emple of St. Germain, when the night closed the encounter; and on the next
day they were protected by reinforcements from Pinerolo. The five hundred
Frenchmen killed and wounded on this occasion furnished the pretext for
horrible cruelties practised by that portion of the troops which were
commanded by Catinat himself in the defenceless valley of Martino.

In the meantime Gabriel of Savoy was attacking the valley of Angrogna. The
Vaudois, although weakened by divisions, and lacking such leaders as
Janavello and Leger, yet fortified the heights of La Vachere, and for a
whole day successfully resisted their assailants. But, unfortunately, they
were induced to believe the promise made to them in a note signed by
Gabriel of Savoy, in the name of his nephew, that "if they laid down their
arms they should not be injured, either in their own persons or in those of
their wives and children." This promise, and similar ones made to other
groups of the Vaudois at Pra del Torre, Permian, near Pramol, and other
retired spots in the neighbourhood of La Torre, were all shamefully
disregarded. The people of Bobbio were the last to give way, after a brave
resistance, which they continued on the rocks of the Vandalin. Frightful
deeds of shame and cruelty now prevailed all through the valleys. Two
examples may suffice, although by no means the worst in some respects. A
woman takes refuge in a cave, with her little babe and a goat, which
furnished the means of their subsistence. Unfortunately the poor animal was
heard to bleat by some of the soldiers who happened to be near. These
wretches seized the child and, in the presence of its mother, threw it over
the precipice, and then led the mother herself to a jutting crag that she
might die there in the greatest agony. A second case is that of the pastor
of Guigot, near Prali. He had secreted himself under a rock, and believing
the enemy to be at a distance, was consoling himself by singing a psalm.
For this offence, after months of suffering in prison, he was condemned to
death. He died with the Saviour's words on his lips--"Father, into thy
hands I commend my spirit." The cruelties inflicted on the Vaudois at this
time were even greater than those resulting from the massacres of 1655;
but, in addition to all that took place within the valleys themselves,
there remain the wrongs perpetrated upon those who were dragged from their
loved, though desolated, homes. Some fourteen thousand persons wer