beyond; still more sublime when sailing in the blue æther above the storm-clouds, he cleaves his way through them down to the eyrie-cliff, where his nestlings dwell and tremble."

TIME." If there were only the present for the heart to rest upon; then you might, perhaps with reason, say, ' Around and within me all is void; but, does not the long past lie behind you, growing every day; and, does not the long future stand before you? Do not an Autumn and a Spring enclose the Winter? So, even the most vacant life is like a vast Indian desert, around which wooded borders are ever green."

INTELLECT.- -"Our higher faculties will, at some future time, be to us as genii, and fulfil our wishes: they are now but muses which refresh us, on a weary journey, by sweet remembrances."

ADVERSITY.- "Misfortune is, to a high spirit, but the obstruction of a stream which, after overcoming the obstacle, only rushes onward with greater force."

POETRY." The spirit of poetry is the morning light, which makes the statue of Memnon vocal."

DREAMS.-"We are near awaking, when we dream that we are

dreaming."

SELF." Erring mortals, we are like men walking through clouds of dust; each one believing that around himself in particular little or no dust is flying, and that, around those in the distance, it is thick and suffocating; while these latter, in their turn, think likewise of the former."

RETROSPECTION.- -"These were my happy years!' one will often exclaim, as he looks back upon them all in a single glance; but of the several days and hours which he has lived through, and of which those years are composed, he cannot point out the most happy. Thus, a life is like an almanack with a gilt edge: the whole surface shines with gold, while the edge of an opened leaf shines but little."

Ebess.

The following position occurred in actual play between two members of the

THE BRISTOL MAGAZINE.

SEPTEMBER, 1858.

In Memoriam.

The shades of night were falling fast,
As through an Alpine village passed,
A youth, who bore midst snow and ice,
A banner with the strange device.

"EXCELSIOR"-Longfellow.

FAR among the Alpine ranges which divide France from Piedmont, lies a group of valleys known as the Vaudois. They are surrounded by craggy eminences, and guarded by the lofty Viso and other snow-wrapped sentinels. Eddying torrents, sources of the Po, sweep through them in fantastic tumult, washing, among huge fragments of rock, wrecks of the mountain heights.

Regions like these have ever cradled sons free and soaring as their native eagles. Men who prefer hardships and necessity to an abandonment of their heaven-born rights, have retreated to barren, inaccessible localities, where danger may arrest pursuit, and want disarm animosity. Here a familiarity with perilous adventure steels them against fear, and prompts to enterprise. The sublime immensity of nature fills their souls with aspirations after the great and noble; and if, as Bacon thought, our studies affect our characters, the glorious volume of creation, ever open before them, illumined with the handwriting of the Almighty, cannot fail to influence them: of that volume, the lesson is-LIBERTY.

Can this bleak spot be of any interest in the history of mankind? Can we improve the hour by passing from the crowded thoroughfares of life, to stand among these thinly populated valleys? We can. This

wilderness has blossomed with the red rose of martyrdom, and from these hard rocks has been broken many a gem which gleams in the heavenly Salem. Those azure streams have darkened to purple with the blood of the righteous; yon gray cliffs have been crimsoned with fires more impious than those of Hinnom.

The Vaudois originally formed one of those communities, which, inhabiting Provence and the north of Italy, refused to give their sanction to the innovations of Popery. The early existence of such an evangelical element in these parts is attested by many remains, among which we may mention the Ambrosian rite, which, differing in many respects from the Roman, is still observed among the Milanese. The vulgate has not here supplanted the old Italian translation, nor are the churches, like the temples of antiquity, crowded with altars to strange divinities. But, when the legions of Rome proceeded, as of old, on their march of ambition, victory again favoured discipline and perseverance; and when the soldiers of the Cross were overwhelmed by the frantic rabble of the Crucifix, a few determined spirits refused to abandon the pure confession of their forefathers, and were compelled to retreat to the mountains.

The first regular persecution was contemporary with the commencement of the thirteenth century; and, after occasional intervals, was at its height under Innocent the Eighth towards the end of the fourteenth. This pope proclaimed a general crusade against the Vaudois, who were soon at the mercy of eighteen thousand regular troops, interspersed with mobs of brigands and fanatics. The mountaineers made a brave resistance, but were overpowered by numbers. A fearful massacre ensued : three thousand Vaudois were suffocated by fires lighted at the mouth of the Aique-Froide cavern, and the entire Val Souise was for ever depopulated.

When intelligence arrived of the spread of the Reformation in Germany, deputies were appointed to visit that country with a view to holding a religious conference. On their return a great synod was held in the valley of Angrogna, which was attended by representatives from Switzerland and from all the Vaudois communes. It lasted six days, and resulted in a general agreement on all leading points of belief.

In the spring of 1545, Menier d'Oppede conducted a raid against the French valleys, and exhausted all the horrors that the fanaticism and cruelty of a dark age could expend upon powerless opposition. The outrages by sword and firebrand, aggravated, if possible, by perfidy and insult, surpassed even Eastern barbarities, and were too general and revolting to admit of being treated in detail. These persecutions led

many to migrate into Calabria and Apulia, where the simplicity of life and laborious habits, for which these sufferers have ever been conspicuous, obtained for them some consideration. This however afforded but a temporary respite; they were assailed by Dominican monks, and on their refusing assent to their doctrines, some were imprisoned and tortured, while others received the palm of martyrdom through shorter and less daunting trials. The number of the victims amounted in all to sixteen

thousand.

The Vaudois built their first church at Angrogna, in 1555, their worship having previously been celebrated in private dwellings. The following year a general persecution was commenced under Henry II. and Paul IV. This attempt was the more terrible, inasmuch as it was directed not only openly against life, but covertly against faith. No artifice was omitted that might effect desertions from the ranks of the Reformers. Bribes of money were offered; polemical orators employed; and yet, at this very time, so great was the confidence reposed in the Vaudois by the Catholics in the valleys, that, fearing the indiscriminate excesses of their own soldiery, they placed their daughters under the protection of the heretics! The army, commanded by the Count de la Trinité, was guilty of the greatest cruelties towards all who fell into its power; but it was constantly harrassed and finally defeated by the mountaineers, principally through the energy of a body of sharpshooters, named the "Flying Company." These successes led to negotiations; and the invading army made use of the armistice to advance upon Pra-del-Tor,-a strong position in the mountains, which had been the ancient school of the Vaudois barbas, or pastors, and where the people were collected within fortifications. This treacherous attempt happily proved a failure; the assaulting columns were completely defeated, and pursued to the very gates of La Torre, and soon afterwards terms were granted.

During the first half of the sixteenth century, the evangelical faith found adherents as far as Turin; but in 1560 an order was obtained by the Catholic clergy for the suppression of all Protestant worship without the mountain districts.

The next oppressor was the unprincipled Castrocaro. On his being appointed to the valleys he established himself in the Castle at La Torre, and treated the inhabitants with the utmost severity. The massacre of St. Bartholomew took place during his government, and but for the intervention of the Duke he would have followed that atrocious example. After a temporary lull, societies of Jesuits and Capuchins were installed in the valleys of Luzerna and San Martino; and a renewal of tyranny,