The Glorious Return: A Story of the Vaudois in 1689

In the shadow of the Piedmontese Alps, a people are hunted. The Vaudois, Protestant Christians whose ancestors first carried the gospel into the medieval world, now face the Duke of Savoy's decree: convert, flee, or die. Rénée Janavel and her foster mother Madeleine Botta move through mountain passes where soldiers have already carved a trail of ash and ruin. They carry little but fear and the stubborn memory of what their valley once was before the violence came. Yet even as the world closes in, the Vaudois refuse to abandon the faith that has defined them for five hundred years. This is the story of their exile and their impossible return: a testament to what humans will endure to keep their souls their own. Written in 1889 to mark the bicentennial of the Glorious Return, it revived a forgotten chapter of European history and asked readers to remember that liberty is never won without cost.