"Go away!" cried one, "we've got our pastors."
"My friend," was the reply, "you don't do them much credit."
"Here is my god!" (_Voilà mon dieu!_), said another, pulling out his pipe and brandishing it in the Maréchale's face.
"You will need another when you come to die."
"What do you say? You say that again! Say it! You dare not, you do not believe it, you know that it is a lie." And taking this man by the shirt collar, the Maréchale led him into the hall and up to the front seat, where he sat listening most attentively for two hours. Two rows of penitents sought pardon at the close of the meeting.
In June the Grand Council of Nauchâtel voted for the suppression of the _Armée du Salut_; and Zurich and Canton du Vaud soon followed suit. It then became clear that the only hope of getting these unconstitutional decrees rescinded lay in disobeying them. Jurists who were consulted held that this was the best way to compel the authorities to retrace their steps. Many Swiss converts were ready to suffer for conscience' sake, but the Maréchale resolved that she would herself, as a subject of Queen Victoria, assert her right to worship God on Swiss soil. In a new form she would raise the Apostle's question, "Is it lawful for you to scourge a man that is a Roman and uncondemned?" The interest of the situation was heightened by the fact that it was now a woman's question. All the spirit of the modern world was in the Maréchale's bold declaration, "I am a British citizen."
After working for some months in the south of France, she returned to Nauchâtel and deliberately infringed the Cantonal decree. On the afternoon of Sunday, September 9, she conducted a meeting at Prise-Imer, in the Jura forest, some five miles above the lake. In a letter to England she described the scene. "It was a day never to be forgotten. Long before the hour the people met, and we had upwards of 500 who had come out of Nauchâtel to praise God. The weather was beautiful. After so much trouble, fatigue and a long journey, we could meet to talk of the things of God. Hearts and voices rose together, and it cheered me much to look into the faces of our brave soldiers. There was no mistaking their zeal and determination to go forward."