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    the attacks of troops sent against them $ and , iu short , overcoming every obstacle that presented itself in their progress . Arrived , at length , at the church of Guigon ( a hamlet annexed to Pral ) , they engaged in worship , sang , the seventy-fourth Psalm , and their colonel and pastor , Arnaud ,

    preached on the l £ 9 th Psalm . But veil after their return , they had frequent and severe skirmishes with their enemies , displaying upon all occasions a degree of valour and fortitude that has been seldom surpassed . One cannot , however , but regret , that M . Arnaud's account of their

    return affords too many proofs that they possessed more of the martial than the evangelic spirit ; the same which at an earlier period characterized Zisca and those of the Hussites who followed his standard . After several

    tinsuccessful efforts to dispossess this Warlike company of Waldenses , the Duke of Savoy at length concluded a j ) eace with them , and permitted the return of their "wives and children . Hence the origin of the present race of the inhabitants of the valleys , a

    population of seventeen thousand souls . Since their return , their residence as t > efore , has been attended with nu ^ merous hardships . To mention but a few : they have been compelled to

    desist from work on the Roman Ca ' - tholic festivals ; forbidden to exercise the profession of physician or surgeon ; or to purchase lands j and very often their children have been stolen in order to be educated in the Roman

    Catholic faith , in a large and not inelegant building at Pignerol , called the Hospice , established for the express purpose of converting the Vaudois . * This last instance of cruelty , added to many similar atrocities , so ingeniously adapted to embitter the fountain of domestic happiness , too

    forcibly recalls that affecting language of the prophet : —* ' In Ramah was there a voice heard , lamentation and weeping , and great mourning : Rachael weeping for her children , and would liot be comforted , because they are cot . " Thoughts of this nature would naturally occur to the mind of a

    stran-? The institution , however , has been attended with little success , the greater number of converts being * persons who , for misconduct , were no longer respected $ i the valleys .

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    ger when finding himself actually hi the valleys : the first-evening especially , wheli I held in my arms the very lovely child of Mrs . P . of St . Jeau > I could not but picture to

    myself , again and again , the agony of those parents " who wandered in deserts and in mountains , in dens and in caves of the earth , " in that very neighbourhood , equally unable to succour themselves and their tender

    offspring . To whom c'ould this " noble army of martyrs' * look for support but to " the Holy Ghost the Comforter' * ? And what hope could sustain their souls but that of ** a better country , that is * a heavenly ** ? It may be thought by some , that the enemies of the Vaudois were

    chiefly tempted to injure them by avarice , and that they wished to rob them of their Jands ; but , however this may have mingled , as it did , no doubt ; with other motives , the mainspring of the opposition seems to have been a rooted antipathy , because they professed doctrines and engaged in worship that differed from the Roman Catholict For , as to their lands ,

    contrasting their bleak air , narrow valleys and barren mountains , with the soft climate and the fertile plain of Piedmont , they might much more

    -f- 1 $ is through the necessity of preserving a due regard to historic truth , and of maintaining the cause of a nmch-injnred people , that circumstances of cruelty have been related so dishonourable to the

    Roman Catholic Church . It is hoped , however , that the writer will not be supposed to foster that antipathy against its members which he has so strongly condemned when it has appeared on their part . The principles of their church are unquestionably such as promote a spirit of

    persecution ; but , happily , many of its members dissent from its spirit , and cultivate that Christian love which is a transcript of the Divine Nature itself . Whilst big ots h ave agitated the church and the world , the ? have pursued their course of humble piety . The writer has been always delig hted to see or hear of Catholics of this description ,

    and he has had this happiness whilst on the Continent . . Even with reg-ard to the massacres me ' ntioned in this memoir , soine of the assassins , probably , through a bl ind geal , thought they did God service . J 0 excuse in such a case is impossible ; hut one would wish in some measure to extenuate , for so did our Saviour upon the cross : " Father , forgive ihem ^ for wW know not what theV do . "

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    18 * Memoir respecting t % * Wul&en * e ? .

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), March 2, 1816, page 132, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2450/page/4/