It is quite impossible for those who have not seen the country, to appreciate the devotedness to the Christian cause, which could induce Neff to entertain even the thought of making the dreary and savage Dormilleuse his own head quarters from November to April, and of persuading others to be the companions of his dismal sojournment there.  I learn from a memorandum in his Journal, that the severity of that, winter commenced early.  “We have been in snow and ice since the first of November, on this steep and rugged spot, whose aspect is more terrible and severe than any thing can be supposed to be in France.”  He himself was the native of a delightful soil and climate, and even some of the mountaineers, whom he drew to that stern spot, were inhabitants of a far less repulsive district, but had yet made it their custom to seek a milder region than their own, during the inclemency of an Alpine winter.  To secure attendance and application, when once his students were embarked in their undertaking, he selected this rock, where neither amusement, nor other occupations, nor the possibility of frequent egress or regress, could tempt them to interrupt their studies:—­and he had influence enough to induce them to commit themselves to a five months’ rigid confinement within a prison-house, as it were, walled up with ice and snow.

It was a long probation of hardship.  Their fare was in strict accordance with the rest of their situation.  It consisted of a store of salted meat, and rye bread, which had been baked in autumn, and when they came to use it, was so hard, that it required to be chopped up with hatchets, and to be moistened with hot water.  Meal and flour will not keep in this mountain atmosphere, but would become mouldy,—­they are, therefore, obliged to bake it soon after the corn is threshed out.  Our youthful anchorites were lodged gratuitously by the people of Dormilleuse, who also liberally supplied them with food for fuel, scarce as it was, but if the pastor had not laid in a stock of provisions, the scanty resources of the village could not have met the demands of so many mouths, in addition to its native population.

A note of the expenditure upon this occasion will excite some wonder in the minds of many readers, who are not aware how much good may be done at a small cost, when the stream of bounty is made to pass through proper channels.

“Our disbursements for the adult school, including candles, ink, and paper, the salary of an assistant master, and food for the sixteen or seventeen students who came from a distance, did not exceed 560 francs (about 22_l._ 10_s._) for four months.  Of this sum I can replace a little more than two-thirds, because some of the students have repaid their share of the expense, and even the poorest furnished their quota of bread.  We did not provide commons for those who belonged to Dormilleuse, because they boarded at home.”

[14] They have no slates in this country—­nor in the valleys of
Piemont.—­Two benevolent benefactors to the Protestant cause
in Italy, who wished to confer a benefit upon the schools of
Piemont, have enabled me to supply the Vaudois schools with
this useful and economical article.