ce, La Rocque and St. Etienne
de Janson suffered the same fate, at the hands of volunteers coming from
Arles. Happily they were found deserted, the villagers having had timely
notice of the approaching storm.

[Sidenote: The destruction of Merindol.]

Early on the eighteenth of April, D'Oppede reached Merindol, the
ostensible object of the expedition. But a single person was found
within its circuit, and he a young man reputed possessed of less than
ordinary intellect. His captor had promised him freedom, on his pledging
himself to pay two crowns for his ransom. But D'Oppede, finding no other
human being upon whom to vent his rage, paid the soldier the two crowns
from his own pocket, and ordered the youth to be tied to an olive-tree
and shot. The touching words uttered by the simple victim, as he turned
his eyes heavenward and breathed out his life, have been preserved:
"Lord God, these men are snatching from me a life full of wretchedness
and misery, but Thou wilt give me eternal life through Jesus Thy
Son."[492]

[Sidenote: The village razed.]

Meantime the work of persecution was thoroughly done. The houses were
plundered and burned; the trees, whether intended for shade or for
fruit, were cut down to the distance of two hundred paces from the
place. The very site of Merindol was levelled, and crowds of laborers
industriously strove to destroy every trace of human habitation. Two
hundred dwellings, the former abode of thrift and contentment, had
disappeared from the earth, and their occupants wandered,
poverty-stricken, to other regions.[493]

[Sidenote: Treacherous capture of Cabrieres.]

Leaving the desolate spot, D'Oppede next presented himself, on the
nineteenth of April, before the town of Cabrieres. Behind some weak
entrenchments a small body of brave men had posted themselves,
determined to defend the lives and honor of their wives and children to
their last drop of blood. D'Oppede hesitated to order an assault until a
breach had first been made by cannon. Then the Waldenses were plied with
solicitations to spare needless effusion of blood by voluntary
surrender. They were offered immunity of life and property, and a
judicial trial. When by these promises the assailants had, on the
morrow, gained the interior of the works, they found them guarded by
Etienne de Marroul and an insignificant force of sixty men, supported by
a courageous band of about forty women. The remainder of the population,
overcome