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the pillars of the aisle, midway between the high altar and

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generally known and admitted to be the very pulpit which stood in the church before the massacre. But if the pulpit cannot speak in a Popish church, the font can; for at the western extremity is a huge stone font, rivalling in height and exceeding in bulk the Protestant pulpit, having on the wall above it emblazoned in large letters, "Ici on reçoit And here, behind the tradition of St. Christopher, stands the silent pulpit, testifying against the Romish heresy of transubstantiation on the altar and of sacerdotal regeneration in the font. This empty pulpit amid the darkness of Popery almost forced the question of Isaac from our lips, "Here is the fire, and here is the wood, but where is the Lamb for a burnt sacrifice?"

Our route from Val Louise to the hamlet of St. Clos, and

THE CAVERN IN THE CLIFF.

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from thence to Ail-froide, is an ascent of some four or five miles into the gorge of the valley; and as you penetrate further into the narrow chasm you realise very sensibly the manner in which the flight of the 3000 must have been accomplished. Having engaged a guide, we rode on as best we could among a frightful débris of rock, until we came to a deposit of sand and loose stones which forbade further progress on horseback. And here we lifted up our eyes to see 6000 feet of precipice above our heads and the cavern upon a shelf of the rock one hour and a half from us. Having tied our mules to some stunted larch - trees, we followed our guide. "There," said he, " upon those crags the hats of the murdered men hung for years, and the cavern is named after them." For one long hour we scrambled upon hands and knees up the precipice, following the ragged fissures to their summit; and then crossing the face of the rock to another opening, where we commenced another work of toil, we reached at length a sort of platform upon a shoulder of the crag, and congratulated ourselves upon having surmounted the chief difficulties of the ascent. But as we proceeded across the smooth incline we found our shoes ill suited for the work, and it was proposed we should take them off. This only increased the labour and the danger, which having endured for some time without making much advance, we were compelled reluctantly to return to the landing-place and resume our shoes. The sun was now low, and with another half-hour of scrambling before us, we deemed it best to give up the attempt, and, with great hazard, by the help of the guide and the kind providence of God, we reached our mules in safety, and rode in the dark to St. Clos, where we got shelter in a granary for the night. During our descent the guide was very communicative of the traditions of the valley. "There," he said, pointing once to an open space near the

torrent below," there the Vaudois were collected after they had been apprehended by the troops, and they were all killed on that spot. The river was tinged with their blood down to the bridge of St. Clos." "The priests tell us," he said, "that they were a savage set of banditti, and it was necessary to destroy them." Poor creatures! the priests do not quote the words of the Papal death-warrant, which describes the Waldenses as "detestable heretics."

This failure of our expedition, disappointing as it was, produced a few fruitful remarks which may be serviceable to some future investigator who shall attempt the enterprise, whilst they throw light on several points of the history.

1. In order to visit the cave, time, a good guide, and ropes, must be provided.

2. It is impossible for the flocks and herds to have been carried into the cave. The wonder is how the women and

children reached it.

3. No army, however well equipped, could for a moment think of scaling the precipice, defended as it was by so large a body of men.

4. That nothing but a sudden panic could have given success to the stratagem of the renegade Palud.

There is, however, hope for the Val Louise. Great desire has been expressed for the circulation of the Scriptures, and our colporteurs do not visit these mountains in vain. It is not long since one of the priests was severely taken to task by his parishioners for having impeded and abused a colporteur in the sale of Bibles. And yet many of these mountaineers, men and women, have no other clothing than the skins of goats and of sheep. If I were to judge of the priests by the specimen we found in the auberge at Val Louise, we might be thankful that the pulpit remained silent, and earnestly pray for the day when the truth might again be spoken in it. W. R. F.

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