"the beautiful Nicolaïde de Blonay, before whom many adorers had bent
the knee in vain. Among them, a certain Tavel de Villars, vanquished the
proud beauty by his constancy. But the marriage was delayed. Officer in
the service of France, Tavel was detained by his military duties. In the
mean time Jean-François de Blonay, of another branch of the family, the
Savoyard branch, fell in love with his cousin, and twice demanded her in
marriage. Twice he was refused. Then, listening only to his passion, he
assembled some of his friends, and hid himself with them near the
castle. They watched the comings and goings of the baron, and suddenly
profiting by his absence, they entered his dwelling and carried off the
fair Nicolaïde, who, transported to Savoy, rewarded the boldness of her
captor by becoming his wife. This history, which resembles that of the
beautiful Helen, and is not less authentic, kindled the fiercest
hostilities between the Tavel and Blonay families; the French and
Italian ambassadors intervened; and it all ended in a sentence
pronounced at Berne against the Blonays--a sentence as useless as it was
severe--for the principal offenders had built a nest for their loves in
domains which they possessed in Savoy. The old baron alone felt its
effects. He was severely reprimanded for having so ill fulfilled his
paternal duties."

The good burghers of Berne--the Lords as they called themselves--were in
fact very hard with all their Vaudois subjects. "Equally merciless to
the vanities and the vices, they confounded luxury and drunkenness in
their rules, pleasures and bad manners. They were no less the enemies of
innovations. Coffee at its introduction was stigmatized as a devilish
invention; tea was no better; as to tobacco, whether snuffed or smoked,
it was worse yet. Low-necked dresses and low-quartered shoes were
rigorously forbidden. Games and all dances, 'except three modest dances
on wedding-days,' were unlawful.... The Sabbath was strictly observed;