tants of the valleys against their
inveterate persecutor, he makes a secret treaty (1696) by which, firstly,
intercourse between the professors of the reformed faith in France and
Savoy is prohibited; secondly, French soldiers enlisted in the Vaudois army
are no longer allowed to remain in the service of the duke; thirdly,
refugees from France were to be expelled the valleys.

This crafty device of the mean and cowardly French king resulted in the
banishment of seven of the most valuable Vaudois pastors, viz., Montoux,
the companion of Arnaud, five of their colleagues, natives of Pragela or
Dauphine, and _Arnaud himself_! It was indeed with a heavy heart that the
brave and trusted leader, the tried and sagacious counsellor, the devoted
and accomplished pastor of the Vaudois, left for ever those churches in
whose service he had wrought such exploits, and on whose behalf he had
dared death in a thousand shapes and suffered almost incredible privations.
His only consolation, and without it, hero as he was, Arnaud might have
died from grief, lay in the mighty fact, that he had been privileged to
accomplish a work inferior to none in the annals of history. With a motive
infinitely higher than that of Zenophon, his exploits as a soldier are
equal in skill, endurance, and bravery to his; while, as regards results,
the contrast is still more favourable to Henri Arnaud's work.

The Greeks, it is true, were brought back to their country, but remained
mercenaries to the last, while the Vaudois both regained their homes, and
succeeded in replanting the standard of their faith so firmly under the
favour of Almighty God that never since has it been in such danger of
extinction as Arnaud delivered it from.

"Since then 'abide the chosen race
Within their ancient dwelling place,'
Since then 'upon each Alpine height
Truth sits enthroned in Rome's despite.'"

Some 3,000 French Protestants withdrew with Henri Arnaud from the valleys.
Their first resting-place was Geneva, which twelve years before had so
charitably welcomed the persecuted Vaudois. Arnaud reached Geneva August
30th, 1698, and speedily sought a place of habitation for his brethren. The
Duke of Wurtemberg provided a home for these victims of the cruelty of
Louis XIV. in a place to the west and north of Stuttgardt. On this occasion
the exiles had no hope of returning, and they settled down in their new
abode and called their rising settlements by the nam