d him why he had
taken his child for baptism to the temple at Angrogna? He replied, "Because
baptism was there administered according to the institution of Jesus
Christ." The same man, on being commanded to have his child re-baptized,
asked for permission to pray before he gave his answer. Having done this,
he asked the magistrate to give him a paper assuming the responsibility and
the sin of the transaction. This demand so embarrassed his persecutor that
he was discharged without further molestation. A noble representative,
however, of the class of pedlars of which we have spoken before did not so
easily escape his persecutors. This devoted Christian, Barthelemi Hector,
of Poictiers, visited from place to place with copies of the word of God,
which he read to the people at their work, and sold to those who could
buy. On this errand of mercy he betook himself to the slopes of that
mountain (La Vachere) which overlook the Pra del Tor. The eagle of the
Romish inquisitors tracked him on his rounds, and carried him to Turin that
he might answer for so foul a crime! His judges addressed him in the
following strain: "You have been surprised in the act of selling heretical
books." He responded with the courage of one who knew in whom he believed.
"If the Bible contains heresies for you, it is _truth for me_!" But,
replied the judges, "You use the Bible to keep men from going to mass." "If
the Bible keeps men from the mass it proves that God condemns it as
idolatry," he replied; and when further called upon to retract, he asked,
with holy dignity, "Can I change truth as if it were a garment?" Such
courage and skill in defending his position impressed his judges, and they
hoped, by long delay and promises of pardon, to shake his firmness. But he
was upheld by the grace so richly vouchsafed, and he died exclaiming,
"Glory to God that He judges me worthy of death for Him." This martyrdom
was followed, about two years later, by two other remarkable cases. The
first was a young student educated by the republic of Berne, named Nicolas
Sartoire. He was returning for a few weeks' holiday to his native land, and
had scarcely crossed the frontier of Piedmont when, resisting all
temptations to deny his faith, he was burnt at Aosta, on the 4th of May,
1557.

The second, Geoffrey Varaille, was a man of fifty, _the son of one of those
who had taken part in the persecution of 1488_.

While following his duties as a monk, he was convinced of t