DEDICATION

1 . This has never appeared. Henri Arnaud probably intended to relate the exploits of his countrymen while serving as subjects to that prince whose injustice, in expatriating them, had taught him to estimate their force as enemies.
2 . Girgenti, anciently Agrigentum.—Ed.
3 . Vide Iron Mask.—Ed.
4 . In allusion to the efforts of Louis XIV. to restore James II. to the British throne.—Ed.

PREFACE

1 . Now attached to Sardinia. Through it is the pass made by Napoleon over mount Genevre
2 . Victor Amadeus the Second actually took refuge among the Vaudois while Turin, his capital, was besieged by the Duc de Feuillard, and that within six years of the horrible persecution which is related in this work, and was perpetrated by himself. — ED.
3 . Chef lieu de l’arondissement in which the valleys are situated. — Ed.
4 . Now sunk in the duchy of Baden.
5 . Out of an annual pension of 500l . applicable to the wants of the ministers and schoolmasters of the Vaudois, which, it is expected, will be speedily re-established by the English government.

CHAPTER 1

1 . The editor believes the work alluded to, to be that of Boyer. It is translated and abridged by a person of quality. 2d edition, London, 1692.
2 . The bread known in Piemont by the name of glises.
3 . From Berne.

CHAPTER 2

1 . Protestant exiles from France, after the revocation of the edict of Nantes.—Ed.
2 . The grandson of the latter is now pastor of St. Germain, and shows with infinite and just pride a spot near Rocheplatte, where his ancestor gained a memorable advantage over a superior French force, after the Vaudois were reconciled to their prince.—Ed.
3 . An officer corresponding to an English exciseman. The trade in salt in that country being under the control of the government for its own benefit,—Ed.
4 . An artifice to create fear.—Ed
5 . Various preparations of milk, including cheese.—Ed.
6 . A chalet, or chalets, together with the pastures in which they are situated.—Ed.
7 . Pasturages accessible only during summer.—Ed.
8 . A very strong fort in the valley of the Dora.
9 . The grandson of this officer is now the officiating pastor of St. Jean. He has great pride in showing a spot at Rocheplatte where his grandfather gained a splendid advantage over a body of French very superior to his own.—Ed.
10 . The first French town on the opposite side of the Alps.—Ed.
11 . I entreat the reader to suspend his judgment on this procedure and others similar to it, till he has read the journal of the fifteenth day.— Ed.

CHAPTER 3

1 . Peasants who had been of the Vaudois faith, and were now in arms against their former brethren.
2 . The name of a particular mountain.
3 . Barbe, as has been before mentioned, signified uncle, and was a term of affectionate respect. Thus it was applied by the Vaudois to their pastors: and on this account the Romanists used it collectively as a reproachful designation.—Ed.
4 . The Vaudois use the term” combe” in the same sense in which it is applied in the west of England. They have also the term junket for the preparation of milk, so called in the same counties.

CHAPTER 4

1 . Chestnuts are an essential article of subsistence in these valleys, and are prepared in various manners.

CHAPTER 5

1 . It is the practice with shepherds, in mountains where the alps are small, or not fertile, to change from alp to alp within their right of pasture.

CHAPTER 6

1 . It has been mentioned in a former page, that Captain Turel, being taken by the French after he had deserted the Vaudois, perished on the wheel at Grenoble.
2 . This account appears so extravagant, that the following observation will not, perhaps, be inappropriate. One great danger among precipices is the vertigo occasioned by seeing through the depth below. This is removed by darkness. I can appeal, too, to more than one of my countrymen in support of the truth that, in the steepest descents when once commenced, feeling, as much as sight, is to be depended on. “La tete en arriere;” “Il faut bien accrocher la tete,” were the directions of a Vaudois guide, to an Englishman descending a rock above Salaterbrann. Moreover, the Vaudois were encountering the least of two dangers.—Ed.
3 . This circumstance shows that, even as early as their expulsion, an idea of return into their native valleys existed among the Vaudois.—Ed.
4 . All these letters are inserted in the original, but have not interest enough to claim the attention of the reader. They are evidently written under the influence of high authorities, who assisted in sending them, and sometimes openly took part in them. The following, from a person of rank, whose name is concealed, is inserted, as Mons. Arnaud seems to have considered it written in good part. “As I perceive you are on the point of being overwhelmed by the multitude of troops sent by the king to dislodge you, and as they are commanded by Mons. de l’Ombraille, who is worse than a devil, and has occupied all the posts around you, I have thought fit to hazard my own life, and that of the bearer’s, in order to acquaint you that, in case of a frank submission, you would receive good quarter. I beg that you will answer me secretly, as I should be ruined were this to come to the ears of Mons. l’Ombraille. I send this messenger for your good; endeavor to send him back so that he may not be seen. I hope all will go on well, and entreat you to consider on what I suggest. “I remain, with the strongest interest, “Your obedient humble servant.” “To Mons. Arnaud and the other officers of the Vaudois.” The answer to this letter is not preserved.—Ed.
5 . These do not appear in the original.—Ed.
6 . In allusion to the wars which then desolated Europe.—ED.
7 . This letter is at length in the original, but is omitted here, as it is merely a recapitulation of the previous statement.—Ed.

CHAPTER 7

1 . So particular an order for 500 men on this affair may appear to militate against Henri Arnaud’s account of the large force employed in it. It will shortly be seen, in an account from the French camp itself, that six other regiments, besides a detachment of Savoyards, received direct orders for the same service. It would then rather appear, that the obstinate bravery of the Vaudois was so well known to Marechal Carlnat, that he deemed it necessary to select a crack regiment for the most decisive assault. This notion is supported by the fact, implied in his orders, that the regiment D’Artois was much farther removed from the scene of action than some others. That of Cambresis was at Maneille, not more than five leagues from the Bahi, while that of Artois was on the other side of Perouse, which is at least double that distance. The occupation of Maneille by a detachment of the same regiment, the care taken about tents, kettles, and firewood, were probably only so many precautions of a wise officer in case of a severe suffering in wounded, a precaution which the event proved to be well justified.
2 . Including, no doubt, the regiments alluded to in the preceding note, who were present at the assault, though not actually engaged in it.
3 . This writer thus distinguishes the highest point of the Balsi from the lower part; a distinction still sometimes made by the inhabitants of that part of the valleys.
4 . Shifting drifts of snow (the wind-lauinen of the Swiss Alps), differing from avalanches, commonly so called, in their less degree of compactness and velocity.
5 . Arnaud has given copies of others. The reader will not, I am sure, wish for any more specimens. They all bear the approving mark of the inquisitor at Turin.—Ed.

CHAPTER 8

1 . Mons. de Feuquieres, in his memoirs, corroborates this statement.
2 . Meaning stones heaped on one another without cement.
3 . Where there was an oracle of Jupiter supposed to be the most ancient in Greece, and founded by Egyptian women. Doves and trees, as well as kettles, were reported to be channels of the deity’s forewarnings. The kettles, which were brazen, were suspended close to one another, and near enough a statue, in whose hand was a thong, to be struck by the latter in a high wind. The jarring sound thus produced was interpreted into oracles by the priests.
4 . Victor Amadeus, then duke of Savoy, was infamous for his inconstancy to his allies. At the time alluded to in this history he was mediating the desertion of Louis XIV., to unite himself with the allied powers; a desertion of which he was afterwards guilty on both sides more than once. Smollett mentions, that immediately on the duke’s declaration to this effect, Catinat marched into Piemont with 18,000 men. It appears that Catinat was already there; and it is not improbable that this sanguinary pursuit of the Vaudois by the French, resulted from the wily policy of Louis, who had thus a pretext for so large a force in the immediate vicinity of his suspected ally.—Ed.
5 . Arnaud has inserted another letter from the lieutenant-colonel of a French regiment, which is here omitted, as it only differs from the preceding accounts in mentioning, that the regiment of Clerambaud alone lost from eighty to one hundred privates, several gentlemen (seigneurs), and three lieutenants, in one attack.—Ed.

CHAPTER 9