ARNAUD, Henri, the celebrated pastor, military leader, and historian of the Vaudois, was born, in 1641, at La Tour, or La Torre, in Piedmont. He is said to have served under William of Orange, and it is probable that he received pecuniary assistance from that prince in his efforts to restore the exiled Vaudois to their native valleys. Owing to the cruelties of Victor Amadeus of Savoy, from two to three thousand of these Vaudois had been forced to take refuge in Switzerland and the states along the banks of the Rhine; and twice they ineffectually attempted to return to their home. But the English Revolution of 1688, and the accession of William of Orange to the throne, encouraged Arnaud to make a grand effort. Concentrating about 900 followers in the great forest of the Pays de Vaud, he remained in concealment for some time; and at last embarked with them on the Lake of Geneva on the night of 16th August 1689. By September 16 they had entered the valley of San Martino, after hard fighting with the French and Savoyard troops that harassed and opposed them. Being now, however, in danger of attack from about 20,000 French and Piedmontese troops, they were obliged to repair to the lofty table-land of the Balsille, which they fortified with such skill as to be able to withstand the fiercest attacks of the enemy, repeatedly renewed through the whole winter. A general assault on the Balsille (2d May 1690) by about 22,000 French was an utter failure, resulting in the decimation of the enemy, without the loss of a single man to Arnaud. Not caring to hazard a renewal of the assault the garrison withdrew from thi3 stronghold to Angrona, where, just when all chance of further escape seemed impossible, they learned that hostilities had broken out between France and Piedmont, and that ...their king, who had persecuted and expelled them, was now ready tc receive them with open arms. Thus ended the “glorieuse rentrée des Vaudois dans leurs vallées,” effected, according to their own account, with a loss of only 30 men, while they made out that the joint losses of the French and Savoyards fell little short of 10,000 men. For a while the Vaudois were allowed to remain in peaceful possession of their ancient homes; but when the war of the Spanish Succession broke out, Arnaud and his followers took part in the combination against France, and rendered the allies effectual service. When the war came toa close, the ungrateful king of Piedmont once more joined the French monarch against his own subjects, and complied with the demands of that prince, that the Vaudois should be expelled from some of their valleys. The exiles, amounting in all to about 3000, found an asylum in Würtemberg. Arnaud, who had invitations from William III., and might have spent the remainder of his days in ease and honour in England, chose rather to continue the pastor of the exiles in the village of Schönberg, and wrote, in his retirement, the Histoire de la glorieuse Rentrée des Vaudois dans leurs Vallées. It was printed in 1710, and dedicated to Queen Anne, and has been twice translated into English. Arnaud died at Schönberg in 1721, and every memorial that he left behind him was long cherished by his followers and their posterity.
ARNAUD, or ARNOLDUS, DE VILLA NOVA, a physician, alchemist, and astrologer, who lived at Paris about the end of the 13th and beginning of the 14th centuries. The discovery of the three principal acids,— sulphuric, nitric, and hydrochloric,—has been attributed to him, but Hoefer (Hist. de la Chimie., t. i. p. 385) has shown that these had all been discovered long before his time. His works, with a life prefixed, were printed at Lyons, first in 1504, folio, and again with the notes of Nicholas Tolerus, in 1520, folio: also at Basel in 1515 and 1585.
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