Although the Vaudois were not wholly despoiled of the fruit of their heroic efforts in fighting their way back to their native valleys, yet the cruel banishment of the French Protestants, and the removal of so many of their gifted and devoted leaders, was a very heavy calamity. It placed almost insuperable difficulties in the way of their reorganization. Furthermore, they were greatly harassed by the imposition of taxes far beyond their means, and most unjustly levied only on the Protestants. Very dishonourable attempts were also made to seduce their children from the profession of evangelical principles. They were not allowed to repair their shattered temples, and were deprived of a proper number of pastors; so that altogether they were in an evil case. Their proverbial and long-tried loyalty to their prince, however, flourished in spite of these discouragements. Victor Amadeus, having joined England and Holland against France, was besieged in Turin by the latter power in 1706. He was so hardly pressed by the French troops as to be obliged to take refuge among his faithful subjects of the valleys. A family named Durand had the honour of giving shelter to their fugitive prince; and when by the forced marches of Prince Eugene deliverance was at hand, King Amadeus conferred the right of burying in their own garden on the family which sheltered him, as well as bequeathed his own silver spoons and drinking-cup to the family. I had the pleasure of seeing one of these spoons, preserved in the museum at La Torre, on the occasion of my visit in 1871. Eugene and the Duke of Savoy ascended the heights of the Superga (a hill about six miles from Turin) together. The prince, detecting some mistakes in the movements of the French troops, exclaimed, "It seems to me that these people are already half beaten;" whereupon the duke vowed, if Turin were delivered from the French, that he would erect a monument on that spot to the Virgin. He kept his vow, and the present imposing structure, used as a mausoleum for the House of Savoy, was begun in 1717, and finished fourteen years after. But he was not equally mindful of his obligations to his devoted Vaudois, who, in addition to protecting their prince at the risk of their own safety, also inflicted great injury upon the French troops when obliged to raise the siege of Turin. Indeed the vexations to which the Vaudois were subjected by the interference of the French court as the ready instrument of papal cruelty and intolerance provoked the kindly interposition of Frederick I. of Prussia on their behalf. However, Amadeus would not protect the converts from Catholicism, although he was firm in maintaining the rights of the Vaudois within the narrow limits which had been conceded. Still these faithful subjects of the House of Savoy had to bear many grievous acts of injustice, from which they were exempted by the express words of the royal edicts. However, they endured all these irritations from papal lawlessness without being led away by the seductive promises and the illusory hopes of freedom and happiness which so largely unsettled the continent of Europe by the outbreak of the French Revolution in 1789. Indeed so sensitive were they of anything which might bring their loyalty into question that they actually suspended one of their pastors from his functions for six months because he had inadvertently alluded to revolutionary principles from his pulpit! I may add that the same principle of wise abstention from all political discussions still characterize the Vaudois pastors, both in the valleys and the mission-field of the Italian peninsula.

In the wars between France and Savoy at this time the Vaudois had the guardianship of the frontiers entrusted to them. In 1793 the French tried hard to move the Vaudois from their fidelity by the most attractive promises of civil and religious liberty. Although they refused to listen to these promises, yet the ready tongue of calumny took advantage of circumstances connected with the surrender of the fort of Mirabocco to asperse their integrity. Investigation showed that if Musset (the only Vaudois officer present at the time) had been in command, the place would have been defended to the last. Still such was the spirit engendered by popish fanaticism, that a most frightful conspiracy to murder the defenceless Vaudois women and children of San Giovanni and La Torre, while their fathers and brothers were all away guarding the frontiers, was concocted. Happily for the credit of Christianity and humanity it was discovered and revealed in time by two members of the Romish faith, who were too honourable to sanction such a scheme. These gentlemen, Brianza, priest of Lucerna, and Captain Odetti, gave notice to the Vaudois. Messengers were at once despatched to the mountains. General Gaudin at first refused to let them go to the defence of their homes, disbelieving the existence of the conspiracy until he was shown the names of seven hundred of those engaged in it. Then he hesitated to weaken his forces against the French; but a stratagem happily relieved him of his embarrassment, though eventually he lost his command for his humanity, while none of the conspirators were punished! Instead of this a Vaudois captain, Davit, was executed, and others placed under arrest upon unjust suspicions. By these proceedings a feeling of disquietude was provoked, which only the appointment of General Zimmerman, a native of Lucerna, was able to calm.

An armistice taking place in the spring of 1796, and Charles Emmanuel IV. coming to the Sardinian crown, the British ambassador sought more considerate treatment of the Vaudois. In reply to this appeal they were allowed to repair and enlarge their temples, and even to remove them to more commodious sites. In 1798 Charles Emmanuel IV. was only allowed the island of Sardinia by the all-conquering French, who took possession of Piedmont, and annexed it as a province to France. This event gave to the Vaudois in a moment every social right, every political privilege, and, above all, the religious freedom they had for centuries fought, and bled, and suffered in vain to procure, at least in its entirety!

However, the position of the Vaudois was one of difficulty. Under the rule of their de facto government they took part in repressing the uprising of the Piedmontese against the French at Carmagnola. And when three hundred wounded soldiers, fleeing from the Austrian army, who pursued them to the Vaudois frontiers, reached Bobbio in a state of appalling destitution, M. Rostaing, the pastor, and his people, fed them out of their scanty stores, dressed their wounds, and carried them on their shoulders over frightful precipices, and along snow-covered defiles impassable to ordinary traffic. This act of humanity (gratefully acknowledged by the French commander, Suchet) would have drawn upon them a fresh outpouring of oppression, had not the Russian general taken a truer estimate of their position. He allowed them to retain their arms on the condition that they used them only in self-defence. Napoleon's victory at Marengo, on the 14th June, 1800, consolidated the French rule over Piedmont. But the Vaudois experienced dreadful privations at this time, owing to the ravages of the soldiers of the two armies, French and Austrian, and a period of scarcity. The stipends of the pastors were also in great part wanting. The French government made a provision out of appropriations formerly given to the Romish priests and monks. Indeed, after a conversation which Napoleon held in a most agreeable manner with M. Peyrani, moderator of the Vaudois Church, he assigned stipends of one thousand francs yearly to the pastors of parishes, together with an extra allowance of two hundred francs for work as secretaries of the communes. On this occasion Napoleon referred in a spirit of admiration to the exploits of Arnaud and other brave leaders of the Vaudois, and also drew from M. Peyrani the statement that his church had an independent existence from about the year 820. At this time the Vaudois rebuilt their temple at Giovanni, closed since the year 1658. However, it was barely finished when it suffered much damage from an earthquake, the shocks of which were felt for a period of four months in the neighbourhood of Pinerolo, and in other parts, both of Italy and France. Although the prevalence of this earthquake inflicted great suffering on the Vaudois by the cessation of all industrial pursuits, the necessity of living in tents, and the general terror and alarm which it inspired, yet the actual loss of life did not extend to more than three cases. There were many remarkable deliverances. Notwithstanding this visitation of Providence, it does not appear that religious life existed to the degree of former times. The spirit of atheism stirred up in France; the prevalence of a cold materialistic philosophy in those seminaries where the students for the Waldensian ministry had to seek instruction; the absorption of the thoughts by the reports of military expeditions; the bewitchery attached to the name and achievements of Bonaparte, not only made the young men of the valleys willing to enrol beneath his standard, but also had a tendency to restrict the simplicity and the piety so characteristic of their forefathers to those who from sex or age were left outside of that turbid wave which swept others into the current of its power. In 1815 came the downfall of the proud empire erected by the military prowess and boundless ambition of the first Napoleon. How this affected the Vaudois we will consider in our next chapter.