So, all the prospect seemed fair, and the Vaudois, so long and cruelly persecuted, might hope for an era of prosperity; for the time and means not only to cultivate their desolated vineyards, to lead their flocks again to pasture on their mountain slopes, and rebuild their thatched homesteads, but also to restore the pure worship of their own and their fathers' God. But, alas! "put not your trust in princes" was a sentiment which might have been graven deeply on the memory of the all-confiding, all-enduring Vaudois.
Victor Amadeus was persuaded by the crafty Louis XIV. to forsake his allies in the war against France, and become again a vassal of the proud and perfidious French king. And therefore, while he remains true to the engagement to protect the ancient inhabitants of the valleys against their inveterate persecutor, he makes a secret treaty (1696) by which, firstly, intercourse between the professors of the reformed faith in France and Savoy is prohibited; secondly, French soldiers enlisted in the Vaudois army are no longer allowed to remain in the service of the duke; thirdly, refugees from France were to be expelled the valleys.
This crafty device of the mean and cowardly French king resulted in the banishment of seven of the most valuable Vaudois pastors, viz., Montoux, the companion of Arnaud, five of their colleagues, natives of Pragela or Dauphine, and Arnaud himself! It was indeed with a heavy heart that the brave and trusted leader, the tried and sagacious counsellor, the devoted and accomplished pastor of the Vaudois, left for ever those churches in whose service he had wrought such exploits, and on whose behalf he had dared death in a thousand shapes and suffered almost incredible privations. His only consolation, and without it, hero as he was, Arnaud might have died from grief, lay in the mighty fact, that he had been privileged to accomplish a work inferior to none in the annals of history. With a motive infinitely higher than that of Zenophon, his exploits as a soldier are equal in skill, endurance, and bravery to his; while, as regards results, the contrast is still more favourable to Henri Arnaud's work.
The Greeks, it is true, were brought back to their country, but remained mercenaries to the last, while the Vaudois both regained their homes, and succeeded in replanting the standard of their faith so firmly under the favour of Almighty God that never since has it been in such danger of extinction as Arnaud delivered it from.
"Since then 'abide the chosen race
Within their ancient dwelling place,'
Since then 'upon each Alpine height
Truth sits enthroned in Rome's despite.'"
Some 3,000 French Protestants withdrew with Henri Arnaud from the valleys. Their first resting-place was Geneva, which twelve years before had so charitably welcomed the persecuted Vaudois. Arnaud reached Geneva August 30th, 1698, and speedily sought a place of habitation for his brethren. The Duke of Wurtemberg provided a home for these victims of the cruelty of Louis XIV. in a place to the west and north of Stuttgardt. On this occasion the exiles had no hope of returning, and they settled down in their new abode and called their rising settlements by the names of their former villages in the valleys of Perosa and Pragela. The Duke of Wurtemberg treated these people with every kindness. As regards church matters and education they carried out their own home arrangements, assisted by funds from England. In a colony, Schoenberg, near Dürrmenz, Arnaud passed the remainder of his life. He declined the pressing offer of our King William III. to take the command of a regiment in the English army. Having led the Vaudois once back to their native soil, and established them in their earthly Goshen, his only desire now was to lead the flock entrusted to his care amid the green pastures of the gospel upward to the heavenly Canaan.
He died on the 8th of September, 1721, having reached the goodly age of four score years. He was twice married, and left behind him three sons and two daughters.
Within the humble precincts of a temple built with walls of clay, and a bell, whose sound was never heard beyond the cherry-trees of the village, gratitude and respect have assigned a place of honour to the mortal remains of this truly great man. The ashes of Henri Arnaud lie beneath the communion table. An engraving suspended below the pulpit gives the features of the hero of San Germano of Salabertrand and the Balsille.
While on his tombstone is the following Latin inscription:—