reply was heroic. "We are not subjects," he said, "of the
King of France; and that monarch not being master of this country, we
can enter into no treaty with his servants. We are in the heritage
which our fathers have left to us, and we hope, with the help of the
God of armies, to live and die in it, even though there may remain
only ten of us to defend it." That same night the Vaudois made a
vigorous sortie, and killed a number of the besiegers: this was their
final answer to the summons to surrender.

On the 14th of May the battery on Mont Guinevert was opened, and the
enemy's cannon began to play upon the little fort and bastions, which,
being only of dry stones, were soon dismantled. The assault was then
made simultaneously on three sides; and after a stout resistance, the
Vaudois retired from their lower intrenchments, and retreated to
those on the higher ledges of the mountain. They continued their
resistance until night, and then, taking counsel together, and feeling
that the place was no longer defensible in the face of so overpowering
a force, commanded, as it was, at the same time by the cannon on the
adjoining heights, they determined to evacuate the Balsille, after
holding it for a period of nearly seven months.

A thick mist having risen up from the valley, the Vaudois set out,
late at night, under the guidance of Captain Poulat, a native of the
district, who well knew the paths in the mountains. They climbed up on
to the heights above, over icy slopes, passing across gaping crevices
and along almost perpendicular rocks, admitting of their passage only
in single file, sometimes dragging themselves along on their bellies,
clinging to the rocks or to the tufts of grass, occasionally resting
and praying, but never despairing. At length they succeeded, after a
long detour of the mountain crests, in gaining the northern slope of
Guinevert. Here they came upon and surprised the enemy's outpost,
which fled towards the main body; and the Vaudois passed on, panting
and half dead with fatigue. When the morning broke, and the French
proceeded to penetrate the last redoubt on the Balsille, lo, it was
empty! The defenders had abandoned it, and they could scarcely believe
their eyes when they saw the dangerous mountain escarpment by which
they had escaped in the night. Looking across the valley, far off,
they saw the fugitives, thrown into relief by the snow amidst which
they marched, like a line of ants, apparently mak