that place sent him word to give a look at his ports of Porto Farina and Goletta, with their fleets, and take them if he could. Blake sailed away as if in despair, but suddenly returning, he entered the harbour of Porto Farina, silencing the castle and batteries as he advanced, and set fire to the whole fleet. Both Tunis and Tripoli now found it the best policy to give the required engagement, and Blake left the Mediterranean, having given those lawless pirates a specimen of the power of England, which was not likely to be soon forgotten. Blake had orders to look out for the next Spanish Plate fleet coming home, and he lay for some time off Cadiz; but there was now at the Court of Madrid Colonel Sexby, the Leveller, who had long been engaged with Allen, Wildman, and the Anabaptists. He had gone over to the Continent to raise some force either in conjunction with Charles or with Spain, to invade England and kill Cromwell. Sexby revealed to the Spaniards not only the object of Blake, but the real design of the fleet under Venables and Penn. More than thirty sail were mustered by the Spanish under Don Pablos de Contretras, which kept close watch on Blake. Blake longed to attack them, but his orders did not sanction it; and after hearing that the Plate fleet was detained at Carthagena, he returned to England to refit, his ships being in a sorry plight, and his men suffering from bad provisions. During the absence of Blake, great excitement had been occasioned in England by the news of dreadful atrocities committed on the Protestants of the mountains of Piedmont. The Protestants called the Vaudois were a race who, through all ages, had, in the obscurity of their Alpine valleys, retained the doctrines of the Primitive Church, and had set at defiance both the persuasions and the persecutions of Rome. They were said to be descended from the ancient Waldenses, and were a bold, independent race of mountaineers. It was pretended that the Duke of Savoy, whose subjects they chiefly were, had granted them the free exercise of their religion so long as they remained in their ancient places of abode, the valleys of the sources of the Po, in the Savoy Alps; but that being found in Lucerna and other places, these were decided to be beyond their bounds, and they were ordered to be conformed to the Church of Rome, or sell their lands and retire from these territories. They refused to be driven from their homes on account of their religion, and being always an eyesore to the Court of Rome, the fury of persecution was let loose upon them. Friars were sent amongst them to convert them, or to denounce their destruction; they disregarded the friars, and then six regiments of soldiers were sent to drive them into the mountains. Amongst these were two regiments of refugee Irish. These fellows, ardent Catholics, smarting under the Protestant scourge which had driven them from _their_ native land, did their work _con amore_. From the district of Lucerna they were driven