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
till then inaccessible and prepared to take the Waldenses from above This obliged the Waldenses to abandon Bobi and to convey themselves into the Woods and Rocks The Marquess de Parelle and the Count de Birchanteau having occupied the Posts that the Waldenses had quitted sent after them in their Retreat divers Persons to exhort them to submit and to offer them favour several of these poor People being worn out with the Fatigue and fore pressed with Hunger and Misery yielded to this Offer but they lost their Liberty into the bargain Others surrendred themselves to the Governor of Mireboue on an assurance that he had given them of their Lives and Liberty but he rewarded their Faith with a rigorous Imprisonment There were several who had withdrawn themselves into the Mountain of Vandalin and fought for some time with much Courage and good Fortune but at last they did as the others and let themselves be seduced by the Count de la Roche Governor of the Valleys He promised them positively by a Letter wrote with his own hand that they should return to their Houses with all freedom but they had no sooner quitted their Post than that he caused them to be carried to Prison and took from them the Letter that he had given them The Enemies of the Waldenses having thus by the means aforementioned taken away the Lives of a multitude of People deprived more than twelve thousand Waldenses of their Liberty and taken away and dispersed two thousand Children thought that they had no more to do They proceeded to carry on their Injustice to the utmost and caused all the Goods of the Waldenses to be confiscated After this manner it was that the Valleys of Piedmont have been depopulated of their ancient Inhabitants that the light of the Gospel hath been extinguished in a Country where it hath shone so bright for so many Ages that Perfidiousness and Treachery hath triumphed over the good Faith of the Waldenses that the Council of the Propagation and the rest of their Enemies have executed the design they had formed for their Extirpation and that the Waldenses have unjustly suffer'd and for the sole cause of their Religion this horrible Persecution and lamentable Dissipation that ought to draw Tears from the eyes of all good Christians But for the more perfect knowledge of what Spirit their Persecutors have been animated with it will be requisite to take a prospect of the Outrages and Cruelties they have committed on these occasions Although it is my design to give an Account only of those dismal effects of their rage that were produced after the Capitulations yet I cannot but mention the barbarous Enormities where with the French signalized their entry into the Valley of St. Martin not only because they exceed those bounds that Christians ought to set to their Victories but also because they were committed on Persons not capable of defending themselves it were easie to expose to publick view the Massacre of so many old Men Women and little Children that were sacrificed to the fury of the Soldiers the desolation of those poor Women and Maidens who after they had been ravished were constrained to march stark naked at the head of the Army to serve for Guides to the French and the monstrous and diabolical actions of those enraged Soldiers that satiated their infamous Lusts on the very Bodies of those whom they had deprived of Life But I shall pass by all those things to produce some examples of Cruelties and Oppressions executed after the subduing of the Valleys The Soldiers committed several Massacres at Angrogne which I shall not specifie that I may not be engaged in too tedious a recital They ravished many Women and Maidens whose Names for modesty sake I shall spare by reason that several of them are yet living They would also have deflowered Margaret Maraude who was not fourteen years old and because Iames Maraude her Father and Margaret Maraude made some opposition to this Violence they were most inhumanly butchered Susanna Oliviette and Margaret Baline endeavouring to preserve their Chastity lost their Lives by the hands of these Barbarians Ioseph David being wounded at Angrogne was carried by the Soldiers into a neighbouring House where they caused him to be burnt Four Women and three Children of Prarustin were murthered in a Cave in a Rock where they had hid themselves Daniel Fourneron's Mother aged fourscore years was tumbled down a Precipice coming from the Tower-field because she did not go fast enough M. Deumian kill'd the Wife of Iames Fourneron and Magdalen Roche with a Back Sword because they had not delivered soon enough the Mony that they had about them Mary Romain a handsom young Woman espoused to Iames Griot was massacred for striving to maintain her Honour Another Maid for keeping hers being cast into a River was killed with a Musket-shot Several Women and Maidens who are yet living were dragged by the Hair into Houses where they were ravished with abominable circumstances there was one of these who through despair flung herself headlong out at Window Honoria Iayer a young Child being found with the Woman was shot to death with a Fuzee A great number of Women and Virgins trying to save themselves in the Woods to get out of danger of the Violences of the Soldiers were dispatched with Muskets that were shot off to stop them The Marquess de Parelle and several Waldenses whom he caused to march to serve him for Guides passing through Plumian to go into the Valley of S. Martin found the dead Bodies of many little Children cut in pieces several naked Women massacred with Swords among whom there were some that had Stones thrust into their Privy Parts They saw also several Soldiers that carried in their Hats the mark of an horrible Cruelty and of a diabolical Impudicity at the sight whereof the Marquess de Parelle was offended In the Valley of S. Martin there were six men twenty Women and some Children who went to surrender themselves in the City of Peirouse upon promise that was made them that they should receive no harm But as soon as they were come they shot these six men to death in the presence of their Wives Iohn Ribet of Macel being apprehended they caused his Arms and Legs to be burnt to oblige him to change his Religion but God gave him the Grace to obtain the Crown of Martyrdom in constantly suffâ—ring the Death that these Butchers put him to They also inhumanly murthered Bartholomew Ribet Iames Breus and his Son. They tyed a poor infirm Person to a Horses Tail and drag'd him along till he expired They hung up an old blind Woman before her own House They found a Woman at the point of being brought to bed and committed two Murthers at one blow taking away her Life and that of the Child in her Belly They pursued after two young Maids from a place called le Colet to another quarter named Bonniot where having overtook
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