halp, containing a considerable
number of Protestants, and where Neff had his home--a small, low
cottage undistinguishable from the others save by its whitewashed
front. Its situation is cheerful, facing the south, and commanding a
pleasant mountain prospect, contrasting strongly with the barren
outlook and dismal hovels of Dormilhouse. But Neff never could regard
the place as his home. "The inhabitants," he observed in his journal,
"have more traffic, and the mildness of the climate appears somehow or
other not favourable to the growth of piety. They are zealous
Protestants, and show me a thousand attentions, but they are at
present absolutely impenetrable." The members of the congregation at
Arvieux, indeed, complained of his spending so little of his time
among them; but the comfort of his cottage at La Chalp, and the
comparative mildness of the climate of Arvieux, were insufficient to
attract him from the barren crags but warm hearts of Dormilhouse.

The village of San Veran, which lies up among the mountains some
twelve miles to the east of Arvieux, on the opposite side of the Val
Queyras, was another of the refuges of the ancient Vaudois. It is at
the foot of the snowy ridge which divides France from Italy. Dr. Gilly
says, "There is nothing fit for mortal to take refuge in between San
Veran and the eternal snows which mantle the pinnacles of Monte Viso."
The village is 6,692 feet above the level of the sea, and there is a
provincial saying that San Veran is the highest spot in Europe where
bread is eaten. Felix Neff said, "It is the highest, and consequently
the most pious, in the valley of Queyras." Dr. Gilly was the second
Englishman who had ever found his way to the place, and he was
accompanied on the occasion by Mrs. Gilly. "The sight of a female,"
he says, "dressed entirely in linen, was a phenomenon so new to those
simple peasants, whose garments are never anything but woollen, that
Pizarro and his mail-clad companions were not greater objects of
curiosity to the Peruvians than we were to these mountaineers."

Not far distant from San Veran are the mountain hamlets of Pierre
Grosse and Fongillarde, also ancient retreats of the persecuted
Vaudois, and now for the most part inhabited by Protestants. The
remoteness and comparative inaccessibility of these mountain hamlets
may be inferred from the fact that in 1786, when the Protestants of
France were for the first time since the Revocation of the Edict of
Na