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 HISTORY OF THE HUGUENOTS. 
 
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THE 
 
 HUGUENOTS IN FRANCE 
 
 AFTER THE REVOCATION OF THE EDICT OF NANTES : 
 WITH A VISIT TO THE COUNTRY OF THE VAUDOIS. 
 
 BY 
 
 SAMUEL SMILES, 
 
 Auxnon OF "the nuGUENOTS : tueie settlements, cnuEcuES, and ixdustbies 
 
 en england and ireland," " self-help," "chakactee," 
 
 "life of tue stephensons," etc. 
 
 "Plus a me f rapper on s'amuse, 
 Tant plus de marteaux ou y use." 
 
 Tu^odoee de Beze. 
 
 "They maintained their faith in the noble way of persecution, and served 
 God in the fire, whereas we honour him in the sunshine," 
 
 SiE TuoiiAS Beowne. 
 
 NEW YORK: 
 HAEPEE & BROTHEES, PUBLISHEES, 
 
 FEANKLIN SQUAB E. 
 
 18 7 4. 
 
\\ .^ ^'^'' -^' ,o; ^ . -^ f^ r n -f/ r. ,; 
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 OIX years since, I published a book entitled The 
 ^ Huguenots : their Settlements, Churches, and In- 
 dustries, in England and Ireland. Its object was 
 to give an account of tbe causes wbicb led to tbe 
 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 his- 
 tory of the Reformation in France down to the dis- 
 persion of the Huguenots, and the suppression of the 
 Protestant religion by Louis XIY. under the terms of 
 the Peyocation 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 
 
vi PREFACE. 
 
 aud tlie south.- eastern proYinces of France crossed tlie 
 frontier into Switzerland, and settled there, or after- 
 wards 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 en- 
 deavoured 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 ac- 
 count of those who settled in the United States of 
 America. 
 
 But besides the Huguenots who contrived to escape 
 from France 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 supple- 
 ment to my former book, that the present work is 
 written. 
 
 It is impossible to fix precisely the number of the 
 
PREFACE. vii 
 
 Huguenots who left France to avoid the cruelties of 
 Louis Xiy., 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 prevailecl 
 that there was a Massacre of St. Bartholomew 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 IN'antes in 1685, though 
 it has been vindicated as a noble act of legislation, 
 worthy even of the reputation and character of Louis 
 the Great. 
 
 ISTo two writers agree as to the number of French 
 citizens who were driven from their country by the 
 Eevocation. 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 gentle- 
 men, 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 
 
vili PREFACE. 
 
 liorror may be felt for the Massacre of St. Bartliolomew 
 of 1572, tlie persecutions wHcli preceded and followed 
 tlie Act of Revocation in 1685, *'kept France under 
 a perpetual St. Bartliolomew for about sixty years." 
 Durino" tbat time it is believed tbat more tban 
 1,000,000 Frencbmen either left the kingdom, or 
 were killed, imprisoned, or sent to the galleys in their 
 eJBPorts to escape. 
 
 The Intendant of Sainton ge, 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 Eeformers. 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 Canterburj^, 
 Norwich, Southampton, Bristol, Exeter, &c., as well 
 as at Dublin, Lisburn, Portarlington, and other toTVTis 
 in Ireland. 
 
 Then, with respect to the much larger number of 
 Protestants who remained in France after the Revoca- 
 tion of the Edict of JSTantes, there is the same difference 
 
PREFACE. ix 
 
 of opinion. A deputation of Huguenot pastors and 
 elders, wlio waited upon tlie Due de Noailles in 1682, 
 informed him that there were then 1,800,000 Protestant 
 families in France. Thirty years after that date, 
 Louis XIY. 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 Pabaut 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 XIY. 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 XIY. and 
 his Jesuit advisers. 
 
 After all the sufferings of France — after the 
 cruelties to which her people have been subjected by 
 
X PREFACE. 
 
 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 Con- 
 greganistes are now what the Jesuits were before. The 
 Sans-Cullotes of 1793 were the pupils of the priests ; so 
 were the Communists of 1871.* 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 j^ou over to the 
 enemy ... Is this to last for ever ? For heaven's 
 sake spare us at least the sight of a Jesuits' He- 
 public as the coronation of our century." 
 
 In the midst of these prophecies of ruin, we 
 have M. Yeuillot frankly avowing his Ultramontane 
 policy in the Unircrs. 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. Yeuillot is perhaps entitled to some respect 
 for boldly speaking out what he means and thinks 
 * M. Simiot's speech before the National Assembly, .16th March, 1873 
 
PREFACE, xi 
 
 Tliere are many amongst ourselves wlio mean the 
 same tiling, without having the courage to say so 
 — who hate the Heformation 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 XIY. attempted, and 
 how very inefficient his measures eventually proved in 
 putting down Protestantism, or in extending Catholi- 
 cism. Louis XIY. found it easier to make martyrs 
 than apostates ; and discovered that hanging, banish- 
 ment, 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 Prance. 
 Courtly writers blot them out of history as Louis XIY. 
 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 Bkxoit : Hisioire de VEdit de Nantes. 
 
 Charles Coqueeel : Histoire des Eglises du Desert. 
 
 Napoleon Peyrat : Histoire des Fasteurs de Desert. 
 
 Antoine Court : Histoire des Troubles de Cevennes. 
 
 Edmund Hughes : Histoire de la Restauration du Frotestantisme en 
 
 France au xviii*. Siecle. 
 A. Bonnemere : Histoire des Camisardes. 
 Adolphe Michel : Louvois et Les Frotestantes. 
 Athanase Coquerel Fils : Les Formats pour La Foi, ^c, ^-c. 
 
xii PREFACE. 
 
 It remains to be added tliat part of this work — yiz., 
 the '' Wars of the Camisards/' and the '' Journey in 
 the Country of the Yaudois " — originally appeared in 
 Good Words. 
 
 S. S, 
 
 LoxDON, October, 1873. 
 

 
 
 •^o> 
 
 
 ,/,-; 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 THE HUGUENOTS IN FRANCE AFTER THE REVOCATION 
 OF THE EDICT OF NANTES. 
 
 CHAPTER 
 
 I. KEVOCATION OF THE EDICT OP XANTES ... 
 
 II. EFFECTS OF THE REYOCATIOX — CHURCH IX THE DESERT 
 
 III. CLAUDE BROUSSON, THE HUGUEXOT ADVOCATE 
 
 IV. CLAUDE BROUSSOX, PASTOR AXD MARTYR 
 V. OUTBREAK. IN LANGUEDOC 
 
 VI. INSURRECTIOX OF THE CAMISARDS 
 Vir. EXPLOITS OF CAVALIER . 
 VIII. EXD OF THE CAMISARD INSURRECTION 
 IX. GALLEY-SLAVES FOR THE FAITH . 
 X. ANTOIXE COURT .... 
 
 XI. EEORGANIZATIOX OF THE CHURCH IN THE DESERT 
 XII. THE CHURCH IX IHE DESERT — PAUL RABAUT 
 XIII. END OF THE PERSECUTIONS THE FREXCH REVOLUTIOX 
 
 PAGE 
 1 
 
 . 12 
 . 30 
 . 50 
 . 75 
 . 99 
 . 130 
 . 166 
 . 190 
 . 205 
 . 218 
 . 235 
 . 253 
 
 A VISIT TO THE COUNTRY OF THE VAUDOIS. 
 
 1. INTRODUCTORY— EARLY PERSECUTIOXS OF THE VAUDOIS . 287 
 
 II. THE VALLEY OF THE ROMANCHE — BRIAX9ON . . . 305 
 
 III. VAL LOUISE — HISTORY OF FELIX XEFP .... 324 
 
 IV. THE VAUDOIS MOUXTAIN-REFUGE OF DORMILHOUfE . .341 
 Y. GUILLESTRE AND THE VALLEY OF QUEYRAS . . . .359 
 
 VT. THE VALLEY OP THE PELICE — LA TOUR — AXGKOGNA — THE 
 
 PRA DE TOUR 376 
 
 VII. THE GLORIOUS RETURX : AX EPISODE IN THE HISTORY OF 
 
 THE ITALIAN VAUDOIS 397 
 
THE EFGUENOTS IN FEANCE. 
 
 I 
 
 ► 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 REVOCATION OF THE EDICT OF NANTES. 
 
 THE Hevocation of the Edict of Nantes was signed 
 by Louis XIY. of France, on tlie 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 TV. 
 — the Huguenots being amongst the most industrious, 
 enterprising, and loyal of his subjects. But the advo- 
 cacy 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 thy salvation." 
 
2 THE HUGUENOTS. 
 
 Three montlis later, tlie great Bossuet, tlie 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 Chal- 
 cedon : ' You have affirmed the faith, you have extermi- 
 nated 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? "* 
 
 Madame de Maintenon also received the praises 
 of the Church. "All good people,'' said the Abbe de 
 Choisy, "the Pope, the bisho23s, and all the clergj^, 
 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 mar- 
 riage 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 XIY. never publicly 
 recognised De Maintenon as his wife — never rescued 
 
 * Eossuet, " Oraison Funebre du Chancellier Letellier." 
 
REVOCATION OF THE EDICT OF NANTES, 3 
 
 her from tlie ignominious position in which she origin- 
 ally stood related to him. 
 
 People at court all spoke with immense praises of 
 the King's intentions with respect to destroying the 
 Huguenots. *'' KilKng them off" was a matter of 
 badinage with the courtiers. Madame de Maintenon 
 wrote to the Due de JSToailles, " The soldiers are kill- 
 ing numbers of the ftmatics — 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 
 one ! They have just taken t^yenty-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 destroj^'ng 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,* will 
 soon give them the coup cU grace J^ 
 
 * BourdalouG had just been sent from tlie Jesuit Churc*)! of St 
 Louis at Paris, to Montpelier, to aid the dragoons in converting the 
 Protestants, and bringing them back to the Church. 
 
 2 
 
4 THE HUGUENOTS. 
 
 In a future" letter to Count Bussy, Madame de Sevigne 
 informed him of '^a dreadfully fcitiguing journey which 
 her son-in-law M. de Grignan had made in the moun- 
 tains of Dauphiny, to pursue and punish the miser- 
 able 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 Kevocation. ''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 lie voca- 
 tion. In a discourse uttered before it, the Abbe Talle- 
 mand 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 He- 
 formation." Barbier D'Aucourt heedlessly, but truly, 
 compared the emigration of the Protestants '' to the 
 departure of the Israelites from Egj'pt." 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. 
 
REVOCA TION OF THE EDICT OF NANTES. 5 
 
 The plillosoplilc La Bruyere contributed a maxim 
 in praise of tlie Revocation. Quinault wrote a poem 
 on the subject ; and Madame Deshoulieres felt inspired 
 to sing " The Destruction of Heresy.'' The Abbe de 
 Ranee 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 Avith the lower class, 
 who went about sacking and pulling down the Pro- 
 testant 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 tines 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 every- 
 thing in the houses they occupied as if it were their own, 
 and an assignment of billets was little less than the con- 
 signment of the premises to the military, to use for their 
 own purposes, during the time they occupied them.* 
 
 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 
 
 * Sir John Eeresby's Travels and Memoirs. 
 
6 THE HUGUENOTS. 
 
 accordingly confiscated and sold, land sj)eculators, as 
 well as grand seigneurs who wished to increase their 
 estates, were constantly on the look-out for good bar- 
 gains. Even before the Revocation, when the Hugue- 
 nots 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 Hugue- 
 nots 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, ap- 
 proved of it. Te Deums were sung at Rome in thanks- 
 giving for the forced conversion of the Huguenots. 
 Pope Innocent XL sent a brief to Louis XIY., 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 or- 
 dinances issued in favour of the heretics of your 
 kingdom."* 
 
 The Jesuits were especially" elated by the Revoca- 
 tion. 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 oi 
 Protestants, who were compelled by law to pay for 
 their education by Jesuit priests. To furnish the 
 required accommodation, nearly the whole of the Pro- 
 testant temples that had not been pulled down were 
 
 * Tope Innocent XL's Letter of November 13lh, 16S5. 
 
REVOCA TION OF THE EDICT OF NANTES. 7 
 
 made over to tlie Jesuits, to be converted into monastic 
 schools and nunneries. Even Bossuet, tlie '' last father 
 of the Church/' shared in the spoils of the Huguenots. 
 A few daj's 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.* 
 
 j^ow 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 ^vihe favoured religion of the State. 
 
 It is true there were the Jansenists — declared to be 
 heretical by the Popes, and distinguished for their oppo- 
 sition 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 Jan- 
 senists 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 XIY. 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 ap- 
 proved the religion of the King, had no opposition 
 * " Louvois et les Protestants," par A-dolphe Michel, p. 286, 
 
8 THE HUGUENOTS. 
 
 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 Pro- 
 testantism or Jansenism. It is authentically related 
 that Louis XI Y. on one occasion objected to the appoint- 
 ment 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.* 
 
 At the time of the Ke vocation, 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, Flcchier, 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 joeople, and was despised. 
 The Deists and Atheists, sprung from the Church's 
 bosom, were in the ascendant ; and Yoltaire, Rousseau, 
 Diderot, and Mirabeau, were regarded as greater men 
 than either Bossuet, Bourdaloue, Flechier, or Massillon. 
 
 Xot 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. TLere were no doubt many Ca- 
 tholics who deplored the force practised on the 
 
 * Quarterly Review. 
 
REVOCA TION OF THE EDICT OF NANTES. 9 
 
 Huguenots ; but they were greatly in tlie minority, 
 and had no power to make tlieir 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 mira- 
 culous 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 pub- 
 lished in 1825. The Due de Saint-Simon, also a Jan- 
 senist, 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, ex- 
 cepting the Huguenots. The King was flattered by the 
 perpetual conversions reported to be going on through- 
 out the countr}^ — 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.'* * 
 
 * " Memoirs of the Duke of Saint-Simon," translated by Bayle St. 
 John, vol. iii. p. 260. 
 
10 THE HUGUENOTS, 
 
 Louis XIY. lived for thirty years after tlie 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 
 y^ did not respect him. Many regarded him as a self-con- 
 ceited tyrant, who sought to save his own soul by inflict- 
 ing 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 XIY. 
 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 ! Dano^ers fortifv his zeal. 
 The work of God fears not man. He believes even 
 
REVOCA TION OF THE EDICT OF NANTES. 1 1 
 
 that lie strengthens Ms throne by overthrowing that of 
 error. The profane temples are destroyed, the pnlpits 
 of seduction are cast down. The prophets of false- 
 hood 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." * 
 
 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 — Hol- 
 land, 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. 
 
 * Funeral Oration on Louis XIV. 
 
CHAPTEE, 11. 
 
 EFFECTS OF THE KEVOCATION. 
 
 THE Revocation struck Avitli civil deatli the entire 
 . Protestant population of France. All the liberty 
 of conscience wliicli they had enjoyed under the Edict 
 of Nantes, was swej^t away by the act of the King. 
 They were dejDrived of every right and privilege ; their 
 social life was destroyed ; their callings were pro- 
 scribed ; their property was liable to be confiscated at 
 any moment ; and they were subjected to mean, detest- 
 able, and outrageous cruelties. 
 
 From the day of the Bevocation, the relation of 
 Louis XI Y. to his Huguenot subjects was that of the 
 Tyrant and his Yictims. 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 Pevocation proclaimed that the 
 Huguenot subjects of France must thenceforward be 
 of *' the King's religion ;" and the order was promul- 
 gated 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." 
 
EFFECTS OF THE REVOCATION. 13 
 
 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 com- 
 manded 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 exj)enses ; 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 oi five 
 years and upwards was to be taken ]3ossession of by the 
 authorities, and removed from its Protestant parents. 
 This decree often j)roved 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 
 
14 THE HUGUENOTS. 
 
 fifteen days, they were found lingering in France, tlie 
 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 func- 
 tions ; Protestant doctors were prohibited from practis- 
 ing ; Protestant surgeons and apothecaries were sup- 
 pressed; 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 Govern- 
 ment 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 apprentice- 
 
EFFECTS OF THE REVOCATION. 15 
 
 slilps were suppressed. Protestant waslierwomen were 
 excluded frora 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.* 
 
 For several years before the Eevocation, while the 
 persecutions of the Huguenots had been increasing, many 
 had realised their means, and fled abroad into Switzer- 
 land, 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 countrj^ was liable to 
 the seizure of all that belonged to him, and to per- 
 petual 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 
 
 * Such was, in fact, the end of a man so distinguished as M. Paul 
 Chenevix, Councillor of the Court of Metz, who dfed in 1686, the year 
 after the Eevocation. Although of the age of eighty, and so illustrious 
 for his learning, his dead hody 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 Arch- 
 bishop of Dublin is descended from liis brother Philip Chenevix. who 
 settled in England shortly after the PvCvocation. 
 
1 6 THE HUGUENOTS. 
 
 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 
 Huo'uenot 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 for- 
 swearing 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 contemj)t 
 on the other. 
 
 There were also the Huguenot manufacturers, mer- 
 chants, and employers of labour, of whom a large 
 number closed their workshops and factories, sold off 
 their goods, converted everything into cash, at what- 
 ever sacrifice, and fled across the frontier into Switzer- 
 land — 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 im- 
 poverishing the country. It was indeed a terrible 
 thing for Frenchmen to tear themselves away from 
 their country — Frenchmen, who have always clung so 
 
EFFECTS OF THE REVOCATION. 17 
 
 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 reli- 
 gion/' On the 19th of Qctober, 1685, the day after he 
 had signed the Act of Eevocation, La Reynee, lieu- 
 tenant 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. !N'ext day, an- 
 other 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 residt of these measures was to make hypo- 
 crites rather than believers, and they took efiect 
 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.* All the roads leading to the frontier 
 
 * It is believed that 400,000 emigrants left France through reli- 
 gious 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 — 
 
1 8 THE HUGUENOTS, 
 
 or the sea-coast streamed with, fugitives. Tliey went in 
 various forms and guises — sometimes in bodies of 
 armed men, at other times in solitary parties, travel- 
 ling 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. 
 
 To prevent this extensive emigration, more violent 
 measures were adopted. Every road out of France was 
 posted w^ith guards. The towns, highways, bridges, 
 and ferries, were all watched ; and heavy rewards were 
 promised to those who would stop and bring back the 
 fuo-itives. Many were taken, loaded with irons, and dis- 
 patched 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. 
 
 Man}^ others went by sea, in French as well as in 
 foreign ships. Though the sailors of France were pro- 
 hibited the exercise of the reformed religion, under the 
 penalty of fines, corporal punishment, and seizure of 
 the vessels where the worsl^p 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 
 
 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 '* now converts." 
 
EFFECTS OF THE REVOCATION. 19 
 
 hurriedly off to sea in little boats, must have been 
 drowned, as tbey were never afterwards beard 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 w^ay, provision was 
 made to meet the case ; and a Koyal 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 other- 
 wise be detected, might thus be suffocated ! * 
 
 In the meantime, however, numerous efforts were 
 being made to convert the Huguenots. The King, his 
 ministers, the dragoons, the bisho]DS, 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 hy the dragoons. It is the grandest 
 and finest thing that has ever been imagined and 
 executed." f 
 
 • 
 
 The conversions effected by the dragoons were much 
 more sudden than those effected by the priests. Some- 
 times a hundred or more persons Avere converted by a 
 single troop within an hour. In this way Murillac 
 converted thousands of persons in a week. The regi- 
 
 * We refer to *' The Huguenots : their Settlements, Churehe?, 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. 
 
 t Letter to the President de Moulceau, November 24th, 1685. 
 
 3 
 
20 THE HUGUENOTS. 
 
 ment of Aslifeld conyerted tlie whole province of 
 Poltou in a month. 
 
 De I^oailles 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 Revo- 
 cation, 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, insidtcd 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 Yaudois. It con- 
 sisted 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.* Many of their 
 attempts at conversion were accompanied by details 
 too hideous to be recorded. 
 
 * Thumbscrews were used in the reign of James 11. 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. 
 
EFFECTS OF THE REVOCATION. 21 
 
 Of those wlio would not be converted, tlie 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 yisitors 
 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 Pro- 
 testant judge or advocate, Louvois at once endeavoured 
 to bribe him over. For instance, there was a heretical 
 syndic of Strasburg, 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 
 public powers and authorities employed against one's 
 
22 THE HUGUENOTS. 
 
 life, interests, and faith, is wliat few can persistently 
 oppose. And torture, whether it be slow or sudden, is 
 what many persons, by reason of their physical capa- 
 city, 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 Pome. 
 
 But the "new converts '^ did not gain much by their 
 change. They^ were forced to attend mass, but re- 
 mained susj)ected. Even the dragoons who converted 
 them, called them dastards and deniers of their faith. 
 They tried, if they could, to avoid confession, but con- 
 fess 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 ser- 
 
EFFECTS OF THE REVOCATION. 23 
 
 vice, tlie most prominent among tliem were made to 
 carry tlie lights, tlie 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 Due de Saint-Simon, in his memoirs, after 
 referring to the unmanly cruelties practised by Louis 
 XIY. on the Huguenots, ** without the slightest pre- 
 text or necessity,'' characterizes this forced partici- 
 pation in the Eucharist as sacrilegious and blasphemous 
 folly, notwithstanding that nearly all the bishops lent 
 themselves to the practice. '' From simulated abjura- 
 tion," he says, '^ they [the Huguenots] are dragged to 
 endorse what they do not belieye 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 recon- 
 ciled, when more at leisure did not fail, by their flight 
 or their behaviour, to contradict their pretended con- 
 version."* 
 
 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 congre- 
 
 * "Memoirs of the Duke of Saint- Simon," Bayle St. John's Trans- 
 lation, iii. 259. 
 
24 THE HUGUENOTS. 
 
 gation of their brethren, and make " reconnaisances," 
 or acknowledgment of tlieir repentance for liaving 
 attended mass and pretended to be converted to tbe 
 Roman Catholic Cburcb.* At one of the sittings 
 of the Tbreadneedle Street Huguenot Cburch. in 
 London, held in May, 1687 — two j^ears after the Ee- 
 vocation — not fewer than 497 members were again 
 received into the Cburcb wbicb, by force, they had 
 pretended to abandon. 
 
 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 
 ofiered considerable pensions if they would conform 
 and become Catholics. The King promised to augment 
 their income by one-third, and if they became advo- 
 cates 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, Hol- 
 land, Prussia, England, and elsewhere. A few remained 
 going about to meetings of the peasantrj'', 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 punish- 
 ment 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. 
 
 * See "The Huguenots; their Settlements, &c., in England and 
 Ireland," chap. xvi. 
 
EFFECTS OF THE REVOCATION. 25 
 
 At length tliey selected more sheltered places in re- 
 mote 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 pubKc gibbet. 
 
 Fulcran Key was one of the most celebrated of the 
 early victims. He was a native of JSTismes, 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 neighbour- 
 hood 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 Yaunage ; after which he accepted an in- 
 vitation to proceed into the less populous districts of 
 the Cevennes. 
 
 He felt the presentiment of death upon him in ac- 
 cepting 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, praj^ed and preached to them. 
 
26 THE HUGUENOTS. 
 
 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 
 entrvisted to thirty soldiers, to be conveyed to Alais. 
 There he was subjected to further examination, avow- 
 ing that he had preached wherever he had found faith- 
 ful people ready to hear him. At Nismcs, 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 3'ou will ; I 
 am ready to die." 
 
 The priests, the judges, and other persons of in- 
 fluence endeavoured to induce him to change his 
 opinions. Promises of great faA^ours 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, pro- 
 vided I gain Christ." He remained firm. He was 
 ordered to be put to the torture. He was still un- 
 shaken. 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 
 
EFFECTS OF THE REVOCATION. 27 
 
 hand. I see before me tlie ladder wliicli 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 con- 
 fession 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 scafibld, did not deter them 
 from continuing to hold religious meetings in solitary 
 places, more especially in Languedoc, Yiverais, and the 
 provinces in the south-east of France. 
 
 Between the year 1686, when Tulcran 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 ]^ismes, two at St. Hippolyte and Marsillargues 
 in the Cevennes, and twelve on the Peyrou at Mont- 
 pellier — the public place on which Protestant 
 Christians in the South of France were then princi- 
 pally executed. 
 
 There has been some discussion lately as to the 
 
28 THE HUGUENOTS. 
 
 massacre of the Huguenots about a century before tbis 
 period. It bas been beld tbat tbe St. Eartbolomew 
 Massacre was only a poHtical squabble, begun by tbe 
 Huguenots, in wbicb tbey got tbe worst of it. Tbe 
 number of persons killed on tbe occasion bas been 
 reduced to a very small number. It bas been doubted 
 wbetber tbe Pope bad anything to do witb tbe medal 
 struck at Rome, bearing tbe motto Ugonottorum Stragcs 
 ('* Massacre of tbe Huguenots*'), witb tbe Pope's bead 
 on one side, and an angel on tbe otber j)ursuiug and 
 slaying a band of flying heretics. 
 
 Whatever may be said of the massacre of St. 
 Bartholomew, there can be no mistake about the per- 
 secutions which preceded and followed the PcYocation 
 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 pro^-ince of 
 Languedoc, not less than a hundred thousand persons 
 (according to Boulainvillers) were destroyed by prema- 
 ture death, one-tenth of whom perished by fire, strangu- 
 lation, 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* gives a list of three 
 hundred and thirty-three issued by Louis XIY. during 
 the ten years subsequent to the Bevocation, and they 
 were continued, as we shall find, during the succeeding 
 reign. 
 
 " We have," saj^s M. Charles Coquerel, " a horror of 
 
 * " Histoire de I'Edit de Nantes," par Elie Benoit. 
 
EFFECTS OF THE REVOCATION. 29 
 
 St. Bartholomew ! Will foreigners believe it, ttiat 
 France observed a code of laws framed in the same 
 infernal spirit, which maintained a perpetual St. Bar- 
 tholomeich day in this country for ahout sixty years ! 
 If they cannot call us the most barbarous of people, 
 their judgment will be well founded in pronouncing us 
 the most inconsistent."* 
 
 M. De Felice, however, will not believe that the 
 Revocation of the Edict of JS'antes was popular in 
 France. He takes a much more patriotic view of the 
 French peoj^le. 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 Eevocation icere popular, "it 
 would be the most overwhelming accusation against 
 the Church of Eome, that it had thus educated and 
 fashioned France." f 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. 
 
 * ''Histoire des Eglises du DCsert," par XUharles Coquerel, i. 498. 
 t De Felice's "History of the Protes'ants 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 occu]3y 
 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 XIY. 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 
 ti^me to exercise his profession, with much ability, at 
 
CLAUDE B ROUS SON. 31 
 
 Castres, Castelnaudry, and Toulouse. He ^yas fre- 
 quently employed in defending Protestant pastors, 
 and in contesting the measures for suppressing their 
 congregations and levelling their churches under exist- 
 ing 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 pro- 
 cess 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 temjile 
 of that city.* The pretext for suppressing this church 
 was, that a servant girl from the country, being a 
 Catholic, had attended worship and received the sacra- 
 ment from the hands of M. Peyrol, one of the 
 ministers. 
 
 Brousson defended the case, observing, at the con- 
 clusion of his speech, that the number of Protestants 
 was A^ery 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 Poman 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 
 
 * 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. Notwith- 
 standing these discouragements [this was in 1676, before the Revo- 
 cation], 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 ci 
 by money." — King's Life of Locke, i. 100. 
 
32 THE HUGUENOTS. 
 
 for the suppression of tlie Protestant cliurcli 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 Koman 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 onl}?- 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 immov- 
 able 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 honor- 
 able against the latter. 
 
 The demolition of temples was the usual consequenco 
 
CLAUDE BROUSSON. 33 
 
 of conyictions like these. The Due de Xoailles, lieu- 
 tenant-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 demolish- 
 ing 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 deputa- 
 tion 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 to conduct 
 these gentlemen to the citadel ? ''* 
 
 The great temple of Montpellier was destroyed im- 
 mediately 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 IN^oailles, ^' 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 pro- 
 ceedings had been instituted, was now requested to 
 admit the authenticity of the documents. She was still 
 
 * 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. 
 
34 THE HUGUENOTS. 
 
 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 re- 
 committed to prison. On hearing of this incident, 
 Brousson remarked, "This is what is called instituting 
 a process against persons after they have been con- 
 demned " — a sort of " Jedwood justice.'^ 
 
 The repetition of these cases of persecution — the de- 
 molition of their churches, and the suppression of their 
 worship — led the Protestants of the Cevennes, Yiverais, 
 and Dauphiny to combine for the purpose of endeavour- 
 ing 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 Mon- 
 tauban 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 recom- 
 mended 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 medi- 
 
CLAUDE BROUSSOA-*. 35 
 
 tation of the Scriptures ; encouragements to tliem to liold 
 together as congregations for the purpose of united 
 worship ; " submitting themselves unto the common in- 
 structions and to the yoke of Christ, in all places where- 
 soever 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 peti- 
 tions, Bro;sson observes, "Surely all the world and 
 posterity will be surprised, that so many respectful 
 petitions, so many complaints of injuries, and so manv 
 solid reasons urged for their removal, produced no 
 good result whatever in favour of the Protestants.'^ 
 
 The members of the churches which had been inter- 
 dicted, and whose temj)les had been demolished, were 
 accordingly invited to assemble in private, in the neigh- 
 bouring fields or woods — -not in public places, nor 
 around the ruins of their ancient temples — for the pur- 
 pose of worshipping God, exciting each other to i^iety 
 by prayer and singing, receiving instruction, and cele- 
 brating the Lord's Supper. 
 
 Various meetings were accordingly held, in the 
 following month of July, in the Cevennes and Yiverais. 
 At St. Hypolite, where the temple of the Protestants had 
 been destroj-ed, about four thousand persons met in a 
 field near the town, when the minister preached to them 
 from the text — "Pender 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 ]3riest who was -oresent, on giving in- 
 
 4 
 
36 THE HUGUENOTS, 
 
 formation to the Bisliop of Nismes of tlie transaction, 
 admitted tliat 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 wholl}^ 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, Yigan, 
 and Ganges were as full of them as St. Hypolite — may 
 be inferred from the items charged upon the inhabit- 
 ants of St. Hypolite alone * : — 
 
 To the regiment of Montpezat, for a billet for 
 
 sixty-five days 50,000 livres. 
 
 To the three companies of Eed 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 cavalrj' 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 
 
 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 
 
 * Claude Brousson, " Apologie du Projet des 3leform6." 
 
CLAUDE BROUSSON, 37 
 
 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,* son of an advocate, and 
 
 * The grandfather of this Chamier drew up for Henry IV the 
 celebrated Edict of Nantes. The greater number of the Chamiers 
 Jetti^ ranee. Several were ministers in London and Maryland, U.S. 
 baptam thamier 13 descended from the family. 
 
38 THE HUGUENOTS. 
 
 related to some of tlie most eminent Protestants in 
 France. He was taken to the neighbouring town of 
 Montelimar, and, after a summary trial, lie was con- 
 demned 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. 
 
 The contumacious attitude of the Protestants after so 
 many reports had reached Louis XIY. of their entire 
 " conversion,'* induced him to take more active 
 measures for their suppression. He appointed Mar- 
 shal Saint-Ruth commander of the district — a man 
 who was a stranger to mercy, who breathed only car- 
 nage, 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 in- 
 structions Saint-Ruth received from Louvois were these : 
 '^Amnesty has no longer any place for the Yiverais, 
 who continue in rebellion after ha\ing been informed 
 of the King's gracious designs. In one word, you are 
 to cause such a desolation in that country that its ex- 
 ample 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-Puth* — 
 
 * Saint-Euth 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 lh;in 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 
 
CLAUDE BROUSSON, 39 
 
 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!" 
 
 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 chil- 
 dren, were shot dead on the spot. 
 
 De Cosmac, the bishop, was yery 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, contri- 
 buted 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 
 
 miles extending along the front, and apparently completely pro- 
 tecting 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-Kuth, 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 Marqiiess 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. 
 
40 THE HUGUENOTS. 
 
 found attending tliem ; tlie breaking npon the wlieel 
 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 in- 
 stance 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 ofience he was sentenced to be 
 broken to death uj)on the wheel. To receive this 
 punishment he was conducted to Tournon, in Yiverais, 
 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 Eedeemer descend from heaAxn and sufier an 
 ignominious death for my salvation, and shall I, to 
 prolong a miserable life, den}^ 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 in- 
 expressible j oy ." After life was finally extinct, his heart 
 was taken to Chalen^on 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 dj'ing 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 
 
CLAUDE BROUSSON, 41 
 
 defence of tlie Huguenots of Montauban — the result of 
 wliicli, 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 furv of the 
 Catholics and the King was not to be satisfied until 
 they had utterly crushed the religion which he served. 
 
 Brousson was repeatedly ofi'ered 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 safet}^ 
 and rest to his native town of JN^ismes. 
 
 He resided there, however, only about four months. 
 Saint-Puth 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 considera- 
 tion of their case. Poman 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 tlie 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. 
 
42 THE HUGUENOTS. 
 
 It was of no use. Tlie hearts of tlie King, his 
 clergy, and his ministers, were all hardened against 
 them. A copy of the above petition was presented by 
 two ministers of Msmes and several influential gentle- 
 men 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 !N^oailles 
 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 ^^etitcH maisons* enough in 
 Languedoc I should not have sent them there." 
 
 Nismcs was now placed under the same ban as 
 Yivarais, 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 apprehen- 
 sion, 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 
 
 * The prisons of Languedoc were already crowded with Protestants, 
 and hundreds had been sent to the galleys at Marseilles. 
 
CLAUDE BROUSSON, 43 
 
 Lausanne, and Icard becoming tlie minister of a 
 Huguenot cliurch 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 JN^ismes by the public executioner, 
 the magistrates and dragoons attending the sham pro- 
 ceeding with the usual ceremony. 
 
 At Lausanne, where Claude Brousson settled for a 
 time, he first attempted to occupy himself as a lawj^er ; 
 but this he shortly gave iip 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 XIY. and 
 his myrmidons the clergy and dragoons, he composed 
 and published a work, addressed to the Homan Catholic 
 party as well as to the Protestants of all countries, 
 entitled, " The State of the Reform Cvd 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 suc- 
 ceeding 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 ofi" in one day for confinement in the 
 galle}' s at Marseilles. 
 
 The number of Huguenots resorting to Switzerland 
 
44 THE HUGUENOTS. 
 
 being so great,* and they often came so destitute, that 
 a committee was formed at Lausanne to assist tlie 
 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 ^dsit 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. 
 
 In N'ovcmber 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 Picv. David Ancillon, who had 
 been for thirty- three years pastor at Metz,t and 
 
 * Within about three weeks no fewer than seventeen thousand 
 five hundred French emigrants passed into Lausanne. Two hundred 
 Protestant ministei's fled to Switzerland, the greater number of whom 
 settled in Lausanne, until they could journey elsewhere. 
 
 t 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 
 iollowed 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 oflficers resigned and entered the service of William of Orange, 
 and many of the soldiers deserted. The bribe offered for the con- 
 version of privates was as follows : Common soldiers and dragoons, 
 
CLAUDE BROUSSON. 45 
 
 was now pastor of tlie Elector at Berlin ; Gaultler, 
 banished from Montpellier ; and Abbadie, banished 
 from Sanmur — all ministers of the Huguenot Church 
 there ; with a large number of banished ministers and 
 emigrant Protestants from all the provinces of France. 
 
 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 Protes- 
 tant 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, Pulers, and Magistrates." 
 The Elector circulated this volume, accompanying it 
 with a letter w^ritten in his name, to all the princes 
 of the Continent professing the Augsburg Confession ; 
 and it was thus mainly owing to the Elector's inter- 
 cession 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. IN'early two hundred 
 and fifty Huguenot ministers had taken refuge in 
 
 two pistoles per head ; troopers, three pistoles per head. The 
 Protestants of Alsace were dilferently treated. They constituted a 
 majority of the population ; Alsice and Strasburg 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 Avas successful in buying over some of the 
 most popular and influential men. 
 
46 THE HUGUENOTS. 
 
 Holland ; tliete were many mercliants and manuflic- 
 turers who had set up tlieir 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 
 Husruenot brethren in exile, Brousson returned to Lau- 
 sanne, 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. 
 
CLAUDE BROUSSON. 47 
 
 This advice, if acted on, was virtually condemning tlie 
 pastors to deatli. 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 Ger- 
 many, replied in a " History and Apology for the Re- 
 treat 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, " ^chy 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 Con- 
 stance, and the noise of the chains borne by the galley 
 slaves at Toulon and Marseilles. He reproached him- 
 self 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 woidd 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 
 
48 THE HUGUENOTS, 
 
 imsliaken. He would go to the help of the opi^ressed 
 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 nu- 
 merous attempts made to gather the Protestant people 
 together, and to administer consolation to thorn by 
 public prayers and j^reaching. The persons who con- 
 ducted 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 Yidal, a lame young man, a 
 mechanic of Colognac, near St. Ilypolite, in the Ceven- 
 nes. His self-imj)oscd ministrations were attended by 
 large numbers of i^eople. He preached for only six 
 months and then died — a natural death, for nearly all 
 who followed him were first tortured and then hung-. 
 
 AVe have already referred to Fulcran Re}', who 
 preached for about nine months, and was then executed. 
 In the same year were executed Mej^rueis, by trade a 
 woolcarder, and Eocher, who had been a reader in one 
 of the Protestant churches. Emanuel Dalgues, a re- 
 spectable 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 memor}-^, and preached sermons -^hich he 
 had learned b}^ heart, was transported, with his father 
 
CLA UDE B ROUS SON, 49 
 
 and otlier frequenters of tlie assemblies, to the Carribee 
 Islands. 
 
 At length Bronsson 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. Erousson's companions were 
 these : Francis Yivens, 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 lY. 
 
 CLAUDE BROUSSON, PASTOR AND MARTYR. 
 
 "DROUSSON left Lausanne on tlie 22nd of July, ac- 
 -^ companied by his dear friend, tlie Rev. M. de Eruc. 
 The other members of the party had preceded them, 
 crossing the frontier at different places. They all 
 arrived in safetj^ 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 j)reacher3 that could be apprehended. 
 The soldiers scoured the country, and, helped by the 
 
CLAUDE BROUSSON. 51 
 
 paid spies, tliey 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 j)eople. 
 
 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 j)reacher was first made to him. 
 Yivens 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. Yivens also prayed 
 in the several assemblies that Brousson might be con- 
 firmed, and that God would be pleased to pour upon 
 him his Holy Spirit, and strengthen him so that he 
 
52 THE HUGUENOTS. 
 
 mi gilt become a faitlifiil and successful labourer in tliis 
 great calling. 
 
 Brousson at length consented, believing that duty and 
 conscience alike called upon him to give the best of bis 
 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 Sacra- 
 ment 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 assem- 
 blies. 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 Mont- 
 pellier. His bowels were so injured and his bod\ so 
 
CLAUDE BROUSSON. 53 
 
 cruslied 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 Mont- 
 pellier, and then hanged. *'The pimishment," 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 man- 
 ner on the Peyrou. 
 
 All these persons were taken, executed, destroyed, or 
 imprisoned, during the first year that Brousson com- 
 menced his perilous ministry in the Cevennes. 
 
 About the same time three women, who had gone 
 about instructing the families of the destitute Pro- 
 testants, 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 
 !N^ismes. 
 
 "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 ofiered, 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. 
 
54 THE HUGUENOTS. 
 
 But tlie 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, perj)etually 
 imprisoned there for worshipping God according to 
 conscience. 
 
 Lintarde was in like manner condemned to imprison- 
 ment for life in the castle of Sommieres, and it is 
 believed she died there. JN'othing, 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 
 mercifull}^ dealt with. Anne Montjoj^e was found 
 assisting at one of the secret assemblies. She was 
 solicited in vain to abjure her faith, and being con- 
 demned 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 exceed- 
 ingly 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 Hugue- 
 not 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 hurg 
 on the adjacent trees to give light. Sentinels were set 
 in the neighbourhood, and all the adjoining roads were 
 
CLAUDE B ROUS SON 55 
 
 watcliecl. After the meeting was over the assemblage 
 dispersed in different directions, and Brousson immedi- 
 ately 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 
 Garden, about half way between Kismes and Anduze, 
 a Protestant nobleman — a oiouveau 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 informa- 
 tion. 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 
 neio:hbourhood — thouo^h some of them had never 
 attended any of the assemblies since the Pevocation — 
 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 ob- 
 ject, besides hanging the persons found attending, was 
 to seize the preachers, more especially Brousson and 
 Yivens, believing that the country would be more effec- 
 
56 THE HUGUENOTS. 
 
 tually " conyerted," 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 Pro- 
 vidence ; and he also instructed all who resorted to his 
 meetings to come to them unarmed. 
 
 In this respect Brousson differed from Yivens, 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 Yivens, or five thousand for either, an 
 active search was made throughout the province. At 
 length the Government found themselves on the track 
 of Yivens. One of his known followers, Yalderon, 
 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 Yivens 
 with three other persons, concealed in a cave in the 
 neighbourhood of Alais. 
 
 Yivens 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 sur- 
 
CLA UDE BRO US SON. 5 7 
 
 render. They did so, and Tvitli the utter want of 
 truth, lo5^alt3% and manliness that characterized the 
 persecutors, the promise was belied, and the three 
 prisoners were hanged, a few days after, at Alais. 
 Yivens' body was taken to the same place. The Inten- 
 dant 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 abso- 
 lutely necessary rest. He accordingly proceeded to 
 Msmes, 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 Brous- 
 son felt that his life was quite as safe amongst his 
 townspeople as it had been during the last two years 
 amoncrst the mountaineers of the Cevennes. 
 
 It soon became known to the priests, and then to the 
 Intendant, that Brousson was resident in concealment 
 at IS'ismes ; and great efforts were accordingly made for 
 his apprehension. During the search, a letter of Brous- 
 son'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 appre- 
 hended, 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 
 
S8 THE HUGUENOTS, 
 
 to be razed to the ground, in punisliment 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 accor- 
 dingl}^ succeeded in passing through the gates, and went 
 to resume his former work. His first assembly was 
 held in a commodious place on the Gfardon, between 
 Valence, Brignon, and St. Maurice, about ten miles dis- 
 tant from Nismes. Although he had requested that 
 only the Protestants in the immediate neighbourhood 
 should attend the meeting, so as not to excite the appre- 
 hensions of the authorities, yet a multitude of persons 
 came from Uzes and IS^ismes, augmented by accessions 
 from upwards of thirty villages. The service was com- 
 menced 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 were 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 
 
CLAUDE BROUSSON, * 59 
 
 of soldiers speciall}^ to track Mm, and examine tlie 
 woods and search tlie 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 dif- 
 ferent 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 ISTismes. 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 yoimg 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 
 
6o THE HUGUENOTS. 
 
 iron bar some hours before the coup de grace, or deatli- 
 blow, was inflicted. Colognac endured bis sufferings 
 with beroic fortitude. He was only twenty-four. He 
 bad commenced to preach at twenty, and laboured at 
 tbe work for only four years. 
 
 Brousson's health was fast giving ^ay. Ever}^ 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 perish- 
 ing for want of food ; and often be found himself nearly 
 ready to die for want of rest. And yet, even in the 
 midst of bis 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 Avished to hear him, be 
 wrote out sermons that might be read to them. His 
 friend Henry Poutant, one of those who originally 
 accompanied him from Switzerland and bad not yet 
 been taken prisoner by the soldiers, went about hold- 
 ing meetings for prayer, and reading to the people the 
 sermons prepared for them by Brousson. 
 
 For the purpose of writing out his sermons, Brous- 
 son 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 XI Y., 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 Am- 
 
CLA UDE B ROUS SON. 6 1 
 
 sterdam, in 1695, under the title of '' Tlie Mystic 
 Manna of tlie 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 in- 
 creased, 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 Brous- 
 son 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 
 arrano^ements for leavino: 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 
 
02 THE HUGUENOTS. 
 
 first wsnt into Holland. He had scarely arrived there, 
 when intelligence reached him from Montpellier of the 
 execut'ion, after barbarous torments, of his friend Papus, 
 — one of those who had accompanied him into the 
 Cevennes to j)reach the Gospel some six years before. 
 There were now very few of the original company left. 
 
 On hearing of the martydom 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 en- 
 deavoured 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 Swit- 
 zerland — 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 Moutauban, four ministers from 
 Montpellier for whom he had pleaded in the courts 
 at Toulouse — the two Dubourdieus and the two Ber- 
 thaus — fathers and sons. There were also La Coux 
 from Castres, Be Joux from Lyons, Roussillon from 
 
CLAUDE BROUSSON. 63 
 
 MontredoD, Mestayer from St. Quentin, all settled in 
 London as ministers of Huguenot churclies. 
 
 After staying in England for only about a month, 
 Brousson was suddenly recalled to Holland to assume 
 tlie office to wliicli lie was appointed without solicita- 
 tion, of preacher to the Walloon church at the Hague. 
 Though his office was easy — for he had several col- 
 leagues 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 bo 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 con- 
 sidered 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' connec- 
 tion 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. 
 
64 THE HUGUENOTS, 
 
 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 Prance, 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 Hugue- 
 not men, women, and children from it.* 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. 
 
 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 Pro- 
 testant industry. One of the four principal Huguenot 
 academies of France was situated in that town. It was 
 
 * Many of these extraordinary escapes are given in the author's 
 " Huguenots : their Settlements, Churches, and Industries, in Eng- 
 land and Ireland." 
 
CLAUDE BROUSSON. 65 
 
 suppressed in 1681, sliortl}^ before tlie Kevocation, and 
 its professors, Bayle, Abbadie, Basnage, Brazy, and 
 Jurieu, expelled the country. The academy build- 
 ings 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.* 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. 
 
 When Brousson visited the place, the remaining 
 Protestants resided chiefly in the suburban villages of 
 Givonne and Daigny. He visited them in their fami- 
 lies, and also held several private meetings, after which 
 he was induced to preach in a secluded place near Sedan 
 at night. 
 
 This assembl}^, however, was reported to the autho- 
 rities, 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 
 
 * There were from eighty to ninety establishments for the manu- 
 facture 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. 
 
66 THE HUGUENOTS. 
 
 pastor. They next rummaged tlie 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, ransack- 
 ing 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 under- 
 standing 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 bis 
 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 Burgundj'-. He also visited several of 
 his friends in the neighbourhood of Paris. 
 
 We have not many details of his perils and experi- 
 ences 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 pcoj^le truly 
 repenting their fault {i.e. of having gone to Mass), 
 weeping daV 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 
 Koman 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 
 
CLAUDE BROUSSON. 67 
 
 pour down liis most terrible judgments upon that 
 ungrateful and vaunting country, whicli has rejected 
 his truth and despised the day of visitation." 
 
 During the twelve months that Brousson was occupied 
 with his ]Derilous journey through France, two more of 
 his friends in the Cevennes suffered martyrdom — La 
 Porte on the 7th of February, 1696, and Henri Gruerin 
 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 Ehine, to rejoin his 
 family at the Hague. 
 
 At that time, the representatives of the Allies were 
 meeting at By s wick the rej)resentatives of Louis XIY., 
 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 XIY. would 
 not brook this interference. He proposed going on 
 dealing with the heretics in his own w^aj^ *' 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 Byswick, 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 np 
 about the middle of the following December, he said : 
 
 6 
 
68 THE HUGUENOTS, 
 
 *' 1 cannot at present enter into the details of the work 
 the Lord has given me grace to lahonr 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."* 
 
 When the snow had melted sufficiently to enable 
 Brousson to escape from the district of Dauphiny, 
 near the High Alps, where he had been coilcealed, 
 he made his way across the country to the Yiverais, 
 whore 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 par- 
 ticularly in. the Cevennes and Yiverais), 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 for- 
 warded 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 
 
 * The following ^^■a3 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 hlack, 
 hands Well formed." 
 
CLAUDE B ROUS SON, 69 
 
 regularly were ordered to be closed. Their liouses were 
 also filled with soldiers. " The soldiers or militia," 
 said Brousson to a friend in HoUan-d, ''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 journey in gs, had arrived, about the end of August, 
 1698, in the neighbourhood of Nismes, Baville was 
 greatly mortified ; and he at once ofiered 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 
 
70 THE HUGUENOTS. 
 
 examination. He was let down close to the sur- 
 face 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 u.p." 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 Bouerge, Pays de Foix, and Bigorre, 
 proceeding as far as Beam, 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 
 Peformation movement in the South of France — where 
 Calvin had preached, where Jeanne d'Albret had lived, 
 and where Henry lY. had been born. 
 
 From Pau, Brousson was sent to JMontpellier, 
 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 
 
CLAUDE BROUSSON. 71 
 
 had but to step on shore to regain his liberty ; but 
 he had promised to the Intendant of Learn, 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 im- 
 prisoned in the citadel of Montpellier, on the 30th 
 October, 1698. 
 
 Baville, who knew much of the character of Brous- 
 son — ^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 com- 
 mand 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 after- 
 wards 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. xittempts were made by several priests and friars 
 to add him to the number of " new converts," but these 
 
72 THE HUGUENOTS. 
 
 were altogether fruitless. All tliat 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 command- 
 ing extensive views of the surrounding country. In 
 clear weather, Mont Yentoux, one of the Alpine sum- 
 mits, may be seen across the broad valley of the Phone 
 on the east, and the j^eak of Mont Canizou in the 
 Pja^enees on the west. JSTorthward stretches the moun- 
 tain 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 XIY. 
 occupies the centre of the area ; and a triumjphal arch 
 stands at the entrance to the promenade, erected to 
 commemorate the '' glories " of the same monarch, more 
 particularly the Pevocation 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 XY., '' the AYell- 
 beloved," during which the same policy for which 
 Louis XIY. was here glorified by an equestrian statue 
 and a triumphal arch continued to be persevered in — 
 of imprisoning, banishing, hanging, or sending to the 
 
CLAUDE BROUSSON. 73 
 
 gallej's such, of the citizens of France as were not of 
 " the King's religion." 
 
 But during the reign of Louis XIY. himself, the 
 Peyrou was anything but a pleasure-ground. It was 
 the inflimous 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 wliich they had been hung. It 
 was specially reserved, because of its infamy, for the 
 execution of heretics against Eome ; and here, accord- 
 ingly, 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, includ- 
 ing 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 
 
74 THE HUGUENOTS. 
 
 garb of a pastor, who walked slowly towards the scaffold, 
 engaged in earnest prayer, bis eyes and bands lifted 
 towards beaven. On mounting tbe platform, be stood 
 forward to say a few last words to tbe people, and give 
 to many of bis friends, wbom be knew to be in tbe 
 crowd, bis parting benediction. But bis voice was 
 instantly stifled by tbe roll of twenty drums, wbicb 
 continued to beat a quick marcb until tbe bideous 
 ceremony was over, and tbe martyr, Claude Brousson, 
 bad ceased to live.* 
 
 Strange are tbe vicissitudes of buman affairs ! Not 
 a hundred years passed after this event, before the 
 great grandson of the monarch, at whose instance 
 Brousson bad laid down his life, appeared upon a 
 scaffold in the Place Louis XIY. in Paris, and implored 
 permission to say his few last words to the people. In 
 vain ! His voice was drowned by the drums of San- 
 terre ! 
 
 * 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 he 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 per- 
 secutors to be broken, his pure unconquered spirit mounted in 
 triumph towards heaven. 
 
CHAPTER y 
 
 OUTBREAK IN LIXGUEDOC. 
 
 A LTHOUGH tlie arbitrary measures of tlie King were 
 -^^ felt all over France, they nowhere excited more 
 dismay and consternation tlian in the province of Lan- 
 guedoc. 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 pro- 
 vidence, 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 
 
76 T'HE HUGUENOTS. 
 
 concent rate 1 upon Languecloc, and after great slaugliter 
 tlie heretics were supposed to be exterminated. 
 
 But enough of the people survived to perpetuate the 
 love of liberty in their descendants, who continued to 
 ( xercis3 a degree of indej^endence in matters of religion 
 and politics almost unknown in other parts of France. 
 Languedoc was the principal stronghold of the Hugue- 
 nots in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries ; and 
 when, in 1685, Louis XIV. revoked the Edict of 
 Nantes, which interdicted freedom of worshij) under 
 penalty of confiscation, banishment, and death, it is not 
 surprising that such a policy should have occasioned 
 widespread consternation, if not hostility and oj^en 
 resistance. 
 
 At the period of the Eevocation there were^ accord- 
 ing 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 communit3\ 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 ver}^ 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 
 
OUTBREAK IN LANGUEDOC, 77 
 
 kind of art tlie 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 in- 
 structions 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." 
 
 BaviHe, 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 con- • 
 verted, 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 bo regarded as Catholics ; 
 they almost all preserve in their heart their attach- 
 ment 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 he won. It is there that religion resides, 
 and it can only be solely established by efiecting that 
 conquest." 
 
 From the number, as well as the wealth and educa- 
 tion, of the Protestants of Languedoc, it is reasonabel 
 
78 THE HUGUENOTS, 
 
 to suppose that the emigration from this quarter of 
 France should have been very considerable during the 
 persecutions which followed the Kevocation. Of course 
 nearly all the pastors fled, death being their punish- 
 ment 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 distin- 
 guished Huguenots who settled in England came from 
 Languedoc. The Romillys and Layards came from Mont- 
 pellier ; the Saurins from Nismes ; the Gaussens from 
 Lunel ; and the Bosanquets from Caila ; * besides the 
 Auriols, Arnauds, Pechels, De Beauvoirs, Durands, 
 Portals, Boileaus, D'Albiacs, D'Oliers, Pious, and Vig- 
 noles, all of whom belonged to the Huguenot landed 
 gentry of Languedoc, who fled and sacrificed everything 
 rather than conform to the religion of Louis XIY. 
 
 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. Pro- 
 testantism was now entirely without leaders. The 
 
 * There are still Gaussens at St. Mamert, in the deparlment 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 Kismes, because of his religion, on the 7lh September, 
 1702, after which his corpse was publicly exposed on the Montpellier 
 high road. 
 
OUTBREAK IN LANGUEDOC. 79 
 
 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 popula- 
 tion ; 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, imns 
 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 Al23ine ]'ange is, how- 
 ever, broken abruptly by the deep valley of the Rhone, 
 running nearly due north and south. 
 
 The whole of this mountain district may be regarded 
 as a triangular plateau rising graduall}^ from the north- 
 west, and tilted up at its south-eastern angle. It is 
 
 /-. 
 
8o THE HUGUENOTS. 
 
 composed for the most part of granite, overlapped by- 
 strata belonging to tlie 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, exhibit- 
 ing a series of flat-topped hills bounded by perpen- 
 dicular cliffs some six or eight hundred feet high. 
 
 " These plateaux," says Mr. Scrope, in his interest- 
 ing account of the geology of Central France, ''are 
 called ' causses ' in the provincial dialect, and they have 
 a singularly drear}' and desert aspect from the monotony 
 of their form and their barren and rocky character. 
 The valleys which separate them are rarely of con- 
 siderable width. Winding, narrow, and all but im- 
 passable clift-like glens predominate, giving to the 
 Cevennes that peculiarly intricate character which en- 
 abled its Protestant inhabitants, in the beginning of 
 the last century, to offer so stubborn and gallant a re- 
 sistance 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 coimtry ; and in the summer season, 
 when the loAver 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 junij)er- bushes. 
 There is very little verdure to relieve the eye — few 
 
OUTBREAK IN LANGUEDOC. 8i 
 
 turf-clad slopes or earth-coYered ledges to repay tlie 
 tillage of the farmer. Even the mountains of lower 
 elevation are for the most part stony deserts. Chest- 
 nut-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 prin- 
 cipal industries of the district. 
 
 Even in the immediate neighbourhood of Nismes — a 
 rich and beautiful town, abounding in Roman remains, 
 which exhibit ample cAadences 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 charac- 
 ter 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 Florae — 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, point- 
 ing to the sterile rocks, exclaimed to us, '' Messieurs, 
 behold the very poorest district in France ! It con- 
 tains nothing but juniper-bushes ! As for its agricul- 
 ture, it produces nothing ; manufactures, nothing ; 
 commerce, nothing! Rien^ rien, rien!" 
 
 The observation of this French entrepreneur reminds 
 
82 THE HUGUENOTS. 
 
 us of an anecdote tLat Telford, the Scotch engineer, used 
 to relate of a countryman with reference to his appre- 
 ciation of Scotch mountain beauty. An English artist, 
 enraptured by the scenery of Ben MacDhui, "was ex- 
 patiating on its magnificence, and appealed to the 
 native guide for cdnfirmiation 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. Tet, 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 striko 
 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. 
 
OUTBREAK IN LANGUEDOC. 83 
 
 The people are of a contented nature, and bear tlieir 
 poverty with cheerfulness and even dignity. While 
 they partake ot' the ardour and strong temper which 
 characterize the inhabitants of the South of France, 
 they are probably, on the wholc; more grave and staid 
 than Frenchmen generally, and are thought to be more 
 urbane and intelligent ; and though they are un- 
 manageable by force, they are remarkably accessible to 
 kindess and moral suasion. 
 
 Such, in a few words, are the more prominent charac- 
 teristics 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 dis- 
 may fell upon the people ; but they made no signs of 
 resistance to the royal authority. For a time they re- 
 mained 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 stuflP 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 look- 
 ing 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 XI Y. 
 had ordered them to believe that two and two make 
 
 7 
 
84 THE HUGUENOTS. 
 
 six, they could not possibly believe, tbougli tbey migbt 
 pretend to do so, that it made any otber number than 
 four. And so it was with the King's order to tbem 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 CaDsar the 
 things that were Ca3sar'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 openl3\ 
 If their temples were destroyed, there remained the 
 woods and fields and moimtain pastures, where they 
 might still meet and worship God, even tbough it were 
 in defiance of the law. Having taken counsel together, 
 they resolved " not to forsake the assembling of them- 
 selves together ; " and they proceeded, in all the Pro- 
 testant districts in the South of France — in Yiverais, 
 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 
 
OUTBREAK IN LANGUEDOC, 85 
 
 various assemblies wliicli 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 dis- 
 appointed. 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 pro- 
 vided 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 
 woolcarders — by instituting a common fund for the 
 purpose of helping their distressed brethren in sur- 
 rounding 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 en- 
 
86 THE HUGUENOTS. 
 
 rolled men to post themselves as sentinels on tlie sur- 
 rounding 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 informa- 
 tion "by trusty emissaries, intimating the direction of 
 their march. 
 
 The Intendant, Baville, wrote to Louvois, minister 
 of Louis XIY. during the persecutions, express- 
 ing his surprise and alarm at the apparent evidences 
 of organization amongst the peasantry. " I have just 
 learned," said he in one letter,* '' 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 Yigan and Anduze w^ould have restored tran- 
 quillity 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 exasperat- 
 ing and hardening them in their iniquitous courses." 
 
 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 pre- 
 tend," 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 w^ay of 
 executing this plan. In the first place, the Protestants 
 of Languedoc w^ere 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 neces- 
 * October 20, 1686. 
 
OUTBREAK IN LANGUEDOC. 87 
 
 sary to proceed witli some caution in the matter. " If 
 his Majesty," he wrote to Baville, '' thinks there is no 
 other remed}'' 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 inacces- 
 sible 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 re- 
 cently 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.''* 
 
 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 meetina^s continued to be held as before. 
 
 Baville then determined to occupy the entire province 
 with troops, and to carry out a general disarmament of 
 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. Hypolyte, 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. 
 
 * Noailles to Baville, 29th October, 1686. 
 
88 THE HUGUENOTS. 
 
 By these means tlie wiiole country became strongly 
 occupied, but still tbe meetings in tbe Desert went on. 
 The peasantry continued to brave all risks — of exile, 
 the galleys, the rack, and the gibbet — and perseyered 
 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 
 the}^ would sally forth to their meetings in the hills ; 
 though their mountains were not too steep, their valleys 
 not too secluded, their defiles 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 ^xscina- 
 tion. 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, sufiering, 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 perse- 
 cuted quarters of Dauphiny, Yiverais, and the Cevennes. 
 The people had lost their pastors ; they had not the 
 
OUTBREAK IN LANGUEDOC. 89 
 
 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 Convul- 
 sionaires, 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 con\ailse 
 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, be- 
 gan 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 sym- 
 pathy, 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 extatically, 
 the most inspired of the whole being women, boys, and 
 even children. 
 
 One of the first '' prophets " who appeared was Isabel 
 Yincent, a young shepherdess of Crest, in Dauphiny, 
 
90 THE HUGUENOTS, 
 
 wlio could neither read nor write. Her usual speech 
 was the patois of her country, but when she became in- 
 spired she spoke perfectly, and, according to Michslet, 
 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 
 bLimed our sins onh^, and called all to penitence. 
 Thou, starting anew, she spoke angelically of the Divine 
 goodness." 
 
 Eoucher, the intcndant of the province, had her 
 apprehended and examined. She would not renounce. 
 '' Tou may take my life," she said, '' but Gfodwill 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 Yincent had predicted, many prophets 
 followed in her steps, but thc}^ did not prophesy so 
 divinely as she. They denounced '' Woe, woe " upon 
 their persecutors. They reviled Babylon as the opj^res- 
 sor 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 
 prophesj'ing 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 Yiverais, and from thence into the Ceven- 
 nes. *' I have seen," said Marshal Yillars, *' 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, appaared possessed 
 
OUTBREAK IN LANGUEDOC. 91 
 
 by the devil ; tliey quaked and propliesied publiclj^ in 
 the streets."* 
 
 riottard says there were eight thousand persons- in 
 one province who had inspiration. All were not, how- 
 ever, 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 Kterati 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 pre- 
 valence 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." f 
 
 Mere force was of no avail against people who sup- 
 posed themselves to be under supernatural influences. 
 The meetings in the Desert, accordingly, were attended 
 
 * " Vie du l\rarechal de Villars," i. 12-5. 
 
 t Brueys, " lli.s.oire du Fanaticisme de Notre Temps." 
 
92 THE HUGUENOTS. 
 
 witli increased and increasing fascination, and Bayille, 
 wlio 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 Ceven- 
 nes. At Cheilaret, in the Yivarais, there had been an 
 encounter between the troops and the peasantry ; but 
 the people were speedily dispersed, leaving three hun- 
 dred dead and fifty wounded on the field. 
 
 The Intendant Baville, after thus pacifying the 
 Yivarais, 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 Florae. 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. Paville 
 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 through- 
 
OUTBREAK IN LANGUEDOC. 93 
 
 out tlie Cevennes. The militia ran night and day after 
 the meetings in the Desert. All persons found attend- 
 ing them, who coidd 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 Budd- 
 hists, and on his return to France he was appointed to 
 undertake the conversion of the people of the Cevennes 
 to the fiiith 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 ver- 
 dureless. The village is best reached from Florae, 
 from which it is about twenty miles distant. The 
 valley runs east and west, and is traversed by a toler- 
 ably good road, which at the lower part follows the 
 windings of the Tarn, and higher up rims 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 
 
94 THE HUGUENOTS, 
 
 greater part of tlie j^ear, until Baville constructed tlie 
 new road for the purpose of opening up tlie 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 occa- 
 sional 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 rock}^ 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 accord- 
 ingly stationed there and at Florae for the purpose of 
 preventing the meetings and overawing the popula- 
 tion. Besides soldiers, the authorities also established 
 missions throughout the Cevennes, and the j^rincipal 
 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, re- 
 lentless, and cruel. He had no bowels of compas- 
 sion. He was deaf to all appeals for mercy. With 
 
■ OUTBREAK IN LANGUEDOC. 95 
 
 him the penalty of non-belief in the faith of Eome 
 was imprisonment, torture, death. Eight Yoimg 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 
 dungeonr, 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 difiered 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, deter- 
 mined 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 vn the archpriest's dungeons. The 
 parents of some of the captives ran to throw themselves 
 
96 THE HUGUENOTS. 
 
 at his feet, and implored mercy for tlieir sons ; but 
 Chayla was inexorable. He declared barslily that tbe 
 prisoners must suffer according to the law — that the 
 fugitives must go the galleys, and their guide to the 
 gibbet. 
 
 On the following Sundaj^ 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 neighbour- 
 ing 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. Tiiey met punctually in the 
 Altefage Wood, and mider the shadow of three 
 gigantic beech trees, the trunks of which were stand- 
 ing but a few years ago, they solemnly swore to deliver 
 their companions and destroy the archpriest. 
 
 When night fell, a band of fiftj^ 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 as- 
 sembly, he cried to his soldiers, " Run and see what 
 this means." But the doors of the house were already 
 
OUTBREAK IN LANGUEDOC. 97 
 
 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. '^JN^o," 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 I" 
 
 " 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 ! 
 
Map of the Country of the Cevenneg. 
 
CHAPTER VI. 
 
 IXSURRECTIOX OF THE CAMISARDS. 
 
 npHE poor peasants, wool-carders, and neatherds of 
 -■- tlie Cevennes, formed only a small and insignifi- 
 cant 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 comi^arative handful of people in the 
 Low Countries, occupying the Dutch United Pro- 
 vinces, 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 cul- 
 minated in the Revolution of 1688 ; and it was still 
 raging in the Yaudois 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 peasantrj^ such as the people of 
 the Cevennes, to take up arms against so powerful a 
 sovereign as Louis XIY. Their passive resistance 
 had lasted for fifteen long years, during which many 
 of them had seen their kindred racked, hano^ed, or 
 sent to the galleys ; and at length their patience wa: 
 
 8 
 
100 THE HUGUENOTS, 
 
 exhausted, and tlie inevitable outburst took place. Yet 
 tbey were at any moment ready to lay down tlieir 
 arms and return to tlieir allegiance, provided only a 
 reasonable degree of libert}^ 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 occa- 
 sioned by the persistent attempts of men in power to 
 enforce a particular form of religion at the point of the 
 sword. The resistors of the policy were in both cases 
 Calvinists;* and they were alike indomitable and 
 obstinate ih 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 
 
 * Whether it be that Calvinism is electic 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 re- 
 semblance 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 
 ou the history of France, as well as on the individual character of 
 Frenchmen, had the balance offerees 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 afhnity ; 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." 
 
INSURRECTION OF THE CAMISARDS. loi 
 
 own form of worship. In Languedoc, tlie moun- 
 taineers of tlie Cevennes lield tlieir assemblies in " Tlie 
 Desert ;'' and in Scotland, the "liill-folk'' of tlie West 
 held their meetings on the mnirs. In the one country 
 as in the other, the monarchs sent out soldiers as their 
 missionaries — Louis XIY. employing the dragoons of 
 LouYois and Baville, and Charles II. those of Claver- 
 liouse 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. 
 
 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. Hugue- 
 not 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 con- 
 demned 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 preach- 
 ing, 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 insur- 
 rection in both countries was also similar. In the one 
 case, it was the cruelty of the archpriest C hay la, the 
 inventor of a new machine of torture called " the 
 Squeezers,"* and in the other the cruelty of Arch- 
 
 * The instrument is thus described by Cavalier, in his " Memoirs 
 of the Wars of the Cevennes," London, 1726 : "This inhuman man 
 
 i^ 
 
102 THE HUGUENOTS. 
 
 bishop Sliarpe, the inyentor of that horrible instrument 
 called " the Iron Boot," that excited the fury of the 
 people ; and the murder of the one by Scguier and his 
 band at Pont-de-Montvert, as of the other by Balfour 
 of Burley and his companions on Magus JMuir, 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 revolu- 
 tions, 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 vio- 
 lence of the oppressed. 
 
 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 cam- 
 paigns. 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 Bevolution 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 XIY., after which the Hugue- 
 
 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. 3o). 
 
INSURRECTION OF THE CAMISARDS. 103 
 
 nots of France continued to be stamped out of sight, 
 and apparently out of existence, for nearly a century. 
 
 In tlie preceding chapter, we left tlie 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 liad 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 ming'Kno^ 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 atchpriest. 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 
 
104 THE HUGUENOTS, 
 
 liad resolved upon a general massacre of the priests, 
 and lie now threw himself upon Frugeres for the pur- 
 pose 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 Yentalong, so called because of 
 the winds which at certain seasons blow so furiously 
 alon2: the narrow yallev 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. ' 
 
 J^Text morning, at daybreak, he descended the moun- 
 tain, 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. Eut 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 em- 
 blems of Romanism on which they could lay their 
 hands. 
 
INSURRECTION OF THE CAMISARDS. 105 
 
 Seguier and his band next liurried across the moun- 
 tains 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 situ- 
 ated, and made for the north in the direction of Cas- 
 sagnas, arriving at the elevated plateau of Font-Morte 
 a little before daybreak. 
 
 In the meantime, Baville, the intendant of the pro- 
 vince, was hastening to Pont-de-jMontvert to put down 
 the insurrection and avenge the death of the archpriest. 
 The whole country was roused. Troops were dispatched 
 
io6 THE HUGUENOTS. 
 
 in hot liaste from Alais ; the militia were assemLled 
 from all quarters and marched upon the disturbed dis- 
 trict. The force was placed under the orders of 
 Captain Poul, an old soldier of fortune, A\'ho had distin- 
 guished himself in the German wars, and in the recent 
 crusade aorainst the Italian Yaudois. It was because of 
 the individual prowess which Captain Poul had displayed 
 in his last campaign, that, at the peace of Pyswick, 
 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 Florae 
 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 Florae. As. 
 they proceeded along the road, Poul s^id to Seguier, 
 " Well, wretch ! now I haA'e got you, how do you ex- 
 pect to be treated after the crimes you have com- 
 mitted ? '' *' As I would mj^self 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?" "Be- 
 cause the Spirit of God is in me." "Your abode?" 
 " In the Desert, and shortly in heaven." "Ask pardon 
 
INSURRECTION OF THE C AMIS ARE S, 107 
 
 of the King ! " " AYe have no other King but the 
 Eternal." " Have you no feeling of remorse for vour 
 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 be 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 insurrec- 
 tion 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 " {En- 
 fants de Dieu) ; but their enemies variously nicknamed 
 them '' The Barbels," '' The Vagabonds," '' The As- 
 semblers," "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 cam is, signifying a road- 
 runner. But whatever the origin of the word may be, 
 
io8 THE HUGUENOTS. 
 
 tlie Camisards was tlie name most commonly applied to 
 tlie 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 sus- 
 pected persons in the Upper Cevennes, and sent them 
 before the judges at Florae. 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 them- 
 s 3lves in caves known only to the inhabitants of the 
 district, and so secretly that Poul thought the}'" had 
 succeeded in making their escape from France. The 
 Intendant Baville arrived at the same conclusion, and 
 he congratulated himself accordingl}' on the final 
 suppression of the outbreak. Leaving sundry detach- 
 ments of trooj^s 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 
 safetj^ They had by this time been joined by several 
 sympathizers, amongst others by three veteran soldiers 
 — Laporte, Esperandieu, and E-astelet — 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 
 
INSURRECTION OF THE C AMI SARDS. 109 
 
 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 flmiily 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 dwell- 
 ing at Massoubeyran, still known there as the house of 
 *' Laporte-Roland." It contains a secret retreat, open- 
 ing from a corner of the floor, called the " Cachette do 
 
1 1 THE HUG UENOTS. 
 
 Roland/' In wLicli tlie celebrated chief of this name, 
 son of the owner, was accustomed to take refuge ; and 
 in this cottage, the old Bible of Holand's father, as well 
 as the halbert of Roland himself, continue to be reli- 
 giously preserved. 
 
 Two of Laporte's brothers were Protestant ministers. 
 One of them was the last pastor of Collet-de-Deze in 
 the Cevcnnes. 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 1G88. Another brother, also 
 a pastor, remained in the Cevcnnes, 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 Montpcllier, and 
 strangled on the Peyrou in the year 1696. 
 
 The fourth brother was the Laporte whom we have 
 just described as undertaking ihe leadership of the 
 hunted insurgents remaining in the Upper Cevcnnes. 
 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 
 Montpelller. 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 plet}^, 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, 
 
INSURRECTION OF THE CA3IISARDS. 1 1 1 
 
 and wlien lie soiiglit out tTie 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 Ivuown that the' insurorents were as"ain draw- 
 ing together, others joined them. Amongst these were~<^ 
 Castonet, a forest-ranger of the Aigoal mountain 
 district in the west, Avho brought with him some 
 twelve recruits from the country near Yebron. Shortly 
 after, there arrived from Yauvert the soldier Catinet, 
 bringing with him twenty more. Next came young 
 Cavalier, from Kibaute, 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 Yaunage, hold- 
 ing 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 Yaunage. 
 
 " My brethren,^' said he, "the cause of God and the 
 deliverance of Israel is at stake. Follow us to the 
 mountains, '^o country is better suited for war — we 
 
1 1 2 THE HUGUENOTS. 
 
 have the hill-tops for camps, gorges for ambuscades, 
 woods to rally in, caves toliide 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 docs 
 He not renew his miracles day by day ? Will not his 
 Spirit descend upon his afflicted children? lie con- 
 soles us, lie 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 ! "* 
 
 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 sol- 
 diers, and with these he rejoined his imcle in the 
 mountains. , 
 
 The number of the insurgents was thus raised to 
 about a hundred and fift}^ — a very small body of men, 
 contemptible in point of numbers compared wdth the 
 overwhelming forces by which they were oj^posed, 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 
 
 * Brueys, " Histoire de Fanatisme ; " Peyrat, " Hifctoire des 
 Pasteurs du Desert." 
 
INSURRECTION OF THE CAMISARDS. 113 
 
 being divided into two bodies of like number, wbo 
 elected Roland and Castanet as tbeir respective cbiefs. 
 
 Laporte occupied tbe last days of August in drilling 
 bis troops, and familiarising tbem witb tbe mountain 
 district wbicb was to be tbe scene of tbeir operations. 
 "Wbile tbus engaged, be received an urgent message 
 from tbe Protestant berdsmen of tbe bill-country of 
 Yebron, wbose cattle, sbeep, and goats a band of 
 royalist militia, under Colonel Miral, bad captured, and 
 were driving nortbward towards Florae. Laporte 
 immediately ran to tbeir belp, and posted bimself to 
 intercept tbem at tbe bridge of Tarnon, wbicb tbe}^ must 
 cross. On tbe militia coming up, tbe Camisards fell 
 upon tbem furiously, on wbicb tbey took to fligbt, and 
 tbe cattle were driven back in triumpb to tbe villages. 
 
 Laporte tben led bis victorious troops towards 
 Collet, tbe village in wbicb bis brotber had been 
 pastor. Tbe temple in wbicb be ministered was still 
 standing — tbe only one in tbe Cevennes tbat bad not 
 been demolisbed, tbe Seigneur of tbe place intending 
 to convert it into a bospital. Collet was at present 
 occupied by a company of fusiliers, commanded by 
 Captain Cabrieres. On nearing tbe place, Laporte 
 wrote to tbis officer, under an assumed name, intimating 
 tbat a religious assembly was to be bold tbat nigbt in a 
 certain wood in tbe neigbbourbood. Tbe captain at 
 once marcbed tbitber witb bis men, on wbicb Laporte 
 entered tbe village, and reopened tbe temple, wbicb 
 bad continued unoccupied since tbe day on wbicb bis 
 brotber bad gone into exile. All tbat nigbt Laporte 
 sang psalms, preached, and praj^ed by turns, solemnly 
 invoking tbe belp of tbe God of battles in this holy 
 war in which he was engaged for tbe liberation of bis 
 country. Shortly before daybreak, Laporte and his 
 
114 THE HUGUENOTS. 
 
 coinpaiiio2.s retired from the temple, and after setting 
 fire to the Koman 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 tlie 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 lites in its recesses, while the adjoining 
 mountains were said to have been the honoured haunts 
 of certain of the divinities of ancient Gaul. It w^as 
 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 Yiolas. 
 Laporte had now come hither with his companions to 
 pray, and they were so engaged when the scouts oji 
 the look-out annoimced 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 imme- 
 
INSURRECTION OF THE CAMISARDS. 115 
 
 diate fliglit into tlie mountains. On the otlier liand, 
 tlie young and impetuous Cavalier, ^\o was there, 
 supported the opinion of his chief, and urged an im- 
 mediate attack ; and an attack was determined on 
 accordingly. 
 
 The little band descended from their vantaore-g-round 
 on the hill, and came down into the chestnut wood, 
 singing the sixty-eighth Psalm — "Let God arise, let 
 his enemies be scattered." The followincj is the sons: 
 itself, in the words of Marot. When the Huguenots 
 sang it, each soldier became a lion in courage. 
 
 " Que Dieu se montre seulement 
 Et Ton verra dans un momeut 
 
 Abandonner la place ; 
 Le camp des ennemies epars, 
 Epouvante de toutes parts, 
 
 Fuira devant sa face. 
 
 On verra tout ce camp s'enfuir, 
 Comme Ton 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, 
 
 Pius 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, 
 II 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 
 
Ti6 THE HUGUENOTS. 
 
 at once, shouting to his men, " Charge, kill, kill the 
 Barbets!"* 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 
 fusilade, whilst a body of scythemen in the centre 
 i^epulsed Poul, who attacked them with the bayonet. 
 Several of these terrible scythemen were, however, slain, 
 and three were taken prisoners. 
 
 Laporte, finding that he could not drive Poul back, 
 retreated slowly into the wood, keeping up a running 
 fire, and reasccnded the hill, whither Poul durst not 
 follow him. The Poyalist 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 Poj^alists, 
 having received considerable reinforcements, hastened 
 from different directions to intercept him, but he slipj^ed 
 through their fingers, and descended to Pont-de-Mont- 
 vert, from whence he threw himself upon the villages 
 situated near the sources of the western Garden. At 
 the same time, to distract the attention of the Ptoyalists, 
 the other Camisard leaders descended, the one towards 
 the south, and the other towards the east, disarming 
 the Poman Catholics, currying 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, j^illaging their 
 houses, driving away their cattle, and burning their 
 
 * The " Barbets " (or " Water-dogs ") was the nickname by which 
 the Vaudois were called, against whom Poul had formerly beau em- 
 ployed in the Italian valleys. 
 
INSURRECTION OF THE CAMISARDS, ii-j 
 
 huts ; and it was evident tliat tlie war on both, sides 
 was fast drifting into one of reprisal and revenge. 
 Brigands, belonging to neither side, organized them- 
 selves 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 dis- 
 grace 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 Garden, 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 BrogKe. Next day the heads 
 
ii8 THE HUGUENOTS. 
 
 were exposed on the bridge of Anduze ; tlie day after 
 on tlie castle wall of St. Hj^polite ; after wliicli these 
 ghastly trophies of Poul's yictory were sent to Mont- 
 pellier 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. lie imagined that Poul, 
 in cutting ofi'Laporte's head, had decapitated the insur- 
 rection. But the Camisard ranks had never been so 
 full as now, swelled as they were b}" the persecutions 
 of the Royalists, who, by demolishing the homes of 
 the peasantry, had in a measure forced them into th e 
 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 Poland, Castanet, Salomon, 
 Abraham, and young Cavalier were present ; and 
 after lamenting the death of their chief, they with one 
 accord elected Laporte's nephew, Poland, as his suc- 
 cessor. 
 
 A few words as to the associates of Poland, whose 
 fiimily and origin have already been described. Andre 
 Castanet of Massavaque, in the L^pper 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 Pyswick, 
 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 
 
INSURRECTION OF THE C AMI SARDS. 119 
 
 greatest controversialist, and in his capacity of preacher 
 lie distinguished himself from his companions by wear- 
 ing 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 
 Grod 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 
 
120 THE HUGUENOTS. 
 
 was rescued on the ^yay by Salomon and liis brother 
 Jacques. Of tbe 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 Ceyennes, and thoj^ 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 Joan}^ of Genouilliac, 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 
 Oatinat 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 
 
INSURRECTION OF THE CAMISARDS. 121 
 
 insurgent leader, who, after baffling and repeatedly 
 defeating tlie armies of Louis XI Y., ended his remark- 
 able career as governor of Jersey and major-general in 
 the British service. 
 
 Cavalier was a native of E-ibaute, a village on the 
 Grardon, a little below Anduze. Ilis 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 deter- 
 mined 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 
 
122 THE HUGUENOTS. 
 
 fliglit — liis father at Carcassoue, and his mother in the 
 dreadful tower of Constance, near Aiguesmortes, one of 
 the most notorious prisons of the Huguenots. 
 
 He at dnce determined to return, in the hope of being 
 able to get them set at liberty. On his reaching 
 E-ibaute, 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 con- 
 forming — 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 six- 
 teen, 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 re- 
 cruits flocked apace to the standard of Eoland, 
 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 Yaun- 
 age more than fulfilled their promise to Eoland, and 
 sent him five hundred men. Cavalier also brought 
 with him from Eibaute 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. 
 
 Eoland, 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. Eoland himself occupied the 
 
INSURRECTION OF THE CAM/SARDS. 123 
 
 district known as the Lower Cevennes, comprising tlio 
 Gardonnenque and the mountain district situated 
 between the rivers Yidourle and the western Garden. 
 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 Mazel 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 moun- 
 tain 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 Yaunage, 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 glready given remarkable indications of the pro- 
 phetic 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 Kavenel, and pitched upon the young 
 baker lad of Ribaute, not because he could fight, but 
 because he could preach ; and the old soldiers cheer- 
 fully submitted themselves to his leadership. 
 
124 THE HUGUENOTS. 
 
 The portrait of this remarkable Camisard chief 
 represents him as a little handsome youth, fair and 
 rudd}^ 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 suj^posed 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 dis- 
 tricts 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 sur- 
 reptitiously from the King's soldiers, or by messengers 
 sent for the purpose to Kismes 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 Ivoland ; Bouquet and the caves at Euzet, 
 of Cavalier ; Cassagnacs and the caves at Magis- 
 tavols, of Salomon ; and so on with the others. Each 
 
INSURRECTION OF THE C AMI SARDS. 125 
 
 cliief had his respective canton, his granary, his maga- 
 zine, and his arsenal. To each retreat was attached a 
 special body of tradesmen — millers, bakers, shoe- 
 makers, 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 occur- 
 rence ; 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 Koland — 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 exclu- 
 sively 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, cul- 
 tivators, and manufacturers of the town and neigh- 
 
1 2 6 THE HUG UENOTS. 
 
 bourhood. D tiring tlie wars of religion, Andiize was 
 one of tlie Huguenot strongholds. After the death, of 
 Henry IV. the district continued to be held by the 
 Due 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 precipi- 
 tous mountain of St. Julien, which rises behind it, and 
 the river Garden, 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 Peyre- 
 male 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 Garden, 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 
 
INSURRECTION OF THE C AMI SARDS. 127 
 
 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 Massou- 
 beyran, consisting of a group of peasant cottages — one 
 of which was the birthplace of Roland, the Camisard 
 chief — w^as seen on a hill- side to the right ; and about 
 two miles further on, at a bend of the road, wo came 
 in sight of the Tillage" of Mialet, with its whitewashed, 
 ilat-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 Anuuaire Pro- 
 testante 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 BaAdlle, 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 afibrded 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 import- 
 ance 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 
 
128 THE HUGUENOTS. 
 
 tlie 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 hang- 
 ing 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 
 Anduzc, 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 footpatb 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. 
 
INSURRECTION OF THE CAiMISARDS. 129 
 
 The place is quite cliy, and suiBficiently spacious to 
 accommodate a large number of persons ; and there 
 can be do 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 Tillage — a]3parently 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. 
 
 ri^HE country round Msmes, which was the scene of 
 J- so many contests between the loyalists 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 Yaunage, " 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 
 Garden, the names of the successive stations reminding 
 the passing traveller of the embittered contests of which 
 they were the scenes in former times : Nozieres, Bou- 
 cairan, Ners, Yezenobres, and Alais itself, now a con- 
 siderable 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, Avhich is verj^ extensive, is over an apparently 
 skeleton landscape, the bare rocks rising on all sides 
 Avithout any covering of verdure. In summer the grass 
 is parched and brown. There are few trees visible ; 
 and these mostly mulberrv, which, when cropped, have 
 
EXPLOITS OF CAVALIER. 131 
 
 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 Garden, the country 
 becomes more undulating and better wooded. The 
 villages and formhouses have all an old-fashioned look ; 
 not a modern villa is to be seen. We alight from the 
 train at the Ners station — ]Srers, where Cavalier drove 
 Montrevel's army across the river, and near which, at 
 the village of Martinargues, he comjoletely defeated the 
 Boyalists under Lajonquiere. We went to see the scene 
 of the battle, some three miles to the south-east, pass- 
 ing through a well-tilled country, with the peasants 
 busily at work in the fields. From the high ground 
 behind JN^ers a fine view is obtained of the valley of the 
 Garden, 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 salu- 
 tations — for the French peasant is by nature polite — 
 and a ready opening was afibrded 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 there- 
 from a jug of light sparkling wine, of which we partook. 
 In answer to an inquiry whether there were any Pro- 
 
 10 
 
132 THE HUGUENOTS. 
 
 testants in tlie neiglibourlioocl, tlie old man rej)lled tliat 
 Ners was " all Protestant." His grandson, liowever, 
 wlio was present, qualified this sweeping statement by 
 tlie remark, 8otto I'OCCj 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 moun- 
 tain 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. Mes- 
 sengers brought him intelligence at the same time of 
 risings in the mountains of ih.Q 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 
 
EXPLOITS OF CAVALIER, 133 
 
 cliiircli whicli had not been tliiis 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-Gerinain 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 Msmes. 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 theYaunage. 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 Eoland near Mialet, 
 and again descended upon the low country, marching 
 through the villages along the valley of the Yidourle, 
 carrying off arms and devastating churches. Broglie 
 
134- THE HUGUENOTS. 
 
 sent two strong bodies of troops to intercept tliem ; 
 but tbe light-footed insurgents had already crossed 
 the Gardon. 
 
 A few days later (December 5tli), tbey were lying 
 concealed in the forest of Yaquieres, in the neighbour- 
 hood of Cavalier's head-quarters at Euzet. Their re- 
 treat having been discovered, a strong force of soldiers 
 and militia was directed upon them, under the com- 
 mand of the Chevalier Montarnaud (who, being a new 
 convert, wished to show his zeal), and Captain Bimard 
 of the IS^ismes militia. 
 
 They took with them a herdsman of the neighbour- 
 hood for their guide, not knowing that he was a con- 
 federate of the Camisards. Leading the Koyalists 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 E-avenel 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 enem3\ 
 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 comjDlete 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 ex- 
 pended part of it in buying hats, shoes, and stockings 
 
EXPLOITS OF CAVALIER. 135 
 
 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/' * 
 
 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 en- 
 trenchment 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 ofi" 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 
 
 * ''Memoirs oftlie "Wars of the Cevennes," p. 74. 
 
1 3 6 THE HUG UENOTS. 
 
 Camisards pursuing tliem 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 the}" were very much in need of, and also of the 
 ropes with which the governor had intended to hang 
 them. 
 
 Emholdened 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 move- 
 ments, 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 pass- 
 ing 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 
 
EXPLOITS OF CAVALIER, 137 
 
 fallen officer ; and tliiis disguised and well armed, tlie 
 party moved np the steep ascent to the castle. On 
 reaching the outer gate Cavalier presented the order of 
 Coimt 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 ram- 
 parts, 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 ofi" 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 pro- 
 ceeded a mile on their return journey when a tremendous 
 explosion took place, shaking the ground like an earth- 
 quake, 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 
 
138 THE HUGUENOTS. 
 
 tlie commandant and tlie soldiers wliom lie liad taken 
 prisoners, lie sliot a persecuting priest and a CapucliiD 
 monk, and destroyed all tke insignia of Popery in 
 Sauve. 
 
 Tkese terrible measures caused a new stampede of 
 tke clergy all over tke 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 Monde, Uzes, and Alais 
 barricaded and fortified their ej^iscoj^al 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 rejoorted to his royal master the pacification 
 of Languedoc, that when this last and worst outbreak 
 occurred he was ashamed to announce it. The peace of 
 Ryswick had set at liberty a large force of soldiers, who 
 
EXPLOITS OF CAVALIER. 139 
 
 had now no other occupation than to ''convert" the 
 Protestants and force them to attend Mass. Ahout 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 pur- 
 pose 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, fight- 
 ing 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 insur- 
 gents, 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 in- 
 surgents, " by reason," said Cavalier, " we could go 
 
140 THE HUGUENOTS. 
 
 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 Languedoe were summoned to 
 meet at Montpellier, and ther3 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 be- 
 trayed by the men in power. At their urgent solicita- 
 tion, 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 
 Misruelets 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 XIY. 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 con- 
 fessed that the Irish Brigade fought much better for 
 Louis XIY. than they had ever done for Ireland. 
 
 After the surrender of Limerick in 1691, the prin- 
 
EXPLOITS OF CAVALIER. 141 
 
 cipal number of tlie Irish followers of James II. de- 
 clared 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.* Though they fought bravely for France, and 
 conducted themselves valiantly in many of her great 
 battles, they were unfortunately put forw^ard to do a 
 great deal of dirty work for Louis XIY. One of the 
 first campaigns they were engaged in was in Savoy, 
 under Catinat, in repressing the Yaudois or Barbets. 
 
 The Yaudois peasantry were for the most part un- 
 armed, and their only crime was their religion. The 
 regiments of Yiscount Clare and Yiscount Dillon, 
 principally distinguished themselves against the Yau- 
 dois. The war was one of extermination, in which many 
 of the Barbets were killed. Mr. O'Connor states that be- 
 tween 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 
 Yaudois. Six generations," he remarks, *'have since 
 passed away, but neither time nor subsequent calami- 
 ties have obliterated the impression made by the waste 
 and desolation of this military incursion."! Because 
 of the outrages and destruction committed upon the 
 women and children in the valleys in the absence of 
 their natural defenders, the Yaudois still speak of the 
 Irish as '' the foreign assassins." 
 
 The Brio:ade havino: thus faithfullv served Louis XIY. 
 
 * O'Callaghan's "History of the Irish Brigades in the service 
 of France," p. 29. 
 t I')id., p. 180. 
 
142 THE HUGUENOTS. 
 
 ill 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. March- 
 ing down towards the low country with about two 
 hundred men, he went from village to village in the 
 Yaunage, holding assemblies of the people. His where- 
 abouts 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 
 
EXPLOITS OF CAVALIER. 143 
 
 known, and tliat his enterprise was not likely to succeed, 
 lie turned aside and resolved upon another course. 
 But first it was necessary that his troops should be 
 suj)plied 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 Yal 
 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 Pavanel 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 
 
14+ THE HUGUENOTS. . 
 
 hurled from a sling by a young Yauvert 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 v/as 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 Boad, 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 barri- 
 caded ; the generate was beaten ; the troops and militia 
 were mustered ; the j)riests ran about in the streets 
 crying, "We are undone!" Some of the Boman 
 Catholics even took shelter in the houses of the Protest- 
 ants, calling upon them to save their lives. But the 
 night passed, and with it their alarm, for the Cami- 
 sards did not make their appearance. ISText morning 
 a message arrived from Count Broglie, shut up in 
 
EXPLOITS OF CAVALIER. 145 
 
 the castle of Bernis, ordering tlie 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 saddle-bags 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 wa}^, 
 shortly rejoining his troop at the appointed rendezvous. 
 
 The Camisards crossed the Garden by the bridge of 
 St. JSTicholas, 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. Chaj^tes, 
 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 Garden, then swollen 
 by a flood, and those who did not escape by swimming 
 were either killed or drowned. 
 
 Thus the insurrection seemed to grow, notwithstand- 
 ing 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 
 
146 THE HUGUENOTS. 
 
 give theni but few opportunities of exhibiting tbeir 
 force, and then only when at a comparative disad- 
 vantage. The Royalists, at tbeir wits' end, considered 
 wbat was next to be done in order to tbe pacification 
 of tbe country. Tbe simj)le remedy, tbey knew, was 
 to allow tbese poor simple people to worship in tbeir 
 own way without molestation. Grant them this pri- 
 vilege, and they were at any moment ready to lay down 
 their arms, and resume their ordinary peaceful pursuits. 
 
 But this was precisely what tbe King would not 
 allow. To do so would be an admission of royal falli- 
 bility which neither he nor his advisers were prepared 
 to make. To enforce conformity on his subjects, Louis 
 XIY. 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, tbat 
 the vigorous 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 Im way, and not in 
 theirs. Yiewed 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 Boyalists even 
 blamed themselves for the mercy which they had 
 hitherto showTL to the Protestant peasantry ; and the 
 more virulent amongst them urged that the whole of 
 the remaining population that would not at once con- 
 form to the Church of Eome, should forthwith be put 
 to the sword ! 
 
EXPLOITS OF CAVALIER. 147 
 
 Brigadier Julien, an apostate Protestant, wlio had 
 served under William of Orange in Ireland, and after- 
 wards under tlie Duke of Savoy vsx Piedmont, disap- 
 pointed witli the slowness of his promotion, had taken 
 service under Louis XIY., 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 insur- 
 gents, and, if necessarj", reduce the country to a desert. 
 " It is not enough," said he, *^ merely to kill those bear- 
 ing 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 adoj)ted 
 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. 
 
 11 
 
148 THE HUGUENOTS. 
 
 But tlie 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 them- 
 selves 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 Gardon and the Ceze, beating the woods 
 and exploring the caves ; and then they returned, 
 harassed and A'excd, to their respective quarters. 
 
 While the Royalists were thus occujned, 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 
 
EXPLOITS OF CAVALIER. 149 
 
 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 unexpeeted 
 means his Proridence 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 moun- 
 tains, 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."* 
 
 The campaign of 1703, the third year of the insur- 
 rection, began unfavourably for the Camisards. The 
 ill-success of Count Broglie as commander of the royal 
 forces in the Cevennes, determined Louis XIY. — from 
 whom the true state of affairs could no longer be con- 
 cealed — 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, ^yith 
 
 * Cavalier's " Memoirs of the Wars of the Cevennes," pp. 
 111—114. 
 
150 THE HUGUENOTS. 
 
 the local militia, constituted an effective force of not 
 less than sixty thousand men ! 
 
 Such was the irresistible armj^, commanded by a 
 marshal of France, three lieutenant-generals, three 
 major-generals, and three brigadier-generals, now 
 stationed in Languedoc, to crush the peasant insur- 
 rection. jSTo 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 diverson, and to extend, if jDossible, the area 
 of the insurrection. For this purpose, Cavalier, at the 
 head of eight hundred men, accomj^anied by thirty 
 baggage mules, set out in the beginning of February, 
 with the object of raising the Yiverais, the north-eastern 
 quarter of Languedoc,where the Camisards had nume- 
 rous partizans. The snow was lying thick upon the 
 ground when they set out ; but the little army pushed 
 northward, through Hochegude and Barjac. At the 
 town of Yagnas 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 Camisards was a second and much 
 stronger ro3^alist force, eighteen hundred men, under 
 Brigadier Julien, Vvho had hastened up from Lussan 
 upon Cavalier's track, and now hung upon his rear in 
 the forest of Yagnas. Next morning the Camisards 
 accepted battle, fought with their iisual 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 
 
EXPLOITS OF CAVALIER, 151 
 
 liimdrecl dead and wounded. Cavalier himself escaped 
 witli difficultj^, and, after having been given up for lost, 
 reached the rendezvous at Bouquet in a state of com- 
 plete 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 Yagnas, 
 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 Yagnas, the intelligence 
 suddenly reached him of a multitude of attacks on 
 fortified posts, burning of chateaux and churches, cap- 
 tures of convoys, and defeats of detached bodies of 
 E-oyalists. 
 
 Joany attacked Genouillac, cut to pieces the militia 
 who defended it, and carried ofi" their arms and ammuni- 
 tion, 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 pro- 
 visions 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 in- 
 habitants 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 
 
152 THE HUGUENOTS. 
 
 to be sacked and destroyed by one or otber of tbe con- 
 tending parties. 
 
 I^or was Koland idle. Being greatly in want of 
 arms and ammunition, as well as of shoes and clotbes 
 for bis men, be collected a considerable force, and made 
 a descent, for tbe purpose of obtaining tbem, on the 
 rich and populous towns of tbe soutb ; more particularly 
 on tbe manufacturing town of Ganges, wbere tbe Cami- 
 sards bad many friends. Altbougb Boland, to divert 
 tbe attention of Montrevel from Ganges, sent a detacb- 
 ment of bis men into tbe neigbbourbood of IN^ismes to 
 raise tbe alarm tbere, it was not long before a large 
 royalist force was directed against bim. 
 
 Hearing tbat Montrevel was marcbing upon Ganges, 
 Koland bastily left for tbe nortb, but was overtaken 
 near Pompignan by tbe marsbal at tbe bead of an army 
 of regular borse and foot, including several regiments 
 of local militia, Miguelets, marines, and Irisb. Tbe 
 Royalists were posted in sucb a manner as to surround 
 tbe Camisards, wbo, tbougb tbey fouglit witb tbeir 
 usual impetuosity, and succeeded in breaking tbrougb 
 tbe ranks of tbeir enemies, suffered a beavy loss in 
 dead and wounded. Roland bimself escaped witb diffi- 
 culty, and witb bis broken forces fled tbrougb Durfort 
 to bis strongbold at Mialet. 
 
 After tbe battle, Marsbal Montrevel returned to 
 Ganges, wbere be levied a fine of ten tbousand livres 
 on tbe Protestant population, giving up tbeir bouses to 
 pillage, and banging a dozen of tbose wbo bad been tbe 
 most prominent in abetting tbe Camisards during tbeir 
 recent visit. At tbe same time, be reported to bead- 
 quarters at Paris tbat be bad entirely destroyed tbe 
 rebels, and tbat Languedoc was now " pacified.'' 
 
 Mucb to bis surprise, bowever, not many weeks 
 
EXPLOITS OF CAVALIER. 153 
 
 elapsed before Cavalier, who liad been laid up by tlie 
 small-pox during Roland's expedition to Ganges, again 
 appeared in tbe field, attacking convoys, entering the 
 villages and carrying off arms, and spreading terror 
 anew to tbe very gates of Nismes. He returned north- 
 wards 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 roj^al 
 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 Msmes, 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 
 
154 THE HUGUENOTS. 
 
 engaged in prayer ; and proceeded to put tliem to tlie 
 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 v/ere transported to North America, and the 
 women and children imj^risoned 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 
 Boyalists — Alais, Anduze, Florae, St. Hypolite, and 
 Nismes — so that nothing should be left calculated to 
 give sustenance to the rebels. Four hvmdred 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. 
 
EXPL OITS OF CA VALTER. 1 5 5 
 
 All the principal villages inhabited by tbe 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 cap- 
 tive to Montpellier, where the women and children were 
 imprisoned, and the men sent to the galleys. 
 
 AYheu Cavalier heard of the determination of Mont- 
 revel 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 exter- 
 mination, 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 in- 
 creasing 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 swej^t 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 
 
156 THE HUGUENOTS. 
 
 was haunted by spies, some of wliom even succeeded 
 in obtaining admission to bis ranks. More than once 
 the spies were detected — it was pretended through pro- 
 phetic influence — and immediately shot. But on one 
 occasion Cavalier and his whole force narrowly 
 escaped destruction through the betrayal of a pre- 
 tended 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 pur- 
 pose, 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 Garden 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 wor- 
 ship ; 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 bj^ 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, 
 
EXPLOITS OF CAVALIER. 157 
 
 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 pre- 
 caution to set a strict guard upon all the gates, to pre- 
 vent the possibility of any messenger leaving the place 
 to warn Cavalier of his approach. The loyalists crept 
 towards the tower in three bodies, so as to cut ofi" their 
 retreat in every direction. Meanwhile, the Camisards, 
 unapprehensive of danger, lay wrapped in slumber, 
 filling the tower, the barns, the stables, and out- 
 houses. 
 
 The night was dark, and favoured the Eoyalists' ap- 
 proach. 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 suj)port, 
 and again they advanced to the attack. 
 
 To his dismay, Cavalier found the enemy in over- 
 whelming force, enveloping his whole position. By 
 great efibrts 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, pro- 
 bably forming part of the fosse of the ancient chateau. 
 Having there rallied his followers, he recrossed the 
 
I58 THE HUGUENOTS. 
 
 ravine to make anotlier desj^erate effort to relieve the 
 remainder of his troop shut up in tlie tower. 
 
 A desperate encounter followed, in the midst of 
 whicli 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 pur- 
 sued by the enemy. 
 
 The three hundred Camisards who continued shut 
 up in the tower refused to surrender. They trans- 
 formed the ruin into a fortress, barricading every en- 
 trance, and firing from every loophole. When" their 
 ammunition was exp3nded, 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 
 
EXPLOITS OF CAVALIER. 159 
 
 ravine. One of these was mistaken for tlie body ol 
 Cavalier ; on vi^liicli Montrevel, with characteristic 
 barbarity, ordered the head to be cut oif and sent to 
 Cavalier'' 8 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 ineJffably 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 Eibaute 
 for the express purpose of j)idling 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 pro- 
 fessed 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 crush- 
 ing the insurrection, and that he had cut off its head 
 with that of the Camisard chief. But his supposed dis- 
 covery of the dead body proved an entire mistake ; 
 and not many days elapsed before Cavalier made his 
 ajDpearance before the gates of Alais, and sent in i-i 
 
i6o THE HUGUENOTS, 
 
 challenge to the governor to come out and fight him. 
 And it is to he 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 
 Yic 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 efibrts 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 XIY. 
 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 wen't 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 perpe- 
 trators 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 
 
EXPLOITS OF CAVALIER. i6i 
 
 Camargues — a sort of island-prairies lying between the 
 moutlis 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 com- 
 bats, 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 conflict- 
 ing 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 con- 
 dition 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 ammuni- 
 tion, 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. The}', indeed, 
 opened the campaign by gaining two important victories 
 over the Royalists ; but though they were their greatest, 
 they were also nearly their last. 
 
1 62 THE HUGUENOTS, 
 
 Tiie battle of IVIartinargues was tlie 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 
 Tillages 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 roj^alist force of horse and foot was imme- 
 diately 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 j^rophetesses. 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 Broude, one of the affluents of the Gardon. A 
 messenger from Lascours overtook him, telling him of 
 the outrages committed on the inhabitants of the vil- 
 lage ; 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 
 
EXPLOITS OF CAVALIER. 163 
 
 the strengtli of tlie enemy, lie determined to meet their 
 advance and give them battle. 
 
 Placing the poor people of Lascours in safety, 
 the Camisard leader took np 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. Eavanel 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 Barbet^ 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 com- 
 mander ordered his men to cross the ravine and fall 
 upon the remnant with the bayonet. Instantly, how- 
 ever, 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 com- 
 pleted 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. 
 
 12 
 
164 THE HUGUENOTS. 
 
 In this battle penslied 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 Eoj^^lists, for many of the men 
 were so drunk that they were unable either to 
 fight or flj". After returning thanks to God on 
 the battle-field, Cavalier conducted the rejoicing 
 people of Lascours back to their village, and j)ro- 
 ceeded 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 Boland inflicted an 
 equally decisive defeat on a force commanded b}" 
 Brigadier Lalande. Informed of the approach of 
 the Ptoyalists, Eoland posted his little army in the 
 narrow, precipitous, and rocky valley, along the 
 bottom of which runs the river Garden. 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 precij)ice 
 overhanging the road. 
 
 The Eoyalists 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, rush- 
 ing down to the river, into which they threw them- 
 selves ; and but for Roland's neglect in guarding the 
 
EXPLOITS OF CAVALIER. 165 
 
 steep footpath leading to tlie 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 YIIT. 
 
 END OF THE CAMISARD INSURRECTION. 
 
 rpHE insurrection in tlie 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 Mire- 
 mont, a Huguenot refugee in England, on a mission to 
 
END OF THE CAMISARD INSURRECTION. 167 
 
 tlie Cevennes ; and lie succeeded in reaching tlie insur- 
 gent camp at St. Felix, wliere lie met Roland and tlie 
 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 hang 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 XIY. were greatly alarmed 
 by this event. The invasion had been frustrated for 
 the time, but the English fleet might return, and even- 
 tually succeed in effecting a landing. The danger, 
 therefore, had to be provided against, and at once. It 
 became clear, even to Louis XIY. 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 Yillars, the 
 victor of Hochstadt and FriedKngen, was appointed in 
 his stead, with full powers to undertake and carry out 
 the pacification of Languedoc. 
 
 Yillars reached Nismes towards the end of August, 
 1704 ; but before his arrival, Montrevel at last suc- 
 ceeded in settling accounts with Cavalier, and wiped 
 
1 68 THE HUGUENOTS. 
 
 out many old scores by infiicting upon Hm 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 efiect 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 
 himdred horse. 
 
 Appearing before Bouciran, which he entered without 
 resistance, he demolished the fortifications, and pro- 
 ceeded 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 daj^, 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 
 Yillars, 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 inflict- 
 ing a parting blow upon his often-bafiled enemy. In- 
 stead, however, of Montrevel setting out for Monpellier 
 with a small force, he mustered almost the entire troops 
 belonging to the garrison of JSTismes — 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 
 
END OF THE CAMISARD INSURRECTION. 169 
 
 suiToimd tlie comparatively small Camisard force, near 
 Lano-lade. The first encounter was mth tlie royalist 
 regiment of Firmarcon, wliicli 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 dis- 
 covered 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 Cava- 
 lier, 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 
 Hoyalists were found blocking the road, and crowding 
 the heights on either side. Cavalier, to avoid recogni- 
 tion, 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 Eoyalists took five 
 drums, sixty-two horses, and four mules laden with 
 provisions, but not one prisoner. 
 
 When Yillars reached Msmes 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 con- 
 ducted himself under the most difiicult and delicate 
 circumstances as if he had been a great general. Truly, 
 to fight such a battle were worthy of Caisar ! " 
 
1 70 THE HUGUENOTS. 
 
 Indeed, tlie conduct of Cavalier in this struggle so 
 impressed Marshal Villars, tliat lie determined, if pos- 
 sible, to gain liim over, together with his brave fol- 
 lowers, to the ranks of the royal army. Yillars 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 Cami- 
 sards 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 Holand 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 roj'alist 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 
 
END OF THE CAMISARD INSURRECTION, iji 
 
 slie led the soldiers at once to tlie place ; and slie 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. Enterino- 
 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 ofi". 
 
 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 triumj^h 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 dis- 
 covered 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, 
 
172 THE HUGUENOTS, 
 
 and tliere seemed but little prospect of their again being 
 able to make bead against tbeir enemies. 
 
 The loss of life during tbe last year of tbe insurrec- 
 tion bad been frigbful. Some twenty thousand men 
 bad perished — eight thousand soldiers, four thousand 
 of the Roman Catholic population, and from seven to 
 eight thousand Protestants. 
 
 Yillars bad no sooner entered upon the functions of 
 his office than be set himself to remedy this dreadful 
 state of things. He was encouraged in his wise inten- 
 tions by the Baron d*Aigalliers, a Protestant nobleman 
 of high standing and great influence, who bad emigrated 
 into En inland at the Pevocation, but bad since returned. 
 This nobleman entertained the ardent desire of recon- 
 ciling the King with bis Protestant subjects ; and be 
 was encouraged by the French Court to endeavour to 
 bring the rebels of the Cevennes to terms. 
 
 One of tbe first things Yillars did, was to proceed on 
 a journey through the devastated districts; and he 
 could not fail to be horrified at tbe sight of the villages 
 in ruins, the wasted vineyards, the untilled fields, and 
 the deserted homesteads which met bis ej^es on every 
 side. Wherever be went, he gave it out that he was 
 ready to pardon all persons — rebels as well as their 
 chiefs — w^bo should lay down their arms and submit to 
 tbe royal clemency ; but that, if they continued 
 obstinate and refused to submit, he would proceed 
 against them to tbe last extremity. He even ofiered 
 to put arms in tbe bands of such of tbe Protestant 
 population as would co-operate with him in suppressing 
 the insurrection. 
 
 In the meantime, the defeated Camisards under 
 Poland were reorganizing their forces, and preparing 
 again to take the field. They were unwilling to submit 
 
END OF THE CAMISARD INSURRECTION, ijs 
 
 themselves to tlie professed clemency of Yillars, without 
 some sufficient guarantee that their religious rights — 
 in defence of which they had taken up arms — would 
 be respected. Koland was already establishing new 
 magazines in place of those which had been destroj^ed ; 
 he was again recruiting his brigades from the Protest- 
 ant communes, and many of those who had recovered 
 from their wounds again rallied under his standard. 
 
 At this juncture, D'Aigalliers suggested to Yillars 
 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 
 imcompromising 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 beg^un to 
 weary of the struggle. He became de2:)ressed 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 Eing 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 
 
174 THE HUGUENOTS. 
 
 enemy of peace, and held, responsible before God and 
 man for all future bloodshed. Cavalier rej^lied to 
 Lalande's invitation, accepting tbe interview, indicating 
 tbe 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 P " " 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 
 deliA^er 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 
 ofiicers 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, dis- 
 mounted, 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 
 
END OF THE C AMIS ARE INSURRECTION. 175 
 
 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 sub- 
 jects ; 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 confer- 
 ence 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, reject- 
 ing it with a look of contempt, " I wish for none of 
 your gold, but only for religious libertj', 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 
 
176 THE HUGUENOTS, 
 
 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, proyided 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 Yezenobres. 
 
 Cavalier's enemies say that in the course of his inter- 
 view with Lalande he was offered honours, rewards, 
 and promotion, if he would enter the King's service ; 
 and it is added that Cavalier was temj)ted by these 
 offers, and thereby proved false to his cause and fol- 
 lowers. But it is more probable that Cavalier was 
 siucere in his desire to come to fair terms with the 
 King, observing the impossibility, under the circum- 
 stances, 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 Koland to hold aloof from 
 these negotiations, and refuse to come to any terms 
 ;^'hatever with " Baal." As if to separate himself 
 jntirely from Cavalier, he withdrew into the Uj)per 
 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 
 
END OF THE CAMISARD INSURRECTION. 177 
 
 defeated and captured — and suddenly fell upon the 
 loyalists, putting them to flight. 
 
 A rich booty fell into the hands of the Camisards, 
 j)art of which consisted of the quarter's rental of the 
 confiscated estate of Saigas, in the possession of the 
 King's collector, Yiala, whom the royalist trooj^s 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 Eoland and his 
 associates were concerned, there appeared to be no 
 intention of surrender or compromise ; and Yillars 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 Yillars, Cavalier proceeded 
 towards Nismes, and his march from town to town was 
 one continuous ovation. He was eagerly welcomed by 
 the pojDulation ; and his men were hospitably enter- 
 tained 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, 
 accompunied with public preaching, prajdng, and psalm- 
 singing. At length Cavalier and his little army ap- 
 proached 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 
 
178 THE HUGUENOTS. 
 
 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 
 cayalry 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 fiiithful 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, 
 wbich. 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 oj^posite the elegant Roman temple known as 
 the Maison Caree.* Alighting from his horse at the 
 gate, and stationing his guard there under the charge 
 of Catinat, Cavalier entered the garden, and was con- 
 ducted to Marshal Yillars, with whom was Baville, in- 
 tendant of the province ; Baron Sandricourt, governor 
 
 * The Xismes Theatre now occupies pjirt of the Jardin des 
 Secollels. , 
 
END OF THE C AMI SARD INSURRECTION. 179 
 
 of Nismes ; General Lalande, and otlier dignitaries. 
 Cavalier looked such a mere boy, that Yillars 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 respect- 
 fully replied. 
 
 The conference then began and proceeded, though 
 not without frequent interruptions from Baville, who 
 had so long regarded Cavalier as a. desj^icable 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 bj^ 
 reminding him that he had no authority to interfere in 
 a matter which the King had solely entrusted to him- 
 self. 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 Yillars 
 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 
 
 13 
 
i8o THE HUGUENOTS. 
 
 fiftli and sixtli — tliat tlie province sliould be free from 
 capitation tax for ten years, and tliat the Protestants 
 should hold Montpellier, Cette, Perpignan, and Aigue- 
 mortes, 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 Kins: should lav 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 Pecollets, 
 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 
 
END OF THE CAMISARD INSURRECTION. i8i 
 
 favourite prophet, a native of Nismes, wliosc 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 compmions 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 Yaunage, 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 re- 
 sounded with preaching and psalmody from morning 
 until evening, sometimes until late at night, by torch- 
 light. 
 
 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 Yillars, who was tolerating 
 if not encouraging heretics — worthy, in their estimation, 
 only of perdition. Flechier, Bishop of JS'ismes, 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 
 
iS2 THE HUGUENOTS. 
 
 Tras jealous of the popularit}^ achieved by Cavalier, or 
 suspected treachery on the part of the Koyalists, or 
 whether he still believed in the ability of his followers 
 to conquer religious liberty and compel the re-establish- 
 ment of the ancient edicts by the sword, does not 
 clearly appear. At all events, he refused to be com- 
 mitted in any way by what Cavalier had done ; and 
 when the treatj^ entered into with Yillars 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 con- 
 trolled himself, and still hoped to persuade Eoland 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 Yillars to grant more 
 liberal terms, particularly with respect to the rebuild- 
 ing 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 Kismes, 
 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 firml}' — re- 
 establishment of the Edict of Kantes, and complete 
 liberty of conscience. On no other terms, he said, 
 would the Camisards lay down their arms. Yillars 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 
 
END OF THE CAMISARD INSURRECTION. 183 
 
 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 
 Yillars, but they had been led to believe that the Edict 
 w^as to be re-established and liberty of worship restored. 
 Their suspicions had already been roused by the hints 
 thrown out bv 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 JSfismes, on his second 
 mission to Yillars, 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 the 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 ap- 
 plauded 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 U23braided E-avanel 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 
 
'i84 THE HUGUENOTS. 
 
 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, 
 Yincel, 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 Yincel turned and fled for his life. 
 
 Ravanel then ordered the generah to be beaten. 
 The men drew up in their ranks, and putting himself 
 at their head, Bavanel marched them out of Calvisson 
 by the northern gate. Cavalier, humiliated and down- 
 cast, 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 en- 
 deavoured to drive him back by reproaches, which at 
 length so irritated Cavalier, that he di^ew his sword, 
 
END OF THE CAMISARD INSURRECTION. 185 
 
 and they were about to riisli at eacli other, when one 
 of the prophets ran between them and prevented blood- 
 shed. 
 
 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 detatched themselves 
 from the ranks, and followed Cavalier in the direction 
 of Nismes. But the principal hody remained with 
 Kavanel, who, waving his sabre in the air, and 
 shouting, '' Yive I'Epee de rEternel!" 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 Yillars, lest he should be charged with de- 
 ceiving 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. Yillars, 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, accom- 
 panied 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 
 
1 86 THE HUGUENOTS. 
 
 Cavalier. SafEce it to say tliat, at tlie request of 
 Marslial Yillars, lie proceeded to Paris, wliere lie had 
 an unsatisfactory interview with Louis XIY. ; that 
 fearing an intention on the part of the Eoman 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 priiici23ally of his Camisard fol- 
 lowers, 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 res- 
 pected 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 dis- 
 armed by Marshal Yillars, who continued to pursue a 
 policy of clemency, and at the same time of severity. 
 He offered a free pardon to all who surrendered them- 
 selves, but threatened death to all who continued to resist 
 
END OF THE CAMISARD INSURRECTION. 187 
 
 tlie royal troops. lu sign of his clemency, he ordered 
 the gibbets wbicli bad for some years stood en per- 
 manence in all the Tillages of the Cevennes, to be 
 removed ; and be went from town to town, urging all 
 well-disposed people, of both religions, to co-operate 
 witb bim in putting an end to tbe dreadful civil war 
 that bad so long desolated tbe province. 
 
 Moved by tbe marshal's eloquent appeals, the 
 principal towns along the Garden and the Yidourle 
 appointed deputies to proceed in a body to the camp of 
 Roland, and induce him if possible to accept the prof- 
 ferred 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. 
 
 Yillars 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-Mont- 
 vert was at the time occupied by a body of Miguelets, 
 whom they determined if possible to destroy. Divid- 
 ing 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 at- 
 tacked at the same time in front and rear, thrown into 
 confusion and defeated ; and the other wings were 
 driven back with heavy loss. 
 
i88 THE HUGUENOTS. 
 
 This was Eoland'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 surounded at night by a body of 
 royalist dragoons. The alarm was raised, and Eoland, 
 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 
 Iloland. 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, accom- 
 panied 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 sleep- 
 ing 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 \ ersailles 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 
 
END OF THE CAMISARD INSURRECTION. 189 
 
 at Geneva, stole back across tlie frontiner and rejoined 
 Kavanel 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 jN^ismes. 
 
 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 moun- 
 tains near the source of the Tarn. He was on his 
 way to prison, tied behind a trooper, like Ptob Poy 
 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 deatli of the last of the Camisard leaders, 
 there was no further eflfort at revolt. The Hugue- 
 nots seemed to be entirely put down, and Protestantism 
 completely destroyed. There was no longer any resist- 
 ance nor protest. If there were any Huguenots wh6 
 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 — bej'ond which the Hugue- 
 nots could not escaj^e without running the risk of the 
 prison, the galley, or the gibbet. 
 
 The intendants throughout the kingdom flattered 
 Louis XIY., and Louis XIY. 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 pro- 
 clamation to this efiect was also published by the King, 
 dated the 8th of March, 1715, declaring the entire con- 
 version of the French Huguenots, and sentencing those 
 who, after that date, relapsed from Catholicsm to 
 Protestantism, to all the penalties of heresy. 
 
GALLEY-SLAVES FOR THE FAITH. 191 
 
 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 accord- 
 ingly attended Mass, and assisted in ceremonies which 
 at heart they detested. Though they blushed at their 
 apostasy, they were too much broken down andVeary 
 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. Mean- 
 while, 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 re- 
 fused 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 
 
192 THE HUGUENOTS. 
 
 penalty of fine and imprisonment. Supposing he 
 refused, because lie did not believe tliat tbe priest bad 
 tbe miraculous power of converting bread and wine 
 into something tbe very opposite. The priest insisted 
 that he did possess this power, and that he was sujd- 
 ported by the State in demanding that the Huguenot 
 mud 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 XIY. 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 re- 
 mained in France, whether as " new converts " or as 
 " obstinate heretics," at length began to emerge from 
 their obscurity. The}^ 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, re- 
 ligious assemblies began to be held in the Desert, and 
 preachers made their appearance. The spies spread 
 about the country informed the intendants. The 
 
GALLEY-SLAVES FOR THE FALTH. 193 
 
 meetings were often surprised by the military. Some- 
 times 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.* 
 
 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 Aiguemortes, which is to this day re- 
 membered with horror as the principal dungeon of 
 the Huguenot women. 
 
 The town of Aiguemortes is situated in the depart- 
 ment 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 pro- 
 duced by the stagnant water which it contained. 
 
 * In the Viverais and elsewhere they sang the song of the per- 
 secuted Church : — 
 
 •'Nos fiUes dans les monastferes, 
 
 Nos prisonniers dans les cachots, 
 Kos martyrs dont le sang se repand a grands flots, 
 
 Nos confesseurs sur les galeres, 
 
 Kos malades persecutes, 
 Nos mourants exposes a plus d'une furie, 
 
 Nos morts traines a la A'oierie, 
 
 Te disent (6 Dieu !) nos calamiles." 
 
194 THE HUGUENOTS. 
 
 The place is approached by a long cansewaj raised 
 above the marsh, and the entrance to the tower is 
 spanned by an ancient gatehouse. Jn 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, sur- 
 mounted 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 un- 
 healthy ; 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 ofi", 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 re- 
 ligious 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 
 
GALLEY-SLAVES FOR THE FAITH. 195 
 
 of tlie kingdom, by way of a show. The object was to 
 teach the horrible delinquency of professing Protestant- 
 ism ; for it could not be to show the greater beautiful- 
 ness 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 purishment during his conveyance from 
 Havre to Marseilles in the winter of 1712.* The 
 Chain to which he belonged did not reach Marseilles 
 until the 17th January, 1713. The season was bitterlj^ 
 cold ; but that made no difference in the treatment of 
 Huguenot prisoners. 
 
 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 v»^hole 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. 
 
 * " Autobiography of a French Protestant condemned to the 
 Galleys because of his Religion." Eotterdam, 1757. (Since reprinted 
 by the Religious Tract Society ) 
 
 14 
 
196 THE HUGUENOTS. 
 
 The difficulty wliicli 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 tJie 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 suffi- 
 cient 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 ofi" their clothes, put them down 
 at their feet, and march over to the other side of the 
 courtyard. 
 
GALLEY-SLAVES FOR THE FAITH. i9j 
 
 Tlie 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 con- 
 tained 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 ex- 
 posed 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 inhabit- 
 ants 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 difierent 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 
 
1 98 THE HUGUENOTS, 
 
 about five hundred men. It liad fifty benclies for rowers, 
 twenty-five on each. side. Between tliese two rows of 
 benclies was the raised middle gallery, commonly called 
 tbe waist of tlie sbip, four feet bigli 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 con- 
 stant command of the comite or galley-slave-driver, who 
 struck all about him with his long whijD in urging them 
 to work. To enable his strokes to tcU^ the men sat 
 naked while they rowed.* 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. 
 
 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. lie never quitted his bench 
 except for the hosjoital or the grave ; yet some of the 
 Huguenot rowers contrived to live upon their benches 
 for thirty or fortj^ years ! 
 
 During all these years they toiled in their chains in 
 a hell of foul and disgusting utterance, for they were 
 
 * Le comite ou chef de chiourme, aide de deux sous-comitcs, 
 allait et veriait sans cesse sur le coursier, frappant les for9ats a coup 
 de nerfs de boeuf, comme un cocher ses chevaux. Pour rendre les 
 coups plus sensible et pour economiser les vetpments, les galeriens 
 etaient nus quand ils ramaient.— Athaxase Coquerel fils. Ze 
 Formats pour la Foi, (34. 
 
GALLEY-SLAVES FOR THE FAITH. 199 
 
 mixed up witli thieves and the worst of criminals. They 
 ate the bread and drank the waters of bitterness. Thej^ 
 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. * 
 
 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 i^unishments ? Yet 
 by far the greater number of the Huguenots did not. 
 They could not be hypocrites. They would not lie to 
 God. Eather 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, 
 * " The Autobiography of a French Protestant, 86." 
 
200 THE HUGUENOTS. 
 
 rain, and snow, wliicli tlie pimisliment of the galley- 
 slave involved. Tlie 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 sea- 
 ports, 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. Eut the galleys were also war-ships. They 
 carried large numbers of armed men on board. Some- 
 times they scoured the Mediterranean, and j)rotccted 
 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. 
 
 "VYhen 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 encm}^ f^hey would revolt 
 and betray the ship ; hence the}^ 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 woidd be 
 
GALLEY-SLAVES FOR THE FAITH. 201 
 
 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 wdth 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 
 
202 THE HUGUENOTS. 
 
 the enemy's stern, and tlie crew to board tlie 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 enemv. 
 
 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. The}" 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 cap- 
 tured; but the commanders of the galleys, seeing their 
 fellow-commodores flj'ing 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. 
 
GALLEF-SLAVES FOR THE FAITH. 203 
 
 In tlie 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 lieu- 
 tenant, 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, con- 
 nected with this galley-slave service, which was prac- 
 tised 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 
 
204 THE HUGUENOTS. 
 
 to his liberty ; but if a Huguenot was wounded, lie 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 ho 
 remained until peace was declared between England 
 and France hj the Treaty of Utrecht.* 
 
 Queen Anne of England, at the instigation of the 
 Marquis de Eochegade, 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 country- 
 men, and to spend the remainder of his life in Holland 
 and England, where Protestants were free. 
 
 * "Autobiography of a Fiencli Protestant," 112 — 21. 
 
CHAPTER X. 
 
 ANTOINE COURT. 
 
 A LMOST at the very time tliat Louis XIY. was 
 -^^ lying on liis deatli-bed at Versailles, a young 
 man conceived tlie idea of re-establishing Protest- 
 antism in France ! Louis XIY. 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."* But the Jesuits tried to make 
 death easy for him, covering his body with relics of 
 the true cross. 
 
 Yery different was the position of the young man 
 who tried to undo all that Louis XIY., under the influ- 
 ence of his mistress De Maintenon, and his Jesuit con- 
 fessor, Pere la Chase, f had been trying all his life to 
 accomplish. He was an intelligent youth, the son of 
 
 * Suint-Simon and Dangeau. 
 
 f Amongst the many satires and epigrams with which Louis XtV. 
 was pursued to the grave, the followiag 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 XTV., Voltaire, an Sieve 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., f which the ibllowin'^ is an extract : — 
 
2o6 THE HUGUENOTS. 
 
 Huguenot parents in Yiverais, 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 re- 
 viving the j)astorate, 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. 
 
 Louis XIY. died in August, ITlu. 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 Yilleneuve de Berg, in 
 Yiverais, in the year 1696. Pteligious persecution was 
 then at its height ; assemblies were vigorously put 
 down ; and all pastors taken prisoners were hanged on 
 the Peyrou at Montpellicr. Court was onlj^ four years 
 old when his father died, and his mother resolved, if 
 the boy lived, to train him up so that he might conse- 
 crate himself to the service of God. He was still very 
 
 " J'ai vii sous I'habit d'une femme 
 
 Un demon nous donner la loi ; 
 Elle saorifia son Dieu, sa foi, son ame. 
 Pour seduire 1' esprit d'un trop credule roi. 
 
 « « « 4t « ♦ 
 
 J'ai vu I'hypocrite honore : 
 J'ni vu, c'est dire tout, le jesuite adore : 
 
 J'ai vu ces maux sous le jfegne luneste 
 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. 
 
ANTOINE COURT. 207 
 
 3'oung \yliile tlie Camisard war was in progress, but he 
 heard a great deal about it, and yividly remembered 
 all that he heard. 
 
 Antoine Court, like many Protestant children, was 
 compelled to attend a Jesuit school in his neighbour- 
 hood. Though but a boy he abhorred the Mass. With 
 Protestants the Mass was then the symbol of persecu- 
 tion ; it was identified with the Eevocation of the Edict 
 — the dragonnades, the galleys, the prisons, the nun- 
 neries, 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, con- 
 firmed 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. 
 
2o8 THE HUGUENOTS. 
 
 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 dausrer 
 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 com- 
 ing 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-denvinff 
 work, the only earthly reward for which was labour, 
 difficulty, and danger. His mother was in great trouble, 
 for Antoine was her only remaining soji. She did not, 
 however, press him to change his resolution. Court 
 quoted to her the text, ''AYhoever 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 
 
ANTOINE COURT. 209 
 
 during this rapid excursion induced him to visit Dau- 
 phiny. There he met Brunei, 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 under- 
 mined his health, and he was compelled to remain for 
 a time inactive at the mineral waters of Euzet. This re- 
 tirement proved useful. He began to think over what 
 might be done to revivify the Protestant religion in 
 Prance. Kemember that he was at that time only 
 nineteen years of age ! It might be thought pre- 
 sumptuous 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 
 
210 THE HUGUENOTS. 
 
 wlio survived in Languedoc, tliey were very undecided 
 about taking up liis scheme. They had met at Kismes 
 to take the sacrament in the house of a friend. There 
 were Bombonnoux (an old Camisard), Crotte, Corteiz, 
 Brunei, 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 inj ur}^, 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. lie therefore urged that 
 religious assemblies must be continued, and that discip- 
 line 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 Pevocation 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 XI Y. breathed 
 
ANTOINE COURT. 211 
 
 his last. It was a very small beginning. Two or 
 three laymen and a few preachers * were present, the 
 whole meeting numbering only nine persons. The place 
 in which the meeting was held had often before beea 
 used as a secret place of worship by the Huguenots. 
 Ileligious 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 suiDprcsed," 
 Antoine Court assembled his first synod to re-establish 
 the proscribed religion ! 
 
 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, Yiviers, Uzes, Msmes, 
 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 moun- 
 tains, 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 
 
 * Edmund Hughes says the preachers were probably Eoiiviere (';r 
 Crotte)> Jean Hue, Jeau A^esson, Etienne Arnaud, and Dorand. 
 
 15 
 
212 THE HUGUENOTS. 
 
 prayed, preadied, 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 Ycsson, 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 edu- 
 cation 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 j^risoner and imprisoned 
 at Montpellicr, 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 punish- 
 ment did not terrify him. He contrived to escape 
 from prison at Montpellicr, and then went about con- 
 voking assemblies and preaching to the people as 
 before. 
 
 Besides these, there were Hue, Corteiz, Durand, 
 Arnaud, Brunei, 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, Guillct, and 
 Bonnard, all more than sixty years of age. 
 
ANTOINE COURT. ' 213 
 
 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 re- 
 ward 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 Langue- 
 doc, and shortly after he arrived at Nismes. 
 
 At Nismes, Court first met Jacques Roger, who after- 
 wards 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, how- 
 ever, 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 w^as 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 en- 
 deavour 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 ^^sit 
 
214 THE HUGUENOTS. 
 
 the clmrclies whicli liad been reconstructed along 
 tlie banks of the Gardon. He bad been suffering 
 from intermittent fever, and started 07i bis journey 
 before be was sufficiently recovered. Having no borse, 
 be walked on foot, mostly by nigbt, along tbe least 
 known by-patbs, stopping bere and tbere upon bis 
 way. At lengtb be became so enfeebled and ill as 
 to be unable to walk further. He tben induced two 
 men to carry bim. By crossing tbeir bands over eacb 
 otber, tbey took bim up between tbem, and carried bim 
 along on tbis improvised cbair. 
 
 Court found a temporary lodging witb a friend. But 
 no sooner bad be laid bimself down to sleep, tban tbe 
 alarm was raised tbat be must get up and fly. A 
 spy bad been observed watching the bouse. Court 
 rose, put on bis 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, be 
 wandered alone for hours across the countrj^ towards the 
 house of another friend, where be at last found shelter. 
 Such were the common experiences of these wandering, 
 devoted, proscribed, and heroic ministers of tbe Gospel. 
 
 Their labours were not carried on without encoun- 
 tering other and greater dangers. JX^ow tbat the 
 Protestants were becoming organized, it was not so 
 necessary to incite them to public worshij). They even 
 required to be restrained, so that they might not too 
 suddenly awaken the suspicion or excite tbe opjDosition 
 of the authorities. Thus, at the beginning of 1717, the 
 preacher Yesson 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. Yesson was on this occasion re- 
 
ANTOINE COURT, 215 
 
 primandecl by the synod, for having exposed his 
 brethren to unnecessary danger. 
 
 AYhile 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 re- 
 ligious 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 
 Eible 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 XY.— 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 XIY., 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 
 
2i6 THE HUGUENOTS. 
 
 part learnt off. Tlie labour was divided in this 
 way. One person, sometimes a boy or girl, of good 
 memory, would undertake to learn one or more chap- 
 ters 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 de- 
 votional 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 circu- 
 lated 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 
 j)rinted 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 
 larore number of Protestants in the Yaunao^e assembled 
 on the night of the 21st Kovember, 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 xaised up ministers to serve the Church when 
 
ANTOINE COURT, 217 
 
 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 thef 
 ministry. Cries of joy av ere 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 through- 
 out Languedoc ; and the department of the Lozere, 
 in the Cevennes, became again almost entirely Pro- 
 testant. Roger and Yilleveyre were almost equally 
 successful in Dauphiny ; and Saintonge, Normandy, 
 and Poitou were also l3eginning to maintain a connec- 
 tion with the Protestant churches of Languedoc. 
 
APTEE XL 
 
 KEORGANIZATIOX OF THE CHURCH IN THE DESERT. 
 
 n^HE organization of the Cliiircli in tlie 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 Kevocation Avas proclaimed, when the dragon- 
 nades 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 " Assem- 
 blies in the Desert," and for nearly a hundred years 
 they retained that name. 
 
 When Court began to roorganize the Protestant 
 Church in Erance, 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 Avho re- 
 membered them, and psalms were sung ; but there were 
 few or no meetings at which pastors presded. Court, 
 however, resolved not only to revive the meetings of 
 
REORGANIZATION OF THE CHURCH. 219 
 
 the Cliurcli in tlie Desert, but to reconstitute tlie con- 
 gregations, and restore the system of gOYcrning them 
 according to the methods of the Huguenot Church. 
 
 The first thing done in reconstituting a congrega- 
 tion, was to appoint certain well-known religious men, 
 as ancicns, 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 considoire 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. 
 
 "VVe 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. AYhat a 
 punishment for infraction of discipline ! to be de- 
 barred 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 1* 
 
 The elders summoned the assemblies. They gave 
 
 * C. Coquerel, "Eglise du Desert," i. 105. 
 
2 20 THE HUGUENOTS. 
 
 tlie word to a few friends, and tliese spread the notice 
 about amongst tlie 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 alwaj^s fidl of danger, for spies 
 were lurking about. Catholic priests were con- 
 stant informers ; and soldiers were never far distant. 
 But besides the difficidties 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 appear- 
 ance 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. 
 
REORGANIZATION OF THE CHURCH. 221 
 
 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 organiza- 
 tion was based upon the people who elected their 
 elders ; then upon the elders who selected and recom- 
 mended the pastors ; and lastly upon the whole con- 
 gregation 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. TVonderful 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 
 Yiverais : " Sound and examine well the persons offer- 
 ing themselves for your approval, before permitting 
 them to enter on this glorious employment. Secure 
 good, vii'tuous men, full of zaal 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 fjood conscience alwavs marches forward with its 
 head erect." 
 
 AVhen the character of the 3'oung 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 
 
222 THE HUGUENOTS. 
 
 wanderings over the country, passing long nights in 
 marcliing, sometimes hiding in caves by day, or sleep- 
 ing 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 u2)on the question under discussion, I 
 asked the j^oungest 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, wiiere 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 them- 
 selves, the others were requested by turns to exj^ress 
 themselves freely upon the subject of the sermon which 
 they had heard." 
 
 When the proi^osant 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 ex- 
 
REORGANIZATION OF THE CHURCH. 223 
 
 amined by persons appointed by the synod. After 
 a time, if approved by tlie moderator and a committee 
 of the synod, the propomnt 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 sup- 
 ported 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, emolu- 
 ments 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 sufiicient 
 to keep the wolf from the door. 
 
 The students for the ministry were at first educated 
 by Court and trained to j)reach, while he was on his 
 dangerous journeys from one assembly in the Desert to 
 another. Nor was the supply of preachers sufiicient 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 
 
2 24 THE HUGUENOTS. 
 
 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 AVake, then Archbishop 
 of Canterbur}^, 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 aflairs 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 Dau- 
 phiny, but in Normand}^, Picardy, Poitou, Saintonge, 
 Beam, 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 even- 
 tually 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 
 
REORGANIZATION OF THE CHURCH. 225 
 
 for tlie Afflicted Faitliful," was formed at Lausanne to 
 collect subscriptions for tlie maintenance of tlie preachers, 
 the pastors, and the seminary. These were in the iirst 
 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 efibrts 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 Swit- 
 zerland to France to enter upon the work of their 
 lives. They had passed the school for martyrdom, 
 and were ready to j)reach to the assemblies — they 
 had paired their way to the scafibld ! 
 
 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-joaths 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 
 
2 26 THE HUGUENOTS 
 
 out tlie town and tlie very house wliere tliey were to 
 be taken. But the j)reacliers escaped, and assumed 
 a new dress. 
 
 When living near Nismes, Court was one day seated 
 under a tree composing a sermon, w^hen 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 wath a friend, 
 in wiiose 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 pre- 
 tending to be ill, while he himself cowered down in 
 the narrow space between the bed and the w^all. His 
 wife slowly answ^ered the door, which the soldiers 
 were threatening to blow open. They entered, rum- 
 maged 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. 
 
REORGANIZATION OF THE CHURCH. 227 
 
 Tlie spies and police so abounded througtiout the 
 country, and were so active, that they knew all the 
 houses in which the j^reachers might take refuge. A 
 list of these was prepared and placed in the hands of 
 the intendant of the province.* 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. 
 
 Notwithstanding the great secrecy with which the 
 whole organization proceeded, j)reachers were fre- 
 quently ap23rehended, 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 assembl}^ of Huguenots about to be held P 
 A sp3^, 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. 
 
 * It has since been published in the " Eulletin de la Societe du 
 Protestantisme Frangiise." 
 
 16 
 
228 THE HUGUENOTS. 
 
 In 1720 a large number of prisoners were captured 
 in the famous old quarry near Kismes, 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 Eochelle, 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 accord- 
 ingly transported to New Orleans on the Mississippi, 
 to populate the rising French colony in that quarter of 
 ]S^orth 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 pro- 
 ceeding. The Tour de Constance was always filling, 
 and kept full. 
 
 The dying were tortui'ed If they refused the 
 viaticum they were treated as " damned persons." 
 When Jean de Molenes of Cahors died, making a pro- 
 fession 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 out- 
 
REORGANIZATION OF THE CHURCH. 229 
 
 rages to the living and dead were constantly occurring.* 
 Gaolers were accustomed to earn money by exhibiting 
 tbe corpses of Huguenot women at fairs, inviting those 
 wbo paid for admission, to walk up and '■'■ see tbe corpse 
 of a damned person." f 
 
 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 mach regularity as possible. Thus 
 Languedoc was divided into seven districts, and to each 
 of those a proposant or probationary preacher was ap- 
 pointed. 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, Yesson, 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. Hue, 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 com- 
 
 * Edmund Hughes, *' Histoire de la ilestuaration du Protestant- 
 isme en France." ii. 91. 
 
 t Benoit, " Edit de Nantes," v. 987. 
 
230 THE HUGUENOTS. 
 
 prising 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 c^ibbet. 
 
 ' And yet it was at this time that the Bishop of Alais 
 made an appeal to the government against the tolera- 
 tion shown to the Huguenots ! In 1723, he sent a long 
 memorial to Paris, alleging that Catholicism was suffer- 
 ing a serious injury ; that not only had the " new con- 
 verts '^ withdrawn themselves from the Catholic Church, 
 but that the old Catholics themselves were resort- 
 ing to the Huguenot assemblies ; that sometimes their 
 meetings numbered from three to four thousand per- 
 sons ; that their psalms were sometimes overheard in 
 the surrounding tillages ; 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 
 Pegent, the Duke of Bourbon, sent down an urgent 
 order to the authorities to carry out the law — to 
 l^revent 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 XIY. 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 
 
REORGANIZATION OF THE CHURCH, i^i 
 
 Court, as being tlie soul of tlie renewed Protestant 
 organization. A heavy reward was offered for Ms 
 head. The spies and police hunted after him in all 
 directions. Houses where he was supposed to be con- 
 cealed 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 difficult3^ On one occasion he remained con- 
 cealed 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 arrange- 
 ments for having them removed to Geneva. They 
 reached that city in safety, in the month of April, 1729. 
 
2 32 THE HUGUENOTS. 
 
 Shortly after, Court, still wandering and preaching 
 about Languedoc, became seriously ill. He feared for 
 his wife, he feared for his famil}^, 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 Koussel, was, in the year 1728, 
 added to the number of martj'-rs. He was only twenty- 
 six years of age. The occasion on which he was made 
 prisoner was while attending an assembly near Yigan. 
 The whole of the people had departed, and Houssel was 
 the last to leave the meeting. He was taken to Mont- 
 pellier, 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 strengthen- 
 ing 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 
 
REORGANIZATION OF THE CHURCH. 233 
 
 determination was for tlie 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 pistors. He had to help 
 the refugees, who still continued to leave France for 
 Switzerland, and to write letters and rouse the Pro- 
 testant 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 sup- 
 porting his famil}^ — all his own and his wife's pro- 
 perty 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 
 day?. 
 
 Though ho 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 JSfantes. 
 
 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 
 
234- THE HUGUENOTS. 
 
 Upper Languecloc, 11 ; in the Cevennes, 18 ; in the 
 .Lozere 12 ; and in Yiverais, 42 churclies. 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, Beam, 
 Saintonge,* and other quarters. 
 
 Such were, in a great measure, the results of the 
 labours of Antoine Court and his assistants during the 
 previous fifteen years. 
 
 * In 1726, a deputation from Guyennc, Royerguo, 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 re- 
 awakening 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 
 tlie congregations. 
 
CHAPTER XII. 
 
 THE CHURCH IX THE DESERT, 1730-62 
 
 PALL 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 Ehine, 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 dis- 
 perse 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 sus- 
 pected 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 Yille. 
 
236 THE HUGUENOTS, 
 
 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 CathoKc 
 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.* The officers 
 laughed, the priests sneered, the multitude cheered. 
 These bonfires were of frequent occurrence in all the 
 towns of Languedoc. 
 
 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. "IN^othing," said Saint -Florentin to the 
 commandant of La Devese, " can produce more impres- 
 sion 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 Yiverais, 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 — 
 
 * E. Hughes, ** Histoire de la Eestauration du Protestantisms en 
 France," ii. 96. 
 
THE CHURCH IN THE DESERT. 237 
 
 the soldiers beating their drums to stifle liis 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, 
 w^ho 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 semi- 
 nary 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 con- 
 trived 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 ^^ith 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, con- 
 tinued 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 ; " * and 
 they requested the government to adopt more vigorous 
 measures. 
 
 * E. Hughes, ii. 99. Coquerel, *' L'Eglise dans ie Desert," i. 258. 
 
238 THE HUGUENOTS. 
 
 t 
 
 Tlie inlendants, who were tlius accused, insisted that 
 they had done their duty. They had hanged all the 
 Ilugiienot 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 daj's in a meadow," wrote 
 Cortez, the pastor, "and I write this under a tree.'' 
 Morel, the preacher, when attending an assembly, w^as 
 fired at by the soldiers and died of his wounds. 
 Pierre Dortial w^as also taken prisoner when holding 
 an assembly. The host with whom he lived was con- 
 demned 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 him- 
 self 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 w^as executed at 
 Nismes, and died with courage. 
 
 In 1742 France was at war, and the Huguenots en- 
 joyed a certain amount of libert}^ 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 assem- 
 blies increased. The people began to think that the 
 
THE CHURCH IN THE DESERT .239 
 
 commandants of tlie proyinces had. received orders to 
 sliut their eyes, and see nothing of the proceedings of 
 the Huf^uenots. 
 
 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, chil- 
 dren were baptized, and marriages were celebrated in 
 the open day. * 
 
 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 tweh^e arrondissements, and each 
 arrondissement contained about seven thousand mem- 
 bers. The Procureur-General of iN^ormandy said, ''All 
 this country is full of Huguenots." But the govern- 
 ment 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 
 
 * 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. 
 
240. THE HUGUENOTS. 
 
 Huguenots was held near Sauzet, at wliich tliousands 
 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.* 
 
 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 Koger, the pastor, had read an edict pur- 
 porting 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 Avhich 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 recom- 
 menced as hotly as ever. The citizens of Msmes, 
 
 * Of the preachers about this time (1740-4) the best known wero 
 Morel, Foriel, Mauvillon, VoulauJ, Corteiz, Peyrot, Roux, Gauch, 
 Coste, Dugniere, Blachon, Gabriac, Dejoiirs, Rabaut, Gibert, Mig- 
 nault Desubas, Dubesset, Pradel, JVtorin, DefFerre, Loire, Pradon, — 
 ■with many more. DefFerre restored Protestantism in B rne. Loire 
 (a native of St. Omer, and formerly a Catholic), Viala, Preneuf, and 
 Prudon, were the apostles of Normandy, Rouergue, Guyenne, and 
 Poitou. 
 
THE CHURCH IN THE DESERT. 241 
 
 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, ^^or 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 im- 
 prisoned 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 oft' the head, and 
 made a young Protestant draw the corpse along the 
 streets of Die. 
 
 In the month of April, 1745, Jacques Poger, the old 
 friend and coadjutor of Court — the apostle of Dauphiny 
 as Court had been of Languedoc — was taken prisoner 
 and conducted to Grenoble. Poger was then eighty 
 years old, worn out with privation and hard work. He 
 was condemned to death. He professed his joy at being 
 
242 THE HUG UENOTS. 
 
 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 asjdums 
 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 b}^ this 
 means the inhabitants were soon ruined. The soldiers 
 pillaged the houses, destroyed the furniture, tore up 
 the linen, drank all the w^ine, 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. 
 
THE CHURCH IN THE DESERT. 243 
 
 All tlie towns and villages in Upper Languedoc were 
 treated with, the same cruelty. Nismes was fined over 
 and over again. YiA'erais was treated with the usual 
 severity. M. Desubas, the pastor, was taken prisoner 
 there, and conducted to Yernoux. 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 Yernoux 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, 
 wbo lived along the road, determined to rescue 
 bim. 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 w^as winter time, he was led to his 
 punishment almost naked ; his legs uncovered, and 
 only a thin linen vest over his body. Arrived at the 
 gallows, his books and papers wxre 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 
 
 17 
 
24+ THE HUGUENOTS. 
 
 of France. In Saintonge, Elie Yivien, tlie 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.* 
 
 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, f and of their devotion to 
 the laws of France ! 
 
 Their "loyalty" proved of no use. The towns of 
 Languedoc were as heavily fined as before, for attending 
 meetings in the Desert. + Children were, as usual, taken 
 
 * E. Hughes, "Histoire de la Restauration," &c., ii. 202. 
 
 t 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 emis- 
 saires, et qu'on dit etre envoyes des pays etrangers pour solliciter les 
 Prott stants a la revolte. Nous avons exhorte, et nous nous proposons 
 d'exliorter encore dans tontes les occasions,no3 troupeaux a la soumis- 
 sion au souverain et a la patience dans les afflictions, et de nous 
 ccarter jamais de la pratique de ce precepte : Craignez Dieu et 
 h'^norez le roi." 
 
 1 Tres de Saint-Aiiibroix (Cevennes) se tint un jour une ussemblee. 
 
THE CHURCH IN THE DESERT. 245 
 
 away from their parents and placed in Jesuit con- 
 vents. 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 Yernoux after the martyr Desubas. 
 
 The Catholics would not even allow Protestant corpses 
 to be buried in peace. At I^evaur 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 Peni- 
 tents (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 ? "* 
 
 To such a pitch of brutality had the kings of France 
 
 Survint un detachement. Les femmes et les filles fiirent depouillees, 
 insultees, violees, et quelques hommes furent blesses. — E. Hl'GHEs, 
 llistoire de la Hestauration, ^-c, ii. 212. 
 
 * Antoine Court, "Memoire Historique," 140. 
 
24b THE HUGUENOTS. 
 
 and tlieir instigators, the Jesuits — wlio, since the 
 Kevocation 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 them- 
 selves 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.* 
 
 The afflicted Church at this time had many misfortunes 
 to contend with. In 1748, the noble, self-denying, inde- 
 fatigable Claris died — one of the few Protestant pastors 
 who died in his bed. In 1750, the eloquent young 
 preacher, Francois Benezet,t was taken and hanged at 
 Montpellier. Meetings in the Desert were more 
 vigorously attacked and dispersed, and when sur- 
 rounded by the soldiers, most persons were shot ; the 
 others were taken prisoners. 
 
 The Huguenot pastors repeatedly addressed Louis XY. 
 and his ministers, appealing to them for j)rotection 
 as loyal subjects. In 1750 they addressed the King in 
 a new memorial, respectfully representing that their 
 meetings for public worship, sacraments, baptisms, 
 
 * See " Memorial of General Assembly of Clergy to the King," in 
 Collection des pj-och-verhaux, 34o. 
 
 f-The King granted 480 livres of rev.'ard to the spy who detected 
 Benezet and procured his apprehension by the soldiers. 
 
THE CHURCH IN THE DESERT. 247 
 
 and marriages, were matters of conscience. They 
 added : *' Your troops pursue us in tlie deserts as if we 
 were wild beasts; our property is confiscated; our 
 cliildren are torn from us ; we are condemned to tlie 
 galleys ; and altliougli 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 haying 
 been appointed to Languedoc. The Catholics called 
 upon him to put in force the powers of the law. JSTew 
 brooms sweep clean. The Intendant proceeded to carry 
 out the law with such ferocity as to excite great 
 terror throughout the province. Meetings were sur- 
 rounded ; 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 per- 
 sons 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 emi- 
 grants were made prisoners. They were spoiled of 
 everything, robbed of their money, and thro^Ti into 
 gaol. IN^evertheless, 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 
 
248 THE HUGUENOTS, 
 
 j^ormand}'' and Poitou, where persecution was ccm- 
 pelling tlie 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 ap- 
 proached. The people saw them ; the singing ceased : 
 the pastors urging patience and submission. The soldiers 
 fired; everj?- 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 htld. 
 
THE CHURCH IN THE DESERT 249 
 
 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 thresh- 
 ing-floor of the Lord." 
 
 And yet, notwithstanding all the bitterness of the 
 persecution, the number of Protestants increased. It 
 is difficidt to determine their numbers. Their apologists 
 said they amounted to three millions ; * their de- 
 tractors 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. 
 
 Then followed the death of Antoine Court himself in 
 Switzerland — after watching over the education and 
 training of preachers at the Lausanne Seminary. Feel- 
 ing his powers begining 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 ''Pachel," during his many years of peril, had 
 been his constant friend and consoler. Unable, after 
 
 * Eipert de Monclar, procnreur-general, writing in 17o-5, says : 
 " According to the jiiiisprudence of' this kingdom, there are no French 
 Protestants, and yet, according to the truth of facts, there are three 
 millions. These imaginarj- beings fill the towns, provinces, and rural 
 districts, and the capital alone contains sixty thousand of them," 
 
250 THE HUGUENOTS. 
 
 her death, to live at Timonex, so full of cruel recollec- 
 tions, Court returned to Lausanne. He did not 
 long survive his wife's death. While engaged in 
 writing the history of the Keformed Church of France, 
 he was taken ill. His history of the Camisards was 
 sent to press, and he Kved to revise the first proof- 
 sheets. But he did not survive to see the book pub- 
 lished. 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. Babaut served the Church 
 at Nismes, and Pradel at Uzes. Both spent two 3'ears at 
 Lausanne in 1744-5. Court entertained the highest 
 affection for Babaut, and regarded him as his successor. 
 And indeed he nobly continued the work which Court 
 had begun. 
 
 Besides being zealous, studious, and pious, Babaut 
 was firm, active, shrewd, and gentle. He stood strongly 
 upon moral force. Once, when th3 Huguenots had 
 become more than usually provoked by the persecutions 
 practised on them, the}^ determined to appear armed at 
 the assemblies. Babaut peremptorily forbade it. If they 
 persevered, he would forsake their meetings. He pre- 
 vailed, and they came armed only with their Bibles. 
 
 The directness of Babaut's character, the nobility of 
 his sentiments, the austerity of his life, and his heroic 
 courage, evidently destined him us the head of the 
 work which Court had begun. Aiitoine Court ! Paul 
 Babaut ! The one restored Protestantism in France, 
 the other rooted and established it. 
 
THE CHURCH IN THE DESERT. 251 
 
 Eabaut's entliusiasm 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 imme- 
 diate 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 diffi- 
 culties to undergo as the rest of the pastors in the 
 Desert. He had to assume all sorts of names and dis- 
 guises while he travelled throuo^h the countrv, in order to 
 preach at the appointed places. He w^ent 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 
 
252 THE HUGUENOTS. 
 
 open his cloak, discovered tlie military commandant of 
 the town. ''My friends/' he said, "you haye 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 Pabaut w^as to be found. 
 
 "For more than thirty years," says one of Paul 
 Pabaut's biographers, "caverns and huts, whence he 
 was unearthed like a wild animal, were his only habita- 
 tion. 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 dis- 
 covered at length by a shepherd, and such w^as 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 afKiirs in France. All the faith- 
 ful instinctively turned to Pabaut when assailed by 
 fresh difficulties and persecutions, and acted on his 
 advice. He obtained the respect even of the Catho- 
 lics themselves, because it was known that he was a 
 friend of peace, and opposed to all risings and rebel- 
 lions 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 Kismes and Montpellier. 
 Pabaut introduced himself by name, and the Marquis 
 knew that it was the proscribed pastor who stood 
 before him. He might have arrested and hanged 
 Pabaut on the spot ; but, impressed by the noble bear- 
 ing of the pastor, he accepted the petition, and 
 promised to lay it before the king. 
 
CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 EXD OF THE PERSECUTIONS THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. 
 
 IN the year 1762, tlie execution of an unknown Pro- 
 testant at Toulouse made an extraordinary noise 
 in Europe. Protestant pastors liad so often been exe- 
 cuted, 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 Prance 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, cared any- 
 thing 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 theii 
 
254 THE HUGUENOTS. , 
 
 lives amongst thieves, murderers, and assassins. 
 Women and cliildren found at sucli meetings might 
 also be sentenced to be imprisoned in the Tour de 
 Constance. There were even cases of boj^s of twelve 
 years old having been sent to the galleys for life, 
 because of having accompanied their parents to '* the 
 Preaching. ''* 
 
 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 con- 
 sisted 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 prin- 
 cipal 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 XIY. had in his time pro- 
 hibited 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 XIY. con- 
 tinued to be maintained. 
 
 It was not that Louis XIY. and Louis XY. were 
 kings of any virtue or religion. Both were men of ex- 
 ceedingly immoral habits. We have elsewhere described 
 Louis XIY., but Louis XY., the Well-beloved, was per- 
 haps .the greatest profligate of the two. Madame de 
 Pompadour, when she ceased to be his mistress, became 
 
 * Athanase Coquerel, " Les Forcats pour la Foi," 91. 
 
END OF THE PERSECUTIONS- 
 
 53 
 
 his procuress. This infcimous 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 YersailleSj which cost the country at least a 
 ho.??dred millions of francs.* The number of young girls 
 taken from Paris to this place excited great public dis- 
 content ; and though morals generally were not very 
 high at that time, the debauchery and intemperance of 
 the King (for he was almost constantly drunk) f con- 
 tributed to alienate the nation, and to foster those 
 feelings of hatred which broke forth without restraint 
 in the ensuing reign. 
 
 In the midst of all this public disregard for virtue, a 
 spirit of ribaldry and disregard for the sanctions of re- 
 ligion 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 pro- 
 ductions of the day upon the notice of all who studied, 
 read, or delighted in literature ; — for those were the 
 
 * " Madame de Pompadour decouvrit que Louis XV. pourraifc lui- 
 meme s'amuser a faire reducation de ces jeunes malheureuses. 
 De petites filles de neuf a douze ans, lorsqu'elles avaient attire les 
 regards de la police par leurbeaute, 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 successive- 
 
 ment a Parc-aux-Cerfs est immense ; a leur sortie elles etaient mariees 
 a des hommes vils ou credules ausquels elles apportaient une bonne 
 dot. Quelques unes conservaient un traitement fort considerable." 
 " Les depenses du Parc-aux-Cerfs, dit Lacratelle, se payaient arec des 
 acquits du comptant. II est difiicile de les evaluer ; mais il ne peut 
 y avoir aucune exageration a afiirmer qu'elles coulerent plus de 100 
 millions a I'Etat. Dans quelques libelles on les porte jusqu'a un 
 milliard." — Sismondi, Histoire de Franc^aise, 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," recentl}' written by a lady. 
 
 t Sismondi, xx. 157. 
 
256 THE HUGUENOTS, 
 
 days of Yoltaire, Eousseau, Condorcet, and the great 
 men of ^' The Encyclopaedia.'' 
 
 While the King indulged in his vicious pleasures, 
 and went reeking from his debaucheries to obtain ab- 
 solution 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 
 Pochette, 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. Pochette 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 pre- 
 tcndiie reformecy The three brothers Grenier, who 
 interfered on behalf of Pochette, were ordered to have 
 their heads taken off' for resisting the secular power ; 
 and the two guides, who were bearing the sick Pochette 
 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. 
 
END OF THE PERSECUTIONS. 257 
 
 It was only when Jean Galas was shortly after executed 
 at Toulouse that an extraordinary sensation was pro- 
 duced — and that not because Galas was a Protestant, but 
 because his punishment came under the notice of Vol- 
 taire, who exposed the inhuman cruelty to France, 
 Europe, and the world at large. 
 
 The reason why Protestant executions terminated 
 with the death of Galas was as follows : — The family 
 of Jean Galas 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, proces- 
 sions, and confraternities. While " mealy-mouthed " 
 Gatholics in other quarters were becoming some- 
 what ashamed of the murders perpetrated during 
 the Massacre of St. Bartholomew, and were even dis- 
 posed to deny them, the more outspoken Gatholics 
 of Toulouse were even proud of the feat, and 
 publicly celebrated the great southern Massacre of 
 St. Bartholomew which took place in 1562. The 
 procession then held was one of the finest church 
 commemorations in the south ; it was followed by 
 bishoj)s, clergy, and the people of the neighbourhood, 
 in immense numbers. 
 
 Galas 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 Gatholic. 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 AVliite Penitents stirred 
 up a great fury against the Protestant family in the 
 minds of the populace. The monks alleged that Jean 
 
258 THE HUGUENOTS. 
 
 Calas Iiad murdered his son because lie 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 washed to abjure the 
 reformed faith, and that one of the objects of the 
 meetings w^hich 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 
 mart3'r. 
 
 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 ;* 
 but they did not confess. The court Avished to burn 
 the mother, but they ended by condemning the paral3'tic 
 father to be broken alive on the w^heel.f The parlia- 
 ment 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, 
 
 * Sismondi, xx. 328. 
 
 t 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 wasextended 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 waa 
 only abolished at the French Eevolution in 1700. 
 
END OF THE PERSECUTIONS. 259 
 
 tbey must necessarily have been his accomplices, and 
 equally liable to punishment. 
 
 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 
 Galas and the misfortunes of the Galas family came 
 under the notice of Yoltuire, then living at Fernev, 
 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 ex- 
 amples 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'Alem- 
 bert and Diderot, to which Voltaire, Pousseau, and 
 others contributed, entitled " The Encj^clopoedia." It 
 was a description of the entire circle of human know- 
 ledge ; but the dominant idea which pervaded it was the 
 utter subversion of religion. 
 
 The abuses of the Ghurch, its tj'ranny and cruelt}^, 
 the ignorance and helplessness in which it kept the 
 people, the frivolity and unbelief of the clergy them- 
 selves, 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 
 
26o THE HUGUENOTS. 
 
 the midst -of tlie free publication of obscene books, 
 tbere bad also appeared, before the execution of 
 Galas, tbe Marquis de Mirabeau's *' Ami de Hommes," 
 Rousseau's ^' Emile," tbe " Contrat Sociale," witb 
 other works, denying religion of all kinds, and 
 pointing to the general downfall, which was now fast 
 approaching. 
 
 When the Galas family took refuge in Geneva, 
 "Voltaire soon heard of their story. It was communi- 
 cated to him by M. de Yegobre, a French refugee. 
 After he had related it, Yoltaire said, '* This is a horrible 
 story. What has become of the family ? " " They 
 arrived in Geneva only three days ago." *' In Geneva ! *' 
 said Yoltaire ; '^ then let me see them at once." Madame 
 Galas soon arrived, told him the whole facts of the case, 
 and convinced Yoltaire of the entire innocence of the 
 famil3^ 
 
 Yoltaire was no friend of the Huguenots. He be- 
 lieved the Huguenot spirit to be a republican spirit. 
 In his '' Siecle de Louis XI Y.," when treating of the 
 Revocation of the Edict of Xantes, he affirmed that 
 the Reformed were the enemies of the State ; and 
 though he depicted feelingly the cruelties they had 
 suifered, he also stated clearly that he thought they 
 had deserved them. Yoltaire probably owed his hatred 
 of the Protestants to the Jesuits, by whom he was 
 educated. He was brought up at the Jesuit Gollege of 
 Louis le Grand, the chief persecutor of the Huguenots. 
 Yoltaire also owed much of the looseness of his prin- 
 ciples to his godfather, the Abbe Ghateauneuf, grand- 
 prior of Yendome, the Abbe de Ghalieu, 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 Yoltaire's 
 
END OF THE PERSECUTIONS, 261 
 
 instructors, predicted that lie would yet be tlie Cory- 
 phceus of Deism in France. 
 
 JN^or was Yoltaire better pleased with, tbe Swiss Calvin- 
 ists. He encountered some of tbe most pedantic of tbem 
 wbile residing at Lausanne and Geneva.* At tbe latter 
 place, be covered witb sarcasm tbe "twenty-four peri- 
 wigs" — tbe Protestant council of tbe cit3^ Tbey 
 would not allow bim to set up a tbeatre in Greneva, so 
 lie determined to set up one bimself at La Cbatelaine, 
 about a mile off, but beyond tbe Genevese frontier. 
 His object, be professed, was "to corrupt tbe pedantic 
 city." Tbe tbeatre is still standing, tbougb it is now 
 used only as a bayloft. Tbe box is preserved from 
 wbicb. Yoltaire cbeered tbe performance of his own and 
 other plays. 
 
 But though Yoltaire hated Protestantism like every 
 other religion, he also hated injustice. It was because 
 of this that he took up the case of the Galas family, so 
 soon as he had become satisfied of their innocence. 
 But what a difficulty he had to encounter in endeavour- 
 ing to upset the decision of the judges, and the con- 
 demnation of Galas by the parliament of Toulouse. 
 Moreover, he had to reverse their decision against a 
 dead man, and that man a detested Huguenot. 
 
 Nevertheless Yoltaire 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 Ghoiseul, 
 the King's Secretary of State. He appealed to philo- 
 
 * While Voltaire lived at Lausanne, one of the baillies (the chiet 
 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." 
 
262 THE HUGUENOTS. 
 
 sophers, to men of letters, to ladies of the court, and 
 even to priests and bishops, denouncing the sentence 
 pronounced against Galas, — the most iniquitous, he said, 
 that any court professing to act in the name of justice 
 had ever pronounced. Ferney was visited by many 
 foreignei'S, from Germany, America, England, and 
 Eussia ; as well as by numerous persons of influence in 
 France. To all these he spoke vehemently of Galas 
 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 Galas became kno-^^Ti all over 
 France, and in fact all over Europe. The press of 
 Paris rang with it. In the boudoirs and salons, Galas 
 was the subject of conversation. In the streets, men 
 meeting each other would ask, *' Have you heard of 
 Galas?'"' The dead man had already become a hero 
 and a martvr I 
 
 An important point was next reached. It was 
 decided that the case of Galas should be remitted to a 
 special court of judges appointed to consider the whole 
 matter. Yoltaire 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 wdth wit, reason, 
 and eloquence. The re^^sion of the process commenced. 
 The people held their breaths while it proceeded. 
 
 At length, in the spring of 1766 — four years after 
 Galas had been broken to death on the wheel — four 
 years after Yoltaire 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! 
 
END OF THE PERSECUTIONS. 263 
 
 Tlie decree was accordingly reversed. Jean Galas was 
 declared to liave been innocent. The man was, how- 
 ever, 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 re- 
 versed the abominable sentence.* 
 
 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 Galas!" 
 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 Galas. One of the ordinary practices 
 of the Gatholics 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 Gatholicism, 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. 
 
 * It may be added that, after the reversal of the sentence, David, 
 the judge who had first condemned Galas, went insane, and died in a 
 madhouse. 
 
264 THE HUGUENOTS. 
 
 The prejudices of tlie Catholic bigots being very 
 mucli excited about this time by the case of Galas, 
 blamed the family of Sirven (in the same manner as 
 they had done that of Galas) 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 contiimace. 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 
 Yoltaire, who took it up as he had done that of Galas. 
 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 Pro- 
 testants in France. But what became of the Huguenots 
 at the galleys, who still continued to endure a punish- 
 ment from day to day, even worse than death itself? * 
 
 * The Hiiguenots 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 
 Qourt made an appeal to Frederick the Great, and at his interven- 
 tion 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 suc- 
 ceeded in obtaining the liberation of several galley-slaves. 
 
END OF THE PERSECUTIONS. 265 
 
 Altliougli they Avere often cut off by fever, starvation, 
 and exposure, many of tliem contrived to live on to a 
 considerable age. After the trials of Galas and Sirven, 
 the punishment of the gallej^s was evidently drawing 
 to an end. Only two persons were sent to the galleys 
 during the year in which Pastor Kochette 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. 
 
 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 
 Yoltaire, the Deist, terminated the hanging of Pro- 
 testants, 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 Msmes, on the first 
 day of January, 1756. The place of meeting was called 
 the Lecque,* 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. 
 
 Amongst these, Jean Fabre, a young silk merchant 
 
 * This secret meeting-place of the Huguenots is well known from 
 the engraved picture oi Buze. 
 
266 THE HUGUENOTS. 
 
 of Nismes, was already beyond reacli of danger, wlien lie 
 lieard 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 sub- 
 stitution ; 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 cer- 
 tain young lady to whom he was about shortly to be 
 married. lie 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 seriouslj'' 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 
 
END OF THE PERSECUTIONS. 267 
 
 was in every nioutL. The Due de Mirepoix, then gover- 
 nor 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 Ilabaut, 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 confi- 
 dence in the mercy of the Catholics, and the proposal 
 w^as coldly declined. 
 
 Fabre was next sent to Toulon under a strong escort 
 
 of cavalry. He was there registered in the class of 
 
 conA'icts ; 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 coidd 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 
 
 se'zed with a serious illness, when he was sent to 
 
 the hospital, where he found many Huguenot 
 
 convicts imprisoned, like himself, because of their 
 
 religion.* 
 
 Repeated applications were made to Saint-Florentin, 
 the Secretary of State, by Fabre's relatives, friends, 
 
 * Letter of Jean Falre, in Alhanass Cocoaerel 8 " Forcals pour la 
 Foi," 201 3 
 
268 THE HUGUENOTS. 
 
 and fellow Protestants for his liberation, but without 
 result. After lie bad been imprisoned for some years, 
 a circumstance happened which more than anything 
 else exasperated his sufferings. The young lady to 
 whom he was eugaged 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 main- 
 tain 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 con- 
 science 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 Due de Choiseul, Minister of Marine. 
 This nobleman was a just man, and it had been in a 
 
END OF THE PERSECUTIONS. 269 
 
 great measure througli liis influence that the j udgment 
 of Galas 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 inter- 
 cession 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 Due 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 re- 
 verse the sentence that had been pronounced against him. 
 
 In the meantime, Fabre's name was becoming cele- 
 brated. He had no idea, while privately settled at 
 Ganges as a silk stocking maker, that great peoj)le in 
 France were interesting themselves about his fate. The 
 Duchesse de Grammont, sister of the Due de Choiseul, 
 had, heard about him from her brother ; and the Prince 
 de Beauvau, governor of Languedoc, the Duchesse de 
 Yilleroy, and many other distinguished personages, 
 were celebrating his heroism. 
 
270 THE HUGUENOTS. 
 
 Inquiry was made of the sergeant who had originally 
 apprehended Fabre, npon 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 
 Msmes, 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 Due 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 pro- 
 nounced 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 Yilleroy 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 Yersailles. 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 Galas was 
 executed. A reaction against this barbarous method of 
 treating men for differences of opinion seems to have 
 
END OF THE PERSECUTIONS. 271 
 
 set in ; or, perhaps, it was because most men were 
 ceasing to belieye 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 3''ear, Jean Albiges and Jean Barran were liberated 
 after eight years of convict life. They had been con- 
 demned for assisting at Protestant assemblies. Next 
 year, ITaurice was liberated ; he had been condemned 
 for life for the same reason. 
 
 While Yoltaire had been engaged in the case of 
 Galas he asked the Due 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, Yoltaire 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 Yoltaire for his liberation. 
 
 On Chaumont's release in 1764, he waited upon his 
 deliverer to thank him. " What ! " said Yoltaire, 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 ! ^' * Yoltaire ended 
 by handing the impoverished fellow a sum of money 
 to set him up in the world agaiu, when he left the 
 house the happiest of men. 
 We may briefly mention a few of the last of the 
 * "Yoltaire et les Genevois," par J. Guberel, 7i-j. 
 
272 THE HUGUENOTS. 
 
 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 Yiverais, 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 Raj^mond, of Fangeres, the father of six chil- 
 dren, 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 Yoltaire, after being a galley-slave 
 for twenty-eight years. His friends had forgotten 
 him, and on his release he was utterly destitute and 
 miserable.* 
 
 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 XYL, and 
 close upon the outbreak of the French Revolution. 
 They had been quite forgotten, until Court de Gebclin, 
 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 Pro- 
 testant convicts at the galleys ; at least, he believed so. 
 
 * " Lettres inedites des Yoltaire," publiees par Athanase Coqueiel 
 fils, 24?. 
 
END OF THE PERSECUTIONS. 273 
 
 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 return- 
 ing to the world which no longer knew them. One of 
 them was Antoine Rialle, a tailor of Aoste, in Dau- 
 phin y, 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. x4.chard 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 Aiguesmorts. 
 It would probably be about the time when the last 
 Huguenots were liberated from the galleys. An affect- 
 ing 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 Beauveau (the 
 intendant of Languedoc under Louis XYI.) in a sur- 
 vey Avhich he made of the coast. Arriving at Aigues- 
 morts, 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 — 
 
274 THE HUGUENOTS. 
 
 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 emo- 
 tion ; 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 lY. 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 ! " * 
 
 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 obej^ed their behests. 
 The nation had ceased to believe in theih ; in some 
 places they were laughed at ; in others they were de- 
 tested. 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 Prance than themselves. *' It is not 
 enough," said Yoltaire, *' 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 
 remainino: in France since the Revocation of the Edict 
 * Froissard, ** Nismes et ses En\irons," ii. 217. 
 
END OF THE PERSECUTIONS. i-js 
 
 of Nantes ; at the purity, self-denial, honesty, and in- 
 dustry of their lives ; at the devotion with Avhich 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 de- 
 bauchery of its kings* 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 martyr- 
 dom by the rack, the gibbet, or the galleys, rather than 
 forsake the worship) of God freely and according to 
 conscience. 
 
 But their persecution was now in a great measure at 
 
 * 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 courtezan,) 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 Decadence de la Monarchic 
 Franqaise," par Soulavie I'Aine, iii. 330.] "La corruption," says 
 Lacretelle, '* entrait dans les plus paisibles menages, dans les families 
 les plus obscures. Elle [Madame du Barri] etait savamment et long- 
 temps combinee par ceux qui servaient les debauches de Louis. Des 
 emissaires etaient employees a seduire des filles qui n'etaient point 
 encore nubiles, a conibattre dans de jeunes femmes des principes de 
 pudeur et de fidelile. Amant de grade, il livrait u la prostitution 
 publique celles de ses sujettes qu'il avait prematurement corrompues. 
 II souifrait que les eni'ans de ses infames plaisirs partageassent la 
 destinee obscure ct dangereuse de ceux qu'uu pere n'avoue point." 
 Lacretelle, Kistoiro ch France pendant le xviii Siede, iii. 171-173. 
 
 19 
 
276 THE HUGUENOTS. 
 
 an end. It is true tlie Protestants were not recognised, 
 but tliey nevertheless lield tlieir worship openly, and 
 were not interfered with. When Louis XYI. 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 dis- 
 persion of the schismatic assemblies of the Protestants, 
 exclude the sectarians, without distinction, from all 
 ofRces of the public administration, and you will insure 
 among your subjects the imity of the true Christian 
 
 reliaion.^ 
 
 No attention was paid to this and similar appeals for 
 the restoration of intolerance. On the contrary, an 
 \V Edict of Toleration was issued by Louis XYI. in 1787, 
 which, though granting a legal existence to the Pro- 
 testants, nevertheless set forth that " The Catholic, 
 Apostolic, and Ptoman 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 Pights of 1789 overthrew the 
 barriers which debarred the admission of Protestants 
 to public offices. On the question of tolerance, 
 Pabaut Saint-Etienne, son of Paul Pabaut, who sat 
 in the National Assembl}^ for Nismes, insisted on the 
 freedom of the Protestants to worship God after their 
 accustomed forms. He said he represented a consti- 
 tuency of 360,000, of whom 120,000 were Protestants. 
 The penal laws against the worship of the Peformed, 
 he said, had never been formally abolished. He (daimed 
 the rights of Frenchmen for two millions of useful 
 citizens. It was not toleration he asked for, it was 
 Ubcrtyr 
 
END OF THE PERSECUTIONS. 277 
 
 " Toleration ! " he exclaimed ; *' sufferance ! pardon ! 
 clemency ! ideas supremely unjust towards the Protest- 
 ants, 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 ! '' * 
 
 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, Habant Saint-Etienne him- 
 self, son of the long proscribed j)astor of the Desert, 
 was nominated President of the Constituent As- 
 sembly, succeeding to the chair of the Abbe Montes- 
 quieu. 
 
 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 XYI. He maintained an obstinate struo^o-le 
 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 Chris- 
 
 * "History of the rrotestaiit3 of France," by G. de Felice, book 
 V. sect. i. 
 
278 THE HUGUENOTS. 
 
 tian communions, " witli the exception of pecuniary 
 subvention." 
 
 The comparative liberty which the Protestants of 
 France had enjoyed under the Hepublic 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 Eoi, une Foi." 
 
 The Protestant mayor of Nismes was publicly in- 
 sulted, 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."* Another St. Bartholomew 
 was even threatened ; the Protestants began to con- 
 ceal themselves, and many fled for refuge to the 
 Upper Ceyennes. Houses were sacked, their inmates 
 outraged, and in many cases murdered. 
 
 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 Protest- 
 ant persecutions in the South of France was, in May, 
 1816, brought under the notice of the British House of 
 Commons by Sir Samuel Pomilly — himself the de- 
 scendant of a Languedoc Huguenot — in a powerful 
 
 * See the Eev. Mark "SVilks's *' History of the Persecutions endured 
 by the Protestants of the South of France, 1814, ISlo 1816." 
 Longmans, 1821. 
 
END OF THE PERSECUTIONS, 279 
 
 speecli ; and altliougli tlie motion was opposed by the 
 Go\ eminent, tliere can be little doubt that tlie discus- 
 sion produced its due effect ; for tbe Bourbon Govern- 
 ment, itself becoming alarmed, shortly after adopted 
 vigorous measures, and the persecution was brought to 
 an end. 
 
 Since that time the Protestants of France have re- 
 mained 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 paj^ers 
 that a French deputy had recently brought a case 
 before the Assembly, in which a Catholic cure of Yille- 
 d'Avray refused burial in the public cemetery to the 
 corpse of a 3'oung 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 pro- 
 bably 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 XIY. and the French nation of his time sowed 
 the wind, and their descendants at the E/Cvolution 
 reaped the Avhirlwind. And who knows how much of 
 the sufferings of France during the last few years may 
 have been due to the ferocious intolerance, the abandon- 
 ment to vicious pleasures, the thirst for dominion, and 
 the hunger for "glory," which above all others charac- 
 
28o THE HUGUENOTS. 
 
 terized the reign of tliat monarcli wIlo 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 Langnedoc and the South of France, 
 where the chief strength of the Huguenots alwaj^s 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 suffer- 
 ing, and though they did not conquer civil liberty, 
 they continued to live strong, hardy, virtuous lives. 
 When Protestantism w^as 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 cit}^ in the bed of a mountain 
 torrent. The worshippers arranged themselves along 
 the slopes of the narrow valley, the pastor preaching to 
 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 Pomans had excavated much 
 of the stone used in the building of the city. The con- 
 gregation seated themselves around the craggy sides, 
 the preacher's pulpit being placed in the narrow pass 
 leading into the quarry. Notwithstanding all the 
 
END OF THE PERSECUTIONS. 2S1 
 
 vigilance of tlie sentinels, many joersons of botli 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 fre- 
 quented by the Protestants of Msmes, 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 in- 
 dependent character of the people has led them to 
 embrace Protestantism in other forms. Thus, the Evan- 
 gelical 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 con- 
 gregations 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 exist- 
 ing 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 Cam.isards 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 
 
282 THE HUGUENOTS. 
 
 against war, refusing to take oatlis, and recognising 
 silent worship, without dependence on human acquire- 
 ments. They were not aware of the existence of a 
 similar body in England and America until the period 
 of the French Kevolution, when some intercourse began 
 to take place between them. 
 
 In 1807, Stephen Grellct, an American Friend, of 
 French origin, visited Languedoc, and held many re- 
 ligious meetings in the towns and villages of the Lower 
 Cevennes, which were not only attended by the Friends 
 of Congenies, St. Hypolitc, Ganges, St. Gllles, Fontanes, 
 Yauvert, Quissac, and other places in the neighbour- 
 hood 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 Stej^hen Grellet's visit, he especially 
 mentioned Louis Majolier as "a father and a pillar" 
 amongst the little flock.* And itmaj^ 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. 
 
 It may also be mentioned, in passing, that there still 
 exist amongst the Yosges 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 imder any circumstances 
 to carry arms. Eather than do so, they have at 
 different times suffered imprisonment, persecution, and 
 even death. The republic of 1793 respected their 
 
 * "Life of S'.ephea Grellet," third edition. London, 1870. 
 
END OF THE PERSECUTIONS. 283 
 
 scruples, and did not require the Anabaptists to fight 
 in the ranks, but employed them as pioneers and 
 drivers, while JN'apoleon made them look after the 
 wounded on the field of battle, and attend to the 
 waggon train and ambulances.* And we understand 
 that they continue to be similarly employed down to 
 the present time. 
 
 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. Ptationalism 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 Pro- 
 testant Church, t 
 
 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 Ultra- 
 montane Church, but its impulses are no kindlier, 
 though it has become '' InfalKble." 
 
 The principal movement of the Catholic priests of 
 late years has been to get up appearances of the Virgin. 
 
 * Michel, "Les Anabaptistes des Vosges." Paris, 1862 
 t The best account of the proceedings at this synod^is given in 
 hlackivood s Magazine for January, 1873. 
 
284 THE HUGUENOTS. 
 
 Tlie Tirgin appears, nsuallj^, to a clilld or two, and 
 pilgrimages are immediately got up to the scene of 
 lier yisit. By getting up religious moyements of tbis 
 kind, tlie 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 Franco 
 wishes to be free, she will have to adopt some other 
 methods. Bismarck will never be put down by pil- 
 grimages. It was a sad saying of Father Hyacinthe at 
 Geneva, that ''France is bound to two influences — • 
 Superstition and Irreligion." 
 
A VISIT TO THE 
 
 cothsttey of the yaudois. 
 
A VISIT TO THE COUNTEY OF THE 
 VAUDOIS. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 INTRODUCTORY. 
 
 "Pi AUPHINY is one of the least visited of all the pro- 
 ■^ vinces 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 gran- 
 deur, 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 
 
288 THE COUNTRY OF THE VAUDOIS. 
 
 of the Rlione. 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 overhimg by pre- 
 cipitous 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 vallevs 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 en- 
 durance, 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 Yaudois 
 or AYaldenses — literally, the people inhabiting the 
 Vaiix, 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. 
 
EARLY CHRISTIAN MISSIONARIES. 289 
 
 Tlie coimtrv of tlie Yaiidois is not confined, as is 
 generally supposed, to the valleys of Piedmont, but 
 extends over the greater part of Dauphiny and Pro- 
 vence. 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 Poman 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. Pavil journeyed from Pome 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 cer- 
 tainly 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 Pome. 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 Pome became 
 rich and allied itself with the secular power, it gradually 
 departed more and more from its primitive condition,* 
 
 * The ancient Vaudois had a saying, known in other countries — 
 
290 THE COUNTRY OF THE VAUDOIS. 
 
 until at length it was scarcely to be recognised from 
 the Paganism which it had superseded. The heathen 
 gods were rej)laced by canonised mortals ; Yenus 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. 
 
 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 
 ojjposed with energy the worship of images, which he 
 regarded as absolute idolatr3\ In the meanwhile, the 
 simple Taudois, shut up in their almost inaccessible 
 vallej^s, and knowing nothing of these innovations, con- 
 tinued 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 super- 
 stitions which prevailed elsewhere had not at all ex- 
 tended into the mountainous regions of his diocese. 
 
 The Taudois Church was never, in the ordinary 
 sense of the word, a ''Peformed" Church, simply 
 because it had not become corrupted, and did not stand 
 
 "Eeligion 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." 
 
THE VAUDOIS '' UNREFORMEDr 291 
 
 in need of '^reformation." It was not tlie Yaudois 
 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 
 Levcon, 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.* 
 
 If the age counts for anything, the Yaudois 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 Yaudois Church existed. Their 
 remoteness, their poverty, and their comparative un- 
 importance as a people, for a long time protected them 
 from interference ; and for centuries they remained 
 unnoticed by Rome. But as the Western Church ex- 
 tended its power, it became insatiable for uniformity. 
 It would not tolerate the independence which charac- 
 terized the early churches, but aimed at subjecting 
 them to the exclusive authority of Rome. 
 
 * Sismondi, " Litterature du Midi de I'Europe," i. lo9. 
 
 20 
 
292 THE COUNTRY OF THE VAUDOIS. 
 
 The Yaudois, however, persisted in repudiating the 
 doctrines and formularies of the Pope. When argu- 
 ment 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 "Yicar of 
 Christ" bathed the banner of the Cross in a carnage 
 from which the wolves of Eomulus and the eagles of 
 CsDsar would have turned with loathing. 
 
 Long before the period of the Reformation, the 
 
 Vaudois vallej^s 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 Yaudois were stigmatized as heretics by Rome. 
 
 As early as 1096, we find Pope Urban 11. describing 
 
 Yal Louise, one of the Dauphiny valleys — then 
 
 called Yallis 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 martja's 
 
 being Pierre Waldo, or Waldensis,* of Lyons, who 
 
 was executed for heresy by the Archbishop of Lyons 
 
 in 1180. 
 
 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 Yaudois, 
 
 especially because they read the sacred books in the 
 
 * It has been surmised by some writers that the Waldenses derived 
 tlieir name from this martyr; but being known as "heretics" lon^ 
 before his time, it is more probable that they gave the name to him 
 than that he did to them. 
 
THE EARLY PERSECUTIONS, 293 
 
 vulgar tongue."* From time to time, new persecu- 
 tions were ordered, and conducted with ever-increasing 
 ferocity— tlie scourge, the brand, and the sword being 
 employed by turns. In 1486, while Luther was still 
 in his cradle. Pope Innocent YIII. issued a bull of 
 extermination against the Yaudois, summoning all 
 true Catholics to the holy crusade, promising free par- 
 don 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. f The 
 consequence was, the assemblage of an immense horde 
 of brigands, who were let loose on the valleys of Dau- 
 phiny 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. 
 
 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 Yaudois. 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 Yaudois 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 
 
 V *!!?'''''? ^i^-^f' "H'stoire G^nerale des EgHses Evangeliques des 
 Vallees de Piedmont, ou Vaudoises." Leyde, 1669. Pait ii 330 
 t Leger, li. 8-20. 
 
2 94 THE COUNTRY OF THE VAUDOIS. 
 
 least accessible places, or liide 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 re- 
 lating to these dreadful times. In one, so many women 
 and children were suffocated j 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 Yaudois, 
 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 
 Yaudois 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 
 
CELEBRATION OF EASTER, 1655. 295 
 
 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 a.rmies, making war, and massa- 
 cring their Yaudois 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 Pied- 
 mont, 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 con- 
 tinued 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 in- 
 discriminately 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 Yaudois an asylum in Ireland ; but 
 the distance which lay between was too great, and the 
 Yaudois asked him to help them in some other way. 
 Forthwith, he addressed letters, written by his secre- 
 tary, John Milton,* to the principal European powers, 
 calling upon them to join him in putting a stop to these 
 
 nin^r- "^^^ ""^ ^^'' ^'"^^ ^^""^ ^^'^*°'' wrote his noble sonnet, begin- 
 
 "Avenge, Lord, Thy slaughter'd saints, whose bones 
 iiie scattered on the Alpine mountains cold," &c. 
 
296 THE COUNTRY OF THE VAUDOIS. 
 
 liorrid barbarities committed upon an unoffending people. 
 Cromwell did more. He sent tlie 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. 
 
 These energetic measures had their effect. The 
 Yaudois 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 Yaudois, 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 Yaudois was 
 very much of a traditional character. Little was known 
 as to their actual condition, or whether the descendants 
 of the primitive Yaudois 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. 
 
DR. GILLY. 
 
 297 
 
 It happened that that gentleman was present at a 
 meeting of the Society for Promoting Christian Know- 
 ledge, 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 Yaudois 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 atten- 
 tion, that he says it " took complete possession of him.'' 
 He proceeded to make search for information about the 
 Yaudois, 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. Grilly 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 move- 
 ment was shortly after set on foot for the relief and 
 assistance of the Yaudois. 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 Yaudois 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 Pied- 
 
298 THE COUNTRY OF THE VAUDOIS. 
 
 inontese valleys, partly in order to ascertain how far 
 the aid tlius rendered to tlie poor Yaudois had proved 
 effectual, and also to judge in what way certain further 
 sums placed at his disposal might best be employed for 
 their benefit.* It was in the course of his second visit 
 that Dr. Gilly became aware of the fact that the 
 Yaudois 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 Pro- 
 vence. He accordingly extended his journey across 
 the Col de la Croix into France, and cursorily visited 
 the old Yaudois district of Yal Fressiniere and Yal 
 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 out- 
 lying 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. 
 Since that time occasional efforts have been made in 
 aid of the French Yaudois, 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 interest- 
 ing valleys are so bad that they can only be travelled 
 on foot, being scarcely practicable qyqi\ for mules. 
 There is no good hotel accommodation in the district, 
 only auherges, 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 eleva- 
 
 * Dr. Gilly's narrative of his second visit to the yalleys was pub- 
 lisl ed iu 1831. under the title of " Waldensian "Researches." 
 
INFLUENCE OF PERSONAL EXAMPLE. 290 
 
 tion of tlie sites of most of tlie Yaudois yillages ; so 
 tliat when pastors were induced to settle there, the 
 cold, and sterility, and want of domestic accommoda- 
 tion, 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 ameli- 
 oration of the French Yaudois ; 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 Yaudois 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 JSTefi" 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 ^qW to action, so the life of Felix Kefi" inspired 
 that of Spencer Thornton, and eventually led Mr. 
 Freemantle to enter upon the work of extending 
 evangelization among the Yaudois. In like manner, a 
 young French pastor, M. Bost, also influenced by the 
 life and labours of JN'eff', 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 
 
 ^- 
 
300 THE COUNTRY OF THE VAUDOIS. 
 
 itself; and tliougli tlie tombstone may record ^' Hie 
 jacet'' over tlie crumbling dust of the departed, bis 
 spirit still lives and works tbrougb otber minds — 
 stimulates tbem to action, and inspires tbem witb 
 bope — ''allures to brigbter worlds, and leads tbe 
 way." 
 
 A few words as to tbe origin of tbese fragmentary 
 papers. In cbalking out a summer boliday trip, one 
 likes to get quite away from tbe ordinary round of 
 daily life and business. Half tbe benefits of sucb a trip 
 consists in getting out of tbe old ruts, and breatbing 
 fresb air amidst new surroundings. But tbis is very 
 difiicult if you follow tbe ordinary tourist's track. 
 London goes witb you and elbows you on your way, 
 accompanied by swarms of commissionaires, guides, 
 and beggars. You encounter London people on tbe 
 Rigbi, on tbe Wengern Alp, and especially at Cbamouni. 
 Tbink of being asked, as I once was on entering tbe 
 PaviKon at Montanvert, after crossing tbe Mer de 
 Glace from tbe Mauvais Pas, " Pray, can you tell me 
 wbat was tbe price of Brigbton stock wben you left 
 town ?'' 
 
 Tbere is no risk of sucb rencontres in Daupbiny, 
 wbose valleys remain in almost as primitive a state as 
 tbey were bundreds of years ago. Accordingly, wben 
 my friend Mr. Milsom, above mentioned, invited me to 
 accompany bim in one of bis periodical visits to tbe 
 country of tbe Yaudois, I embraced tbe opportunity 
 witb pleasure. I was cautioned beforeband as to tbe 
 inferior accommodation provided for travellers tbrougb 
 tbe district. Tourists being unknown tbere, tbe route 
 is not padded and cusbioned as it is on all tbe beaten 
 continental rounds. Englisb is not spoken ; Bass's 
 
TOUR IN FRANCE. 301 
 
 pale ale lias not yet penetrated into Daupliiny ; nor do 
 you encounter London tourists carrying tlieir tin baths 
 about witb tbem as you do in Switzerland. Only an 
 occasional negotiant comes up from Gap or Grenoble, 
 seeking orders in tbe villages, for whom tbe 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 tra- 
 veller 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. Nothino- is 
 
 o 
 
 wasted. The pot aa 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 
 
302 THE COUNTRY OF THE VAUDOIS. 
 
 dinner served up is of a quality such as can very rarely 
 be liad in any Englisli 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 j)0ssessed it ; 
 and our people are in the habit, through want of 
 knowledge, of probably leading 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 
 l^eople. ])runkenness 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 exceed- 
 ingly 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 
 
FRENCH SUNDAY WORK. 303 
 
 hours required for labour, tliat in course of time Sunday 
 became an ordinary working day. And wben 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 pre- 
 cisely as on week days. In short, the Sunday is 
 secularised, or regarded but as a partial holiday.* 
 
 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 
 
 * I find the following under the signature of "An Operative 
 Bricklayer," in the Times oi 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 ; thej^ told me it w^as 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, Englishmen, you know the Fourth Commandment ; you know 
 the value of the seventh day, the day of rest !" 
 
304 THE COUNTRY OF THE VAUDOIS. 
 
 moving about so long as there is light to see by. It is 
 tbe peasants working tbe land, and it is their own. 
 Sucb is tbe "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 con- 
 tinuous 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 — BRIANCOX. 
 
 THE route from Grenoble to tlie frontier fortress of 
 Briancon lies for tlie 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 lake 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 
 
3o6 THE COUNTRY OF THE VAUDOIS. 
 
 to close, tlie scenery becomes wilder, and tlie 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 Yizille — the most prominent building in which is 
 the chateau of the famous Due de Lesdiguieres, gover- 
 nor 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 Yizille 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 over- 
 looking the Drac, stand the ruins of the family castle, 
 where the Constable wiis 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 
 
DUC DE LESDIGUIERES. 307 
 
 tlie entire province of Daupliiny, of wliich. Henry ap- 
 pointed him governor. In tliat capacity lie carried 
 out many important public works — made roads, built 
 bridges, erected fourteen fortresses, and enlarged and 
 beautified bis palace at Grenoble and bis cbateau at 
 Yizille. He enjoyed great popidarity during bis life, 
 and was known tbrougbout bis province as ''King of 
 tbe Mountains.'' But be did not continue stauncb 
 eitber to bis party or bis faitb. As in tbe case of many 
 of tbe 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 
 bad so brilliantly served in his youth. To secure the 
 prize which be so coveted, be made public abjuration of 
 bis 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 Lesdi- 
 guieres' first mass, presented him with the Constable's 
 baton. 
 
 But tbe Lesdiguieres family has long since passed 
 away, and left no traces. At the Revolution, tbe 
 Constable's tomb was burst open, and his coffin torn up. 
 His monument was afterwards removed to Gap, which, 
 when a Huguenot, be had stormed and ravaged. His 
 cbateau at Yizille 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 cbateau has witnessed many 
 strange scenes. In 1023, shortly after bis investment 
 as Constable, Lesdiguieres entertained Louis XIII. and 
 his court there, while on his journey into Italy, in the 
 
 21 
 
3o8 THE COUNTRY OF THE VAUDOIS. 
 
 course of wliicli lie so grievously ravaged the Yaudois 
 villages. In 1788, the Estates of Dauphiny met there, 
 and prepared the first bold remonstrance against 
 aristocratic privileges, and in favour of popular repre- 
 sentation, which, in a measure, proved the commence- 
 ment of the great devolution. And there too, in 1822, 
 Pelix KefF preached to large congregations, who were 
 so anxious and attentive that he always after spoke of 
 the place as his " dear Yizille ; " and now, to wind up 
 the vicissitudes of the great hall, it is used as a place 
 for the printing of Bandana handkerchiefs ! 
 
 When IS^eff made his flying visits to Yizille, he was 
 temporarily stationed at Mens, which was the scene of 
 his first labours in Dauphiny. The place lies not far 
 from Yizille, away among the mountains towards the 
 south. During the wars of religion, and more especially 
 after the He vocation of the Edict of Nantes, Mens 
 became a place of refuge fur the Protestants, who still 
 form about one-half of its jiopulation. 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 JN^eff first went amongst them, and laboured 
 there and at Yizille with such good effect. 
 
 Kot 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 
 
LA SALETTE. 309 
 
 one of tlie side-valleys of the large valley of tlie Drac, 
 wliicli joins tlie Romanclie 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 hovo. fallax rallis, 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 ham- 
 mer 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 Yirgin had sat. The stone was soon broken 
 ofi" 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 
 
310 THE COUNTRY OF THE VAUDOIS. 
 
 to be generally believed in tbe neiglibourliood. Tlie 
 number of persons who resorted to tbe place with money 
 in tbeir pockets steadily increased. The question was 
 then taken up by tbe local priests, wbo voucbed for 
 the authenticity of tbe miracle seen by tbe two children. 
 The miracle was next accepted by Rome.* 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 
 tlie hill in one day — on the anniversary of the appear- 
 ance of the apparition — notwithstanding the extreme 
 steepness and difficulties of the ascent. - 
 
 As a pendant to this story, another may be given of 
 an entirely different character, relating to the inhabit- 
 ants 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 Kotre-Dame-de- 
 
 * An authorised account was prepared by Cardinal "Wiseman for 
 English readers, entitled " JManual of the Association of our Lady of 
 Keconciliation 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 j-early, 
 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 appear- 
 ances 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. AVhen 
 a party of the oth Bavarian Cavalry was posted in Bettweiler, the 
 Virgin ceased to make her appearance. 
 
PROTESTANTISM A T COMIERS. 3 1 1 
 
 Comiers, dissatisfied with, tlie conduct of tlieir 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 tempo- 
 rary irritation against their cure, cautioned the deputa- 
 tion 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, urorinsr 
 him to send them over a minister of the evano-elical 
 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 com- 
 plained, 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 per- 
 sons 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 move- 
 
3 '2 777^ COUNTRY OF THE VAUDOIS. 
 
 ment has also extended into ttie neiglibouring com- 
 munes, helped by tlie zeal of tlie new converts, one of 
 wliom is known in tlie neiglibourliood as '' Pere la 
 Bible/' and it is possible that before long it may even 
 extend to La Salette itself. 
 
 The route from Yizille 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 col- 
 lected in a reservoir, and employed to feed a jet cVeaii 
 which rises in a lofty column under the castle windows. 
 Further up, the valley again contracts, until the Gorge 
 de Loirct 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 j'et 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 Youdene, 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 extraordinarv contortions and dislocations, im- 
 
BOURG D'OISANS, 
 
 o':> 
 
 pressing the mind with the enormous natural forces 
 that must have been at work to occasion such tremen- 
 dous upheavings and disruptions. Elie de Beaumont, 
 the French geologist, who has carefully examined the 
 district, says that at the Montague 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 uj) at the 
 Hotel de Milan close by the bridge ; but though digni- 
 fied mth the name of hotel, it is only a common road- 
 side 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 sach fare as the people of the 
 locality contrive, to live and thrive upon. The accom- 
 modation 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 through- 
 out the district. There are many domestic arrange- 
 ments, 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 cf Dauphiny — having been 
 
314 THE COUNTRY OF THE VAUDOIS. 
 
 brouglit under tlie notice of tlie landlad}^, slie 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 charm- 
 ing. 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 ui:)per with dark pine. Above all are ranges of 
 jagged and grey rocks, shooting up in many places into 
 loft}^ peaks. The setting sun, shining across the face of 
 the mountain opposite, brings out the p;rominent masses 
 in bold relief, while the vallev 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 along- 
 side 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 moun- 
 tains 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 
 
GORGE OF FRENEF. 515 
 
 least stand a comparison with tliat of SaA'oy. Its moun- 
 tains are more precipitous and abrupt, its peaks more 
 jagged, and its aspect more savage and wild. The 
 scenery of Mont Pelvoux, w^hich 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 Yia Mala 
 leading up to the Spliigen. 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 hill-sides spread oat 
 in some places so as to aiford 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 I'ln- 
 fernet. Perhaps there is nothing to be seen in Switzer- 
 land finer of its kind than the succession of charming 
 landscapes which meet the eye in descending this pass. 
 
3i6 THE COUNTRY OF THE VAUDOIS. 
 
 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 Yaudois 
 were accustomed to take refuge in the times of the per- 
 secutions. Further on, we pass through another gallery 
 in the rock, then across the little green valley of Cham- 
 bon 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 
 Eiftort, which also joins the Eomanche, and marks the 
 boundary between the department of the Iscre and that 
 of the Ilautes xilpes, which we now enter. 
 
 More waterfalls — the Sau de la Pucelle, which falls 
 from a height of some two hundred and fifty feet, re- 
 sembling the Staubbach — besides rivulets without 
 number, running down the mountain-sides like silver 
 threads ; imtil we arrive at La Grave, a village about 
 five thousand feet above the sea-level, directly opposite 
 the grand glaciers of Tabuchet, Pacave, and Yallon, 
 which almost overhang the Roman che, descending from 
 the steep slopes of the gigantic Aiguille du Midi, the 
 
COL DE LAUTERET. 317 
 
 higliest mountain in the Frencli A1]3S, — being over 
 13,200 feet above the level of the sea. 
 
 After resting some two hours at La Grave, we pro- 
 ceeded by the two tunnels under the hamlet of Yente- 
 long — one of which is 650 and the other 1,800 feet 
 long — to the village of Yillard 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 di\ides the valley of the Eo- 
 manche 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 ]\1. Ptousillon has described it 
 as a "very botanical Eden.'' Here Jean Jacques Rous- 
 seau delighted to herborize, and here the celebrated 
 botanist Mathonnet, originally a customs officer, born 
 at the haggard village of Yillard 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 ex- 
 posure 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 meridianal plants flourish ; 
 on the middle slopes those of genial climates ; while 
 on the summit are found specimens of the flora of Lap- 
 land and Greenland. Thus almost every variet}^ of 
 flowers is represented in this brilliant natural garden — 
 orchids, cruciferoe, leguminse, rosaceoe, caryophylla?, 
 lilies of various kinds, saxifrages, anemones, ranun- 
 ^ culuses, swertia, primula, and varieties of the sedum. 
 
3i8 THE COUNTRY OF THE VAUDOIS. 
 
 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, ap- 
 parently closing in the valley, the snow- clad peak of 
 Monte Viso rising in the distimce. 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 peoj^le 
 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 
 holidaj^, no one can reproach them with idleness. Never 
 was there a more hard-working peo2:)le 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 man}" 
 of the little farms will be swept avv' ay 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 
 
BRIANCON. 310 
 
 the fortress of Briancon, with its battlements seem- 
 ingly piled one over the other up the mountain-sides, 
 the landscape becomes exceedingly bold and picturesque. 
 
 When passing the village of Yilleneuve 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 TEchuada, 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 Yaudois were 
 accustomed to take refuge during the persecutions ; 
 and it continued to be called by the peasantry '' La 
 Boche 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 
 oif from the hiorh "rround 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 battle- 
 ments. 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 
 
320 THE COUNTRY OF THE VAUDOIS. 
 
 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 every- 
 where. With the increasing range and power of 
 cannon, they have been extended in all directions, until 
 they occupy the flanks of the adjoining moimtains 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 poj)ulation is 
 the soldiery — the red-trousered missionaries of " civili- 
 sation," according to the gospel of Louis Kapoleon, 
 published a short time before our visit. 
 
 Other missionaries, are, however, at work in the town 
 and nei^rhbourhood ; and both at Briancon and Yil- 
 leneuve Protestant stations have been recently estab- 
 lished, imder 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 Pue du 
 Temple, with the motto over the entrance, in old 
 French, *' Cerches et vos troveres." But at the Pevo- 
 cation 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 Peform faith, amongst 
 others the professor of literature in the public college ; 
 
PROTESTANTISM IN FRANCE. ii\ 
 
 but lie had no sooner ticknowledged 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 opera- 
 tions in the face of many obstructions and difficulties. 
 
 What are the prospects of the extension of Pro- 
 testantism in France P 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 indi- 
 cations of renewed life and vigour, of the friction of 
 mind with mind, which evinces earnestness, and cannot 
 fail to lead to increased activity and effi^rt. The obser- 
 vations 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 in- 
 credulity 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 con- 
 fidence 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 
 
32 2 THE COUNTRY OF THE VAUDOIS, 
 
 and Latin race. However this may be, it is too gene- 
 rail}^ tlie case that wliere 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 Pro- 
 testantism, but fly off into the void of utter unbelief. 
 The same tendency characterizes them in politics. They 
 seem to oscillate between Ca^sarism and Red Repub- 
 licanism ; 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 
 Galilean 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 irre- 
 concilable parties of Evangelicals and Rationalists. 
 
PROTESTANTISM IN FRANCE. 323 
 
 At the same time it slioiild be boi^ne 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 sub- 
 jected, before as well as after the Revocation of the 
 Edict of x^ antes. 
 
 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 dailj'- 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 XIY. 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 
 Peformee — the Church of the old Huguenots — should 
 at the present day number about a thousand congrega- 
 tions, besides the five hundred Lutheran cono^resrations 
 of Alsatia ; and that the Protestants of France should 
 amount, in the whole, to about two millions of souls. 
 
 22 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 
 YAL LOUISE HISTORY OF FELIX NEFF. 
 
 OOME eiglit miles soutli of Briancon, on the road 
 ^ to Fort Daupliin, a little river called the Gyronde 
 comes down from tlie glaciers of Mont Pelvoiix, and 
 falls into tlie Durance nearly opposite the Yillage of 
 La Bessie. This river flows through. Yal Louise, the 
 entrance into which can be discerned towards the north- 
 west. Near the junction of the rivers, the ruins of an 
 embattled wall, with entrenchments, are observed ex- 
 tending 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 these ruins 
 the "Walls of the Yaudois;"* and according to tradi- 
 tion a great Yaudois battle was fought there ; but of 
 any such battle history makes no mention. 
 
 Indeed, so far as can be ascertained, the Yaudois of 
 Dauphiny rarely if ever fought battles. The}" were 
 too few in number, too much scattered among the 
 
 * A gap in the mountain-wall to the left, nearly over Li Bessie, is 
 still known as " La Porte de Hannibal," through whicli, it is con- 
 jectured, 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. 
 
VAL LOUISE. 325 
 
 mountains, and too poor and ill-armed, to be able to 
 contend against the masses of disciplined soldiery fliat 
 were occasionally cent into tbe yalleys. All tbat tliey 
 did was to watcli, from tlieir mountain look-outs, their 
 enemies' approach, and hide themselves in caA'cs ; or 
 flee up to the foot of the glaciers till they had passed 
 by. The attitude of the French Yaudois was thus for 
 the most part passive ; and they very rarely, like the 
 Italian Yaudois, ofiered any determined or organized 
 resistance to persecution. Hence they have no such 
 h eroic 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 frightfid 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 bailly of Embrun : " Item, for perse- 
 cuting the Yaudois, eight sols and thirty deniers of 
 gold," as if the persecution of the Yaudois had become 
 a regular department of the public service. What was 
 done with the Yaudois when they were seized and tried 
 at Embrun further appears from the records of the 
 diocese. In 1348, twelve of the inhabitants of Yal 
 Louise were strangled at Embrun by the public execu- 
 tioner ; 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 Yal 
 Louise was that which occurred about a century later, 
 in 1488, when nearly the whole of the remaining popu- 
 
326 THE COUNTRY OF THE VAUDOIS. 
 
 lation of the valley were destroyed in a cavern near 
 tlie foot of Mont Pelvoux. 
 
 This dreadful massacre was perpetrated by a French, 
 armj^, under the direction of Albert Catanee, the papal 
 legate. The army had been sent into Piedmont with 
 the object of subjugating or destroying the Yaudois on 
 the Italian side of the Alps, but had returned dis- 
 comfited to Briancon, unable to effect their object. 
 The legate then determined to take his revenge bj^ an 
 assault upon the helpless and unarmed French Yaudois, 
 and suddenly directed his soldiers upon the valle^^s 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 tlie 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 ap^^roaches 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 com- 
 mand of the troops, seeing that it was impossible to 
 force the entrance, sent his men up the mountain pro- 
 vided with ropes ; and fixing them so that they should 
 hang over the mouth of the cavern, a number of the 
 soldiers slid down in fidl equipment, landing on the 
 ledge right in front of the concealed Yaudois. 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, 
 
VAL LOUISE. 
 
 i"- 1 
 
 after whicli they proceeded to lieap up wood at the 
 cavern mouth which they set on fire, and thus suffo- 
 cated the remainder. Perrin says four hundred chiklren 
 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 XIL, who gave his name to the valley ; and a 
 number of "good and true Catholics," including many 
 goitres and idiots,* occupied the dwellings and pos- 
 sessed the lands of the slaughtered Yaudois. There is 
 an old saying that " the blood of the martyrs is the 
 seed of the Church," but assuredly it does not apply to 
 Yal Louise, where the primitive Christian Church has 
 been completely extinguished. 
 
 There were other valleys in the same neighbour- 
 hood, whither we are now wending, where the perse-, 
 cution, though equally ferocious, proved less destructive ; 
 the inhabitants succeeding in making their escape into 
 comparatively inaccessible places in the mountaisn 
 before they could be put to the sword. For instance, in 
 Yal Fressiniere — also opening into the valley of the 
 Durance a little lower down than Yal Louise — the 
 Yaudois 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 dis- 
 tinguished for their " heresy ; " and as early as the 
 
 * 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. 
 
31 8 777^ COUNTRY OF THE VAUDOIS. 
 
 fourteentli century eightj^ 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 cf Embrun against supposed 
 heretics of Yal Fressinieres. The suspected were 
 ordered to wear a cross upon their dress, before and 
 behind, and not to appear at church without dis2)laying 
 such crosses. But it further appears from the records, 
 that, instead of wearing the crosses, most of the persons 
 £0 informed against fled into the mountains and hid 
 themselves away in caves for the space of five years. 
 
 The next steps taken by the Archbishop are de- 
 scribed in a Latin manuscript,* of which the folloAving 
 is a translation : — 
 
 " Also, that in consequence of the above, the monk Francis Splireti, 
 of the order of Mendicants, Professor in Theolof?)', was deputed in the 
 quality of Inquisitor of the said valleys ; and that in the year 1489, 
 on the 1st of Januar}-, 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 ex- 
 communicated 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 to 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 bring- 
 ing them back, all persons were forbidden to hold any communication 
 whatsoever with them without permission of the Church, and it was 
 ordered by tlie Procureur Fiscal that the aforesaid Inquisitor do pro- 
 ceed, without further notice, to the execution of his office." 
 
 What lihe execution of the Inquisitor's office meant, 
 is, alas ! but too well known. Bonds and imprison- 
 ment, scourgings and burnings at Embrun. The poor 
 people appealed to the Kiug of France for help against 
 
 * This was one of the MSS. deposited by Samuel Morland (Oliver 
 Cromwell's ambassador to Piedmont) at Cambiidge in 16l;8, and is 
 quoted Ly Jean Leger in his History of the Yaudois Churches. 
 
VAL FRESSINIFRES. 329 
 
 tlieir 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., ascend- 
 ing the throne. But as the King was then seeking the 
 favour of a divorce from his wife, Anne of Brittanj^ 
 from Pops Alexander VI., he turned a deaf ear to 
 their petition for mercy. On the contrary, Louis con- 
 firmed all the decisions of the clergy, and in return for 
 the divorce which he obtained, he granted to the Pope's 
 son, the infamous Coosar Borgia, that very part of 
 Dauphiny inhabited by the Yaudois, together with the 
 title of Duke of Yalentinois. 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 in- 
 hospitalit}^ of the climate, and the comparative in- 
 accessibility of their villages, proved their security. 
 Of them it might be truly said, that they " wandered 
 about in sheep-skins 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 
 
330 THE COUNTRY OF THE VAUDOIS. 
 
 sliould liave been preserved. Long after the time of 
 Louis XII. and Cicsar Borgia, the French historian, 
 De Thou (writing in 1556), thus describes the people 
 of Val Fressinieres : ''JS^otwithstandlng their squalid- 
 ness, it is surprising that they are very far from being 
 uncultivated in their morals. They almost all under- 
 stand 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." * 
 
 After the promulgation of the Edict of ISTantes, the 
 Yaudois 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 per- 
 secution began again, in the reign of Louis XIY., their 
 worship was suppressed wherever practicable. But 
 though the Yaudois terajjles were pulled down and 
 their ministers banished, the Roman Catholics failed 
 to obtain a footing in the valley. Some of the pas- 
 tors 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 appre- 
 hension, 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 
 
 * De Thou's History, book xxvii. 
 
HISTORY OF FELIX NEFF. 
 
 331 
 
 condemned their pastor Berenger to death for con- 
 tinuing to preach to congregations in the '' Desert.'^ 
 
 This religious destitution of the Yaudois continued 
 to exist until a comparatively recent period. The 
 people were without cither 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 thej^ con- 
 tinued until within the last forty years, when the fact 
 of the existence, of these remnants of the ancient 
 Yaudois in the valleys of the High Alps came to the 
 knowledge of Felix JSTeff, 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 parson of a young Swiss soldier of 
 artillerj^ 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 hel^^er 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 occa- 
 sionally at Yizilie, for a period of about two years. 
 
332 THE COUNTRY OF THE VAUDOIS. 
 
 It was while residing at Mens that the young mis- 
 sionary first heard of the existence of the scattered 
 communities of primitive Christians on the High Alps, 
 descendants of the ancient Yaudois ; and his mind 
 became inflamed with the desire of doine: for them 
 what Oberlin had done for the poor Protestants of the 
 Ban de la Eoche. '' I am always dreaminfj of the Iliorh 
 Alps/' he wrote to a friend, "and I would rather be 
 stationed there than imder 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. . lie 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 Inde- 
 pendent Chapel, Poultry. 
 
 Shortly after his return to France, NefP, much to his 
 own satisfaction, was invited as pastor to the very dis- 
 trict 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 
 
HISTORY OF FELIX NEFF. 3 3 3 
 
 aiTondissements of tlie High. Alps. Though, the whole 
 number of people iu 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 Yars to Briancon, and in another 
 from Champsaur in the valle}^ of the Drac to San Yeran 
 on the slope of Monte Yiso, 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 dis- 
 regarded alike the summer's heat and the winter's cold. 
 His first visit to Dormilhouse, in Yal Fressinieres, 
 was made in January, when the mountain-paths were 
 blocked with ice and snow ; but, assembKng the young 
 men of the village, he went out with them armed with 
 hatchets, and cut steps in the ice to enable the worship- 
 pers from the lower hamlets to climb up to service in 
 the village church. The people who first came to hear 
 him preach at Yiolens 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 stafi" 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 
 Ivnx and the chamois, with the snow and sleet beating 
 
33+ THE COUNTRY OF THE VAUDOIS. 
 
 against Ms face, to visit his people on ttie other side 
 of the mountain. His patience, his perseverance, his 
 sweetness of temper, were unfailing. '' Ah ! " said one 
 unbelieving Thomas of Yal 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 extin- 
 guished." 
 
 Neff nevertheless laboured on with hope, and neither 
 discouragement nor obstruction slackened his efforts. 
 And such labours could not fail of their effect. lie 
 succeeded in inspiring the simple mountaineers with 
 his own zeal, he evoked their love, and excited their 
 enthusiastic admiration. When he returned to Dormil- 
 house 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 WTotc 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, JS^eff* was always at 
 w^ork. He exhorted the people in hovels, held schools 
 in barns in which he taught the children, and cate- 
 chised 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 schoolbcy. He worked as a mis- 
 sionary 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 begin- 
 ning Sharing in their hovels and stables, with their 
 
HISTORY OF FELIX NEFF. 335 
 
 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 gentle- 
 ness 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 oppo- 
 sition 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 Yiolens 
 he helj^ed 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 
 
336 THE COUNTRY OF THE VAUDOIS. 
 
 tlmo seriously injured. When he went away, tlie 
 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 Frcssinieres — the principle scene of 
 Neff's labours — ^joins the valley of the Durance nearly 
 opposite the little hamlet of La lloche. 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 Frcssinieres, the level of 
 which is high above that of the Durance. Xot many 
 years since, the higher valley could only be a2:)proached 
 from this point by a very difficult mountain-path amidst 
 rocks and stones, called the Ladder, or Pas de rEchelle. 
 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 discom- 
 forts of travelling through this district in J^eff'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 
 
PARSONA GE AT PAL ONS. 3 3 7 
 
 of passing travellers. He had no eyes for tKe picturesque 
 thougli 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 I'Echelle, which he did not climb '' with- 
 out profound emotion," was a great trouble to him. Of 
 all this we find not a word in the journals or letters of 
 l^eff, whose early life as a soldier had perhaps better 
 inured him to " roughing it " than the more tender 
 bringing-up of Pastor Best. 
 
 As we rounded the shoulder of the hill, almost 
 directly overlookino^ the ancient Poman town of Pama 
 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 Pro- 
 testant pastor, situated at the very entrance to the 
 valley. Although the peasants' houses which consti- 
 tute the hamlet of Palons are still very poor and 
 miserable, the place has been greatly improved since 
 Nefi''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 
 
338 THE COUNTRY OF THE VAUDOIS. 
 
 1852 by the Rev. Mr. Freemantle, rector of Clay don, 
 Bucks, assisted by the Foreign Aid Society and a few 
 private friends, with, the object of providing pastors' 
 dwellings, as well as chapels when req[uired, 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 in- 
 cumbent 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, includ- 
 ing the four villages of Eibes, Yiolens, 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 ISTeff. 
 
 The situation of the parsonage and adjoining grounds 
 at Palons is charmingly picturesque. It stands at 
 the entrance to the defile which leads into Yal Fres- 
 sinieres, having a background of bold rocks enclosing a 
 mountain plateau known as the " Camp of Catinat," a 
 notorious persecutor of the Yaudois. 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, f\ir below. This fall, or cataract, is not in- 
 appropriately named the " Goufiburan,'^ 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 half-way down, 
 
VAL LOUISE. 339 
 
 'the water shoots into a deep, dark cavern, where it 
 becomes completely lost to sight. 
 
 The inhabitants of the hamlet are a poor hard-work- 
 ing 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 valle}^ 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 Yaudois 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 dis- 
 integration of the adjoining rock. !N'efF once took 
 Captain Cotton up to see it, and chanted the Te Dcuni 
 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, ^N^efi" 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 vallej^, 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 
 
 23 
 
340 THE COUNTRY OF THE VAUDOIS. 
 
 Gap, great stumbling-blocks " The loftiest, coldest, 
 and most barren spots — such as San Yeran and Dormil- 
 house — were, in his opinion, by far the most promising. 
 Of the former he said, "It is the highest, and conse- 
 quently the most pious, village in the ralley 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 
 OberlLn/" 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 
 THE YAUDOIS MOUNTAIX-REFUGE OF DORMILHOUSE. 
 
 rriHE Yalley of Fressinieres could never have main- 
 -L tained 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 cul- 
 tivated 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 Yaudois 
 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 inhabit- 
 ants were enabled to take refuge in caves in the mount- 
 
342 THE COUNTRY OF THE VAUDOIS. 
 
 ain-sides, or flee to tlie uppar parts of tlie valley, before 
 the soldiers could clamber up tbe steep Pas de I'Ecbelle, 
 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 sufier 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 
 l^ersecuted, remains a Yaudois 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 proA'e in vain. We 
 were also warned that there was an utter want of accom- 
 modation for visitors at Dormilhouse, for which we 
 must be prepared. The words scratched on the window 
 
VAL FRESSINIERES. 343 
 
 of the Norwegian inn miglit indeed apply to it : '' Here 
 tlie stranger may find very good entertainment — pro- 
 vided he bring it icith him /" We accordingly carried 
 our entertainment witli 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 tor- 
 rent. 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 degene- 
 racy. So it was forty years since, when Felix Neff was 
 amongst them, and so it will be fort}'' years hence. One 
 day 1:^0^ met an old man near Mens, who recounted 
 to him the story of the persecutions w^hich 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 
 
344 THE COUNTRY OF THE VAUDOIS. 
 
 present at divine service performed in secret ; but 
 now we are grown lazy : religious freedom is tlie death- 
 blow 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 
 Koman Catholic and partly Protestant. The Boman 
 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 Kibes 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 Yal Pressinieres where pastors and 
 visitors could be lodged previous to the erection, by 
 Mr. Preemantle, of the pleasant little parsonage at 
 Palons. This apartment in the Baridons' house JN^eff 
 used to call the " Prophet's Chamber." 
 
 Half an hour higher up the valley we reached the 
 hamlet of Yiolens, where all the inhabitants are Pro- 
 testants. 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. Yiolens 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 cum, signifying a hollow or 
 dingle. 
 
 A little above Yiolens the valley contracts almost to 
 
VAL FRESSINIERES. 345 
 
 a ravine, until we reacli tlie miserable hamlet of 
 Minsals, so sKut in by steep crags that for nine 
 montbs of the year it never sees the sun, and durino- 
 several months in winter it Kes 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 pre- 
 cipices on the mountain- side, is a wonder. 
 
 One of the horrors of this valley consists in the con- 
 stant 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. AYhat 
 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 vallej^, washing away 
 fields, and bridges, and mills, and hovels. 
 
 Even the stouter-built dwelling of M. Baridon at 
 Les Kibes was nearly carried away by one of such in- 
 undations twelve years ago. It stands about a hundred 
 yards from the mountain- stream which comes down 
 
346 THE COUNTRY OF THE VAUDOIS. 
 
 from the Pic de la Sea. One day in summer a storm 
 burst over tlie mountain, and the stream at once became 
 s\\'ollen 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 dail}' 
 life in Yal 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 deformitj^ occupied himself in teaching 
 the children in the Protestant school at Yiolens, 
 whither he walked daily, accompanied by the pupils 
 from Les Eibes. One da}-, 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 
 Yiolens ; the road to Les Pibes 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. Sup- 
 ported by a stout staff, the lame Baridon took first one 
 
DORMILHOUSE. 347 
 
 cliild and tlien another upon liis liump-back, and con- 
 trived to carry tliem across in safety ; but wliile making 
 bis last journey witb the last child, his foot slipped and 
 his leg got badl}^ crushed among the still-rolling stones. 
 He was, however, able to extricate himself, and reached 
 Les Itibes 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 Yaudois were so often hunted, we reached 
 an apparent cul-de-sac amongst the mountains, beyond 
 which further progress seemed impracticable. Pre- 
 cipitous 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 foot2:)ath, a 
 way up the mountain-side gradually disclosed itself — a 
 zigzag np the face of what seemed to be a sheer pre- 
 cipice — and this we were told was the road to Dormil- 
 house. The zigzag path is known as the Tourniquet. 
 The ascent is long, steep, and fatiguing. As we passed 
 up, we observed that the j)i'ecipice 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 cultiva- 
 tion ; and these are the fields of the people of Dormil- 
 house ! 
 
 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 meander- 
 
348 THE COUNTRY OF THE VAUDOIS. 
 
 ing like a tliread in the hollow of the mountains, 
 becoming lost to sight in the rayine 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 ovir way up, 
 rain began to fall ; as we ascended the Tourniquet the 
 rain became changed to sleet ; and at length, on reach- 
 ing 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 
 Yaudois — 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 esta- 
 blishing 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 
 
DORMILHOUSE. 349 
 
 for nearly six liundred years, during whicli tlie 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 ethers 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 Yaudois. In 
 features, dress, habits, names, language, and religious 
 doctrine, they have an almost perfect identity with the 
 Yaudois of Piedmont at the present day. 
 
 Dormilhouse consists of about forty cottages, in- 
 habited 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, vi^ich they bake into cakes in the autumn, 
 and these cakes last them the whole year — the grain, 
 if left unbaked, being aj)t 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 imsavoury means 
 which they are under the necessity of adopting to 
 economize warmth in the winter, by stabling the cattle 
 
350 THE COUNTRY OF THE VAUDOIS. 
 
 witli 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 else- 
 where at its richest, the dominant features of the land- 
 scape 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 ajjpalling 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 
 
DORMILHOUSE. 351 
 
 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 
 np the valley, tears the roofs from the huts, and scatters 
 them in destruction. 
 
 Here is a passage from ^N'eif's journal, yividly de- 
 scriptive 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 Xovem- 
 •ber. At tliis 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 every- 
 where One Sunday evening our scholars and many of the 
 
 Dormilhouse people, when returing 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 abso- 
 lutely safe. But terrible as their situation is, they owe to it their re- 
 ligion, and perhaps their physical existence. If their country had 
 been more secure and more accessible, they would have been extermi- 
 nated like the inhabitants of Val Louise." 
 
 Such is the interesting though desolate mountain ham- 
 let 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 con^fortable 
 cottage at La Chalp, to spend his winters in the dismal 
 hovels and amidst the barren wastes of Dormilhouse. 
 
352 THE COUNTRY OF THE VAUDOIS. 
 
 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 
 Yaudois 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 Yaudois church-bell, 
 which was hid away imtil of late years, when it was 
 dug up and hung in the belfry of the j^resent 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 congrega- 
 tion 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. 
 
DORMILHOUSE. 353 
 
 This continued until the period of the French Revo- 
 lution, 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 
 j)ictures, took down the crosses, dug up the ol d Yaudois 
 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 re- 
 lated 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 
 JSTeff'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 CathoKcs 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 purj)le dress, riding a 
 white horse, and accompanied by a party of men bear- 
 ing 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 
 
354 THE COUNTRY OF THE VAUDOIS. 
 
 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 Tillage. Somehow or other, the 
 red cross which had been set up mysteriously dis- 
 appeared, 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. Frcemantle, of Claydon. But 
 when he was told that the site was exposed to the full 
 force of the avalanches descending from the U23per 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 GLOIKE DE DIEU 
 
 DONT DE LES TEMl'S AXCIEXS 
 
 ET A TKAVERP LE MAKTTK DE LEUltS PEKES 
 
 A MAIXTEXU 
 
 A DOKMILHOrSE 
 
 LA FOI DOXNE AUX SAINTS 
 
 ET LA COXXAlSSANCE DE LA PAROLE 
 
 LES HABITANTS ONT ELEVE 
 
 CETTE PIERKE 
 
 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 
 
DORMILHOUSE. 355 
 
 little way down tlie mountain-side we discerned the 
 village cliurch, 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-Yerdure family while at Dormilhouse, and 
 now known as " Felix Xcffs 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 peoj)le had been 
 expecting the visit, and turned out in full force, so 
 that at nine o'clock, when the last bell rang, the cliurch 
 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 mis- 
 sionary 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 continu- 
 ance in well-doing. In the course of his remarks he 
 said : ''Be not discouraged because the results of your 
 labours may appear but small. AVork 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 
 
 24 
 
356 THE COUNTRY OF THE VAUDOIS, 
 
 watcliing 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 
 np 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 ej'rie 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. Hather 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 j^erch on the rocks at Dormil- 
 house. 
 
 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 
 Arnoudd — proud of their descent from the ancient 
 Yaudois. It is their boast that a Roman Catholic does 
 nofc live among them. Once, when a young shepherd 
 came np 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 
 
RETURN TO PALONS 357 
 
 answer, with tliis condition, tliat lie joined the Yaudois 
 Church. And he assented, married the girl, and set- 
 tled for life at Dormilhouse.* 
 
 The next morning broke clear and bright overhead. 
 The Sim 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 
 dis]Dersing 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 w^hich Dormil- 
 house 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 back- 
 ground 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 
 
 * Since the date of our visit, we learn that a sad accident — strik- 
 ingly 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 waa 
 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. 
 
358 THE COUNTRY OF THE VAUDOIS, 
 
 be considered a fine object ; but in this out-of-tbe-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. 
 
 TX7E left Palons on a sharp, briglit morning in July, 
 ' ^ with the prospect of a fine clay before ns, though 
 there had been a fall of snow in the night, which 
 whitened the tops of the neighbouring hills. Follow- 
 ing the road along the heights on the right bank of 
 the Biasse, and passing the hamlet of Chancellas, 
 another favourite station of jN^eff'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 sldll 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, deem- 
 ing the opportunity favourable for the extirpation of 
 the heretical Yaudois, dispatched the military com- 
 mandant of Embrun against the inhabitants of Yal 
 
360 THE COUNTRY OF THE VAUDOIS. 
 
 Fressinieres at tlie head of an army of twelve liundred 
 men. Lesdiguieres, then scarce twenty-four yeors 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. Yictor-Amadeus II., when 
 invading tlic province with a Picdmontese armj^ at 
 sight of the plateau commanding the entrance of both 
 valleys, exclaimed, " There is a pass to fortif3\" The 
 hint was not neglected by the French general, Catinat, 
 under whose directions the great engineer, Yauban, 
 traced the plan of the present fortifications. It is a 
 very strong place, comj^letely commanding the vallej^ 
 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 Eioubel 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 perse- 
 cutors of the Yaudois. The castle of the archbishop, 
 
GUILLESTRE. 361 
 
 flanked by six towers, occupied a commanding site 
 immediately overlooking the town ; but at the French. 
 Revolution of 1789, the first thing which the arch- 
 bishop'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 pre- 
 cincts 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 paj-able 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 Pied- 
 montese 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, diflering 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 
 
362 THE COUNTRY OF THE VAUDOIS. 
 
 milk ; and so on. Tlie largest lot consisted of about 
 forty lambs, of various sizes and breeds, wbicb had 
 been driven down from tbe cool air of tbe 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 j^atois, 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 
 pait 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 quanti- 
 ties of honeycomb ; while the sellers of scythes, whet- 
 stones, 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 braj^ing 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. 
 
GUILLESTRE. 363 
 
 There is a similar fair lield at tlie 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 inhabit- 
 ants 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 w^hole 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 primi- 
 tive 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 Keff to regard it as an important 
 centre of missionary operations amongst the Yaudois. 
 In nearly all the mountain villages in its neighbour- 
 hood descendants of the ancient Yaudois are to be 
 found, sometimes in the most remote and inaccessible 
 places, whither they had fled in the times of the perse- 
 cutions. Thus at Yars, a mountain hamlet up the 
 torrent Kioubel, about nine miles from Guillestre, 
 there is a little Christian community, which, though 
 under the necessity of long concealing their faith, 
 
364 THE COUNTRY OF THE VAUDOIS 
 
 never ceased to be Yaudois in spirit.* Then, np 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 Yeran, 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. 
 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 I^eff's labours were too 
 short, and scattered over too extensive a field, to pro- 
 duce 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 monej^, a noble 
 example, which still lives, and inspires the labourers 
 who have come after him. 
 
 * 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 m}-- 
 pupils, as regards spiritual things and secular too, is Jean Eostan, of 
 Vars : he is probablj' 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 shortlj'^ after, Rostan 
 left, to pursue his studies at jNfontauban. 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. 
 
GUILLESTRE. 365 
 
 It was not until within the last twenty years that a 
 few Yaudois 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 18-51. He was rejoiced to see the zeal of 
 the people, holding to their faith in the face of con- 
 siderable opposition and opprobrium ; and he exerted 
 himself to raise the requisite funds amongst his friends 
 in England to provide the Guillestre Yaudois 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 Eoman Catholics, but to 
 strengthen the hands and establish the faith of the 
 Yaudois. And in so doing we have found, not un- 
 fi^equently, 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 
 RomCj and such haA^e 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 Yaudois — 
 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. 
 
366 THE COUNTRY OF THE VAUDOIS. 
 
 Tlie cure tvas doubtless seriously impressed by tbe 
 gravity of the situation ; and to protect the parish 
 against the assaults of the evil one, be bad a large num- 
 ber of crosses erected upon tbe 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 Yaudois 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 Yaudois church in Guillestre ; but 
 now that they did know, they were desirous of ascer- 
 taining something about the doctrines taught there. 
 The consequence was, that a crowd of people — amongst 
 
GUILLESTRE. 367 
 
 ■whom were some of the highest authorities in the town, 
 the registrar, the douaniers, the chief of a neighbounng 
 commune, and persons of all classes — assembled at noon 
 to hear M. de Faje, 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 flimily. 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, Xo man was more respected 
 in Guillestre than the sergeant. His long and faithful 
 service entitled him to the medaille miiitaire, and it 
 would have been awarded to him, but for the circum- 
 stance 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 ofi" to a station in the mountains at Chateau 
 Queyras. 
 
 Though this banishment from Guillestre was intended 
 as a pmiisbment, it only served to bring out the sterling 
 
368 THE COUNTRY OF THE VAUDOIS. 
 
 qualities of the sergeant, and to ensure li.s 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 Trent 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 ap- 
 pearance. 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 afllxir 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 
 
GUILLESTRE CHURCH AND SCHOOL. 369 
 
 result was so satisfactory tliat 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, Avhere he now officiates as Regent of the 
 Yaudois church, reading fhe 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 Yars 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, gloA^e- 
 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 per- 
 sons 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 
 
370 THE COUNTRY OF THE VAUDOIS. 
 
 otlier means for the education of their cliildren, are also 
 received at tlie scliool. The girls seem to be extremely 
 well taken care of, and the house, "vrhich we went over, 
 is a very pattern of cleanliness and comfort. 
 
 The route from Guillestre into Italy lies up the 
 valley of the Guil, througii 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-Yal, 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 Yia Mala, though here the 
 road, at the narrowest and most precipitous parts, runs 
 in the hottom 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 roa<i has been completed, 
 and it is often partly washed away in winter, or covered 
 with rock and stones brought down by the torrent. 
 AYhen Neff travelled the gorge, it was passable only on 
 foot, or on muleback. Yet light-footed armies have 
 passed into Italy by this route. Lesdiguieres clam- 
 bered 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- 
 
CHATEAU QUEYRAS. 371 
 
 looking Castle of (Jueyras comes in siglit, occupying 
 the summit of a lofty conical rock in tlie 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 yalley, 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 sajang 
 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 lias 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 Yeran 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 Itah^ As in 
 
 the case of the descendants of the ancient Yaudois 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 Kevocation. From that time down 
 
 to the Pevolution they worshipped only in secret, 
 
 occasionally ministered to by Yaudois pastors, wbo made 
 
 precarious visits to them from the Italian valleys at the 
 
 risk of their lives. 
 
 25 
 
372 THE COUNTRY OF THE VAUDOIS. 
 
 A.boYe Arvieux is the hamlet of La Chalp, containing 
 a considerable number of Protestants, and where Xeff 
 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 Ncff 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 im- 
 penetrable." 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 Yeran, which lies up among the 
 mountains some twelve miles to the east of Arvieux, on 
 the opposite side of the Yal Queyras, was another 
 of the refuges of the ancient Yaudois. It is at the foot 
 of the snoTvy ridge which divides France from Italy. 
 Dr. Gilly says, " There is nothing fit for mortal to take 
 refuge in between San Yeran and the eternal snows 
 which mantle the pinnacles of Monte Yiso." The village 
 is 6,692 feet above the level of the sea, and there 
 is a provincial saying that San Yeran is the highest 
 spot in Europe where bread is eaten. Felix ^qW said, 
 '' It is the highest, and consequently the most pious, 
 in the valley of Qaeyras." 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. 
 
NEFF'S CHARGE. 373 
 
 " The siglit of a female," lie saj^s, ^' 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 Yeran are the mountain 
 hamlets of Pierre Grrosse and Fon-gillarde, also 
 ancient retreats of the persecuted Yaudois, and now for 
 the most part inhabited by Protestants. The remote- 
 ness 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 JSTantes 
 permitted to worship in public without molestation, 
 four years elapsed before the intelligence reached San 
 Yeran. 
 
 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 jDarish of which he had charge ex- 
 tended from San A^eran, on the frontier, to Champsaur, 
 in the valley of the Drac, a distance of nearly eighty 
 miles. His charge consisted of the scattered popula- 
 tion of many mountain hamlets, to visit wliich in suc- 
 cession 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. Xeif records that on one occasion 
 he took six hours to make the journey, in the midst of 
 a snow-storm which completelv hid the footpath, from 
 
374 THE COUNTRY OF THE VACDOIS. 
 
 his cottage at La Chalp to San Yeran, a distance of 
 only twelve miles. 
 
 The pastors who succeeded Neff had the same diffi- 
 culties 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 atten- 
 tion, when he entered upon his noble work of supplying 
 the spiritual destitution of the French Taudois, 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 Fressiniercs, which includes Palons, 
 Violins, and Dormilhouse, j^rovided with three tem^^les, 
 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 Ye ran, with Fongillardc 
 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 Yars, jorovided 
 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 Yilleneuve. 
 
 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 
 
ABRIES. 375 
 
 pastors, ill the words of Mr. Freemantlc, is ^^ not to 
 regard tliemselves as missionaries to proselytize Koman 
 Catliolics, 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 Yaudois. Thus, in one district — that 
 of St. Laurent du Cros — a hanque 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 eflforts 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 earlj^ on the following morning on our 
 way to the Yaudois valleys of Piedmont. 
 
VALLEY OF LUSERNE. 
 
 
 >#• '#^ <BcmcTiUt. 
 ^^ ^^- Crosenn^ 
 Cohttela Croixs 
 
 Gicmsarano <^ - 
 
 "^^ 
 
 A-rmallier^ 
 
 
 
 
 I. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 s:::\V 
 
 <"'^ Giraudirie 
 
 
 S^E E N.E ^frci 
 
 ^-'/'V 
 
 ^' MiFalava.f 
 
 
 ilPis 
 
 - /Cci'^ 
 
 CHxVPTEE YI. 
 
 THE VALLEY OF THE PELICE LA TOL' R- 
 
 THE PRA DU TOUR. 
 
 -AXGROGXA- 
 
 rpHE 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 Yaudois 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 Police. 
 
 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 Ave should walk the 
 distance, the greater part of the road being merely a 
 track, scarcely practicable for mules, we were up be- 
 times in the morning, and on our way. The sun had 
 
THE VALLEY OF THE PELLCE. 377 
 
 scarcely risen above tlie 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 aj)pearance, for the accom- 
 modation 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 Felice, a grand 
 and savage scene. The majestic, snow-capped Monte 
 Yiso towers up on the right, at the head of the valle}", 
 amidst an assemblage, of other great mountain masses. 
 From its foot seems to steal the river Felice, now a 
 quiet rivulet, though in winter a raging torrent. 
 Fight 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 Felice, 
 expanding into that of the Fo, and in the remote 
 distance the plains of Fiedmont ; while immediately 
 beneath our feet, as it were, but far below, lies a con- 
 siderable breadth of green pasture, the Bergerie of Fra, 
 enclosed on all sides by the mountains over which we 
 look. 
 
37.8 THE' COUNTRY OF THE VAUDOIS. 
 
 The descent from tlie 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 
 ha 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 in- 
 formed us that among the rarer specimens he had col- 
 Lcted in the course of his journey on the summit were 
 the Poli/goniim a/pimmi and Silcne rallesia, above Monta; 
 the LcucantJiemuni a/jnnum, near the Hospice ; the 
 Linaria alpina and Cirsium spinosissimus on the Col; 
 while the Lloijdia scrotiua, Arahis alpina, PJiytciinm 
 Jiemixphcricum, and Rhododoidnim ferruginciun, 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 adjoin- 
 ing mountains during the saason. Here is also the 
 usual customs station, with a fe v 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 
 Police, which is kept in sight nearly the whole way. 
 A little below the Pra, where it enters the defile of 
 
THE VALLEY OF THE FELICE. 379 
 
 Mirabouc, the patli merely follows what is tlie bed of 
 the torrent in winter. The descent is down ledercs 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 steej) escarpments of the 
 mountain, which, in ancient times, completely com- 
 manded 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 detach- 
 ments in their invasion of Italy. 
 
 It is not until we reach Bobi, or Bobbio, several miles 
 lower down the Police, 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. AYe 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 j)lough. 
 
 Yet, beautiful and peaceful though this valley of the 
 Felice now aj)pears, 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 
 Yaudois 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 
 
38o THE COUNTRY OF THE VAUDOIS. 
 
 mountain fastnesses. Bobi itself was tlie scene of man}^ 
 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 Yaudois performed one of 
 their bravest exploits under Henri Arnaud, after their 
 *' Glorious Ileturn " 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 
 vallej's. 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 
 Yaudois ; but their sufferings had excited the sj^m- 
 pathies of all Europe, and of Protestant England in 
 particular, which not only sent them sjmipathy, but 
 substantial succour. Cromwell also, through the in- 
 fluence 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 iipon 
 village after village — La Piante, Yillar, 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 
 
LA TOUR. 381 
 
 in the principal villages and hamlets, though Homanisni 
 has long been supported by the power of the State and 
 the patronage of the Church, the Protestant Yaudois 
 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 plat- 
 form 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 valley's 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 hand- 
 some Yaudois church, situated at the western entrance 
 of the town of La Tour, near to which is the coUese for 
 the education of Yaudois pastors, together -wath resi- 
 
382 THE COUNTRY OF THE VAUDOIS. 
 
 dences for tlie clergy and professors. The founding of 
 this establishment, as well as of the hospital for the 
 poor and infirm Yaudois, 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 3'ears 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 desig- 
 nation of him by a Poman 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 Yaudois in the following curiously acci- 
 dental 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 '' JSTarrative," 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 Yaudois 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 re- 
 turned 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 
 
LA TOUR. 383 
 
 Yaudois Cliurcli and people. He organized a move- 
 ment 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 colUge at La Tour, 
 erecting the present commodious dwellings for the pro- 
 fessors, 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 missionar}^, 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 hricli- and' mortar g[fty The general was satisfied 
 to go on as he had begun, helping to build schools, 
 colleges, and churches for the Yaudois, wherever most 
 needed. His croT\Tiing work was the erection of the 
 grand block of buildings on the Yiale del Ee at Turin, 
 which not only includes a handsome and commodious 
 Yaudois church, but an English church, and a Yaudois 
 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 — 
 
384 THE COUNTRY OF THE VAUDOIS. 
 
 give one tlie idea of tlie best part of an Englisli town. 
 But this disappears as you enter tlie 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 Yandalin 
 Mountain, near the confluence of the river Angrogna 
 with the Police. 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 yalley of the Police, and eastward over the plains 
 of Piedmont — the whole coimtry being, as it were, em- 
 broidered 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 Yaudois popu- 
 lation occupies the valley of the Police and the lateral 
 valley of Angrogna ; the remainder, more -widely scat- 
 tered, 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 Pome 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 w^onder is, that a scattered community of half- 
 armed peasantry, without resources, without magazines, 
 
THE VALLEY OF ANGROGNA. 385 
 
 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 Yaudois had no walled towns, their 
 district was a natural fortress, every foot of which was 
 known to them — every pass, every defile, every barri- 
 cade, 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 Thermopyloe 
 of the Yaudois — 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 combi- 
 nation 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. 
 
386 THE COUNTRY OF THE VAUDOIS 
 
 Sliortly after entering tlie valley, we passed the scene 
 of several terrible struggles between the Yaudois and 
 their persecutors. One of the most famous spots is the 
 plateau of Hochemalan, where the hpights of St. John 
 abut upon the mountains of Angrogna. It was shortly 
 after the fulmination of a bull of extermination against 
 the Yaudois by Pope Innocent YIII., in 1486, that an 
 army of eighteen thousand regular French and Pied- 
 montese 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 A^audois in their 
 fastnesses. The Papal legate, Albert Catanee, Arch- 
 deacon 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 Yaudois 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. lie extended his lines so 
 as to enclose the entire bod}^ of heretics, with the object 
 of cutting them off to a man. The Yaudois, 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 Hochemalan, which the crusaders attacked with great 
 courage. But the Yaudois 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 down-hill in disorder, pursuing them 
 into the very plain. 
 
BATTLE OF ROCHEMALAN. 387 
 
 The next clay tlie Papaliiii 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 con- 
 fused, broken up, and entangled in difficult paths ; and 
 in this state, marching aj^prehensively, they were fallen 
 upon by the Yaudois 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 Toiimpi 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 successfid, 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 
 arm}^ of Italians and, Sj)aniards, 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 
 Pome. And as the peasantry did not return, on the 
 2nd N^ovember, 1560, the Count advanced at the head 
 of his army to extirpate the heretics. The Yaudois 
 were provided with the rudest sort of weapons ; many 
 of them had only slings and cross-bows. Put they felt 
 strong in the goodness of their cause, and prepared to 
 defend themselves to the death. 
 
 26 
 
388 THE COUNTRY OF THE VAUDOIS. 
 
 As the Count's army advanced, tlie Yaudois retired 
 until tliey readied tlie liigh ground near Rocliemalan, 
 wliere tliey 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 Yaudois 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 Yaudois, 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 '' Yiva Jcsu 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 Yaudois, from whence 
 we shall afterwards find them again driven back, 
 baffled and defeated. 
 
 A hundred years passed, and still the Yaudois 
 remained unconverted and unexterminated. The 
 Marquis of Pianesse now advanced upon Angrogna 
 — always with the same object, "ad extirj^andos 
 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 Yaudois. The Irish were known as 
 
BATTLE OF AXGROGNA. 389 
 
 *' the assassins" I y 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 iip 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 Roch opiate, 
 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 detach- 
 ment 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 compara- 
 tively 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 deadl^^ For five hours Javanel 
 resisted them as he best could, and then, seeing signs 
 of impatience and hesitation in the enemy's ranks, he 
 
390 THE COUNTRY OF THE VAUDOIS. 
 
 called out to his men, " Forward, my friends ! " and 
 thej^ rushed down-liill like an avalanche. The three 
 thousand men recoiled, broke, and fled before the three 
 hundred ; and Javanel returned yictorious 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 Yaudois 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'w^hom 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 
 Yaudois struggle for countr}^ 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 Pochemalan. 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 
 
PRA DU TOUR. 391 
 
 precipices, or cncroaclied upon by rocks and boulders 
 fallen from tlie lieigbts, until at length we emerge 
 from tbe 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 ap- 
 proach 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 Yaudois 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 harhas* educated young men for the 
 ministry, and provided for the religious instruction of 
 the Yaudois population. 
 
 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 
 
 * Bnrha — a title of respect; in the Vaudois dialect literally signify, 
 in or an imcle. 
 
392 THE COUNTRY OF THE VAULOIS. 
 
 inliabitants of tlie neiglibouring 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 Yachere and 
 Boussine, 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 neigh- 
 bourhood of Rochemalan above described. 
 
 On the occasion of the defeat of the Count de la 
 Trinite by the little Yaudois 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 Barri- 
 cade — 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 
 lodies of troops to advance upon the place round by 
 the mountains, one hj the heights of the Yachere, 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 
 
PRA DU TOUR. 393 
 
 made every effort to force tlio defile, and failed. Two 
 colonels, eiglit 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 Sj^anish companies, but 
 this, too, failed ; and the troops, wdien 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 Eochemalan, made a similar attempt to 
 surprise the Yaudois 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 Yaudois 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 pro- 
 minent objects that meets the eye is the Eoman 
 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 Poman Catholic armies failed to do 
 — established itself in the midst of the Yaudois strong- 
 hold, 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 crossino- the rustic 
 bridge over the Pele, one of the mountain rivulets 
 
394 THE COUNTRY OF THE VAUDOIS. 
 
 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 Yachere — 
 past the cottage where she herself lived, and pointed to 
 the site: "There," she said, "is where the ancient 
 college of the Yaudois stood." The old building has, 
 however, long since been removed, the present struc- 
 ture 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 extremelj^ wild and grand. The acclivities 
 which surround the head of the Pra seem as if battle- 
 mented walls ; the mountain opposite throws its 
 sombre shadow over the ravine in which the torrent 
 rune ; 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 imder the glow of evening, and arrived 
 at our destination about dusk, to find the fireflies dart- 
 ing about the streets of La Tour. 
 
MR. EDWARD MILSOM. 395 
 
 The next day saw ns at Turin, and our summer 
 excursion at an end. Mr. Milsom, wlio had so plea- 
 santly 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 Best's account of his visit to the 
 scene of Felix IN^eff's labours in the High Alps. He 
 felt touched by the simple, faithful character of the 
 people, and keenly sj^mpathised 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 Aillages of Arvieux and Sans Yeran, up 
 the vale of Queyras ; and nearly every year thereafter 
 
396 THE COUNTRY OF THE VAUDOIS, 
 
 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 repaated 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 stimu- 
 lated 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 heart- 
 burning 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 Yaudois 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 YIL 
 
 THE GLORIOUS RETURN: 
 AN EPISODE IX THE HISTORY OF THE ITALIAN V^\UDOIS. 
 
 WHAT is known as The Glorious Heturn, or re- 
 entry of tlie exiled Yaudois in 1689 to resume 
 possession of the valleys from which they had been 
 banished, will alwaj's 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 Yaudois 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 sufi'ered 
 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 com- 
 pelling the Yaudois 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 j)cople, 
 
398 THE COUNTRY OF THE VAUDOIS. 
 
 taken by surprise, usually took to flight ; on wliicli 
 their dwellings were burnt and their fields laid waste. 
 But when they had time to rallj'- 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 Yaudois 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 Yaudois 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 treat}^, that the pastors 
 of the Yaudois 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 Yaudois 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 Yaudois in the recent war, both of 
 
THE GLORIOUS RETURN. 399 
 
 whom were declared to be banislied the ducal do- 
 minions. 
 
 Under this treaty the Yaudois 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 XIY. of France revoked the Edict of 
 x^antes in 1685, and interdicted all Protestant worship 
 throughout his dominions, the law of course applied to 
 the vallej^s of Perouse and Pragela as to the other 
 parts of France. The Yaudois 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 Yaudois 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 Yaudois 
 
400 THE COUNTRY OF 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 Homan 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 dis- 
 pleasure when he heard of the flight of the Yaudois 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 %te])s 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 XIY. was treating him as a 
 vassal of France rather than as an independent 
 sovereign. But he felt himself to be weak, and com- 
 paratively powerless to resent the insult. So he first 
 temporised, then vacillated, and being again pressed bj'- 
 the French king, he eventually yielded. The amnesty 
 Avas declared to be at an end, and the Yaudois were 
 ordered forthwith to become members of the Church of 
 Rome. An edict was issued on the 31st of Januar}^, 
 1686, forbidding the exercise by the Yaudois 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 
 
THE GLORIOUS RETURN. 401 
 
 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 
 u repetition by the Duke of Savoy in Piedmont of 
 what his master Louis XIY. 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 Govern- 
 ment as before, but the Duke took no notice of their 
 memorial. The question of resistance was then dis- 
 cussed ; but the people were without leaders. Javanel 
 was living in banishment at Geneva — old and worn out, 
 and unable to lead them. Besides, the Yaudois, before 
 taking up arms, wished to exhaust every means of con- 
 ciliation. Ambassadors next came from Switzerland, 
 who urged them to submit to the clemency of the Duke, 
 and suggested that they should petition him for per- 
 mission to leave the country! The Yaudois 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 Savov, 
 France, and Spain, without leaders, and with less 
 than three thousand combatants, was little short of 
 madness. 
 
 Nevertheless, a number of the Yaudois 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 Yaudois position on Easter 
 
402 THE COUNTRY OF THE VAUDOIS. 
 
 Monday, 1686, at break of day, — the Duke of Savo}^ 
 assailing tke valley of Luzerna, while Catinait, com- 
 mander of the Frencli troops, advanced on St. Martin. 
 Catinat made the first attack on the Tillage 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 Yaudois 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 indis- 
 criminately 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 tho Yaudois assembled there at 
 all points. The resistance lasted for an entire day, and 
 when night fell, both forces slept on the ground uj)on 
 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 suc- 
 cessful : he sent forward messengers to inform the 
 Yaudois that their brethren of the Yal St. Martin had 
 laid down their arms and been pardoned, inviting them 
 to follow their example. The result of further parley 
 
THE GLORIOUS RETURN. 403 
 
 was, that on the express promise of his Iloyal Highness 
 that they should receive pardon, and that neither their 
 persons nor those of their wives or children should be 
 touched, the credulous Yaudois, 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 suc- 
 cessful 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 accord- 
 ingly 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. Muston, " were loaded with 
 irons ; their children were carried off and scattered 
 through the Poman 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 imi^ossible to describe."* 
 
 '•'All the valleys are now exterminated," wrote a 
 French officer to his friends ; *' the people are all killed, 
 hanged, or massacred." The Duke, Victor Amadous, 
 issued a decree, declaring the Yaudois 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 conse- 
 
 * Muston's *' Israel of the Alps," translated by Montgomery ; 
 Glasgow, 1857; vol. i. p. 446. 
 
 27 
 
404- THE COUNTRY OF THE VAUDOIS. 
 
 quence of this horrible Easter festival of blood. Six 
 tboiisand were taken prisoners, and the greater number 
 of tbese died in gaol of bunger and disease. Wlien 
 tbe prisons were opened, and the wretcbed survivors 
 were ordered to quit tbe country, forbidden to return 
 to it on j^ain of deatb, only about two thousand six 
 hundred contrived to struggle across the frontier into 
 Switzerland. 
 
 And thus at last the Yaudois 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 dis- 
 persion of the Yaudois. The Pope sent to Yictor 
 Amadous II. a special brief, congratulating him on the 
 extirpation of heresy in his dominions ; and Pied- 
 montese and Savoyards, good Catholics, were presented 
 with the lands from which the Yaudois had been driven. 
 Those of them who remained in the country '' uncon- 
 verted" were as so many scattered fugitives in the 
 mountains — sheep wandering about without a shepherd. 
 Some of the Yaudois, 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 AYilliam III., regarded the Yaudois 
 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 Yaudois reached 
 
THE GLORTOUS RETURN. 405 
 
 Switzerland in greatly reduced numbers, many womeu 
 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 j)arts 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 AYurtemburg 
 were expelled by the Grand Duke, who feared incurring 
 the ire of Louis XIY. by giving them shelter and pro- 
 tection. Hence many little bands of the Yaudois 
 refugees long continued to wander along the valley of 
 the Ehine, 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 w^ith 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 yalleys ! 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 Yaudois hero, disabled by age and 
 w^ounds, 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 
 
4o6 THE COUNTRY OF THE VAUDOIS. 
 
 valleys was resolved upon ! A more daring, and appa- 
 rently more desperate enterprise, was never planned. 
 
 Who was to be their leader ? Javanel himself was 
 disabled. Thongh 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 Hugue- 
 not 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 
 ihe valleys. 
 
 The enterprise was kej)t 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 ascer- 
 tain the disposition of the population, and more par- 
 ticularly 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 mean- 
 time, 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 Yaudois 
 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 
 
THE GLORIOUS RETURN. 407 
 
 expedition, supplied liim witli assistance in money, and 
 encouraged him to carry out tlie design. Several 
 private persons in Holland — amongst others the post- 
 master-general at Leyden — also largely contributed to 
 the enterprise. 
 
 xlt 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 glor3\ 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 ]^yon, 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. 
 Thoy had all crossed the lake by two o'clock in the 
 morning ; and about eight hundred men, divided into 
 nineteen companies,* each provided with its captain, 
 were now ready to march. 
 
 * Of the nineteen companies three were composed of the Vaudois 
 of Angro£?na ; those of Bohi and St. John iurnished two each ; and 
 those of La Tour, Villar, Prarustin, Prali, Macel, St. Germain, and 
 Pramol, furnished one each. The remaining six companies were com- 
 
4o8 THE COUNTRY OF THE VAUDOIS. 
 
 At tlie 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 Yaudois, 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 com- 
 mune, when they were set at liberty, and replaced by 
 other hostages. 
 
 Y^hen it became known that the little army of 
 Yaudois had set out on their march, troops were dis- 
 patched 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 accumu- 
 lating from all sides, without being crushed and 
 exterminated? '' " It is impossible," wrote the Leyclen 
 Gazette, " notwithstanding whatever precautions they 
 may take, that the Yaudois can extricate themselves 
 without certain death, and the Court of Savoy may 
 therefore regard itself safe so far as they are con- 
 cerned." 
 
 ]N"o sooner had the boats left the shore at Nyon for 
 the further side of the lake than the young seigneur of 
 Prangins, Avho had been watching their movements, 
 
 posed of French Huguenot ref;igees from Dauphiny and Languedoc 
 under their respective otiBcers. 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. 
 
THE GLORIOUS RETURN. 409 
 
 rode off at full speed to inform tlie Frcncli resident at 
 Geneva of tlie departure of tlie Yaudois ; 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 Yaudois had well matured their 
 plans, and took care to keep out of reach of the advan- 
 cing 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 Yoirons, 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 Yiu, 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 ]3i'ayer, 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 Yaudois 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 
 Yaudois purchased a store of food and wine, which 
 they duly paid for. 
 
 They then proceeded on to Sallanches, where resist- 
 ance was threatened. They found a body of men posted 
 
410 THE COUNTRY OF THE VAUDOIS. 
 
 on the wooden bridge wliicli tliere separated tlie Tillage 
 of St. Martin from Sallanclies ; but rusliing forward, 
 tbe defenders of tbe bridge fled, and tlie little army 
 passed over and proceeded to range themselves in order 
 of battle over against tbe town, wbicb was defended by 
 six hundred troops. The Yaudois 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. The}^ 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 resist- 
 ance, 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 
 
THE GLORIOUS RETURN. 411 
 
 steep slopes of Mont Iseran, where tlie 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 Bonne val 
 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. 
 
 ISText day they marched on Mont Cenis, which they 
 ascended. As they were crossing the mountain a 
 strange incident occurred. The Yaudois 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 Banuzzi, on his way to Bome to take part 
 in the election of Bope Alexander YIII. The Yaudois 
 seized the mules carrying the baggage, which contained 
 important documents compromising Louis XIY. with 
 Yictor 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. 
 jN^ext 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 
 
412 " THE COUNTRY OF THE VAUDOIS. 
 
 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 Yaudois 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 bod}^ of soldiers 
 marching along with drums beating ; it was the gar- 
 rison of Exilles. The Yaudois 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 j)lain, 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 Yaudois 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 pas- 
 sage of which was defended by a strong body of French 
 soldiers under the command of Colonel de Larrey. 
 
THE GLORIOUS RETURN. 413 
 
 Ou tlie advance of tlio Yaudols in tlie darkness, they 
 were summoned to stand, but continued to advance, 
 when the enemy fired a volley on them, killing three 
 men. Then the Yaudois 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 Yaudois caj)tain, calling out '' Forward ! the bridge 
 is won ! '' the Yaudois 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 re- 
 fused to give way, and poured down their fire on their 
 assailants. The Yaudois 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 Yaudois having los^. 
 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 re- 
 mainder in a heap over some barrels of powder, 
 they afiixed a lighted match and withdrew. A tremen- 
 dous explosion shook the mountains, and echoed along 
 the valley, and the remains of the French camp were 
 blown to atoms. The Yaudois then proceeded at once 
 to climb the mountain of Sci, which had to be crossed 
 in order to enter the valley of Pragelas. 
 
414 THE COUNTRY OF THE VAUDOIS. 
 
 It was early on a Sabbath, morning, tbe nintb day of 
 their march, that the Yaudois 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 Yaudois strongholds, and in a country 
 every foot of whicli was familiar to most of them. But 
 their danger was by no means over ; for the vallej^'S 
 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. jN^ext 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 Yaudois 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 beiug in 
 
THE GLORIOUS RETURN. 415 
 
 a deep wooded gorge, wliere a fe^y men could easily 
 arrest tlie progress of an army. The rock itself con- 
 sists 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 per- 
 secutions 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 triumj^hs of the Yaudois, 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 extremit3^ . . . 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 Yaudois at the Ealsille, 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 
 
41 6 THE COUNTRY OF THE VAUDOIS. 
 
 side during tills war ; tlie Yaiidois had no prisons in 
 wbicTi 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 Yaudois 
 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 Yaudois, 
 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 Pied- 
 montese fled down the further side of the mountain, 
 leaving all their stores behind them. On the following 
 day the Yaudois 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 the}'' had defeated 
 in two severe fights, and at length reached the very 
 centre of the Yaudois valleys, and entered into posses- 
 ' sion of the " Promised Land." 
 
 They resolved to celebrate their return to the 
 country of their fathers by an act of solemn worship 
 
THE GLORIOUS RETURN. 417 
 
 on the Sabbath, following. The whole body assembled 
 on tlie 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 stand- 
 ing on a platform, consisting of a door resting upon 
 two rocks, after which tho}^ chanted the 74th Psalm, 
 to the clash of arms. They then j)roceeded 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 vallej-s the kingdom of the 
 Gospel." Shortly after, they proceeded to divide 
 themselves into two bodies, for the purpose of occujoy- 
 ing simultaneously, as recommended by Javanel, the 
 two valleys of the Police 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 bv the Piedmontese 
 on the south and east. Encouraged by their success 
 at Bobi, the Yaudois rashly attacked Yillar, lower down 
 the vallej'', 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 
 Yaudois could only obtain food by capturing the 
 enemy's convoy's, levying contributions from the plains. 
 
41 8 THE COUNTRY OF THE VAUDOIS. 
 
 and making incursions into Banphiny. The enterprise 
 on which they had entered seemed to become more 
 hopeless from da}^ to day. This handful of men, half 
 famished and clothed in rags, had no^Y 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 Yaudois from 
 Dauphiny ;* and there remained only the Italian 
 Yaudois, still unconquered in spirit, under the leader- 
 ship of their pastor-general Arnaud, who never 
 appeared greater than in times of difficulty and 
 danger. 
 
 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 concen- 
 trate their little force upon the Balsille, and all haste 
 was made to reach that stronghold without further 
 delay. Their laiowledge of the mountain heights and 
 passes enabled them to evade their enemies, who were 
 watching for them along the valleys, and they j)assed 
 
 * 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. 
 
THE GLORIOUS RETURN. 419 
 
 from tlie heights of Kodoret to the sumyait 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 Yaudois 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, 
 
 28 
 
420 THE COUNTRY OF THE VAUDOIS. 
 
 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 regi- 
 ment, saying to his soldiers as they advanced, " My 
 friends, we must sleep to-night in that barrack," 
 pointing to the rude Yaudois 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 un- 
 expected intrenchments in their way, from behind 
 which the Yaudois maintained a heavy fire, that 
 eventually drove them back, their retreat being acce- 
 lerated 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 Yaudois, seeing 
 the French troops falling back in disorder, made a 
 vigorous sortie, and destroy" ed the whole remaining 
 force, excepting fifteen men, who fled, bare-headed and 
 
THE GLORIOUS RETURN. 421 
 
 without arms, and carried to tlie camp tlie 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 nine- 
 teen or twenty officers in gold and silver lace, who 
 treated him as a prisoner of w^ar 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 necessar3^" 
 
 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 Ma}^ according to the scheme of operations 
 prepared by Catinat, and the Marquis received by 
 anticipation the title of " Conqueror of the Barbels.'^ 
 The entire mountain was surrounded, all the passes 
 were strongly guarded, guns were planted in positions 
 which commanded the Yaudois fort, more particularly 
 on the Guinevert ; and the capture or extermination of 
 the Yaudois 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 
 
42 2 THE COUNTRY OF THE VAUDOIS. 
 
 fascine, in order to form a cover against tlie Yaudois 
 bullets as they advanced. 
 
 Several days elapsed before all tbe preliminaries for 
 tbe grand attack were completed, and then the Marquis 
 ordered a white flag to ba 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 countr}^ ; 
 but if you resist, you will be infallibly destroyed." 
 *' That is as the Lord shall will," replied the Yaudois 
 messenger. 
 
 The defenders refused to capitulate on any terms. 
 The Marquis himself then wrote to the Yaudois, offer- 
 ing 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. " AYc are not subjects,'' 
 he said, " of the King of France ; and that monarch 
 not being master of this countr}^, 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 Yaudois made a 
 vigorous sortie,, and killed a number of the besiegers : 
 this was their final answer to the summons to sur- 
 render. 
 
 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 Yaudois retired from their lower 
 
THE GLORIOUS RETURN. 423 
 
 intrencliments, and retreated to tliosc on tlie hlglier 
 ledges of the mountain. They continued their resist- 
 ance 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, admit- 
 ting 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 moun- 
 tain 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 
 
424 THE COUNTRY OF THE VAUDOIS. 
 
 to take up their position at the Pra clu Tour, the 
 ancient fortress of the Barhas 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 XIY. 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 Yerrua and the citadel of Turin ; 
 and the Duke, having previous^ 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 liis 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 Yaudois, notwithstanding 
 the treachery and cruelty of successive Dukes of Savoy, 
 were true to their native prince. They pledged them- 
 selves 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 over- 
 powered, and the Duke became a fugitive. Where did 
 he find refuge ? In the valleys of the Yaudois, in a 
 secluded spot in the village of Bora, behind the 
 Pelice, he found a safe asylum amidst the people 
 whose fathers he had hunted, proscribed, and con- 
 demned to death. 
 
THE GLORIOUS RETURN. 425 
 
 But tlie 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 recom- 
 mence, their descendants continue to enjoy the land, 
 and to worship after the manner of their fathers down 
 to the present day. 
 
 The Yaudois long laboured under disabilities, and 
 continued to be deprived of manj- 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 Yaudois now enjoy the same rights and liberties 
 as the other subjects of Yictor Emanuel. 
 
 ISTor is the Yaudois Church any longer confined to 
 the valleys, but it has become extended of late years 
 all over Italy — to Milan, Florence, Brescia, Yerona, 
 Genoa, Leghorn, Naples, Palermo, Cataneo, Yenice, 
 and even to Eome itself. In most of these places there 
 are day-schools and Sunday-schools, besides churches. 
 The new church at Yenice, 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 
 
426 THE COUNTRY OF THE VAUDOIS. 
 
 Yaudois churclies and stations, with, about an equal 
 number of scbools, have been establislied in various 
 parts of Italy. The missionaries report tbat the 
 greatest difficulties tbey liave to encounter arise from 
 the incredulity and indiiference which, are the natural 
 heritage of the Romisli 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 conscien- 
 tiously 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 deorree instrumental in establishinji: the 
 reign of right and of liberty in Italy. 
 
INDEX. 
 
 AiGUEMouTES, Huguenot prison 
 at, 193, 273 
 
 Albigenses, 75 
 
 Anabaptists of Munster, 282-3 
 
 Anduze, visit to, 125 
 
 Angrogna, valley of, 385 ; fight- 
 ing in, 885-90, 402 
 
 Arnaud, Henry, 215, 406 ; leads 
 back the Vaudois, 407 - 19 ; 
 defends the Balsille, 419-23 
 
 Balsille, the, 414 ; defence of, 
 419-423; given up, 423 
 
 Baridon, Etienne, 346-7 
 
 Baville, on the Protestants of 
 Languedoc, 77, 86 ; occupies 
 th& Covennes, 87 ; at Poiit-de- 
 Montvert, 92 
 
 Beauveau, Prince de, 273-4 
 
 Beckwith, General, 382 
 
 Bibles, 'destruction and scarcity 
 of, 215-6 
 
 Bonnafoux, repulsed by Camisards, 
 142 
 
 Book-burning, 215, 225-6 
 
 Bourg d'Oisans, 313-4 
 
 BrianQon, 318-20 
 
 Broglie, Count, 143-4, 148; su- 
 perseded, 149 
 
 Brousson, Claude, 30 ; adv^ocate 
 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 Ceven- 
 nes, 50-2, 54 ; reward offered 
 for, 56 ; at Nismes, 57 ; preach- 
 ing of, 58-9 ; to Lausanne, 
 England and Holland, 61-2 ; at 
 
 Sedan, 64 ; through Prance, 
 66-7 ; portraiture of, 68 (note) ; 
 to Nismes again, 69 ; taken, 
 tried, and executed, 70-3 
 
 Brueys, on fanaticism in Lan- 
 guedoc, 91 
 
 Bull of Clement XI. against 
 Camisards, 160 
 
 Galas, Jean, 257 ; executed, 258 ; 
 case taken up by Voltaire, 259- 
 62 ; reversal of judgment on, 
 262-3 
 
 Calvinism and race, 100 (note) 
 
 Calvmists, French and Scotch, 
 compared, 100 
 
 Camisards, the, origin of name, 
 107 ; led by Laporte, 109 ; 
 organization of, 112-13; en- 
 counter troops, 113, 111, 117; 
 war- song of, Ho ; organized by 
 Eoland, 123-4; successes of, 
 134-40, 142 ; spread of insurrec- 
 tion of, 1 38-9 ; measures against 
 139, 146-7; successes of, 146- 
 150 ; 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, 163-9 ; reverses of, 
 170-1 ; success at Font-morte, 
 176-7 ; defeated at Pont-de- 
 Montvert, and end of insurreC' 
 tion, 187-9 
 
 Camisards, White. 160-1 
 
 Castanet, Andre, 111, 113, 113, 
 123, 189 
 
 Cavalier, John, joins insurgents, 
 
428 
 
 INDEX, 
 
 108, 111; family of, 121; to 
 Genera, 121 ; to the Cevennes, 
 122 ; portrait of, 124 ; in Lower 
 Languedoc, 133 ; defeats 
 Royalists, 134, 135 ; takes 
 Chateau Servas, 136-7 ; repulses 
 Bonnafoux, 142 ; at Kismes, 
 144-5 ; successes of, 148 ; winter 
 campaign, 148-9 ; at Yagnas, 
 150-1, 153 ; betrayed at Tower 
 ofBelliott, 156-8; at Martin- 
 argues, 162-4; at Rosni, 169; 
 his cave magazines, 170-1 ; his 
 interview with Lalande, 173- 
 6; attempts peace, 177; his 
 interviews with Villars, 177- 
 183 ; deserted by followers, 183- 
 5 ; to England, and subsequent 
 career, 186 
 
 Caves, in the Cevennes, 125, 127- 
 9; at Li Tour, 381 
 
 C( vennes, the, persecutions in, 39, 
 52-3, 85 ; secret meetings in, 
 54, 84-8 ; executions in, 59, 
 67-8 ; des ription of,79-82 ; arm- 
 ing 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 ; organiza- 
 tion in, 123-5; caves in, 125, 
 127-9; visit to, 125-9; pre- 
 sent inhabitants of, 129, 131- 
 2 ; devastation of, 154-5 
 
 Champ Domergue, battle at, 114 
 
 Chateau Que v res, 371 
 
 Chayla, Da, 93, 94, 97 
 
 Chaumont, 271 
 
 Chenevix, 15 (note) 
 
 Choiseul, Due de, 268 
 
 Claris, 237 
 
 Colognac, execution of, 59 
 
 Comiers, 311 
 
 Conderc, Salomon, 119, 123 
 
 Converts, 19-23 ; 38-9 
 
 Court profligacy, 275 (note) 
 
 Court, Antoine, 206-17 ; organizes 
 school for preachers, 224 ; 
 marriage of, 231 ; retires to 
 Switzerland, 232 ; results of his 
 work, 283-4 ; in Languedoc, 239 
 
 Covenanters, compared with Pro- 
 testants of the Cevennes, 100-2 
 Cromwell, 295-6, 380 
 
 D'Aguesseau's opinion of Pro- 
 testants of Languedoc, 76-7 
 
 Dauphiny, map of, 286 ; aspect of, 
 287-8 
 
 Desert, assemblies in the, 83-8 ; 
 218-23 
 
 Dormilhoxase, 342, 347-58 
 
 Dortial, 238 
 
 Dumas, death of, 52 
 
 Durand, Pierre, 236 
 
 Dragonnades, 36-7, 42, 54-5 
 
 Easter ISIassacre of the Vaudois, 
 
 294-6 
 England attempts to assist the 
 
 Camisards, 160-7 
 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, 311 
 
 Freemantle, Pev. Mr., visits of, 
 to the Vaudois, 299, 354, 366 
 
 French labouring classes, present 
 condition of, 301-4 
 
 Freney, gorge of, 315 
 
 Galley, description of, 197-8; use 
 
 in war, 200-4 
 Galley-slaves, treatment of, 194- 
 
 204 ; liberation of Protestants, 
 
 204, 264 (note), 271-3 
 Gillv, Dr., visit to the Yaudois, 
 
 297-8, 372, 381 
 Glorious Keturn of the Yaudois, 
 
 397-9 
 Guerin, death of, 67 
 Guignon betrays Cavalier, 156 ; 
 
 executed, 159 
 Guil, vallev of the, 370 
 Guillestre,'360-70 
 Guion, executed, 57 
 
 HoMEL, tortures and death of, 40. 
 
 Huguenots, the (see Cami- 
 sards) ; emigrations of, 43, 76- 
 8 ; 83 ; persecution of, after 
 
INDEX. 
 
 429 
 
 Camisard insurrection, 190- 
 204 ; as galley-slaves, 19i-204; 
 brought together by Court, 210- 
 17 ; reorganization of, 218-228 ; 
 outrages on, 228 ; great assem- 
 blies of, 239-40; last of the 
 executions, 258 ; last of the 
 galley-slaves, 265-273 ; charac- 
 ter of, 274-5 ; later history of, 
 276-283 
 
 Irish Brigade, 140-142 
 Iron Boot, the, 102 
 
 JoAXY, XiCHOLAS, insurgent 
 
 leader, 120, 123, 151 
 Johannot, 269 
 Julien, Brigadier, 147, 150-1 
 
 Lagier, Jean, 356, 357 (note) 
 
 Lajonquiere, defeated at Martin- 
 argues, 162-4 
 
 Lalande, his interview with Cava- 
 lier, 173-6 
 
 Languedoc (see Ceveinies\ early 
 liberty in, 75 ; Albigenses in, 
 75 ; Protestants of, 76-7 ; indus- 
 try of, 76 ; emigration from, 
 after Revocation, 78 ; 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 Do- 
 mergue, 114 ; killed at Molezou, 
 117 
 
 LaSalette, 308; miracle of, 309-10 
 
 La Tour, 380-4 
 
 Laugier at Guillestre, 367 ; at 
 Chateau Queyras, 368 
 
 Lausanne, school for preachers 
 at, 224 ; Society of Help at, 
 224-5 
 
 Lauteret, Col de, 317 
 
 Lesdiguieres, Due de, 306-7, 359 
 
 Lintarde, Marie, impriscnment 
 of, 54 
 
 Locke, John, on Protest &nt3 of 
 Kismes, 31 (note) 
 
 Louis XIV., 2, 10, 146, 205 
 
 Louis XV., 275 
 
 Louis XVL, 276 
 
 Marion, on influence of Camisard 
 
 prophets, 119 
 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, 299, 355, 394-6 
 Montpellier, Protestant Church at, 
 32-3 ; the Peyrou at, 72 ; exe- 
 cution of Brousson at, 73 
 Montreval, Mai-shal, in Langue- 
 doc, 149; at Pompignan, 152; 
 adopts extermination, 153 ; 
 at Tower of Belliot, 156 
 - 8 ; character of, 159 ; re- 
 called, 167 ; defeats Cavalier, 
 168-9 
 
 Nantes, Eevocation of Edict of, 
 and its results, 1-19, 24, 44-5, 
 78 ; contempoi'arj' opinion upon, 
 1-10 ; enactments of Edict of 
 Revocation, 12-15 
 
 Neff, Felix, 298, 308 ; life of, 331- 
 336 ; his account of winter at 
 Dormilhouse, 351 ; his charge, 
 373 
 
 Xers, visit to, 131 
 
 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 
 
 Paloxs, 337-40 
 
 Paulet, Mdlle., forgeries in name 
 of, 32-4 
 
 Pelice, Valley of the, 376 
 
 Pont-de-Montvert, outbreak at, 
 92-7; description of, 93-4; end 
 of Camisard insurrection at, 
 187-9 
 
 Poul, Captain, in Upper Cevennes, 
 108 ; at Champ Domergue, 114- 
 16; takes Laporte at Molezon, 
 117 ; defeated and killed near 
 Xismes, 143-4 
 
 Pra du Tour, 390-4 ; 403 
 
430 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Preachers, education of, 221-4 ; 
 
 hardships of, 225-9, 236-8 
 Project, the, 34 
 Protestantism in France, present 
 
 chances of, 321 
 
 QuoiTE, execution of, 53 
 
 Eavanel, insurgent leader, defeats 
 Royalists near Kismes, 143 ; 
 near Bouquet, 145 ; supplants 
 Cavalier, 183-5 ; death of, 189 
 
 Redothiere, Isabeau, 53 
 
 Rey, Fulcran, his preaching and 
 death, 25-7 
 
 Rochemalan, Yaudois struggles 
 at, 386-90 
 
 Roger, Jacques, 213 
 
 Roland, nephew of Laporte, 111 ; 
 insurgent leader, 113; succeeds 
 Laporte, 118; in Lower Ce- 
 vennes, 122 ; organizes Cami- 
 sards, 123-5 ; takes fSauve, 137; 
 atPompignan,152; atSalindres, 
 164-5; at Fonte-morte, 176-7 ; 
 at Pont -de - Montvert, 187 ; 
 death of, 188 
 
 Romanche, Valley of the, 305,312 
 
 Rostan, Alpine missionary, 364 
 (note) 
 
 Roussel, Alexandre, 232 
 
 St. Bartholomew, doubt thrown 
 upon massacre of, 27 
 
 Saint-Etienne, Rabout, 276-7 
 
 St. Hypolite, meeting at, 35 
 
 Saint-Kuth, Marshal, 38 ; in Ire- 
 land, 38 (note) 
 
 Saint-Simon on the treatment of 
 converts, 23 
 
 San Veran, 372 
 
 Savoy and France, war declared, 
 424 
 
 Savoy, Duke of, takes refuge with 
 the Vaudois, 424 
 
 Sedan, prosperity of, before Re- 
 vocation, 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 
 
 Telford, anecdote cf, 82 
 Toleration, Edict of, 276 
 
 Val Fressinieres, 327-9, 336-47 
 Val Louise, 324 ; massacre at, 326 
 Vaudois, the country of, 289 ; 
 early Christianity of, 289-90; 
 early persecutions of, 292; 
 Easter massacre of, 294-5 ; visits 
 of Dr. Gilly to, 297-8, 372, 381 ; 
 passiveness of, 324-5 ; massacre 
 of, at Val Louise, 326 ; persecu- 
 tions of, 328-30, 359, 385, 399- 
 404, 417-424 ; refuges of, 363, 
 371, 379, 381, 385; struggles of, 
 at Rochemalan, 386-90; flight 
 at the Revocation, 399 ; ap- 
 parently exterminated, 404 ; in 
 Switzei-Iand, 405 ; prepare to 
 return, 406; A rnaud appointed 
 leader, 406; assisted by William 
 of Orange, 407 ; The Glorious 
 Return of, 408-417 ; struggles of, 
 at the Balsille, 419 ; assist Duke 
 of Savoy, 424 ; emancipation of, 
 425-6 
 Vesson, 212, 214 
 Vidal, Isaac, preacher, 48 
 Villars, Marshal, on prophetic 
 mania in Languedoc, 90 ; ap- 
 pointed to command in Langue- 
 doc, 167 ; at Nismes, 169 : 
 clemency of, 172, 186: treats 
 •with Cavalier, 177-185 ; sup- 
 presses insurrection of Cami- 
 eards, 188 
 Vincent, Isabel, prophetess, 89, 90 
 Vivens, death of, 56 
 Voltaire, takes up case of Calas, 
 259-63 ; takes up case of Sirveu, 
 264; case of Chaumont, 271 
 
 Waldenses, the, 288 
 Wheel, punishment of the, 258 
 (note) 
 
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