The Vaudois of Piedmont: A Visit to Their ValleysWorsfold, J. N. (John Napper)
History
The Vaudois of Piedmont: A Visit to Their Valleys
Worsfold, J. N. (John Napper)
Waldenses
where they had fed their flocks, but they also groaned for the temples of
God which had been broken down. For the voice of truth which was now
silenced in the land of martyrs and confessors, and simultaneously grew up
the hope and the desire of returning to the place which had been for so
long the home of their fathers. When Henri Arnaud found that this project
had the approval of the veteran Janavello, he repaired to Holland, to lay
the design before the Prince of Orange, who warmly entered into the design,
and promised substantial assistance towards its realization. After two
premature attempts and many difficulties, Arnaud, who was residing at this
time with his family at Neufchatel, made his arrangements so well that many
hundreds of the Vaudois succeeded in assembling in the forest of Prangins,
near the little town of Nyon on the shore of the lake Leman.
Between nine and ten o'clock in the evening of the 16th of August, 1689,
Arnaud gave the signal for embarkation by falling on his knees by the side
of the lake, and imploring in a loud voice the almighty and all-gracious
Being, who had been their helper in the past, to prosper their attempt to
regain their native valleys, and re-erect the standard of evangelical truth
on their own beloved fatherland. The patriot band set out in fifteen boats,
and having landed, the first detachment returned for those left behind.
Only three of the boats, however, made the second journey in safety, and so
some were not brought from the Swiss side of the lake. When Arnaud reviewed
his forces he found there were some 900 men who had safely crossed the
lake. A small band indeed for so great an enterprise; a very inadequate
force to contend with thousands of disciplined troops, and to overcome the
obstacles which would be raised by hostile populations through whose
territories they must pass; to encounter the fatigue of forced marches over
craggy precipices, along deep and dangerous defiles--in addition, to do all
this with but slender equipments of food and other necessaries. Still, no
one draws back. They have counted the cost. They deem the prize at which
they aim worthy of the risk they run. They are sustained by the
recollections of past deliverance. "Our fathers trusted in Thee, and Thou
didst deliver them; they cried unto Thee, and were delivered; they trusted
in Thee, and were not confounded," was the sentiment which sped them onward
in their arduous march. Nor did Arnaud neglect any suitable means of an
ordinary kind for ensuring success. He divided his 900 men into twenty
companies, organized with reference to their native communes; _e.g._,
Angrogna had three companies, with their captains; San Giovanni two, &c.
They were arranged to march in regular military order, having a vanguard,
centre, and rear, observing the strictest discipline. Beside Arnaud, there
were two other pastors with the little army, Chyon of Pont a Royans, in
Dauphiny, and Montoux of the Val Pragela.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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