(April to May, 1686.)
The generous ambassadors of Switzerland--grieved to see that their most disinterested mediation could satisfy neither of the two parties, but was rejected at once by the Vaudois and by the Duke of Savoy, and that there was no hope of any benefit from any new attempt at accommodation--resolved, with hearts full of affliction and sorrow, to depart from Piedmont. But foreseeing the inevitable and approaching destruction of that Vaudois church, which they loved so much, they wrote to the Elector of Brandenburg, Frederic William the Great, to learn from him if there were in his dominions any lands which could be set apart for the reception of a colony of Vaudois in the event of their expatriation. The elector replied with the most generous warmth that nothing could be more agreeable to him than to give them an asylum. All these documents show the universal apprehension which the precarious state of the Israel of the Alps then inspired. These mournful and increasing fears were but too well justified by the result.
The united forces of France and Piedmont already approached in good order to the Vaudois valleys. Victor Amadeus II reviewed his troops in the plain of St. Segont. His army consisted of 2586 men, drawn from the various regiments[2] of the militia of Mondovi, Barges, and Bagnol, one corps of Piedmontese infantry, and one corps of cavalry. It was followed by fifty mules laden with warlike stores, and eighty-five carrying provisions;[3] besides which there were sixteen mules carrying shovels, and hatchets, and empty sacks, intended to be filled with earth upon the spot, to secure the soldiers from the bullets of the enemy; and others which carried various engines fit to be used in fortifications and intrenchments. These precautions had been dictated by the ancient reputation of bravery of the Vaudois mountaineers. The French troops were composed of a number of regiments of cavalry and dragoons, seven or eight battalions of infantry which had been brought from Dauphiny, and part of the garrisons of Pignerol and Casal. Volunteers and plunderers thronged together for booty, like birds of prey, in the train of the two armies.
A new Piedmontese Easter was in preparation. The Vaudois came from the communion, the Catholics gathered for carnage. The signal was to be given on Easter Monday, the 22d of April, by three cannon shots fired at the first break of day,[4] from the summit of the hill of Briquéras. A general attack on the two valleys was immediately to follow, the Duke of Savoy assailing that of Lucerna, and Catinat, commander-in-chief of the French troops, invading that of St. Martin. This general set out from Pignerol at midnight, between Easter Sunday and Easter Monday, l686. He marched for two hours by the light of torches and flambeaux, before which the dark and gigantic masses of our mountains seemed to recede. By and by a more pleasant light fell from heaven on their loftiest peaks; the snow of the glaciers blushed in the first ray of the morning. The murderers extinguished their torches; they had now arrived opposite to the village of St. Germain.
Thither Catinat sent a detachment of infantry,[5] commanded by Lieutenant-Colonel Villevieille, who took possession of the village, and drove the Vaudois from their first intrenchments; but they, having retired to higher ground, and finding themselves still pursued, wheeled about, and in turn repulsed their assailants. Catinat then sent a detachment of cavalry and dragoons to support his infantry. Battle was joined along the whole line, and the firing continued for six consecutive hours.
The French infantry began to be exhausted, the cavalry could not manoeuvre on the slopes covered with brushwood, where our brave mountaineers made so vigorous a resistance; and they, seeing the fire of the assailing army slacken, suddenly made a rush so impetuous, that the French, surprised and overthrown, were cast into confusion, and driven from the territory of St. Germain, even to the left bank of the Cluson. In this affair more than 500 of the French were killed or wounded, whilst only two of the Vaudois lost their lives.[6] The village of St. Germain was then cleared, except, however, of a small body of troops which, along with the gallant Lieutenant-Colonel Villevieille, had thrown themselves into the Vaudois place of worship, where they maintained their position until evening.[7]
Henry Arnaud, a native of the neighbourhood of Die in Dauphiny, had quitted that province with the Protestant refugees who fled to the valleys of Piedmont, to escape from the iniquitous persecutions of Louis XIV. From being a French pastor he became a Vaudois pastor, and from a pastor he became a captain, by reason of the horrid assaults to which the valleys were now subjected. Learning that Lieutenant-Colonel Villevieille had made a redoubt of the church of St. Germain, he hastened thither with a small detachment of men, determined to make themselves masters of it. But a formidable fire of musketry, directed on all points from the door of the church, along the esplanade which stretched in front of it, swept the approaches to that extemporary fortress, with a power too murderous for those who attacked, and too advantageous for those who defended it. It was necessary to give up the attack on this side. Arnaud commanded his men to come upon the church behind,[8] to scale the walls, to cut the timber of the roof, and to crush the enemy under the weight of the heavy slates with which it was covered, whilst another party of his men digged canals around the walls, to fill the church with water, and to drown Villevieille in it if be refused to surrender. But night came on to interrupt these operations; the governor of Pignerol sent fresh troops, and Villevieille was freed from the dangerous position into which his bravery had brought him.
Without turning back upon St. Germain, Catinat pursued his way towards La Pérouse. There he parted his forces into two divisions; the first, commanded by Mélac, turned the heights of Le Pomaret, penetrating into the valley of Pragela by Salvage; the second, led by Catinat himself, was moved in the direction of Les Clots; and next day, the 23d of April, that general attacked Rioclaret, situated opposite to the position which he had taken up.
The inhabitants of the whole valley of St. Martin had declared their desire, four days before, to avail themselves of the provisions of the edict of the 9th of April, and not to take up arms. But their resolution was not known to Victor Amadeus till the evening before the attack; and he refused to accept it, declaring that it was too late. His troops already occupied the approaches to the valleys; the commissioner sent by that of St. Martin could not get back to it again; the inhabitants of that region were ignorant of the response of the duke; they trusted to the provisions of the edict, and not counting upon being attacked, they had made no preparation for defence. The army of Catinat, therefore, took them by surprise, and cut them in pieces. They had broken the union sworn by all the Vaudois; and this cowardly baseness cost them more dear than all the most desperate efforts of a generous courage would have done.
The enemy's troops spread themselves without resistance over the valley, plundering, killing, and ravaging to the utmost. Six families, taken prisoners and sent to La Pérouse, were there massacred in cold blood. Two young girls of Ville Sèche were killed for resisting the outrages of the soldiers, who satiated on their corpses the savage brutality of which they had not been able to make them victims whilst they lived. John Ribet, of Macel, had all his members burned one after another, upon the successive refusals with which he met the threats and representations addressed to him during the intervals of his tortures, to bring him to an abjuration. At the hamlet of Les Fontaines, near Rodoret, four women were seized as they fled, carrying along with them their children. These innocents were butchered before the eyes of their mothers, and the mothers were then slaughtered over the bodies of their babes.
The horrors of 1655 were renewed everywhere over this unfortunate country; and as if the sword and the burning pile had not been enough for the martyrdom of the Vaudois, the most cruel punishments were also employed. Some were fastened to their ploughs and buried piecemeal in the earth, which was laid open as if to receive the grain for supply of food. Others were flung down rocks, or torn by horses. The trees on the wayside served as gibbets for other victims, and these new martyrs were subjected to abominable mutilations.
After having thus ravaged the valley of St. Martin, Catinat left a few troops there, and marched upon Pramol, where he was ere long joined by Mélac, who had perpetrated the same atrocities at Le Pomaret. He had even gone farther in barbarity and indecency. Not knowing the paths which he must follow on the mountain, he caused some Vaudois women and girls, whom he had seized, to act for some time as his guides, compelling them by the sword to walk entirely naked at the head of his columns.
The united troops of Mélac and Catinat encamped in the vale of Pramol, at the hamlet of La Rua, situated opposite to that of Poemian. The Vaudois had retired into the latter village to the number of more than 1500. They were joined by their brethren of St. Germain, who had repulsed with so much success the first attack of the enemy; they were therefore still in a condition to resist, and probably might have done it with similar advantage. But their enemies formed a plan to vanquish them by treachery. These inheritors of the primitive church were always vulnerable on this side, for they trusted in the good faith of their enemies.
Catinat caused them to be told that the inhabitants of the valley of Lucerna had laid down their arms, and surrendered to Victor Amadeus, who had pardoned them. He exhorted them to follow this example, that they might enjoy the same benefits. The Vaudois sent two deputies to the French general, to receive from his own mouth the confirmation of this news, and of his promises. In the breast of this warrior soldierly honour did not revolt against the course which he pursued, and he certified the lie, giving his word for its truth. "Lay down your arms," he added, "and all is pardoned." "But, general," said the deputies, "whilst we by no means doubt your word, we dread the excesses of these same soldiers who have just shed so much blood in the valley of St. Martin." Catinat replied with an oath, that all his army should pass through their houses without touching so much as a fowl. Was it possible to suspect, in the hero of so many battles, the low perfidy so familiar to the genius of the Papal system? No: the Vaudois entertained no doubts; and they left one of their deputies with him as an hostage, whilst the others went to get their brethren to lay down their arms, and to re-assemble their dispersed families.
Catinat already triumphed in the success of his artifice. These mountaineers were, in his eyes, only heretics, people devoted to hell and to carnage, the killing of whom, without resistance, spared the blood of his brave and loyal companions in arms, who might have perished in the combat. Such is the genius of Popery; pride and tyranny for itself, disdain and cruelty for others.
On the evening of the same day, Catinat sent a courier to Gabriel of Savoy, the uncle of Victor Amadeus, who had invaded the valley of Lucerna, and was encamped at La Vachère. This courier passed by Poemian, and told the Vaudois that he went to apprise the prince of the proposed peace. Next day he came back, and said that the peace was concluded. The Vaudois, therefore, believed themselves assured of peace for the future. It was their destruction which had been resolved upon.
The French troops entered Poemian. They were received without arms and without distrust. The officer who commanded them[9] renewed to the Vaudois the assurances of his general, caused the heads of families to be brought before him, separated the men from the women, and told the former that he was going to cause them to be conducted to the Duke of Savoy, that they might make their submission to himself.
Having thus deprived these unfortunate families of all their defenders--having none before them but women, children, and aged men--the soldiers of Catinat rushed like savage beasts on that inoffensive multitude, so basely deceived; massacred some, tortured others, stripped them of everything valuable; seized the women and girls, to subject them to the most brutal treatment; satiated upon them the most infamous passions, and subjected them to all the horrors of rape and assassination. There were some of them who resisted with so much courage that their destroyers could not succeed in their vile endeavours till they mutilated them in all their four members, nothing but a bloody torso being thus left for the prey of these demons. Others were only vanquished when they were pinned to the ground by a sword through the chest. There were some who could not be forced, and who were buried alive; others, more fortunate, were killed fleeing into the woods, and brought down like timid deer by the bullets of their persecutors. As for the children, they were carried off and dispersed in Piedmont, either in contents or in various Catholic families. What a Christian education they must have received there! Their fathers, who had been sent to the camp of Victor Amadeus, to make their submission to that monarch, were cast into the prisons of Lucerna, Cavour, and Villefranche, where a number of them died of disease and of sorrow.
But Papery triumphed; treachery had served its cause; a half of the people of the valleys were massacred or captive; carnage had done its work; and what remained of the Israel of the Alps could not subsist long. The Te Deums of St. Bartholomew's Day were again to be heard!
Victor Amadeus had remained encamped on the plain which forms the opening of the valley of Lucerna on the side of La Tour and Rora. It was here that, at a later period, after the marvellous return of the Vaudois to their native land, this very prince, himself vanquished and a fugitive, sought an asylum from these same mountaineers whom he now endeavoured to destroy or to disperse.
His uncle, Gabriel of Savoy, commander-in-chief of the ducal troops, had bent his course towards the heights of Angrogna. His line of operations extended from Briquéras to Saint John. The Vaudois occupied, on the summit of the hills of La Costière, a series of little posts situated in an upper zone, parallel, however, to his front of battle. On the 22d of April, Don Gabriel caused these posts to be attacked upon all points at once. The Vaudois fought all day; and, faithful to the tactics of Janavel, concentrated their forces as they drew up their front of resistance to the higher retreats of the mountain, thus drawing themselves together in a line between points less numerous, and nearer and nearer to each other.
Night having come, bivouac fires were kindled on both sides. This luminous girdle crossed the mountain at about a third of its elevation. Les Serres and Castelluz belonged to the enemy; Rochemanant and the Gates of Angrogna were in the hands of the Vaudois. In the Piedmontese camp the preposterous worship of relies was mingled with the gross jokes of the soldiers, and the invocation of the Virgin with indecent tales of the atrocities already perpetrated in the valleys. In the camp of the persecuted evening prayer was offered with fervour and humility, amidst religious quiet, grief, and resignation. It will be recollected that this prayer had been placed on the order of the day for all the Vaudois companies, and that it was set down at the end of their military regulations, which have been preserved to our times. It was as follows:--
"O Lord! our great God, and the Father of mercy, we humble ourselves before thy face, to implore of thee the pardon of all our sins, in the name of Jesus Christ our Saviour, that by his merits thine ire[10] may be appeased against us, who have offended thee so much by our perverse and corrupt life. We render unto thee also our most humble thanksgivings, that it hath pleased thee to preserve us until now from all sorts of dangers and calamities: and we humbly entreat thee to continue to us in future thy holy protection and good safeguard against all our enemies, from whose hand we pray thee also to deliver and preserve us. And seeing that they attack the truth and fight against it, bless thou our arms to maintain and defend it! Be thou thyself our strength and our skill in all our combats, that we may come out of them victorious. And if any of us shall die in this cause, receive him, O Lord, in thy grace, pardoning all his sins, and let his soul find admission into thine eternal paradise! O Lord, hear! O Lord, forgive! for the sake of thy well-beloved Son, Jesus Christ, our Saviour, in whose name we pray unto thee, saying, Our Father which art in heaven... (to the end of the Lord's Prayer). O Lord, increase our faith, and grant us grace to make with heart and mouth a sincere confession unto thee, to the end of our lives. I believe in God... (and so on to the end of the Apostles' Creed.) May the holy peace and blessing of God our Father, the love and grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the guidance, consolation, and help of the Holy Spirit, be given and multiplied to us, from henceforth and for evermore! So let it be!"
These last words were pronounced in name of all who were present, by the pastor or officer who had presided at this simple service. Such is the prayer, which we have not thought it proper to exclude even from a historic abridgment, and which was offered evening and morning in the camp of the Vaudois.
On the 23d of April, the attack upon them was recommenced. They still fell back towards the higher parts of the mountain, but in good order, and without ceasing to fight throughout the whole day. Towards evening they assembled in a single camp at the foot of the Vachère, and fortified that advantageous position by intrenchments of earth and large stones, promptly raised by their intrepid vigour and hands long accustomed to work.
Next morning, Gabriel of Savoy had information of the surrender of the Vaudois of Pramol, who had trusted their enemies and delivered themselves into their hands, and whose families had been thereafter massacred without resistance. He resolved to employ the same means against his own opponents, and caused them likewise to be told that their brethren of the Val St. Martin having laid down their arms and obtained pardon, he would advise them to follow that example, in order to avoid great calamities; for, if they did not surrender, the French troops, which occupied the valley of St. Martin and the little vale of Pramol, would come upon their rear, and then they would infallibly be destroyed.
The Vaudois of the Val Lucerna, intrenched at the foot of the Vachère, could not believe this news. Janavel, in the advices which he had addressed to them, had given the first prominence to the necessity of all the people of the valleys remaining constantly united; how, then, could one-half of them have treated with the enemy, without having communicated their intention to their brethren? However, they likewise adopted the course of sending commissioners to Gabriel of Savoy, who confirmed this news, and sent them a note, signed with his own hand, in which he said to them, "Do not hesitate to lay down your arms; and be assured that if you cast yourselves upon the clemency of his royal highness, he will pardon you, and that neither your persons nor those of your wives or children shall be touched."
After a promise so express, signed by a royal hand, there could be no hesitation. But that august hand was a Catholic hand, taught to sign the most wicked treacheries without shaking. I would fain, indeed, think that the uncle of the sovereign was sincere in his promises; but he was aware of the perfidy of Catinat; he himself had taken part the day before in faithlessly making the Vaudois of Pramol captives, and yet he could venture to say that pardon would be granted. His bad faith appears evident; and if the judgment of history ought to be severe against all that is degrading to the dignity of human nature, it cannot pronounce too stern a reprobation of actions so base on the part of one so exalted.
Moreover, we may judge of the character of this engagement by the fruits which it so speedily produced. The Vaudois of the Vachère opened their intrenchments to Gabriel of Savoy, and came forth themselves without arms and without distrust before his troops. These mingled with them under the most pacific guise, surrounded them, and then seizing them and binding them like felons, carried them prisoners to Lucerna, where they were cast into the dungeons, already in part filled with their brethren, who had also been betrayed. How forcibly must the advices of Janavel have then presented themselves to their minds! But it was too late. The enemy had possessed themselves, almost without striking a blow, of those formidable valleys, where the Vaudois "had posts so advantageous," says a contemporary," and intrenchments so strong, that they might have kept their ground in them for ten years."[11]
The defenders of this ancient sanctuary of the church were loaded with irons; their children were carried off and scattered through the Catholic districts; their wives and daughters were violated, massacred, or made captives. As for those that still remained, all whom the enemy could seize became a prey devoted to carnage, spoliation, fire, excesses which cannot be told, and outrages which it would be impossible to describe. Joseph David, being wounded, was carried by the soldiers into a neighbouring house, where they burned him alive. The mother of Daniel Fourneron, a woman eighty years of age, was rolled down a precipice because she did not walk quickly enough. Susanna Olviette and Margaret Baline, having endeavoured to defend their honour, lost their lives in the struggle, and yielded only their corpses to the unbridled lust of the soldiery. Mary Romain, who had been betrothed only a few days before, allowed herself to be slaughtered rather than submit to their desire.
Whilst these things were taking place in Angrogna, Victor Amadeus had continued to advance in the valley of Lucerna. There the Vaudois still occupied two important posts; the one at the hamlet of Les Geymets, and the other at Champ-la-Rama. Thus they covered the entrance to the Pra-du-Tour on the one side, and the road to Le Villar on the other. These two posts, being attacked at once, were firmly held during a whole day. The enemy could not gain an inch of ground, and lost many men, amongst others the commander of the militia of Mondovi. The Vaudois had only six killed, and as many wounded. Towards evening, the assailants, whose ammunition was exhausted, seemed to think of retreating; but in the fear of being pursued, they resolved at all hazards to deceive their adversaries by some illusory promise, and, under the name of a stratagem of war, to make them the victims of some such perfidy as had already proved so successful at the Vachère and at Poemian.
A number of Piedmontese officers, having laid their arms and their hats upon the ground, approached the fortifications which the Vaudois had erected at Champ-la-Rama, waving a white handkerchief on the end of a stick, and saying that they were the bringers of peace. They were allowed to advance. They exhibited a paper, saying that it was a letter of Victor Amadeus, who had granted pardon to all his subjects, and that he ordained his troops to retire, and requested the Vaudois to do the same. The podestat of Lucerna, whose name was Prat, a magistrate well known to the Vaudois, accompanied these officers, and attested the truth of their declaration, assuring the poor mountaineers that they would have life and liberty, on condition of their immediately ceasing from hostilities.
The Vaudois might, by a vigorous sortie, have routed these exhausted troops, or at least have seized their officers. But trusting in their word, they fired no more, allowing the enemy to draw back in peace, and themselves going to seek some repose. Scarcely had they retired, when the Catholic soldiers retraced their steps with new reinforcements, and took possession of the abandoned post. Those who still defended themselves at the hamlet of Les Geymets, less elevated than the Champ-la-Rama, finding their position commanded by the enemy, abandoned it likewise, and retired to Le Villar.
It might seem that so many reiterated acts of perfidy must have exhausted the amount of Catholic dishonesty, and of the too easy confidence of the Vaudois; but such was not the case. The troops of the enemy, after having pursued the mountaineers, who fell back on the combe of Le Villar, halted at the hamlet of Les Bonnets, and remained there for two days without venturing to give battle. But during this time they sent to the Vaudois several successive emissaries, to assure them, in the name of all that was sacred, that those who would surrender would obtain pardon, whilst the severest chastisements would await those who stood out. Many surrendered themselves, and were cast into prison. Thus the number of the Vaudois diminished daily. They might still be about 500 or 600 men. This troop would have sufficed Janavel to perform prodigies; but that illustrious outlaw, having been banished for thirty years from his native country, could no longer serve it except by his advice, and his advice had not been followed. The intrepid captain had lost nothing of his courage; but the infirmities of age had deprived him of his strength, without bending his noble spirit.
After some time, the Vaudois of Le Villar, finding themselves decimated by perfidy or by treachery, and weakened by the intrigues of an enemy destitute alike of honesty and of courage, abandoned also the post which they occupied, and fell back upon Bobi, the last important village of the valley.
Thus passed the month of April. On the 4th of May, Gabriel of Savoy marched all his troops against them. This attack was repulsed. The Vaudois, intrenched on the heights of Subiasc, killed some of his officers and many of his soldiers.
On the 12th of May, the French army, having united itself with that of Victor Amadeus, renewed the attack, which was again repulsed by the Vaudois with great success. But next day the Marquis de Parelles, who had ascended the valley of St. Martin with a detachment of Catinat's troops, passed over the Col Julian, and attacked the gallant defenders of Bobi in the rear. Finding themselves thus placed between two fires, the Vaudois abandoned a position which it was impossible to maintain, and dispersed themselves on the lateral mountains of La Sarcena and Garin.
New emissaries were presently sent after them, to promise them liberty if they would surrender themselves to their sovereign. A number did surrender themselves, and, like the former, were cast into prison. The mind revolts at the thought of a continued rascality always successful and always disastrous! The triumph of what is shameful is a dishonour to human nature.
However, the bloodiest horrors did not cease to be enacted everywhere over this desolated land. Two sisters, Anne and Madeleine Vittoria, were burned alive in the straw of the shed where they had been ravished. Daniel Pellenc was flayed alive, and as the soldiers could not succeed in making the skin of his body pass up over his shoulders, they laid him on the ground, threw a large stone on his mangled but still breathing body, and left him to expire in that condition. Twenty-two persons were flung into the ravines of Le Cruel, from the heights of Bariound and Garneyreugna. A number of them, suspended on ledges of the rocks, with their bones broken and their flesh torn, still remained alive for some days. A young mother, who fled carrying her child in her arms, and who carried another also within her, was overtaken by the murderers. They took her babe from her, seized it by the feet, and dashed its head against the rocks; then falling, sword in hand, upon the fainting mother, they committed two murders more by a single stroke. Another woman was placed naked, with her infant in her arms, amongst the soldiers, and they amused themselves by standing at a distance and throwing their daggers, some at the mother and some at the child. The name of this ill-fated woman was Margaret Salvajot: Another woman had retired into a cavern with her child and a she-goat. The goat, browsing on the herbage amongst the brushwood, nourished the poor mother with its milk, and she gave suck to her child. The soldiers came upon them by surprise. The infant was flung into a hole, as the redundant progeny of beasts are flung upon the dunghill when we want to be quit of them. The mother was conducted into the presence of the Marquis of Bénil, colonel of the regiment of Savoy. They wished to learn from her the hiding-place of her Protestant brethren who had disappeared. She knew nothing of the matter. To make her speak, they crushed her fingers between bars of iron; but it was in vain. Then these defenders, heroes, and pillars of the Catholic faith, broke her legs, and having tied her head to her feet, they rolled her down into the same chasm into which they had cast her child.
"Why relate such atrocities?" more than one voice will exclaim with emotion. To inspire a horror of the odious principles which have produced them. Do you suppose that an account of the blood which was shed will never be called for? Nay; these vile oppressors of mankind, tyrannizing by the sword, tyrannizing by deceit, tyrannizing by cupidity--these heroes of superstition and intolerance, who would have put an end to Christianity a thousand times over, if it could have been destroyed--these authors of so many wounds still bleeding in the world--must endure history to the last; their works are their condemnation.
The Marquis De Parelles himself was moved with indignation on meeting bands of his soldiers bearing on their hats the hideous trophies of the various mutilations to which they had subjected the unfortunate Vaudois.
Daniel Mondon, one of the elders of the parish of Rora, was the agonized and helpless witness of the murder of his two sons, who were beheaded with the sabre, and then of his daughter-in-law, whose body was ripped open the whole length of the belly. The four little children of this ill-fated woman were also butchered before the eyes of their mother. The old man was reserved, that he might be compelled to bear upon his shoulders the heads of his two sons, and the bloody relics of his slaughtered family. In this manner he was obliged to march from Rura to Lucerna. On his arrival in the latter town, he was hanged on a gallows.
"All the valleys are exterminated, the people killed, hanged, or massacred," wrote a French officer, announcing to foreign parts the result of this fratricidal contest, by a letter of date the 26th of May, 1686. On the same day Victor Amadeus issued a decree, by which all the Vaudois, without exception, were declared guilty of the crime of high treason,[12] because they had not laid down their arms on the first summons, and all their property was confiscated, to the increase of the royal domains.[13] The few Vaudois who escaped carnage and the prisons, wandered miserably on the mountains. Those who still remained in their lonely dwellings, received orders not to leave them.[14]
Thus the destruction of these Vaudois churches, so long exposed to trial, appeared now inevitable; their overthrow seemed to be complete. A number of their sons still maintained the struggle even in this extremity, some by their courage, others by their martyrdom. The pastor of Pral, named Leydet, had retired to a cavern to escape the murderers. After the lapse of two days, he supposed that the troops had retired, and rendered thanks to God, by singing in a low voice a song of deliverance. But these pious accents, issuing through the clefts of the rock, betrayed his retreat. The soldiers heard him, rushed into the cavern, seized the pastor, and conducted him to Lucerna, where he was brought before Victor Amadeus as a prisoner of importance. He was promised his liberty and a pension of 2000 livres, if he would consent to change his religion. He refused. He was then imprisoned in a tower, his legs being made fast betwixt two beams united by a screw. Here he remained for a long time, receiving only bread and water, and unable to lie down, because of the stocks in which his legs were painfully held. In this afflictive situation he had to sustain long theological discussions every day, with the priests and monks who were sent to convert him.
Like some kind of vermin always engendered around torture, this brood of death is everywhere to be found, from the dungeons of the Spanish Inquisition, to those of the Holy Office of Rome and of Turin. Their holy office is well enough known; but what had it ever to do with the gospel?
At last, not being able to convince the prisoner, the priests told him that he must presently die. "The will of God be done!" he tranquilly replied. "You may save your life by becoming a Catholic," said they. "That would not be the will of God," was his answer. New discussions were then again commenced, and as a last argument, they were concluded once more by a new announcement of death. But nothing shook the constancy of the prisoner. Thereupon he was condemned to death, and as a pretext for his condemnation, the sentence bore that he had been taken with arms in his hands.
The day before his execution, and that day itself, the monks assailed him again, to make him abjure; they hoped that the emotion always inseparable from these last moments would have broken his resolution, or discomposed his mind. But he remained calm, serene, firm in his faith, and resigned. As he left the prison to go to execution, he said to the executioners, "This is for me a double deliverance, in which both my soul and my body ought to rejoice." Then having mounted the scaffold, he uttered, without ostentation, only these words, "O my God! I commit my soul into thy hands."
Notes: