Page:Life in the Old World - Vol. I.djvu/411

Rh Shortly before this, Carlo Alberto had visited the valleys for the first time. The ostensible motive for this visit was the consecration of the Catholic church, which Monsignore Charvaz had built for the brethren of the Oblati order, very near the town of La Torre, at the entrance of the valleys of Lucerne and Angrogna, and on which occasion the presence of the king was desired. The Bishop of Pignerol, who had been the tutor of Carlo Alberto, hoped, by this means, to prepare a triumph for the Catholic church in the valleys. But it was quite otherwise.

The members of the government wished that the monarch should be accompanied, on this occasion, by a strong guard. But the king said, “I am in the valleys, amongst my people, and I will have no other guard but they.” When the Waldenses heard these words, they at once hastened to prepare a guard of four thousand men who should meet and accompany the king.

On the appointed day, this guard presented a rather extraordinary and sometimes laughable aspect. A portion of them had arms, but a great number also had only sticks or umbrellas. And on more than one occasion, they were seen to put their weapons under their arms to take their hats off when the king rode by. But that which every one saw, and for which Carlo Alberto had both eyes to see, and a heart to appreciate, was the cordiality and the devotion with which the hearts of these honest men met him. This guard, which received him with such unanimous enthusiasm, and which remained standing quietly at a distance, when the king with bare head and a candle