Show A chayter CHAPTER IN THE HISTORY OF or THE VAUDOIS wanderings AND MUSINGS IN THE VALLEYS OF or THE by DR J A WYLIE on the of Janti janil january arv 1655 came the famous order of gastaldo Ga stalio that decree commanded the whole inhabitants of luserna laserna Lu serna aerna la latorre torre Lu sernetta Bernetta and san secundo to withdraw and depart within three days under pain of death i ail all and confiscation of goods from their dwellings J unless they should be able to show withie twenty one days that they had abjured their religion or sold their possessions to the catholics th olics olica anything more inhuman and barbarous in the circumstances than the edict it would not be easy to imagine r it was the depth of winter and of an alpine winter which has terrors unknown even to our more northern region how ever could a multitude like this ii cluing young children and old men menthe the sick and bedridden the blind and the lame undertake such a journey across swollen rivers through b valleys buried in snow and over mountains covered with ice they must inevitably perish and the edict which C cast st them out was but another form of cond condemning emping tam to die of cold and hunger on the mountains As they looked towards the bills well might they say cold indeed are these snow clad alps but colder still is the heart of the persecutor pray ye 11 said christ that your flight be not in the winter who does not admire the compassionate spirit that shines forth in these words the agents of rome as if desirous of showing that their thein spirit was ag ail bitter and cruel as that of bf the savior was sweet and merciful chose the very depth of winter for this enforced right flight of the vaudois an alternative was left thim them they might go to mass did they avail themselves of this door of escape the historian leger informs he had a congregation gre gation of well nigh two thousand and that not a man of them all accepted the alternative of romel the whole community rose up as one nian man and bearing hearing their aged and sick on their shoulders aw anda anad leading by the hand band their blind and halt they bade adieu to their homes and traversing the mountains they were welcomed by their brethren of Ang rogna and rora and bobbio who joyfully shared with them their own humble and scanty fare their chestnuts and polenta their enemies were amazed when they beheld them rise up and depart the cruel edict which cast out the from their dwelling dwellings 8 in the depth of winter was but the beginning of borrows sorrows greater woes boes trod fast upon the heels beels of this initial calamity A portion only of the nation had buffered ered from the trie decree of GaB gastaldo taldo taido but the object of odthe the propaganda was the extirpation of the entire vaudois race and was gone gore about with a consummate perfidy and a most roost deliberate cruelty from the tipper upper valleys to which they had retired the Wald enaes sent respect respectful fui ful representations to the court of turin they described their pite ois condition in terms so moving no borus could have exaggerated it and besought the fulfillment of former treaties in ill which the honor and truth of the house of savoy had been pledged in language so reasonable and just that one would have thought it was impossible but that they should prevail ais als alas no the ear of their prince had been poisoned by falsehood access to him even was denied them their supplications ions accompanied H compa nied with groans and tears were edby the propaganda the vaudois were but charming deaf adders supplicating lions greedy of their prey and thirsting for vaudois blood they were put off by equivocal answers and delusive promises till we itie arrival of the fatal lath of april 1 I wi will I 1 I 1 give you an answer on the were the last words of pia pla pianezza ezza to their deputies who batted upon f him at turin the reply in point of equino r cation catlon wab was was wag worthy odthe old delphic oracle at midnight of the april 1655 this man of craft and blood secretly departed from turin and abid appeared before the valleys ai at the head of an army of men that army was a fit instrument for the work it had bad been chosen to perform it was composed first of all of P ed cotese who intensely hated bated the persons of the vaudois and yet more intensely coveted their goods of two regiments of french whose appetite had been whetted by a taste of huguenot blood in their own country and who came across the alps as a might a pace lack sack of bloodhounds eager to slake their thirst by y voracious draughts in the valleys and to these were added several companies of irish who banished by cromwell arrived in piedmont dripping from he the massacre of forty thousand of their fel fei fellow lo 10 w protestant subjects the poor began to see what was awaiting them whither could they flee behind them was france ruled by that libertine and bigot louis XIV before them was italy their ancient implacable foe of england they thought but alas england was too far off to shield them by her powerful arm succour they had none but in god the had bad three alternatives in their choice they might go to mass or they might submit to be butchered like sheep or they might fight for their lives as men they chose the latter though poorly armed and badly organized the they thes dared to give battle to powerful and well equipped host and for days kept in check his whole army A series of skirmishes took place along liong the line of their mountain passes passe and sand forts and in these the though assailed by ten times their number were completely victorious the soldiers strove ineffectually to take these positions they were ignominiously routed and forced to fall bank back on their suc cours in the plain carrying with them wondrous accounts of vaudois valor and infusing incipient lent panic into the camp guilt is ever cowardly pianezza began to have misgivings regarding the issue of the campaign and id the recollection of former mighty armies which bad perished on these mountains by no means reassured him ile he changed his tactics he now dow betook retook him to a wea which the wail Wald enaes have ever been less able to cope than with the sword resuming negotiations he invited the deputies to his table and overpowered them with kindness ile he solemnly protested that he had come into their valleys only to track a few fugitives who had dared to violate Gast aldos he assured them that from him the vaudois people had nothing to dread and that if only they would permit a few regiments to be quart quartered ered fred among them for a few days in token of their loyalty the matter would speedily be at an end enci the stratagem prospered to his utmost wishes in ill an evil hour the WaIden walden sea listened to these deceitful words and opened the passes of their valleys and the doors of their dwellings to soldiers janavel alone distrusted the fair words of the marquis he closed his valley of rora rofa against the murderers his brethren blamed him as ifton too violent alas alas these poor people were undone they had bad received under their roof the exe cautioners cution ers of themselves and their families the first rbt two days the and of april passed in peace the soldiers sitting at the same table sleeping under the same roof and conversing freely with their destined victims this space of time was needed to allow of every precaution and preparation for what was to follow the soldiers now occupied all the towns and villages and cottage collage they abey hung upon the i heights seized the lasses basses passes especially that of Mira bouc leading from luserna laserna into the valley of Quey ras in dauphine Dauphi neto to prevent escape into france at last the blow tell like a thunderbolt at four of the clock on the morning of the april the signal was given from the castie castle of la torre but who shall describe the scenes beenes that followed on the instant a thousand assassins began the work of death dismay horror agony woe in a moment overspread the Valleys of luserna laserna arid and Ang rogna although hell heli had vomited forth fort hits aita bienus to riot in crime and human suffering they could have done nothing worse these fiends incarnate the soldiers of the propaganda were not content with dispatching their victims they strove to immortalize their names by the infliction or new and unheard of cruelties cruel ties there is not a way in n which human beings can buffer suffer in hibb the vaudois were not dot made to suffer little children were torn from the armson arms bof their mothers and dashed against t the rocks or more horrible still they were field betwixt two soldiers who unmoved by their thein r piteous itemus cries and the sight of the their thein r quivering limbs imbs tore them up into two halves their bodies were then thrown on the the highways and the fields sick persons and old people men and women were burned in their own houses some were wera backed in pieces some were bound up tip in the form ofa of a precipitated over we the rocks 0 or rolled down dotan the mountains of many of these the end was most miserable being caught iu their fall by the branch of a tree or the projection of a rock in places inaccessible eia eba ces sible they might be seen been hanging for days in lingering pain and agony lagony it some were slowly dismembered and fire applied to the wounds to staunch the bleeding and prolong their sufferings bome some were clayed flayed alive some roasted alive others were aisem bo welled some were horribly and shamefully mutilated and arid of others th the e flesh and brains were boiled and actually eaten by these cannibals in some instances Ices the tortures inflicted remind us of those of the era thou though 1 b in the main the Piedmont se barbarities far 1 exceeded x the pagan cruelties cruel ties some were I 1 smeared with pitch and used aa as torches and some were crucified with their heads beads downward others had bad the flesh torn from their bones by the iron chains with which thie they were flogged and others were beaten to death with burning brands same were buried alive of some the eyes were to torn forn rn from their thel r heads of some the nails from their fingers and of bomp the tongues frome their mouths some were tied to their own orchard trees and had their hearts cut cat out others were fastened down into the furrows of their fields and ploughed sloughed hed ruthlessly into the soil as men do manure some were stuffed with gunpowder and blown into pieces others had cats thrust into their 0 open en entrails mothers were beaten with the dead bodies of their own infants and fathers were marched to death with the ahe heads beads of their sons suspended round their necks butchy but why should we lengthen n out an enumeration so dreadful parents were doomed to behold their children arst dishonored and then massacred before being themselves called to die young women were impaled alive and carried ab about out put by the brutal soldiers as standards or planted by the roadside as posts amid circumstances es of unutterable atrocity and horror no general account can convey nearly so vivid an ail idea of the horrors cf of this persecution as the history of individual cases could we take these martyrs one by one could we describe the fate of peter simeon of Ang rogna the barbarous death of magdalene wife wire ot peter pilon of villaro the sad story but no that story cannot be told la of anne daughter of john charbonier of la torre the cruel martyrdom of paul Garnier gamier 3 of rora whose eyes were first plucked out who next endured other horrible indignities arid and last list of all was clayed flayed alive and the four divisions af of his skin exten extended dedon on the grating of the windows of the four priA principal cipal houses in iu Lii serna could we describe these cases with that of hundreds of others equally appalling we ve should compile a narrative so awfully harrowing thai that few we believe would have courage to read it through literally did the suffer all the things of which the apostle speak speaks sas aa endured by the martyrs of old they ay iy were ere stoned they were sawn asunder were tempted were slain with the sword they wandered about in sheepskins sheep skins arid and goatskins goat skins being destitute afflicted torment tormented edof of whom the world was not worthy they wandered in deserts and in mountain mountains band aana and in dens denb and in caves of the earth these cruelties cruel ties almost transcend belief in fact they form a scene unique in the history of the world they stand alone in their monstrous forms of fiendish wickedness aness chete thee have been scenes in which more blood has been spilt split and more life sacrificed but none where the actors were so little human Even after the massacres ager le ger may still advance acance bis his challenge to all travelers and all who have studied the history of ancient ancien tand and modern pagans whether among the chinese tartars Tar tars and turks they ever witnessed or heard tell of so execrable perfidies and barbarities 51 11 their authors presuming no doubt that what so far surpassed all former achievements in wickedness would also surpass belief were so bold as to deny even before the blood so profusely shed in the valleys was well dry that these deeds had ever been done leger took effectual care that that thai tha denial should avail them nothing and that clear irrefragable fra gable indubitable proof of these awful crimes should go down to posterity after the massacre he be traveled from commune to commune attended by notaries not aries who took dolan down the attestations atte stations and arld depositions of the survivors and eyewitnesses eye witnesses of these deed deeds in the presence of theeo uncil and consistory of the place A pe he next net compiled and published to the worl world Vom irom the evidence og these eye bitnes bes ses a book now bufor br forus e which dr gilly has truly characterized aa as one of the most dreadful books which the world contains the original of these depositions be gave t to 0 sir samuel JM orland Morland 3 who deposited them to gether with other valuable documents pertaining to the Walden ses sea in the library of the university of cambridge generale generate des dos eulises des val lees de on s en denz deuz livres par jean ager pasteur et des de des jes vallee et depuis la a violence de 11 id persecution appele appelo a regille Wal lonne de leyde A leyde leyder 1669 |