, when the mountain-paths were blocked with ice and snow; but,
+assembling the young men of the village, he went out with them armed
+with hatchets, and cut steps in the ice to enable the worshippers from
+the lower hamlets to climb up to service in the village church. The
+people who first came to hear him preach at Violens brought wisps of
+straw with them, which they lighted to guide them through the snow,
+while others, who had a greater distance to walk, brought pine
+torches.
+
+Nothing daunted, the valiant soldier, furnished with a stout staff and
+shod with heavy-nailed shoes, covered with linen socks to prevent
+slipping on the snow, would set out with his wallet on his back across
+the Col d'Orcieres in winter, in the track of the lynx and the
+chamois, with the snow and sleet beating against his face, to visit
+his people on the other side of the mountain. His patience, his
+perseverance, his sweetness of temper, were unfailing. "Ah!" said one
+unbelieving Thomas of Val Fressinieres in his mountain patois, "you
+have come among us like a woman who attempts to kindle a fire with
+green wood; she exhausts her breath in blowing it to keep the little
+flame alive, but the moment she quits it, it is instantly
+extinguished."
+
+Neff nevertheless laboured on with hope, and neither discouragement
+nor obstruction slackened his efforts. And such labours could not fail
+of their effect. He succeeded in inspiring the simple mountaineers
+with his own zeal, he evoked their love, and excited their
+enthusiastic admiration. When he returned to Dormilhouse after a brief
+absence, the whole village would turn out and come down the mountain
+to meet and embrace him. "The rocks, the cascades, nay, the very
+glaciers," he wrote to a friend, "all seemed animated, and presented a
+smiling aspect; the savage country became agreeable and dear to me
+from the moment its inhabitants were my brethren."
+
+Unresting and indefatigable, Neff was always at work. He exhorted the
+people in hovels, held schools in barns in which he taught the
+children, and catechised them in stables. His hand was in every good
+work. He taught the people to sing, he taught them to read, he taught
+them to pray. To be able to speak to them familiarly, he learnt their
+native patois, and laboured at it like a schoolboy. He worked as a
+missionary among savages. The poor mountaineers had been so long
+destitute of instruction, that everything had as it were to be begun
+with them from the beginning. Sharing in their hovels and stables,
+with their squalor and smoke, he taught them how to improve them by
+adding chimneys and windows, and showed how warmth might be obtained
+more healthfully than by huddling together in winter-time with the
+cattle. He taught them manners, and especially greater respect for
+women, inculcating the lesson by his own gentleness and tender
+deference. Out of doors, he showed how they might till the ground to
+greater advantage, and introduced an improved culture of the potato,
+which more than doubled the production. Observing how the pastures of
+Dormilhouse were scorched by the summer sun, he urged the adoption of
+a system of irrigation. The villagers were at first most obstinate in
+their opposition to his plans; but he persevered, laid out a canal,
+and succeeded at last in enlisting a body of workmen, whom he led out,
+pickaxe in hand, himself taking a foremost part in the work; and at
+last the waters were let into the canal amidst joy and triumph. At
+Violens he helped to build and finish the chapel, himself doing
+mason-work, smith-work, and carpenter-work by turns. At Dormilhouse a
+school was needed, and he showed the villagers how to build one;
+preparing the design, and taking part in the erection, until it was
+finished and ready for use. In short, he turned his hand to
+everything--nothing was too high or too low for this noble citizen of
+two worlds. At length, a serious accident almost entirely disabled
+him. While on one of his mountain journeys, he was making a detour
+amongst a mass of rocky debris, to avoid the dangers of an avalanche,
+when he had the misfortune to fall and severely sprain his knee. He
+became laid up for a time, and when able to move, he set out for his
+mother's home at Geneva, in the hope of recovering health and
+strength; for his digestive powers were also by this time seriously
+injured. When he went away, the people of the valleys felt as if they
+should never see him more; and their sorrow at his departure was
+heart-rending. After trying the baths of Plombieres without effect, he
+proceeded onwards to Geneva, which he reached only to die; and thus
+this good and noble soldier--one of the bravest of earth's
+heroes--passed away to his eternal reward at the early age of
+thirty-one.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The valley of Fressinieres--the principle scene of Neff's
+labours--joins the valley of the Durance nearly opposite the little
+hamlet of La Roche. There we leave the high road from Briancon to Fort
+Dauphin, and crossing the river by a timber bridge, ascend the steep
+mountain-side by a mule path, in order to reach the entrance to the
+valley of Fressinieres, the level of which is high above that of the
+Durance. Not many years since, the higher valley could only be
+approached from this point by a very difficult mountain-path amidst
+rocks and stones, called the Ladder, or Pas de l'Echelle. It was
+dangerous at all times, and quite impassable in winter. The mule-path
+which has lately been made, though steep, is comparatively easy.
+
+What the old path was, and what were the discomforts of travelling
+through this district in Neff's time, may be appreciated on a perusal
+of the narrative of the young pastor Bost, who in 1840 determined to
+make a sort of pilgrimage to the scenes of his friend's labours some
+seventeen years before. M. Bost, however, rather exaggerates the
+difficulties and discomforts of the valleys than otherwise. He saw no
+beauty nor grandeur in the scenery, only "horrible mountains in a
+state of dissolution" and constantly ready to fall upon the heads of
+massing travellers. He had no eyes for the picturesque though gloomy
+lake of La Roche, but saw only the miserable hamlet itself. He slept
+in the dismal little inn, as doubtless Neff had often done before, and
+was horrified by the multitudinous companions that shared his bed;
+and, tumbling out, he spent the rest of the night on the floor. The
+food was still worse--cold _cafe noir_, and bread eighteen months old,
+soaked in water before it could be eaten. His breakfast that morning
+made him ill for a week. Then his mounting up the Pas de l'Echelle,
+which he did not climb "without profound emotion," was a great trouble
+to him. Of all this we find not a word in the journals or letters of
+Neff, whose early life as a soldier had perhaps better inured him to
+"roughing it" than the more tender bringing-up of Pastor Bost.
+
+As we rounded the shoulder of the hill, almost directly overlooking
+the ancient Roman town of Rama in the valley of the Durance
+underneath, we shortly came in sight of the little hamlet of Palons, a
+group of "peasants' nests," overhung by rocks, with the one good house
+in it, the comfortable parsonage of the Protestant pastor, situated at
+the very entrance to the valley. Although the peasants' houses which
+constitute the hamlet of Palons are still very poor and miserable, the
+place has been greatly improved since Neff's time, by the erection of
+the parsonage. It was found that the pastors who were successively
+appointed to minister to the poor congregations in the valley very
+soon became unfitted for their work by the hardships to which they
+were exposed; and being without any suitable domestic accommodation,
+one after another of them resigned their charge.
+
+To remedy this defect, a movement was begun in 1852 by the Rev. Mr.
+Freemantle, rector of Claydon, Bucks, assisted by the Foreign Aid
+Society and a few private friends, with the object of providing
+pastors' dwellings, as well as chapels when required, in the more
+destitute places. The movement has already been attended with
+considerable success; and among its first results was the erection in
+1857 of the comfortable parsonage of Palons, the large lower room of
+which also serves the purpose of a chapel. The present incumbent is M.
+Charpiot, of venerable and patriarchal aspect, whose white hairs are a
+crown of glory--a man beloved by his extensive flock, for his parish
+embraces the whole valley, about twelve miles in extent, including the
+four villages of Ribes, Violens, Minsals, and Dormilhouse; other
+pastors having been appointed of late years to the more distant
+stations included in the original widely-scattered charge of Felix
+Neff.
+
+The situation of the parsonage and adjoining grounds at Palons is
+charmingly picturesque. It stands at the entrance to the defile which
+leads into Val Fressinieres, having a background of bold rocks
+enclosing a mountain plateau known as the "Camp of Catinat," a
+notorious persecutor of the Vaudois. In front of the parsonage extends
+a green field planted with walnut and other trees, part of which is
+walled off as the burying-ground of the hamlet. Alongside, in a deep
+rocky gully, runs the torrent of the Biasse, leaping from rock to rock
+on its way to the valley of the Durance, far below. This fall, or
+cataract, is not inappropriately named the "Gouffouran," or roaring
+gulf; and its sullen roar is heard all through the night in the
+adjoining parsonage. The whole height of the fall, as it tumbles from
+rock to rock, is about four hundred and fifty feet; and about halfway
+down, the water shoots into a deep, dark cavern, where it becomes
+completely lost to sight.
+
+The inhabitants of the hamlet are a poor hard-working people, pursuing
+their industry after very primitive methods. Part of the Biasse, as it
+issues from the defile, is turned aside here and there to drive little
+fulling-mills of the rudest construction, where the people "waulk" the
+cloth of their own making. In the adjoining narrow fields overhanging
+the Gouffouran, where the ploughs are at work, the oxen are yoked to
+them in the old Roman fashion, the pull being by a bar fixed across
+the animals' foreheads.
+
+In the neighbourhood of Palons, as at various other places in the
+valley, there are numerous caverns which served by turns in early
+times as hiding-places and as churches, and which were not
+unfrequently consecrated by the Vaudois with their blood. One of these
+is still known as the "Glesia," or "Eglise." Its opening is on the
+crest of a frightful precipice, but its diameter has of late years
+been considerably reduced by the disintegration of the adjoining rock.
+Neff once took Captain Cotton up to see it, and chanted the _Te Deum_
+in the rude temple with great emotion.
+
+Palons is, perhaps, the most genial and fertile spot in the valley; it
+looks like a little oasis in the desert. Indeed, Neff thought the soil
+of the place too rich for the growth of piety. "Palons," said he in
+his journal, "is more fertile than the rest of the valley, and even
+produces wine: the consequence is, that there is less piety here."
+Neff even entertained the theory that the poorer the people the
+greater was their humility and fervour, and the less their selfishness
+and spiritual pride. Thus, he considered "the fertility of the commune
+of Champsaur, and its proximity to the high road and to Gap, great
+stumbling-blocks." The loftiest, coldest, and most barren spots--such
+as San Veran and Dormilhouse--were, in his opinion, by far the most
+promising. Of the former he said, "It is the highest, and consequently
+the most pious, village in the valley of Queyras;" and of the
+inhabitants of the latter he said, "From the first moment of my
+arrival I took them to my heart, and I ardently desired to be unto
+them even as another Oberlin."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+THE VAUDOIS MOUNTAIN-REFUGE OF DORMILHOUSE.
+
+
+The valley of Fressinieres could never have maintained a large
+population. Though about twelve miles in extent, it contains a very
+small proportion of arable land--only a narrow strip, of varying
+width, lying in the bottom, with occasional little patches of
+cultivated ground along the mountain-sides, where the soil has settled
+on the ledges, the fields seeming in many cases to hang over
+precipices. At the upper end of the valley, the mountains come down so
+close to the river Biasse that no space is left for cultivation, and
+the slopes are so rocky and abrupt as to be unavailable even for
+pasturage, excepting of goats.
+
+Yet the valley seems never to have been without a population, more or
+less numerous according to the rigour of the religious persecutions
+which prevailed in the neighbourhood. Its comparative inaccessibility,
+its inhospitable climate, and its sterility, combined to render it one
+of the most secure refuges of the Vaudois in the Middle Ages. It could
+neither be easily entered by an armed force, nor permanently occupied
+by them. The scouts on the hills overlooking the Durance could always
+see their enemies approach, and the inhabitants were enabled to take
+refuge in caves in the mountain-sides, or flee to the upper parts of
+the valley, before the soldiers could clamber up the steep Pas de
+l'Echelle, and reach the barricaded defile through which the Biasse
+rushes down the rocky gorge of the Gouffouran. When the invaders
+succeeded in penetrating this barrier, they usually found the hamlets
+deserted and the people fled. They could then only wreak their
+vengeance on the fields, which they laid waste, and on the dwellings,
+which they burned; and when the "brigands" had at length done their
+worst and departed, the poor people crept back to their ruined homes
+to pray, amidst their ashes, for strength to enable them to bear the
+heavy afflictions which they were thus called upon to suffer for
+conscience' sake.
+
+The villages in the lower part of the valley were thus repeatedly
+ravaged and destroyed. But far up, at its extremest point, a difficult
+footpath led, across the face almost of a precipice, which the
+persecutors never ventured to scale, to the hamlet of Dormilhouse,
+seated on a few ledges of rock on a lofty mountain-side, five thousand
+feet above the level of the sea; and this place, which was for
+centuries a mountain fastness of the persecuted, remains a Vaudois
+settlement to this day.
+
+An excursion to this interesting mountain hamlet having been arranged,
+our little party of five persons set out for the place on the morning
+of the 1st of July, under the guidance of Pastor Charpiot. Though the
+morning was fine and warm, yet, as the place of our destination was
+situated well up amongst the clouds, we were warned to provide
+ourselves with umbrellas and waterproofs, nor did the provision prove
+in vain. We were also warned that there was an utter want of
+accommodation for visitors at Dormilhouse, for which we must be
+prepared. The words scratched on the window of the Norwegian inn
+might indeed apply to it: "Here the stranger may find very good
+entertainment--_provided he bring it with him_!" We accordingly
+carried our entertainment with us, in the form of a store of blankets,
+bread, chocolate, and other articles, which, with the traveller's
+knapsacks, were slung across the back of a donkey.
+
+After entering the defile, an open part of the valley was passed,
+amidst which the little river, at present occupying very narrow
+limits, meandered; but it was obvious from the width of the channel
+and the debris widely strewn about, that in winter it is a roaring
+torrent. A little way up we met an old man coming down driving a
+loaded donkey, with whom one of our party, recognising him as an old
+acquaintance, entered into conversation. In answer to an inquiry made
+as to the progress of the good cause in the valley, the old man
+replied very despondingly. "There was," he said, "a great lack of
+faith, of zeal, of earnestness, amongst the rising generation. They
+were too fond of pleasures, too apt to be led away by the fleeting
+vanities of this world." It was only the old story--the complaint of
+the aged against the young. When this old peasant was a boy, his
+elders doubtless thought and said the same of him. The generation
+growing old always think the generation still young in a state of
+degeneracy. So it was forty years since, when Felix Neff was amongst
+them, and so it will be forty years hence. One day Neff met an old man
+near Mens, who recounted to him the story of the persecutions which
+his parents and himself had endured, and he added: "In those times
+there was more zeal than there is now; my father and mother used to
+cross mountains and forests by night, in the worst weather, at the
+risk of their lives, to be present at divine service performed in
+secret; but now we are grown lazy: religious freedom is the deathblow
+to piety."
+
+An hour's walking brought us to the principal hamlet of the commune,
+formerly called Fressinieres, but now known as Les Ribes, occupying a
+wooded height on the left bank of the river. The population is partly
+Roman Catholic and partly Protestant. The Roman Catholics have a
+church here, the last in the valley, the two other places of worship
+higher up being Protestant. The principal person of Les Ribes is M.
+Baridon, son of the Joseph Baridon, receiver of the commune, so often
+mentioned with such affection in the journal of Neff. He is the only
+person in the valley whose position and education give him a claim to
+the title of "Monsieur;" and his house contains the only decent
+apartment in the Val Fressinieres where pastors and visitors could be
+lodged previous to the erection, by Mr. Freemantle, of the pleasant
+little parsonage at Palons. This apartment in the Baridons' house Neff
+used to call the "Prophet's Chamber."
+
+Half an hour higher up the valley we reached the hamlet of Violens,
+where all the inhabitants are Protestants. It was at this place that
+Neff helped to build and finish the church, for which he designed the
+seats and pulpit, and which he opened and dedicated on the 29th of
+August, 1824, the year before he finally left the neighbourhood.
+Violens is a poor hamlet situated at the bottom of a deep glen, or
+rocky abyss, called La Combe; the narrow valleys of Dauphiny, like
+those of Devon, being usually called combes, doubtless from the same
+original Celtic word _cwm_, signifying a hollow or dingle.
+
+A little above Violens the valley contracts almost to a ravine, until
+we reach the miserable hamlet of Minsals, so shut in by steep crags
+that for nine months of the year it never sees the sun, and during
+several months in winter it lies buried in snow. The hamlet consists
+for the most part of hovels of mud and stone, without windows or
+chimneys, being little better than stables; indeed, in winter time,
+for the sake of warmth, the poor people share them with their cattle.
+How they contrive to scrape a living out of the patches of soil
+rescued from the rocks, or hung upon the precipices on the
+mountain-side, is a wonder.
+
+One of the horrors of this valley consists in the constant state of
+disintegration of the adjoining rocks, which, being of a slaty
+formation, frequently break away in large masses, and are hurled into
+the lower grounds. This, together with the fall of avalanches in
+winter, makes the valley a most perilous place to live in. A little
+above Minsals, only a few years since, a tremendous fall of rock and
+mud swept over nearly the whole of the cultivated ground, since which
+many of the peasantry have had to remove elsewhere. What before was a
+well-tilled meadow, is now only a desolate waste, covered with rocks
+and debris.
+
+Another of the horrors of the place is its liability to floods, which
+come rushing down, from the mountains, and often work sad havoc.
+Sometimes a fall of rocks from the cliffs above dams up the bed of the
+river, when a lake accumulates behind the barrier until it bursts, and
+the torrent swoops down the valley, washing away fields, and bridges,
+and mills, and hovels.
+
+Even the stouter-built dwelling of M. Baridon at Les Ribes was nearly
+carried away by one of such inundations twelve years ago. It stands
+about a hundred yards from the mountain-stream which comes down from
+the Pic de la Sea. One day in summer a storm burst over the mountain,
+and the stream at once became swollen to a torrent. The inmates of the
+dwelling thought the house must eventually be washed away, and gave
+themselves up to prayer. The flood, bearing with it rolling rocks,
+came nearer and nearer, until it reached a few old walnut trees on a
+line with the torrent. A rock of some thirty feet square tumbled
+against one of the trees, which staggered and bent, but held fast and
+stopped the rock. The debris at once rolled upon it into a bank, the
+course of the torrent was turned, and the dwelling and its inmates
+were saved.
+
+Another incident, illustrative of the perils of daily life in Val
+Fressinieres, was related to me by Mr. Milsom while passing the scene
+of one of the mud and rock avalanches so common in the valley. Etienne
+Baridon, a member of the same Les Ribes family, an intelligent young
+man, disabled for ordinary work by lameness and deformity, occupied
+himself in teaching the children in the Protestant school at Violens,
+whither he walked daily, accompanied by the pupils from Les Ribes. One
+day, a heavy thunderstorm burst over the valley, and sent down an
+avalanche of mud, debris, and boulders, which rolled quite across the
+valley and extended to the river. The news of the circumstance reached
+Etienne when in school at Violens; the road to Les Ribes was closed;
+and he was accordingly urged to stay over the night with the children.
+But thinking of the anxiety of their parents, he determined to guide
+them back over the fall of rocks if possible. Arrived at the place, he
+found the mass still on the move, rolling slowly down in a ridge of
+from ten to twenty feet high, towards the river. Supported by a stout
+staff; the lame Baridon took first one child and then another upon
+his hump-back; and contrived to carry them across in safety; but while
+making his last journey with the last child, his foot slipped and his
+leg got badly crushed among the still-rolling stones. He was, however,
+able to extricate himself, and reached Les Ribes in safety with all
+the children. "This Etienne," concluded Mr. Milsom, "was really a
+noble fellow, and his poor deformed body covered the soul of a hero."
+
+At length, after a journey of about ten miles up this valley of the
+shadow of death, along which the poor persecuted Vaudois were so often
+hunted, we reached an apparent _cul-de-sac_ amongst the mountains,
+beyond which further progress seemed impracticable. Precipitous rocks,
+with their slopes of debris at foot, closed in the valley all round,
+excepting only the narrow gullet by which we had come; but, following
+the footpath, a way up the mountain-side gradually disclosed itself--a
+zigzag up the face of what seemed to be a sheer precipice--and this we
+were told was the road to Dormilhouse. The zigzag path is known as the
+Tourniquet. The ascent is long, steep, and fatiguing. As we passed up,
+we observed that the precipice contained many narrow ledges upon which
+soil has settled, or to which it has been carried. Some of these are
+very narrow, only a few yards in extent, but wherever there is room
+for a spade to turn, the little patches bear marks of cultivation; and
+these are the fields of the people of Dormilhouse!
+
+Far up the mountain, the footpath crosses in front of a lofty
+cascade--La Pisse du Dormilhouse--which leaps from the summit of the
+precipice, and sometimes dashes over the roadway itself. Looking down
+into the valley from this point, we see the Biasse meandering like a
+thread in the hollow of the mountains, becoming lost to sight in the
+ravine near Minsals. We have now ascended to a great height, and the
+air feels cold and raw. When we left Palons, the sun was shining
+brightly, and its heat was almost oppressive, but now the temperature
+feels wintry. On our way up, rain began to fall; as we ascended the
+Tourniquet the rain became changed to sleet; and at length, on
+reaching the summit of the rising ground from which we first discerned
+the hamlet of Dormilhouse, on the first day of July, the snow was
+falling heavily, and all the neighbouring mountains were clothed in
+the garb of winter.
+
+This, then, is the famous mountain fastness of the Vaudois--their last
+and loftiest and least accessible retreat when hunted from their
+settlements in the lower valleys hundreds of years ago. Driven from
+rock to rock, from Alp to Alp, they clambered up on to this lofty
+mountain-ledge, five thousand feet high, and made good their
+settlement, though at the daily peril of their lives. It was a place
+of refuge, a fortress and citadel of the faithful, where they
+continued to worship God according to conscience during the long dark
+ages of persecution and tyranny. The dangers and terrors of the
+situation are indeed so great, that it never could have been chosen
+even for a hiding-place, much less for a permanent abode, but from the
+direst necessity. What the poor people suffered while establishing
+themselves on these barren mountain heights no one can tell, but they
+contrived at length to make the place their home, and to become inured
+to their hard life, until it became almost a second nature to them.
+
+The hamlet of Dormilhouse is said to have existed for nearly six
+hundred years, during which the religion of its inhabitants has
+remained the same. It has been alleged that the people are the
+descendants of a colony of refugee Lombards; but M. Muston, and others
+well able to judge, after careful inquiry on the spot, have come to
+the conclusion that they bear all the marks of being genuine
+descendants of the ancient Vaudois. In features, dress, habits, names,
+language, and religious doctrine, they have an almost perfect identity
+with the Vaudois of Piedmont at the present day.
+
+Dormilhouse consists of about forty cottages, inhabited by some two
+hundred persons. The cottages are perched "like eagles' nests," one
+tier ranging over another on the rocky ledges of a steep
+mountain-side. There is very little soil capable of cultivation in the
+neighbourhood, but the villagers seek out little patches in the valley
+below and on the mountain shelves, from which they contrive to grow a
+little grain for home use. The place is so elevated and so exposed,
+that in some seasons even rye will not ripen at Dormilhouse, while the
+pasturages are in many places inaccessible to cattle, and scarcely
+safe for sheep.
+
+The principal food of the people is goats' milk and unsifted rye,
+which they bake into cakes in the autumn, and these cakes last them
+the whole year--the grain, if left unbaked, being apt to grow mouldy
+and spoil in so damp an atmosphere. Besides, fuel is so scarce that it
+is necessary to exercise the greatest economy in its use, every stick
+burnt in the village having to be brought from a distance of some
+twelve miles, on the backs of donkeys, by the steep mountain-path
+leading up to the hamlet. Hence, also, the unsavoury means which they
+are under the necessity of adopting to economize warmth in the winter,
+by stabling the cattle with themselves in the cottages. The huts are
+for the most part wretched constructions of stone and mud, from which
+fresh air, comfort, and cleanliness seem to be entirely excluded.
+Excepting that the people are for the most part comfortably dressed,
+in clothing of coarse wool, which they dress and weave themselves,
+their domestic accommodation and manner of living are centuries behind
+the age; and were a stranger suddenly to be set down in the village,
+he could with difficulty be made to believe that he was in the land of
+civilised Frenchmen.
+
+The place is dreary, stern, and desolate-looking even in summer. Thus,
+we entered it with the snow falling on the 1st of July! Few of the
+balmy airs of the sweet South of France breathe here. In the hollow of
+the mountains the heat may be like that of an oven; but here, far up
+on the heights, though the air may be fresh and invigorating at times,
+when the wind blows it often rises to a hurricane. Here the summer
+comes late and departs early. While flowers are blooming in the
+valleys, not a bud or blade of corn is to be seen at Dormilhouse. At
+the season when vegetation is elsewhere at its richest, the dominant
+features of the landscape are barrenness and desolation. The very
+shapes of the mountains are rugged, harsh, and repulsive. Right over
+against the hamlet, separated from it by a deep gully, rises up the
+grim, bare Gramusac, as black as a wall, but along the ledges of
+which, the hunters of Dormilhouse, who are very daring and skilful, do
+not fear to stalk the chamois.
+
+But if the place is thus stern and even appalling in summer, what must
+it be in winter? There is scarcely a habitation in the village that is
+not exposed to the danger of being carried away by avalanches or
+falling rocks. The approach to the mountain is closed by ice and
+snow, while the rocks are all tapestried with icicles. The
+_tourmente_, or snow whirlwind, occasionally swoops up the valley,
+tears the roofs from the huts, and scatters them in destruction.
+
+Here is a passage from Neff's journal, vividly descriptive of winter
+life at Dormilhouse:--
+
+     "The weather has been rigorous in the extreme; the falls of snow
+     are very frequent, and when it becomes a little milder, a general
+     thaw takes place, and our hymns are often sung amid the roar of
+     the avalanches, which, gliding along the smooth face of the
+     glacier, hurl themselves from precipice to precipice, like vast
+     cataracts of silver."
+
+Writing in January, he says:--
+
+     "We have been buried in four feet of snow since of 1st of
+     November. At this very moment a terrible blast is whirling the
+     snow in thick blinding clouds. Travelling is exceedingly
+     difficult and even dangerous among these valleys, particularly in
+     the neighbourhood of Dormilhouse, by reason of the numerous
+     avalanches falling everywhere.... One Sunday evening our scholars
+     and many of the Dormilhouse people, when returning home after the
+     sermon at Violens, narrowly escaped an avalanche. It rolled
+     through a narrow defile between two groups of persons: a few
+     seconds sooner or later, and it would have plunged the flower of
+     our youth into the depths of an unfathomable gorge.... In fact,
+     there are very few habitations in these parts which are not
+     liable to be swept away, for there is not a spot in the narrow
+     corner of the valley which can be considered absolutely safe. But
+     terrible as their situation is, they owe to it their religion,
+     and perhaps their physical existence. If their country had been
+     more secure and more accessible, they would have been
+     exterminated like the inhabitants of Val Louise."
+
+Such is the interesting though desolate mountain hamlet to the service
+of whose hardy inhabitants the brave Felix Neff devoted himself during
+the greater part of his brief missionary career. It was characteristic
+of him to prefer to serve them because their destitution was greater
+than that which existed in any other quarter of his extensive parish;
+and he turned from the grand mountain scenery of Arvieux and his
+comfortable cottage at La Chalp, to spend his winters in the dismal
+hovels and amidst the barren wastes of Dormilhouse.
+
+When Neff first went amongst them, the people were in a state of
+almost total spiritual destitution. They had not had any pastor
+stationed amongst them for nearly a hundred and fifty years. During
+all that time they had been without schools of any kind, and
+generation after generation had grown up and passed away in ignorance.
+Yet with all the inborn tenacity of their race, they had throughout
+refused to conform to the dominant religion. They belonged to the
+Vaudois Church, and repudiated Romanism.
+
+There was probably a Protestant church existing at Dormilhouse
+previous to the Revocation, as is shown by the existence of an ancient
+Vaudois church-bell, which was hid away until of late years, when it
+was dug up and hung in the belfry of the present church. In 1745, the
+Roman Catholics endeavoured to effect a settlement in the place, and
+then erected the existing church, with a residence for the cure. But
+the people, though they were on the best of terms with the cure,
+refused to enter his church. During the twenty years that he
+ministered there, it is said the sole congregation consisted of his
+domestic servant, who assisted him at mass.
+
+The story is still told of the cure bringing up from Les Ribes a large
+bag of apples--an impossible crop at Dormilhouse--by way of tempting
+the children to come to him and receive instruction. But they went
+only so long as the apples lasted, and when they were gone the
+children disappeared. The cure complained that during the whole time
+he had been in the place he had not been able to get a single person
+to cross himself. So, finding he was not likely to be of any use
+there, he petitioned his bishop to be allowed to leave; on which, his
+request being complied with, the church was closed.
+
+This continued until the period of the French Revolution, when
+religious toleration became recognised. The Dormilhouse people then
+took possession of the church. They found in it several dusty images,
+the basin for the holy water, the altar candlesticks, and other
+furniture, just as the cure had left them many years before; and they
+are still preserved as curiosities. The new occupants of the church
+whitewashed the pictures, took down the crosses, dug up the old
+Vaudois bell and hung it up in the belfry, and rang the villagers
+together to celebrate the old worship again. But they were still in
+want of a regular minister until the period when Felix Neff settled
+amongst them. A zealous young preacher, Henry Laget, had before then
+paid them a few visits, and been warmly welcomed; and when, in his
+last address, he told them they would see his face no more, "it
+seemed," said a peasant who related the incident to Neff, "as if a
+gust of wind had extinguished the torch which was to light us in our
+passage by night across the precipice." And even Neff's ministry, as
+we have above seen, only lasted for the short space of about three
+years.
+
+Some years after the death of Neff, another attempt was made by the
+Roman Catholics to establish a mission at Dormilhouse. A priest went
+up from Les Ribes accompanied by a sister of mercy from Gap--"the
+pearl of the diocese," she was called--who hired a room for the
+purpose of commencing a school. To give _eclat_ to their enterprise,
+the Archbishop of Embrun himself went up, clothed in a purple dress,
+riding a white horse, and accompanied by a party of men bearing a
+great red cross, which he caused to be set up at the entrance to the
+village. But when the archbishop appeared, not a single inhabitant
+went out to meet him; they had all assembled in the church to hold a
+prayer-meeting, and it lasted during the whole period of his visit.
+All that he accomplished was to set up the great red cross, after
+which he went down the Tourniquet again; and shortly after, the priest
+and the sister of mercy, finding they could not obtain a footing, also
+left the village. Somehow or other, the red cross which had been set
+up mysteriously disappeared, but how it had been disposed of no one
+would ever reveal. It was lately proposed to commemorate the event of
+the archbishop's visit by the erection of an obelisk on the spot where
+he had set up the red cross; and a tablet, with a suitable
+inscription, was provided for it by the Rev. Mr. Freemantle, of
+Claydon. But when he was told that the site was exposed to the full
+force of the avalanches descending from the upper part of the mountain
+in winter, and would speedily be swept away, the project of the
+memorial pillar was abandoned, and the tablet was inserted, instead,
+in the front wall of the village church, where it reads as follows:--
+
+          A LA GLOIRE DE DIEU
+        DONT DE LES TEMPS ANCIENS
+  ET A TRAVERS LE MARTYR DE LEURS PERES
+              A MAINTENU
+            A DORMILHOUSE
+        LA FOI DONNE AUX SAINTS
+    ET LA CONNAISSANCE DE LA PAROLE
+        LES HABITANTS ONT ELEVE
+              CETTE PIERRE
+               MDCCCLXIV.
+
+Having thus described the village and its history, a few words remain
+to be added as to the visit of our little party of travellers from
+Palons. On reaching the elevated point at which the archbishop had set
+up the red cross, the whole of the huts lay before us, and a little
+way down the mountain-side we discerned the village church,
+distinguished by its little belfry. Leaving on our right the
+Swiss-looking chalet with overhanging roof, in which Neff used to
+lodge with the Baridon-Verdure family while at Dormilhouse, and now
+known as "Felix Neff's house," we made our way down a steep and stony
+footpath towards the school-house adjoining the church, in front of
+which we found the large ash trees, shading both church and school,
+which Neff himself had planted. Arrived at the school-house, we there
+found shelter and accommodation for the night. The schoolroom, fitted
+with its forms and desks, was our parlour, and our bedrooms, furnished
+with the blankets we had brought with us, were in the little chambers
+adjoining.
+
+At eight in the evening the church bell rang for service--the
+summoning bell. The people had been expecting the visit, and turned
+out in full force, so that at nine o'clock, when the last bell rang,
+the church was found filled to the door. Every seat was occupied--by
+men on one side, and by women on the other. The service was conducted
+by Mr. Milsom, the missionary visitor from Lyons, who opened with
+prayer, then gave out the twenty-third Psalm, which was sung to an
+accompaniment on the harmonium; then another prayer, followed by the
+reading of a chapter in the New Testament, was wound up by an address,
+in which the speaker urged the people to their continuance in
+well-doing. In the course of his remarks he said: "Be not discouraged
+because the results of your Labours may appear but small. Work on and
+faint not, and God will give the spiritual increase. Pastors,
+teachers, and colporteurs are too often ready to despond, because the
+fruit does not seem to ripen while they are watching it. But the best
+fruit grows slowly. Think how the Apostles laboured. They were all
+poor men, but men of brave hearts; and they passed away to their rest
+long before the seed which they planted grew up and ripened to
+perfection. Work on then in patience and hope, and be assured that God
+will at length help you."
+
+Mr. Milsom's address was followed by another from the pastor, and then
+by a final prayer and hymn, after which the service was concluded, and
+the villagers dispersed to their respective homes a little after ten
+o'clock. The snow had ceased falling, but the sky was still overcast,
+and the night felt cold and raw, like February rather than July.
+
+The wonder is, that this community of Dormilhouse should cling to
+their mountain eyrie so long after the necessity for their living
+above the clouds has ceased; but it is their home, and they have come
+to love it, and are satisfied to live and die there. Rather than live
+elsewhere, they will walk, as some of them do, twelve miles in the
+early morning, to their work down in the valley of the Durance, and
+twelve miles home again, in the evenings, to their perch on the rocks
+at Dormilhouse.
+
+They are even proud of their mountain home, and would not change it
+for the most smiling vineyard of the plains. They are like a little
+mountain clan--all Baridons, or Michels, or Orcieres, or Bertholons,
+or Arnouds--proud of their descent from the ancient Vaudois. It is
+their boast that a Roman Catholic does not live among them. Once, when
+a young shepherd came up from the valley to pasture his flock in the
+mountains, he fell in love with a maiden of the village, and proposed
+to marry her. "Yes," was the answer, with this condition, that he
+joined the Vaudois Church. And he assented, married the girl, and
+settled for life at Dormilhouse.[105]
+
+         [Footnote 105: Since the date of our visit, we learn that a
+         sad accident--strikingly illustrative of the perils of
+         village life at Dormilhouse--has befallen this young
+         shepherd, by name Jean Joseph Lagier. One day in October,
+         1869, while engaged in gathering wood near the brink of the
+         precipice overhanging Minsals, he accidently fell over and
+         was killed on the spot, leaving behind him a widow and a
+         large family. He was a person of such excellent character and
+         conduct, that he had been selected as colporteur for the
+         neighbourhood.]
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The next morning broke clear and bright overhead. The sun shone along
+the rugged face of the Gramusac right over against the hamlet,
+bringing out its bolder prominences. Far below, the fleecy clouds were
+still rolling themselves up the mountain-sides, or gradually
+dispersing as the sun caught them on their emerging from the valley
+below. The view was bold and striking, displaying the grandeur of the
+scenery of Dormilhouse in one of its best aspects.
+
+Setting out on the return journey to Palons, we descended the face of
+the mountain on which Dormilhouse stands, by a steep footpath right in
+front of it, down towards the falls of the Biasse. Looking back, the
+whole village appeared above us, cottage over cottage, and ledge over
+ledge, with its stern background of rocky mountain.
+
+Immediately under the village, in a hollow between two shoulders of
+rock, the cascade of the Biasse leaps down into the valley. The
+highest leap falls in a jet of about a hundred feet, and the lower,
+divided into two by a projecting ledge, breaks into a shower of spray
+which falls about a hundred and fifty feet more into the abyss below.
+Even in Switzerland this fall would be considered a fine object; but
+in this out-of-the-way place, it is rarely seen except by the
+villagers, who have water and cascades more than enough.
+
+We were told on the spot, that some eighty years since an avalanche
+shot down the mountain immediately on to the plateau on which we
+stood, carrying with it nearly half the village of Dormilhouse; and
+every year the avalanches shoot down at the same place, which is
+strewn with the boulders and debris that extend far down into the
+valley.
+
+At the bottom of the Tourniquet we joined M. Charpiot, accompanying
+the donkey laden with the blankets and knapsacks, and proceeded with
+him on our way down the valley towards his hospitable parsonage at
+Palons.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+GUILLESTRE AND THE VALLEY OF QUEYRAS.
+
+
+We left Palons on a sharp, bright morning in July, with the prospect
+of a fine day before us, though there had been a fall of snow in the
+night, which whitened the tops of the neighbouring hills. Following
+the road along the heights on the right bank of the Biasse, and
+passing the hamlet of Chancellas, another favourite station of Neff's,
+a rapid descent led us down into the valley of the Durance, which we
+crossed a little above the village of St. Crepin, with the strong
+fortress of Mont Dauphin before us a few miles lower down the valley.
+
+This remote corner in the mountains was the scene of much fighting in
+early times between the Roman Catholics and the Huguenots, and
+afterwards between the French and the Piedmontese. It was in this
+neighbourhood that Lesdiguieres first gave evidence of his skill and
+valour as a soldier. The massacre of St. Bartholomew at Paris in 1572
+had been followed by like massacres in various parts of France,
+especially in the south. The Roman Catholics of Dauphiny, deeming the
+opportunity favourable for the extirpation of the heretical Vaudois,
+dispatched the military commandant of Embrun against the inhabitants
+of Val Fressinieres at the head of an army of twelve hundred men.
+Lesdiguieres, then scarce twenty-four years old, being informed of
+their march, hastily assembled a Huguenot force in the valley of the
+Drac, and, crossing the Col d'Orcieres from Champsaur into the valley
+of the Durance, he suddenly fell upon the enemy at St. Crepin, routed
+them, and drove them down the valley to Embrun. Twelve years later,
+during the wars of the League, Lesdiguieres distinguished himself in
+the same neighbourhood, capturing Embrun, Guillestre, and Chateau
+Queyras, in the valley of the Guil, thereby securing the entire
+province for his royal master, Henry of Navarre.
+
+The strong fortress of Mont Dauphin, at the junction of the Guil with
+the Durance, was not constructed until a century later. Victor-Amadeus
+II., when invading the province with a Piedmontese army, at sight of
+the plateau commanding the entrance of both valleys, exclaimed, "There
+is a pass to fortify." The hint was not neglected by the French
+general, Catinat, under whose directions the great engineer, Vauban,
+traced the plan of the present fortifications. It is a very strong
+place, completely commanding the valley of the Durance, while it is
+regarded as the key of the passage into Italy by the Guil and the Col
+de la Croix.
+
+Guillestre is a small old-fashioned town, situated on the lowest slope
+of the pine-clad mountain, the Tete de Quigoulet, at the junction of
+the Rioubel and the Chagne, rivulets in summer but torrents in winter,
+which join the Guil a little below the town. Guillestre was in ancient
+times a strong place, and had for its lords the Archbishops of Embrun,
+the ancient persecutors of the Vaudois. The castle of the archbishop,
+flanked by six towers, occupied a commanding site immediately
+overlooking the town; but at the French Revolution of 1789, the first
+thing which the archbishop's flock did was to pull his castle in
+pieces, leaving not one stone upon another; and, strange to say, the
+only walled enclosure now within its precincts is the little
+burying-ground of the Guillestre Protestants. One memorable stone has,
+however, been preserved, the stone trough in which the peasants were
+required to measure the tribute of grain payable by them to their
+reverend seigneurs. It is still to be seen laid against a wall in an
+open space in front of the church.
+
+It happened that the fair of Guillestre, which is held every two
+months, was afoot at the time of our visit. It is frequented by the
+people of the adjoining valleys, of which Guillestre is the centre, as
+well as by Piedmontese from beyond the Italian frontier. On the
+principal day of the fair we found the streets filled with peasants
+buying and selling beasts. They were apparently of many races. Amongst
+them were many well-grown men, some with rings in their
+ears--horse-dealers from Piedmont, we were told; but the greater
+number were little, dark, thin, and poorly-fed peasants. Some of them,
+dark-eyed and tawny-skinned, looked like Arabs, possibly descendants
+of the Saracens who once occupied the province. There were one or two
+groups of gipsies, differing from all else; but the district is too
+poor to be much frequented by people of that race.
+
+The animals brought for sale showed the limited resources of the
+neighbourhood. One hill-woman came along dragging two goats in milk;
+another led a sheep and a goat; a third a donkey in foal; a fourth a
+cow in milk; and so on. The largest lot consisted of about forty
+lambs, of various sizes and breeds, which had been driven down from
+the cool air of the mountains, and, gasping with heat, were cooling
+their heads against the shady side of a stone wall. There were several
+lots of pigs, of a bad but probably hardy sort--mostly black,
+round-backed, long-legged, and long-eared. In selling the animals,
+there was the usual chaffering, in shrill patois, at the top of the
+voice--the seller of some poor scraggy beast extolling its merits, the
+intending buyer running it down as a "miserable bossu," &c., and
+disputing every point raised in its behalf, until the contest of words
+rose to such a height--men, women, and even children, on both sides,
+taking part in it--that the bystander would have thought it impossible
+they could separate without a fight. But matters always came to a
+peaceable conclusion, for the French are by no means a quarrelsome
+people.
+
+There were also various other sorts of produce offered for sale--wool,
+undressed sheepskins, sticks for firewood, onions and vegetable
+produce, and considerable quantities of honeycomb; while the sellers
+of scythes, whetstones, caps, and articles of dress, seemed to meet
+with a ready sale for their wares, arranged on stalls in the open
+space in front of the church. Altogether, the queer collection of
+beasts and their drivers, who were to be seen drinking together
+greedily and promiscuously from the fountains in the market-place; the
+steep streets, crowded with lean goats and cows and pigs, and their
+buyers and sellers; the braying of donkeys and the shrieking of
+chafferers, with here and there a goitred dwarf of hideous aspect,
+presented a picture of an Alpine mountain fair, which, once seen, is
+not readily forgotten.
+
+There is a similar fair held at the village of La Bessie, before
+mentioned, a little higher up the Durance, on the road to Briancon;
+but it is held only once a year, at the end of October, when the
+inhabitants of Dormilhouse come down in a body to lay in their stock
+of necessaries for the winter. "There then arrives," says M. Albert,
+"a caravan of about the most singular character that can be imagined.
+It consists of nearly the whole population of the mountain hamlet, who
+resort thither to supply themselves with the articles required for
+family use during the winter, such as leather, lint, salt, and oil.
+These poor mountaineers are provided with very little money, and, to
+procure the necessary commodities, they have recourse to barter, the
+most ancient and primitive method of conducting trade. Hence they
+bring with them rye, barley, pigs, lambs, chamois skins and horns, and
+the produce of their knitting during the past year, to exchange for
+the required articles, with which they set out homeward, laden as they
+had come."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The same circumstances which have concurred in making Guillestre the
+seat of the principal fair of the valleys, led Felix Neff to regard it
+as an important centre of missionary operations amongst the Vaudois.
+In nearly all the mountain villages in its neighbourhood descendants
+of the ancient Vaudois are to be found, sometimes in the most remote
+and inaccessible places, whither they had fled in the times of the
+persecutions. Thus at Vars, a mountain hamlet up the torrent Rioubel,
+about nine miles from Guillestre, there is a little Christian
+community, which, though under the necessity of long concealing their
+faith, never ceased to be Vaudois in spirit.[106] Then, up the valley
+of the Guil, and in the lateral valleys which join it, there are, in
+some places close to the mountain barrier which divides France from
+Italy, other villages and hamlets, such as Arvieux, San Veran,
+Fongilarde, &c., the inhabitants of which, though they concealed their
+faith subsequent to the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes, never
+conformed to Roman Catholicism, but took the earliest opportunity of
+declaring themselves openly so soon as the dark period of persecution
+had passed by.
+
+         [Footnote 106: The well-known Alpine missionary, J. L.
+         Rostan, of whom an interesting biography has recently been
+         published by the Rev. A. J. French, for the Wesleyan
+         Conference, was a native of Vars. He was one of the favourite
+         pupils of Felix Neff, with whom he resided at Dormilhouse in
+         1825-7; Neff saying of him: "Among the best of my pupils, as
+         regards spiritual things and secular too, is Jean Rostan, of
+         Vars: he is probably destined for the ministry; such at least
+         is my hope." Neff bequeathed to him the charge of his parish
+         during his temporary absence, but he never returned; and
+         shortly after, Rostan left, to pursue his studies at
+         Montauban. He joined the Methodist Church, settled and
+         ministered for a time in La Vaunage and the Cevennes,
+         afterwards labouring as a missionary in the High Alps, and
+         eventually settled as minister of the church at Lisieux,
+         Jersey, in charge of which he died, July, 1859.]
+
+The people of these scattered and distant hamlets were, however, too
+poor to supply themselves with religious instructors, and they long
+remained in a state of spiritual destitution. Felix Neff's labours
+were too short, and scattered over too extensive a field, to produce
+much permanent effect. Besides, they were principally confined to the
+village of Dormilhouse, which, as being the most destitute, had, he
+thought, the greatest claim upon his help; and at his death
+comparatively little had been done or attempted in the Guillestre
+district. But he left behind him what was worth more than any
+endowment of money, a noble example, which still lives, and inspires
+the labourers who have come after him.
+
+It was not until within the last twenty years that a few Vaudois
+families of Guillestre began to meet together for religious purposes,
+which they did at first in the upper chamber of an inn. There the Rev.
+Mr. Freemantle found them when paying his first visit to the valleys
+in 1851. He was rejoiced to see the zeal of the people, holding to
+their faith in the face of considerable opposition and opprobrium; and
+he exerted himself to raise the requisite funds amongst his friends in
+England to provide the Guillestre Vaudois with a place of worship of
+their own. His efforts were attended with success; and in 1854 a
+comfortable parsonage, with a commodious room for public worship, was
+purchased for their use. A fund was also provided for the maintenance
+of a settled ministry; a pastor was appointed; and in 1857 a
+congregation of from forty to seventy persons attended worship every
+Sunday. Mr. Freemantle, in a communication with which he has favoured
+us, says: "Our object has not been to make an aggression upon the
+Roman Catholics, but to strengthen the hands and establish the faith
+of the Vaudois. And in so doing we have found, not unfrequently, that
+when an interest has been excited among the Roman Catholic population
+of the district, there has been some family or hereditary connection
+with ancestors who were independent of the see of Rome, and such have
+again joined themselves to the faith of their fathers."
+
+The new movement was not, however, allowed to proceed without great
+opposition. The "Momiers," or mummers--the modern nickname of the
+Vaudois--were denounced by the cure of the place, and the people were
+cautioned, as they valued their souls' safety, against giving any
+countenance to their proceedings. The cure was doubtless seriously
+impressed by the gravity of the situation; and to protect the parish
+against the assaults of the evil one, he had a large number of crosses
+erected upon the heights overlooking the town. On one occasion he had
+a bad dream, in which he beheld the valley filled with a vast assembly
+come to be judged; and on the site of the judgment-seat which he saw
+in his dream, he set up, on the summit of the Come Chauve, a large tin
+cross hearted with wood. We were standing in the garden in front of
+the parsonage at Guillestre late in the evening, when M. Schell, the
+pastor, pointing up to the height, said, "There you see it now; that
+is the cure's erection." The valley below lay in deep shadow, while
+the cross upon the summit brightly reflected the last rays of the
+setting sun.
+
+The cure, finding that the "Momiers" did not cease to exist, next
+adopted the expedient of preaching them down. On the occasion of the
+Fete Napoleon, 1862, when the Rev. Mr. Freemantle visited Guillestre
+for the purpose of being present at the Vaudois services on Sunday,
+the 10th of August, the cure preached a special sermon to his
+congregation at early morning mass, telling them that an Englishman
+had come into the town with millions of francs to buy up the souls of
+Guillestre, and warning them to abstain from such men.
+
+The people were immediately filled with curiosity to know what it was
+that this stranger had come all the way from England to do, backed by
+"millions of francs." Many of them did not as yet know that there was
+such a thing as a Vaudois church in Guillestre; but now that they did
+know, they were desirous of ascertaining something about the doctrines
+taught there. The consequence was, that a crowd of people--amongst
+whom were some of the highest authorities in the town, the registrar,
+the douaniers, the chief of a neighbouring commune, and persons of all
+classes--assembled at noon to hear M. de Faye, the Protestant pastor,
+who preached to them an excellent sermon under the trees of the
+parsonage orchard, while a still larger number attended in the
+afternoon.
+
+When the cure heard of the conduct of his flock he was greatly
+annoyed. "What did you hear from the heretics?" he asked of one of the
+delinquents. "I heard _your_ sermon in the morning, and a sermon _upon
+charity_ in the afternoon," was the reply.
+
+Great were the surprise and excitement in Guillestre when it became
+known that the principal sergeant of gendarmerie--the very embodiment
+of law and order in the place--had gone over and joined the "Momiers"
+with his wife and family. M. Laugier was quite a model gendarme. He
+was a man of excellent character, steady, sensible, and patient, a
+diligent self-improver, a reader of books, a botanist, and a bit of a
+geologist. He knew all the rare mountain plants, and had a collection
+of those that would bear transplantation, in his garden at the back of
+the town. No man was more respected in Guillestre than the sergeant.
+His long and faithful service entitled him to the _medaille
+militaire_, and it would have been awarded to him, but for the
+circumstance which came to light, and which he did not seek to
+conceal, that he had joined the Protestant connexion. Not only was the
+medal withheld, but influence was used to get him sent away from the
+place; and he was packed off to a station in the mountains at Chateau
+Queyras.
+
+Though this banishment from Guillestre was intended as a punishment,
+it only served to bring out the sterling qualities of the sergeant,
+and to ensure his eventual reward. It so happened that the station at
+Chateau Queyras commanded the approaches into an extensive range of
+mountain pasturage. Although not required specially to attend to their
+safety, our sergeant had nevertheless carefully noted the flocks and
+herds as they went up the valleys in the spring. When winter
+approached, they were all brought down again from the mountains for
+safety.
+
+The winter of that year set in early and severely. The sergeant,
+making his observations on the flocks as they passed down the valley,
+noted that one large flock of about three thousand sheep had not yet
+made its appearance. The mountains were now covered with snow, and he
+apprehended that the sheep and their shepherds had been storm-stayed.
+Summoning to his assistance a body of men, he set out at their head in
+search of the lost flock. After a long, laborious, and dangerous
+journey--for the snow by this time lay deep in the hollows of the
+hills--he succeeded in discovering the shepherds and the sheep, almost
+reduced to their last gasp--the sheep, for want of food, actually
+gnawing each other's tails. With great difficulty the whole were
+extricated from their perilous position, and brought down the
+mountains in safety.
+
+No representation was made to head-quarters by the authorities of
+Guillestre of the conduct of the Protestant sergeant in the matter;
+but when the shepherds got down to Gap, they were so full of the
+sergeant's praises, and of his bravery in rescuing them and their
+flock from certain death, that a paragraph descriptive of the affair
+was inserted in the local papers, and was eventually copied into the
+Parisian journals. Then it was that an inquiry was made into his
+conduct, and the result was so satisfactory that the sergeant was at
+once decorated not only with the _medaille militaire_, but with the
+_medaille de sauvetage_--a still higher honour; and, shortly after, he
+was allowed to retire from the service on full pay. He then returned
+to his home and family at Guillestre, where he now officiates as
+_Regent_ of the Vaudois church, reading the prayers and conducting the
+service in the absence of the stated minister.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+We spent a Sunday in the comfortable parsonage at Guillestre. There
+was divine service in the temple at half-past ten A.M., conducted by
+the regular pastor, M. Schell, and instruction and catechizing of the
+children in the afternoon. The pastor's regular work consists of two
+services at Guillestre and Vars on alternate Sundays, with
+Sunday-school and singing lesson; and on week days he gives religious
+instruction in the Guillestre school. The missionary's wife is a true
+"helpmeet," and having been trained as a deaconess at Strasbourg, she
+regularly visits the poor, occasionally assisting them with medical
+advice.
+
+Another important part of the work at Guillestre is the girls' school,
+for which suitable premises have been taken; and it is conducted by an
+excellent female teacher. Here not only the usual branches of
+education are taught, but domestic industry of different kinds.
+Through the instrumentality of Mr. Milsom, glove-sewing has been
+taught to the girls, and it is hoped that by this and similar efforts
+this branch of home manufacture may become introduced in the High
+Alps, and furnish profitable employment to many poor persons during
+their long and dreary winter.
+
+By the aid of a special fund, a few girl boarders, belonging to
+scattered Protestant families who have no other means for the
+education of their children, are also received at the school. The
+girls seem to be extremely well taken care of, and the house, which we
+went over, is a very pattern of cleanliness and comfort.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The route from Guillestre into Italy lies up the valley of the Guil,
+through one of the wildest and deepest gorges, or rather chasms, to be
+found in Europe. Brockedon says it is "one of the finest in the Alps."
+M. Bost compares it to the Moutier-Grand-Val, in the canton of Berne,
+but says it is much wilder. He even calls it frightful, which it is
+not, except in rainy weather, when the rocks occasionally fall from
+overhead. At such times people avoid travelling through the gorge. M.
+Bost also likens it to the Via Mala, though here the road, at the
+narrowest and most precipitous parts, runs in the _bottom_ of the
+gorge, in a ledge cut in the rock, there being room only for the river
+and the road. It is only of late years that the road has been
+completed, and it is often partly washed away in winter, or covered
+with rock and stones brought down by the torrent. When Neff travelled
+the gorge, it was passable only on foot, or on mule-back. Yet
+light-footed armies have passed into Italy by this route. Lesdiguieres
+clambered over the mountains and along the Guil to reach Chateau
+Queyras, which he assaulted and took. Louis XIII. once accompanied a
+French army about a league up the gorge, but he turned back, afraid to
+go farther; and the hamlet at which his progress was arrested is still
+called Maison du Roi. About three leagues higher up, after crossing
+the Guil from bank to bank several times, in order to make use of such
+ledges of the rock as are suitable for the road, the gorge opens into
+the Combe du Queyras, and very shortly the picturesque-looking Castle
+of Queyras comes in sight, occupying the summit of a lofty conical
+rock in the middle of the valley.
+
+As we approached Chateau Queyras the ruins of a building were pointed
+out by Mr. Milsom in the bottom of the valley, close by the
+river-side. "That," said he, "was once the Protestant temple of the
+place. It was burnt to the ground at the Revocation. You see that old
+elm-tree growing near it. That tree was at the same time burnt to a
+black stump. It became a saying in the valley that Protestantism was
+as dead as that stump, and that it would only reappear when that dead
+stump came to life! And, strange to say, since Felix Neff has been
+here, the stump _has_ come to life--you see how green it is--and again
+Protestantism is like the elm-tree, sending out its vigorous
+offshoots, in the valley."
+
+Chateau Queyras stands in the centre of the valley of the Guil, which
+is joined near this point by two other valleys, the Combe of Arvieux
+joining it on the right bank, and that of San Veran on the left. The
+heads of the streams which traverse these valleys have their origin in
+the snowy range of the Cottian Alps, which form the boundary between
+France and Italy. As in the case of the descendants of the ancient
+Vaudois at Dormilhouse, they are here also found at the farthest limit
+of vegetation, penetrating almost to the edge of the glacier, where
+they were least likely to be molested. The inhabitants of Arvieux were
+formerly almost entirely Protestant, and had a temple there, which was
+pulled down at the Revocation. From that time down to the Revolution
+they worshipped only in secret, occasionally ministered to by Vaudois
+pastors, who made precarious visits to them from the Italian valleys
+at the risk of their lives.
+
+Above Arvieux is the hamlet of La Chalp, containing a considerable
+number of Protestants, and where Neff had his home--a small, low
+cottage undistinguishable from the others save by its whitewashed
+front. Its situation is cheerful, facing the south, and commanding a
+pleasant mountain prospect, contrasting strongly with the barren
+outlook and dismal hovels of Dormilhouse. But Neff never could regard
+the place as his home. "The inhabitants," he observed in his journal,
+"have more traffic, and the mildness of the climate appears somehow or
+other not favourable to the growth of piety. They are zealous
+Protestants, and show me a thousand attentions, but they are at
+present absolutely impenetrable." The members of the congregation at
+Arvieux, indeed, complained of his spending so little of his time
+among them; but the comfort of his cottage at La Chalp, and the
+comparative mildness of the climate of Arvieux, were insufficient to
+attract him from the barren crags but warm hearts of Dormilhouse.
+
+The village of San Veran, which lies up among the mountains some
+twelve miles to the east of Arvieux, on the opposite side of the Val
+Queyras, was another of the refuges of the ancient Vaudois. It is at
+the foot of the snowy ridge which divides France from Italy. Dr. Gilly
+says, "There is nothing fit for mortal to take refuge in between San
+Veran and the eternal snows which mantle the pinnacles of Monte Viso."
+The village is 6,692 feet above the level of the sea, and there is a
+provincial saying that San Veran is the highest spot in Europe where
+bread is eaten. Felix Neff said, "It is the highest, and consequently
+the most pious, in the valley of Queyras." Dr. Gilly was the second
+Englishman who had ever found his way to the place, and he was
+accompanied on the occasion by Mrs. Gilly. "The sight of a female,"
+he says, "dressed entirely in linen, was a phenomenon so new to those
+simple peasants, whose garments are never anything but woollen, that
+Pizarro and his mail-clad companions were not greater objects of
+curiosity to the Peruvians than we were to these mountaineers."
+
+Not far distant from San Veran are the mountain hamlets of Pierre
+Grosse and Fongillarde, also ancient retreats of the persecuted
+Vaudois, and now for the most part inhabited by Protestants. The
+remoteness and comparative inaccessibility of these mountain hamlets
+may be inferred from the fact that in 1786, when the Protestants of
+France were for the first time since the Revocation of the Edict of
+Nantes permitted to worship in public without molestation, four years
+elapsed before the intelligence reached San Veran.
+
+We have now reached almost the extreme limits of France; Italy lying
+on the other side of the snowy peaks which shut in the upper valleys
+of the Alps. In Neff's time the parish of which he had charge extended
+from San Veran, on the frontier, to Champsaur, in the valley of the
+Drac, a distance of nearly eighty miles. His charge consisted of the
+scattered population of many mountain hamlets, to visit which in
+succession involved his travelling a total distance of not less than
+one hundred and eighty miles. It was, of course, impossible that any
+single man, no matter how inspired by zeal and devotion, could do
+justice to a charge so extensive. The difficulties of passing through
+a country so wild and rugged were also very great, especially in
+winter. Neff records that on one occasion he took six hours to make
+the journey, in the midst of a snow-storm which completely hid the
+footpath, from his cottage at La Chalp to San Veran, a distance of
+only twelve miles.
+
+The pastors who succeeded Neff had the same difficulties to encounter,
+and there were few to be found who could brave them. The want of proper
+domestic accommodation for the pastors was also felt to be a great
+hindrance. Accordingly, one of the first things to which the Rev. Mr.
+Freemantle directed his attention, when he entered upon his noble work
+of supplying the spiritual destitution of the French Vaudois, was to
+take steps not only to supply the poor people with more commodious
+temples, but also to provide dwelling-houses for the pastors. And in the
+course of a few years, helped by friends in England, he has been enabled
+really to accomplish a very great deal. The extensive parish of Neff is
+now divided into five sub-parishes--that of Fressinieres, which includes
+Palons, Violins, and Dormilhouse, provided with three temples, a
+parsonage, and schools; Arvieux, with the hamlets of Brunissard (where
+worship was formerly conducted in a stable) and La Chalp, provided with
+two temples, a parsonage, and schools; San Veran, with Fongillarde and
+Pierre Grosse, provided with three temples, a parsonage, and a school;
+St. Laurent du Cros and Champsaur, in the valley of the Drac, provided
+with a temple, school, &c., principally through the liberality of Lord
+Monson; and Guillestre and Vars, provided with two temples, a parsonage,
+and a girls' school. A temple, with a residence for a pastor, has also
+of late years been provided at Briancon, with a meeting-place also at
+the village of Villeneuve.
+
+Such are the agencies now at work in the district of the High Alps,
+helped on by a few zealous workers in England and abroad. While the
+object of the pastors, in the words of Mr. Freemantle, is "not to
+regard themselves as missionaries to proselytize Roman Catholics, but
+as ministers residing among their own people, whose faith, and love,
+and holiness they have to promote," they also endeavour to institute
+measures with the object of improving the social and domestic
+condition of the Vaudois. Thus, in one district--that of St. Laurent
+du Cros--a _banque de prevoyance_, or savings-bank, has been
+established; and though it was at first regarded with suspicion, it
+has gradually made its way and proved of great value, being made use
+of by the indigent Roman Catholics as well as Protestant families of
+the district. Such efforts and such agencies as these cannot fail to
+be followed by blessings, and to be greatly instrumental for good.
+
+Our last night in France was spent in the miserable little town of
+Abries, situated immediately at the foot of the Alpine ridge which
+separates France from Italy. On reaching the principal hotel, or
+rather auberge, we found every bed taken; but a peep into the dark and
+dirty kitchen, which forms the entrance-hall of the place, made us
+almost glad that there was no room for us in that inn. We turned out
+into the wet streets to find a better; but though we succeeded in
+finding beds in a poor house in a back lane, little can be said in
+their praise. We were, however, supplied with a tolerable dinner, and
+contrived to pass the night in rest, and to start refreshed early on
+the following morning on our way to the Vaudois valleys of Piedmont.
+
+[Illustration: Valley of Luserne.]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+THE VALLEY OF THE PELICE--LA TOUR--ANGROGNA--THE PRA DU TOUR.
+
+
+The village of Abries is situated close to the Alpine ridge, the
+summit of which marks the boundary between France and Italy. On the
+other side lie the valleys of Piedmont, in which the French Vaudois
+were accustomed to take refuge when persecution ravaged their own
+valleys, passing by the mountain-road we were now about to travel, as
+far as La Tour, in the valley of the Pelice.
+
+Although there are occasional villages along the route, there is no
+good resting-place for travellers short of La Tour, some twenty-six
+miles distant from Abries; and as it was necessary that we should walk
+the distance, the greater part of the road being merely a track,
+scarcely practicable for mules, we were up betimes in the morning, and
+on our way. The sun had scarcely risen above the horizon. The mist
+was still hanging along the mountain-sides, and the stillness of the
+scene was only broken by the murmur of the Guil running in its rocky
+bed below. Passing through the hamlet of Monta, where the French
+douane has its last frontier station, we began the ascent; and soon,
+as the sun rose and the mists cleared away, we saw the profile of the
+mountain up which we were climbing cast boldly upon the range behind
+us on the further side of the valley. A little beyond the ravine of
+the Combe de la Croix, along the summit of which the road winds, we
+reached the last house within the French frontier--a hospice, not very
+inviting in appearance, for the accommodation of travellers. A little
+further is the Col, and passing a stone block carved with the
+fleur-de-lis and cross of Savoy, we crossed the frontier of France and
+entered Italy.
+
+On turning a shoulder of the mountain, we looked down upon the head of
+the valley of the Pelice, a grand and savage scene. The majestic,
+snow-capped Monte Viso towers up on the right, at the head of the
+valley, amidst an assemblage of other great mountain masses. From its
+foot seems to steal the river Pelice, now a quiet rivulet, though in
+winter a raging torrent. Right in front, lower down the valley, is the
+rocky defile of Mirabouc, a singularly savage gorge, seemingly rent
+asunder by some tremendous convulsion of nature; beyond and over which
+extends the valley of the Pelice, expanding into that of the Po, and
+in the remote distance the plains of Piedmont; while immediately
+beneath our feet, as it were, but far below, lies a considerable
+breadth of green pasture, the Bergerie of Pra, enclosed on all sides
+by the mountains over which we look.
+
+The descent from the Col down into the Pra is very difficult, in some
+places almost precipitous--far more abrupt than on the French side,
+where the incline up to the summit is comparatively easy.
+
+The zigzag descends from one rock to another, along the face of a
+shelving slope, by a succession of notches (from which the footpath is
+not inappropriately termed _La Coche_) affording a very insecure
+footing for the few mules which occasionally cross the pass. Dr. Gilly
+crossed here from La Tour with Mrs. Gilly in 1829, when about to visit
+the French valleys; but he found the path so difficult and dangerous,
+that the lady had to walk nearly the whole way.
+
+As we descended the mountain almost by a succession of leaps, we
+overtook M. Gariod, deputy judge of Gap, engaged in botanizing among
+the rocks; and he informed us that among the rarer specimens he had
+collected in the course of his journey on the summit were the
+_Polygonum alpinum_ and _Silene vallesia_, above Monta; the
+_Leucanthemum alpinum_, near the Hospice; the _Linaria alpina_ and
+_Cirsium spinosissimus_ on the Col; while the _Lloydia serotina_,
+_Arabis alpina_, _Phyteuma hemisphericum_, and _Rhododendrum
+ferrugineum_, were found all over the face of the rocky descent to the
+Pra.
+
+At the foot of the _Coche_ we arrived at the first house in Italy, the
+little auberge of the Pra, a great resort of sportsmen, who come to
+hunt the chamois in the adjoining mountains during the season. Here is
+also the usual customs station, with a few officers of the Italian
+douane, to watch the passage of merchandise across the frontier.
+
+The road from hence to la Tour is along the river Pelice, which is
+kept in sight nearly the whole way. A little below the Pra, where it
+enters the defile of Mirabouc, the path merely follows what is the
+bed of the torrent in winter. The descent is down ledges and notches,
+from rock to rock, with rugged precipices overhanging the ravine for
+nearly a mile. At its narrowest part stand the ruins of the ancient
+fort of Mirabouc, built against the steep escarpments of the mountain,
+which, in ancient times, completely commanded and closed the defile
+against the passage of an enemy from that quarter. And difficult
+though the Col de la Croix is for the passage of an army, it has on
+more than one occasion been passed by French detachments in their
+invasion of Italy.
+
+It is not until we reach Bobi, or Bobbio, several miles lower down the
+Pelice, that we at last feel we are in Italy. Here the valley opens
+out, the scenery is soft and inviting, the fields are well tilled, the
+vegetation is rich, and the clusters of chestnut-trees in magnificent
+foliage. We now begin to see the striking difference between the
+French and the Italian valleys. The former are precipitous and
+sterile, constant falls of slaty rock blocking up the defiles; while
+here the mountains lay aside their savage aspects, and are softened
+down into picturesquely wooded hills, green pastures, and fertile
+fields stretching along the river-sides, yielding a rich territory for
+the plough.
+
+Yet, beautiful and peaceful though this valley of the Pelice now
+appears, there is scarcely a spot in it but has been consecrated by
+the blood of martyrs to the cause of liberty and religion. In the
+rugged defile of the Mirabouc, which we have just passed, is the site
+of a battle fought between the Piedmontese troops and the Vaudois
+peasants, at a place called the Pian-del-Mort, where the persecuted,
+turning upon the persecutors, drove them back, and made good their
+retreat to their mountain fastnesses. Bobi itself was the scene of
+many deadly struggles. A little above the village, on a rocky plateau,
+are the remains of an ancient fort, near the hamlet of Sibaud, where
+the Vaudois performed one of their bravest exploits under Henri
+Arnaud, after their "Glorious Return" from exile,--near which, on a
+stone still pointed out, they swore fidelity to each other, and that
+they would die to the last man rather than abandon their country and
+their religion.
+
+Near Bobi is still to be seen a remarkable illustration of English
+interest long ago felt in the people of these valleys. This is the
+long embankment or breakwater, built by a grant from Oliver Cromwell,
+for the purpose of protecting the village against the inundations of
+the Pelice, by one of which it was nearly destroyed in the time of the
+Protectorate. It seems strange indeed that England should then have
+stretched out its hand so far, to help a people so poor and
+uninfluential as the Vaudois; but their sufferings had excited the
+sympathies of all Europe, and of Protestant England in particular,
+which not only sent them sympathy, but substantial succour. Cromwell
+also, through the influence of Cardinal Mazarin, compelled the Duke of
+Savoy to suspend for a time the persecution of his subjects,--though
+shortly after the Protector's death it waxed hotter than ever.
+
+All down the valley of the Pelice, we come upon village after
+village--La Piante, Villar, and Cabriol--which have been the scenes
+sometimes of heroic combats, and sometimes of treacherous massacres.
+Yet all the cruelty of Grand Dukes and Popes during centuries did not
+avail in turning the people of the valley from their faith. For they
+continue to worship after the same primitive forms as they did a
+thousand years ago; and in the principal villages and hamlets, though
+Romanism has long been supported by the power of the State and the
+patronage of the Church, the Protestant Vaudois continue to constitute
+the majority of the population.
+
+Rising up on the left of the road, between Villar and La Tour, are
+seen the bold and almost perpendicular rocks of Castelluzzo,
+terminating in the tower-like summit which has given to them their
+name. On the face of these rocks is one of the caverns in which the
+Vaudois were accustomed to hide their women and children when they
+themselves were forced to take the field. When Dr. Gilly first
+endeavoured to discover this famous cavern in 1829, he could not find
+any one who could guide him to it. Tradition said it was half way down
+the perpendicular face of the rock, and it was known to be very
+difficult to reach; but the doctor could not find any traces of it.
+Determined, however, not to be baffled, he made a second attempt a
+month later, and succeeded. He had to descend some fifty feet from the
+top of the cliff by a rope ladder, until a platform of rock was
+reached, from which the cavern was entered. It was found to consist of
+an irregular, rugged, sloping gallery in the face of the rock, of
+considerable extent, roofed in by a projecting crag. It is quite open
+to the south, but on all other sides it is secure; and it can only be
+entered from above. Such were the places to which the people of the
+valleys were driven for shelter in the dark days so happily passed
+away.
+
+One of the best indications of the improved _regime_ that now
+prevails, shortly presented itself in the handsome Vaudois church,
+situated at the western entrance of the town of La Tour, near to which
+is the college for the education of Vaudois pastors, together with
+residences for the clergy and professors. The founding of this
+establishment, as well as of the hospital for the poor and infirm
+Vaudois, is in a great measure due to the energetic zeal of the Dr.
+Gilly so often quoted above, whose writings on behalf of the faithful
+but destitute Protestants of the Piedmontese valleys, about forty
+years since, awakened an interest in their behalf in England, as well
+as in foreign countries, which has not yet subsided.
+
+More enthusiastic, if possible, even than Dr. Gilly, was the late
+General Beckwith, who followed up, with extraordinary energy, the work
+which the other had so well begun. The general was an old Peninsular
+veteran, who had followed the late Duke of Wellington through most of
+his campaigns, and lost a leg while serving under him at the battle of
+Waterloo. Hence the designation of him by a Roman Catholic bishop in
+an article published by him in one of the Italian journals, as "the
+adventurer with the wooden leg."
+
+The general's attention was first attracted to the subject of the
+Vaudois in the following curiously accidental way. Being a regular
+visitor at Apsley House, he called on the Duke one morning, and,
+finding him engaged, he strolled into the library to spend an idle
+half-hour among the books. The first he took up was Dr. Gilly's
+"Narrative," and what he read excited so lively an interest in his
+mind that he went direct to his bookseller and ordered all the
+publications relative to the Vaudois Church that could be procured.
+
+The general's zeal being thus fired, he set out shortly after on a
+visit to the Piedmontese valleys. He returned to them again and again,
+and at length settled at La Tour, where he devoted the remainder of
+his life and a large portion of his fortune to the service of the
+Vaudois Church and people. He organized a movement for the erection
+of schools, of which not fewer than one hundred and twenty were
+provided mainly through his instrumentality in different parts of the
+valleys, besides restoring and enlarging the college at La Tour,
+erecting the present commodious dwellings for the professors,
+providing a superior school for the education of pastors' daughters,
+and contributing towards the erection of churches wherever churches
+were needed.
+
+The general was so zealous a missionary, so eager for the propagation
+of the Gospel, that some of his friends asked him why he did not
+preach to the people. "No," said he; "men have their special gifts,
+and mine is _a brick-and-mortar gift_." The general was satisfied to
+go on as he had begun, helping to build schools, colleges, and
+churches for the Vaudois, wherever most needed. His crowning work was
+the erection of the grand block of buildings on the Viale del Re at
+Turin, which not only includes a handsome and commodious Vaudois
+church, but an English church, and a Vaudois hospital and schools,
+erected at a cost of about fourteen thousand pounds, principally at
+the cost of the general himself, generously aided by Mr. Brewin and
+other English contributors.
+
+Nor were the people ungrateful to their benefactor. "Let the name of
+General Beckwith be blessed by all who pass this way," says an
+inscription placed upon one of the many schools opened through his
+efforts and generosity; and the whole country responds to the
+sentiment.
+
+To return to La Tour. The style of the buildings at its western
+end--the church, college, residences, and adjoining cottages, with
+their pretty gardens in front, designed, as they have been, by English
+architects--give one the idea of the best part of an English town.
+But this disappears as you enter the town itself, and proceed through
+the principal street, which is long, narrow, and thoroughly Italian.
+The situation of the town is exceedingly fine, at the foot of the
+Vandalin Mountain, near the confluence of the river Angrogna with the
+Pelice. The surrounding scenery is charming; and from the high
+grounds, north and south of the town, extensive views may be had in
+all directions--especially up the valley of the Pelice, and eastward
+over the plains of Piedmont--the whole country being, as it were,
+embroidered with vineyards, corn-fields, and meadows, here and there
+shaded with groves and thickets, spread over a surface varied by
+hills, and knolls, and undulating slopes.
+
+The size, importance, industry, and central situation of La Tour have
+always caused it to be regarded as the capital of the valleys.
+One-half of the Vaudois population occupies the valley of the Pelice
+and the lateral valley of Angrogna; the remainder, more widely
+scattered, occupying the valleys of Perouse and Pragela, and the
+lateral valley of St. Martin--the entire number of the Protestant
+population in the several valleys amounting to about twenty thousand.
+
+Although, as we have already said, there is scarcely a hamlet in the
+valleys but has been made famous by the resistance of its inhabitants
+in past times to the combined tyranny of the Popes of Rome and the
+Dukes of Savoy, perhaps the most interesting events of all have
+occurred in the neighbourhood of La Tour, but more especially in the
+valley of Angrogna, at whose entrance it stands.
+
+The wonder is, that a scattered community of half-armed peasantry,
+without resources, without magazines, without fortresses, should have
+been able for any length of time to resist large bodies of regular
+troops--Italian, French, Spanish, and even Irish!--led by the most
+experienced commanders of the day, and abundantly supplied with arms,
+cannon, ammunition, and stores of all kinds. All that the people had
+on their side--and it compensated for much--was a good cause, great
+bravery, and a perfect knowledge of the country in which, and for
+which, they fought.
+
+Though the Vaudois had no walled towns, their district was a natural
+fortress, every foot of which was known to them--every pass, every
+defile, every barricade, and every defensible position. Resistance in
+the open country, they knew, would be fatal to them. Accordingly,
+whenever assailed by their persecutors, they fled to their mountain
+strongholds, and there waited the attack of the enemy.
+
+One of the strongest of such places--the Thermopylae of the
+Vaudois--was the valley of Angrogna, up which the inhabitants of La
+Tour were accustomed to retreat on any sudden invasion by the army of
+Savoy. The valley is one of exquisite beauty, presenting a combination
+of mingled picturesqueness and sublimity, the like of which is rarely
+to be seen. It is hemmed in by mountains, in some places rounded and
+majestic, in others jagged and abrupt. The sides of the valley are in
+many places finely wooded, while in others well-tilled fields,
+pastures, and vineyards slope down to the river-side. Orchards are
+succeeded by pine-woods, and these again by farms and gardens.
+Sometimes a little cascade leaps from a rock on its way to the valley
+below; and little is heard around, save the rippling of water, and the
+occasional lowing of cattle in the pastures, mingled with the music of
+their bells.
+
+Shortly after entering the valley, we passed the scene of several
+terrible struggles between the Vaudois and their persecutors. One of
+the most famous spots is the plateau of Rochemalan, where the heights
+of St. John abut upon the mountains of Angrogna. It was shortly after
+the fulmination of a bull of extermination against the Vaudois by Pope
+Innocent VIII., in 1486, that an army of eighteen thousand regular
+French and Piedmontese troops, accompanied by a horde of brigands to
+whom the remission of sins was promised on condition of their helping
+to slay the heretics, encircled the valleys and proceeded to assail
+the Vaudois in their fastnesses. The Papal legate, Albert Catanee,
+Archdeacon of Cremona, had his head-quarters at Pignerol, from whence
+he superintended the execution of the Pope's orders. First, he sent
+preaching monks up the valleys to attempt the conversion of the
+Vaudois before attacking them with arms. But the peasantry refused to
+be converted, and fled to their strongholds in the mountains.
+
+Then Catanee took the field at the head of his army, advancing upon
+Angrogna. He extended his lines so as to enclose the entire body of
+heretics, with the object of cutting them off to a man. The Vaudois,
+however, defended themselves resolutely, though armed only with pikes,
+swords, and bows and arrows, and everywhere beat back the assailants.
+The severest struggle occurred at Rochemalan, which the crusaders
+attacked with great courage. But the Vaudois had the advantage of the
+higher ground, and, encouraged by the cries and prayers of the women,
+children, and old men whom they were defending, they impetuously
+rushed forward and drove the Papal troops downhill in disorder,
+pursuing them into the very plain.
+
+The next day the Papalini renewed the attack, ascending by the bottom
+of the valley, instead of by the plateau on which they had been
+defeated. But one of those dense mists, so common in the Alps, having
+settled down upon the valley, the troops became confused, broken up,
+and entangled in difficult paths; and in this state, marching
+apprehensively, they were fallen upon by the Vaudois and again
+completely defeated. Many of the soldiers slid over the rocks and were
+drowned in the torrent,--the chasm into which the captain of the
+detachment (Saquet de Planghere) fell, being still known as _Toumpi de
+Saquet_, or Saquet's Hole.
+
+The resistance of the mountaineers at other points, in the valleys of
+Pragela and St. Martin, having been almost equally successful, Catanee
+withdrew the Papal army in disgust, and marched it back into France,
+to wreak his vengeance on the defenceless Vaudois of the Val Louise,
+in the manner described in a preceding chapter.
+
+Less than a century later, a like attempt was made to force the
+entrance to the valley of Angrogna, by an army of Italians and
+Spaniards, under the command of the Count de la Trinite. A
+proclamation had been published, and put up in the villages of
+Angrogna, to the effect that all would be destroyed by fire and sword
+who did not forthwith return to the Church of Rome. And as the
+peasantry did not return, on the 2nd November, 1560, the Count
+advanced at the head of his army to extirpate the heretics. The
+Vaudois were provided with the rudest sort of weapons; many of them
+had only slings and cross-bows. But they felt strong in the goodness
+of their cause, and prepared to defend themselves to the death.
+
+As the Count's army advanced, the Vaudois retired until they reached
+the high ground near Rochemalan, where they took their stand. The
+enemy followed, and halted in the valley beneath, lighting their
+bivouac fires, and intending to pass the night there. Before darkness
+fell, however, an accidental circumstance led to an engagement. A
+Vaudois boy, who had got hold of a drum, began beating it in a ravine
+close by. The soldiers, thinking a hostile troop had arrived, sprang
+up in disorder and seized their arms. The Vaudois, on their part,
+seeing the movement, and imagining that an attack was about to be made
+on them, rushed forward to repel it. The soldiers, surprised and
+confused, for the most part threw away their arms, and fled down the
+valley. Irritated by this disgraceful retreat of some twelve hundred
+soldiers before two hundred peasants, the Count advanced a second
+time, and was again, repulsed by the little band of heroes, who
+charged his troops with loud shouts of "Viva Jesu Christo!" driving
+the invaders in confusion down the valley.
+
+It may be mentioned that the object of the Savoy general, in making
+this attack, was to force the valley, and capture the strong position
+of the Pra du Tour, the celebrated stronghold of the Vaudois, from
+whence we shall afterwards find them, again driven back, baffled and
+defeated.
+
+A hundred years passed, and still the Vaudois remained unconverted and
+unexterminated. The Marquis of Pianesse now advanced upon
+Angrogna--always with the same object, "ad extirpandos hereticos," in
+obedience to the order of the Propaganda. On this occasion not only
+Italian and Spanish but Irish troops were engaged in a combined effort
+to exterminate the Vaudois. The Irish were known as "the assassins"
+by the people of the valleys, because of their almost exceptional
+ferocity; and the hatred they excited by their outrages on women and
+children was so great, that on the assault and capture of St. Legont
+by the Vaudois peasantry, an Irish regiment surprised in barracks was
+completely destroyed.
+
+A combined attack was made on Angrogna on the 15th of June, 1655. On
+that day four separate bodies of troops advanced up the heights from
+different directions, thereby enclosing the little Vaudois army of
+three hundred men assembled there, and led by the heroic Javanel. This
+leader first threw himself upon the head of the column which advanced
+from Rocheplate, and drove it downhill. Then he drew off his little
+body towards Rochemalan, when he suddenly found himself opposed by the
+two bodies which had come up from St. John and La Tour. Retiring
+before them, he next found himself face to face with the fourth
+detachment, which had come up from Pramol. With the quick instinct of
+military genius, Javanel threw himself upon it before the beaten
+Rocheplate detachment were able to rally and assail him in flank; and
+he succeeded in cutting the Pramol force in two and passing through
+it, rushing up to the summit of the hill, on which he posted himself.
+And there he stood at bay.
+
+This hill is precipitous on one side, but of comparatively easy ascent
+on the side up which the little band of heroes had ascended. At the
+foot of the slope the four detachments, three thousand against three
+hundred, drew up and attacked him; but firing from a distance, their
+aim was not very deadly. For five hours Javanel resisted them as he
+best could, and then, seeing signs of impatience and hesitation in the
+enemy's ranks, he called out to his men, "Forward, my friends!" and
+they rushed downhill like an avalanche. The three thousand men
+recoiled, broke, and fled before the three hundred; and Javanel
+returned victorious to his entrenchments before Angrogna.
+
+Yet, again, some eight years later, in 1663, was this neighbourhood
+the scene of another contest, and again was Javanel the hero. On this
+occasion, the Marquis de Fleury led the troops of the Duke of Savoy,
+whose object, as before, was to advance up the valley, and assail the
+Vaudois stronghold of Pra du Tour; and again the peasantry resisted
+them successfully, and drove them back into the plains. Javanel then
+went to rejoin a party of the men whom he had posted at the "Gates of
+Angrogna" to defend the pass up the valley; and again he fell upon the
+enemy engaged in attempting to force a passage there, and defeated
+them with heavy loss.
+
+Such are among the exciting events which have occurred in this one
+locality in connection with the Vaudois struggle for country and
+liberty.
+
+Let us now proceed up the valley of Angrogna, towards the famous
+stronghold of the Pra du Tour, the object of those repeated attacks of
+the enemy in the neighbourhood of Rochemalan. As we advance, the
+mountains gradually close in upon the valley, leaving a comparatively
+small width of pasture land by the river-side. At the hamlet of Serre
+the carriage road ends; and from thence the valley grows narrower, the
+mountains which enclose it become more rugged and abrupt, until there
+is room enough only for a footpath along a rocky ledge, and the
+torrent running in its deep bed alongside. This continues for a
+considerable distance, the path in some places being overhung by
+precipices, or encroached upon by rocks and boulders fallen from the
+heights, until at length we emerge from the defile, and find ourselves
+in a comparatively open space, the famous Pra du Tour; the defile we
+have passed, alongside the torrent and overhung by the rocks, being
+known as the Barricade.
+
+The Pra du Tour, or Meadow of the Tower, is a little amphitheatre
+surrounded by rugged and almost inaccessible mountains, situated at
+the head of the valley of Angrogna. The steep slopes bring down into
+this deep dell the headwaters of the torrent, which escape among the
+rocks down the defile we have just ascended. The path up the defile
+forms the only approach to the Pra from the valley, but it is so
+narrow, tortuous, and difficult, that the labours of only a few men in
+blocking up the pathway with rocks and stones that lie ready at hand,
+might at any time so barricade the approach as to render it
+impracticable. The extremely secluded position of the place, its
+natural strength and inaccessibility, and its proximity to the
+principal Vaudois towns and villages, caused it to be regarded from
+the earliest times as their principal refuge. It was their fastness,
+their fortress, and often their home. It was more--it was their school
+and college; for in the depths of the Pra du Tour the pastors, or
+_barbas_,[107] educated young men for the ministry, and provided for
+the religious instruction of the Vaudois population.
+
+         [Footnote 107: _Barba_--a title of respect; in the Vaudois
+         dialect literally signifying an _uncle_.]
+
+It was the importance of the Pra du Tour as a stronghold that rendered
+it so often the object of attack through the valley of Angrogna. When
+the hostile troops of Savoy advanced upon La Tour, the inhabitants of
+the neighbouring valleys at once fled to the Pra, into which they
+drove their cattle, and carried what provisions they could; there
+constructing mills, ovens, houses, and all that was requisite for
+subsistence, as in a fort. The men capable of bearing arms stood on
+their guard to defend the passes of the Vachere and Roussine, at the
+extreme heads of the valley, as well as the defile of the Barricade,
+while other bodies, stationed lower down, below the Barricade,
+prepared to resist the troops seeking to force an entrance up the
+valley; and hence the repeated battles in the neighbourhood of
+Rochemalan above described.
+
+On the occasion of the defeat of the Count de la Trinite by the little
+Vaudois band near the village of Angrogna, in November, 1560, the
+general drew off, and waited the arrival of reinforcements. A large
+body of Spanish veterans having joined him, in the course of the
+following spring he again proceeded up the valley, determined, if
+possible, to force the Barricade--the royal forces now numbering some
+seven thousand men, all disciplined troops. The peasants, finding
+their first position no longer tenable in the face of such numbers,
+abandoned Angrogna and the lower villages, and retired, with the whole
+population, to the Pra du Tour. The Count followed them with his main
+army, at the same time directing two other bodies of troops to advance
+upon the place round by the mountains, one by the heights of the
+Vachere, and another by Les Fourests. The defenders of the Pra would
+thus be assailed from three sides at once, their forces divided, and
+victory rendered certain.
+
+But the Count did not calculate upon the desperate bravery of the
+defenders. All three bodies were beaten back in succession. For four
+days the Count made every effort to force the defile, and failed. Two
+colonels, eight captains, and four hundred men fell in these desperate
+assaults, without gaining an inch of ground. On the fifth day a
+combined attack was made with the reserve, composed of Spanish
+companies, but this, too, failed; and the troops, when ordered to
+return to the charge, refused to obey. The Count, who commanded, is
+said to have wept as he sat on a rock and looked upon so many of his
+dead--the soldiers themselves exclaiming, "God fights for these
+people, and we do them wrong!"
+
+About a hundred years later, the Marquis de Pianesse, who, like the
+Count de la Trinite, had been defeated at Rochemalan, made a similar
+attempt to surprise the Vaudois stronghold, with a like result. The
+peasants were commanded on this occasion by John Leger, the pastor and
+historian. Those who were unarmed hurled rocks and stones on the
+assailants from the heights; and the troops being thus thrown into
+confusion, the Vaudois rushed from behind their ramparts, and drove
+them in a state of total rout down the valley.
+
+On entering the Pra du Tour, one of the most prominent objects that
+meets the eye is the Roman Catholic chapel recently erected there,
+though the few inhabitants of the district are still almost entirely
+Protestant. The Roman Catholic Church has, however, now done what the
+Roman Catholic armies failed to do--established itself in the midst of
+the Vaudois stronghold, though by no means in the hearts of the
+people.
+
+Desirous of ascertaining, if possible, the site of the ancient
+college, we proceeded up the Pra, and hailed a young woman whom we
+observed crossing the rustic bridge over the Pele, one of the mountain
+rivulets running into the torrent of Angrogna. Inquiring of her as to
+the site of the college, she told us we had already passed it, and led
+us back to the place--up the rocky side of the hill leading to the
+Vachere--past the cottage where she herself lived, and pointed to the
+site: "There," she said, "is where the ancient college of the Vaudois
+stood." The old building has, however, long since been removed, the
+present structure being merely part of a small farmsteading. Higher up
+the steep hill-side, on successive ledges of rock, are the ruins of
+various buildings, some of which may have been dwellings, and one,
+larger than the rest, on a broader plateau, with an elder-tree growing
+in the centre, may possibly have been the temple.
+
+From the higher shelves on this mountain-side the view is extremely
+wild and grand. The acclivities which surround the head of the Pra
+seem as if battlemented walls; the mountain opposite throws its sombre
+shadow over the ravine in which the torrent runs; whilst, down the
+valley, rock seems piled on rock, and mountain on mountain. All is
+perfectly still, and the silence is only audible by the occasional
+tinkling of a sheep-bell, or the humming of a bee in search of flowers
+on the mountain-side. So peaceful and quiet is the place, that it is
+difficult to believe it could ever have been the scene of such deadly
+strife, and rung with the shouts of men thirsting for each other's
+blood.
+
+After lingering about the place until the sun was far on his way
+towards the horizon, we returned, by the road we had come, the valley
+seeming more beautiful than ever under the glow of evening, and
+arrived at our destination about dusk, to find the fireflies darting
+about the streets of La Tour.
+
+The next day saw us at Turin, and our summer excursion at an end. Mr.
+Milsom, who had so pleasantly accompanied me through the valleys, had
+been summoned to attend the death-bed of a friend at Antibes, and he
+set out on the journey forthwith. While still there, he received a
+telegram intimating the death of his daughter at Allevard, near
+Grenoble, and he arrived only in time to attend her funeral. Two
+months later, he lost another dear daughter; shortly after, his
+mother-in-law died; and in the following December he himself died
+suddenly of heart disease, and followed them to the grave.
+
+One could not but conceive a hearty liking for Edward Milsom--he was
+such a thoroughly good man. He was a native of London, but spent the
+greater part of his life at Lyons, in France, where he long since
+settled and married. He there carried on a large business as a silk
+merchant, but was always ready to give a portion of his time and money
+to help forward any good work. He was an "ancien," or elder, of the
+Evangelical church at Lyons, originally founded by Adolphe Monod, to
+whom he was also related by marriage.
+
+Some years since he was very much interested by the perusal of Pastor
+Bost's account of his visit to the scene of Felix Neff's labours in
+the High Alps. He felt touched by the simple, faithful character of
+the people, and keenly sympathised with their destitute condition.
+"Here," said he, "is a field in which I may possibly be of some use."
+And he at once went to their help. He visited the district of
+Fressinieres, including the hamlet of Dormilhouse, as well as the more
+distant villages of Arvieux and Sans Veran, up the vale of Queyras;
+and nearly every year thereafter he devoted a certain portion of his
+time in visiting the poorer congregations of the district, giving them
+such help and succour as lay in his power.
+
+His repeated visits made him well known to the people of the valleys,
+who valued him as a friend, if they did not even love him as a
+brother. His visits were also greatly esteemed by the pastors, who
+stood much in need of encouragement and help. He cheered the wavering,
+strengthened the feeble-hearted, and stimulated all to renewed life
+and action. Wherever he went, a light seemed to shine in his path; and
+when he departed, he was followed by many blessings.
+
+In one place he would arrange for the opening of a new place of
+worship; in another, for the opening of a boys' school; in a third,
+for the industrial employment of girls; and wherever there was any
+little heartburning or jealousy to be allayed, he would set himself to
+remove it. His admirable tact, his unfailing temper, and excellent
+good sense, rendered him a wise counsellor and a most successful
+conciliator.
+
+The last time Mr. Milsom visited England, towards the end of 1869, he
+was occupied, as usual, in collecting subscriptions for the poor
+Vaudois of the High Alps. Now that the good "merchant missionary" has
+rested from his labours, they will indeed feel the loss of their
+friend. Who is to assume his mantle?
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+THE GLORIOUS RETURN:
+
+AN EPISODE IN THE HISTORY OF THE ITALIAN VAUDOIS.
+
+
+What is known as The Glorious Return, or re-entry of the exiled
+Vaudois in 1689 to resume possession of the valleys from which they
+had been banished, will always stand out as one of the most remarkable
+events in history.
+
+If ever a people fairly established their right to live in their own
+country, and to worship God after their own methods, the Vaudois had
+surely done so. They had held conscientiously and consistently to
+their religion for nearly five hundred years, during which they
+laboured under many disabilities and suffered much persecution. But
+the successive Dukes of Savoy were no better satisfied with them as
+subjects than before. They could not brook that any part of their
+people should be of a different form of religion from that professed
+by themselves; and they continued, at the instance of successive
+popes, to let slip the dogs of war upon the valleys, in the hopes of
+eventually compelling the Vaudois to "come in" and make their peace
+with the Church.
+
+The result of these invasions was almost uniform. At the first sudden
+inroad of the troops, the people, taken by surprise, usually took to
+flight; on which their dwellings were burnt and their fields laid
+waste. But when they had time to rally and collect their forces, the
+almost invariable result was that the Piedmontese were driven out of
+the valleys again with ignominy and loss. The Duke's invasion of 1655
+was, however, attended with greater success than usual. His armies
+occupied the greater part of the valleys, though the Vaudois still
+held out, and made occasional successful sallies from their mountain
+fastnesses. At length, the Protestants of the Swiss Confederation,
+taking compassion on their co-religionists in Piedmont, sent
+ambassadors to the Duke of Savoy at Turin to intercede for their
+relief; and the result was the amnesty granted to them in that year
+under the title of the "Patents of Grace." The terms were very hard,
+but they were agreed to. The Vaudois were to be permitted to re-occupy
+their valleys, conditional on their rebuilding all the Catholic
+churches which had been destroyed, paying to the Duke an indemnity of
+fifty thousand francs, and ceding to him the richest lands in the
+valley of Luzerna--the last relics of their fortunes being thus taken
+from them to remunerate the barbarity of their persecutors.
+
+It was also stipulated by this treaty, that the pastors of the Vaudois
+churches were to be natives of the district only, and that they were
+to be at liberty to administer religious instruction in their own
+manner in all the Vaudois parishes, excepting that of St. John, near
+La Tour, where their worship was interdicted. The only persons
+excepted from the terms of the amnesty were Javanel, the heroic old
+captain, and Jean Leger, the pastor-historian, the most prominent
+leaders of the Vaudois in the recent war, both of whom were declared
+to be banished the ducal dominions.
+
+Under this treaty the Vaudois enjoyed peace for about thirty years,
+during which they restored the cultivation of the valleys, rebuilt the
+villages, and were acknowledged to be among the most loyal, peaceable,
+and industrious of the subjects of Savoy.
+
+There were, however, certain parts of the valleys to which the amnesty
+granted by the Duke did not apply. Thus, it did not apply to the
+valleys of Perouse and Pragela, which did not then form part of the
+dominions of Savoy, but were included within the French frontier. It
+was out of this circumstance that a difficulty arose with the French
+monarch, which issued in the revival of the persecution in the
+valleys, the banishment of the Vaudois into Switzerland, and their
+eventual "Glorious Return" in the manner we are about briefly to
+narrate.
+
+When Louis XIV. of France revoked the Edict of Nantes in 1685, and
+interdicted all Protestant worship throughout his dominions, the law
+of course applied to the valleys of Perouse and Pragela as to the
+other parts of France. The Vaudois pastors were banished, and the
+people were forbidden to profess any other religion than that
+prescribed by the King, under penalty of confiscation of their goods,
+imprisonment, or banishment. The Vaudois who desired to avoid these
+penalties while they still remained staunch to their faith, did what
+so many Frenchmen then did--they fled across the frontier and took
+refuge in foreign lands. Some of the inhabitants of the French valleys
+went northward into Switzerland, while others passed across the
+mountains towards the south, and took refuge in the valley of the
+Pelice, where the Vaudois religion continued to be tolerated under
+the terms of the amnesty above referred to, which had been granted by
+the Duke of Savoy.
+
+The French king, when he found his Huguenot subjects flying in all
+directions rather than remain in France and be "converted" to Roman
+Catholicism, next tried to block up the various avenues of escape, and
+to prevent the rulers of the adjoining countries from giving the
+fugitives asylum. Great was his displeasure when he heard of the
+flight of the Vaudois of Perouse and Pragela into the adjoining
+valleys. He directed the French ambassador at Turin to call upon the
+Duke of Savoy, and require him to prevent their settlement within his
+dominions. At the same time, he called upon the Duke to take steps to
+compel the conversion of his people from the pretended reformed faith,
+and offered the aid of his troops to enforce their submission, "at
+whatever cost."
+
+The Duke was irritated at the manner in which he was approached. Louis
+XIV. was treating him as a vassal of France rather than as an
+independent sovereign. But he felt himself to be weak, and
+comparatively powerless to resent the insult. So he first temporised,
+then vacillated, and being again pressed by the French king, he
+eventually yielded. The amnesty was declared to be at an end, and the
+Vaudois were ordered forthwith to become members of the Church of
+Rome. An edict was issued on the 31st of January, 1686, forbidding the
+exercise by the Vaudois of their religion, abolishing their ancient
+privileges, and ordering the demolition of all their places of
+worship. Pastors and schoolmasters who refused to be converted were
+ordered to quit the country within fifteen days, on pain of death and
+confiscation of their goods. All refugee Protestants from France were
+ordered to leave under the same penalty. All children born of
+Protestant parents were to be compulsorily educated as Roman
+Catholics. This barbarous measure was merely a repetition by the Duke
+of Savoy in Piedmont of what his master Louis XIV. had already done in
+France.
+
+The Vaudois expostulated with their sovereign, but in vain. They
+petitioned, but there was no reply. They requested the interposition
+of the Swiss Government as before, but the Duke took no notice of
+their memorial. The question of resistance was then discussed; but the
+people were without leaders. Javanel was living in banishment at
+Geneva--old and worn out, and unable to lead them. Besides, the
+Vaudois, before taking up arms, wished to exhaust every means of
+conciliation. Ambassadors next came from Switzerland, who urged them
+to submit to the clemency of the Duke, and suggested that they should
+petition him for permission to leave the country! The Vaudois were
+stupefied by the proposal. They were thus asked, without a contest, to
+submit to all the ignominy and punishment of defeat, and to terminate
+their very existence as a people! The ambassadors represented that
+resistance to the combined armies of Savoy, France, and Spain, without
+leaders, and with less than three thousand combatants, was little
+short of madness.
+
+Nevertheless, a number of the Vaudois determined not to leave their
+valleys without an attempt to hold them, as they had so often
+successfully done before. The united armies of France and Savoy then
+advanced upon the valleys, and arrangements were made for a general
+attack upon the Vaudois position on Easter Monday, 1686, at break of
+day,--the Duke of Savoy assailing the valley of Luzerna, while
+Catinat, commander of the French troops, advanced on St. Martin.
+Catinat made the first attack on the village of St. Germain, and was
+beaten back with heavy loss after six hours' fighting. Henry Arnaud,
+the Huguenot pastor from Die in Dauphiny, of which he was a native,
+particularly distinguished himself by his bravery in this affair, and
+from that time began to be regarded as one of the most promising of
+the Vaudois leaders.
+
+Catinat renewed the attack on the following day with the assistance of
+fresh troops; and he eventually succeeded in overcoming the resistance
+of the handful of men who opposed him, and sweeping the valley of St.
+Martin. Men, women, and children were indiscriminately put to the
+sword. In some of the parishes no resistance was offered, the
+inhabitants submitting to the Duke's proclamation; but whether they
+submitted or not, made no difference in their treatment, which was
+barbarous in all cases.
+
+Meanwhile, the Duke of Savoy's army advanced from the vale of Luzerna
+upon the celebrated heights of Angrogna, and assailed the Vaudois
+assembled there at all points. The resistance lasted for an entire
+day, and when night fell, both forces slept on the ground upon which
+they had fought, kindling their bivouac fires on both sides. On the
+following day the attack was renewed, and again the battle raged until
+night. Then Don Gabriel of Savoy, who was in command, resolved to
+employ the means which Catinat had found so successful: he sent
+forward messengers to inform the Vaudois that their brethren of the
+Val St. Martin had laid down their arms and been pardoned, inviting
+them to follow their example. The result of further parley was, that
+on the express promise of his Royal Highness that they should receive
+pardon, and that neither their persons nor those of their wives or
+children should be touched, the credulous Vaudois, still hoping for
+fair treatment, laid down their arms, and permitted the ducal troops
+to take possession of their entrenchments!
+
+The same treacherous strategy proved equally successful against the
+defenders of the Pra du Tour. After beating back their assailants and
+firmly holding their ground for an entire day, they were told of the
+surrender of their compatriots, promised a full pardon, and assured of
+life and liberty, on condition of immediately ceasing further
+hostilities. They accordingly consented to lay down their arms, and
+the impregnable fastness of the Pra du Tour, which had never been
+taken by force, thus fell before falsehood and perfidy. "The defenders
+of this ancient sanctuary of the Church," says Dr. Huston, "were
+loaded with irons; their children were carried off and scattered
+through the Roman Catholic districts; their wives and daughters were
+violated, massacred, or made captives. As for those that still
+remained, all whom the enemy could seize became a prey devoted to
+carnage, spoliation, fire, excesses which cannot be told, and outrages
+which it would be impossible to describe."[108]
+
+         [Footnote 108: Huston's "Israel of the Alps," translated by
+         Montgomery; Glasgow, 1857; vol. i. p. 446.]
+
+"All the valleys are now exterminated," wrote a French officer to his
+friends; "the people are all killed, hanged, or massacred." The Duke,
+Victor Amadeus, issued a decree, declaring the Vaudois to be guilty of
+high treason, and confiscating all their property. Arnaud says as many
+as eleven thousand persons were killed, or perished in prison, or died
+of want, in consequence of this horrible Easter festival of blood.
+Six thousand were taken prisoners, and the greater number of these
+died in gaol of hunger and disease. When the prisons were opened, and
+the wretched survivors were ordered to quit the country, forbidden to
+return to it on pain of death, only about two thousand six hundred
+contrived to struggle across the frontier into Switzerland.
+
+And thus at last the Vaudois Church seemed utterly uprooted and
+destroyed. What the Dukes of Savoy had so often attempted in vain was
+now accomplished. A second St. Bartholomew had been achieved, and Rome
+rang with _Te Deums_ in praise of the final dispersion of the Vaudois.
+The Pope sent to Victor Amadeus II. a special brief, congratulating
+him on the extirpation of heresy in his dominions; and Piedmontese and
+Savoyards, good Catholics, were presented with the lands from which
+the Vaudois had been driven. Those of them who remained in the country
+"unconverted" were as so many scattered fugitives in the
+mountains--sheep wandering about without a shepherd. Some of the
+Vaudois, for the sake of their families and homes, pretended
+conversion; but these are admitted to have been comparatively few in
+number. In short, the "Israel of the Alps" seemed to be no more, and
+its people utterly and for ever dispersed. Pierre Allix, the Huguenot
+refugee pastor in England, in his "History of the Ancient Churches of
+Piedmont," dedicated to William III., regarded the Vaudois Church as
+obliterated--"their present desolation seeming so universal, that the
+world looks upon them no otherwise than as irrecoverably lost, and
+finally destroyed."
+
+Three years passed. The expelled Vaudois reached Switzerland in
+greatly reduced numbers, many women and children having perished on
+their mountain journey. The inhabitants of Geneva received them with
+great hospitality, clothing and feeding them until they were able to
+proceed on their way northward. Some went into Brandenburg, some into
+Holland, while others settled to various branches of industry in
+different parts of Switzerland. Many of them, however, experienced
+great difficulty in obtaining a settlement. Those who had entered the
+Palatinate were driven thence by war, and those who had entered
+Wurtemburg were expelled by the Grand Duke, who feared incurring the
+ire of Louis XIV. by giving them shelter and protection. Hence many
+little bands of the Vaudois refugees long continued to wander along
+the valley of the Rhine, unable to find rest for their weary feet.
+There were others trying to earn, a precarious living in Geneva and
+Lausanne, and along the shores of Lake Leman. Some of these were men
+who had fought under Javanel in his heroic combats with the
+Piedmontese; and they thought with bitter grief of the manner in which
+they had fallen into the trap of Catinat and the Duke of Savoy, and
+abandoned their country almost without a struggle.
+
+Then it was that the thought occurred to them whether they might not
+yet strike a blow for the recovery of their valleys! The idea seemed
+chimerical in the extreme. A few hundred destitute men, however
+valiant, to think of recovering a country defended by the combined
+armies of France and Savoy! Javanel, the old Vaudois hero, disabled by
+age and wounds, was still alive--an exile at Geneva--and he was
+consulted on the subject. Javanel embraced the project with,
+enthusiasm; and the invasion of the valleys was resolved upon! A more
+daring, and apparently more desperate enterprise, was never planned.
+
+Who was to be their leader? Javanel himself was disabled. Though his
+mind was clear, and his patriotic ardour unquenched, his body was
+weak; and all that he could do was to encourage and advise. But he
+found a noble substitute in Henry Arnaud, the Huguenot refugee, who
+had already distinguished himself in his resistance to the troops of
+Savoy. And Arnaud was now ready to offer up his life for the recovery
+of the valleys.
+
+The enterprise was kept as secret as possible, yet not so close as to
+prevent the authorities of Berne obtaining some inkling of their
+intentions. Three confidential messengers were first dispatched to the
+valleys to ascertain the disposition of the population, and more
+particularly to examine the best route by which an invasion might be
+made. On their return with the necessary information, the plan was
+settled by Javanel, as it was to be carried out by Arnaud. In the
+meantime, the magistrates of Geneva, having obtained information as to
+the intended movement, desirous of averting the hostility of France
+and Savoy, required Javanel to leave their city, and he at once
+retired to Ouchy, a little farther up the lake.
+
+The greatest difficulty experienced by the Vaudois in carrying out
+their enterprise was the want of means. They were poor, destitute
+refugees, without arms, ammunition, or money to buy them. To obtain
+the requisite means, Arnaud made a journey into Holland, for the
+purpose of communicating the intended project to William of Orange.
+William entered cordially into the proposed plan, recommended Arnaud
+to several Huguenot officers, who afterwards took part in the
+expedition, supplied him with assistance in money, and encouraged him
+to carry out the design. Several private persons in Holland--amongst
+others the post-master-general at Leyden--also largely contributed to
+the enterprise.
+
+At length all was ready. The men who intended to take part in the
+expedition came together from various quarters. Some came from
+Brandenburg, others from Bavaria and distant parts of Switzerland; and
+among those who joined them was a body of French Huguenots, willing to
+share in their dangers and their glory. One of their number, Captain
+Turrel, like Arnaud, a native of Die in Dauphiny, was even elected as
+the general of the expedition. Their rendez-vous was in the forest of
+Prangins, near Nyon, on the north bank of the Lake of Geneva; and
+there, on the night of the 16th of August, 1689, they met in the
+hollow recesses of the wood. Fifteen boats had been got together, and
+lay off the shore. After a fervent prayer by the pastor-general
+Arnaud, imploring a blessing upon the enterprise, as many of the men
+as could embark got into the boats. As the lake is there at its
+narrowest, they soon rowed across to the other side, near the town of
+Yvoire, and disembarked on the shore of Savoy. Arnaud had posted
+sentinels in all directions, and the little body waited the arrival of
+the remainder of their comrades from the opposite shore. They had all
+crossed the lake by two o'clock in the morning; and about eight
+hundred men, divided into nineteen companies,[109] each provided with
+its captain, were now ready to march.
+
+         [Footnote 109: Of the nineteen companies three were composed
+         of the Vaudois of Angrogna; those of Bobi and St. John
+         furnished two each; and those of La Tour, Villar, Prarustin,
+         Prali, Macel, St. Germain, and Pramol, furnished one each.
+         The remaining six companies were composed of French Huguenot
+         refugees from Dauphiny and Languedoc under their respective
+         officers. Besides these, there were different smaller parties
+         who constituted a volunteer company. The entire force of
+         about eight hundred men was marshalled in three
+         divisions--vanguard, main body, and rearguard--and this
+         arrangement was strictly observed in the order of march.]
+
+At the very commencement, however, they met with a misfortune. One of
+the pastors, having gone to seek a guide in the village near at hand,
+was seized as a prisoner by the local authorities, and carried off. On
+this, the Vaudois, seeing that they were treated as enemies, sent a
+party to summon Yvoire to open its gates, and it obeyed. The lord of
+the manor and the receiver of taxes were taken as hostages, and made
+to accompany the troop until they reached the next commune, when they
+were set at liberty, and replaced by other hostages.
+
+When it became known that the little army of Vaudois had set out on
+their march, troops were dispatched from all quarters to intercept
+them and cut them off; and it was believed that their destruction was
+inevitable. "What possible chance is there," asked the _Historic
+Mercury_ of the day, "of this small body of men penetrating to their
+native country through the masses of French and Piedmontese troops
+accumulating from all sides, without being crushed and exterminated?"
+"It is impossible," wrote the _Leyden Gazette_, "notwithstanding
+whatever precautions they may take, that the Vaudois can extricate
+themselves without certain death, and the Court of Savoy may therefore
+regard itself safe so far as they are concerned."
+
+No sooner had the boats left the shore at Nyon for the further side of
+the lake than the young seigneur of Prangins, who had been watching
+their movements, rode off at full speed to inform the French resident
+at Geneva of the departure of the Vaudois; and orders were at once
+dispatched to Lyons for a strong body of cavalry to march immediately
+towards Savoy to cut them off. But the Vaudois had well matured their
+plans, and took care to keep out of reach of the advancing enemy.
+Their route at first lay up the valleys towards the mountains, whose
+crests they followed, from glacier to glacier, in places almost
+inaccessible to regular troops, and thus they eluded the combined
+forces of France and Savoy, which, vainly endeavoured to bar their
+passage.
+
+The first day's march led them into the valley of the Arve, by the Col
+de Voirons, from which they took their last view of the peaceful Lake
+of Geneva; thence they proceeded by the pyramidal mountain called the
+Mole to the little town of Viu, where they rested for two hours,
+starting again by moonlight, and passing through St. Joire, where the
+magistrates brought out a great cask of wine, and placed it in the
+middle of the street for their refreshment. The little army, however,
+did not halt there, but marched on to the bare hill of Carman, where,
+after solemn prayer, they encamped about midnight, sleeping on the
+bare ground. Next day found them in front of the small walled town of
+Cluse, in the rocky gorge of the Arve. The authorities shut the gates,
+on which the Vaudois threatened to storm the place, when the gates
+were opened, and they marched through the town, the inhabitants
+standing under arms along both sides of the street. Here the Vaudois
+purchased a store of food and wine, which they duly paid for.
+
+They then proceeded on to Sallanches, where resistance was threatened.
+They found a body of men posted on the wooden bridge which there
+separated the village of St. Martin from Sallanches; but rushing
+forward, the defenders of the bridge fled, and the little army passed
+over and proceeded to range themselves in order of battle over against
+the town, which was defended by six hundred troops. The Vaudois having
+threatened to burn the town, and kill the hostages whom they had taken
+on the slightest show of resistance, the threat had its effect, and
+they were permitted to pass without further opposition, encamping for
+the night at a little village about a league further on. And thus
+closed the second day's march.
+
+The third day they passed over the mountains of Lez Pras and Haute
+Luce, seven thousand feet above the sea-level, a long and fatiguing
+march. At one place the guide lost his way, and rain fell heavily,
+soaking the men to the skin. They spent a wretched night in some empty
+stables at the hamlet of St. Nicholas de Verose; and started earlier
+than usual on the following morning, addressing themselves to the
+formidable work of climbing the Col Bonhomme, which they passed with
+the snow up to their knees. They were now upon the crest of the Alps,
+looking down upon the valley of the Isere, into which they next
+descended. They traversed the valley without resistance, passing
+through St. Germain and Scez, turning aside at the last-mentioned
+place up the valley of Tignes, thereby avoiding the French troops
+lying in wait for them in the neighbourhood of Moutiers, lower down
+the valley of the Isere. Later in the evening they reached Laval, at
+the foot of Mont Iseran; and here Arnaud, for the first time during
+eight days, snatched a few hours' sleep on a bed in the village.
+
+The sixth day saw the little army climbing the steep slopes of Mont
+Iseran, where the shepherds gave them milk and wished them God-speed;
+but they warned them that a body of troops lay in their way at Mont
+Cenis. On they went--over the mountain, and along the crest of the
+chain, until they saw Bonneval in the valley beneath them, and there
+they descended, passing on to Bessant in the valley of the Arc, where
+they encamped for the night.
+
+Next day they marched on Mont Cenis, which they ascended. As they were
+crossing the mountain a strange incident occurred. The Vaudois saw
+before them a large convoy of mules loaded with baggage. And shortly
+after there came up the carriage and equipage of some grand personage.
+It proved to be Cardinal Ranuzzi, on his way to Rome to take part in
+the election of Pope Alexander VIII. The Vaudois seized the mules
+carrying the baggage, which contained important documents compromising
+Louis XIV. with Victor Amadeus; and it is said that in consequence of
+their loss, the Cardinal, who himself aspired to the tiara, afterwards
+died of chagrin, crying in his last moments, "My papers! oh, my
+papers!"
+
+The passage of the Great and Little Cenis was effected with great
+difficulty. The snow lay thick on the ground, though it was the month
+of August, and the travellers descended the mountain of Tourliers by a
+precipice rather than a road. When night fell, they were still
+scattered on the mountain, and lay down to snatch a brief sleep,
+overcome with hunger and fatigue. Next morning they gathered together
+again, and descended into the sterile valley of the Gaillon, and
+shortly after proceeded to ascend the mountain opposite.
+
+They were now close upon the large towns. Susa lay a little to the
+east, and Exilles was directly in their way. The garrison of the
+latter place came out to meet them, and from the crest of the mountain
+rolled large stones and flung grenades down upon the invaders. Here
+the Vaudois lost some men and prisoners, and finding the further
+ascent impracticable, they retreated into the valley from which they
+had come, and again ascended the steep slope of Tourliers in order to
+turn the heights on which the French troops were posted. At last,
+after great fatigue and peril, unable to proceed further, they gained
+the crest of the mountain, and sounded their clarions to summon the
+scattered body.
+
+After a halt of two hours they proceeded along the ridge, and
+perceived through the mist a body of soldiers marching along with
+drums beating; it was the garrison of Exilles. The Vaudois were
+recognised and followed by the soldiers at a distance. Proceeding a
+little further, they came in sight of the long valley of the Doire,
+and looking down into it, not far from the bridge of Salabertrans,
+they discerned some thirty-six bivouac fires burning on the plain,
+indicating the presence of a large force. These were their enemies--a
+well-appointed army of some two thousand five hundred men--whom they
+were at last to meet in battle. Nothing discouraged, they descended
+into the valley, and the advanced guard shortly came in contact with
+the enemy's outposts. Firing between them went on for an hour and a
+half, and then night fell.
+
+The Vaudois leaders held a council to determine what they should do;
+and the result was, that an immediate attack was resolved upon, in
+three bodies. The principal attack was made on the bridge, the passage
+of which was defended by a strong body of French soldiers, under the
+command of Colonel de Larrey. On the advance of the Vaudois in the
+darkness, they were summoned to stand, but continued to advance, when
+the enemy fired a volley on them, killing three men. Then the Vaudois
+brigade rushed to the bridge, but seeing a strong body on the other
+side preparing to fire again, Arnaud called upon his men to lie down,
+and the volley went over their heads. Then Turrel, the Vaudois
+captain, calling out "Forward! the bridge is won!" the Vaudois jumped
+to their feet and rushed on. The two wings at the same time
+concentrated their fire on the defenders, who broke and retired, and
+the bridge was won. But at the further side, where the French were in
+overpowering numbers, they refused to give way, and poured down their
+fire on their assailants. The Vaudois boldly pressed on. They burst
+through the French, force, cutting it in two; and fresh men pouring
+over, the battle was soon won. The French, commander was especially
+chagrined at having been beaten by a parcel of cowherds. "Is it
+possible," he exclaimed, "that I have lost both the battle and my
+honour?"
+
+The rising moon showed the ground strewed with about seven hundred
+dead; the Vaudois having lost only twenty-two killed and eight
+wounded. The victors filled their pouches with ammunition picked up on
+the field, took possession of as many arms and as much provisions as
+they could carry, and placing the remainder in a heap over some
+barrels of powder, they affixed a lighted match and withdrew. A
+tremendous explosion shook the mountains, and echoed along the valley,
+and the remains of the French camp were blown to atoms. The Vaudois
+then proceeded at once to climb the mountain of Sci, which had to be
+crossed in order to enter the valley of Pragelas.
+
+It was early on a Sabbath morning, the ninth day of their march, that
+the Vaudois reached the crest of the mountain overlooking
+Fenestrelles, and saw spread out before them the beloved country which
+they had come to win. They halted for the stragglers, and when these
+had come up, Arnaud made them kneel down and thank God for permitting
+them again to see their native land; himself offering up an eloquent
+prayer, which cheered and strengthened them for further effort. And
+then they descended into the valley of Pragelas, passing the river
+Clusone, and halting to rest at the little village of La Traverse.
+They were now close to the Vaudois strongholds, and in a country every
+foot of which was familiar to most of them. But their danger was by no
+means over; for the valleys were swarming with dragoons and
+foot-soldiers; and when they had shaken off those of France, they had
+still to encounter the troops of Savoy.
+
+Late in the afternoon the little army again set out for the valley of
+St. Martin, passing the night in the mountain hamlet of Jussand, the
+highest on the Col du Pis. Next day they descended the Col near Seras,
+and first came in contact with the troops of Savoy; but these having
+taken to flight, no collision occurred; and on the following day the
+Vaudois arrived, without further molestation, at the famous Balsille.
+
+This celebrated stronghold is situated in front of the narrow defile
+of Macel, which leads into the valley of St. Martin. It is a rampart
+of rock, standing at the entrance to the pass, and is of such natural
+strength, that but little art was needed to make it secure against any
+force that could be brought against it. There is only one approach to
+it from the valley of St. Martin, which is very difficult; a portion
+of the way being in a deep wooded gorge, where a few men could easily
+arrest the progress of an army. The rock itself consists of three
+natural stages or terraces, the highest part rising steep as a wall,
+being surmounted by a natural platform. The mountain was well supplied
+with water, which gushed forth in several places. Caverns had been
+hollowed out in the sides of the rocks, which served as hiding-places
+during the persecutions which so often ravaged the valleys; and these
+were now available for storehouses and barracks.
+
+The place was, indeed, so intimately identified with the past
+sufferings and triumphs of the Vaudois, and it was, besides, so
+centrally situated, and so secure, that they came to regard its
+possession as essential to the success of their enterprise. The aged
+Javanel, who drew up the plan of the invasion before the eight hundred
+set out on their march, attached the greatest importance to its early
+occupation. "Spare no labour nor pains," he said, in the memorandum of
+directions which he drew up, "in fortifying this post, which will be
+your most secure fortress. Do not quit it unless in the utmost
+extremity.... You will, of course, be told that you cannot hold it
+always, and that rather than not succeed in their object, all France
+and Italy will gather together against you.... But were it the whole
+world, and only yourselves against all, fear ye the Almighty alone,
+who is your protection."
+
+On the arrival of the Vaudois at the Balsille, they discerned a small
+body of troops advancing towards them by the Col du Pis, higher up the
+valley. They proved to be Piedmontese, forty-six in number, sent to
+occupy the pass. They were surrounded, disarmed, and put to death, and
+their arms were hid away amongst the rocks. No quarter was given on
+either side during this war; the Vaudois had no prisons in which to
+place their captives; and they themselves, when taken, were treated
+not as soldiers, but as bandits, being instantly hung on the nearest
+trees. The Vaudois did not, however, yet take up their permanent
+position at the Balsille, being desirous of rousing the valleys
+towards the south. The day following, accordingly, they marched to
+Pralis, in the valley of the Germanasca, when, for the first time
+since their exile, they celebrated Divine worship in one of the
+temples of their ancestors.
+
+They were now on their way towards the valley of the Pelice, to reach
+which it was necessary that they should pass over the Col Julian. An
+army of three thousand Piedmontese barred their way, but nothing
+daunted by the great disparity of force, the Vaudois, divided into
+three bodies, as at Salabertrans, mounted to the assault. As they
+advanced, the Piedmontese cried, "Come on, ye devil's Barbets, there
+are more than three thousand of us, and we occupy all the posts!" In
+less than half an hour the whole of the posts were carried, the pass
+was cleared, and the Piedmontese fled down the further side of the
+mountain, leaving all their stores behind them. On the following day
+the Vaudois reached Bobi, drove out the new settlers, and resumed
+possession of the lands of the commune. Thus, after the lapse of only
+fourteen days, this little band of heroes had marched from the shores
+of the Lake of Geneva, by difficult mountain-passes, through bands of
+hostile troops, which they had defeated in two severe fights, and at
+length reached the very centre of the Vaudois valleys, and entered
+into possession of the "Promised Land."
+
+They resolved to celebrate their return to the country of their
+fathers by an act of solemn worship on the Sabbath following. The
+whole body assembled on the hill of Silaoud, commanding an extensive
+prospect of the valley, and with their arms piled, and resting under
+the shade of the chestnut-trees which crown the hill, they listened to
+an eloquent sermon from the pastor Montoux, who preached to them
+standing on a platform, consisting of a door resting upon two rocks,
+after which they chanted the 74th Psalm, to the clash of arms. They
+then proceeded to enter into a solemn covenant with each other,
+renewing the ancient oath of union of the valleys, and swearing never
+to rest from their enterprise, even if they should be reduced to only
+three or four in number, until they had "re-established in the valleys
+the kingdom of the Gospel." Shortly after, they proceeded to divide
+themselves into two bodies, for the purpose of occupying
+simultaneously, as recommended by Javanel, the two valleys of the
+Pelice and St. Martin.
+
+But the trials and sufferings they had already endured were as nothing
+compared with those they were now about to experience. Armies
+concentrated on them from all points. They were pressed by the French
+on the north and west, and by the Piedmontese on the south and east.
+Encouraged by their success at Bobi, the Vaudois rashly attacked
+Villar, lower down the valley, and were repulsed with loss. From
+thence they retired up the valley of Rora, and laid it waste; the
+enemy, in like manner, destroying the town of Bobi and laying waste
+the neighbourhood.
+
+The war now became one of reprisals and mutual devastation, the two
+parties seeking to deprive each other of shelter and the means of
+subsistence. The Vaudois could only obtain food by capturing the
+enemy's convoys, levying contributions from the plains, and making
+incursions into Dauphiny. The enterprise on which they had entered
+seemed to become more hopeless from day to day. This handful of men,
+half famished and clothed in rags, had now arrayed against them
+twenty-two thousand French and Sardinians, provided with all the
+munitions of war. That they should have been able to stand against
+them for two whole months, now fighting in one place, and perhaps the
+next day some twenty miles across the mountains in another, with
+almost invariable success, seems little short of a miracle. But flesh
+and blood could not endure such toil and privations much longer. No
+wonder that the faint-hearted began to despair. Turrel, the military
+commander, seeing no chance of a prosperous issue, withdrew across the
+French frontier, followed by the greater number of the Vaudois from
+Dauphiny;[110] and there remained only the Italian Vaudois, still
+unconquered in spirit, under the leadership of their pastor-general
+Arnaud, who never appeared greater than in times of difficulty and
+danger.
+
+         [Footnote 110: The greater number of them, including Turrel,
+         were taken prisoners and shot, or sent to the galleys, where
+         they died. This last was the fate of Turrel.]
+
+With his diminished forces, and the increasing numbers of the enemy,
+Arnaud found it impossible to hold both the valleys, as intended;
+besides, winter was approaching, and the men must think of shelter and
+provisions during that season, if resistance was to be prolonged. It
+was accordingly determined to concentrate their little force upon the
+Balsille, and all haste was made to reach that stronghold without
+further delay. Their knowledge of the mountain heights and passes
+enabled them to evade their enemies, who were watching for them along
+the valleys, and they passed from the heights of Rodoret to the
+summit of the Balsille by night, before it was known that they were in
+the neighbourhood. They immediately set to work to throw up
+entrenchments and erect barricades, so as to render the place as
+secure as possible. Foraging parties were sent out for provisions, to
+lay in for the winter, and they returned laden with corn from the
+valley of Pragelas. At the little hamlet of Balsille they repaired the
+mill, and set it a-going, the rivulet which flowed down from the
+mountain supplying abundance of water-power.
+
+It was at the end of October that the little band of heroes took
+possession of the Balsille, and they held it firmly all through the
+winter. For more than six months they beat back every force that was
+sent against them. The first attack was made by the Marquis
+d'Ombrailles at the head of a French detachment; but though the enemy
+reached the village of Balsille, they were compelled to retire, partly
+by the bullets of the defenders, and partly by the snow, which was
+falling heavily. The Marquis de Parelles next advanced, and summoned
+the Vaudois to surrender; but in vain. "Our storms are still louder
+than your cannon," replied Arnaud, "and yet our rocks are not shaken."
+Winter having set in, the besiegers refrained for a time from further
+attacks, but strictly guarded all the passes leading to the fortress;
+while the garrison, availing themselves of their knowledge of the
+locality, made frequent sorties into the adjoining valleys, as well as
+into those of Dauphiny, for the purpose of collecting provisions, in
+which they were usually successful.
+
+When the fine weather arrived, suitable for a mountain campaign, the
+French general, Catinat, assembled a strong force, and marched into
+the valley, determined to make short work of this little nest of
+bandits on the Balsille. On Sunday morning, the 30th of April, 1690,
+while Arnaud was preaching to his flock, the sentinels on the look-out
+discovered the enemy's forces swarming up the valley. Soon other
+bodies were seen approaching by the Col du Pis and the Col du Clapier,
+while a French regiment, supported by the Savoyard militia, climbed
+Mont Guinevert, and cut off all retreat in that quarter. In short, the
+Balsille was completely invested.
+
+A general assault was made on the position on the 2nd of May, under
+the direction of General Catinat in person. Three French regiments,
+supported by a regiment of dragoons, opened the attack in front;
+Colonel de Parat, who commanded the leading regiment, saying to his
+soldiers as they advanced, "My friends, we must sleep to-night in that
+barrack," pointing to the rude Vaudois fort on the summit of the
+Balsille. They advanced with great bravery; but the barricade could
+not be surmounted, while they were assailed by a perfect storm of
+bullets from the defenders, securely posted above.
+
+Catinat next ordered the troops stationed on the Guinevert to advance
+from that direction, so as to carry the position from behind. But the
+assailants found unexpected intrenchments in their way, from behind
+which the Vaudois maintained a heavy fire, that eventually drove them
+back, their retreat being accelerated by a shower of stones and a
+blinding fall of snow and hail. In the meantime, the attack on the
+bastion in front continued, and the Vaudois, seeing the French troops
+falling back in disorder, made a vigorous sortie, and destroyed the
+whole remaining force, excepting fifteen men, who fled, bare-headed
+and without arms, and carried to the camp the news of their total
+defeat.
+
+A Savoyard officer thus briefly described the issue of the disastrous
+affair in a letter to a friend: "I have only time to tell you that the
+French have failed in their attack on the Balsille, and they have been
+obliged to retire after having lost one hundred and fifty soldiers,
+three captains, besides subalterns and wounded, including a colonel
+and a lieutenant-colonel who have been made prisoners, with the two
+sergeants who remained behind to help them. The lieutenant-colonel was
+surprised at finding in the fort some nineteen or twenty officers in
+gold and silver lace, who treated him as a prisoner of war and very
+humanely, even allowing him to go in search of the surgeon-major of
+his regiment for the purpose of bringing him into the place, and doing
+all that was necessary."
+
+Catinat did not choose again to renew the attack in person, or to
+endanger his reputation by a further defeat at the hands of men whom
+he had described as a nest of paltry bandits, but entrusted the
+direction of further operations to the Marquis de Feuquieres, who had
+his laurels still to win, while Catinat had his to lose. The Balsille
+was again completely invested by the 12th of May, according to the
+scheme of operations prepared by Catinat, and the Marquis received by
+anticipation the title of "Conqueror of the Barbets." The entire
+mountain was surrounded, all the passes were strongly guarded, guns
+were planted in positions which commanded the Vaudois fort, more
+particularly on the Guinevert; and the capture or extermination of the
+Vaudois was now regarded as a matter of certainty. The attacking army
+was divided into five corps. Each soldier was accompanied by a pioneer
+carrying a fascine, in order to form a cover against the Vaudois
+bullets as they advanced.
+
+Several days elapsed before all the preliminaries for the grand attack
+were completed, and then the Marquis ordered a white flag to be
+hoisted, and a messenger was sent forward, inviting a parley with the
+defenders of the Balsille. The envoy was asked what he wanted. "Your
+immediate surrender!" was the reply. "You shall each of you receive
+five hundred louis d'or, and good passports for your retirement to a
+foreign country; but if you resist, you will be infallibly destroyed."
+"That is as the Lord shall will," replied the Vaudois messenger.
+
+The defenders refused to capitulate on any terms. The Marquis himself
+then wrote to the Vaudois, offering them terms on the above basis, but
+threatening, in case of refusal, that every man of them would be hung.
+Arnaud's reply was heroic. "We are not subjects," he said, "of the
+King of France; and that monarch not being master of this country, we
+can enter into no treaty with his servants. We are in the heritage
+which our fathers have left to us, and we hope, with the help of the
+God of armies, to live and die in it, even though there may remain
+only ten of us to defend it." That same night the Vaudois made a
+vigorous sortie, and killed a number of the besiegers: this was their
+final answer to the summons to surrender.
+
+On the 14th of May the battery on Mont Guinevert was opened, and the
+enemy's cannon began to play upon the little fort and bastions, which,
+being only of dry stones, were soon dismantled. The assault was then
+made simultaneously on three sides; and after a stout resistance, the
+Vaudois retired from their lower intrenchments, and retreated to
+those on the higher ledges of the mountain. They continued their
+resistance until night, and then, taking counsel together, and feeling
+that the place was no longer defensible in the face of so overpowering
+a force, commanded, as it was, at the same time by the cannon on the
+adjoining heights, they determined to evacuate the Balsille, after
+holding it for a period of nearly seven months.
+
+A thick mist having risen up from the valley, the Vaudois set out,
+late at night, under the guidance of Captain Poulat, a native of the
+district, who well knew the paths in the mountains. They climbed up on
+to the heights above, over icy slopes, passing across gaping crevices
+and along almost perpendicular rocks, admitting of their passage only
+in single file, sometimes dragging themselves along on their bellies,
+clinging to the rocks or to the tufts of grass, occasionally resting
+and praying, but never despairing. At length they succeeded, after a
+long detour of the mountain crests, in gaining the northern slope of
+Guinevert. Here they came upon and surprised the enemy's outpost,
+which fled towards the main body; and the Vaudois passed on, panting
+and half dead with fatigue. When the morning broke, and the French
+proceeded to penetrate the last redoubt on the Balsille, lo, it was
+empty! The defenders had abandoned it, and they could scarcely believe
+their eyes when they saw the dangerous mountain escarpment by which
+they had escaped in the night. Looking across the valley, far off,
+they saw the fugitives, thrown into relief by the snow amidst which
+they marched, like a line of ants, apparently making for the mass of
+the central Alps.
+
+For three days they wandered from place to place, gradually moving
+southwards, their object now being to take up their position at the
+Pra du Tour, the ancient fortress of the Barbas in the valley of
+Angrogna. Before, however, they could reach this stronghold, and while
+they were still at Pramol in the valley of Perosa, news of the most
+unexpected kind reached them, which opened up the prospect of their
+deliverance. The news was no other than this--Savoy had declared war
+against France!
+
+A rupture between the two powers had for some time been imminent.
+Louis XIV. had become more and more exacting in his demands on the
+Duke of Savoy, until the latter felt himself in a position of
+oppressive vassalage. Louis had even intimated his intention of
+occupying Verrua and the citadel of Turin; and the Duke, having
+previously ascertained through his cousin, Prince Eugene, the
+willingness of the Emperor of Austria, pressed by William of Orange,
+to assist him in opposing the pretensions of France, he at length took
+up his stand and declared war against Louis.
+
+The Vaudois were now a power in the state, and both parties alike
+appealed to them for help, promising them great favours. But the
+Vaudois, notwithstanding the treachery and cruelty of successive Dukes
+of Savoy, were true to their native prince. They pledged themselves to
+hold the valleys and defend the mountain passes against France.
+
+In the first engagements which took place between the French and the
+Piedmontese, the latter were overpowered, and the Duke became a
+fugitive. Where did he find refuge? In the valleys of the Vaudois, in
+a secluded spot in the village of Rora, behind the Pelice, he found a
+safe asylum amidst the people whose fathers he had hunted, proscribed,
+and condemned to death.
+
+But the tide of war turned, and the French were eventually driven out
+of Piedmont. Many of the Vaudois, who had settled in Brandenburg,
+Holland, and Switzerland, returned and settled in the valleys; and
+though the Dukes of Savoy, with their accustomed treachery, more than
+once allowed persecution to recommence, their descendants continue to
+enjoy the land, and to worship after the manner of their fathers down
+to the present day.
+
+The Vaudois long laboured under disabilities, and continued to be
+deprived of many social and civil rights. But they patiently bided
+their time; and the time at length arrived. In 1848 their emancipation
+was one of the great questions of North Italy. It was taken up and
+advocated by the most advanced minds of Piedmont. The petition to
+Charles Albert in their favour was in a few days covered with the
+names of its greatest patriots, including those of Balbo, Cavour, and
+D'Azeglio. Their emancipation was at length granted, and the Vaudois
+now enjoy the same rights and liberties as the other subjects of
+Victor Emanuel.
+
+Nor is the Vaudois Church any longer confined to the valleys, but it
+has become extended of late years all over Italy--to Milan, Florence,
+Brescia, Verona, Genoa, Leghorn, Naples, Palermo, Cataneo, Venice, and
+even to Rome itself. In most of these places there are day-schools and
+Sunday-schools, besides churches. The new church at Venice, held in
+the Cavagnis palace, seems to have proved especially successful, the
+Sunday services being regularly attended by from three to four hundred
+persons; while the day-schools in connection with the churches at
+Turin, Leghorn, Naples, and Cataneo have proved very successful.
+
+Thus, in the course of a few years, thirty-three Vaudois churches and
+stations, with about an equal number of schools, have been established
+in various parts of Italy. The missionaries report that the greatest
+difficulties they have to encounter arise from the incredulity and
+indifference which are the natural heritage of the Romish Church; but
+that, nevertheless, the work makes satisfactory progress--the good
+seed is being planted, and will yet bring forth its increase in God's
+due time.
+
+Finally, it cannot but be acknowledged that the people of the valleys,
+in so tenaciously and conscientiously adhering to their faith, through
+good and through evil, during so many hundred years, have set a
+glorious example to Piedmont, and have possibly been in no small
+degree instrumental in establishing the reign of right and of liberty
+in Italy.
+
+
+
+
+INDEX.
+
+
+  Aiguesmortes, Huguenot prison at, 193, 273, 300.
+  Albigenses, 75.
+  Anabaptists of Munster, 282-3.
+  Anduze, visit to, 125.
+  Angrogna, valley of, 481;
+    fighting in, 481-86, 498.
+  Arnaud, Henry, 215, 512;
+    leads back the Vaudois, 503-15;
+    defends the Balsille, 515-19.
+  Athlone, siege of, 349-50, 355-8.
+
+
+  Balsille, the, 510;
+    defence of, 515-19;
+    given up, 519.
+  Baridon, Etienne, 442-3.
+  Barillon, M. de, 323, 330-1.
+  Baville on the Protestants of Languedoc, 77, 86;
+    occupies the Cevennes, 87;
+    at Pont-de-Montvert, 92.
+  Beauval, Basnage de, 364.
+  Beauvau, Prince de, 273-4.
+  Beckwith, General, 478.
+  Berwick, Duke of, 310-11, 333, 351.
+  Bibles, destruction and scarcity of, 215-16.
+  Boileau, General, 351-2.
+  Bonnafoux repulsed by Camisards, 142.
+  Book-burning, 215, 235-6.
+  Bordeille, Raphael, 318.
+  Bourg d'Oisans, 409-10.
+  Boyne, battle of the, 341-7.
+  Briancon, 414-16.
+  Briset, Lieut., death of, 335.
+  Broglie, Count, 143-4, 148;
+    superseded, 149.
+  Brousson, Claude, 30;
+    advocate for Protestant church at Nismes, 31;
+    meeting in house of, 34;
+    petition by, 35;
+    escape from Nismes, 42;
+    at Lausanne, 43, 46;
+    at Berlin, 44;
+    in the Cevennes, 50-2, 54;
+    reward offered for, 56; at Nismes, 57;
+    preaching of, 58-9;
+    to Lausanne, England, and Holland, 61-2;
+    at Sedan, 64;
+    through France, 66-7;
+    portraiture of, 68 (note);
+    to Nismes again, 69;
+    taken, tried, and executed, 70-3.
+  Browne, Col. Lyde, 380.
+  Brueys on fanaticism in Languedoc, 91.
+  Bull of Clement XI. against Camisards, 160.
+
+
+  Caillemotte, Col., 339;
+    death of, 345, 348.
+  Calas, Jean, 257;
+    executed, 258;
+    case taken up by Voltaire, 259-62;
+    reversal of judgment on, 262-3.
+  Calvinism and race, 100 (note).
+  Calvinists, French and Scotch, compared, 100.
+  Cambon, Col., 357.
+  Camisards, the origin of name, 107;
+    led by Laporte, 109;
+    organization of, 112-13;
+    encounter troops, 113-14, 117;
+    war-song of, 115;
+    organized by Roland, 123-4;
+    successes of, 134-40, 142, 146-50;
+    spread of insurrection of, 138-9;
+    measures against, 139, 146-7;
+    defeat of, at Vagnas, 150;
+    defeat of, near Pompignan, 152;
+    success of, at Martinargues, 162-4;
+    bull against, 160;
+    success at Salindres, 164-5;
+    defeated near Nismes, 168-9;
+    reverses of, 170-1;
+    success at Font-morte, 176-7;
+    defeated at Pont-de-Montvert, and end of insurrection, 187-9.
+  Camisards, White, 160-1.
+  Carrickfergus, siege of, 335.
+  Castanet, Andre, 111, 113, 118, 123, 189.
+  Cavalier, John, joins insurgents, 108, 111;
+    family of, 121;
+    to Geneva, 121;
+    to the Cevennes, 122;
+    portrait of, 124;
+    in Lower Languedoc, 133;
+    defeats Royalists, 134-5;
+    takes Chateau Servas, 136-7;
+    repulses Bonnafoux, 142;
+    at Nismes, 144-5;
+    successes of, 148;
+    winter campaign, 148-9;
+    at Vagnas, 150-1, 153;
+    betrayed at Tower of Belliot, 156-8;
+    at Martinargues, 162-4;
+    at Rosni, 169;
+    his cave magazines, 170-1;
+    his interview with Lalande, 173-6;
+    attempts peace, 177;
+    his interviews with Villars, 177-83;
+    deserted by followers, 183-5;
+    to England, and subsequent career, 186.
+  Caves in the Cevennes, 125, 127-9;
+    at La Tour, 477.
+  Cazenove, Raoul de, 321, 367.
+  Cevennes, the, persecutions in, 39, 52-3, 85;
+    secret meetings in, 54, 84-8;
+    executions in, 59, 67-8;
+    description of, 79-82;
+    arming of the people, 85-6;
+    occupied by troops, 88;
+    prophetic mania in, 88;
+    encounter at Pont-de-Montvert, 92;
+    outbreak against Du Chayla, 96-7;
+    map of, 98;
+    Protestants of, compared with Covenanters, 100-1;
+    organization in, 123-5;
+    caves in, 125, 127-9;
+    visit to, 125-9;
+    present inhabitants of, 129, 131-2;
+    devastation of, 154-5.
+  Champ Domergue, battle at, 114.
+  Charlemont, capture of, 339.
+  Chateau Queyras, 467.
+  Chaumont, 271.
+  Chayla, Du, 93-4, 97.
+  Chenevix, 15 (note).
+  Choiseul, Duc de, 268.
+  Claris, 237.
+  Colognac, execution of, 59.
+  Comiers, 407.
+  Conderc, Salomon, 119, 123.
+  "Conversions," rapid, 289.
+  Converts, 19-23, 38-9.
+  Cook, Captain, last voyage round the world, 371;
+    cruel death, 371.
+  Court profligacy, 275 (note).
+  Court, Antoine, 206-17;
+    organizes school for preachers, 224;
+    marriage of, 231;
+    retires to Switzerland, 232;
+    results of his work, 233-4;
+    in Languedoc, 239.
+  Covenanters compared with Protestants of the Cevennes, 100-2.
+  Cromwell, 391-2, 476.
+
+
+  D'Aguesseau's opinion of Protestants of Languedoc, 76-7.
+  Dauphiny, map of, 382;
+    aspect of, 383-4.
+  Delada, Mdlle. de, 295.
+  Denbeck, Abbe of, 322-3.
+  Denese, Rotolf de la, 364.
+  Desert, assemblies in the, 83-8, 218-23.
+  Desparves, M., 297.
+  Dormilhouse, 438, 443-54.
+  Dortial, 238.
+  Douglas, Lieut.-General, 349-51, 355.
+  Dragonnades, 36-7, 42, 54-5, 288;
+    horrors of, 291.
+  Drogheda, surrender of, 349.
+  Dumas, death of, 52.
+  Dundalk, Schomberg's army at, 337-8.
+  Durand, Pierre, 236.
+
+
+  Easter massacre of the Vaudois, 390-92.
+  England attempts to assist the Camisards, 166-7.
+  Enniskilleners, the, 336.
+  Evertzen, Vice-Admiral, 325.
+  Execution of Pastors, 27.
+
+
+  Fabre, Jean, 265;
+    sent to galleys, 266-9;
+    obtains leave of absence, 269;
+    exonerated, 270;
+    life dramatized, and result, 270.
+  Fermaud, Pastor, 407.
+  Freemantle, Rev. Mr., visits of, to the Vaudois, 395, 450, 462.
+  French labouring classes, present condition of, 397-400.
+  Freney, gorge of, 411.
+  Fusiliers, missionary, 293.
+
+
+  Galley, description of, 197-8;
+    use in war, 200-4.
+  Galley-slaves, treatment of, 194-204;
+    liberation of Protestants, 204, 264 (note), 271-3.
+  Galway, Earl of, 360.
+  Gilly, Dr., visit to the Vaudois, 393-4, 468, 477.
+  Ginckel, Lieut.-General, 347, 354 _et seq._
+  Glorious Return of the Vaudois, 493-5.
+  Grace, Col. Richard, 351.
+  Guarrison, Mdlle. de, 294.
+  Guerin, death of, 67.
+  Guignon betrays Cavalier, 156;
+    executed, 159.
+  Guil, valley of the, 466.
+  Guillestre, 456-66.
+  Guion executed, 57.
+
+
+  Herbert, Admiral, 325.
+  Homel, tortures and death of, 40.
+  Hood, Lord, 376.
+  Huguenots, the (see _Camisards_);
+    emigrations of, 43, 76-8, 83, 287, 316;
+    persecution of, after Camisard insurrection, 190-204;
+    as galley-slaves, 194-204;
+    brought together by Court, 210-17;
+    reorganization of, 218-228;
+    outrages on, 228;
+    great assemblies of, 239-40;
+    last of the executions, 258;
+    last of the galley-slaves, 265-273;
+    character of, 274-5;
+    later history of, 276-283;
+    decrees against, 286-6;
+    in England, 309;
+    foreign services of, 316-17.
+
+
+  Ireland and James II., 331 _et seq._
+  Irish Brigade, 140-2, 359.
+  Iron Boot, the, 102.
+
+
+  James II., flight of, 309, 329;
+    lands with an army in Ireland, 309, 332;
+    campaign against William III., 309 _et seq._, 333 _et seq._;
+    deserted, 328;
+    taken prisoner, 329;
+    his last proclamation, 330;
+    at the French court, 331;
+    cowardice, 337, 347-8;
+    Catholic estimate of his character, 348.
+  Joany, Nicholas, insurgent leader, 120, 123, 151.
+  Johannot, 269.
+  Julien, Brigadier, 147, 150-1.
+
+
+  Lagier, Jean, 452, 453 (note).
+  Lajonquiere defeated at Martinargues, 162-4.
+  Lalande, his interview with Cavalier, 173-6.
+  Languedoc (see _Cevennes_), early liberty in, 75;
+    Albigenses in, 75;
+    Protestants of, 76-7;
+    industry of, 76;
+    emigration from, after Revocation, 78, 289;
+    arming of people of, 85-6;
+    outbreak of fanaticism in, 88-92;
+    present inhabitants of, 280-3.
+  Laporte, leader of Camisards, 109-10;
+    organizes insurgents, 112;
+    at Collet, 113;
+    at Champ Domergue, 114;
+    killed at Molezon, 117.
+  La Salette, 404;
+    miracle of, 405-6.
+  La Tour, 476-80.
+  Laugier at Guillestre, 463;
+    at Chateau Queyras, 464.
+  Lausanne, school for preachers at, 224;
+    Society of Help at, 224-5.
+  Lauteret, Col de, 413.
+  Lauzun, Count, 339, 358.
+  Lesdiguieres, Duc de, 402-3, 455.
+  Limerick, siege of, 351-4, 359.
+  Lintarde, Marie, imprisonment of, 54.
+  Locke, John, on Protestants of Nismes, 31 (note).
+  Londonderry, siege of, 333.
+  Louis XIV., 2, 10, 146, 205.
+  Louis XV., 275.
+  Louis XVI., 276;
+    maxim of, 285;
+    his decrees against Protestants, 285-6;
+    his mode of stopping the emigration of Huguenots, 287-8;
+    expulsion of Protestants, 316;
+    assists James II., 332.
+  Luttrell, Capt., brilliant naval achievement of, 372.
+
+
+  Mackay, Major-General, 355, 357.
+  Marillac, Michel de, inventor of the dragonnades, 288.
+  Marion on influence of Camisard prophets, 119.
+  Marlborough, Earl of, 354.
+  Marteilhe, autobiography of, 195, 201-4.
+  Martinargues, battle at, 162-4.
+  Massillon on Louis XIV., 10.
+  Mazel, Abraham, 120, 123.
+  Mialet, visit to, 127-8.
+  Milsom, Edward, 395, 451, 490-92.
+  Missionaries, booted, 288.
+  Montandre, Marquis de, 314.
+  Montauban, persecutions at, 289-90.
+  Montpellier, Protestant Church at, 32-3;
+    the Peyron at, 72;
+    execution of Brousson at, 73, 300.
+  Montrevel, Marshal, in Languedoc, 149;
+    at Pompignan, 152;
+    adopts extermination, 153;
+    at Tower of Belliot, 156-8;
+    character of, 159;
+    recalled, 167;
+    defeats Cavalier, 168-9.
+
+
+  Nantes, Revocation of Edict of, and its results, 1-19, 24, 44-5, 78;
+    contemporary opinion upon, 1-10;
+    enactments of Edict of Revocation, 12-15, 285-6.
+  Neff, Felix, 427-32;
+    life of, 394, 404;
+    his account of winter at Dormilhouse, 447;
+    his charge, 469.
+  Nelson, Lord, eulogium on Capt. Riou, 368;
+    at the battle of Copenhagen, 378-9.
+  Ners, visit to, 131.
+  Newton Butler, engagement at, 333.
+  Nismes, Protestant Church at, 31;
+    petition from, 41;
+    Brousson at, 57, 69;
+    Guion at, 57;
+    country about, 81, 130-2;
+    success of Camisards near, 143;
+    Cavalier at, 144-5, 177-83;
+    treaty of, 179-80;
+    Huguenot meetings at, 265.
+
+
+  Ormond, Duke of, 349.
+
+
+  Palons, 433-6.
+  Paulet, Mdlle., forgeries in name of, 32-4.
+  Pechell, Augustus, 315.
+  Pechell, Capt. William Cecil, 315.
+  Pechell, Col. Jacob, 313.
+  Pechell, Paul, 314.
+  Pechell, Samuel, extraordinary probity of, 314.
+  Pechell, Sir G. R. Brooke, 315.
+  Pechell, Sir Thomas, 315.
+  Pechels de la Boissonade, Samuel de, narrative of his persecutions, 291
+      _et seq._;
+    imprisonment, 296, 299-301;
+    meeting with his wife, 297;
+    condemned to banishment, 299;
+    embarkation, 302;
+    sails for America, 303;
+    sufferings, 304-5;
+    reaches the West Indies, 305;
+    illness and arrival in London, 307;
+    accepts a commission in the English army, 309;
+    campaign in Ireland, 310;
+    return to London, 311;
+    removal with his wife and son to Dublin, 312;
+    death of, 312;
+    his descendants, 313.
+  Pechels, family of, 290.
+  Pechels, Madame de, inhumanity towards, 294-5;
+    touching interview with her husband, 297;
+    further trials, 297;
+    escape to Geneva, 298;
+    in London, 308;
+    reunited to her husband, 311.
+  Pelice, Valley of the, 472.
+  Pelisson, 323.
+  Pont-de-Montvert, outbreak at, 92-7;
+    description of, 93-4;
+    end of Camisard insurrection at, 187-9.
+  Portland, Earl of, 361, 363.
+  Portland Vase, 363.
+  Poul, Captain, in Upper Cevennes, 108;
+    at Champ Domergue, 114-16;
+    takes Laporte at Molezon, 117;
+    defeated and killed near Nismes, 143-4.
+  Pra du Tour, 486-90, 499.
+  Preachers, education of, 221-4;
+    hardships of, 225-9, 236-8.
+  Project, the, 34.
+  "Protestant wind," the, 325.
+  Protestantism in France, present chances of, 417.
+
+
+  Quoite, execution of, 53.
+
+
+  Rapin, Capt. Paul, birth and education, 321-2;
+    emigrates to England, 322;
+    embarks for Holland, 323;
+    a cadet in the Dutch army, 324;
+    sails for England, 325;
+    encounters a storm, 326;
+    with the army of William III., 335 _et seq._;
+    aide-de-camp, 350;
+    wounded and promoted, 354;
+    conciliatory spirit, 358-9;
+    at Kinsale, 359;
+    tutor to Lord Woodstock, 360;
+    presented to the King, 371;
+    makes the "grand tour" with his pupil, 362-3;
+    secures the Portland Vase, 363;
+    marriage, 363;
+    at the Hague and Wesel, 364;
+    his "Dissertation on the Origin and Nature of the English
+      Constitution," 364;
+    "History of England," 364-7;
+    death of, 366.
+  Rapin, Daniel de, 324.
+  Rapin family, 317-21, 367.
+  Rapin, Solomon, 354, 360.
+  Ravanel, insurgent leader, defeats Royalists near Nismes, 143;
+    near Bouquet, 145;
+    supplants Cavalier, 182-5;
+    death of, 189.
+  Redothiere, Isabeau, 53.
+  Resseguerie, M. de la, 297.
+  Rey, Fulcran, his preaching and death, 25-7.
+  Riou, Capt., R.N., Lord Nelson's opinion of, 368;
+    ancestry, 368-70;
+    birth and education, 370;
+    becomes a midshipman, 370;
+    accompanies Capt. Cook in his last voyage, 371;
+    witnesses the murder of the captain, 371;
+    return to England and appointed lieutenant, 372;
+    a sharer in the glory of Capt. Luttrell's brilliant achievement, 372;
+    appointed to the command of the _Guardian_, 373;
+    letters to his mother, 373, 377;
+    his ship strikes upon an iceberg, 374;
+    remains with the vessel, 375;
+    letter to the Admiralty, 375;
+    extract from his log, 376;
+    rescued by Dutch whalers, and return to England, 376;
+    receives the special thanks of the Admiralty, 377;
+    commander of the royal yacht _Princess Augusta_, 378;
+    at the battle of Copenhagen, 378-9;
+    death of, 379;
+    his character, 379-80;
+    monument in St. Paul's Cathedral, 380.
+  Rochemalan, Vaudois struggles at, 482-6.
+  Roger, Jacques, 213.
+  Roland, nephew of Laporte, 111;
+    insurgent leader, 113;
+    succeeds Laporte, 118;
+    in Lower Cevennes, 122;
+    organizes Camisards, 123-5;
+    takes Sauve, 137;
+    at Pompignan, 152;
+    at Salindres, 164-5;
+    at Font-Morte, 176-7;
+    at Pont-de-Montvert, 187;
+    death of, 188.
+  Romanche, Valley of the, 401, 408.
+  Rosen, Count, 332;
+    indignation against King James, 337.
+  Rostan, Alpine missionary, 460 (note).
+  Rou, Jean, 363-4.
+  Roussel, Alexandre, 232.
+  Ruvigny, Major-General, 357.
+
+
+  St. Bartholomew, doubt thrown upon massacre of, 27.
+  Saint-Etienne, Rabout, 276-7.
+  St. Hypolite, meeting at, 35.
+  Saint-Ruth, Marshal, 38;
+    in Ireland, 38 (note), 354 _et seq._
+  Saint-Simon on the treatment of converts, 23.
+  Sands, Captain, 357.
+  San Veran, 468.
+  Sarsfield, General, 351-3, 356.
+  Savoy and France, war declared, 520.
+  Savoy, Duke of, takes refuge with the Vaudois, 520.
+  Schomberg, Marshal, 309 _et seq._, 317, 344 _et seq._;
+    death of, 345.
+  Schomberg, Count, 348.
+  Sedan, prosperity of, before Revocation, 64-5;
+    Brousson at, 65-6.
+  Seguier, Pierre, insurgent leader, 96, 103;
+    at Frugeres, 104;
+    at Font-Morte, 106;
+    taken, tried, and executed, 106-7.
+  Sirven, 263;
+    case of, taken up by Voltaire, 264.
+  Society of Friends in Languedoc, 281-2.
+  Souverain executed, 52.
+  Squeezers, the, 101 (note).
+  Synod of French Protestant Church, 283.
+
+
+  Talmash, Major-General, 357.
+  Telford, anecdote of, 82.
+  Testart, Marie Anne, 363.
+  Tetleau, Major-General, 357.
+  Toleration, Edict of, 276.
+  "Troopers' Lane," 310.
+  Tyrconnel, Earl of, 331-2.
+  Tyrconnel, Lady, retort to King James, 348.
+
+
+  Val Fressinieres, 423-5, 432-43.
+  Val Louise, 420;
+    massacre at, 422.
+  Vaudois, the country of, 385;
+    early Christianity of, 386-6;
+    early persecutions of, 388;
+    Easter massacre of, 390-1;
+    visits of Dr. Gilly to, 393-4, 468, 477;
+    passiveness of, 420-1;
+    massacre of, at Val Louise, 422;
+    persecutions of, 424-6, 455, 481, 495-500, 513-20;
+    refuges of, 459, 467, 475, 477, 481;
+    struggles of, at Rochemalan, 482-6;
+    flight at the Revocation, 495;
+    apparently exterminated, 500;
+    in Switzerland, 501;
+    prepare to return, 502;
+    Arnaud appointed leader, 502;
+    assisted by William of Orange, 503;
+    The Glorious Return of, 504-13;
+    struggles of, at the Balsille, 515;
+    assist Duke of Savoy, 520;
+    emancipation of, 521-2.
+  Venours, Marquis de, death of, 335.
+  Vesson, 212, 214.
+  Vidal, Isaac, preacher, 48.
+  Villars, Marshal, on prophetic mania in Languedoc, 90;
+    appointed to command in Languedoc, 167;
+    at Nismes, 169;
+    clemency of, 172-86;
+    treats with Cavalier, 177, 185;
+    suppresses insurrection of Camisards, 188.
+  Vincent, Isabel, prophetess, 89, 90.
+  Vivens, death of, 56.
+  Voltaire, takes up case of Calas, 259-63;
+    takes up case of Sirven, 264;
+    case of Chaumont, 271.
+
+
+  Waldenses, the, 384.
+  Walker, Dr. George, death of, 348.
+  Waller, Sir James, 359.
+  Wheel, punishment of the, 258 (note).
+  William of Orange lands in England, 308;
+    proclaimed King, 309;
+    campaign against James II., 309 _et seq._, 340 _et seq._;
+    his fleet, 325-7;
+    wounded, 342;
+    death of, 364.
+  Woodstock, Lord, 360-3.
+  Wurtemberg, Duke of, 340, 357.
+
+
+PRINTED BY VIRTUE AND CO., LIMITED, CITY ROAD, LONDON.
+
+
+
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