I take it, lies in this, that
the three valleys have their entrance within a comparatively narrow
space. The country of the Vaudois was, in fact, an immense citadel, with
its foundation on the rock, and its top above the clouds, and with but
one gate of entrance. That gate could be easily defended; nay, it _was_
defended. He who built this mighty fortress had thrown up a rampart
before its gate, as if with a special eye to the protection of its
inmates. The long hill of which I have already spoken, which rises to a
height of from four to five hundred feet, lies across the opening of
these valleys, at about a mile's breadth, and serves as a wall of
defence. But even granting that this entrance should be forced, as it
sometimes was, there were ample means within the mountains themselves,
which were but a congeries of fortresses, for prolonging the contest.
The valleys abound with gorges and narrow passages, where one man might
maintain the way against fifty. There were, too, escarpments of rock,
with galleries and caves known only to the Vaudois. Even the mists of
their hills befriended them; veiling them, on some memorable instances,
from the keen pursuit of their foes. Thus, every foot-breadth of their
territory was capable of being contested, and _was_ contested against
the flower of the French and Sardinian armies, led against them in
overwhelming numbers, with a courage which Rome never excelled, and a
patriotism which Greece never equalled.

I found, too, that it was "a good land" which the Lord their God had
given to the Vaudois,--"a land of brooks of water, of fountains and
depths that spring out of valleys and hills; a land of wheat, and
barley, and vines, and fig-trees, and pomegranates; a land of oil, olive
and honey." The same architect who built the fortress had provisioned
it, so to speak, and that in no stinted measure. He who placed
magazines of bread in the clouds, and rained it upon the Israelites
when they journeyed through the desert, had laid up store of corn, and
oil, and wine, in the soil of these valleys; so that the Vaudois, when
their enemies pressed them on the plain, and cut off their supplies from
without, might still enjoy within their own mountain rampart abundance
of all things.

On the first morning after my arrival, I walked out along the Val
Lucerna southward. Flowers and fruit in rich profusion covered every
spot of ground under the eye, from the banks of the stream to the skirts
of