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THE HUGUENOTS APPEAR-Farel among the Monks-The Women of Grandson-
Christmas Eve at Orbe-Waldensian Visitors-Bonivard-Berthelier-Duke of

WILLIAM FAREL.

A

CHAPTER I.

THE HOLY CROss.

(1489-1500.)

MONG the Alps of Dauphiny is a mountain called the Bay

ard, near which the traveller passes on the road from Grenoble to Gap. At the foot of the Bayard, about a stone's throw from the high-way, may be seen the old village of the Farels, called by the people of the district, Fareau. It is a mere group of houses, half hidden by the trees, and it shows only the relics of what it was three centuries ago. On a broad terrace, above the hamlet, a cottage now stands on the spot where once stood an elegant mansion. In those days of war and marauding, it was, doubtless, fortified. In that ancient chateau dwelt a family, which had some claims to nobility, and yet their name is rescued from silence by the child who was born at Fareau in 1489, and named William de Farel. Rank, fortune and a heroic spirit might have made him more celebrated than his three brothers, Daniel, Walter and Claudius, even had he not become a reformer. Of them and of his one sister we have an occasional glimpse in these pages. We know not but that he was the youngest son. If so the last became the first.

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