and 600
officers left France, and entered into foreign service. Some went to
England, some to Holland, and some to Prussia. Those who took refuge
in Holland entered the service of William, Prince of Orange. Most of
them accompanied him to Torbay in 1688. They fought against the armies
of Louis XIV. at the Boyne, at Athlone, and at Aughrim, and finally
drove the French out of Ireland.

The sailors also did good service under the flags of England and
Holland. They distinguished themselves at the sea-fight off La Hogue,
where the English and Dutch fleets annihilated the expedition
prepared by Louis XIV. for a descent upon England.

The expatriated French soldiers occasionally revisited the country of
their birth, not as friends, but as enemies. They encountered the
armies of Louis XIV. in all the battles of the Low Countries. They
fought at Ramilies, Blenheim, and Malplacquet. A Huguenot engineer
directed the operations at the siege of Namur, which ended in the
capture of the fortress. Another Huguenot engineer conducted the
operations at Lisle, which was also taken by the allied forces. While
there, a flying party, consisting chiefly of French Huguenots,
penetrated as far as the neighbourhood of Paris, when they nearly
succeeded in carrying off the Dauphin.

The Huguenot officers who took refuge in Prussia entered the service
of Frederick William, Elector of Brandenburg. Some were raised to the
highest offices in his army. Marshal Schomberg was one of the number.
But when he found that William of Orange was assembling a large force
in Holland for the purpose of making a descent upon England, he
requested leave to join him; and his friend Prince Frederick William,
though with great regret, at length granted him permission to leave
the Prussian service.

The subject of the following narrative was a French refugee, who
entered the service of William of Orange. To find the beginning of his
ancestry, we must reach far back into history. The Rapins were
supposed to have been driven from the Campagna of Rome during the
persecutions of Nero. They took refuge in one of the wildest and most
picturesque valleys of the Alps. In 1250 we find the Rapins
established near Saint-Jean de la Maurienne, in Savoy, close upon the
French frontier. Saint-Jean de la Maurienne was so called because of
the supposed relic of the bones of St. John the Baptist, which had
been deposited there by a female pilgrim, Sainte Thecle, who was, it
is su