ength reached the very centre of the Vaudois valleys, and entered
into possession of the "Promised Land."

They resolved to celebrate their return to the country of their
fathers by an act of solemn worship on the Sabbath following. The
whole body assembled on the hill of Silaoud, commanding an extensive
prospect of the valley, and with their arms piled, and resting under
the shade of the chestnut-trees which crown the hill, they listened to
an eloquent sermon from the pastor Montoux, who preached to them
standing on a platform, consisting of a door resting upon two rocks,
after which they chanted the 74th Psalm, to the clash of arms. They
then proceeded to enter into a solemn covenant with each other,
renewing the ancient oath of union of the valleys, and swearing never
to rest from their enterprise, even if they should be reduced to only
three or four in number, until they had "re-established in the valleys
the kingdom of the Gospel." Shortly after, they proceeded to divide
themselves into two bodies, for the purpose of occupying
simultaneously, as recommended by Javanel, the two valleys of the
Pelice and St. Martin.

But the trials and sufferings they had already endured were as nothing
compared with those they were now about to experience. Armies
concentrated on them from all points. They were pressed by the French
on the north and west, and by the Piedmontese on the south and east.
Encouraged by their success at Bobi, the Vaudois rashly attacked
Villar, lower down the valley, and were repulsed with loss. From
thence they retired up the valley of Rora, and laid it waste; the
enemy, in like manner, destroying the town of Bobi and laying waste
the neighbourhood.

The war now became one of reprisals and mutual devastation, the two
parties seeking to deprive each other of shelter and the means of
subsistence. The Vaudois could only obtain food by capturing the
enemy's convoys, levying contributions from the plains, and making
incursions into Dauphiny. The enterprise on which they had entered
seemed to become more hopeless from day to day. This handful of men,
half famished and clothed in rags, had now arrayed against them
twenty-two thousand French and Sardinians, provided with all the
munitions of war. That they should have been able to stand against
them for two whole months, now fighting in one place, and perhaps the
next day some twenty miles across the mountains in another, with
almost invariable success, seems