The breeze became slightly stronger, and the the trees increased so much, that a soft mu through the whole wood. It was literally rai millions of nuts must have fallen that day in I saw the young peasant girls coming from farm-houses, to glean beneath the boughs; a sufficed to fill their sacks, and send them back produce of the chestnut-tree. These nuts a eaten as food; and very nutritious food they towns of northern Italy you see persons in the them in braziers over charcoal fires, and selli people, to whom they form no very inconsi their food. I have oftener than once, on a lo fasted on them, with the help of a cluster of g apples. This was the manna of the Waldens often have the persecuted Vaudois, when dri homes, and compelled to seek refuge in those where the vine does not grow, subsisted for d upon the produce of the chestnut-tree! I cou mire in this the wise arrangement of Him who these valleys as the future abode of his Churc had He taught the earth to yield her corn, and but even the skies bread. Bread was rained

caves and hiding-places, plenteous as the manna of old; and the Vaudois, like the Israelites, had but to gather and eat.

I came also to the conclusion, that the land which the Lord had given to the Waldenses was a "large" as well as a "good" land. It is only of late that the Vaudois have been restricted to the three valleys I have named; but even taking their country as at present defined, its superficial area is by no means so inconsiderable as it is apt to be accounted by one who hears of it as confined to but three valleys. Spread out these valleys into level plains, and you find that they form a large country. It is not only the broad bottom of the valley that is cultivated;—the sides of the hills are clothed up to the very clouds with vineyards and corn-lands, and are planted with all manner of trees, yielding fruit after their kind. Where the husbandman is compelled to stop, nature takes up the task of the cultivator; and then come the chestnut-groves, with their loads of fruit, and the short sweet grass on which cattle depasture in summer, and the wild flowers from which the bees elaborate their honey. Overtopping all are the fields of snow, the great reservoirs of the springs and rivers which fertilize the country. This arrangement admitted, moreover, of far greater variety, both of climate and of produce, than could possibly obtain on the plain. There is an eternal winter at the summit of these mountains, and an almost perpetual summer at their feet.

In accordance with this great productiveness, I found the hills of the Vaudois exceedingly populous. They are alive with men, at least as compared with the solitude which our Scottish Highlands present. I had brought thither my notions of a valley taken from the narrow winding and infertile straths of Scotland, capable of feeding only a few scores of inhabitants.

Here I found that a valley might be a country, a most a nation in its bosom.

But, not to dwell on other peculiarities, I would such a dwelling as this-continually presenting objects-must have exerted a marked influence racter of the inhabitants. It was fitted to engen of mind, a love of freedom, and an elevation of has been remarked that the inhabitants of mount are less prone than others to the worship of ima plain all is monotony. Summer and winter, th marks, the same sky, the same sounds, surround t around the dweller in the mountains, and es mountains as these,-all is variety and grandeu Alps are seen with their sun-light summits and less sides; anon they veil their mighty forms i tempests. The living machinery of the mist, too, varying the landscape, now engulphing valleys, out crags and mountain peaks, and suspending a cold and cheerless curtain of vapour; anon the the mist rolls away, and green valley and tall n back again upon you, thrilling and delightin What variety and melody of sounds, too, exist am The music of the streams, the voices of the peasar man's song, the lowing of the cattle, the hum of The winds, with mighty organ-swell, now sweep mountain gorges; and now the thunder utters hi making the Alps to tremble and their pines to b

Such was the land of the Vaudois; the pred of God's Church during the long and gloomy pe christ's reign. It was the ark in which the on of Christendom was to be preserved during the

that was to come upon the earth. And I have been the more minute in the description of its general structure and arrangements, because all had reference to the high moral end it was appointed to serve in the economy of Providence.

When of old a flood of waters was to be sent on the world, Noah was commanded to build an ark of gopher wood for the saving of his house. God gave him special instructions regarding its length, its breadth, its height: he was told where to place its door and window, how to arrange its storeys and rooms, and specially to gather " of all food that is eaten," that it might be for food for him and those with him. When all had been done according to the Divine instructions, God shut in Noah, and the flood came.

So was it once more. A flood was to come upon the earth; but now God himself prepared the ark in which the chosen family were to be saved. He laid its foundations in the depths, and built up its wall of rock to the sky. A door also made He for the ark, with lower, second, and third storeys. It was beautiful as strong. Corn, wine, and oil were laid up in store within it. All being ready, God said to his persecuted ones in the early Church, “Come, thou and all thy house, into the ark." He gave them the Bible to be a light to them during the darkness, and shut them in. The flood came. Century after century the waters of Papal superstition continued to prevail upon the earth. At length all the high hills that were under the whole heaven were covered, and all flesh died, save the little company in the Vaudois ark.

CHAPTER V.

STATE AND PROSPECTS OF THE VAUDOIS C

Dawn of the Reformation-Waldensian Territory a Portio fold Mission of Italy-Origin of the Vaudois-Evide Historians-Evidence of their own Historians-Evide the Noble Leyçon from their Geographical PositionVaudois Annals-Their Martyr Age-Their Missionary Condition-Population - Churches-Schools-Stipends cial and Moral Superiority-Political and Social Disabil 1848 their Exodus-Their Mission-A Sabbath in the Va -Anecdote-Lesson Taught by their History.

How often during the long night must the looked from their mountain asylum upon a wor in error, with the mingled wonder and dismay w may imagine the antediluvian fathers gazing fi dow of their ark upon the bosom of the shoreless an appaling and mysterious dispensation! The the great deep had a second time been broken successive century saw the waters rising. Would ever re-appear? Or had the Church completed and finished her course? And was time to close shrouded in darkness, with nought but this feeble