ders; in
the city of Valence, in particular, fifty-seven of the principal
inhabitants were butchered in one day, for refusing to embrace the
Romish superstition; and great numbers were suffered to languish in
confinement, till they perished through the inclemency of their
dungeons.

CHAPTER IX.

AN ACCOUNT OF THE PERSECUTIONS IN LITHUANIA AND POLAND.

The persecutions in Lithuania began in 1648, and were carried on with
great severity by the Cossacks and Tartars. The cruelty of the Cossacks
was much, that even the Tartars, at last, grew ashamed of it, and
rescued some of the intended victims from their hands.

The barbarities exercised were these: skinning alive, cutting off hands,
taking out the bowels, cutting the flesh open, putting out the eyes,
beheading, scalping, cutting off feet, boring the shin bones, pouring
melted lead into the flesh, hanging, stabbing, and sending to perpetual
banishment.

The Russians, taking advantage of the devastations which had been made
in the country, and of its incapability of defence, entered it with a
considerable army, and, like a flood, bore down all before them. Every
thing they met with was an object of destruction; they razed cities,
demolished castles, ruined fortresses, sacked towns, burnt villages, and
murdered people. The ministers of the gospel were peculiarly marked out
as the objects of their displeasure, though every worthy christian was
liable to the effects of their cruelty.

As Lithuania recovered itself after one persecution, succeeding enemies
again destroyed it. The Swedes, the Prussians, and the Courlanders,
carried fire and sword through it, and continual calamities, for some
years, attended that unhappy district. It was then attacked by the
prince of Transylvania, who had in his army, exclusive of his own
Transylvanians, Hungarians, Moldavians, Servians, Walachians, &c. These,
as far as they penetrated, wasted the country, destroyed the churches,
rifled the nobility, burnt the houses, enslaved the healthy, and
murdered the sick.

A clergyman, who wrote an account of the misfortunes of Lithuania, in
the seventeenth century, says, "In consideration of these extremities,
we cannot but adore the judgment of God poured upon us for our sins, and
deplore our sad condition. Let us hope for a deliverance from his mercy,
and wish for restitution in his benevolence. Though we are brought low,
though we are wasted, troubled, and terrified, yet his compass