reater opportunity of service to the land and church
of his adoption. The promise of Gabriel of Savoy to the Vaudois, that if
they laid down their arms they should not be injured, either in their own
persons or in those of their wives and children, was shamefully
disregarded; therefore, after terrible sufferings in the summer and autumn,
several thousands quit their much-loved valleys, and cross the Alps in the
worst season of the year rather than abjure the faith of their fathers.
About two thousand six hundred of these exiles reach the hospitable city of
Geneva by the end of February, 1687. Later on some hundreds more were added
to their numbers. Beside Henry Arnaud, there was already at Geneva the
heroic Janavello. Deeply touched as were the exiles with the Christian
sympathy shown to them by friends in Switzerland and Germany, gratefully
impressed as they were with the efforts making for their settlement in
these hospitable countries, yet their thoughts would often revert to their
native valleys. They not only sighed over the remembrance of the pastures
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.