ened in wickedness; so that, from beginning to
be careless about God, she proceeded in time to mock at religion. Nor
was the Marquis any better than his wife; he was proud and quarrelsome,
and loved no one but himself. He spent all his time amongst a set of
wicked young men of his own rank; they sat up all night drinking and
swearing and playing at cards for large sums of money.

"In this manner they went on till Theodore was as much as fifteen years
of age. In the meantime the old Baron had died and left all his money
to his daughter; but the Marquis and Marchioness were none the better
for all the riches left them by the Baron, for they became more and
more wasteful, and more and more wicked.

"About this time the King, who was a very wicked man, began to talk of
driving the Waldenses out of their pleasant valleys, or forcing them to
become Roman Catholics. He consulted the great men in Paris about it;
and they gave it as their opinion that it would be right either to make
them become Roman Catholics, or drive them out of the country. The
Marquis, among the rest, gave his opinion against the Waldenses; never
considering that he had a relation amongst them, and that his little
son Henri was at that very time living with them.

"Whilst these things were being talked of in the King's palace,
Theodore was seized with a violent fever, and before anything could be
done for him, or his father or mother had any time for consideration,
the poor boy died. The Marchioness was like a distracted woman when
Theodore died; she screamed and tore her hair, and the Marquis, to
drive away the thoughts of his grief, went more and more into company,
drinking and playing at cards. When the grief of the Marquis and
Marchioness for the loss of their beautiful Theodore was a little
abated, they began to turn their thoughts towards their son Henri, and
they resolved to send for him. Accordingly, the Marquis sent a trusty
servant to the valley of Piedmont, to bring Henri to Paris. The servant
carried a letter from the Marquis to the Pastor Claude, thanking him
for his kind attention to the child, and requesting him to send him
immediately to Paris. The servant also carried a handsome sum of money
as a present from the Marquis to Claude; which Claude, however, would
not take.

"Whilst all these things of which I have been telling you were
happening at Paris, little Henri had been growing up in the humble yet
pleasant cottage of Maria and the