mily, the
Savoyard branch, fell in love with his cousin, and twice demanded her in
marriage. Twice he was refused. Then, listening only to his passion, he
assembled some of his friends, and hid himself with them near the
castle. They watched the comings and goings of the baron, and suddenly
profiting by his absence, they entered his dwelling and carried off the
fair Nicolaide, who, transported to Savoy, rewarded the boldness of her
captor by becoming his wife. This history, which resembles that of the
beautiful Helen, and is not less authentic, kindled the fiercest
hostilities between the Tavel and Blonay families; the French and
Italian ambassadors intervened; and it all ended in a sentence
pronounced at Berne against the Blonays--a sentence as useless as it was
severe--for the principal offenders had built a nest for their loves in
domains which they possessed in Savoy. The old baron alone felt its
effects. He was severely reprimanded for having so ill fulfilled his
paternal duties."

The good burghers of Berne--the Lords as they called themselves--were in
fact very hard with all their Vaudois subjects. "Equally merciless to
the vanities and the vices, they confounded luxury and drunkenness in
their rules, pleasures and bad manners. They were no less the enemies of
innovations. Coffee at its introduction was stigmatized as a devilish
invention; tea was no better; as to tobacco, whether snuffed or smoked,
it was worse yet. Low-necked dresses and low-quartered shoes were
rigorously forbidden. Games and all dances, 'except three modest dances
on wedding-days,' were unlawful.... The Sabbath was strictly observed;
silence reigned in the villages, even those remotest from the church,
until the divine service of the afternoon was closed; no cart might pass
in the street, and no child play there.... In short, all their
ordinances and regulations witness a firm design on the part of their
Excellencies 'to revive among all those under their domination a life
and manners truly Christian.' The Pays de Vaud under this regime
acquired its moral and religious education. A more serious spirit
gradually prevailed. The Bible became the book _par excellence_, the
book of the fireside, and on Sunday the exercises of devotion took the
place of the public amusements."

[Illustration: _Church Terrace, Montreux_]

When the regicides fled from England after the Restoration they could
not have sought a more congenial refuge than such a land