Full download text book at textbookfull.

com

Retail Banking 4th Edition Keith Pond

DOWLOAD HERE

https://textbookfull.com/product/retail-
banking-4th-edition-keith-pond/

DOWLOAD NOW

Download more textbook from textbookfull.com

More products digital (pdf, epub, mobi) instant
download maybe you interests ...

The Digital Banking Revolution How Fintech Companies

Are Transforming the Retail Banking Industry Through
Disruptive Financial Innovation Luigi Wewege

https://textbookfull.com/product/the-digital-banking-revolution-
how-fintech-companies-are-transforming-the-retail-banking-
industry-through-disruptive-financial-innovation-luigi-wewege/

Oxford Handbook of Anaesthesia 4th Edition Keith Allman

https://textbookfull.com/product/oxford-handbook-of-
anaesthesia-4th-edition-keith-allman/

Global Issues in Banking and Finance: 4th International

Conference on Banking and Finance Perspectives Nesrin
Ozatac

https://textbookfull.com/product/global-issues-in-banking-and-
finance-4th-international-conference-on-banking-and-finance-
perspectives-nesrin-ozatac/

A Death in Eden Sean Stranahan 7 4th Edition Keith

Mccafferty

https://textbookfull.com/product/a-death-in-eden-sean-
stranahan-7-4th-edition-keith-mccafferty/
Management Of Banking And Financial Services 4th
Edition Padmalatha Suresh & Justin Paul

https://textbookfull.com/product/management-of-banking-and-
financial-services-4th-edition-padmalatha-suresh-justin-paul/

Small Animal Dermatology: A Color Atlas and Therapeutic

Guide, 4th Edition Keith A. Hnilica

https://textbookfull.com/product/small-animal-dermatology-a-
color-atlas-and-therapeutic-guide-4th-edition-keith-a-hnilica/

Retail Crime Vania Ceccato

https://textbookfull.com/product/retail-crime-vania-ceccato/

Encyclopedia of Aquarium and Pond Fish David Alderton

https://textbookfull.com/product/encyclopedia-of-aquarium-and-
pond-fish-david-alderton/

Strategic Retail Management Dirk Morschett

https://textbookfull.com/product/strategic-retail-management-
dirk-morschett/
Keith Pond
Retail Banking
fourth edition

G
Gosbrook
Keith Pond
Retail Banking
fourth edition

G
Gosbrook
This edition published in 2017 by
Gosbrook Professional Publishing Ltd
20 Patrick Road
Reading RG4 8DD, UK

www.gosbrook.com

First published in 2007 by

Global Professional Publishing Ltd

Copyright © Gosbrook Professional Publishing Ltd

The right of Keith Pond to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by him in
accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act of 1988.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced
into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical,
photocopying, recording or otherwise), without the prior written permission of the publisher.
Reprographic reproduction is permitted only in accordance with the terms and licences issued
by the Copyright Licencing Agency.

Disclaimer
The author and publisher believe that the sources of information on which this book is based
are reliable and have made every effort to ensure the accuracy of the text. However, neither
the publisher nor the author can accept any legal responsibility whatsoever for consequences
that may arise from errors or omissions, or from any opinion or advice given. In particular, the
contents of this book should in no way be taken to constitute legal advice.

Note
Throughout the text reference is made to fictitious organizations, including ‘Countryside Bank
plc’ and ‘Riverside Bank Pte Limited’. These organizations are pure inventions by the author
and any resemblance to any organization carrying these names or any similar names is entirely
coincidental.

ISBN 978 1 912184 00 2 (paperback)

ISBN 978 1 912184 01 9 (hardback)
ISBN 978 1 912184 02 6 (ePub)
ISBN 978 1 912184 03 3 (PDF)

Cover and text design: Anke Ueberberg

Cover image: Matthias Hloucha
 

To Judy Blink

To my grandchildren, Connor, Dylan, Alfie and Isabelle

(with thanks for the offer of help, Alfie, but apologies that
the publisher did want more than four lines on each page)

And to Eric and Tracey Dobby for their support,

as publishers, for so many years
Contents
List of figures vi
List of tables vii
Preface to the fourth edition viii
Acronyms and abbreviations ix
Glossary xi

Part I THE RETAIL BANKING ENVIRONMENT  1

1 The retail banking environment 2

2 What is retail banking? 17
3 How do retail banks work? 31
4 Retail banks and the economy 42
5 Retail banking regulation 53
6 Competition in retail banking 67

PArt II INSIDE THE RETAIL BANK 75

7 Retail banking products 76

8 Retail banking channels 91
9 Payments and payment systems 104
10 Credit appraisal 116
11 Banking securities 129
12 The recovery of money 140

Appendix A Personal credit scoring 151

Appendix B Business lending proposition 154
Appendix C Personal case studies 157

Supplementary material and a Tutor Resource

are available from www.gosbrook.com/retailbanking4e
or http://keithpond.co.uk/extras.html
List of figures
1.1 Retail banking environment 3
1.2 Retail banking at work 5
2.1 A timeline of bank consolidation in the UK 18
2.2 Constituent parts of a universal bank 19
2.3 Lenders and borrowers 23
4.1 Liquidity spectrum 44
4.2 Transmission mechanism of monetary policy 49
5.1 Three pillars of Basel II 58
5.2 Functions of the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) 62
5.3 ‘Ring-fencing’ bank assets 65
6.1 Average market share of four largest banks, 2000–07 68
6.2 Porter’s ‘five forces’ model of competition 71
7.1 Evolution of UK banking law 77
7.2 Saver’s life cycle 80
7.3 Insurable risks 86
7.4 Investment risks and returns 88
8.1 Retail banking systems in mid-20th century 93
8.2 Commercial bank branches per 100.000 adults, 2007 and 2014 94
8.3 ATMs per 100,000 population, 2007 and 2014 96
8.4 Anatomy of an ATM transaction 97
8.5 Evolution of internet banking 99
8.6 Channel preferences 100
8.7 Retail banking systems in the 21st century 101
8.8 ‘Virtual’ banking 102
9.1 Payments environment 105
9.2 Non-cash payments in Australia (a) and Mozambique (b) 105
9.3 Analysis of payment preferences 106
9.4 Anatomy of a mobile cheque transaction (UK) 108
9.5 Anatomy of a debit card 110
9.6 Flow of data and funds in a card transaction 112
9.7 Flow of data and funds in a mobile phone transaction 113
10.1 Lending life cycle 117
10.2 How credit scoring works 126
10.3 Credit-scoring probabilities 128
11.1 Global house prices index 137
12.1 Causes of non-repayment of loans 142
12.2 Bad debt risk strategies 144
12.3 Possible bank actions in bad debt situations 145
12.4 Decision tree for debt collection 146
12.5 Formal insolvency recovery (average % repayment) 149
vi
List of tables
2.1 Banking losses and compensation (2010–16) 27
2.2 Riverside Bank Pte Ltd balance sheet 28
2.3 Riverside Bank Pte Ltd balance sheet #2 29
2.4 Riverside Bank Pte Ltd balance sheet #3 29
2.5 Riverside Bank Pte Ltd balance sheet #4 29
3.1 Assets on a typical bank balance sheet 32
3.2 Riskiness of banking assets 35
3.3 Liabilities on a typical bank balance sheet 36
3.4 Estimating return on equity (ROE) 38
3.5 Example of interest and liquidity risk 40
4.1 Definitions of monetary aggregates in the UK 46
4.2 Extent of quantitative easing (QE) 50
5.1 Deposit insurance scheme limits – selected countries 55
5.2 Risk-weighted assets of Countryside Bank plc 57
5.3 Capital adequacy of Countryside Bank plc under Basel I 57
5.4 Capital adequacy of Countryside Bank plc under Basel II 60
5.5 Key ratios in Basel I, II and III compared 61
5.6 Types of banking risk 63
7.1 Types of savings account 78
7.2 Types of credit account 81
7.3 Mortgage loans around the world (2016) 83
7.4 Interest-rate types 84
7.5 Ratios of non-interest income to total income 85
7.6 Basic foreign exchange products 90
9.1 Qualities of cash 107
9.2 Typical fees in a card transaction 111
10.1 Common lending mnemonics 119
10.2 Lowest lending rates for retail bank products (selected countries) 124
11.1 Real estate ownership in various countries 131
11.2 Legal systems around the world 133
11.3 Key banking securities (offered by individuals, jointly, by partnerships or
by companies) 136
11.4 Key banking securities (offered by companies only) 136
11.5 Typical considerations when taking UK land as security – DIVAN 138
12.1 Insolvency choices 148
A.1 Riverside Bank Pte Ltd credit-scoring template 152
A.2 CAMPARI assessment 153
B.1 CAMPARI assessment 155

vii
Preface to the fourth edition
Retail banks have undergone considerable changes in the last thirty years – and
their capacity to react to economic, environmental, political, social and techno-
logical pressures will guarantee further changes in the decades to come. This edi-
tion updates earlier versions of the book in its treatment of issues surrounding
the industry. It also emphasizes the priorities of retail banks today, and their
regulatory and practical environment.
The text itself is divided broadly into two parts, Chapters 1–6 covering
banking concepts and the current banking environment, and Chapter 7–12, key
retail banking operations.
In the first half of the book, we consider what banking actually is and what
banks do. We discuss some key economic concepts that underpin much banking
activity in both historical and modern-day contexts and we examine banking
risks, along with some of the ways in which banks overcome or minimize the
adverse impact of such risks. We go on to review the position of banks within the
economy, and their regulation by national and international bodies, and look at a
bank’s profitability from the perspective of its annual accounts.
In the second half of the book, we cover the key banking transactions – from
the different types of bank account and product offered, to the use of payment
systems (a necessary adjunct to intermediation). The book goes on to introduce
the topic of lending, whereby some key credit risk tools are reviewed and applied,
and basic securities are considered as a vital ‘secondary repayment method’ in
the event of credit default. The book ends with an overview of the recovery of
money by means of court action and insolvency procedures.
Throughout the book, you should consider the content in relation to par-
ticular examples of practice in your own national and regulatory environment.
Often the differences in law, history and geography result in different banking
responses to familiar questions and challenges. This book cannot promise to be
an exhaustive review of all such practice, but it employs specific examples to
highlight generic principles and common responses to them.
While I have made every effort to ensure that the information contained in
the text is accurate and up to date, errors may remain and I take full responsi-
bility for them. Your feedback is welcomed.
Keith Pond
Loughborough University
April 2017
Acknowledgement I am grateful to the School of Business and Economics at
Loughborough University for allowing republication of materials previously
used in teaching at that institution.

viii
Acronyms and abbreviations
3 Cs character, capability, capital FOS Financial Ombudsman Service
4 Cs 3 Cs plus connection (UK)
ATM automated teller machine FPC Financial Policy Committee
B2B business-to-business (Bank of England)
Basel I 1988 Basel Accord FSA Financial Services Authority
Basel II 2004 Basel Accord (Revised (UK, defunct)
Capital Framework) FSMA 2000 Financial Services and
Basel III 2010–11 Basel Accord Markets Act 2000 (UK)
BBA British Bankers’ Association G10 Group of 10 industrialized
BCBS Basel Committee on Bank nations
Supervision HP hire purchase
BCOBS Banking Conduct of Business IASs International Accounting
Sourcebook (UK) Standards
CAMPARI character, ability, means, ICB Independent Commission on
purpose, amount, repayment and Banking (Vickers Committee, UK)
insurance ICE Intercontinental Exchange;
CCJ county court judgment interest, charges and extras (usually
CD certificate of deposit added to CAMPARI)
CHAPS Clearing House Automated ILA independent legal advice
Payments System IPARTS integrity, purpose, amount,
COB conduct of business repayment, terms and security
CPI Consumer Price Index ISA individual savings account
CRA credit reference agency IVA individual voluntary
CRIS character, repayment, incentive arrangement
and security JCCC Joint Credit Card Company
CSFI Centre for Study of Financial (later known as Access)
Innovation Libor London inter-bank offered rate
CSR corporate social responsibility LOLR lender of last resort
CVA company voluntary LSE London Stock Exchange
arrangement LTV loan-to-value
DIVAN deposit, investigation, M&A mergers and acquisitions
valuation, authorization and MARG maturity transformation, asset
notification transformation (or aggregation), risk
ECB European Central Bank (Euro transformation and geographical
area) location
EPOS electronic point of sale MAS Monetary Authority of
Euribor Euro inter-bank offered rate Singapore
FCA Financial Conduct Authority
(UK)

ix
ACRONYMS AND ABBREVIATIONS

MAST marketability, ascertainability PIN personal identification number

of value, simplicity of title and POSB Post Office Savings Bank
transferability of title (Singapore)
MB monetary base PPI payment protection insurance
MLR minimum lending requirement PRA Prudential Regulation Authority
(repo rate) (UK)
MPC Monetary Policy Committee PSD Payment Services Directive
(Bank of England) (European Union)
MSME micro, small or medium-sized PSR Payment Services Regulations
enterprise 2009 (UK)
NPL non-performing loans QE quantitative easing
OCBC Oversea-Chinese Banking RAR reserve asset ratio
Corporation (Singapore) RBS Royal Bank of Scotland
OECD Organisation for Economic Co- RDR Retail Distribution Review
operation and Development ROE return on equity
OFT Office of Fair Trading (UK, RWAs risk-weighted assets
defunct) SME small or medium-sized
P2P peer-to-peer enterprise
PARSERS person, amount, SOX US Sarbanes–Oxley Act of 2002
repayment, security, expediency, SPV special-purpose vehicle
remuneration and services TDSR total debt servicing
PC personal computer requirement
PCP personal contract plan TESCO time, expense, security,
PEST political, economic, social and convenience and other attributes
technological UOB United Overseas Bank
PESTLE PEST plus legal and ethical/ (Singapore)
environmental

x
Glossary
Adverse selection This risk refers to by a bank in exchange for a
the fact that the most creditworthy commission or management charge.
customers do not need to borrow Good asset managers will produce
and only those without current average or above average returns on
funds of their own request credit. investments for a low fee.
Adverse selection is also heightened Asymmetric information An
by information asymmetry – that is, economics concept that indicates
the situation in which the borrower that two parties to a transaction
has information that the bank does rarely have equal amounts of
not, which could change the bank’s relevant information available. In a
risk assessment if it were to be lending scenario this is often seen
revealed. as the borrower knowing far more
Alternative providers This describes about the riskiness of the loan than
challenger banks and other the lender and it is up to the lender
providers of banking facilities, to find out enough information on
such as payment systems, loans which to base a decision.
or savings accounts. Peer-to-peer Automated teller machine ‘Teller’
lenders fall into this category. is an old Scottish name for a bank
Asset Typically, a revenue earning cashier. Adopted by the United
item owned by a company and States, the ATM automates some
accounted for on its Balance Sheet. functions of the cashier.
In a manufacturing company an Bad debt Also known as non-
asset would be its factory premises. performing loans (NPL), these are
In a bank an asset would be a loan debts that will not be fully repaid.
to a consumer. Banks anticipate non-repayment on
Asset and liability management ALM some loans and write the value of
is the term given to balance sheet these down in their balance sheet.
management by a bank. Banks must Bancassurance Name given to banks
not only maintain liquidity through that have purchased or created
the maturities of loans and deposits insurance companies and pension
but also capital adequacy in terms funds as part of their ‘universal’
of risk assets. ALM techniques, status.
deployed on a daily basis help Bank statement Regular (typically
the bank to achieve liquidity and monthly) account sent to the
strategic objectives such as balance customer listing balances and
sheet growth. transactions since the last statement.
Asset management A type of banking Can be paper based or on-line.
where funds, owned by investors, Bankruptcy A legal end to debt
such as pension funds, are managed contracts whereby a debtor is

xi
GLOSSARY

relieved of the debt liability in Card scheme The global brand of

exchange for a period of financial companies such as Visa, Mastercard
exclusion and release of available and JCB, that individual bank
assets and income to creditors. payment cards can be affiliated with.
Basel accords The global regulatory Belonging to a card scheme ensures
accords affecting internationally acceptance of cards globally.
active banks were first agreed in Central Bank The national bank
the Swiss city of Basel and made of a nation or currency area that
effective in 1988. The accords are determines interest rates for that
now in their third iteration. area, acts as banker to the banks and
Bill of Exchange A payment provides liquidity in the markets
instrument used largely in (typically as a lender of last resort).
international trade (cheques are also The Bank of England, European
a form of Bill of Exchange). A bill Central Bank and Bank Nagara
is a written instruction, drawn on (Malaysia) are all examples.
a person, to pay a specified sum in Cheque „Bill of Exchange A cheque
money at some determinable time is a Bill of Exchange drawn on a
to the bearer or named payee. The bank rather than on another person.
important features here are that Collateral See also Security
Bills can be payable in the future, to A contract ‘side by side’ with a loan
whoever presents them or to whom contract, typically providing rights
they are endorsed but only for a to a lender over a valuable asset as
specified sum. a secondary or back-up repayment
Bonds/Bills A bond is the name mechanism for a loan.
given to corporate loans offered Commercial banking Loose term used
by borrowers to the market. A to describe bank operations with
borrower’s credit rating will help to consumer, business and corporate
determine the interest rate attached customers – client facing banks.
to the bond. A bill is, typically, a Conditional purchase/Hire
loan offered by the government – purchase Allows buyer to pay a
Treasury bills are an example. deposit and then agree a loan for a
Branch The physical local outlet for a fixed period, e.g. 3 years for asset
bank. purchase. Only after loan is repaid
Broking This activity comprises is ownership of asset transferred to
buying and selling commodities, buyer.
financial instruments etc. typically Consumer Price Index (CPI) A
for a commission rather than by measure of inflation, typically
putting the broker’s own capital at estimated by governments based on
risk. the changes in prices of a ‘basket of
Capital adequacy An integral part goods’ available to consumers.
of the Basel accords relating to the Credit card A payment card issued to
amount of capital (Tier 1 equity and an individual allowing the holder to
Tier 2 capital) that a bank must hold draw on a revolving credit facility.
to cover the appropriate portion of Credit Crunch Any period of
its risk weighted assets. withdrawal or freezing of credit

xii
 ‘FINANCE COMPANY’

availability to and from banks. The One example is a securitized loan

most recent example was in 2007–08 package – derived from the loan
a part of which was the reluctance of obligations owed to a bank, bundled
banks to provide liquidity to some up and sold in tranches to investors.
other banks. Direct banking Phone or internet
Credit score An index measure banking that is provided without the
relating to the creditworthiness of need for branches.
individuals and businesses built Direct debit A payment instruction
from reliable and available data and requested by the payer whereby
based on the probability of default the payee draws a specified or
as experienced by banks. Credit unspecified sum from the payer’s
scores are typically reliable for bank account on a regular basis.
consumer loans and afford very low- Used to effect regular payments such
cost credit decision making. as loan repayments.
Credit transfer/Bank giro credit Paper Disintermediation The phenomenon
or digital/internet payment between whereby surplus and deficit units
bank accounts. Salaries, utility bills within an economy transact the
and credit card bills can be paid deposit of funds/borrowing of
through CT/BGT mechanisms. money without the need for an
Debit card A payment card issued to intermediary such as a bank.
an individual allowing the holder to P2P lending is an example of
draw on a bank account. disintermediation.
Deposit insurance Part of the Equity A generic term relating to the
consumer protection for depositors ‘free’ balance available to the owner
in regulated financial institutions of the asset or company. Equity
whereby a maximum (differs and reserves of profit on a balance
between countries) monetary sheet equate to the net worth of the
amount is paid out if a deposit is company – assets minus liabilities.
lost through the failure of a bank. For an asset held as security the
The provision of deposit insurance value of the asset minus the amount
is supposed to give confidence to required to repay the mortgage on
depositors NOT to create a run on a the asset is ‘equity’.
bank. Exchange rate The rate of exchange
Deregulation The removal of barriers between one national currency
to trade. In financial services and another. Impacted by relative
this can relate to the removal of interest rates as well as demand and
distinctions between stock jobbers supply and the stability/economic
and brokers in 1986 (UK) so that health of a nation.
firms could perform both functions Exotic securities A colloquial term
and allow markets to work more encompassing derivatives, complex
efficiently. Often accompanied by financial instruments etc.
regulation to ensure that institutions Finance company Financial services
do not take disproportionate risks. company or part of a bank offering
Derivatives Financial instruments conditional purchase, hire purchase
derived from other transactions.

xiii
GLOSSARY

and leasing finance to consumers rent the property to tenants. The

and businesses. latter is also known as a ‘Buy to Let’
Fixed interest rate The rate is fixed at mortgage.
the start of the loan period, resulting Hire purchase „Conditional purchase
in a fixed repayment amount regard- Independent legal advice A
less of movements in base rates. protection against legal ‘mistake’,
Floating charge Corporate security ‘misrepresentation’ and possible
covering all assets owned by a ‘undue influence’ through which
company not subject to a fixed a security form or loan agreement
charge. The charge also allows is signed by the depositor/
the holder (lender) to appoint an borrower after advice is given by an
Administrator in an insolvency independent solicitor.
situation. Information asymmetry The basic
Forward An agreement by a bank to economic premise within any
buy or sell currency at an agreed transaction whereby one party to the
rate at some time in the future. Risk transaction holds more information,
of currency fluctuation is removed typically about risk, than the
for the buyer/seller as the rate of other. It is particularly important
exchange is known in advance. to recognize in loan or insurance
Forward contracts, once agreed, agreements.
must always be carried out. Insolvency The situation where an
Freehold Ownership of land in individual or company cannot pay
perpetuity in UK law. Similar their debts as they fall due.
concepts apply in many other states. Intensive care The colloquial name
Futures An agreement by a bank to given to specialist departments
buy or sell currency at an agreed within banks that nurse and hope
rate at some time in the future. Risk to rehabilitate financially distressed
of currency fluctuation is removed clients without recourse to formal
for the buyer/seller as the rate of insolvency procedures.
exchange is known in advance. Interchange fees Fees charged in a
These differ from Forward contracts, payment card transaction (credit or
as they can be discarded by the debit) by the Card Scheme.
purchaser if the rate on the day of Intermediation Banks acting as
the delivery of currency is more ‘middlemen’ between lenders and
favourable. borrowers in an economy and,
Guarantee A promise (usually in importantly, taking on the risk of
writing) for one person to pay the non-payment of loans by being
debts of another if the borrower liable for the repayment of all
defaults. deposits.
House mortgage A term loan for Internal ratings-based approach An
financing house purchase and aspect of the Basel I and Basel
secured on the house/property III accords. IRB allows banks to
acquired. Typically with monthly estimate their own risk values
repayments these can be available to for risk assets. Regulators vet and
householders or landlords who then inspect IRB systems. The use of

xiv
 ‘LIQUIDITY’

IRB allows larger banks to use encash bills of exchange in a foreign

capital more efficiently than simple country. A letter of credit is really
application of the standard Basel a guarantee by the issuing bank
risk weightings. that the bill will be honoured on
Internet banking „Direct banking presentation.
The key feature of internet banking Liability A liability is something
is that the customer carries out that is owed by an individual. A
many of the transaction processes borrower has a liability to the lender
formerly reserved for banks, thereby for the debt created. A bank has a
reducing the cost of transactions. liability to depositors for the amount
Investment banking The type of of the deposit.
banking whereby banks handle Liabilities under guarantees can be
investments in financial markets for said to be ‘contingent liabilities’
their own account and on a broking since a separate event is needed to
basis for clients. trigger the liability.
Islamic finance Generic term for LIBOR  London InterBank Offered
financial products that comply with Rate. The rate of interest, set daily,
Sharia law. Islamic Finance products as the agreed rate at which financial
enter profit sharing agreements with institutions lend each other funds,
the recipients of funds as interest normally for short periods. As a
payments are not allowed. Deposits cost of funds it becomes a clear
do not attract interest. benchmark for setting interest rates
Land Real Estate and all that is for customer loans. Other financial
built on it. Different national legal centres such as the EU (EURIBOR)
systems ascribe different definitions and Singapore (SIBOR) have their
to ownership and the rights of the own, similar rate setting process.
owner. As a scarce resource in high Life policy A contract between an
demand (depending on location) individual and a Life Office whereby
land can be a good security as it the Life Office agrees to pay a lump
rises in value over time. sum to the beneficiaries of the
Leasehold Ownership of land for a individual upon the death of that
period of time in UK law. Similar person. Endowment Life policies
concepts apply in other states. also provide a savings element and
Leasing The rental of an asset for a can provide a lump sum at a certain
specified period, with the option to time in the future (e.g. age 60) or
buy the asset at a predetermined death, whichever is the earliest.
price at the end of the period Liquidation The bankruptcy of a
or otherwise to hand back the company in UK law whereby the
asset. Common in relation to cars, assets of the company are sold
whereby the leasing company (liquidated) and shared amongst the
restricts annual mileage to maintain company’s creditors in an order of
resale value of the vehicle. priority set by law.
Letter of credit An instrument of Liquidity The ease with which assets
international trade backed by an on a balance sheet can be converted
issuing bank whereby the holder can to cash.

xv
GLOSSARY

Loan-to-value (LTV) ratio Typically hands of a small number of firms.

the maximum percentage that a This can allow for anti-competitive
bank will lend against the value of actions, collusion between firms etc.
an asset deposited as security. LTV and is reviewed by governments in
ratios can be statutory or determined order to protect consumers.
by market forces depending on the Ombudsman Literally ‘Complaints
country involved. Person’ typically appointed under a
Merchant bank UK name (historic) regulatory regime to be an arbitrator
for a bank undertaking Investment for complaints against institutions
Bank functions. such as banks. The FCA employs a
Mobile banking Banking facilities that Financial Services Ombudsman.
can be accessed via mobile phones Option A financial transaction that
or tablets. A previous era saw bank gives the buyer the option to buy or
branches contained within vans sell a commodity at an agreed price
or lorries being driven to remote at some time in the future. Like
communities. currency futures the option may not
Monetary Policy Committee The repo be exercised if the prevailing price
rate setting committee of the Bank is worse or better than the option
of England. price.
Money laundering The process by Outsourcing A simple business
which illegally obtained funds mechanism whereby a firm
(including tax avoidance schemes) contracts with an outside company
are ‘washed’ through bank accounts to perform a specific function. A
so that authorities cannot discover hotel may ‘outsource’ its laundry
their source. Bank vigilance to a laundry company. A bank may
in opening accounts and bank outsource non-core activities such as
knowledge of the source of funds printing, cheque processing, credit
credited to accounts is often backed score compilation, to an outside
by criminal sanctions and fines agency.
against banks. Overdraft The setting of a credit
Money supply The amount of money limit on a current account in a bank
in circulation within a defined provides a revolving credit facility
economy. The amount of money for a period of time for the account
and its speed of circulation offer holder.
monetary authorities tools to Pay day loans Loans provided by
influence purchasing power in an non-bank lenders that, typically, are
economy. repaid when a borrower’s salary
Moral hazard This is the risk that a is received. Often such loans are
borrower may act in such a way that available to less creditworthy clients
the level of risk changes after the and at higher than average interest
loan has been granted – possibly rates.
because of the ‘safety net’ that bank Payment Protection Insurance
support provides. (PPI) Insurance that pays loan
Oligopoly A market structure where instalments should the holder
most of the market activity is in the become unemployed or unable to

xvi
 ‘SPOT’

work through illness. PPI gained a banks and provides them with
poor reputation in the credit crunch liquidity on a daily basis.
of 2007/08 in the UK as it was mis- Repossession Where leased,
sold to some borrowers. conditional purchase or secured
Peer-to-peer (P2P) lender See also assets support lending, the lender
Disintermediation P2P lenders has the right to repossess the
facilitate the interaction of investors asset and sell it where sufficient
with funds to lend and borrowers repayments of the loan are missed.
(typically business borrowers). P2P Ring-fencing The financial isolation of
companies are not intermediaries in retail banks within Universal bank
the financial sense since they do not structures following implementation
absorb the lending risk but pass on of the UK Vickers Report.
bad debts to the investors. Risk-weighted assets An aspect of the
Personal loan A loan to a consumer Basel accords that assign discount
for a fixed amount and fixed period rates or ‘risk weights’ to bank assets
attracting monthly repayments. based on the risk of default. A banks
These loans are often used for asset total risk weighted assets must be
purchase or consolidation and covered by a certain amount of
reduction of multiple debts. capital.
Private bank A bank or part of a bank Security Term used to describe a
that specializes in the investment valuable asset deposited as collateral
preferences of a small number of for the performance of an obligation.
wealthy clients. In this way the right to sell a house
Quantitative easing (QE) A tool of is given via a charge or mortgage to
monetary policy used when interest a lender to be used if the borrower
rate changes can no longer impact fails to repay the mortgage loan.
money supply (i.e. when they are Settlement The completion of a
already low). QE works by the payment transaction through which
central bank buying bank assets for the seller obtains the cash proceeds
cash, thus injecting liquidity into the of the sale.
system to allow more credit to be Sharia law „Islamic finance
created. Special purpose vehicle
Regulation Banks are subject to A company set up by (some) banks
systematic regulation (of the to transact ‘exotic’ off balance
industry/markets as a whole), sheet transactions in the years
prudential regulation (rules to leading up to the 2007/08 credit
ensure that banks are adequately crunch. By establishing the SPV the
capitalized and liquid) and conduct liabilities created by the derivatives/
of business regulation (consumer securitizations of assets were not
protection rules and codes of reported on the main bank balance
conduct). sheet.
Repo rate The official name given Spot The purchase/sale of currency at
to the base lending rate or Bank the prevailing rate on the day of the
rate by which the Bank of England transaction.
discounts short-term bills from

xvii
GLOSSARY

Spread Relates to interest rates where Tracker interest rate Effective rates
a bank strives to maximize the for loans that change automatically
spread between the rate paid for as base rates are amended. The
funds and the amount earned from margin over the base rate is
loans. maintained.
Sub-prime Credit facilities, such as Trade finance Term encompassing all
mortgages and loans offered to low financial instruments and processes
creditworthy individuals. These are that facilitate import and export
often marked by higher than average trade, such as Bills of Exchange
interest rate costs and higher than and Documentary credits as well as
average risk. currency exchange facilities.
Swaps Instruments and deals in Universal bank Financial Services
currency exchange or interest rate organizations that group together
exchange between bank customer many different types of banking and
accounts (normally corporate) financial services offerings.
whereby the benefits of a future Variable/standard interest rate Bank
exchange rate or interest rate agreed standard mortgage rates, constructed
with a provider is swapped or based on cost of funds, liquidity and
exchanged with another company risk premiums. May stay static even
that has different needs. In this when base rates change.
way both companies can, in theory, Virtual bank A bank that has no
reduce risk and reduce costs. physical presence such as branches
Total debt servicing requirement but transacts its businesses and
(TDSR) Singapore regulatory term, processes via the internet.
mirrored in other jurisdictions, Zombie Company A company kept
relating to the ability of a consumer solvent only by the lending bank
to service debt. For loans such as continuing to offer facilities. Such
house mortgages the repayments companies are barely profitable and
and interest must be well within a provide just enough cash flow to pay
consumer’s budget. debt service charges.

xviii
Part I

The retail banking environment

Another random document with
no related content on Scribd:
 As among the Jews of old, so among the Waldenses, God raised
up, from time to time, mighty men of valour to deliver his people.
One of the most remarkable of these men was Gianavello, commonly
known as Captain Joshua Gianavello, a native of this same Valley of
Rora. He appears, from the accounts that have come down to us, to
have possessed all the qualities of a great military leader. He was a
man of daring courage, of resolute purpose, and of venturous
enterprise. He had the faculty, so essential in a commander, of skilful
combination. He was fertile in resource, and self-possessed in
emergencies; he was quick to resolve, and prompt to execute. His
devotion and energy were the means, under God, of mitigating
somewhat the horrors of the Massacre of 1655, and his heroism
ultimately rolled back the tide of that great calamity, and made it
recoil upon its authors. It was the morning of the 24th of April,
1655, the day which saw the butchery commenced that we have
described above. On that same day 500 soldiers were dispatched by
the Marquis de Pianeza to the Valley of Rora, to massacre its
unoffending and unsuspecting inhabitants. Ascending from the Valley
of the Pelice, they had gained the summit of the pass, and were
already descending on the town of Rora, stealthily and swiftly, as a
herd of wolves might descend upon a sheep-fold, or as, says Leger,
“a brood of vultures might descend upon a flock of harmless doves.”
Happily Gianavello, who had known for weeks before that a storm
was gathering, though he knew not when or where it would burst,
was on the outlook. He saw the troop, and guessed their errand.
There was not a moment to be lost; a little longer, and not a man
would be left alive in Rora to carry tidings of its fate to the next
commune. But was Gianavello single-handed to attack an army of
500 men? He stole up-hill, under cover of the rocks and trees, and
on his way he prevailed on six peasants, brave men like himself, to
join him in repelling the invaders. The heroic little band marched on
till they were near the troop, then hiding amid the bushes, they lay
in ambush by the side of the path. The soldiers came on, little
suspecting the trap into which they were marching. Gianavello and
his men fired, and with so unerring an aim that seven of the troop
fell dead. Then, reloading their pieces, and dexterously changing
their ground, they fired again with a like effect. The attack was
unexpected; the foe was invisible; the frightened imaginations of
Pianeza’s soldiers multiplied tenfold the number of their assailants.
They began to retreat. But Gianavello and his men, bounding from
cover to cover like so many chamois, hung upon their rear, and did
deadly execution with their bullets. The invaders left 54 of their
number dead behind them; and thus did these seven peasants chase
from their Valley of Rora the 500 assassins who had come to murder
its peaceful inhabitants.[124]
That same afternoon the people of Rora, who were ignorant of
the fearful murders which were at that very moment proceeding in
the valleys of their brethren, repaired to the Marquis de Pianeza to
complain of the attack. The marquis affected ignorance of the whole
affair. “Those who invaded your valley,” said he, “were a set of
banditti. You did right to repel them. Go back to your families and
fear nothing; I pledge my word and honour that no evil shall happen
to you.”
These deceitful words did not impose upon Gianavello. He had a
wholesome recollection of the maxim enacted by the Council of
Constance, and so often put in practice in the Valleys, “No faith is to
be kept with heretics.” Pianeza, he knew, was the agent of the
“Council of Extirpation.” Hardly had the next morning broken when
the hero-peasant was abroad, scanning with eagle-eye the mountain
paths that led into his valley. It was not long till his suspicions were
more than justified. Six hundred men-at-arms, chosen with special
reference to this difficult enterprise, were seen ascending the
mountain Cassuleto, to do what their comrades of the previous day
had failed to accomplish. Gianavello had now mustered a little host
of eighteen, of whom twelve were armed with muskets and swords,
and six with only the sling. These he divided into three parties, each
consisting of four musketeers and two slingers, and he posted them
in a defile, through which he saw the invaders must pass. No sooner
had the van of the enemy entered the gorge than a shower of
bullets and stones from invisible hands saluted them. Every bullet
and stone did its work. The first discharge brought down an officer
and twelve men. That volley was succeeded by others equally fatal.
The cry was raised, “All is lost, save yourselves!” The flight was
precipitate, for every bush and rock seemed to vomit forth deadly
missiles. Thus a second ignominious retreat rid the Valley of Rora of
these murderers.
The inhabitants carried their complaints a second time to Pianeza.
“Concealing,” as Leger says, “the ferocity of the tiger under the skin
of the fox,” he assured the deputies that the attack had been the
result of a misunderstanding; that certain accusations had been
lodged against them, the falsity of which had since been discovered,
and now they might return to their homes, for they had nothing to
fear. No sooner were they gone than Pianeza began vigorously to
prepare for a third attack.[125]
He organised a battalion of from 800 to 900 men. Next morning,
this host made a rapid march on Rora, seized all the avenues leading
into the valley, and chasing the inhabitants to the caves in Monte
Friolante, set fire to their dwellings, having first plundered them.
Captain Joshua Gianavello, at the head of his little troop, saw the
enemy enter, but their numbers were so overwhelming that he
waited a more favourable moment for attacking them. The soldiers
were retiring, laden with their booty, and driving before them the
cattle of the peasants. Gianavello knelt down before his hero-band,
and giving thanks to God, who had twice by his hand saved his
people, he prayed that the hearts and arms of his followers might be
strengthened, to work yet another deliverance. He then attacked the
foe. The spoilers turned and then fled up-hill, in the hope of
escaping into the Valley of the Pelice, throwing away their booty in
their flight. When they had gained the pass, and begun their
descent, their flight became yet more disastrous; great stones, torn
up and rolled after them, were mingled with the bullets, and did
deadly execution upon them, while the precipices over which they
fell in their haste consummated their destruction. The few who
survived fled to Villaro.[126]
 The Marquis de Pianeza, instead of seeing in these events the
finger of God, was only the more inflamed with rage, and the more
resolutely bent on the extirpation of every heretic from the Valley of
Rora. He assembled all the royal troops then under his command, or
which could be spared from the massacre in which they were
occupied in the other valleys, in order to surround the little territory.
This was now the fourth attack on the commune of Rora, but the
invaders were destined once more to recoil before the shock of its
heroic defenders. Some 8,000 men had been got under arms, and
were ready to march against Rora, but the impatience of a certain
Captain Mario, who had signalised himself in the massacre at
Bobbio, and wished to appropriate the entire glory of the enterprise,
would not permit him to await the movement of the main body. He
marched two hours in advance, with three companies of regular
troops, few of whom ever returned. Their ferocious leader, borne
along by the rush of his panic-stricken soldiers, was precipitated over
the edge of the rock into the stream, and badly bruised. He was
drawn out and carried to Lucerna, where he died two days
afterwards, in great torment of body, and yet greater torment of
mind. Of the three companies which he led in this fatal expedition,
one was composed of Irish, who had been banished by Cromwell,
and who met in this distant land the death they had inflicted on
others in their own, leaving their corpses to fatten those valleys
which were to have been theirs had they succeeded in purging them
of heresy and heretics.[127]
This series of strange events was now drawing to an end. The
fury of Pianeza knew no bounds. This war of his, though waged only
with herdsmen, had brought him nothing but disgrace, and the loss
of his bravest soldiers. Victor Amadeus once observed that “the skin
of every Vaudois cost him fifteen of his best Piedmontese soldiers.”
Pianeza had lost some hundreds of his best soldiers, and yet not one
of the little troop of Gianavello, dead or alive, had he been able to
get into his hands. Nevertheless, he resolved to continue the
struggle, but with a much greater army. He assembled 10,000, and
attacked Rora on three sides at once. While Gianavello was bravely
combating with the first troop of 3,000, on the summit of the pass
that gives entrance from the Valley of the Pelice, a second of 6,000
had entered by the ravine at the foot of the valley; and a third of
1,000 had crossed the mountains that divide Bagnolo from Rora.
But, alas! who shall describe the horrors that followed the entrance
of these assassins? Blood, burning, and rapine in an instant
overwhelmed the little community. No distinction was made of age
or sex. None had pity for their tender years; none had reverence for
their grey hairs. Happy they who were slain at once, and thus
escaped horrible indignities and tortures. The few spared from the
sword were carried away as captives, and among these were the
wife and the three daughters of Gianavello.[128]
There was now nothing more in the Valley of Rora for which the
patriot-hero could do battle. The light of his hearth was quenched,
his village was a heap of smoking ruins, his fathers and brethren had
fallen by the sword; but rising superior to these accumulated
calamities, he marched his little troop over the mountains, to await
on the frontier of his country whatever opportunities Providence
might yet open to him of wielding his sword in defence of the
ancient liberties and the glorious faith of his people.
It was at this time that Pianeza, intending to deal the finishing
blow that should crush the hero of Rora, wrote to Gianavello as
follows:—“I exhort you for the last time to renounce your heresy.
This is the only hope of your obtaining the pardon of your prince,
and of saving the life of your wife and daughters, now my prisoners,
and whom, if you continue obstinate, I will burn alive. As for
yourself, my soldiers shall no longer pursue you, but I will set such a
price upon your head, as that, were you Beelzebub himself, you shall
infallibly be taken; and be assured that, if you fall alive into my
hands, there are no torments with which I will not punish your
rebellion.” To these ferocious threats Gianavello magnanimously and
promptly replied: “There are no torments so terrible, no death so
barbarous, that I would not choose rather than deny my Saviour.
Your threats cannot cause me to renounce my faith; they but fortify
me in it. Should the Marquis de Pianeza cause my wife and
daughters to pass through the fire, it can but consume their mortal
bodies; their souls I commend to God, trusting that he will have
mercy on them, and on mine, should it please him that I fall into the
marquis’s hands.”[129] We do not know whether Pianeza was capable
of seeing that this was the most mortifying defeat he had yet
sustained at the hands of the peasant-hero of Rora; and that he
might as well war against the Alps themselves as against a cause
that could infuse a spirit like this into its champions. Gianavello’s
reply, observes Leger, “certified him as a chosen instrument in the
hands of God for the recovery of his country seemingly lost.”
Gianavello had saved from the wreck of his family his infant son,
and his first care was to seek a place of safety for him. Laying him
on his shoulders, he passed the frozen Alps which separate the
Valley of Lucerna from France, and entrusted the child to the care of
a relative resident at Queyras, in the Valleys of the French
Protestants. With the child he carried thither the tidings of the awful
massacre of his people. Indignation was roused. Not a few were
willing to join his standard, brave spirits like himself; and, with his
little band greatly recruited, he repassed the Alps in a few weeks, to
begin his second and more successful campaign. On his arrival in the
Valleys he was joined by Giaheri, under whom a troop had been
assembling to avenge the massacre of their brethren.
In Giaheri, Captain Gianavello had found a companion worthy of
himself, and worthy of the cause for which he was now in arms. Of
this heroic man Leger has recorded that, “though he possessed the
courage of a lion, he was as humble as a lamb, always giving to God
the glory of his victories; well versed in Scripture, and understanding
controversy, and of great natural talent.” The massacre had reduced
the Vaudois race to all but utter extermination, and 500 men were all
that the two leaders could collect around their standard. The army
opposed to them, and at this time in their Valleys, was from 15,000
to 20,000 strong, consisting of trained and picked soldiers. Nothing
but an impulse from the God of battles could have moved these two
men, with such a handful, to take the field against such odds. To the
eye of a common hero all would have seemed lost; but the courage
of these two Christian warriors was based on faith. They believed
that God would not permit his cause to perish, or the lamp of the
Valleys to be extinguished; and, few though they were, they knew
that God was able by their humble instrumentality to save their
country and Church. In this faith they unsheathed the sword; and so
valiantly did they wield it, that soon that sword became the terror of
the Piedmontese armies. The ancient promise was fulfilled, “The
people that do know their God shall be strong and do exploits.”
We cannot go into details. Prodigies of valour were performed by
this little host. “I had always considered the Vaudois to be men,”
said Descombies, who had joined them, “but I found them lions.”
Nothing could withstand the fury of their attack. Post after post and
village after village were wrested from the Piedmontese troops. Soon
the enemy was driven from the upper valleys. The war now passed
down into the plain of Piedmont, and there it was waged with the
same heroism and the same success. They besieged and took
several towns, they fought not a few pitched battles; and in those
actions they were nearly always victorious, though opposed by more
than ten times their number. Their success could hardly be credited
had it not been recorded by historians whose veracity is above
suspicion, and the accuracy of whose statements was attested by
eye-witnesses. Not unfrequently did it happen at the close of a day’s
fighting that 1,400 Piedmontese dead covered the field of battle,
while not more than six or seven of the Waldenses had fallen. Such
success might well be termed miraculous; and not only did it appear
so to the Vaudois themselves, but even to their foes, who could not
refrain from expressing their conviction “that surely God was on the
side of the Barbets.”
 cromwell and milton.

While the Vaudois were thus heroically maintaining their cause by

arms, and rolling back the chastisement of war on those from whom
its miseries had come, tidings of their wrongs were travelling to all
the Protestant States of Europe. Wherever these tidings came a
feeling of horror was evoked, and the cruelty of the Government of
Savoy was universally and loudly execrated. All confessed that such
a tale of woe they had never before heard. But the Protestant States
did not content themselves with simply condemning these deeds;
they judged it to be their clear duty to move in behalf of this poor
and greatly oppressed people; and foremost among those who did
themselves lasting honour by interposing in behalf of a people
“drawn unto death and ready to perish,” was, as has already been
said, England, then under the protectorate of Cromwell. In the
previous chapter mention was made of the Latin letter, the
composition of Milton, which the Protector addressed to the Duke of
Savoy. In addition, Cromwell wrote to Louis XIV. of France, soliciting
his mediation with the duke in behalf of the Vaudois. The letter is
interesting as containing the truly catholic and noble sentiments of
England, to which the pen of her great poet gave fitting expression:
—
“Most Serene and Potent King,
... “After a most barbarous slaughter of persons of both
sexes, and of all ages, a treaty of peace was concluded, or
rather secret acts of hostility were committed the more
securely under the name of a pacification. The conditions of
the treaty were determined in your town of Pinerolo: hard
conditions enough, but such as these poor people would
gladly have agreed to, after the horrible outrages to which
they had been exposed, provided that they had been
faithfully observed. But they were not observed; the meaning
of the treaty is evaded and violated, by putting a false
interpretation upon some of the articles, and by straining
others. Many of the complainants have been deprived of their
patrimonies, and many have been forbidden the exercise of
their religion. New payments have been exacted, and a new
fort has been built to keep them in check, from whence a
disorderly soldiery makes frequent sallies, and plunders or
murders all it meets. In addition to these things, fresh levies
of troops are clandestinely preparing to march against them;
and those among them who profess the Roman Catholic
religion have been advised to retire in time; so that
everything threatens the speedy destruction of such as
escaped the former massacre. I do therefore beseech and
conjure your Majesty not to suffer such enormities, and not to
permit (I will not say any prince, for surely such barbarity
never could enter into the heart of a prince, much less of one
of the duke’s tender age, or into the mind of his mother)
those accursed murderers to indulge in such savage ferocity,
who, while they profess to be the servants and followers of
Christ, who came into the world to save sinners, do
blaspheme his name, and transgress his mild precepts, by the
 slaughter of innocent men. Oh, that your Majesty, who has
the power, and who ought to be inclined to use it, may deliver
so many supplicants from the hands of murderers, who are
already drunk with blood, and thirst for it again, and who take
pleasure in throwing the odium of their cruelty upon princes!
I implore your Majesty not to suffer the borders of your
kingdom to be polluted by such monstrous wickedness.
Remember that this very race of people threw itself upon the
protection of your grandfather, King Henry IV., who was most
friendly disposed towards the Protestants, when the Duke of
Lesdiguières passed victoriously through their country, as
affording the most commodious passage into Italy at the time
he pursued the Duke of Savoy in his retreat across the Alps.
The act or instrument of that submission is still extant among
the public records of your kingdom, in which it is provided
that the Vaudois shall not be transferred to any other
government, but upon the same condition that they were
received under the protection of your invincible grandfather.
As supplicants of his grandson, they now implore the
fulfilment of this compact.

“Given at our Court at Westminster, this 26th of May,

1658.”
The French King undertook the mediation, as requested by the
Protestant princes, but hurried it to a conclusion before the
ambassadors from the Protestant States had arrived. The delegates
from the Protestant cantons of Switzerland were present, but they
were permitted to act the part of onlookers simply. The Grand
Monarch took the whole affair upon himself, and on the 18th of
August, 1655, a treaty of peace was concluded of a very
disadvantageous kind. The Waldenses were stripped of their ancient
possessions on the right bank of the Pelice, lying toward the plain of
Piedmont. Within the new boundary they were guaranteed liberty of
worship; an amnesty was granted for all offences committed during
the war; captives were to be restored when claimed; and they were
to be exempt from all imposts for five years, on the ground that they
were so impoverished as not to be able to pay anything.
When the treaty was published it was found to contain two
clauses that astonished the Protestant world. In the preamble the
Vaudois were styled rebels, whom it had pleased their prince
graciously to receive back into favour; and in the body of the deed
was an article, which no one recollected to have heard mentioned
during the negotiations, empowering the French to construct a fort
above La Torre. This looked like a preparation for renewing the war.
By this treaty the Protestant States were outwitted; their
ambassadors were duped; and the poor Vaudois were left as much
as ever in the power of the Duke of Savoy and of the Council for the
Propagation of the Faith and the Extirpation of Heretics.
 CHAPTER XV.

THE EXILE.
New Troubles—​Louis XIV. and his Confessor—​Edict against the Vaudois—​Their
Defenceless Condition—​Their Fight and Victory—​They Surrender—​The Whole
Nation Thrown into Prison—​Utter Desolation of the Land—​Horrors of the
Imprisonment—​Their Release—​Journey across the Alps—​Its Hardships—​Arrival
of the Exiles at Geneva—​Their Hospitable Reception.
After the great Massacre of 1655, the Church of the Valleys had rest
from persecution for thirty years. This period, however, can be styled
one of rest only when contrasted with the frightful storms which had
convulsed the era that immediately preceded it. The enemies of the
Vaudois still found innumerable ways in which to annoy and harass
them. Ceaseless intrigues were continually breeding new alarms,
and the Vaudois had often to till their fields and prune their vines
with their muskets slung across their shoulders. Many of their chief
men were sent into exile. Captain Gianavello and Pastor Leger,
whose services to their people were too great ever to be forgiven,
had sentence of death passed on them. Leger “was to be strangled;
then his body was to be hung by one foot on a gibbet for four-and-
twenty hours; and, lastly, his head was to be cut off and publicly
exposed at San Giovanni. His name was to be inserted in the list of
noted outlaws; his houses were to be burned.”[130] Gianavello
retired to Geneva, where he continued to watch with unabated
interest the fortunes of his people. Leger became pastor of a
congregation at Leyden, where he crowned a life full of labour and
suffering for the Gospel, by a work which has laid all Christendom
under obligations to him; we refer to his History of the Churches of
the Vaudois—​a noble monument of his Church’s martyr-heroism and
his own Christian patriotism.
Hardly had Leger unrolled to the world’s gaze the record of the
last awful tempest which had smitten the Valleys, when the clouds
returned, and were seen rolling up in dark, thunderous masses
against this devoted land. Former storms had assailed them from the
south, having collected in the Vatican; the tempest now approaching
had its first rise on the north of the Alps. It was the year 1685; Louis
XIV. was nearing the grave, and with the great Audit in view he
inquired of his confessor by what good deed as a king he might
atone for his many sins as a man. The answer was ready. He was
told that he must extirpate Protestantism in France.
The Grand Monarch, as the age styled him, bowed obsequiously
before the shaven crown of priest, while Europe was trembling
before his armies. Louis XIV. did as he was commanded; he revoked
the Edict of Nantes. This gigantic crime inflicted no less misery on
the Protestants than it brought countless woes on the throne and
nation of France. But it is the nation of the Vaudois, and the
persecution which the counsel of Père la Chaise brought upon them,
with which we have here to do. Wishing for companionship in the
sanguinary work of purging France from Protestantism, Louis XIV.
sent an ambassador to the Duke of Savoy, with a request that he
would deal with the Waldenses as he was now dealing with the
Huguenots. The young and naturally humane Victor Amadeus was at
the moment on more than usually friendly terms with his subjects of
the Valleys. They had served bravely under his standard in his late
war with the Genoese, and he had but recently written them a letter
of thanks. How could he unsheathe his sword against the men
whose devotion and valour had so largely contributed to his victory?
Victor Amadeus deigned no reply to the French ambassador. The
request was repeated; it received an evasive answer; it was urged a
third time, accompanied by a hint from the potent Louis that if it was
not convenient for the duke to purge his dominions, the King of
France would do it for him with an army of 14,000 men, and would
keep the Valleys for his pains. This was enough. A treaty was
immediately concluded between the duke and the French King, in
which the latter promised an armed force to enable the former to
reduce the Vaudois to the Roman obedience, or to exterminate
them.[131] On the 31st of January, 1686, the following edict was
promulgated in the Valleys:—
“I. The Vaudois shall henceforth and for ever cease and
discontinue all the exercises of their religion.
“II. They are forbidden to have religious meetings, under
pain of death, and penalty of confiscation of all their goods.
“III. All their ancient privileges are abolished.
“IV. All the churches, prayer-houses, and other edifices
consecrated to their worship shall be razed to the ground.
“V. All the pastors and schoolmasters of the Valleys are
required either to embrace Romanism or to quit the country
within fifteen days, under pain of death and confiscation of
goods.
“VI. All the children born, or to be born, of Protestant
parents shall be compulsorily trained up as Roman Catholics.
Every such child yet unborn shall, within a week after its
birth, be brought to the curé of its parish, and admitted of the
Roman Catholic Church, under pain, on the part of the
mother, of being publicly whipped with rods, and on the part
of the father of labouring five years in the galleys.
 the pass of pra del tor.

“VII. The Vaudois pastors shall abjure the doctrine they

have hitherto publicly preached; shall receive a salary, greater
by one-third than that which they previously enjoyed; and
one-half thereof shall go in reversion to their widows.
“VIII. All Protestant foreigners settled in Piedmont are
ordered either to become Roman Catholics, or to quit the
country within fifteen days.
 “IX. By a special act of his great and paternal clemency,
the sovereign will permit persons to sell, in this interval, the
property they may have acquired in Piedmont, provided the
sale be made to Roman Catholic purchasers.”
This monstrous edict seemed to sound the knell of the Vaudois as
a Protestant people. Their oldest traditions did not contain a decree
so cruel and unrighteous, nor one that menaced them with so
complete and summary a destruction as that which now seemed to
impend over them. What was to be done? Their first step was to
send delegates to Turin, respectfully to remind the duke that the
Vaudois had inhabited the Valleys from the earliest times; that they
had led forth their herds upon their mountains before the House of
Savoy had ascended the throne of Piedmont; that treaties and oaths,
renewed from reign to reign, had solemnly secured them in the
freedom of their worship and other liberties; and that the honour of
princes and the stability of States lay in the faithful observance of
such covenants; and they prayed him to consider what reproach the
throne and kingdom of Piedmont would incur if he should become
the executioner of those of whom he was the natural protector. The
Protestant cantons of Switzerland joined their mediations to the
intercession of the Waldenses. And when the almost incredible edict
came to be known in Germany and Holland, these countries threw
their shield over the Valleys, by interceding with the duke that he
would not inflict so great a wrong as to cast out from a land which
was theirs by irrevocable charters, a people whose only crime was
that they worshipped as their fathers had worshipped, before they
passed under the sceptre of the duke. All these powerful parties
pleaded in vain. Ancient charters, solemn treaties, and oaths, made
in the face of Europe, the long-tried loyalty and the many services of
the Vaudois to the House of Savoy, could not stay the uplifted arm of
the duke, or prevent the execution of the monstrously criminal
decree. In a little while the armies of France and Savoy arrived
before the Valleys.
At no previous period of their history, perhaps, had the Waldenses
been so entirely devoid of human aid as now. Gianavello, whose
stout heart and brave arm had stood them in such stead formerly,
was in exile. Cromwell, whose potent voice had stayed the fury of
the great massacre, was in his grave. An avowed Papist filled the
throne of Great Britain. It was going ill at this hour with
Protestantism everywhere. The Covenanters of Scotland were hiding
on the moors, or dying in the Grass-market of Edinburgh. France,
Piedmont, and Italy were closing in around the Valleys; every path
guarded, all their succours cut off, an overwhelming force waited the
signal to massacre them. So desperate did their situation appear to
the Swiss envoys, that they counselled them to “transport elsewhere
the torch of the Gospel, and not keep it here to be extinguished in
blood.”
The proposal to abandon their ancient inheritance, coming from
such a quarter, startled the Waldenses. It produced, at first, a
division of opinion in the Valleys, but ultimately they united in
rejecting it. They remembered the exploits their fathers had done,
and the wonders God had wrought in the mountain passes of Rora,
in the defiles of Angrogna, and in the field of the Pra del Tor, and
their faith reviving, they resolved, in a reliance on the same Almighty
Arm which had been stretched out in their behalf in former days, to
defend their hearths and altars. They repaired the old defences, and
made ready for resistance. On the 17th of April, being Good Friday,
they renewed their covenant, and on Easter Sunday their pastors
dispensed to them the Communion. This was the last time the sons
of the Valleys partook of the Lord’s Supper before their great
dispersion.
Victor Amadeus II. had pitched his camp on the plain of San
Gegonzo before the Vaudois Alps. His army consisted of five
regiments of horse and foot. He was here joined by the French
auxiliaries who had crossed the Alps, consisting of some dozen
battalions, the united force amounting to between 15,000 and
20,000 men. The signal was to be given on Easter Monday, at break
of day, by three cannon-shots, fired from the hill of Bricherasio. On
the appointed morning, the Valleys of Lucerna and San Martino,
forming the two extreme opposite points of the territory, were
attacked, the first by the Piedmontese host, and the last by the
French, under the command of General Catinat, a distinguished
soldier. In San Martino the fighting lasted ten hours, and ended in a
complete repulse of the French, who retired at night with a loss of
more than 500 killed and wounded, while the Vaudois had lost only
two.[132] On the following day the French, burning with rage at their
defeat, poured a more numerous army into San Martino, which
swept along the valley, burning, plundering, and massacring, and
having crossed the mountains descended into Pramol, continuing the
same indiscriminate and exterminating vengeance. To the rage of
the sword were added other barbarities and outrages too shocking
to be narrated.[133]
The issue by arms being deemed uncertain, despite the vast
disparity of strength, treachery, on a great scale, was now had
recourse to. Wherever, throughout the Valleys, the Vaudois were
found strongly posted, and ready for battle, they were told that their
brethren in the neighbouring communes had submitted, and that it
was vain for them, isolated and alone as they now were, to continue
their resistance. When they sent deputies to head-quarters to inquire
—​and passes were freely supplied to them for that purpose—​they
were assured that the submission had been universal, and that none
save themselves were now in arms. They were assured, moreover,
that should they follow the example of the rest of their nation, all
their ancient liberties would be held intact.[134] This base artifice
was successfully practised at each of the Vaudois posts in
succession, till at length the Valleys had all capitulated. We cannot
blame the Waldenses, who were the victims of an act so
dishonourable and vile as hardly to be credible; but the mistake,
alas! was a fatal one, and had to be expiated afterwards by the
endurance of woes a hundred times more dreadful than any they
would have encountered in the rudest campaign. The instant
consequence of the submission was a massacre which extended to
all their Valleys, and which was similar in its horrors to the great
butchery of 1655. In that massacre upwards of 3,000 perished. The
remainder of the nation, amounting, according to Arnaud, to
between 12,000 and 15,000 souls, were consigned to the various
gaols and fortresses of Piedmont.[135]
We now behold these famous Valleys, for the first time in their
history, empty. The ancient lamp burns no longer. The school of the
prophets in the Pra del Tor is razed. No smoke is seen rising from
cottage, and no psalm is heard ascending from dwelling or
sanctuary. No herdsman leads forth his kine on the mountains, and
no troop of worshippers, obedient to the summons of the Sabbath-
bell, climbs the mountain paths. The vine flings wide her arms, but
no skilful hand is nigh to train her boughs and prune her luxuriance.
The chestnut tree rains its fruits, but there is no troop of merry
children to gather them, and they lie rotting on the ground. The
terraces of the hills, that were wont to overflow with flowers and
fruitage, and which presented to the eye a series of hanging
gardens, now torn and breached, shoot in a mass of ruinous rubbish
down the slope. Nothing is seen but dismantled forts, and the
blackened ruins of churches and hamlets. A dreary silence
overspreads the land, and the beasts of the field strangely multiply.
A few herdsmen, hidden here and there in forests and holes of the
rocks, are now the only inhabitants. Monte Viso, from out the silent
vault, looks down with astonishment at the absence of that ancient
race over whom, from immemorial time, he had been wont to dart
his kindling glories at dawn, and let fall at eve in purple shadows the
ample folds of his friendly mantle.
We know not if ever before an entire nation were in prison at
once. Yet now it was so. All of the Waldensian race that remained
from the sword of their executioners were immured in the dungeons
of Piedmont! The pastor and his flock, the father and his family, the
patriarch and the stripling had passed in, in one great procession,
and exchanged their grand rock-walled Valleys, their tree-
embowered homes, and their sunlit peaks, for the filth, the choking
air, and the Tartarean walls of an Italian gaol. And how were they
treated in prison? As the African slave was treated on the “middle
passage.” They had a sufficiency of neither food nor clothing. The
bread dealt out to them was fetid. They had putrid water to drink.
They were exposed to the sun by day and to the cold at night. They
were compelled to sleep on the bare pavement, or on straw so full of
vermin that the stone floor was preferable. Disease broke out in
these horrible abodes, and the mortality was fearful. “When they
entered these dungeons,” says Henri Arnaud, “they counted 14,000
healthy mountaineers; but when, at the intercession of the Swiss
deputies, their prisons were opened, 3,000 skeletons only crawled
out.” These few words portray a tragedy so awful that the
imagination recoils from the contemplation of it.
However, at length the persecutor looses their chains, and
opening their prison doors he sends forth these captives—​the woe-
worn remnant of a gallant people. But to what are they sent forth?
To people again their ancient Valleys? To rekindle the fire on their
ancestral hearths? To rebuild “the holy and beautiful house” in which
their fathers had praised God? Ah, no! They are thrust out of prison
only to be sent into exile—​to Vaudois a living death.
The barbarity of 1655 was repeated. It was in December (1686)
that the decree of liberation was issued in favour of these 3,000 men
who had escaped the sword, and now survived the not less deadly
epidemic of the prison. At that season, as every one knows, the
snow and ice are piled to a fearful depth on the Alps; and daily
tempests threaten with death the too adventurous traveller who
would cross their summits. It was at this season that these poor
captives, emaciated with sickness, weakened by hunger, and
shivering from insufficient clothing, were commanded to rise up and
cross the snowy hills. They began their journey on the afternoon of
that very day on which the order arrived; for their enemies would
permit no delay. One hundred and fifty of them died on their first
march. At night they halted at the foot of the Mont Cénis. Next
morning, when they surveyed the Alps they saw evident signs of a
gathering tempest, and they besought the officer in charge to permit
them, for the sake of their sick and aged, to remain where they were
till the storm had spent its rage. With heart harder than the rocks
they were to traverse, the officer ordered them to resume their
journey. That troop of emaciated beings began the ascent, and were
soon struggling with the blinding drifts and fearful whirlwinds of the
mountain. Eighty-six of their number, succumbing to the tempest,
dropped by the way. Where they lay down, there they died. No
relative or friend was permitted to remain behind to watch their last
moments or tender them needed succour. That ever-thinning
procession moved on and on over the white hills, leaving it to the
falling snow to give burial to their stricken companions. When spring
opened the passes of the Alps, alas! what ghastly memorials met the
eye of the horror-stricken traveller. Strewed along the track were the
now unshrouded corpses of these poor exiles, the dead child lying
fast locked in the arms of the dead mother.
But why should we prolong this harrowing tale? The first
company of these miserable exiles arrived at Geneva on Christmas
Day, 1686, having spent about three weeks on the journey. They
were followed by small parties, who crossed the Alps one after the
other, being let out of prison at different times. It was not till the end
of February, 1687, that the last band of these emigrants reached the
hospitable gates of Geneva. But in what a plight! way-worn, sick,
emaciated, and faint through hunger. Of some the tongue was
swollen in their mouth, and they were unable to speak; of others the
arms were bitten with the frost, so that they could not stretch them
out to accept the charity offered to them; and some there were who
dropped down and expired on the very threshold of the city,
“finding,” as one has said, “the end of their life at the beginning of
their liberty.” Most hospitable was the reception given them by the
city of Calvin. A deputation of the principal citizens of Geneva,
headed by the patriarch Gianavello, who still lived, went out to meet
them on the frontier, and taking them to their homes, vied with each
other which should show them the greatest kindness. Generous city!
If he who shall give a cup of cold water to a disciple shall in nowise
lose his reward, how much more shalt thou be requited for this thy
kindness to the suffering and sorrowing exiles of the Saviour!
view of the protestant church of st. jean, waldensian valleys.
 CHAPTER XVI.

RETURN TO THE VALLEYS.

Longings after their Valleys—​Thoughts of Returning—​Their Reassembling—​Cross
Lake Leman—​Begin their March—​The “Eight Hundred”—​Cross Mont Cénis—​
Great Victory in the Valley of the Dora—​First View of their Mountains—​
Worship on the Mountain-top—​Enter their Valleys—​Pass their First Sunday at
Prali—​Worship.
Now we open the bright page of the Vaudois history. We have seen
nearly 3,000 Waldensian exiles enter the gates of Geneva, the feeble
remnant of a population of from 14,000 to 16,000. One city could
not contain them all, and arrangements were made for distributing
the expatriated Vaudois among the Reformed cantons. The
revocation of the Edict of Nantes had a little before thrown
thousands of French Protestants upon the hospitality of the Swiss;
and now the arrival of the Waldensian refugees brought with it yet
heavier demands on the public and private charity of the cantons;
but the response of Protestant Helvetia was equally cordial in the
case of the last comers as in that of the first, and perhaps even
more so, seeing their destitution was greater. Nor were the Vaudois
ungrateful. “Next to God, whose tender mercies have preserved us
from being entirely consumed,” said they to their kind benefactors,
“we are indebted to you alone for life and liberty.”
Several of the German princes opened their States to these exiles;
but the influence of their great enemy, Louis XIV., was then too
powerful in these parts to permit of their residence being altogether
an agreeable one. Constantly watched by his emissaries, and their
patrons tampered with, they were moved about from place to place.
The question of their permanent settlement in the future was
beginning to be anxiously discussed. The project of carrying them
across the sea in the ships of Holland, and planting them at the
Cape, was even talked of. The idea of being separated for ever from
their native land, dearer in exile than when they dwelt in it, gave
them intolerable anguish. Was it not possible to reassemble their
scattered colonies, and marching back to their Valleys, rekindle their
ancient lamp in them? This was the question which, after three
years of exile, the Vaudois began to put to themselves. As they
wandered by the banks of the Rhine, or traversed the German
plains, they feasted their imaginations on their far-off homes. The
chestnuts shading their former abodes, the vine bending gracefully
over their portal, and the meadow in front, which the crystal torrent
kept perpetually bright, and whose murmur sweetly blended with
the evening psalm, all rose before their eyes. They never knelt to
pray but it was with their faces turned toward their grand
mountains, where slept their martyred fathers. Attempts had been
made by the Duke of Savoy to people their territory by settling in it a
mongrel race, partly Irish and partly Piedmontese; but the land knew
not the strangers, and refused to yield its strength to them. The
Vaudois had sent spies to examine its condition;[136] its fields lay
untilled, its vines unpruned, nor had its ruins been raised up; it was
almost as desolate as on the day when its sons had been driven out
of it. It seemed to them that the land was waiting their return.
At length the yearning of their heart could no longer be
repressed. The march back to their Valleys is one of the most
wonderful exploits ever performed by any people. It is famous in
history by the name of “La Rentrée Glorieuse.” The parallel event
which will recur to the mind of the scholar is, of course, the retreat
of “the ten thousand Greeks.” The patriotism and bravery of both will
be admitted, but a candid comparison will, we think, incline one to
assign the palm of heroism to the return of “the eight hundred.”
The day fixed on for beginning their expedition was the 10th of
June, 1688. Quitting their various cantonments in Switzerland, and
travelling by by-roads, they traversed the country by night, and
assembled at Bex, a small town in the southern extremity of the
territory of Bern. Their secret march was soon known to the senates
of Zurich, Bern, and Geneva; and, foreseeing that the departure of
the exiles would compromise them with the Popish powers, their
Excellencies took measures to prevent it. A bark laden with arms for
their use was seized on the Lake of Geneva. The inhabitants of the
Valais, in concert with the Savoyards, at the first alarm seized the
Bridge of St. Maurice, the key of the Rhône Valley, and stopped the
expedition. Thus were they, for the time, compelled to abandon their
project.
To extinguish all hopes of their return to the Valleys, they were
anew distributed over Germany. But scarcely had this second
dispersion been effected, when war broke out; the French troops
overran the Palatinate, and the Vaudois settled there, dreading, not
without reason, the soldiers of Louis XIV., retired before them, and
retook the road to Switzerland. The Protestant cantons, pitying these
poor exiles, tossed from country to country by political storms,
settled them once more in their former allotments. Meanwhile, the
scenes were shifting rapidly around the expatriated Vaudois, and
with eyes uplifted they awaited the issue. They saw their protector,
William of Orange, mount the throne of England. They saw their
powerful enemy Louis XIV. attacked at once by the emperor, and
humiliated by the Dutch. They saw their own Prince Victor Amadeus
withdraw his soldiers from Savoy, seeing that he needed them to
defend Piedmont. It seemed to them that an invisible Hand was
opening their path back to their own land. Encouraged by these
tokens, they began to arrange a second time for their departure.
The place of appointed rendezvous was a wood on the northern
shore of Lake Leman, near the town of Noyon. For days before they
continued to converge, in scattered bands, and by stealthy marches,
on the selected point. On the decisive evening, the 16th of August,
1689, a general muster took place under cover of the friendly wood
of Prangins. Having by solemn prayer commended their enterprise to
God, they embarked on the lake, and crossed by star-light. Their
means of transport would have been deficient but for a circumstance
which threatened at first to obstruct their expedition, but which, in
the issue, greatly facilitated it. Curiosity had drawn numbers to this
part of the lake, and the boats that brought hither the sight-seers
furnished more amply the means of escape to the Vaudois.
At this crisis, as on so many previous ones, a distinguished man
arose to lead them. Henri Arnaud, who was at the head of the 800
fighting men who now set out for their native possessions, had at
first discharged the office of pastor, but the troubles of his nation
compelling him to leave the Valleys, he had served in the armies of
the Prince of Orange. Of decided piety, ardent patriotism, and of
great decision and courage, he presented a beautiful instance of the
union of the pastoral and the military character. It is hard to say
whether his soldiers listened more reverentially to the exhortations
he at times delivered to them from the pulpit, or to the orders he
gave them on the field of battle.
Arriving on the southern shore of the lake, these 800 Vaudois
bent their knees in prayer, and then began their march through a
country covered with foes. Before them rose the great snow-clad
mountains over which they were to fight their way. Arnaud arranged
his little host into three companies—​an advanced-guard, a centre,
and a rear-guard. Seizing some of the chief men as hostages, they
traversed the Valley of the Arve to Sallenches, and emerged from its
dangerous passes just as the men of the latter place had completed
their preparations for resisting them. Occasional skirmishes awaited
them, but mostly their march was unopposed, for the terror of God
had fallen upon the inhabitants of Savoy. Holding on their way they
climbed the Haut Luce Alp,[137] and next that of Bon Homme, the
neighbouring Alp to Mont Blanc, sinking sometimes to their middle in
snow. Steep precipices and treacherous glaciers subjected them to
both toil and danger. They were wet through with the rain, which at
times fell in torrents. Their provisions were growing scanty, but their
supply was recruited by the shepherds of the mountains, who
brought them bread and cheese, while their huts served them at
night. They renewed their hostages at every stage; sometimes they
“caged”—​to use their own phrase—​a Capuchin monk, and at other
times an influential landlord, but all were treated with uniform
kindness.
Having crossed the Bon Homme, which divides the basin of the
Arve from that of the Isère, they descended, on Wednesday, the fifth
day of their march, into the valley of the latter stream. They had
looked forward to this stage of their journey with great misgivings,
for the numerous population of the Val Isère was known to be well
armed, and decidedly hostile, and might be expected to oppose their
march, but the enemy was “still as a stone” till the people had
passed over. They next traversed Mont Iseran, and the yet more
formidable Mont Cénis, and finally descended into the Valley of the
Dora. It was here, on Saturday, the 24th of August, that they
encountered for the first time a considerable body of regular troops.

the vaudois crossing lake leman by night.

 As they traversed the valley they were met by a peasant, of
whom they inquired whether they could have provisions by paying
for them. “Come on this way,” said the man, in a tone that had a
slight touch of triumph in it, “you will find all that you want; they are
preparing an excellent supper for you.”[138] They were led into the
defile of Salabertrand, where the Col d’Albin closes in upon the
stream of the Dora, and before they were aware they found
themselves in presence of the French army, whose camp-fires—​for
night had fallen—​illumined far and wide the opposite slope. Retreat
was impossible. The French were 2,500 strong, flanked by the
garrison of Exiles, and supported by a miscellaneous crowd of armed
followers.
Under favour of the darkness, they advanced to the bridge which
crossed the Dora, on the opposite bank of which the French were
encamped. To the challenge, “Who goes there?” the Vaudois
answered “Friends.” The instant reply shouted out was “Kill, kill!”
followed by a tremendous fire, which was kept up for a quarter of an
hour. It did no harm, however, for Arnaud had bidden his soldiers lie
flat on their faces, and permit the deadly shower to pass over them.
But now a division of the French appeared in their rear, thus placing
them between two fires. Some one in the Vaudois army, seeing that
all must be risked, shouted out, “Courage! the bridge is won!” At
these words the Vaudois started to their feet, rushed across the
bridge sword in hand, and clearing it, they threw themselves with
the impetuosity of a whirlwind upon the enemy’s entrenchments.
Confounded by the suddenness of the attack, the French could only
use the butt-ends of their muskets to parry the blows. The fighting
lasted two hours, and ended in the total rout of the French. Their
leader, the Marquis de Larrey, after a fruitless attempt to rally his
soldiers, fled wounded to Briançon exclaiming, “Is it possible that I
have lost the battle and my honour?”
Soon thereafter the moon rose and showed the field of battle to
the victors. On it, stretched out in death, lay 600 French soldiers,
besides officers; and strewn promiscuously with the fallen, all over
the field, were arms, military stores, and provisions. Thus had been
suddenly opened an armoury and magazines to men who stood
much in need both of weapons and of food. Having amply
replenished themselves, they collected what they could not carry
away into a heap, and set fire to it. The loud and multifarious noises
formed by the explosions of the gunpowder, the sounding of the
trumpets, and the shouting of the captains, who, throwing their caps
in the air, exclaimed, “Thanks be to the Lord of hosts, who hath
given us the victory,” echoed like the thunder of heaven, and
reverberating from hill to hill, formed a most extraordinary and
exciting scene, such as was seldom witnessed amid these usually
quiet mountains. This great victory cost the Waldenses only fifteen
killed and twelve wounded.
Their fatigue was great, but they feared to halt on the battle-field,
and so, rousing those who had already sunk into sleep, they
commenced climbing the lofty Mont Sci. The day was breaking as
they gained the summit. It was Sunday, and Henri Arnaud, halting
till all should assemble, pointed out to them, just as they were
becoming visible in the morning light, the mountain-tops of their
own land. Welcome sight to their longing eyes! Bathed in the
radiance of the rising sun, it seemed to them, as one snowy peak
began to burn after another, that the mountains were kindling into
joy at the return of their long-absent sons. This army of soldiers
resolved itself into a congregation of worshippers, and the summit of
Mont Sci became their church. Kneeling on the mountain-top, the
battle-field below them, and the solemn and sacred peaks of the Col
du Pis, the Col la Vêchera, and the glorious pyramid of Monte Viso
looking down upon them in reverent silence, they humbled
themselves before the Eternal, confessing their sins, and giving
thanks for their many deliverances. Seldom has worship more
sincere or more rapt been offered than that which this day ascended
from this congregation of warrior-worshippers gathered under the
dome-like vault that rose over them.
Refreshed by the devotions of the Sunday, and exhilarated by the
victory of the day before, the heroic band now rushed down to take
possession of their inheritance, from which the single Valley of
Clusone only parted them. It was three years and a half since they
had crossed the Alps, a crowd of exiles, worn to skeletons by
sickness and confinement, and now they were returning, a
marshalled host, victorious over the army of France, and ready to
encounter that of Piedmont. They traversed the Clusone, a plain of
about two miles in width, watered by the broad, clear, blue-tinted
Germagnasca, and bounded by hills, which offer to the eye a
succession of terraces, clothed with the richest vines, mingled with
the chestnut and the apple-tree. They entered the narrow defile of
Pis, where a detachment of Piedmontese soldiers had been posted
to guard the pass, but who took flight at the approach of the
Vaudois, thus opening to them the gate of one of the grandest of
their Valleys, San Martino. On the twelfth day after setting out from
the shores of Lake Leman they crossed the frontier, and stood once
more within the limits of their inheritance. When they mustered at
Balsiglia, the first Vaudois village which they entered, in the western
extremity of San Martino, they found that fatigue, desertion, and
battle had reduced their numbers from 800 to 700.
The first Sunday after their return was passed at the village of
Prali. Of all their sanctuaries, the church of Prali alone remained
standing; of the others only the ruins were to be seen. They
resolved to commence this day their ancient and scriptural worship.
Purging the church of its Popish ornaments, one half of the little
army, laying down their arms at the door, entered the edifice, while
the other half stood without, the church being too small to contain
them all. Henri Arnaud, the soldier-pastor, mounting a table which
was placed in the porch, preached to them. They began their
worship by chanting the 74th Psalm—“O God, why hast thou cast us
off for ever? Why doth thine anger smoke against the sheep of thy
pasture?” &c. The preacher then took as his text the 129th Psalm
—“Many a time have they afflicted me from my youth, may Israel
now say.” The wonderful history of his people behind him, so to
speak, and the reconquest of their land before him, must have called
up the glorious achievements of their fathers, provoking the