"'We will leave your valleys this hour; never to set foot in them again.'
"'Ah! yet how far may we trust the word of one whose creed bids him keep no faith with heretics?'
"'" Vengeance is Mine, I will repay."'
"It was the voice of the aged Rozel which broke the momentary silence.
"Vittoria sheathed his sword. Not his to usurp the prerogative of Him who had that night given so signal deliverance to His 'Israel of the Alps.'"
"Is that all?" asked Lulu, drawing a long breath, as Mr. Dinsmore refolded the manuscript and gave it back to his daughter.
"Yes," he said, "the author has told of the deliverance of the imperilled ones, and that Vittoria refrained from taking vengeance upon their cowardly foes; and so ends the story of that night of terror in the valleys."
"But were all the Waldenses equally forbearing, grandpa?" asked Zoe.
"They were; in all the valleys not a drop of blood was shed; justly exasperated though the Waldenses were, they contented themselves with sending to the government a list of the names of the baffled conspirators.
"But no notice was taken of it; the would-be murderers were never called to account till they appeared before a greater than an earthly tribunal.