The republic of Geneva showed great interest in the affair, and indeed every one of the reformed churches of Europe wrote the most touching letters, evincing their great interest and compassion for their brethren of the valleys.
So many proofs of the kindness and respect shown to our ancestors, by the most wise and enlightened governments, would suffice for the eulogium of this unfortunate people, were not the details of their own conduct amply sufficient to place them in their true light; nor can the unrestrained malevolence, to which they have been exposed, withhold from them the admiration and esteem of all good men.
The Vaudois had scarcely began to enjoy the repose which was granted them, when their implacable enemies had again recourse to the same system of intrigues, which had so often been resorted to against them. But, for the moment, we will not follow them any farther, lest the minds of my readers should be wearied with this tale of suffering, they require to be relieved for a time from the contemplation of these dark plots of malevolence and fanaticism, before they return to the scenes which we have yet to lay before them.
Alas! a cloud of misfortune seems to have hung over all the Vaudois historians:—Gilles de Gilles was persecuted, as we have seen above; the indefatigable J. Leger (the same moderator already mentioned) finished his great work in exile, and died in Holland; and our author, the virtuous Bresse, after experiencing the most cruel injustice at Geneva, was forced by circumstances to establish himself at Utrecht, where he died before the publication of the last part of his work, which it had been the project of his life to accomplish, and to which he had devoted himself since the sixteenth year of his age.—Note by the Translator.
ETCHINGS
