"If any part of the officers or crew of the _Guardian_ should
ever survive to reach home, I have only to say that their
conduct, after the fatal stroke against an island of ice, was
admirable and wonderful in everything that relates to their
duties, considered either as private men or in his Majesty's
service. As there seems no possibility of my remaining many hours
in this world, I beg leave to recommend to the consideration of
the Admiralty a sister, to whom, if my conduct or services should
be found deserving any memory, favour might be shown, together
with a widowed mother.
"I am, sir, with great respect,
"Your ever obedient servant,
"EDWARD RIOU.
"PHILIP STEPHENS, ESQ.,
"Admiralty."
About half the crew remained with Riou, some because they determined
to stand by their commander, and others because they could not get
away in the boats, which, to avoid being overcrowded, had put off in
haste, for the most part insufficiently stored and provided. The sea,
still high, continued to make breaches over the ship, and many were
drowned in their attempts to reach the boats. Those who remained were
exhausted by fatigue; and, without the most distant hope of life, some
were mad with despair. A party of these last contrived to break open
the spirit-room, and found a temporary oblivion in intoxication. "It
is hardly a time to be a disciplinarian," wrote Riou in his log, which
continues a valued treasury in his family, "when only a few more hours
of life seem to present themselves; but this behaviour greatly hurts
me." This log gives a detailed account, day by day, of the eight
weeks' heroic fortitude and scientific seamanship which preserved the
_Guardian_ afloat until she got into the track of ships, and was
finally towed by Dutch whalers into Table Bay, Cape of Good Hope.
The master's boat, in which were also the purser and chaplain, had by
a miracle been picked up, and those officers, on their return to
England, reported to the Admiralty "the total loss of the _Guardian_".
They also at the same time spoke of Riou's noble conduct in terms of
such enthusiasm as to awaken general admiration, and occasion the
greatest regret at his loss. Accordingly, when the Admiralty received
from his own hand the unexpected intelligence of his safety, his
widowed mother and only sister had the affectionate sympathy of all
England. Lord Hood himself, before unknown to the family, hastened to
their house with the news, calling to the servants as he ran up the
stairs to "throw off their mourning!" The following was Riou's brief
letter to his mother, which he found time to scrawl and send off by a
ship just leaving Table Bay for England as the poor helpless
_Guardian_ was being towed in:--
"Cape of Good Hope,
"_February, 22, 1790_.
"DEAREST,--God has been merciful. I hope you have no fatal
accounts of the _Guardian_. I am safe; I am well, notwithstanding
you may hear otherwise. Join with me in prayer to that blessed
Saviour who hath hung over my ship for two months, and kept thy
dear son safe, to be, I hope, thankful for almost a miracle. I
can say no more because I am hurried, and the ship sails for
England this afternoon.
"Yours ever and ever,
"EDWARD RIOU."
Riou remained many months at the Cape trying to patch up the
_Guardian_, and repair it so as to bring it back to port; but all his
exertions were fruitless, and in October the Admiralty despatched the
_Sphinx_ ship-of-war to bring him and the survivors of his crew to
England, where they landed shortly after. There was, of course, the
usual court-martial held upon him for the loss of his ship, but it was
merely a matter of form. At its conclusion he was complimented by the
Court in the warmest terms; and "as a mark of the high consideration
in which the magnanimity of his conduct was held, in remaining by his
ship from an exalted sense of duty when all reasonable prospects of
saving her were at an end," he received the special thanks of the
Admiralty, was made commander, and at the same time promoted to the
rank of post captain.
No record exists of the services of Captain Riou from the date of his
promotion until 1794, when we find him in command of his Majesty's
ship _Rose_, assisting in the reduction of Martinique. He was then
transferred to the _Beaulieu_, and remained cruising in the West
Indian seas till his health became so injured by the climate that he
found himself compelled to solicit his recall, and he consequently
returned to England in the _Theseus_ in the following year. Shortly
after, in recognition of his distinguished services, he was appointed
to the command of the royal yacht, the _Princess Augusta_, in which he
remained until the spring of 1790. So soon as his health was
sufficiently re-established, he earnestly solicited active employment,
and he was accordingly appointed to the command of the fine frigate,
the _Amazon_, thirty-eight guns, whose name afterwards figured so
prominently in Nelson's famous battle before Copenhagen.
After cruising about in her on various stations, and picking up a few
prizes, the _Amazon_, early in 1801, was attached to Sir Hyde Parker's
fleet, destined for the Baltic. The last letter which Riou wrote home
to his mother was dated Sunday, the 29th March, "at the entrance to
the Sound;" and in it he said:--"It yet remains in doubt whether we
are to fight the Danes, or whether they will be our friends." Already,
however, Nelson was arranging his plan of attack, and on the following
day, the 30th, the Admiral and all the artillery officers were on
board the _Amazon_, which proceeded to examine the northern channel
outside Copenhagen Harbour. It was on this occasion that Riou first
became known to Nelson, who was struck with admiration at the superior
discipline and seamanship which were observable on board the frigate
during the proceedings of that day.
Early in the evening of the 1st of April the signal to prepare for
action was made; and Lord Nelson, with Riou and Foley, on board the
_Elephant_--all the other officers having returned to their
respective ships--arranged the order of battle on the following day.
What remains to be told of Riou is matter of history. The science and
skill in navigation which made Nelson intrust to him the last
soundings, and place under his command the fire-ships which were to
lead the way on the following morning,--the gallantry with which the
captain of the _Amazon_ throw himself, _impar congressus_, under the
fearful fire of the Trekroner battery, to redeem the failure
threatened by the grounding of the ships of the line,--have all been
told with a skilful pen, and forms a picture of a great sailor's last
hours, which is cherished with equal pride in the affections of his
family and the annals of his country.
Sir Hyde Parker's signal to "leave off action," which Nelson, putting
his telescope to his blind eye, refused to see, was seen, by Riou and
reluctantly obeyed. Indeed, nothing but that signal for retreat saved
the _Amazon_ from destruction, though it did not save its heroic
commander. As he unwillingly drew off from the destructive fire of the
battery he mournfully exclaimed, "What will Nelson think of us!" His
clerk had been killed by his side. He himself had been wounded in the
head by a splinter, but continued to sit on a gun encouraging his men,
who were falling in numbers around him. "Come then, my boys," he
cried, "let us all die together." Scarcely had he uttered the words,
when a raking shot cut him in two. And thus, in an instant, perished
the "gallant good Riou," at the early age of thirty-nine.
Riou was a man of the truest and tenderest feelings, yet the bravest
of the brave. His private correspondence revealed the most endearing
qualities of mind and heart, while the nobility of his actions was
heightened by lofty Christian sentiment, and a firm reliance on the
power and mercy of God. His chivalrous devotion to duty in the face of
difficulty and danger heightened the affectionate admiration with
which he was regarded, and his death before Copenhagen was mourned
almost as a national bereavement. The monument erected to his memory
in St. Paul's Cathedral represented, however inadequately, the widely
felt sorrow which pervaded all classes at the early death of this
heroic officer. "Except it had been Nelson himself," says Southey,
"the British navy could not have suffered a severer loss."
Captain Riou's only sister married Colonel Lyde Browne, who closed his
honourable career of twenty-three years' active service in Dublin, on
July 23rd, 1803. Within two years of her bitter mourning for the death
of her brother, she had also to mourn for the loss of her husband. He
was colonel of the 21st Fusiliers. He was hastening to the assistance
of Lord Kilwarden on the fatal night of Emmett's rebellion, when he
was basely assassinated. He was buried in the churchyard of St.
Paul's, Dublin, where his brother officers erected a marble tablet to
his memory. He left an only daughter, who was married, in 1826, to M.
G. Benson, Esq., of Lulwyche Hall, Salop. It is through this lady that
we have been permitted to inspect the family papers relating to the
life and death of Captain Riou.
A VISIT TO THE COUNTRY OF THE VAUDOIS.
[Illustration: "The country of Felix Neff." (Dauphiny.)]
CHAPTER I.
INTRODUCTORY.
Dauphiny is one of the least visited of all the provinces of France.
It occupies a remote corner of the empire, lying completely out of the
track of ordinary tourists. No great road passes through it into
Italy, the Piedmontese frontier of which it adjoins; and the annual
streams of English and American travellers accordingly enter that
kingdom by other routes. Even to Frenchmen, who travel little in their
own country and still less in others, Dauphiny is very little known;
and M. Joanne, who has written an excellent Itinerary of the South of
France, almost takes the credit of having discovered it.
Yet Dauphiny is a province full of interest. Its scenery almost vies
with that of Switzerland in grandeur, beauty, and wildness. The great
mountain masses of the Alps do not end in Savoy, but extend through
the south-eastern parts of France, almost to the mouths of the Rhône.
Packed closer together than in most parts of Switzerland, the
mountains of Dauphiny are furrowed by deep valleys, each with its
rapid stream or torrent at bottom, in some places overhung by
precipitous rocks, in others hemmed in by green hills, over which are
seen the distant snowy peaks and glaciers of the loftier mountain
ranges. Of these, Mont Pelvoux--whose double pyramid can be seen from
Lyons on a clear day, a hundred miles off--and the Aiguille du Midi,
are among the larger masses, rising to a height little short of Mont
Blanc itself.
From the ramparts of Grenoble the panoramic view is of wonderful
beauty and grandeur, extending along the valleys of the Isère and the
Drac, and across that of the Romanche. The massive heads of the Grand
Chartreuse mountains bound the prospect to the north; and the summits
of the snow-clad Dauphiny Alps on the south and east present a
combination of bold valley and mountain scenery, the like of which is
not to be seen in France, if in Europe.
But it is not the scenery, or the geology, or the flora of the
province, however marvellous these may be, that constitutes the chief
interest for the traveller through these Dauphiny valleys, so much as
the human endurance, suffering, and faithfulness of the people who
have lived in them in past times, and of which so many interesting
remnants still survive. For Dauphiny forms a principal part of the
country of the ancient Vaudois or Waldenses--literally, the people
inhabiting the _Vaux_, or valleys--who for nearly seven hundred years
bore the heavy brunt of Papal persecution, and are now, after all
their sufferings, free to worship God according to the dictates of
their conscience.
The country of the Vaudois is not confined, as is generally supposed,
to the valleys of Piedmont, but extends over the greater part of
Dauphiny and Provence. From the main ridge of the Cottian Alps, which,
divide France from Italy, great mountain spurs are thrown out, which
run westward as well as eastward, and enclose narrow strips of
pasturage, cultivable land, and green shelves on the mountain sides,
where a poor, virtuous, and hard-working race have long contrived to
earn a scanty subsistence, amidst trials and difficulties of no
ordinary kind,--the greatest of which, strange to say, have arisen
from the pure and simple character of the religion they professed.
The tradition which exists among them is, that the early Christian
missionaries, when travelling from Italy into Gaul by the Roman road
passing over Mont Genèvre, taught the Gospel in its primitive form to
the people of the adjoining districts. It is even surmised that St.
Paul journeyed from Rome into Spain by that route, and may himself
have imparted to the people of the valleys their first Christian
instruction. The Italian and Gallic provinces in that quarter were
certainly Christianized in the second century at the latest, and it is
known that the early missionaries were in the habit of making frequent
journeys from the provinces to Rome. Wherefore it is reasonable to
suppose that the people of the valleys would receive occasional visits
from the wayfaring teachers who travelled by the mountain passes in
the immediate neighbourhood of their dwellings.
As years rolled on, and the Church at Rome became rich and allied
itself with the secular power, it gradually departed more and more
from its primitive condition,[92] until at length it was scarcely to
be recognised from the Paganism which it had superseded. The heathen
gods were replaced by canonised mortals; Venus and Cupid by the Virgin
and Child; Lares and Penates by images and crucifixes; while incense,
flowers, tapers, and showy dresses came to be regarded as essential
parts of the ceremonial of the new religion as they had been of the
old. Madonnas winked and bled again, as the statues of Juno and Pompey
had done before; and stones and relics worked miracles as in the time
of the Augurs.
[Footnote 92: The ancient Vaudois had a saying, known in
other countries--"Religion brought forth wealth, and the
daughter devoured the mother;" and another of like meaning,
but less known--"When the bishops' croziers became golden,
the bishops themselves became Wooden."]
Attempts were made by some of the early bishops to stem this tide of
innovation. Thus, in the fourth, century, Ambrose, Bishop of Milan,
and Philastrius, Bishop of Brescia, acknowledging no authority on
earth as superior to that of the Bible, protested against the
introduction of images in churches, which they held to be a return to
Paganism. Four centuries later, Claude, Bishop of Turin, advanced like
views, and opposed with energy the worship of images, which he
regarded as absolute idolatry. In the meanwhile, the simple Vaudois,
shut up in their almost inaccessible valleys, and knowing nothing of
these innovations, continued to adhere to their original primitive
form of worship; and it clearly appears, from a passage in the
writings of St. Ambrose, that, in his time, the superstitions which
prevailed elsewhere had not at all extended into the mountainous
regions of his diocese.
The Vaudois Church was never, in the ordinary sense of the word, a
"Reformed" Church, simply because it had not become corrupted, and did
not stand in need of "reformation." It was not the Vaudois who left
the Church, but the Roman Church that left them in search of idols.
Adhering to their primitive faith, they never recognised the paramount
authority of the Pope; they never worshipped images, nor used incense,
nor observed Mass; and when, in the course of time, these corruptions
became known to them, and they found that the Western Church had
ceased to be Catholic, and become merely Roman; they openly separated
from it, as being no longer in conformity with the principles of the
Gospel as inculcated in the Bible and delivered to them by their
fathers. Their ancient manuscripts, still extant, attest to the purity
of their doctrines. They are written, like the Nobla Leyçon, in the
Romance or Provençal--the earliest of the modern classical languages,
the language of the troubadours--though now only spoken as a _patois_
in Dauphiny, Piedmont, Sardinia, the north of Spain, and the Balearic
Isles.[93]
[Footnote 93: Sismondi, "Littérature du Midi de l'Europe," i.
159.]
If the age counts for anything, the Vaudois are justified in their
claim to be considered one of the oldest churches in Europe. Long
before the conquest of England by the Normans, before the time of
Wallace and Bruce in Scotland, before England had planted its foot in
Ireland, the Vaudois Church existed. Their remoteness, their poverty,
and their comparative unimportance as a people, for a long time
protected them from interference; and for centuries they remained
unnoticed by Rome. But as the Western Church extended its power, it
became insatiable for uniformity. It would not tolerate the
independence which characterized the early churches, but aimed at
subjecting them to the exclusive authority of Rome.
The Vaudois, however, persisted in repudiating the doctrines and
formularies of the Pope. When argument failed, the Church called the
secular arm to its aid, and then began a series of persecutions,
extending over several centuries, which, for brutality and ferocity,
are probably unexampled in history. To crush this unoffending but
faithful people, Rome employed her most irrefragable arguments--the
curses of Lucius and the horrible cruelties of Innocent--and the
"Vicar of Christ" bathed the banner of the Cross in a carnage from
which the wolves of Romulus and the eagles of Cæsar would have turned
with loathing.
Long before the period of the Reformation, the Vaudois valleys were
ravaged by fire and sword because of the alleged heresy of the people.
Luther was not born until 1483; whereas nearly four centuries before,
the Vaudois were stigmatized as heretics by Rome. As early as 1096, we
find Pope Urban II. describing Val Louise, one of the Dauphiny
valleys--then called Vallis Gyrontana, from the torrent of Gyr, which
flows through it--as "infested with heresy." In 1179, hot persecution
raged all over Dauphiny, extending to the Albigeois of the South of
France, as far as Lyons and Toulouse; one of the first martyrs being
Pierre Waldo, or Waldensis,[94] of Lyons, who was executed for heresy
by the Archbishop of Lyons in 1180.
[Footnote 94: It has been surmised by some writers that the
Waldenses derived their name from this martyr; but being
known as "heretics" long before his time, it is more probable
that they gave the name to him than that he did to them.]
Of one of the early persecutions, an ancient writer says: "In the year
1243, Pope Innocent II. ordered the Bishop of Metz rigorously to
prosecute the Vaudois, especially because they read the sacred books
in the vulgar tongue."[95] From time to time, new persecutions were
ordered, and conducted with ever-increasing ferocity--the scourge, the
brand, and the sword being employed by turns. In 1486, while Luther
was still in his cradle, Pope Innocent VIII. issued a bull of
extermination against the Vaudois, summoning all true Catholics to the
holy crusade, promising free pardon to all manner of criminals who
should take part in it, and concluding with the promise of the
remission of sins to every one who should slay a heretic.[96] The
consequence was, the assemblage of an immense horde of brigands, who
were let loose on the valleys of Dauphiny and Piedmont, which they
ravaged and pillaged, in company with eighteen thousand regular
troops, jointly furnished by the French king and the Duke of Savoy.
[Footnote 95: Jean Leger, "Histoire Générale des Églises
Évangéliques des Vallées de Piedmont, ou Vaudoises." Leyde,
1669. Part ii. 330.]
[Footnote 96: Leger, ii. 8-20.]
Sometimes the valleys were under the authority of the kings of France,
sometimes under that of the dukes of Savoy, whose armies alternately
overran them; but change of masters and change of popes made little
difference to the Vaudois. It sometimes, however, happened, that the
persecution waxed hotter on one side of the Cottian Alps, while it
temporarily relaxed on the other; and on such occasions the French and
Italian Vaudois were accustomed to cross the mountain passes, and take
refuge in each others' valleys. But when, as in the above case, the
kings, soldiers, and brigands, on both sides, simultaneously plied the
brand and the sword, the times were very troublous indeed for these
poor hunted people. They had then no alternative but to climb up the
mountains into the least accessible places, or hide themselves away
in dens and caverns with their families, until their enemies had
departed. But they were often, tracked to their hiding-places by their
persecutors, and suffocated, strangled, or shot--men, women, and
children. Hence there is scarcely a hiding-place along the
mountain-sides of Dauphiny but has some tradition connected with it
relating to those dreadful times. In one, so many women and children
were suffocated; in another, so many perished of cold and hunger; in a
third, so many were ruthlessly put to the sword. If these caves of
Dauphiny had voices, what deeds of horror they could tell!
* * * * *
What is known as the Easter massacre of 1655 made an unusual sensation
in Europe, but especially in England, principally through the attitude
which Oliver Cromwell assumed in the matter. Persecution had followed
persecution for nearly four hundred years, and still the Vaudois were
neither converted nor extirpated. The dukes of Savoy during all that
time pursued a uniform course of treachery and cruelty towards this
portion of their subjects. Sometimes the Vaudois, pressed by their
persecutors, turned upon them, and drove them ignominiously out of
their valleys. Then the reigning dukes would refrain for a time; and,
probably needing their help in one or other of the wars in which they
were constantly engaged, would promise them protection and privileges.
But such promises were invariably broken; and at some moment when the
Vaudois were thrown off their guard by his pretended graciousness, the
duke for the time being would suddenly pounce upon them and carry fire
and sword through their valleys.
Indeed, the dukes of Savoy seem to have been about the most
wrong-headed line of despots that ever cursed a people by their rule.
Their mania was soldiering, though they were oftener beaten than
victorious. They were thrashed out of Dauphiny by France, thrashed out
of Geneva by the citizens, thrashed out of the valleys by their own
peasantry; and still they went on raising armies, making war, and
massacring their Vaudois subjects. Being devoted servants of the Pope,
in 1655 they concurred with him in the establishment of a branch of
the society _De Propaganda Fide_ at Turin, which extended over the
whole of Piedmont, for the avowed purpose of extirpating the heretics.
On Palm Sunday, the beginning of Holy Week, the society commenced
active proceedings. The army of Savoy advanced suddenly upon La Tour,
and were let loose upon the people. A general massacre began,
accompanied with shocking brutalities, and continued for more than a
week. In many hamlets not a cottage was left standing, and such of the
people as had not been able to fly into the upper valleys were
indiscriminately put to the sword. And thus was Easter celebrated.
The noise of this dreadful deed rang through Europe, and excited a
general feeling of horror, especially in England. Cromwell, then at
the height of his power, offered the fugitive Vaudois an asylum in
Ireland; but the distance which lay between was too great, and the
Vaudois asked him to help them in some other way. Forthwith, he
addressed letters, written by his secretary, John Milton,[97] to the
principal European powers, calling upon them to join him in putting a
stop to these horrid barbarities committed upon an unoffending
people. Cromwell did more. He sent the exiles £2,000 out of his own
purse; appointed a day of humiliation and a general collection all
over England, by which some £38,000 were raised; and dispatched Sir
Samuel Morland as his plenipotentiary to expostulate in person with
the Duke of Savoy. Moreover, a treaty was on the eve of being signed
with France; and Cromwell refused to complete it until Cardinal
Mazarin had undertaken to assist him in getting right done to the
people of the valleys.
[Footnote 97: It was at this time that Milton wrote his noble
sonnet, beginning--
"Avenge, O Lord, Thy slaughter'd saints, whose bones
Lie scattered on the Alpine mountains cold," &c.]
These energetic measures had their effect. The Vaudois who survived
the massacre were permitted to return to their devastated homes, under
the terms of the treaty known as the "Patents of Grace," which was
only observed, however, so long as Cromwell lived. At the Restoration,
Charles II. seized the public fund collected for the relief of the
Vaudois, and refused to remit the annuity arising from the interest
thereon which Cromwell had assigned to them, declaring that he would
not pay the debts of a usurper!
After that time, the interest felt in the Vaudois was very much of a
traditional character. Little was known as to their actual condition,
or whether the descendants of the primitive Vaudois Church continued
to exist or not. Though English travellers--amongst others, Addison,
Smollett, and Sterne--passed through the country in the course of last
century, they took no note of the people of the valleys. And this
state of general ignorance as to the district continued down to within
about the last fifty years, when quite a new interest was imparted to
the subject through the labours and researches of the late Dr. Gilly,
Prebendary of Durham.
It happened that that gentleman was present at a meeting of the
Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, in the year 1820, when a
very touching letter was read to the board, signed "Frederick Peyrani,
minister of Pramol," requesting the assistance of the society in
supplying books to the Vaudois churches of Piedmont, who were
described as maintaining a very hard struggle with poverty and
oppression. Dr. Gilly was greatly interested by the reading of this
letter. Indeed, the subject of it so strongly arrested his attention,
that he says it "took complete possession of him." He proceeded to
make search for information about the Vaudois, but could find very
little that was definite or satisfactory respecting them. Then it was
that he formed the determination of visiting the valleys and
ascertaining the actual condition of the people in person.
His visit was made in 1823, and in the course of the following year
Dr. Gilly published the result in his "Narrative of an Excursion to
the Mountains of Piedmont." The book excited much interest, not only
in England, but in other countries; and a movement was shortly after
set on foot for the relief and assistance of the Vaudois. A committee
was formed, and a fund was raised--to which the Emperor of Russia and
the Kings of Prussia and Holland contributed--with the object, in the
first place, of erecting a hospital for the sick and infirm Vaudois at
La Tour, in the valley of Luzern. It turned out that the money raised
was not only sufficient for this purpose, but also to provide schools
and a college for the education of pastors, which were shortly after
erected at the same place.
In 1829, Dr. Gilly made a second visit to the Piedmontese valleys,
partly in order to ascertain how far the aid thus rendered to the poor
Vaudois had proved effectual, and also to judge in what way certain
further sums placed at his disposal might best be employed for their
benefit.[98] It was in the course of his second visit that Dr. Gilly
became aware of the fact that the Vaudois were not confined to the
valleys of Piedmont, but that numerous traces of them were also to be
found on the French side of the Alps, in Dauphiny and Provence. He
accordingly extended his journey across the Col de la Croix into
France, and cursorily visited the old Vaudois district of Val
Fressinières and Val Queyras, of which an account will be given in the
following chapters. It was while on this journey that Dr. Gilly became
acquainted with the self-denying labours of the good Felix Neff among
those poor outlying Christians, with whose life and character he was
so fascinated that he afterwards wrote and published the memoir of
Neff, so well known to English readers.
[Footnote 98: Dr. Gilly's narrative of his second visit to
the valleys was published in 1831, under the title of
"Waldensian Researches."]
Since that time occasional efforts have been made in aid of the French
Vaudois, though those on the Italian side have heretofore commanded by
far the larger share of interest. There have been several reasons for
this. In the first place, the French valleys are much less accessible;
the roads through some of the most interesting valleys are so bad that
they can only be travelled on foot, being scarcely practicable even
for mules. There is no good hotel accommodation in the district, only
_auberges_, and these of an indifferent character. The people are also
more scattered, and even poorer than they are on the Italian side of
the Alps. Then the climate is much more severe, from the greater
elevation of the sites of most of the Vaudois villages; so that when
pastors were induced to settle there, the cold, and sterility, and
want of domestic accommodation, soon drove them away. It was to the
rigour of the climate that Felix Neff was eventually compelled to
succumb.
Yet much has been done of late years for the amelioration of the
French Vaudois; and among the most zealous workers in their behalf
have been the Rev. Mr. Freemantle, rector of Claydon, Bucks, and Mr.
Edward Milsom, the well-known merchant of Lyons. It was in the year
1851 that the Rev. Mr. Freemantle first visited the Vaudois of
Dauphiny. His attention was drawn to the subject while editing the
memoir of a young English clergyman, the Rev. Spencer Thornton, who
had taken Felix Neff for his model; and he was thereby induced to
visit the scene of Neff's labours, and to institute a movement on
behalf of the people of the French valleys, which has issued in the
erection of schools, churches, and pastors' dwellings in several of
the most destitute places.
It is curious and interesting to trace the influence of personal
example on human life and action. As the example of Oberlin in the Ban
de la Roche inspired Felix Neff to action, so the life of Felix Neff
inspired that of Spencer Thornton, and eventually led Mr. Freemantle
to enter upon the work of extending evangelization among the Vaudois.
In like manner, a young French pastor, M. Bost, also influenced by the
life and labours of Neff, visited the valleys some years since, and
wrote a book on the subject, the perusal of which induced Mr. Milsom
to lend a hand to the work which the young Genevese missionary had
begun. And thus good example goes on ever propagating itself; and
though the tombstone may record "Hic jacet" over the crumbling dust of
the departed, his spirit still lives and works through other
minds--stimulates them to action, and inspires them with
hope--"allures to brighter worlds, and leads the way."
* * * * *
A few words as to the origin of these fragmentary papers. In chalking
out a summer holiday trip, one likes to get quite away from the
ordinary round of daily life and business. Half the benefits of such a
trip consists in getting out of the old ruts, and breathing fresh air
amidst new surroundings. But this is very difficult if you follow the
ordinary tourist's track. London goes with you and elbows you on your
way, accompanied by swarms of commissionaires, guides, and beggars.
You encounter London people on the Righi, on the Wengern Alp, and
especially at Chamouni. Think of being asked, as I once was on
entering the Pavilion at Montanvert, after crossing the Mer de Glace
from the Mauvais Pas, "Pray, can you tell me what was the price of
Brighton stock when you left town?"
There is no risk of such rencontres in Dauphiny, whose valleys remain
in almost as primitive a state as they were hundreds of years ago.
Accordingly, when my friend Mr. Milsom, above mentioned, invited me to
accompany him in one of his periodical visits to the country of the
Vaudois, I embraced the opportunity with pleasure. I was cautioned
beforehand as to the inferior accommodation provided for travellers
through the district. Tourists being unknown there, the route is not
padded and cushioned as it is on all the beaten continental rounds.
English is not spoken; Bass's pale ale has not yet penetrated into
Dauphiny; nor do you encounter London tourists carrying their tin
baths about with them as you do in Switzerland. Only an occasional
negotiant comes up from Gap or Grenoble, seeking orders in the
villages, for whom the ordinary auberges suffice.
Where the roads are practicable, an old-fashioned diligence may
occasionally be seen plodding along, freighted with villagers bound
for some local market; but the roads are, for the most part, as silent
as the desert.
Such being the case, the traveller in the valleys must be prepared to
"rough it" a little. I was directed to bring with me only a light
knapsack, a pair of stout hob-nailed shoes, a large stock of patience,
and a small parcel of insect powder. The knapsack and the shoes I
found exceedingly useful, indeed indispensable; but I had very little
occasion to draw upon either my stock of patience or insect powder.
The French are a tidy people, and though their beds, stuffed with
maize chaff, may be hard, they are tolerably clean. The food provided
in the auberges is doubtless very different from what one is
accustomed to at home; but with the help of cheerfulness and a good
digestion that difficulty too may be got over.
Indeed, among the things that most strikes a traveller through France,
as characteristic of the people, is the skill with which persons of
even the poorest classes prepare and serve up food. The French women
are careful economists and excellent cooks. Nothing is wasted. The
_pot au feu_ is always kept simmering on the hob, and, with the help
of a hunch of bread, a good meal may at any time be made from it. Even
in the humblest auberge, in the least frequented district, the dinner
served up is of a quality such as can very rarely be had in any
English public-house, or even in most of our country inns. Cooking
seems to be one of the lost arts of England, if indeed it ever
possessed it; and our people are in the habit, through want of
knowledge, of probably _wasting_ more food than would sustain many
another nation. But in the great system of National Education that is
to be, no one dreams of including as a branch of it skill in the
preparation and economy in the use of human food.
There is another thing that the traveller through France may always
depend upon, and that is civility. The politeness of even the French
poor to each other is charming. They respect themselves, and they
respect each other. I have seen in France what I have not yet seen in
England--young working men walking out their aged mothers arm in arm
in the evening, to hear the band play in the "Place," or to take a
turn on the public promenade. But the French are equally polite to
strangers. A stranger lady may travel all through the rural districts
of France, and never encounter a rude look; a stranger gentleman, and
never receive a rude word. That the French are a self-respecting
people is also evinced by the fact that they are a sober people.
Drunkenness is scarcely known in France; and one may travel all
through it and never witness the degrading sight of a drunken man.
The French are also honest and thrifty, and exceedingly hard-working.
The industry of the people is unceasing. Indeed it is excessive; for
they work Sunday and Saturday. Sunday has long ceased to be a Sabbath
in France. There is no day of rest there. Before the Revolution, the
saints' days which the Church ordered to be observed so encroached
upon the hours required for labour, that in course of time Sunday
became an ordinary working day. And when the Revolution abolished
saints' days and Sabbath days alike, Sunday work became an established
practice.
What the so-called friends of the working classes are aiming at in
England, has already been effected in France. The public museums and
picture-galleries are open on Sunday. But you look for the working
people there in vain. They are at work in the factories, whose
chimneys are smoking as usual; or building houses, or working in the
fields, or they are engaged in the various departments of labour. The
government works all go on as usual on Sundays. The railway trains run
precisely as on week days. In short, the Sunday is secularised, or
regarded but as a partial holiday.[99]
[Footnote 99: I find the following under the signature of "An
Operative Bricklayer," in the _Times_ of the 30th July, 1867:
"I found there were a great number of men in Paris that
worked on the buildings who were not residents of the city.
The bricklayers are called _limousins_; they come from the
old province Le Limousin, where they keep their home, and
many of them are landowners. They work in Paris in the summer
time; they come up in large numbers, hire a place in Paris,
and live together, and by so doing they live cheap. In the
winter time, when they cannot work on the buildings, they go
back home again and take their savings, and stop there until
the spring, which is far better than it is in London; when
the men cannot work they are hanging about the streets. It
was with regret that I saw so many working on the Sunday
desecrating the Sabbath. I inquired why they worked on
Sunday; they told me it was to make up the time they lose
through wet and other causes. I saw some working with only
their trousers and shoes on, with a belt round their waist to
keep their trousers up. Their naked back was exposed to the
sun, and was as brown as if it had been dyed, and shone as if
it had been varnished. I asked if they had any hard-working
hearty old men. They answered me "No; the men were completely
worn out by the time they reached forty years." That was a
clear proof that they work against the laws of nature. I
thought to myself--Glory be to you, O Englishmen, you know
the Fourth Commandment; you know the value of the seventh
day, the day of rest!"]
As you pass through the country on Sundays, as on week-days, you see
the people toiling in the fields. And as dusk draws on, the dark
figures may be seen moving about so long as there is light to see by.
It is the peasants working the land, and it is _their own_. Such is
the "magical influence of property," said Arthur Young, when he
observed the same thing.
It is to be feared, however, that the French peasantry are afflicted
with the disease which Sir Walter Scott called the "earth-hunger;" and
there is danger of the gravel getting into their souls. Anyhow, their
continuous devotion to bodily labour, without a seventh day's rest,
cannot fail to exercise a deteriorating effect upon their physical as
well as their moral condition; and this we believe it is which gives
to the men, and especially to the women of the country, the look of a
prematurely old and overworked race.
CHAPTER II.
THE VALLEY OF THE ROMANCHE--BRIANÇON.
The route from Grenoble to the frontier fortress of Briançon lies for
the most part up the valley of the Romanche, which presents a variety
of wild and beautiful scenery. In summer the river is confined within
comparatively narrow limits; but in autumn and spring it is often a
furious torrent, flooding the low-lying lands, and forcing for itself
new channels. The mountain heights which bound it, being composed for
the most part of schist, mica slate, and talcose slate, large masses
become detached in winter--split off by the freezing of the water
behind them--when they descend, on the coming of thaw, in terrible
avalanches of stone and mud. Sometimes the masses are such as to dam
up the river and form temporary lakes, until the accumulation of force
behind bursts the barrier, and a furious flood rushes down the valley.
By one of such floods, which occurred a few centuries since, through
the bursting of the hike of St. Laurent in the valley of the Romanche,
a large part of Grenoble was swept away, and many of the inhabitants
were drowned.
The valley of the Romanche is no sooner entered, a few miles above
Grenoble, than the mountains begin to close, the scenery becomes
wilder, and the fury of the torrent is evinced by the masses of débris
strewed along its bed. Shortly after passing the picturesque defile
called L'Étroit, where the river rushes through a deep cleft in the
rocks, the valley opens out again, and we shortly come in sight of the
ancient town of Vizille--the most prominent building in which is the
château of the famous Duc de Lesdiguières, governor of the province in
the reign of Henry IV., and Constable of France in that of Louis XIII.
* * * * *
Wherever you go in Dauphiny, you come upon the footmarks of this great
soldier. At Grenoble there is the Constable's palace, now the
Prefecture; and the beautiful grounds adjoining it, laid out by
himself, are now the public gardens of the town. Between Grenoble and
Vizille there is the old road constructed by him, still known as "Le
chemin du Connétable." At St. Bonnet, in the valley of the Drac,
formerly an almost exclusively Protestant town, known as "the Geneva
of the High Alps," you are shown the house in which the Constable was
born; and a little lower down the same valley, in the commune of
Glaizil, on a hill overlooking the Drac, stand the ruins of the family
castle; where the Constable was buried. The people of the commune were
in the practice of carrying away the bones from the family vault,
believing them to possess some virtue as relics, until the prefect of
the High Alps ordered it to be walled up to prevent the entire removal
of the skeletons.
In the early part of his career, Lesdiguières was one of the most
trusted chiefs of Henry of Navarre, often leading his Huguenot
soldiers to victory; capturing town after town, and eventually
securing possession of the entire province of Dauphiny, of which
Henry appointed him governor. In that capacity he carried out many
important public works--made roads, built bridges, erected fourteen
fortresses, and enlarged and beautified his palace at Grenoble and his
château at Vizille. He enjoyed great popularity during his life, and
was known throughout his province as "King of the Mountains." But he
did not continue staunch either to his party or his faith. As in the
case of many of the aristocratic leaders of those times, Lesdiguières'
religion was only skin deep. It was but a party emblem--a flag to
fight under, not a faith to live by. So, when ambition tempted him,
and the Constable's baton dangled before his eyes, it cost the old
soldier but little compunction to abandon the cause which he had so
brilliantly served in his youth. To secure the prize which he so
coveted, he made public abjuration of his faith in the church, of St.
Andrew's at Grenoble in 1622, in the presence of the Marquis de
Crequi, the minister of Louis XIII., who, immediately after
Lesdiguières' first mass, presented him with the Constable's baton.
But the Lesdiguières family has long since passed away, and left no
traces. At the Revolution, the Constable's tomb was burst open, and
his coffin torn up. His monument was afterwards removed to Gap, which,
when a Huguenot, he had stormed and ravaged. His château at Vizille
passed through different hands, until in 1775 it came into the
possession of the Périer family, to which the celebrated Casimir
Périer belonged. The great Gothic hall of the château has witnessed
many strange scenes. In 1623, shortly after his investment as
Constable, Lesdiguières entertained Louis XIII. and his court there,
while on his journey into Italy, in the course of which he so
grievously ravaged the Vaudois villages. In 1788, the Estates of
Dauphiny met there, and prepared the first bold remonstrance against
aristocratic privileges, and in favour of popular representation,
which, in a measure, proved the commencement of the great Revolution.
And there too, in 1822, Felix Neff preached to large congregations,
who were so anxious and attentive that he always after spoke of the
place as his "dear Vizille;" and now, to wind up the vicissitudes of
the great hall, it is used as a place for the printing of Bandana
handkerchiefs!
* * * * *
When Neff made his flying visits to Vizille, he was temporarily
stationed at Mens, which was the scene of his first labours in
Dauphiny. The place lies not far from Vizille, away among the
mountains towards the south. During the wars of religion, and more
especially after the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes, Mens became a
place of refuge for the Protestants, who still form about one-half of
its population. Although, during the long dark period of religious
persecution which followed the Revocation, the Protestants of Mens and
the neighbouring villages did not dare to show themselves, and
worshipped, if at all, only in their dwellings, in secret, or in "the
Desert," no sooner did the Revolution set them at liberty than they
formed themselves again into churches, and appointed pastors; and it
was to serve them temporarily in that capacity that Felix Neff first
went amongst them, and laboured there and at Vizille with such good
effect.
* * * * *
Not far from Mens is a place which has made much more noise in the
world--no other than La Salette, the scene of the latest Roman
"miracle." La Salette is one of the side-valleys of the large valley
of the Drac, which joins the Romanche a few miles above Grenoble.
There is no village of La Salette, but a commune, which is somewhat
appropriately called La Salette-Fallavaux, the latter word being from
_fallax vallis_, or "the lying valley."
About twenty-seven years ago, on the 19th of September, 1846, two
children belonging to the hamlet of Abladens--the one a girl of
fourteen, the other a boy of twelve years old--came down from the
lofty pasturage of Mont Gargas, where they had been herding cattle,
and told the following strange story. They had seen the Virgin Mary
descend from heaven with a crucifix suspended from her neck by a gold
chain, and a hammer and pincers suspended from the chain, but without
any visible support. The figure sat down upon a large stone, and wept
so piteously as shortly to fill a large pool with her tears.
When the story was noised abroad, people came from all quarters, and
went up the mountain to see where the Virgin had sat. The stone was
soon broken off in chips and carried away as relics, but the fountain
filled with the tears is still there, tasting very much, like ordinary
spring water.
Two priests of Grenoble, disgusted at what they believed to be an
imposition, accused a young person of the neighbourhood, one Mdlle. de
Lamerlière, as being the real author of the pretended miracle, on
which she commenced an action against them for defamation of
character. She brought the celebrated advocate Jules Favre from Paris
to plead her cause, but the verdict was given in favour of the two
priests. The "miracle" was an imposture!
Notwithstanding this circumstance, the miracle came to be generally
believed in the neighbourhood. The number of persons who resorted to
the place with money in their pockets steadily increased. The question
was then taken up by the local priests, who vouched for the
authenticity of the miracle seen by the two children. The miracle was
next accepted by Rome.[100] A church was built on the spot by means of
the contributions of the visitors--L'Église de la Salette--and thither
pilgrims annually resort in great numbers, the more devout climbing
the hill, from station to station, on their knees. As many as four
thousand persons of both sexes, and of various ages, have been known
to climb the hill in one day--on the anniversary of the appearance of
the apparition--notwithstanding the extreme steepness and difficulties
of the ascent.
[Footnote 100: An authorised account was prepared by Cardinal
Wiseman for English readers, entitled "Manual of the
Association of our Lady of Reconciliation of La Salette," and
published as a tract by Burns, 17, Portman Street, in 1853.
Since I passed through the country in 1869, the Germans have
invaded France, the surrender has occurred at Sedan, the
Commune has been defeated at Paris, but Our Lady of La
Salette is greater than ever. A temple of enormous dimensions
has risen in her honour; the pilgrims number over 100,000
yearly, and the sale of the water from the Holy Well, said to
have sprung from the Virgin's tears, realises more than
£12,000. Since the success of La Salette, the Virgin has been
making repeated appearances in France. Her last appearance
was in a part of Alsace which is strictly Catholic. The
Virgin appeared, as usual, to a boy of the mature age of six,
"dressed in black, floating in the air, her hands bound with
chains,"--a pretty strong religio-political hint. When a
party of the 5th Bavarian Cavalry was posted in Bettweiler,
the Virgin ceased to make her appearance.]
