fifty thousand francs, and ceding to him the richest lands in the
valley of Luzerna--the last relics of their fortunes being thus taken
from them to remunerate the barbarity of their persecutors.

It was also stipulated by this treaty, that the pastors of the Vaudois
churches were to be natives of the district only, and that they were
to be at liberty to administer religious instruction in their own
manner in all the Vaudois parishes, excepting that of St. John, near
La Tour, where their worship was interdicted. The only persons
excepted from the terms of the amnesty were Javanel, the heroic old
captain, and Jean Leger, the pastor-historian, the most prominent
leaders of the Vaudois in the recent war, both of whom were declared
to be banished the ducal dominions.

Under this treaty the Vaudois enjoyed peace for about thirty years,
during which they restored the cultivation of the valleys, rebuilt the
villages, and were acknowledged to be among the most loyal, peaceable,
and industrious of the subjects of Savoy.

There were, however, certain parts of the valleys to which the amnesty
granted by the Duke did not apply. Thus, it did not apply to the
valleys of Perouse and Pragela, which did not then form part of the
dominions of Savoy, but were included within the French frontier. It
was out of this circumstance that a difficulty arose with the French
monarch, which issued in the revival of the persecution in the
valleys, the banishment of the Vaudois into Switzerland, and their
eventual "Glorious Return" in the manner we are about briefly to
narrate.

When Louis XIV. of France revoked the Edict of Nantes in 1685, and
interdicted all Protestant worship throughout his dominions, the law
of course applied to the valleys of Perouse and Pragela as to the
other parts of France. The Vaudois pastors were banished, and the
people were forbidden to profess any other religion than that
prescribed by the King, under penalty of confiscation of their goods,
imprisonment, or banishment. The Vaudois who desired to avoid these
penalties while they still remained staunch to their faith, did what
so many Frenchmen then did--they fled across the frontier and took
refuge in foreign lands. Some of the inhabitants of the French valleys
went northward into Switzerland, while others passed across the
mountains towards the south, and took refuge in the valley of the
Pelice, where the Vaudois religion continued to be tolerated under
the terms