were shot in attempting their escape. They, however, seized another and more important prisoner, Monsieur de Parat, the leader of the attack, whom they had the rare good sense not 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 re-
had 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
punctual in paying all the feudal rents and
taxes; they had never been turbulent, but, on
the contrary, had assisted the government in
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 creep-
ing slowly round the Balsille, and so cau-
tiously, that, although they were obliged to
sleep on the snow, they lit no fires, lest their
novement should be discovered.

There was one point from which the Balsille was supposed to be particularly liable to attack; it was a ravine entering deep in its side, and capable of affording cover to an enemy. There Arnaud had raised his most formidable works, consisting in a great measure of barriers made of felled trees, with large stones above them, while on either side there were heaps of stones piled on the edge of the ravine, to be hurled on an attacking enemy. Suddenly, but not without the vigilant garrison being prepared, 500 dismounted dragoons seemed, as it were, to rise from the earth, and make for the barriers. They reached only the extremity of the first, and in vain attempted to pull it down. They were thus at one extremity of the trees, laid lengthwise, while the garrison were at the other. 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

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. The works were brought so near that the besiegers could address the besieged with a speaking-trumpet. Knowing how desperate they were, and that an officer of importance was in their hands, the French now offered thein terms, which, in appearance at least, were extremely liberal. They were to receive passports, and each one a gratuity of 500 louis. But whether fearing treachery, or still trusting to their destiny, they refused the terms. Nor were they so completely beset but that they were able to accomplish some of their characteristic feats. They marked the manner in which provisions were sent to the besiegers; and one day, making a rush on the convoy, they cut it to pieces, and secured the provisions. Still, however, it was clear, to all human appearance, that the 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.

tion from the higher spot where the refugees stood.

On that day the battery was opened on Next morning a successful attack was made the defences, and the mounds so industriously on the fortifications of the Balsille, all broken, raised speedily powdered down under the as they were by cannon; but the birds had effect of a cannonade. The Waldenses had flown, and the nest was found deserted and to abandon the lower, and pass to the higher cold. Looking from the height they had defences. In this passage, their enemies ex- gained, some far-sighted soldier of the French pected that the hot fire playing on the Balsille force pointed out the string of dark figures, would exterminate them. But here took several miles off, cutting steps for themselves place one of those events which made the on the frozen snow of the Guignevert. Though refugees deem themselves the selected objects they had weathered the winter in their fortof divine intervention. They were shielded ress, and spring had revisited them, yet it in their retreat by a fog which hid them was impossible that this bandful of men from the enemy. It prompts a smile to could resist the fate of extermination from the find that they give up their claim to sagacity large Piedmontese and still larger French in seizing the moment of the fog for accom- force. A pursuit was immediately complishing their retreat, and would rather have menced; but they had gained some distance, it thought that the fog was specially sent to and were rapid in their motions. On the 17th, aid it. They were now hard-pressed, and their track was found; they were overtaken they showed that fatalist ferocity which over- in the direction of Angrogna by a small detakes men of their kind in such circumstances, tachment, which attacked them somewhat by putting their wounded prisoner, De Parat, rashly, and was defeated with slaughter. This, to death. Thus did they seem, in what however, was only a provocation to more sigmight be counted their last act of power, to nal vengeance. The occurrence took place on give a precedent for their own fate. 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.

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, On Sunday the outposts of the Waldenses whose name was Paulat, intimately acquainted found approaching their camp, in peaceful with the ground, said there was still a cleft security, two Piedmontese gentlemen named of the rock left unguarded, except by its own Parander and Bertin. They announced the precipitous and dangerous nature, through astounding intelligence, that the Duke of which he declared he could pass undetected, Savoy was now the enemy of France, having along with any good cragsmen who would run joined the allies, and that he desired the aid the risk. The project was at once adopted by of the faithful and valorous Waldenses in his the whole garrison, for the night had come on armies. They were now on their own ground, in a gloom suitable for its fulfilment, and the under the command of their own monarch; whole period from the beginning of darkness and the French force was an invading army, to the dawn was before them. They took off which they were to assist in driving forth. It their shoes, and were silently guided by Pau- has been thought, indeed, that the reason why lat, sometimes having to climb and descend Louis XIV. sent so many troops against this walls of rock, at other times sliding down handful of Waldenses was, that, doubting the steep smooth banks. They passed so near the faith of the Duke of Savoy, he desired to have enemy's pickets, that the slightest blunder a considerable force in that prince's territories: would have sacrificed them. A petty incident, and perhaps, if this was his object, he might indeed, showed them in a formidable shape not be so eager to accomplish the avowed prothe 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

ject 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 Wür-
which they themselves believed to be their temberg. They did not now go forth, as be-
'destiny. 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 principal-
regions, 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 im-
came citizens of their Protestant communities, munities. Within four years afterwards, a
so that they were ever becoming more numer-
ous and powerful.

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.

large body again moved off from Piedmont to 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 that, while they had to dismiss all their latelyenrolled 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 But the reader asks: What has become of on the 1st of July, 1698, for carrying out the the priestly general of the glorious return? treaty. It required all French Protestants to His subsequent history is a brief one. quit the Piedmontese dominions in two naud had tempting offers of military command months, under pain of death. It shows how made to him by King William, and from sevextensively these communities had been superal other quarters; but he preferred the serplied by immigrants from France, that of their vice of that Master whose kingdom is not of 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

manded by Protestants. It was, that their pastors and deacons should be exempt from disclosing in courts of justice secrets committed to them under the seal of confession, unless when involving High treason.

Ar

this world, and went with his flock. He officiated for them as pastor in a small rudechurch 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.
EUROPE, POPERY, AMERICA.

-

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 siniles, 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 thein.

DANCE OF DEATH.

at last remarked the attention with which I

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 nie 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. 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 looked upon the figure or child, whichever it was; and the nearest one informed me, as far as I could understand him, that the little thing up there was really the child of the woman with the pale face, who was dancing just then so merrily; the whole festivity taking place, in fact, only on account of that little angel. I shook my head doubtfully; and my neighbor, to convince me, took my arm and led me to the frame, where I had to step upon the chair and nearest table, and touch the cheek and hand of the child. It was a corpse! And the mother, seeing I had doubted it, but was now conThe season of despotic rule is naturally the me it had been her child, and was now a little vinced, came up to me, and smilingly told season of papal encroachment. Had the recent angel in heaven. The guitars and cacaes comaggression in this country taken place under menced wildly again, and she had to return to our Plantagenets, the tools of the Foreign the dance. I left the house as in a dream, but Priest engaged in it would have been liable to afterwards heard the explanation of this ceremony. imprisonment, confiscation, and exile. Had If a little child-I believe up to four years of age the papal letter addressed to the French clergy - dies in Chili, it is thought to go straight to within the last few weeks, been addressed to heaven, and become a little angel; the mother that body a hundred years ago, the Bourbon being prouder of that-before the eyes of the would instantly have suppressed it, as an in- world at least-than if she had reared her vasion of the prerogatives of the crown, and child to happy man or womanhood. The little of the liberties of the Gallican church. While corpse is exhibited then, as I had seen it; and the present league between the sword and the they often continue dancing and singing around erosier shall last, no man can say what may mother, whatever the feelings of her heart may it till it displays signs of putrefaction. But the not be attempted, nor what may not be sub-be, must laugh, and sing, and dance; she dare mitted to. The worst things ever professed not give way to any selfish wishes, for is not are now professed again; and we see not why the happiness of her child secured? Poor the worst things ever done may not be done mother-Gerstaecker's Journey Round the again. If England and America could be put

The words of the leader of our Lower House, to a certain priest-ridden duke, were manly and hopeful. But the spirit which gave England 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.

World.

From the Spectator.

CAPTAIN ERSKINE'S CRUISE AMONG THE
ISLANDS OF THE WESTERN PACIFIC.*

of savages and sailors has gone on among the islands, especially among those that form the frontier lands of Australasia. The visits of ships of war to these places have hitherto been casual. Captain Erskine's was a regular THE scene of Captain Erskine's cruise is cruise for the purpose of observation and those groups of islands and single islets in the Western Pacific which extend from the justiciary objects; and seems to be the beginning of an annual series, which, efficiently Navigators Islands in longitude 170 degrees carried out, will be beneficial both to knowlWest to New Caledonia in 165° East, and edge and humanity. The greater groups which may rank among the most interesting visited by Captain Erskine in his voyage of and little known regions directly accessible 1849 (for he made a second in 1850), were by sea. The genius of Cook recorded their the Navigators, Friendly, Feejee, and Loyalty natural and social traits with a discriminat- Islands, New Caledonia, and some of the ing sagacity, which even now excites the ad- New Hebrides. A careful study of the works miration of those who follow in his track. of his predecessors had made him familiar Since Cook's day not much has been done to with the history and characteristics of the extend his observations, beyond Mariner's peoples, so far as they could be ascertained account of the Tonga or Friendly Islands. from books. The size and equipment of his Navigators have touched at many of the frigate, the absence of trading pursuits. places, missionaries have settled or attempted and his position as a queen's officer (for none to settle at them, and traders between Sydney are better judges of character than many of and China have frequented the most interest- these savages), gave him great advantages in ing portion of the whole- the region which point of prestige; his own bearing, equally forms the easterly extreme of Australasia, con-removed from undue familiarity and from the sisting of new Caledonia, the Loyalty Islands, hauteur of the service, and, above all, his and the new Hebrides. The results, how-reasonable sense of justice, appear to have ever, have not corresponded with the apparent opportunities. From the traders, indeed, we were not likely to learn much; they were as corrupt, as bloody, and for all purposes of philosophical observation as ignorant, as the savages they visited and slaughtered. The missionaries, with some rare exceptions, were deficient in native penetration and largeness of mind, while their primary object naturally gave a color to everything they saw, and as naturally predominated in their narratives. Some of them, however, have left valuable pictures of the mental state of the natural man, though theology may be more conspicuous than philosophy. Either want of time or of taste has rendered many of the navigators less discriminating, and perhaps less impartial than might be wished. It has been reserved for Captain Erskine to exhibit the fullest and most interesting account of these islands since the great circumnavigator first described them. The object of the voyage and the change of circumstances may be noted as advantages in Captain Erskine's favor; but opportunities

are useless to those who cannot use them.

The cruise was one of the first of its kind; being intended as a sort of judicial circuit. Owing in part to the cupidity and treachery of the islanders, but a good deal more to the unprincipled and brutal character of whalers and other traders in these seas, the massacre

Journal of a Cruise among the Islands of the Western Pacific, including the Feejees and others inhabited by the Polynesian Negro Races, in her Majesty's Ship Havannah. By John Elphinstone Erskine, Capt. R. N. With Maps and Plates. Published by Murray.

made a favorable personal impression upon the native chiefs. Every commander who visits the less frequented islands of the Pacific has opportunities of observation in plenty if he can benefit by them. The confidence inspired by a man whom the savage feels he can trust, gives greater opportunities by more freely eliciting his traits.

The opinion formed by Captain Erskine of the moral capability of the worst islanders whom he encountered is more favorable than that of many other navigators; if they were properly treated, he sees in them the germ of goodness. As regards their actual vices, especially their bloodiness, cruelty, and cannibalism, his picture is darker than that of most other men. With that instinctive judgment of character which they possess, they have quickly seen that Europeans hold cannibalism in abhorrence, and have denied or softened the circumstances of the practice. The residence of the missionaries and other white men amongst them has enabled more information to be acquired about the real facts of the case. If truly reported - and there appears no reason for doubt- a dinner of human flesh in some of the islands seems the more unsophisticated justify the practice as common a thing as game in Europe; and on the plea of the want of the larger animals which Europeans have got. In the interior even of the Feejee Islands, and on state occasions, there are regular sacrificial feasts. Like other national customs, man-eating exists without injury to individual character beyond the range of its own effects. Navindi, one of the mildest-mannered and most respect-