Page:Life in the Old World - Vol. I.djvu/413

Rh to convey the glad tidings; each to his own valley and home. When night came the little town of La Torre was illuminated; even the Catholic convent lighted lamps in token of their sympathy in the joy of their brethren. And at all distances, upon the snow-covered mountains, even up to their very summits, bonfires played, changing the night into day. Many houses were also illuminated in Turin, the residences of the English and Prussian ambassadors amongst these. A movement of joy passed through the whole of Piedmont. On the 27th of February, deputations from all the provinces and communes of the realm, assembled on the Champs de Mars, outside Turin, to thank the king for the gift of the constitution, and also, by a general festival, to celebrate the new form of government. Six hundred Waldenses stood there, headed by ten of their pastors, as representatives of the population of the valleys.

The order in which the deputations should march into the city, was to be decided, it was said, by chance. But the noble Marquis d'Azeglio had arranged it otherwise. He himself, at the head of a small division of the central commission, approached the Waldenses, to whom he said:

“Waldenses! You have hitherto often been the last amongst us; to-day you shall be the first. Enter foremost of the corporations from the provinces, into Turin!”

The Waldenses bore a banner, upon the blue silk ground of which, might be read these words, worked in silver; “Al Re Carlo Alberto, gli Waldensi recognoscenti!” When they, with this banner, at the head of