ensured by a royal oath, and by the unanimous consent of the parliament, and confirmed by all the states and provinces: his successor renewed this oath, and our ruler, Louis XIV, could not be recognised king, before he agreed to reign over Evangelical as well as Roman Catholic subjects: thus was the oath which he took for himself and his posterity ratified to us; he has reigned many years with happiness and renown, but now in his old age, surrounded by ambitious and superstitious minds, now that his bright star has long set, now that his country is impoverished and exhausted; that his armies are defeated; that enemies threaten his frontiers, and even his very capital,--now that Germany, England, and Holland, here in the neighbourhood, Savoy, menace us with the most dire misfortune,--now his conscience awakes, he thinks to be able to conquer heaven and fortune, by suffering Catholic subjects only to call him king. He sends with inconceivable blindness--converting ministers into these mountains; and threats, compulsion, massacre and pillage are the exhortations employed towards this unfortunate people; now we have witnessed these horrors in our very neighbourhood; however zealous you may be for your party, my son, I know that your humane heart has been agonised more than once by these proceedings. Suddenly--could he do it, ask yourself if he might? the king revokes that edict and voluntarily absolves himself from his oath, without at the same time consulting that of his predecessors, of the parliament, and of all the states in the kingdom; he himself destroys, in his religious madness, that which binds him to the citizen, that attaches the subject to him, the sacred palladium, the undefilable is profaned and annihilated, and the wretched inhabitants are yielded a prey to wrath, to murder, and to the fearful frenzy of the bloodthirsty; the peaceful weaver, the shepherd, the honest labourer, who was but yesterday a devout Christian, a respected citizen, a good subject, is through the revocation of the edict, without any fault of his own, now a rebel, an outlaw, for whom the wheel and the stake are prepared; against whom all, even the most savage and disgraceful cruelty is permitted; his temples are closed and demolished; his priests are exiled and murdered; he is ignorant of his offence, he only feels his misfortune: in the deepest recesses of the soul that spirit is aroused which remembers its eternal and imperishable rights, and again war and murder rage; fury excites fury, life becomes cheap, martyrdom a pleasure; and if there be evil foes, they look with a scornful and fiendish laugh from the summits of the mountains down on this hideous massacre, where the very last traces of love, godly fear, and humility are covered with reeking blood. Do you mean that it is thus I must be a Christian, in order to justify the cruelty of my party; or to be a good subject, must I lend a hand to these executioners of the Marshal? In this case, indeed, is our respect for the king, as well as our worship of God infinitely different."

Edmond had listened to this long harangue of his father, without testifying any signs of impatience; at length said he, sighing deeply: "We are standing then on two opposite shores, a wide stream between us; I understand your meaning so little, that I even shrink with fear from it, for according to that, our holy religion may vanish in the empty folly of every fool, who has the arrogance to set himself up for a teacher, and just enough ability to mislead the ignorant, novelty-hunting populace; thus then might indeed the sacred edifice of the state with its, by heaven itself, consecrated representative sink into the dust, if every malcontent is permitted to dispute with him those rights by which the king is king, and if lie finds an opportunity to rob him of them. Then come chaos and anarchy bringing in their train the hellish fiends of murder, vengeance, fire, and sword, in order to destroy and slay the friends of the throne, the nobles and the priests. Oh! my father, to this only then their doctrine tends. Can my king be no more to me my visible god on earth, to whom I blindly and unreservedly submitted my whole heart with all its impulses, can I no longer believe, that to him alone belongs all responsibility? In this case I can neither act, nor think. Must my church, for which innumerable miracles, and thousands of the sublimest spirits speak and confirm it, yield to contemptible communities of yesterday, out of whatever corner they creep, who seek with gross deception and delirious ravings to cover and decorate their pitiful wretchedness;--no, I would just as soon fly to the unenlightened heathens of the North Pole, and attach myself to their absurd faith."

"Miracles!" exclaimed the old Lord, "and what then do you call miracles? the dull eye cannot discern them, just because they are too great and too mighty. That these poor people, who were perfectly content if they only had their hardly-earned dry bread, and who in the recesses of their mountains revered every commander as a deity;--that these should venture to defy the Intendant, the Marshal with his armies, and even the king himself;--that these poor, common men were enabled to sacrifice their wives, their children, and their lives, and die martyrs for their doctrine: Is this then no miracle? A miserable band without education, without arms, without having ever seen service, led by young men, who scarcely know what a sword is, should defeat regular troops and experienced commanders in more than one battle; and, sometimes too, one against four: Is that no miracle? How, if these rebels, for such they are in reality, should desire to found the truth of their doctrine upon this, what have you to oppose against them?"

"Rather mention too," said Edmond, with bitterness, "their prophets, their ecstasies, their absurd convulsive contortions, which the young learn from the old and deceive and grossly lie with the name of God on their lips."

"My son," said his father, sighing, while he gazed with emotion on the dark eyes of his son. "In all unrestrained passions man is transformed into an inexplicable but fearful miracle, then becomes realised and identified with him, what the wildest fancy itself cannot imagine more irrational. Let every man beware of this state, still less let him seek it, as you do, Edmond; your fire will consume you. Go not yonder so often to the lady of Castelnau: this will nourish your enthusiasm and destroy you." Edmond quitted the hall abruptly without saying a word. The old man looked after him, sighed and said to himself, "Ardent love and bigotry encouraged by an enthusiastic woman what may they not effect in our times in this poor youth; who knows the misery that is still before me!"

"For God's sake, my Lord," exclaimed old Frantz, rushing in, "what is the matter with our son; there he is running up the vineyard without a hat, and the storm is fast gathering. Oh, if you had but not scolded him! He will never indeed give up the lady!"

"How do you know," asked the father, "that the conversation related to her?"

"He ran by me," replied Frantz, "and looked at me with that very peculiar, fierce expression, which he only has, if any one speaks of the Lady Christine; then only he stamps his feet; he has thrown down the apple-tree there, and kicked back his own Hector that was running after him, which he never does at any other time; some harm will yet befall our Edmond."

"May God watch over him," said his father; at that moment a flash of lightning darted from the dark stormy clouds, and cast a singular light round the vineyards, so violent a clap of thunder immediately succeeded, that the whole of the great building rocked and creaked. Hector crouched down by Frantz, and the little Eveline ran into the hall with her fair locks fluttering behind her, immediately after her entrance, the rain began to descend in torrents, the herds were seen everywhere hastily crowding together; the