Page:The Rebellion in the Cevennes (Volume 1).djvu/262

Rh faith, however, and of the force of miracles had been scattered and lost in the Cevennes. For the spirit possesses the property of fire, which, out of a little spark, by which a small beetle cannot warm itself, grows, in a few hours, into a brand that lays woods in ashes, and mocks all human efforts to extinguish it. What may not lie in one single word? Oh thou mournful sound, like the twittering of the swallow, thou appearest to die away in the wilderness, the spirit conducts thee through the world, and puts thee on a coat of mail that armies grow out of the ground, and horses and riders, and thousands sent by kings with the thunder of artillery, were not able to make the little world as quiet and small as it lay formerly in the solitary cottage. Praised be the Lord!"

He prayed inwardly, and then continued: "In the meantime, people became older and wiser but certainly more obstinate, I already began to think no more of my former faith, nor had the new one