f the affair at the
house of a friend in England. A little girl of the family overheard the
conversation, and, approaching the general, offered him a penny, saying she
would like to assist in building the church. He was much touched by this
action of the child, and taking her on his knees, said, "Yes, my friend;
with that which you have given me I will build the church; and your penny,
placed in the corner stone, will tell all the world that you have been the
founder." The new building was consecrated in January, 1846. Other temples
and presbyteries were restored, including that of Prali. The churches of
Coppier and Angrogna were restored in 1847 by Mrs. General Molyneux
Williams. But a greater work was accomplished in 1852, when Beckwith
erected a church for the parish of La Torre, which, under the influence of
oppressive edicts, had been deprived of its temple for hundreds of years.
This edifice is, both as regards dimensions and architecture, suited to the
position it holds as the parish church of the capital of the valleys; those
valleys no longer dreading the approach of sanguinary bands to pillage and
destroy, its people no longer crushed beneath a bondage which refused them
the opportunities of worship in their own parochial boundaries according
to the creed and ritual of their sainted and heroic forefathers. This grand
work was the last preliminary to that church extension and missionary
revival which the era of emancipation made possible to the Vaudois Church,
and which Beckwith had so long eagerly and clearly anticipated.

CHAPTER XV.

The first exercise of evangelical liberty accorded to the Vaudois Church
was shown in the attempt to preach the gospel and establish a place of
Protestant worship, at what, in point of geographical nearness, was the
neighbouring city, but not in the past the _neighbourly_ city of Pinerolo.
The work was, however, accomplished chiefly by the munificence of American
Protestants. Then came the opening of the edifice, which so worthily
represents the Vaudois cause in Turin. Beckwith took a very energetic part
in this important work. But the actual modern mission work of the Vaudois
Church may be said to have begun in May, 1849, when Professor Malan
preached in the temple at St. Giovanni (for the first time for centuries
past) the gospel in the Italian language.

The Count Guiccardini and some other persons of social position at Florence
and its neigh