roof of my barn, no swallow will again announce to me there the warmth of spring, and twitter with her young before my window. Oh! and my own children. Man indeed has no childhood, when he is deprived of his country. The poor women! how well known to us, how dear was each bush and running brook. Now we know, for the first time, how we loved our old cottages and the seats inherited from our great grandfathers. All that we there in devotion, thought, and prayed, all the delightful Easter and Whitsuntide festivals, the pleasing solitude of the long winter evenings, and the exemplary conversations of the old men, all, all is vanished in this hideous fire." "No more! no more!" shrieked the women, and the children wept aloud. "All this," continued the speaker, "happened to us, dear Roland, on your account alone, for they know well, the persecutors! that we have in our hearts been with you, so many of your bravest men are from among us. They extirpate us, especially because our valleys and mountains border on the district of Vivares, and through our country Catinat and Cavalier attempted to penetrate. Friend, brother! here we are now, and assuredly many more active men from other districts will run to you, for they will not suffer what will be required of them. Come, lead us on, thrust us into the thicket of the fight, when thousands stand close in front of their cannons, and with swords, sicles, hatchets, and cudgels we will fall upon them, nay without weapons, with these hands, with these teeth we will tear them to pieces! Life and pleasure now consist only in death and destruction; if they only feel how we hate and abhor them, if but one and then another, and a third be made to acknowledge to us, struggling in agonising death, and with closing eyes, that this happens to them for their evil doings." All the men pressed forward brandishing their weapons and gnashing their teeth. A smothered cry of rage suddenly burst from every lip. "Controul yourselves my friends," said Roland, "As well as you can; you, Bertrand, with your horrifying account have filled my soul with sorrow, for your woe concerns us altogether and your loss admits of no restitution. Repose and refresh yourselves here with all that I can offer you; then follow my counsel, and let the old men, women, and children return peaceably, for here there is neither shelter nor help for them. God will ordain, that all shall turn for the best, that the proprietors find their own again and that your cottages shall rise once more from their ruins. Only do not despair, bear your calamity with pain and sorrow, but do not despair, for that belies God, opposes itself to him, nay, mocks his inscrutable decrees, and in its hellish dictates, would even annihilate him. Do not give yourselves up to this feeling, which is unworthy of men. We have all indeed been long since innured to misery by the hand of the Lord. Shew now that you are obedient, well conducted children, who though he may look upon you with