g lost to sight in the
ravine near Minsals. We have now ascended to a great height, and the
air feels cold and raw. When we left Palons, the sun was shining
brightly, and its heat was almost oppressive, but now the temperature
feels wintry. On our way up, rain began to fall; as we ascended the
Tourniquet the rain became changed to sleet; and at length, on
reaching the summit of the rising ground from which we first discerned
the hamlet of Dormilhouse, on the first day of July, the snow was
falling heavily, and all the neighbouring mountains were clothed in
the garb of winter.

This, then, is the famous mountain fastness of the Vaudois--their last
and loftiest and least accessible retreat when hunted from their
settlements in the lower valleys hundreds of years ago. Driven from
rock to rock, from Alp to Alp, they clambered up on to this lofty
mountain-ledge, five thousand feet high, and made good their
settlement, though at the daily peril of their lives. It was a place
of refuge, a fortress and citadel of the faithful, where they
continued to worship God according to conscience during the long dark
ages of persecution and tyranny. The dangers and terrors of the
situation are indeed so great, that it never could have been chosen
even for a hiding-place, much less for a permanent abode, but from the
direst necessity. What the poor people suffered while establishing
themselves on these barren mountain heights no one can tell, but they
contrived at length to make the place their home, and to become inured
to their hard life, until it became almost a second nature to them.

The hamlet of Dormilhouse is said to have existed for nearly six
hundred years, during which the religion of its inhabitants has
remained the same. It has been alleged that the people are the
descendants of a colony of refugee Lombards; but M. Muston, and others
well able to judge, after careful inquiry on the spot, have come to
the conclusion that they bear all the marks of being genuine
descendants of the ancient Vaudois. In features, dress, habits, names,
language, and religious doctrine, they have an almost perfect identity
with the Vaudois of Piedmont at the present day.

Dormilhouse consists of about forty cottages, inhabited by some two
hundred persons. The cottages are perched "like eagles' nests," one
tier ranging over another on the rocky ledges of a steep
mountain-side. There is very little soil capable of cultivation in the
neighbourhood,