use of the plot of the men who have unjustly devised to put
us all to death with our wives and our children. Let us rather be assured,
that, if the Lord has ordained to deliver all or any of us, none shall be
able to resist Him. If it shall please Him that we all die, let us not
fear; for it is our Father's good pleasure to give us another home, which
is the heavenly kingdom, in which there is no change, no poverty, no want,
no tear, no crying, no mourning, no sorrow, but, on the contrary, eternal
joy and blessedness. It is far better to be lodged with the beggar Lazarus
in the bosom of Abraham, than with the rich man, with Cain, with Saul,
with Herod, or with Judas, in hell. Meanwhile, we must drink the cup which
the Lord has prepared for us, each according to his portion. We must not
be ashamed of the Cross of Christ, nor be loth to drink the gall of which
He has first drunk: knowing that our sorrow shall be turned into joy, and
that we shall laugh in our turn, when the wicked shall weep and gnash
their teeth."[1215]

Twenty Huguenot pastors from France were among the refugees, and were
kindly invited to take part in the honorable office of preaching in the
churches. They preferred, however, to sit among the hearers, and listen to
the sermons of Beza and his venerated colleagues.[1216]

[Sidenote: Their generosity and danger.]

Heaven smiled on the generous hospitality of the little republic. The
plague, which had been raging in Geneva, disappeared simultaneously with
the arrival of the fugitives from France.[1217] Still the burden which
their hosts had assumed was by no means light. They were not rich, and the
rigorous winter that followed would have reduced them to great straits
even without this additional drain upon their resources. Besides, they had
incurred the dangerous enmity of the King of France. While professing deep
gratitude to the Genevese for the advice they had given to the Protestants
of Nismes to liberate the agents of the royal court, who had been sent to
procure their destruction, but had been discovered and incarcerated,
Charles the Ninth was in secret plotting the ruin of the city which
furnished an asylum to so many of his persecuted subjects. At one time the
danger was imminent. The Duke of Savoy was reported to have collected an
army of eighteen thousand men near Chambery and Annecy, while rumors of
domestic treachery took so definite a form, that it was said that two
hundred papal soldiers i