(April to June, 1655.)
It has been already stated that the Vaudois of Angrogna, and the refugees of the plain of Piedmont, had, in great part, retired into the valley of Pérouse; those of St. Martin, forewarned by a man who, although a Catholic, was compassionate,[2] of the arrival of the troops of Galeazzo, with commission to put all to fire and sword; made haste to gain the valley of Pragela; and such of the inhabitants of Bobi as contrived to escape the massacre sought an asylum in that of Queyras, across frightful snows, precipices, and rocks. All these places of refuge were then within the dominions of the King of France.
With the view of shutting that hospitable country against the Vaudois, the Duchess of Savoy,[3] who appears to have taken a much greater part in these disastrous events than her son, wrote to the court of France.[4] She wished to prevent her subjects from leaving the valleys, and to have them massacred there. Mazarin did not enter into her views; he replied that humanity imposed upon him the duty of opening an asylum to the fugitive Vaudois.
This gave them facilities for rallying, arming, and organizing themselves. They were even able to re-enter their country in much greater numbers than they had left it, for a multitude of their brethren from Queyras and Pragela joined them. Meanwhile, a man of energy and ability, Captain Joshua Janavel, who alone had foreseen the treachery, supported, doubtless, by the hand of God (in which no one ever put more absolute confidence than this intrepid warrior), kept in check the enemy's army, and, by slow degrees, drove it from the valleys.
This came to pass as follows: -- It will be recollected that the 24th of April was the day fixed for the general massacre of the Vaudois. Troops had been cantoned in the principal place of each commune, except Rora; not, however, that that place was to have been spared. Accordingly, on the morning of that day of extermination, the Murqnis of St. Damian had sent a battalion of 500 or 600 soldiers from Le Villar, in order to surprise Rora, under the command of Count Christopher of Lucerna, who was designated the Count of Rora, because his apanage had been given him in that seigneurie. These soldiers climbed the steep slopes of the mountain of Brouard, which lay between them and Rora. Janavel, whose residence was at the base of a long ridge which that mountain sends out in the direction of Lucerna,[5] saw the soldiers ascending on the way towards the menaced village; and he, ascending also by a different way, gathered together as he went, six determined men like himself, with whom he posted himself in a favourable position on the path by which the troops must pass, who advanced in expectation of taking the village by surprise. There he awaited them with his little party, behind some rocks that left a narrow passage only, through which they must of necessity pass.
So soon as they were engaged in this defile, Janavel and his companions united in one loud cry, and discharged their pieces, of which everyone took effect; six soldiers fell, the rest drew back; those who followed, believing the ambuscade to be formed by a much larger body than it really was, wheeled about, and the advanced guard was then separated from the main body of the squadron. The Vaudois, concealed amongst rocks, where the enemy could form no estimate of their numbers, poured in their fire, and cleared the ground of the advanced guard, causing it to disband and take to flight. The rearguard, which had yet scarcely arrived at the summit of the mountain ridge, seeing that the foremost ranks were endeavouring to re-ascend it, made all haste to get clown again by the side on which it was advancing, without having even seen those by whom it had been attacked; the fugitives likewise; turning their backs upon the Vaudois, saw them as little; and thus a whole battalion retired before a corporal's party, or rather before the exaggerated image of a perilous ambuscade. Such incidents are rare, but they can be conceived. It was thus that the entire army of Brennus took to flight before the temple of Delphi, at the noise made by the priests of Apollo, transformed, by the affrighted imagination of the soldiers, into supernatural combatants.
Janavel, returning by Rora, apprised the inhabitants of that village of the danger which they had run. Ignorant of the massacres which had been perpetrated on that same day in the valley of Lucerna, the people of Rora immediately went to complain to the Marqnis of Pianesse, of the invasion attempted against them in the morning. "If they meant to attack you, it was not by my orders," he replied; "the troops which I command never made any such wicked attempt. It can only have been a horde of Piedmontese robbers and vagabonds. You would have done me a pleasure if you had cut them in pieces. However," added he, with an air of kindness, "I shall take care that such alarms do not take place again." It was not an alarm, in good sooth, which he intended, but a surprise which should crush them all. Proof of this was soon afforded.
On the following day a new battalion was sent against Rora, by the mountain of Cassulet. This time Janavel had seventeen men with him; the number seems very small, but under his guidance they were worth an army. Of these eighteen men, twelve were armed from head to foot, six had only slings. He disposed them in three bands of six men each, to wit, four musketeers and two slingers. His position was chosen beforehand; it was again a defile, in which ten men had scarcely room to manaeuvre: he had almost twice the number, and occupied the most advantageous position.
As soon as the battalion of the Marquis of Pianesse had advanced into the depths of the scene of ambuscade, the Vaudois made their appearance. An officer and ten foot-soldiers fell at their first discharge. Stones flew like hail, whistling amongst the ranks of the enemy, who fell into disorder. "Every man save himself!" cried a coward. The troops began to disband. Janavel and his men rushed upon them from the rocks above, a pistol in one hand, and a sword in the other. Their agility, vigour, and intrepidity multiplied their numbers; it seemed as if jaguars or lynxes flew from crest to crest of the rocks, as lightly as winged insects from flower to flower. The battalion, already surprised, thrown into confusion, and half routed, saw its discharges of musketry wasted amongst empty bushes, or upon impenetrable rocks, and yet men resolute and completely armed, springing up, falling down, and leaping about before their eyes from these bushes and these rocks, and scattering death around their steps. The battalion, or rather the companies which were first surprised and most engaged, recoiled involuntarily before them. The retrograde movement extended, the contagion of terror spread, one was carried along by the example of another--and presently these 600 men, who had been led to a field of battle with which they were not acquainted, fled towards Lucerna, ignorant alike of the number of their adversaries, and of the number of the dead whom they left behind them.
Men who flee do not defend themselves--they do not see the danger, they aggravate it by their flight, giving arms to the enemy by their own weakness, and doubling the energy of his assaults. It was thus with the battalion on the mountain of Cassulet. It had lost only twelve men in the defile, it lost forty in the flight. The following are the words in which Janavel, thirty years after, when banished from his country, recalled in his exile that glorious event: "We were but very few in number; a few fusileers, and six or seven slingers, who were not yet able to use the musket, and we defeated the enemy; if we had not, we would have been all destroyed. When they fought downhill, the stones of the slings and the ten fusileers did more execution than you could have believed."[6]
From these few words it appears that amongst that little handful of combatants who saved Rora, and who were long became the salvation of the valleys, there were some young men who were not yet able to use the musket. It is impossible not to be all the more struck with the success of this heroic phalanx; we know not which most to admire, their courage, or the Divine protection which gave them the victory. But valour is not to be measured by age, nor the strength of an army by the number of its soldiers. Janavel's troop had already given proof of this, and was to give further proof of it.
The Marquis of Pianesse, a second time frustrated in his projects, sent to Rora, Count Christopher, the seigneur of the place, to restore confidence amongst the Vaudois, and to repudiate, as a mistake, the sending of troops into their valley. "Reports have been made against you," said he, "whose falsehood has been discovered; you have only to keep yourselves quiet, and yon shall live in peace." At the same time he caused a battalion, more numerous than the former, to be collected, for the purpose of annihilating them. It seems marvellous that the Vaudois could allow themselves to be caught by such promises; and such impudence of falsehood seems surprising in a man of noble birth; but we must not forget that they considered lying to be a sin, and that he regarded it as a virtue. Has not the highest organ of Catholicism, an ecumenical council, declared that it is lawful to break faith with heretics? And did not the Propaganda, Jesuitism, and all that constituted the life and power of the Romish Church at that period, make it a duty? What a Protestant would reckon disgraceful, is matter of pride to a Papist. To accomplish the shedding of blood by treachery was a legitimate triumph for Rome. Yet we may suppose that confidence was not completely restored to the minds of the Vaudois.
Next day, being the 27th of April, an entire regiment moved into the valley, pressed on towards Rora, took possession of all the paths, occupied all the positions, burned a number of houses which lay in its way, and carried off a load of plunder and the flocks of the inhabitants, who had retired to the heights of Friouland. Janavel, with his men, beheld from a distance the ravaging of the valley, but durst not approach because of the great numbers of the enemy. However, when he saw them encumbered with booty, and embarrassed by the flocks which they took away with them, he encouraged his seventeen men, fell upon his knees, offered a fervent prayer to the God of armies, and with undaunted boldness conducted his little troop to an advantageous position named Damasser. The regiment was arrested in its passage--did not know the number of the enemy--did not choose to abandon the booty--lost its foremost men, and thought it best to turn back and retire upon Le Villar.
But the Vaudois knew their own mountains better than these stranger troops; they took a short path, got before them, posted themselves on their line of passage, and again cut off their retreat. This was near the summit of the mountain which separates Rora from Le Villar, on a little grassy plain, named the Pian pra, which means the smooth meadow. The army of Pianesse advanced, bearing along with it an immense booty. It marched in disorder and carelessly, for the foes over whom it had been unable to gain any advantage had disappeared from its path, and as no trace of them was to be perceived, it seemed that they had thought it best to make no further demonstration. All at once a destructive fire was opened at a short distance from amongst the trees. The soldiers, instead of defending themselves, hurried forward in their course. They were already on the descent of the mountain. Janavel's party rolled down upon them an avalanche of stones. They dispersed themselves in order to avoid them. Hereupon the Vaudois rushed in amongst these disbanded soldiers. In vain they attempted to rally; the ground did not any longer permit it; many of them lost their footing and were helplessly killed, or fell over the precipices. However, the greater part of the army arrived at Le Villar, but they had left their booty by the way; the Vaudois lost none of their men, and recovered possession of all their property which had been carried off.
Having re-ascended to the Pian pra, Janavel caused his men to halt. "Let us give thanks," said he. His men fell on their knees. "0 God!" exclaimed their intrepid leader, "we bless thee for having preserved us. Protect our people in these calamities, and increase our faith!" This short prayer was followed by the Lord's Prayer and the Apostles' Creed. Meanwhile the fugitives arrived at Lucerna. The Marquis of Pianesse, furious, humiliated, burning with rage, yet desirous to restrain himself, perceiving that it would be vain to have recourse to new acts of deceit or perfidious protestations, convoked the whole forces under his command, from Bubiano, from Barges, and from Cavour. They were all to assemble at Lucerna in order to march upon Rora; the day and the hour were appointed; but the zealot who conducted the massacre at Bobi, Mario De Dagnol, wished to have the glory all to himself of destroying this miserable handful of adventurers, for so they designated these heroic mountaineers who defended, with so much courage, their unhappy families.
Captain Mario accordingly set out with his musketeers two hours before the other troops. He had three companies of regular troops, one of volunteers, and one of Piedmontese outlaws, a fifth of Irish, expelled from their country by Cromwell, in punishment for the massacres of which they had been guilty of the Protestants of that island. It was a good reason for their being received amongst the slaughterers of the Vaudois. They had even received a promise beforehand, that a free grant would be made to them of the dispeopled lands of the valleys. They fought, therefore, for their own interest. Fanaticism and self-interest! By what more powerful motives for carnage could they have been inspired?
Captain Mario divided his troops into two parties, of which one took the right, and the other the left side of the valey of Rora. They advanced without resistance to the rocks of Rummer, already signalized four days before as the scene of Janavel's first victory. Janavel was again intrenched there, his little troop augmented by a number of new combatants, and thus raised to the number of from thirty to forty men. But the right of the Count of Bagnol, having deployed upon the heights, had got above Rummer, and threatened to attack the Vaudois in the rear, whilst the rest of the assailants would have attacked them in front.
Janavel saw the trap in which he was on the point of being taken; and with the promptitude of decision and energy of action, which mark military genius, he exclaimed, "Forward! to the broua![7] the victory is up there!" and wheeling about, he left the position which he had occupied opposite to the front of Captain Mario, whose movement in pursuit was retarded by the necessity of scaling rocks, and turned against the upper detachment which was already deploying upon the smooth brow of the hill; all the Vaudois had their pieces loaded; Janavel turned them directly upon the right wing of that detachment which was manoeuvring in order to surround them. "Fire!" cried he. A terrible discharge was poured in upon the enemy; the bulk of the troops inclined in that direction to resist the Vaudois; but Janavel had flung himself upon his belly on the earth, and the bullets passed over his head: and immediately taking advantage of the clouds of smoke which still covered him, instead of pressing on in his original direction, he made a sudden bend, and proceeded, sword in hand, to cut his way through the left wing, where the enemy was already weakened by the movement of concentration which had taken place to the opposite side. Breaking in this way the line of the invaders, he passed through them, and attained the summit or broua which he had pointed out to his soldiers. Here he had the advantage of the ground; and all the Vaudois ranging themselves in order of battle, with their backs against the rocks, with the triple energy which is given by a good cause, trust in God, and success, they faced their foes with an intrepidity that daunted them. In vain did the two divisions of the Count of Bagnol's troops re-unite, in order to assail them; they could make no impression upon the Vaudois.
The enemy formed a circle embracing all the base of the hill, and as the level of the water rises around a promontory; the circle closed as the enemy ascended towards them; but it did not pass a certain limit, for the soldiers who formed it fell dead as they came within the range of the bullets of the Vaudois. As the snow melts on the side of a mountain, this army became gradually loss; and here its course of invasion was stayed. "The Vaudois," says Léger, "made so long and courageous a resistance, that at last confusion and a sense of dismay manifestly seized on that great multitude of assailants, and they took flight, leaving sixty-five of their number dead on the ground, without reckoning the wounded and the corpses which were carried away."
Seeing that the enemy retired by the opening of the valley, the Vaudois would have pursued them. Janavel stayed them. "Better than that!" said he; "they must be utterly destroyed." And passing along the heights till he had got before the fugitives, he ran to post himself again, with his invincible fusileers, at a narrow pass called Pierro Capello.
The enemy's troop came up, now beginning to recover breath. At the moment when they least expected it, the Vaudois fired upon them again, hurled down masses of rock, rushed upon them, and redoubled their affright, their disorder, and their loss; there was not a shadow of resistance--a panic, or rather the fear of the God of Jacob seized upon these disbanded soldiers, so that not being able easily to flee, because of the difficulty of the paths, they flung themselves headlong over rocks, and into ravines and torrents, and were drowned or lay dead beneath precipices, if they did not fall by the swords or the bullets of their terrible assailants. Captain Mario himself was with great difficulty drawn out of a hole full of water, in which he must otherwise have been drowned; and was carried back without his accoutrements, and without hat or shoes, to Lucerna, where he died a few days after.
We come now to the record of a fact which one could not venture to introduce into a work of pure imagination, so improbable it would appear. But history must not shrink before prodigies sufficiently authenticated; and it is well known that truth is often that which is least truth-like.
Astonishing as were already the repeated victories of Janavel over enemies fifty times more numerous, it is not without surprise that we observe that the Marquis of Pianesse now called to arms all the disposable troops under his command, and caused nearly 10,000 men to march against the little commune of Rora, so perseveringly defended by a simple company of brave mountaineers. It was in the beginning of July, 1655: 3000 men set out from Bagnol, 3000 from Le Villar, and 4000 from Lucerna, to make a simultaneous assault upon a village of fifty houses.
The division from Le Villar was the first to make its appearance. Janavel repulsed its attack; but whilst he was engaged in battle, the two other divisions entered the lower part of the valley, plundered the village, burned the houses, massacred the inhabitants, committed monstrous outrages, and carried off as prisoners the unfortunates who had not been killed. The position was no longer tenable; Janavel had no longer anything to defend; Rora was destroyed; its inhabitants were slain or taken captive; and he withdrew with his heroic cohort into the valley of Lucerna.
Next day he received from the Marquis of Pianesse a note in these terms:--"To Captain Janavel. Your wife and your daughters are in my hands--they were made prisoners at Rora; I exhort you for the last time to abjure your heresy, which will be the only means to obtain pardon for your rebellion against the authority of his royal highness, and to save the lives of your wife and your daughters, who shall be burned alive if you do not submit. And if you persist in your obstinacy, without putting myself to the trouble of sending troops against you, I will set such a price upon your head, that were you the devil incarnate, you must certainly be brought to me dead or alive; and if you fall into my hands alive, you may lay your account with it that there are no torments so cruel that they shall not be inflicted upon you. This warning is for your guidance--consider how you may turn it to your advantage."
The following is Janavel's reply: "There is no torment so cruel that I do not prefer it to the abjuring of my religion; and your threats, instead of turning me from it, confirm me in it all the more. As for my wife and my daughters, they know if they are dear to me! But God alone is Lord of their lives; and if you destroy their bodies, God will save their souls. May he graciously receive these beloved souls, and likewise mine, if it so happen that I fall into your hands." Such was the answer of the heroic mountaineer. A price was immediately set upon his head.
He had still one son, a young boy, who had been committed to the charge of a relative belonging to Le Villar. Fearing lest he also might be made prisoner, the intrepid and afflicted father took with him this child, bore him across the snows to the other side of the Alps, descended into Dauphiny, and there deposited his son--re-victualled his little escort, and took some days' repose, of which he availed himself to recruit his band--and then, still putting his trust in God, he crossed the Alps once more, re-entered the valleys, and took the field again, more powerful, formidable, and intrepid than ever.
Meanwhile, Léger, the moderator of the Vaudois churches, had proceeded to Paris, where he published a statement, addressed to all the Protestant powers of Europe. Many proofs of the liveliest sympathy and most active interest reached the Vaudois churches from all parts. On the other hand, the court of Savoy, or rather the duchess,[8] urged by the Propaganda and by the pontifical (I dare not say the apostolic) nuncio, pursued with vigour amidst the applauses of the dignified clergy, the real object of so much agitation, namely, the expulsion or complete extermination of the Israel of the Alps, these evangelical children of the valleys.
After having requested of Mazarin that an asylum should be refused them in France, and having failed to obtain her request, she next requested that he would have them removed from the frontiers of Piedmont, at least three days' journey. The execution of this scheme having been also refused, she requested and obtained a prohibition against French subjects coming to the help of the Vaudois who still remained in the valleys.
She was so active in her proceedings--her designs were so loudly proclaimed, that even in the valleys themselves, many persons doubted if the Vaudois would ever be able to recover their position. Francis Guérin, minister of Roure, in Pragela, confidently prophesied to the refugees that they ought to renounce the hope of returning to their native country, the time being come when the candlestick must he removed out of its place.[9]
The captain of the Duke of Savoy's Swiss guards being from the canton of Glaris, where there were a few Catholic families ill-contented to dwell in a Protestant country, proposed to Charles Emmanuel II that he should receive these families into the valleys, and send the Vaudois in exchange, into the canton of Glaris.[10]
Cromwell, on his part, made offer to the Vaudois to receive them into Ireland, in place of the natives whom he had expelled from that island. But the reply of the moderator was more in accordance with the interests of his native land; he entreated the Protector to send a plenipotentiary to Turin, to exert himself for the re-establishment of the Vaudois in the valleys, instead of their removal from thence. The plenipotentiary sent was Morland, who rendered such important service in the pacification of that unfortunate country, and who afterwards note a remarkable history of the events which had there taken place.
Most of the foreign powers, from the King of Sweden to the Helvetic Cantons, wrote to Charles Emmanuel in favour of the Vaudois. "This business makes a great noise in Switzerland, as well as in France and Germany," wrote the Sardinian ambassador, De La Borde, to the Duchess Christina.[11] "Your highness will give it such consideration as you deem fit at a time when the common arms might be more profitably employed elsewhere." In another letter,[12] the same ambassador expresses himself still more clearly. "This war," he says, "can only have been recommended by the friends of Spain, to turn away the arms of his royal highness from the Milanese."
Thus every one judged of this matter according to his own way of thinking. Diplomatists ascribed it all to political causes, and ecclesiastics to religious causes; but all were unanimous in their condemnations. And let us ask in passing, would the whole of Europe have been so moved, would so many sovereigns have addressed such strong representations to the court of Savoy, on the subject of the massacres perpetrated in the Vaudois valleys in 1655, if these massacres had never taken place? The court of Savoy, however, presently adopted the course of contradicting the news. But the feeling of the sad reality was so deep amongst the sufferers, that twenty-five years afterwards, the year 1655 is still designated in their correspondence by these simple words, The Year of the Massacres; and authentic documents do not permit a doubt to remain as to the veritable character of these events, in which the hideous consequences of Popery are exhibited in all their magnitude.
In Switzerland, in England, in Holland, and in almost all Protestant countries, collections were made, and public fasts were held upon account of the Vaudois. Many Catholics also testified the deepest sympathy. I love always to distinguish the principle of Catholicism from the virtues which may be concealed in generous souls beneath the external forms in which it has clothed them. Louis XIV himself commanded Lesdiguières to receive the Vaudois fugitives kindly, and to assure them of his royal protection.[13] In the valleys of Le Queyras and Pragela, which belonged to France, the people took up arms for the help of the persecuted.[14] The regular troops deserted with the same view.[15] A formal order was placarded at Grenoble prohibiting these desertions.[16] Captain Janavel had already returned to the valleys with his valiant party, augmented by numerous recruits from Le Queyras.
Captain Jahier, a native of Pramol, had retired into the Val Pérouse, in the French territory, with the refugees of Bubiano and the people of Angrogna, who, on the 22d of April, had fled before the army of Pianesse. He returned a month after at the head of these exiles, supported by their brethren of Pragela, and settled them again in the valleys of Angrogna and Pramol. Then he wrote to Janavel to come and join him.
Janavel had at first taken up his position on a high mountain, called the Alp of the Pelaya di Geymet. Thence, descending by the valley of Rora, which he knew so well, he attempted to take possession of Lucernette, a Catholic village situated half a league from Lucerna. But, at the sound of the tocsin, the troops from Lucerna and from Bubiano gathered to the spot in such numbers, that Janavel was compelled to relinquish his project. He was already surrounded by the enemy when he beat a retreat; and this retreat was so skilfully executed that his enemies themselves could not speak of it without admiration. In this affair the gallant captain received a bullet in his leg, which remained lodged in the flesh as long as he lived. But this wound did not prevent him from proceeding in his expeditions. His attempt upon Lucernette, though it had failed as to its object, was not without important consequences, for it gave a new aspect to this war of extermination. The Vaudois now, for the first time, took the aggressive part.
An inexpressible terror began to trouble the towns of Piedmont which lay nearest to the mountains. Each wished fortifications and a garrison. Irish troops were quartered at Bubiano, but they committed such excesses that the inhabitants themselves were very soon obliged to take arms and expel them. Thus the persecutors began to destroy one another.
It was just at this time that Janavel effected his junction with Captain Jahier (on the 27th of May), on the banks of the Angrogna. These two warriors, uniting their forces, became more formidable and more powerful in their expeditions. The first enterprise which they attempted in common was against the little town of Garsiliano, which they endeavoured to seize that very evening. But it happened, as at Lucernette, that, numerous troops coming at the sound of the tocsin from all the neighbouring townships, they were compelled to retire, carrying off with them only some cattle and six pairs of oxen, which they had seized.
Next day, at daybreak, having sought encouragement in prayer, and feeling the necessity of some energetic demonstration to save their country, they assailed the town of St. Segont, and made themselves masters of it. To preserve themselves from the enemy's fire, the Vaudois rolled before them great casks filled with hay; and in this manner they approached the walls of the town, from which a shower of balls fell upon them, but the balls were lost in the casks, without striking the men, who were sheltered behind these rolling screens. Arrived at the bottom of the fortifications, they set fire to bundles of faggots and vine twigs, the smoke of which concealed them from the eyes of the besieged. Having then broken through a gate, they penetrated into the town and loaded themselves with booty. An Irish regiment was surprised in its barrack and cut to pieces. The number slain by the Vaudois amounted to 700 or 800 Irish, and 650 Piedmontese. The unarmed inhabitants were spared,[17] and in part retained prisoners; afterwards the village was destroyed by fire.
It was a terrible execution, and which, perhaps, it might not have been requisite to carry so far, but for the necessity imposed upon the Vaudois of making such a display of their force as should produce an impression amongst the enemy, who had not shrunk from butchering them when defenceless. Moreover, in time of war men do not reason with the coolness of a calm judgment. And the Vaudois valleys had been so cruelly destroyed, the blood which had been shed cried so loudly, the irritation had become so profound, that without attributing such reprisals to the spirit of vengeance alone, we may regard them as a necessary consequence. They had, indeed, the effect of leading the persecutors to see that they must treat this sacrificed people with more consideration. And if it be true that men have no respect for any but those whom they love or those whom they fear, the Vaudois, certain of not being loved, had no alternative but in making themselves feared. They succeeded in a few days.
The capture of St. Segont was already equivalent to a battle won. They had made 1400 of the enemy bite the dust; on their side the loss was only seven men;[18] and these almost incredible facts were well known. The terror inspired by Janavel and Jahier seized all the neighbouring towns. They concerted schemes of mutual defence, and arranged a telegraphic signal, which was to appear on the tops of the steeples, giving notice of the coming of the Vaudois, and indicating their position.
The people, who suffered from the interruption of trade, the cantoning of troops, and the incursions of the Vaudois, began to express a very strong indignation against the cause, or at least against the effects of these troubles; and the public voice became still more urgent as the exploits of Jahier and Janavel, with their intrepid partizans, became more numerous. The Marquis of Pianesse endeavoured to cut them off by setting a price upon the heads of those amongst them who were of most note;[19] but their troop, instead of being reduced, was augmented every day by new recruits or new refugees, who came to them from Queyras and Pragela. On the 2d of June it consisted of four companies, commanded by the captains with whom we are already acquainted, and by captains Laurens and Benet. In their little council of war they resolved to make an attack upon Briquéras. To execute this design the four companies marched by different directions, so as not only to be able to surprise the town, but also to oppose the approach of the troops, whose assistance it might demand.
In consequence, Janavel kept upon the borders of St. John and La Tayarca, in order to arrest the progress of the troops which might come from La Tour and Lucerna; Captain Laurens took the direction of the last spurs of Rocheplate, ready to intercept those which might be sent from St. Segont; for notwithstanding the recent burning of that village, it had been rendered habitable again by prompt repairs. Jahier descended into the plain of Briquéras, and began to ravage the surrounding fields; but on a signal given, the garrisons of the neighbourhood hastened to the assistance of Briquéras with such rapidity, that no assault could be made upon that place.
Jahier then retraced his steps towards the hills of St. John, where Janavel had kept in check the troops whose progress he had been appointed to arrest. Thus mutually reinforced by one another, the two captains attacked the enemy with such impetuosity, that one hundred and fifty of their number were left dead upon the field of battle. The Vaudois had only one man killed.
A few days after, a convoy of three hundred soldiers was sent from Lucerna to the fort of Mirabouc. Janavel was at Bobi; he was aware of this movement, and awaited the enemy at the defile of Marbec, where he kept them in check for five hours, but was at last obliged to let them pass, after having killed many of them. The valiant captain had on this occasion only eight men with him, and although they retreated, yet it must be granted that they showed great intrepidity in daring to attack three hundred. It is true that they were favoured by the admirable position which their leader had chosen. None of them was killed.
After this, Janavel fell back upon the Alp from which he had made his first expedition against Lucernette, namely, the Palea di Geymet, situated opposite to Le Villar. This village was the only one which had not been burned, upon account of the great number of its inhabitants who had become Catholics, and whom it was thought proper to leave at peace in their dwellings. Janavel sent word to them that they must join him, to augment the number of the defenders of the country, in default of which they would be treated as apostates, traitors, and enemies. On this energetic language, the people of Le Villar, whether from fear or from patriotism, joined the standard of the rude warrior who so addressed them.
Janavel then united his efforts once more with those of Jahier, and they formed the project of jointly retaking the Protestant capital of their valleys, the town of La Tour. In this they failed, but they slew more than three hundred soldiers.
The combined troops of these two captains, at this time, amounted to more than six hundred men. They established their headquarters on one of the heights of Angrogna, named Le Verné. But it was necessary to provide for the maintenance of these soldiers; and this could only be done by putting the enemy to ransom.
The inhabitants of Crussol, a village situated in the valley of the Po, having done much harm to the Vaudois at the time of the last massacres, Jahier resolved to lay them under contribution. He set out during the night with one hundred and fifty men; and next morning, at break of day, before the people of Crussol could take any steps for their defence, their village was attacked. The inhabitants retired in consternation to a deep cavern; and the Vaudois carried off without resistance, more than four hundred cows or oxen, and six hundred sheep. This booty was conveyed for division to the Alp of Liouza, which, by a very ancient charter, was granted to the abbey of Staffarde.
Whilst this expedition was accomplished on the banks of the Po, the Catholics of St. Segont, and the neighbouring villages, attacked the one hundred and fifty Vaudois who remained at Angrogna. Captains Laurens and Benet, with the brothers Jahier, repulsed these assailants, who, in their retreat, surprised a defenceless man, and satiated their cruelty upon him.[20]
However, Captain Jahier had gone to Pragela to sell, or place in safe custody, a part of the booty which he had made at Crussol. Janavel having in vain expected him for eight days, resolved to attack the town of Lucerna himself. This delay caused the failure of the expedition; for a new regiment, which had arrived in that town on the previous evening, repelled the attack.
Two days after, the Marquis of Pianesse, having called to active service all the troops of the district, supported by the new regiment under the command of M. De Marolles, made an attack in his turn upon Janavel's troop, in the very centre of Angrogna. This was on Friday the 15th of June, l655. The troops advanced up the valleys, at the same time upon La Tour, St. John, Rocheplate, and Pramol. It was intended to attack them all at once; but this simultaneousness of operations could not be attained, because of the different routes which the army of Pianesse pursued, and the distant points which it occupied. The detachment which came by Rocheplate gave the signal of attack some minutes too soon. Janavel had with him only three hundred men. He went against these first assailants, and repulsed them before the troops from Pramol could come up in their rear. In order to divide them he inclined towards the heights of Rochemanant, when suddenly he found himself opposed to the detachment which had come up by the côtières of St. John, and at the same time he saw the detachment advancing which came from La Tour.
In this critical position--assailed on all side, and lacking half his men, who were still in Pragela--the hero of Rora, with that quick confidence of judgment and energetic promptitude of execution which characterize great captains on the field of battle, fell back ere the battalion of Rocheplate could rally on his flank--dashed into the midst of that which came from Pramol--cut it in two--passed through it--and, as he had formerly done with so much success at Rora, posted himself with his men on the summit of a hill. The hill, thus crowned with this band of heroes, is formed by a bending up again of the mountain-slopes, of gentle inclination on the side which they ascended, but suddenly cut off and broken into precipitous ridges on the opposite side.
The four battalions of the enemy drew together at the base of this slope. Janavel was now shut in betwixt a precipice and an army ten times more numerous than his own. It was nine o'clock in the morning. He resisted in this position till two o'clock in the afternoon; then, judging that his men had been sufficiently exposed in maintaining the conflict, without flinching, for five whole hours, and perceiving already some marks of weariness, impatience, and hesitation amongst the ranks of the enemy, Janavel raised his arms towards heaven and cried, "It is in thy name, O God! Support and preserve us!" Then to his men he said, "Forward, my friends!" And, like an avalanche of pikes, swords, and balls, these courageous men rushed to the bottom of the hill with all the impetuosity of a valour too long restrained. Without awaiting their shock, the enemy attempted to spread themselves out in the plain, and recoiled before them. By this manoeuvre, in extending, they weakened their line. The Vaudois succeeded in breaking it, and disorder ensued. Confusion readily arises amongst bodies under different commanders. It was habitual with these troops of different origin whenever they were worsted, and followed immediately upon this bold movement of the Vaudois. The 3000 men disbanded. The Vaudois pursued them, killed more than 500, and themselves had only one killed and two wounded.
But all was not ended. Having purged the valley of Angrogna from its invaders, Janavel retired to his entrenchments. At the same moment Captain Jahier arrived from Pragela; their troops were fatigued--the one party by the combat, the other by the march, and those of Janavel had had no food since morning. Whilst they took a hasty refreshment he went to reconnoitre the position of the enemy. He saw them rallying their bodies of dispersed troops in the plain of St. John, and far from thinking of any attack.
This indefatigable warrior called again upon his men; caused them to descend by the borders of the valley, and fell like a thunderbolt unexpectedly upon the army, which was a second time put to the route before him. The Vaudois killed more than 100 men; but the death of Janavel had well-nigh proved at that juncture a greater calamity to his compatriots than a defeat, for that leader, to whom they could not have found a successor; was struck by a bullet which passed quite through his body, entering by the chest and coming out by the back. His mouth filled with blood; he lost consciousness, and was thought to be on the point of expiring. The grief of those around him was extreme. He gave over the command to Jahier, to whom he also gave his instructions, amidst tears, prayers, and liveliest testimonies of affection on the part of his soldiers.
However, Providence was pleased not permanently to deprive the valleys of their intrepid defender, and after six weeks' suffering the cure of Janavel was completed. He had caused himself to be carried to Pinache, in the French territory, to recover or die there. His last advice to Captain Jahier had been, not to attempt anything for that day by reason of the fatigue of their troops; but an emissary having come to apprize Jahier that he might take possession of the town of Ossac, that too impetuous captain, as Léger calls him, who so intrepidity always got the better of his prudence, burning to signalize himself by some grand exploit, took with him 150 soldiers and set out under the guidance of the emissary.
The emissary was a traitor. He led Jahier into an ambuscade, where a squadron of cavalry surrounded and defied him. In this moment of extremity Jahier rose above himself by his extraordinary valour; seeing himself betrayed he killed the traitor, invoked God, caused his soldiers to take to their swords and pikes, rushed upon the cavalry of Savoy with an intrepidity worthy of a better fate; and there, thrusting and striking, disembowelling horses, killing their riders, and breaking through the ranks of his adversaries, he made terrible ravages all around him--killed with his own hand three officers of the enemy, and at last, overcome by the number of his wounds, fell dead upon the spot. His son, who fought by his side, died with him. All his soldiers, with the exception only of one, were cut in pieces. The survivor hid himself in a marsh, and passed the Cluson at night by swimming, to bear this deplorable intelligence to his compatriots.
That 15th of June was a fatal day! The Vaudois were deprived at once of Janavel and Jahier. "The latter," says Léger, "had always shown a great zeal for the service of God and the cause of his country; having the courage of a lion, and, moreover, meek as a lamb, always giving to God alone all the praise of his victories; extremely well versed in the Holy Scriptures; perfectly familiar with controversy and a man of high ability, who might have seemed to possess every estimable quality if only he had been capable of moderating his courage."[21]
Notes: