530 



Monthly Review of Literature, 



[Nov. 



The Swiss were now deeply offended at 

 the obstinacy of people who had not 

 a farthing to bless themselves wilh, and 

 finally forced them to sign an instrument 

 promising to go wherever they were or- 

 dered. This instrument Arnaud himself 

 signed, with a protest against an act ex- 

 torted by violence. Eight hundred, how- 

 ever, determined to comply, and they 

 were accordingly conducted to Berlin, 

 and kindly welcomed by the Elector. The 

 rest, compelled to find new places of 

 abode, spread about the Grisons, the 

 frontiers of Wirtemberg; and some parts 

 of the palatinate were assigned by the 

 Elector, who was anxious to re-people 

 his desolated territories. But soon the 

 advance of the French compelled the new 

 settlers to abandon their new-sown lands 

 to escape falling into their hands ; and 

 again flinging themselves upon the mercy 

 and protection of the Swiss, they were 

 again hospitably received by that generous 

 people. 



In the meanwhile, Arnaud, in company 

 with a Vaudois captain, Batiste Besson, 

 proceeded to Holland, to communicate 

 with the Prince of Orange, who listened 

 to their statements, applauded their re- 

 solve to attempt a recovery of their homes, 

 and exhorted them to keep the Vaudois 

 together. On his return, measures were 

 forthwith adopted to carry their views 

 into effect. Taught by their former fai- 

 lures, they conducted the matter with the 

 utmost secrecy ; and so well did they 

 manage their plans, that their whole force 

 was in motion towards the point of ren- 

 dezvous, before the subordinate indivi- 

 duals knew of the purpose immediately in 

 view and neither were the Bernois able 

 to throw any obstacles in the way of their 

 departure, nor was the Duke of Savoy at 

 all aware of their purpose. The Vaudois 

 assembled in a large forest in the Pays de 

 Vaud, between Nion and Rolle. About 

 8 or 900 had there assembled, and were 

 waiting anxiously for the arrival of some 

 from the extremities of Switzerland, who, 

 to the number of 120, were unhappily in- 

 tercepted by the envoy of Savoy, who had 

 got intelligence of their route. Of this 

 event the party in the forest were igno- 

 rant j but, weary of delay, and fearful of 

 discovery, they determined on crossing 

 the lake. This, however, was not effected 

 without disaster and treachery. When 

 all had crossed, they divided into nineteen 

 companies, of which six were foreigners, 

 chiefly from Languedoc and Dauphiny . 

 Protestant exiles of France, after the re- 

 vocation of Nantes. Arnaud, whom they 

 styled their patriarch, commanded. They 

 lost no time in commencing their march 

 seizing in their way the priests and gen- 

 tlemen as hostages, and employing their 

 authority in procuring provisions- ex- 



posed every hour to the attack of foes, or 

 the treacheries of friends compelled, from 

 the sroallness of their numbers, to butcher 

 the captives, whom they would willingly 

 have spared crossing the great and little 

 Mont Cenis, amidst difficulties and dan- 

 gers not to be described losing each 

 other in the fogs, or the windings of the 

 hills, but luckily reassembling on the 

 eighth day just in time to repel an attack 

 of Savoyards who occupied the heights 

 pouring down rocks upon them and on 

 the eleventh reached Balsille, the first 

 village in St. Martin's, one of their own. 

 vallies. Embarrassments thickened upon 

 them ; and events come too rapid to be 

 here enumerated ; but the writer details 

 them day by day to the thirty-first, the 

 3d of October; after which his narrative 

 proceeds with less particularity to the end 

 of October, when the French, compelled 

 by the harassings of their enemy and the 

 rigours of the season, to quit the heights 

 of St. Martin, bade the Vaudois expect 

 them again the next spring. 



By this time the Vaudois were reduced 

 to 400 ; but these through the winter en- 

 joyed comparative quiet, and found abun- 

 dance around them. In April of the fol- 

 lowing year came again the French, and 

 terms of surrender were offered, which 

 they indignantly rejected, claiming the 

 vallies as their birth-right. Balsi, the last 

 point of attack the year before, was again 

 assailed ; 10,000 French troops, and 12,000 

 Savoyards, were witnesses. 500 picked 

 men made the assault. Covered by their 

 main body, they gallantly gained the first 

 barricade of trees, but were unible to 

 pass it. The Vaudois opened a vigorous 

 fire upon them. Confusion followed. The 

 Vaudois rushed in upon them, and cut 

 them all, with the exception of ten or 

 twelve, to pieces. On the 10th, the siege 

 of Balsi was again resumed ; and on the 

 14th the grand attack was prepared. 

 Luckily providentially, the narrator 

 says, a sudden mist wrapt the hill in 

 obscurity, and at the moment when death 

 seemed staring them in the face, they 

 escaped ; and not till two hours after day- 

 break the next morning were they disco- 

 vered ascending, by steps cut in the snow, 

 up the Guignevert. The detachment sent 

 in pursuit was routed by them with little 

 loss to themselves. More pursuits, more 

 escapes, more successes followed, too nu- 

 merous to detail, when, early in June 

 just as new perils seemed likely to crush 

 them, arrived the news of a war declared 

 against France; which rescued the Vau- 

 dois, and soon gave them an opportunity 

 of signalizing their loyalty to their recon- 

 ciled sovereign. 



The narrative of Arnaud here closes. 

 In the war between the Confederates and 

 Louis, their conduct more than once com- 



