Robert Louis Stevenson

“ He was a prophet; a great reader of the heart, who admitted people to the sacrament or refused them, by ‘intensively viewing every man’ between the eyes; and had the most of the Scriptures off by rote. And this was surely happy; since in a surprise in August 1703, he lost his mule, his portfolios, and his Bible. [4] It is only strange that they were not surprised more often and more effectually; for this legion of Cassagnas was truly patriarchal in its theory of war, and camped without sentries, leaving that duty to the angels of the God for whom they fought. ”

“ At this sight all who had till then stood their ground took to flight, Poul at their heels, slashing with his sword unceasingly, till they disappeared among the mountains. He then returned to the field of battle, picked up the two heads, and fastening them to his saddlebow, rejoined his soldiers with his bloody trophies,--that is to say, he joined the largest group of soldiers he could find; for the fight had turned into a number of single combats, every soldier fighting for himself. ”

“ And his conduct, it is worth noting, is disapproved by the Protestant villagers.
‘It is a bad idea for a man,’ said one, ‘to go back from his engagements.’
The villagers whom I saw seemed intelligent after a countrified fashion, and were all plain and dignified in manner. As a Protestant myself, I was well looked upon, and my acquaintance with history gained me further respect. For we had something not unlike a religious controversy at table, a gendarme and a merchant with whom I dined being both strangers to the place, and Catholics. The young men of the house stood round and supported me ”

“ Little enough; and yet all the heart requires. How the world gives and takes away, and brings sweethearts near only to separate them again into distant and strange lands; but to love is the great amulet which makes the world a garden ”

“ M. de Caladon, [5] taking a stroll one fine day, walked without warning into their midst, as he might have walked into ‘a flock of sheep in a plain,’ and found some asleep and some awake and psalm-singing. A traitor had need of no recommendation to insinuate himself among their ranks, beyond ‘his faculty of singing psalms’ ”

“ But this is a different race; and perhaps the same great-heartedness that upheld them to resist, now enables them to differ in a kind spirit. For courage respects courage; but where a faith has been trodden out, we may look for a mean and narrow population. ”

“ The merchant, indeed, grew a little warm, and was far less pleased than some others with my historical acquirements. But the gendarme was mighty easy over it all.
‘It’s a bad idea for a man to change,’ said he ”

“ Notes ↑ when the first cart arrived .. it was not uncommon in Europe for isolated mountain villages to have no incoming roads and for the inhabitants to be mostly self-sufficient.↑ Chabrier and Tavan .. [unknown] ↑ Cavalier treats in his memoirs .. Jean Cavalier, Memoirs of the Wars of the Cévennes under Col. Cavalier (1726) ↑ surprise in August 1703 .. [unknown reference] ↑ M. de Caladon .. a French Protestant exiled to England who left two published accounts of the Camisards, which Stevenson had read in the Advocates' Library in Edinburgh.↑ Naaman in the house of Rimmon .. ”