in, shouting and making a frightful noise, and with drawn swords preparing for the butchery. However, at that time they forbore to kill, but having committed many insolencies, and robbed the poor creatures of all their money and provisions, they carried them away prisoners.

"In the meantime Menier came to Merindol, and finding it forsaken by the inhabitants, he plundered it and set it on fire, which was ushered in by a very cruel action; for, having found there one single youth, he commanded him to be tied to a tree, and shot. He next marched to Cabriere, and began to batter that town; but by the mediation of Captain Poulain, he persuaded the town's people, upon promise of indemnity, to open the gates; which being done, and the soldiers let in, after a little pause, all were put to the sword, without respect to age or sex. Many fled to the church, others to other places, and some into the wine cellar of the castle; but being dragged out into a meadow, and stript naked, they were all put to the sword, not only the men, but also the women. Menier also shut up about forty women in a barn full of hay and straw, and then set it on fire; and after that, the poor creatures having attempted in vain to smother the

fire with their clothes, they betook themselves to the window, with an intention to leap down from thence, but they were kept in with pikes and spears, so that all of them perished in the flames. Those in the wine cellar were all put to the sword; and the young infants which survived the fury, were for the most part re-baptized by the enemy. The number of the slain, as well in the town as abroad in the fields, amounted to eight hundred !"

The town of Coste was next assaulted and taken, when scenes of atrocity, the most detestable and villanous, were committed, the very reIcital of which would fill the mind of the reader with horror. "It was in this manner," says Gilly," that plunder, carnage, and violation were spread from one end of Provence to another; Dauphiné and Languedoc experienced nearly the same horrors, and few were the Protestants who were spared, and fewer those who had the courage to acknowledge that they belonged to the proscribed party. There was, however, one illustrious champion left, Aymond de la Voye, whose name ought not to be forgotten. This brave and pious man boldly went from village to village, to confirm the wavering, and re-assure

the hopeless, until at length he exposed himself to suspicion, and was carried before a tribunal which was sitting for the condemnation of heretics. The first question that was put to him, was intended to draw forth a disclosure that would lead to the apprehension of others.

"Who are your associates?

My associates are those who know and do the will of my heavenly Father, whether they be nobles, merchants, peasants, or men of any other condition..

"Who is the head of the Church?

"Jesus Christ.

"Is not the Pope the head of the Church? "No-if he be a good man, he is the minister and primate of the Roman Church, but nothing

more.

"Is not the Pope the successor of St Peter? "Yes, if he be like St Peter, but not else. "His persecutors saw that he was not to be moved, and ordered him to be led to execution. As he passed by an image of the Virgin Mary, he refused to salute it; and the execrations of an infuriated mob had no other effect upon him, than to pray aloud, "Oh, Lord, I beseech thee to make it known to these deluded creatures, that

it is to thee only they are to bow the head, and offer up supplication." As he mounted the scaf fold, he cried out with a firm voice, "Be it known that I am not a heretic, but a Christian." The clamorous multitude insisted that his voice should be stopped; and, before the executioner had inflicted the tortures usual upon these occasions, an end was ordered to be put to his existence, because there was no other way of silencing the undaunted Aymond de la Voye, whom even prolonged suffering could not intimidate."

CHAP. VI.

New edicts issued against the Waldenses of Piedmont -their petition to the Duke of Savoy-it is disre garded the Popish troops attack the village of Angrogna-they are repeatedly repulsed-suspension of hostilities-noble defence of the conduct of the Waldenses, made by their deputies at Turin-still more sanguinary edicts issued against the inhabitants of the valleys their execution for some time suspended persecutions in the Marquisate of Saluces-the liberties of the Waldenses in the other valleys restricted -a Council for extirpating heretics established at Turin.

THE dreadful sufferings of the Waldenses in Provence deeply afflicted, and filled with alarm, their brethren in the valleys of Piedmont. Similar barbarities continued to be committed in various other places,* and they knew not how soon an

*In Calabria, especially, the Waldenses were subjected to the most cruel sufferings. A church had been