thinking thereby to affright him and told him several times that there was no other means to preserve himself but by turning Catholick But he received the news of his Death with a great deal of Tranquillity He replyed to them that although he knew well that they could not put him to death with Justice since he was not taken in Arms and that besides the Duke of Savoy had pardoned all his Subjects nevertheless he was prepared for death esteeming himself most happy to be able to suffer for the Name of Jesus Christ. He fortified by his example and pious Exhortations the Prisoners that were in the same Palace some of whom were permitted to see him At last the Monks and Priests provoked with his Zeal and Constancy found out Judges who were willing enough to condemn him to Death The day that he was executed the Auditor Salvay caused Sentence to be pronounced against him in the presence of certain Monks he heard the publication thereof with a resignation altogether Christian without any emotion trouble or fear appearing in his Countenance The Monks left him not that day and although he desired them several times to leave him to his repose that he might pray to God freely without disturbance yet they always persecuted him and forced him to enter into a Dispute with them thinking that he was not in a condition to maintain it but he acquitted himself with that Courage and presence of Mind that they were astonished at it This did not hinder them nevertheless from coming again the next morning at break of day to give themseves the pleasure of tormenting him even to the end of his life He said as he was going out of the Prison that it was the day of a double deliverance to him since his Body went out of Captivity and his Soul was agoing quickly out the Prison of his Body to enter into Heaven to enjoy the full Liberand Pleasures of the blessed He went to Execution with an holy Joy and admirable Resolution despising equally both the Life that the Monks offered him and the Death that was set before his eyes he made a long and good Prayer at the foot of the Scaffold with which all that assisted were extremely touched He pronounced these words on the Ladder O my God into thy hands I recommend my Spirit and dyed a Death so edifying that the Monks themselves who forsook him not to the last were forced to avouch that he died like a Saint At that time there remained only in the Valleys certain Inhabitants who preferring Death before Slavery would not hearken to any Propositions of Peace whatsoever Some of these were in the Valley of S. Martin and although they could not know one anothers Designs because the Army was encamped between the two Valleys and hindered them from having any Communication yet they were all of the same mind and equally took up a resolution worthy of immortal Praise They remained a long time hid and distressed in the Mountains that they might avoid falling into the hands of the Enemies that every day sent out Detachments to surprize them one cannot sufficiently admire the Constancy with which they endured all the Fatigues and all the Miseries to which they were exposed but especially that whereby they suffered the extremity of hunger for they were often compelled to feed on the grass of the Fields and to eat Dogs and other Beasts that came to devour the dead Bodies of those Waldenses that were left unburied But the French and the Banditi of Mondovi being retired they were no more so hardly pressed by the Duke of Savoy's Army that remained alone in the Valley Then it was that they that were in the Valley of Lucerne began to go out of their places of refuge to search for some Victuals wherewith to sustain their languishing Lives There were found in this Valley but 42 Men some Women and Children when they were got together nevertheless they made several Incursions into the Plain from whence they always carried away Victuals and Booty defeated in several Rencounters several Detachments of the Enemies killed or drove away a great number of Savoyards that were come to inhabit in the Valleys and lastly for some months committed Actions so stout so bold and so vigorous that they put the Enemies to Contribution and forced them to furnish them with Provisions for some time to hinder them from continuing their inroads into the Plain I shall not here recite all these marvellous Actions that I may not be engaged in too long a Relation I shall only say thus much That the Court of Turin having to no purpose made use of force to drive them out of the Valleys caused an offer to be made them of safe Conduct in due form and Hostages for the security of their retreat They that brought the Proposition to the Waldenses took no care to avouch that they acted by order of the Court of Turin But they affirmed on the contrary that they treated only on their own account and at the motion of some Persons that had promised to procure for them these safe Conducts and to cause Hostages to be given but it is certain that these Overtures mere not made without the participation of the Court For besides that no private person durst have undertook such a negotiation of his own head the safe Conducts that were afterwards dispatch'd make it appear plain enough that all was done by the orders of the Court. However it were the Waldenses at first refused to hearken to this Proposition whether it were because they thought that they ought not to give any credit to their words or because they were resolved either to perish or to bring the Prisoners out of Captivity Death being more eligible to them than Life so long as their Brethren groaned under their Chains Some time after this Proposition was renewed they made use of divers Considerations to oblige the Waldenses to accept it They told them that the D. of Savoy had declared that as long as they were in Arms the Prisoners should not be released and promised them positively that as soon as they were gone orders should be given to set their Brethren at liberty in so much that the Waldenses considering on the one side that the Winter drew nigh and that they could not expect any relief and on the other side that their Resistance might give them a pretence to detain the Prisoners thought it was best for them to retire out of the Estates of Piedmont It was agreed then and ordained That they should go out of the Valleys with their Wives and Children Arms and Baggage in two Troops or Brigades that should be defrayed and conducted to Suitzerland at two several times by one of his Royal Highness's Captains named Perret with safe Conducts in due form That for the security of the first Troop that should depart Hostages should be left in the Valleys in the hands of the second who should keep them till
them they ravished them and at length shot them to death and hack'd them in pieces Four Women falling at the same time into the hands of these Barbarians had the same fortune with this difference only that before they were ravished and massacred they saw their Childrens Throats cut at a place called the Fountains They cut open the Body of a Mother and her Child and tore out their Entrails which they burned in the Fire They killed a great number of Children in the same place because they were sick and had not strength to follow them into the Prisons where they would have carried them Twenty two Persons who were for a long time hid in the Woods the greatest part of whom were Women and Children were found by these Murtherers on the Mountain of Pelue and flung down headlong into dreadful Abysses cross the points of the Rocks where the Entrails of these Martyrs were seen a great while after In the Valley of Lucerne Susanna the Wife of Daniel Violin Katharine the Wife of Iames Negrin and Anne Melanote and her Daughter had their Throats cut with a Baionet Some Soldiers having used their utmost endeavours to flea Daniel Pellene alive and not being able to pull the Skin over his Shoulders laid him along upon the ground put a great Stone upon his Belly and caused him to expire in this condition Daniel Blumerol lost his life by the means of a Cord that they tied violently about his Head his Belly and his Privy Members Anne and Magdalen Vittorie and several others were burnt The Wife of Daniel Monin was massacred with a Back-Sword and had her Head chopt in pieces Anne Bastianne was tumbled down the Precipices David Moudon had his Head cleft asunder with a broad Sword. Margaret Salvajote being stript stark naked was run through with a Dagger in several parts of her Body but she did not suffer only this cruel Death in her own person for before they cut her Throat these Russians mortified her little Daughter about seven months old before her face and dashed her Head against the Rock till all her Brains flew out They cut Mary Salvajot in pieces with a Scimeter They pierced Mary Duraud through with a Dagger because she resisted their design to ravish her They cut the Throat of the Mother of the Sieur Bertrand a Minister a Person that was 80 years old and lay Bed-rid through extreme old Age. A certain Maiden of Boby was tyed stark naked cross a Mule with her Privy-parts exposed to publick view and was led about in this condition through the City of Lucerne Amongst a great number of Waldenses whom they hanged at Boby there was one called Anthony Malanot whom the Soldiers shot at several times after he was dead taking for their Mark those parts of his Body that modesty forbids to name The Soldiers having found a Woman named Iaimonate in a hole in a Rock on the Mountain of Carbonnieres brought her to the Marquess de Bevil Colonel of the Regiment of Savoy who demanded of her how long she had been in that Cavern and what Food she got there she made Answer that she had been there eight days and that she nourished her self with a little Milk of a Shee-Goat that shee took along with her They would force her at length to discover where the Waldenses were that hid themselves in the Rocks but she protesting that she knew nothing of them the Soldiers having put her to a sort of Torture by fastening their Matches to her fingers to make her speak tied her Feet to her Head backwards and in this posture hurled her down a Precipice but as she was stopped in falling the Soldiers flinging Stones and Brick-bats at her caused her Bowels to drop out of her Belly and thrust her down headlong in the presence of the Marquess de Bevil A young Lad of the Valleys by name David Magnot whom the said Marquess took for his Domestick Servant and who had afterwards made his escape was an Eye-witness of and related this horrible Action Daniel Moudon an Elder of the Church of Roras after he had been spectator of the Death of his two Sons Iohn and Iames Moudon whose Heads the Soldiers cut off having seen Iohn's Wife cleaved asunder from her Breast to the bottom of her Belly her Child also knock'd on the Head that was but six weeks old and Iames's two Children cut in pieces one whereof was four years old and the other but fourteen months was constrained by these Butchers to carry the Heads of his two Sons on his shoulders and to travel thus bare-foot two hours till they came to Lucerne where he was hanged in the middle of these Heads that were stuck upon the Gibbet I shall pass over an infinite number of examples of Barbarity of the like nature not to mention the miserable Death of so many old Men Women young Infants and sick persons that died with cold and hunger in the Woods or in the clefts of the Rocks Not to mention an incredible number of Prisoners that were hanged without form of Justice on the branches of Trees or in the Towns and Villages among whom there was one Paul Megle aged 27 years whom they carried from his Bed to the Gallows At present I shall content my self with what I have already related which may be sufficient to shew how far the fury of the Enemies of the Waldenses proceeded I shall only add here the Death of the Sieur Leidet that equally deserves pity and admiration He was Minister of Prâ—be in the Valley of S. Martin who had escaped at the subduing of the Valleys and had hid himself for some time within the Caverns of the Rocks He was taken by a Detachment of Soldiers and carried to Lucerne into the Palace of the Marquess of Angrogne where the Duke of Savoy was at that time He was put in prison within a Tower of this Palace and fetter'd with a kind of Stocks that were made with two thick pieces of Timber between which they lock'd his Legs He remained a great while in this condition fed with Bread and Water not being able to lie down by reason of the weight of those Shackles it was reported that he had taken up Arms but it was a false Accusation from which he was cleared even by the Testimony of those that apprehended him They let him lie several months in Prison without bringing him to his Tryal and some Judges themselves desired to be excused from being concern'd in his Process In the mean time there was not a day passed wherein he was not exposed to the Persecutions of the Monks and Priests and had great Disputes with them about matters of Religion wherein he came off always victorious They caused one day two Bibles to be brought wherein he demonstrated to them so clearly the truth of his Belief that being ashamed and put to confusion they retired after a Conference of four hours They often threatened him with Death
the hard Bricks with which the Chambers of Piedmont are paved without Straw or if in some places they had any given them it was either reduced to Chaff or as rotten as Dung. They were so crowded together and stuffed up in some Prisons that they were scarcely able to stir themselves and when any of them dyed which happened every day they put others in their room that they might be always equally pressed The suffocating heat that there was in the Summer and the Corruption with which the Chambers were infected by reason of the Sick had engendred abundance of Lice that would not let the Prisoners sleep night nor day there were also great Worms that eat thorow their skin there were several sick Persons to be seen that were if we may so say eaten up alive with Worms for by continual lying as not being able to rise or lift themselves up these poor People were become so mangy that their very skin being already putrified parted from their Flesh and mouldred away in pieces they left them thus flead and miserably languishing till death put a period to all their Sufferings They have not only endured all the inconveniencies of excessive heat but also those of extreme cold for in the middle of Winter they never allowed them any fire to warm themselves at nor gave them any cloths to cover themselves with tho' they lay in upper Rooms that for the most part had no Windows They never were permitted neither during the Summer nor yet in the Winter to have any Candles or Lamps to give Light in the obsourest nights notwithstanding they have often desired it to find means to succor the sick many of whom have died for want of relief a great number of Women have also expired in the pains of Child-birth merely for want of help in the dark and the loss of them hath been followed with that of their Infants who have received Death the same moment wherein they should have received Life They have put sick People whom they had separated from the whole into open places to be exposed to the injuries of the Air and the Weather whether fair or foul wet or dry But this sort of Cruelty hath proved in some manner charitable since it hath caused them to find an end to their Sufferings and Sorrows in that of their Lives In other Prisons they have put many Children taken with the Small-pox into wet Yards and on the Gutters of the Houses forcing them to receive the water that falls from thence They are not content not to afford the sick any relief themselves but hinder others from bringing them any sustenance as Water-gruel Broth c. Whenever the Prisoners dare so much as to complain of the little care they take of them they reproach them with threatnings and blows They tell them that instead of having compassion on them they will use them like Dogs till such time as they are all dead There is hardly a Prisoner that is not seized with many distempers There hath been such a great number of sick people together that they have counted threescore and fifteen at the same time in one chamber They have taken away out of the Prisons many young Children notwithstanding the opposition of their Parents In fine the Prisoners have been so barbarously used that it is scarce possible to believe that among those that bear the name of Christians there could be found so much inhumanity were it not known to what degree the Enemies of the Waldenses have extended their fury But we cannot doubt of the excess of miseries that these poor Captives have endured since we have been informed that more than 8000 persons have expired under the weight of this cruel bondage In the mean time as if the sufferings wherewith their bodies were afflicted were not sufficient they have even persecuted their very souls after a most dreadful manner For the Monks and the Priests have tried all the means imaginable to oblige them to change their Religion The good God hath nevertheless given them the grace to persist in the Truth and there are very few that have yielded to the force of these temptations those that turned were treated a little more gently than the others but they gave them not their liberty The Prisoners were reduced to this lamentable condition when the Duke of Savoy caused the Order to be published in the Prisons that permitted them to go out and to retreat into Switzerland This publication was not made every where in the same manner nor at the same time but successively and with proportion to the departure of the Prisoners It was made nevertheless in the greatest part of the Prisons by the means of an Auditor who caused the Prisoners to appear before him and told them that those that had a mind to retreat out of the Estates of Piedmont to go into Switzerland were permitted so to do even those that had promised to change their Religion because that promises that had been made in a Prison ought to be look'd on as forced and extorted and by consequence and void He added that they were left to their liberty whether they would go or stay behind and change their Religion nevertheless the Prisoners had not all this freedom of choice that they pretended to grant them For the Monks and the Officers of the Prisons who were present at this publication endeavoured to hinder the effects thereof Sometimes they represented to them that the rigour of the Season and the cruelty of the Soldiers that conducted them would cause part of them to perish on the Road. Sometimes they flatter'd them with the hopes of returning to their Houses if they would abjure their Religion But when these Considerations could not move them they beat them outragiously as it hapned in the Prisons of Ast where the Governor gave them a thousand blow with his Cane in the presence of the Auditor Leonardy They shut them up in deep ditches and in very stinking places as were the Prisons of Queirasque and others In fine they raised so many obstacles that there were several that yielded to the temptation and consented to renounce their Religion But instead of sending them back to their Houses they carried them at length as it were into captivity into the Province of Verceil being the most barren and the least fertile part of all the Duke of Savoy's Dominions I cannot omit some circumstances that were very remarkable one whereof is that several young Children as well those that had been taken out of the Prisons as those that were dispersed through Piedmont hearing that the prisoners were set at liberty desired to go along with their Parents and Kindred but they would not suffer them to do it the other is that the permission to depart was not published in the Prisons of Lucerne but only stuck upon the Walls that the Prisoners might have no benefit thereof And lastly they would not give liberty to the Prisoners that were in