ntinues for a
considerable distance, the path in some places being overhung by
precipices, or encroached upon by rocks and boulders fallen from the
heights, until at length we emerge from the defile, and find ourselves
in a comparatively open space, the famous Pra du Tour; the defile we
have passed, alongside the torrent and overhung by the rocks, being
known as the Barricade.

The Pra du Tour, or Meadow of the Tower, is a little amphitheatre
surrounded by rugged and almost inaccessible mountains, situated at
the head of the valley of Angrogna. The steep slopes bring down into
this deep dell the headwaters of the torrent, which escape among the
rocks down the defile we have just ascended. The path up the defile
forms the only approach to the Pra from the valley, but it is so
narrow, tortuous, and difficult, that the labours of only a few men in
blocking up the pathway with rocks and stones that lie ready at hand,
might at any time so barricade the approach as to render it
impracticable. The extremely secluded position of the place, its
natural strength and inaccessibility, and its proximity to the
principal Vaudois towns and villages, caused it to be regarded from
the earliest times as their principal refuge. It was their fastness,
their fortress, and often their home. It was more--it was their school
and college; for in the depths of the Pra du Tour the pastors, or
_barbas_,[107] educated young men for the ministry, and provided for
the religious instruction of the Vaudois population.

[Footnote 107: _Barba_--a title of respect; in the Vaudois
dialect literally signifying an _uncle_.]

It was the importance of the Pra du Tour as a stronghold that rendered
it so often the object of attack through the valley of Angrogna. When
the hostile troops of Savoy advanced upon La Tour, the inhabitants of
the neighbouring valleys at once fled to the Pra, into which they
drove their cattle, and carried what provisions they could; there
constructing mills, ovens, houses, and all that was requisite for
subsistence, as in a fort. The men capable of bearing arms stood on
their guard to defend the passes of the Vachere and Roussine, at the
extreme heads of the valley, as well as the defile of the Barricade,
while other bodies, stationed lower down, below the Barricade,
prepared to resist the troops seeking to force an entrance up the
valley; and hence the repeated battles in the neighbourhood of
Rochemalan above des