against cannon and musket shot, they cut them like caverns into the side of the mountain. They dug trenches, and made corresponding embankments, seventeen in all, to be defended one after the other, so that the enemy would have to gain them in succession before being masters of the rock. This was the kind of fortification adopted by the early European nations, as we may distinctly see from the many hill-forts still remaining. They were generally erected on conical, regularshaped hills, where there were few inequalities to enable an enemy to approach under cover; and the Balsille was of the same character, although vastly more lofty and precipitous than the eminences on which such remains are generally found. They had store the produce was removed to the recesses of the mountains with corresponding celerity. When they had finished their labors, there appeared on the heights above the village of Rodoret a French force, with which it was vain to contend, and the occupants of the fruitful valley were again wanderers. They retreated silently by night, however, and managed to leave behind them considerable field-works, and a general appearance as if the place was occupied, and likely to be bitterly defended; a state of circumstances well calculated to make all who had had experience of their obstinacy halt before attacking them. The Marquis de Parelle was so deliberate in his operations, that they were far away, and beyond all immediate traces, ere he detected their absence. When he approached, grad-rooms for provisions, and an outwork to ually and cautiously, the formidable camp, he found there abundance of provisions, and the vestiges of luxurious living; it looked as if the feasters had just left it, but they were far away in storm and darkness. The long nights had now set in, and the cold of winter was advancing into those lofty regions, bringing to the adventurers new perils and hardships. Their escape from the Valley of St. Martin was one of the most wonderful in their career. They had to pass in utter darkness through a wild country of precipice, torrent, and snow. Their guides wore a sort of cape of pure white linen, that their motions might be distinguishable in the darkness; and for a considerable distance, on more than one occasion, all had to creep on their hands and knees. It was clear that the guerilla warfare among the rocks and forests could not be carried out in winter, and that the occupation of any of the valleys was hopeless. How, then, were the diminished troops - -they now amounted to only 400-to find quarters? At an early period of the campaign their vigilant leader had directed his attention to a post which seems to have been traditionally known as a natural fortification. It was a conical rocky mountain, called the Balsille, standing near the modern fortress of Fenestrelle, which guards the approach to Piedmont, and is thus near the road to Pignerol by the Col de Sestriers, sometimes used by travellers between France and Italy. By an admirable feat of generalship, Arnaud concentrated his poor scattered forces on this spot; and through the carelessness of the multitudinous enemy, this operation, now of vital necessity to the indomitable remnant, was accomplished with hardly any casualties. Here they fortified themselves systematically and very ingeniously, making such arrangements as showed it to be evidently their design to hold out to the last, and die, if needful, at their posts. To make for their winter accommodation dwelling-places proof One protect them in ravaging the country. There On the 17th of April, terms of surrender were proposed to them directly by the Marquis de Parelle, and a council of war was held to deliberate on them. Their answer was respectful, yet firm. They thanked the marquis for his considerate humanity and evident desire to spare them. They stated, : to put to death. He was severely wounded, however, and required the attendance of a surgeon. Now, it happened that the garrison also wanted such a person, for they had just lost the one they had formerly kidnapped; and they gave every assistance to De Parat's efforts. The plan of communication was by a letter stuck in a cleft stick in a convenient place between the two forces. The surgeon came and was taken possession of like his predecessor. The Waldenses in this affair obtained possession of papers of importance, which explained the nature of the operations to be conducted against them, and put them on their guard. But the French troops, astounded by their reception, retired for some time within their own lines, to devise a more effective system of attack. They were, meanwhile, disheartened by a wild storm of snow which overtook them in the mountains, subjecting them to all the horrors already mentioned as incidents of these Alpine hurricanes. that, as subjects of the Duke of Savoy, they the 500, they assert that not twenty rehad been in possession of their estates in the turned, and that they themselves did not lose valleys from time immemorial, having inherit- a man. Two were made prisoners; and they ed them from remote ancestors. They had been were shot in attempting their escape. They, punctual in paying all the feudal rents and however, seized another and more important taxes; they had never been turbulent, but, on prisoner, Monsieur de Parat, the leader of the the contrary, had assisted the government in attack, whom they had the rare good sense not the preservation of order. In other respects, they had been obedient to the laws, and free from crime. In these circumstances, they judged it grossly unjust and cruel, that, at the desire of foreigners, they should be driven from their inheritance. That they should take arms to recover what they had lost, was but natural; and they said the only way to avoid bloodshed, was to allow them to return to their own in peace. The document was not at all in the tone of hopeless rebels suing for mercy it seemed, indeed, to evince a full reliance on their ability to make good their point; and their opponents had not time to recover from the surprise occasioned by its manner, when a sally was made by a body of the Balsille garrison, who pushed as far as St. Germain, sweeping all before them, and returning with a valuable booty, after having killed upwards of 100 of the enemy. The garrison was beginning to suffer from a short allowance; and many of them were reduced to extreme debility, when this timely raid provided them with abundance of beef and nourishing soup, and enabled them to recruit their strength. But such an act of course tended to revive the indignation of the enemy. On the last day of April, the acuteness of the Waldensian commanders enabled them to see that there was some movement going on among the latter. In fact, they were creeping slowly round the Balsille, and so cautiously, that, although they were obliged to sleep on the snow, they lit no fires, lest their movement should be discovered. On the 10th of May, however, the wary garrison argued, from faint but sure symptoms, that the enemy were returning to the attack. This time it was not to be an assault, but a regular siege. Five different camps were formed round the Balsille, while great field-works were raised with turf and woolsacks, and planted with heavy cannon. All the accessible ground was covered with marksmen; and it was remarked that one of the garrison could not show his hat above their own works, but it was immediately hit. There was one point from which the Balsille The works were brought so near that the was supposed to be particularly liable to besiegers could address the besieged with a attack; it was a ravine entering deep in its speaking-trumpet. Knowing how desperate side, and capable of affording cover to an they were, and that an officer of importance enemy. There Arnaud had raised his most was in their hands, the French now offered formidable works, consisting in a great then terms, which, in appearance at least, measure of barriers made of felled trees, with were extremely liberal. They were to receive large stones above them, while on either side passports, and each one a gratuity of 500 there were heaps of stones piled on the edge louis. But whether fearing treachery, or of the ravine, to be hurled on an attacking still trusting to their destiny, they refused enemy. Suddenly, but not without the vigi- the terms. Nor were they so completely lant garrison being prepared, 500 dismounted beset but that they were able to accomplish dragoons seemed, as it were, to rise from the some of their characteristic feats. They earth, and make for the barriers. They marked the manner in which provisions were reached only the extremity of the first, and in sent to the besiegers; and one day, making a vain attempted to pull it down. They were rush on the convoy, they cut it to pieces, and thus at one extremity of the trees, laid length-secured the provisions. Still, however, it was wise, while the garrison were at the other. clear, to all human appearance, that the These, almost completely protected, opened a murderous fire on the assailants; and when they were thus thrown into confusion, made a desperate sally, and swept them away. Of CCCCLXXV. LIVING AGE. VOL. I. 50 devoted garrison were coming daily nearer to their doom. Cannon had been planted so as to command the ravine where the abortive attempt had been made, and the 14th of May was fixed for a general and conclusive attack. On that day the battery was opened on the defences, and the mounds so industriously raised speedily powdered down under the effect of a cannonade. The Waldenses had to abandon the lower, and pass to the higher defences. In this passage, their enemies expected that the hot fire playing on the Balsille would exterminate them. But here took place one of those events which made the refugees deem themselves the selected objects of divine intervention. They were shielded in their retreat by a fog which hid them from the enemy. It prompts a smile to find that they give up their claim to sagacity in seizing the moment of the fog for accomplishing their retreat, and would rather have it thought that the fog was specially sent to aid it. They were now hard-pressed, and they showed that fatalist ferocity which overtakes men of their kind in such circumstances, by putting their wounded prisoner, De Parat, to death. Thus did they seem, in what might be counted their last act of power, to give a precedent for their own fate. Looking from the height to which they had now ascended, over the preparations of the enemy, they saw a chain of watchfires that seemed to surround their fortified mountain, and make a daylight all round its base. One of the captains of the Waldenses, however, whose name was Paulat, intimately acquainted with the ground, said there was still a cleft of the rock left unguarded, except by its own precipitous and dangerous nature, through which he declared he could pass undetected, along with any good cragsmen who would run the risk. The project was at once adopted by the whole garrison, for the night had come on in a gloom suitable for its fulfilment, and the whole period from the beginning of darkness to the dawn was before them. They took off their shoes, and were silently guided by Paulat, sometimes having to climb and descend walls of rock, at other times sliding down steep smooth banks. They passed so near the enemy's pickets, that the slightest blunder would have sacrificed them. A petty incident, indeed, showed them in a formidable shape the extremity of their danger. One of them had in his possession a kettle; why he should have been so burdened, it is difficult to imagine. Falling from his grasp, as he scrambled on hands and knees, it fell over the edge of a precipice into the gulf below with a clattering sound, which kettles are wont to make. A sentinel, put instantly on the alert, gave his qui vive, to which the kettle made no answer. Endeavors to hear or see anything in the quarter whence the sound came, gave him no indication of human presence there, and indeed the incident seems to have diverted atten tion from the higher spot where the refugees ́ stood. Next morning a successful attack was made on the fortifications of the Balsille, all broken as they were by cannon; but the birds had flown, and the nest was found deserted and cold. Looking from the height they had gained, some far-sighted soldier of the French force pointed out the string of dark figures, several miles off, cutting steps for themselves on the frozen snow of the Guignevert. Though they had weathered the winter in their fortress, and spring had revisited them, yet it was impossible that this bandful of men could resist the fate of extermination from the large Piedmontese and still larger French force. A pursuit was immediately commenced; but they had gained some distance, and were rapid in their motions. On the 17th, their track was found; they were overtaken in the direction of Angrogna by a small detachment, which attacked them somewhat rashly, and was defeated with slaughter. This, however, was only a provocation to more signal vengeance. The occurrence took place on a Saturday. Next day they might perhaps expect to be let alone; but on Monday their doom was sealed. So, at least, would bystanders have deemed; but there was at hand a deliverance for them of the most strange and unexpected character. On Sunday the outposts of the Waldenses found approaching their camp, in peaceful security, two Piedmontese gentlemen named Parander and Bertin. They announced the astounding intelligence, that the Duke of Savoy was now the enemy of France, having joined the allies, and that he desired the aid of the faithful and valorous Waldenses in his armies. They were now on their own ground, under the command of their own monarch; and the French force was an invading army, which they were to assist in driving forth. It has been thought, indeed, that the reason why Louis XIV. sent so many troops against this handful of Waldenses was, that, doubting the faith of the Duke of Savoy, he desired to have a considerable force in that prince's territories: and perhaps, if this was his object, he might not be so eager to accomplish the avowed project which formed an excuse for their being there the suppression of the Waldenses as their historian may have supposed. After some little delay and anxiety, everything was arranged. Arnaud received instructions to garrison, with his faithful followers, Bobi and Villar, and the captives taken from them and confined in the Piedmontese prisons were restored. In the contest which ensued, the Waldensian troops bore a gallant part; and once when, in the reverses of war, the duke had to flee before an advancing enemy, he found refuge among those faithful inhabit ants of the valleys whom he had so sternly penses; but it appears that the sum awarded pursued. by him fell far short of what was necessary, The writer of a romance would stop where and again the wanderers were thrown on the his heroes are brought to the good fortune untiring kindness of their friends in Geneva they so well merit; but historical truth must and the Protestant cantons, among whom they add another fact, showing that the behests of sojourned during the winter of 1698. In the Providence had not shaped for the wanderers mean time Arnaud, with some other delegates, the romantic conclusion to their adventures went to arrange for their reception in Würwhich they themselves believed to be their temberg. They did not now go forth, as bedestiny. Year after year, from the warlike fore, hopeless, unknown exiles. They had services they performed, and the deference made, by their valor, a diplomatic position paid to them by the King of Britain, and among European nations. Arnaud spoke in other Protestant powers, the position of the the powerful name of the courts of England Waldenses was becoming consolidated, and and Holland, from which he had obtained for their privileges enlarged. Numbers of their his people considerable pecuniary assistance. body, who had long been dispersed in distant They were received at last into the principalregions, found their way back to the homes ity, having assigned to them certain waste of their ancestors. Nay, further, French lands in the bailiwicks of Maulbronn and Protestants intermarried with them, and be- Leonberg, with special privileges and_imcame citizens of their Protestant communities, munities. Within four years afterwards, a so that they were ever becoming more numer- large body again moved off from Piedmont to ous and powerful. join their friends. These consisted chiefly of But this apparent consolidation of strength those descendants of the old Waldenses who was but a preparation for subsequent misfor- most tenaciously adhered to their native countunes. In July, 1696, the Duke of Savoy de- try, and were only driven from it by feeling tached himself from his allies, and rejoined the insuperable character of the pressure France. This was the immediate commence- brought against them. They were received ment of operations, professedly for keeping the in the district of Heilbronn, near that occuWaldenses from propagating their principles pied by the previous colony, but more Italian throughout the French dominions. In the in its character, being more clear of forest, treaty there was a provision to this effect: "His royal highness [the Duke of Savoy] shall prohibit, under pain of corporal punishment, the inhabitants of the Valley of Luzern, known under the name of Vaudois, from having any religious communication with the subjects of his most Christian majesty; nor shall his royal The great difficulty in properly settling these highness permit, henceforth, the subjects of immigrants, appears to have arisen from a the King of France to establish themselves in notion that their religion was exceptional any manner in the said valleys; nor allow any from that of the great Protestant communions; preacher subject to him to set foot on the and much pains appear to have been taken to French territory; nor permit the worship satisfy the authorities that they were virtually calling itself Reformed, in the territories which Calvinists. Among the special privileges have been ceded to him." These territories, conceded to them, however, there was one spoken of as ceded, embraced, indeed, part of which sounds strange, as a condition dethe country inhabited by the Waldenses; so manded by Protestants. It was, that their that, while they had to dismiss all their lately-pastors and deacons should be exempt from enrolled brethren who had come from France, and to avoid all communication with that country, they were compelled to narrow the limits of their territory. An edict was issued on the 1st of July, 1698, for carrying out the treaty. It required all French Protestants to quit the Piedmontese dominions in two months, under pain of death. It shows how extensively these communities had been supplied by immigrants from France, that of their thirteen pastors in 1698, seven required, under this edict, to remove from the country. About 2000 persons found themselves more or less affected by these restrictions, and made up their minds to emigrace. They set off in seven bands, under their pastors. The Duke of Savoy professed to pay their travelling ex and affording better growth to the vine and mulberry. This second colony named their new valleys after those they had left; and their Italian character, far more distinct than in the mixed colony which preceded them, is said to be noticeable at the present day. disclosing in courts of justice secrets committed to them under the seal of confession, unless when involving high treason. But the reader asks: What has become of the priestly general of the glorious return? His subsequent history is a brief one. Arnaud had tempting offers of military command made to him by King William, and from several other quarters; but he preferred the service of that Master whose kingdom is not of this world, and went with his flock. He offi ciated for them as pastor in a small ruda church in the town of Schömberg, where he died in 1721. There the fane in which he served, and a monument to his memory, are still piously preserved by the descendants of his people." From the British Quarterly Review. THE hour of darkness for Europe has not passed away. Might is still in the place of right. The Juggernaut of despotism moves on as heretofore, and its victims its involuntary victims- are crushed and destroyed beneath its wheels by hundreds and by thousands, day by day, as heretofore. But times make men, and men are made for times. The genius-the military and political genius-to wield the forces now everywhere waiting for it, will come. This is the great want, and what an age wants, it comes in its time to possess. Providence has its analogies, and its analogies are laws. In the mean while, our English statesmen have their flatteries to dispense to the oppressors, and their libels to fling at the oppressed—are ashamed that refugees should show themselves patriots, not ashamed that their persecutors should show themselves tyrants can frown on the madness which breaks forth under the endurance of wrong, and then turn, full of smailes, towards the power which generates the madness, by inflicting the wrong. out of the way, nothing can be clearer than that the two forms of despotism would divide Christendom between them. DANCE OF DEATH. Aqua-ardiente and dulces were handed round; while all, men and women the dancers excepted - smoked their cigarillos. But the most remarkable thing in the room seemed to me a large kind of scaffold, which occupied the other corner opposite the bed, consisting of a light framework, ornamented all over with artificial flowers, little pictures of saints, and a quantity of small lighted wax-candles. On the top of it, a most extraordinary well-made wax-figure of a little child was seated on a low wooden chair, dressed in a snow-white little frock; the eyes were closed, the pale cheeks tinged by a soft rosy hue, and the whole deceptive, that when I drew near at first, I figure perfectly strewn with flowers. It was so thought it a real child, while a young woman below it, pale, and with tears in her eyes, might very well have been the mother. But that was most certainly a mistake; for at this moment one of the men stepped up to her, and invited her to the dance, and a few minutes afterwards she was one of the merriest in the crowd. But it must really be a child- no sculptor could have formed that little face so exquisitely; and now one light went out, close to the little head, and the cheek lost its rosy hue. My neighbors at last remarked the attention with which I The words of the leader of our Lower House, to a certain priest-ridden duke, were manly and hopeful. But the spirit which gave Eng-looked upon the figure or child, whichever it land her freedom, is not the spirit of our cabinets or senates. It is in our people, it is rarely found in those who should be their leaders least of all in that class of our traffickers, who, to "get gain," can descend to play the sycophant in the presence of arbitrary power, however perjured or bloodstained; and can congratulate a nation, in the sight of all Europe, on the good condition of its markets, as realized at no greater cost than the loss of its liberties. The season of despotic rule is naturally the season of papal encroachment. Had the recent aggression in this country taken place under our Plantagenets, the tools of the Foreign Priest engaged in it would have been liable to imprisonment, confiscation, and exile. Had the papal letter addressed to the French clergy within the last few weeks, been addressed to that body a hundred years ago, the Bourbon would instantly have suppressed it, as an invasion of the prerogatives of the crown, and of the liberties of the Gallican church. While the present league between the sword and the crosier shall last, no man can say what may not be attempted, nor what may not be submitted to. The worst things ever professed are now professed again; and we see not why the worst things ever done may not be done again. If England and America could be put was; and the nearest one informed me, as far as World. |