this pious design.

"One of the saintly murderous brood,
To carnage and the crosier given,
Who think through unbelievers' blood
Lies their directest path to heaven."

(MOORE, slightly altered.)

The papal bull initiating this work of shame promised to all who should
engage in it "plenary indulgence, with remission of their sins once and at
the hour of death." It also gave permission to appropriate the lands and
goods of the heretics. All along the valley of the Po, and over the regions
of the Cottian Alps, the bull of Innocent was talked of. Charles VIII. of
France and Charles II. of Savoy sanctioned its design. The year 1488 marks
an era of suffering for the Vaudois and of infamy to Rome.

Some 18,000 soldiers responded to the call of De Capitaneis. He forms them
into two bodies. One proceeds to devastate Dauphine and the district near
from the west, while the other division, attacking from Piedmont, is to
ravage the east; and as the two bodies approach each other they aim to
enclose their victims, and so to prevent their escape. These victims were
all unprepared for the vengeance which impended. Engaged in peaceful
tillage, they had no means of defence, but fled to the rocks and caves,
where their persecutors followed them, and being unable to reach them in
their retreats, they piled up fuel at the mouths of the caverns, and so
compelled the Vaudois to choose between death by suffocation or the sword.

By such conduct some 3000 persons, including 400 young children, perished
in the vale of Loyse. The Val Pragela also suffered much. But in the
Clusone, after the first feelings of surprise had passed away, the
inhabitants successfully repulsed their invaders. In the valley of Lucerna,
San Giovanni, La Torre, Villaro Bobbio, and their hamlets, fell into the
hands of the enemy. Still their career was sometimes checked by successful
resistance, and deserved retribution. An example of this occurred to a
detachment numbering some 700 Piedmontese troops, who were attempting to
surprise the valley of San Martino by way of the Col Juliano. This body of
soldiers, on reaching Pommiers, was attacked with such vigour and
determination by the inhabitants of Prali, that only one of their number
escaped destruction. This was an ensign, who concealed himself under a
mass of snow, which had been excavated by the summer heat. Cold and hunger
eventually compelled him to descend and as