Paula the Waldensian

Paula the Waldensian

The Project Gutenberg EBook of Paula the Waldensian, by Eva Lecomte Copyright laws are changing all over the world. Be sure to check the copyright laws for your country before downloading or redistributing this or any other Project Gutenberg eBook.
This header should be the first thing seen when viewing this Project Gutenberg file. Please do not remove it. Do not change or edit the header without written permission.
Please read the "legal small print," and other information about the eBook and Project Gutenberg at the bottom of this file. Included is important information about your specific rights and restrictions in how the file may be used. You can also find out about how to make a donation to Project Gutenberg, and how to get involved.
**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts**
**eBooks Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971**
*****These eBooks Were Prepared By Thousands of Volunteers!*****
Title: Paula the Waldensian
Author: Eva Lecomte
Release Date: December, 2004 [EBook #7040] [Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule] [This file was first posted on February 26, 2003]
Edition: 10
Language: English
Character set encoding: Latin-1
*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PAULA THE WALDENSIAN ***

This eBook was produced by Joel Erickson , Charles Franks , and Juliet Sutherland

PAULA
THE WALDENSIAN
by Eva Lecomte
_Adapted and translated from the Spanish Version by W. M. Strong_

PREFACE
I Hope and trust that the young people who read this book will have as much joy in the reading of it as I have had in its writing.
Paula's Saviour wishes to be your Saviour too. Paula was by no means perfect, but she did love God with all her heart and her neighbor as herself.
This simple country girl, young and strong, yet so tender-hearted and forgetful of self, appears to me sometimes like one of the clear brooks of my beloved land, pure and fresh, slipping noiselessly between flowered banks of forget-me-nots. It was by love that she "conquered"--as we shall see!
If some day you should come to my country, do not forget that I would have great joy in seeing any of those who have read this book. I live in the little town of Villar at the bottom of the valley, where on every side there are hills and mountains as far as the eye can reach. To me it is the loveliest country in the world and I am sure that Paula thought so too.
And so good-bye, dear young reader! I must not keep you any longer, for I am sure you have a great desire to know about Paula; and anyway, I suppose you will have done what I would have done at your age, namely, read the story first, and left my poor preface to the last--for which I have already pardoned you!
And now, may God bless you, Paula dear, as you walk among these my young friends who read about you! My prayer is that you may shed over them the same sweet ray of celestial light that you have already shed over others.
EVA LECOMTE.
Villar-Pellice, France.

Translator's note:
"Paula" was originally written in French and translated from thence into Spanish; and the present translator having discovered this literary and spiritual jewel, felt that it should be given also to the young people of the English-speaking world, not only that they might know Paula herself, but that, through her, they might become more intimately acquainted with Paula's Saviour and accept Him as their own Redeemer and Lord.
W. M. STRONG.
Coihueco, Chile, South America, 1940.

CONTENTS
PART ONE
1. AN UNEXPECTED LETTER
2. MEMORIES
3. PAULA ARRIVES
4. PAULA'S TREASURES
5. LOUIS' WATCH
6. IN THE MIDST OF DARKNESS
7. CATALINA'S ILLNESS
8. THE FIVE-FRANC PIECE
9. A LITTLE GLIMPSE OF HEAVEN
10. IN THE COUNTRY
11. THE CAT MOTHER
12. A TREASURE RESTORED
13. THE SCHOOL-TEACHER AND HER BROTHER
PART TWO
1. SOME YEARS LATER
2. THE BRETON
3. SAVED!
4. THE YOUNG SCHOOL-MISTRESS
5. THE NIGHT-SCHOOL
6. THE HOUSE OF GOD
7. IN HIS PRESENCE

PART ONE

CHAPTER ONE
AN UNEXPECTED LETTER
Clearly engraved on the walls of my memory there still remains a picture of the great gray house where I spent my childhood. It was originally used for more than a hundred years as the convent of the "White Ladies", with its four long galleries, one above the other, looking proudly down upon the humbler dwellings of the village. On the side of the house, where ran the broad road from Rouen to Darnetal, a high rugged wall surrounded a wide yard, guarded at the entrance by two massive doors, studded with enormous spikes. The naked barrenness of this yard was, to say the least, forbidding in the extreme; but the fertile fields on the other side of the house spread themselves like a vast and beautiful green carpet, dotted here and there with little villages, crowned with church spires and their corresponding belfries, from which on a Sunday morning pealed out the cheerful call to prayer and worship. The ancient