ACROSS the broad smiling plains of Piedmont, in the direction of La Torre-the entrance to the valleys- marched Cataneo, the Pope's legate. Following, with uplifted crucifix, and banners flying, bearing the emblem of the cross, was a confused host of bratol soldiery and assassins, hired by Cataneo to carry out his cruel schemes; and who awaited with impatience for the signal, like bloodhounds, to spring forward and destroy. Agonized must have been the feelings of the poor Vaudois, as they gazed across those sweeping plains, and beheld the onward progress of this army of destruction. Too well they divined its terrible intent. There could be no mistaking the meaning of that uplifted crucifix and that cross-emblemed banner. The long-threatened crusade had begun; the holy war which had been preached against the Vaudois had succeeded; and now the relentless enemy was in full cry for their blood.
Although their impending fate was enough to have made the stoutest heart quake, the Vaudois remained calm and peaceful. Falling down on their knees, they pleaded for help to Him who had shielded them in the past, and who could now fight their battle, and defeat the adversary. Nor did they plead in vain, as the sequel will skew; for scarcely of that proud host did one return to tell the tale of disaster which had befallen it. But we must not anticipate.
Arrived before La Torre, Cataneo, in order to have some pretext for the cruel deeds he meditated, despatched a band of monks with the professed intention of converting the men of the valleys. So far, however, from their efforts availing, it is said they gained not a single convert. This pretense over, Cataneo prepared to set his soldiers in motion.
Meanwhile the Waldenses had sent down two of their patriarchs to seek an interview with Cataneo, and persuade him, if it were possible, not to pursue his cruel project, but depart and leave them in peace. " Do not condemn us without hearing us," said these venerable pleaders, " for we are Christians and faithful subjects, and our Barbes are prepared to prove that our doctrines are conformable to the Word of God... Our hope in God is greater than our desire to please men; beware how you draw down upon yourselves His anger by persecuting us; for remember, if God so will it, all the forces you have assembled against us will nothing avail."
Thus meekly, but firmly, because knowing in whom was their trust, did these brave men plead the cause of their Vaudois brethren. But as well might they have appealed to the nether mill-stone, as to the hearts of the Pope's legate and his ruffian followers. Spurning their entreaties, and anathematizing the Vaudois as unpardonable heretics ripe for destruction, Cataneo laid a scheme that would insure (as he thought) the complete extinction of the heretics, but as the event proved, only to his own total discomfiture and defeat.
Never doubting but that his men-at-arms would make short work of the unarmed herdsmen, he divided his army into numerous small divisions, hoping by means of a simultaneous attack at various points to strike a sudden and decisive blow. This, however, as we have said, proved his destruction. Separated into small straggling parties, these were speedily attacked and easily defeated by the hardy mountaineers; others, losing their way, wandered they knew not where, till night overt tying them, or becoming suddenly enveloped in the mountain mists, they fell over into yawning precipices, and so miserably perished.
It will be remembered that the plan of this combined expedition, led on the west side of the Alps by La Palu, and on the east by Cataneo, was to traverse the valleys from opposite points, sweeping out the heretics along their course, and finally to unite to the Valley of Angrogna, there, in the very seat of the heresy, to celebrate their triumph.
The only too successful expedition of La Palu we have followed: we left it pausing awhile after its fiendish work, awaiting the approach of Cataneo from Piedmont. When the Pope's legate, therefore, broke up his army into the small attacking parties just mentioned, these troops were enjoined to make their way to the Valley of Angrogna, so soon as they had completed the work of exterminating the inhabitants on their way.
We may follow the course of one of these troops as an example of the terrible fate that, with few exceptions, befel the rest. When the arm of the Lord is uplifted for the defense of His people, who shall stand before Him?
This expedition, numbering about 700 men, started across the Col Julien, one of the highest mountains of the range. Onwards, and ever higher and higher, the soldiers toiled, the only footpath being that made by the herdsman as he tended his sheep on the steep mountain side. Silence reigns, for the inhabitants have all fled. Still they travel onwards, bearing their weapons to be employed, not in genuine warfare, but as the instruments of cowardly massacre. At length the summit is reached, and they prepare to descend stealthily into the valley beneath. Climbing on their hands and knees the steep grassy slope, they looked down from the head of the pass on the Valley of Prali, at that moment a scene of peace.
Over the bosom of the plain were scattered numerous hamlets. " The peasants," we are told, "were at work in the meadows and cornfields; their children were at play; their herds were browsing in their pastures. Suddenly on the mountains above, had gathered this flock of vultures that with greedy eyes were looking down upon their prey. A few hours, and these dwellings (thought they) would be in flames, their inmates slaughtered, and their herds and goods carried off as booty. Impatient to begin their work these 700 assassins rushed down on the plains. The troop had reckoned that no tidings of their approach having reached this secluded valley, they would fall upon its unarmed peasants as falls the avalanche, and crush them. But it was not to be so. Instead of fleeing panic-struck, as the intruders expected, the men of Prali hastily assembled, and stood to their defense. The weapons of the Vaudois were rude, but their trust in God and their just indignation at the cowardly and bloody assault, gave them strength and courage. The soldiers, wearied with the rugged slippery tracks they had traversed, fell beneath the blows of their opponents."
Of the 700 who had started on the cruel errand but one survived to tell the tale of this disaster. Escaped unseen during the fray, he had hidden in a deep cave, until hunger and cold compelled him to come out and cast himself upon the mercy of the Vaudois. With a noble generosity little deserved they spared him, and sent him back over the Col Julien to tell his leader Cataneo that the Vaudois had courage to fight for their hearths and their altars; and that God was with them to deliver them out of the cruel hand of their enemies.
We left Cataneo before the gates of La Torre. He is now about to force an entrance into the Val Angrogna. The humble supplication of the Waldenses having been treated with contempt, as we have already seen, it remained with them either to submit, or be butchered in cold blood, or to fight. One ox these three courses they must adopt, and they chose the last. Wonderfully and. naturally fortified, their territory offered every obstacle to an invader. A few resolute men could hold their narrow passes against thousands; and whether rightly or wrongly, they judged that God had surrounded them with this great natural rampart of mountains expressly as a means of defense and protection against their enemies, and the enemies of His truth.
Accordingly they prepared to contest the advance of the Pope's legate, and his ruffian troops. First of all they removed the women and children, and all unable to bear arms, to a place of safety. Away up the mountain side they could be seen transporting their household stuff, while they made the hills resound again with their hymns, breathing forth unbounded confidence in God. Those who remained to meet the enemy were divided into small companies, and posted in advantageous positions for defense.
" Cataneo now put his soldiers in motion. Advancing to near the town of La Torre, they made a sharp turn to the right, and entered the Val di Angrogna. Its opening offers no obstruction, being soft and even as any meadow in England. By and-bye it begins to swell on the heights of Rocomaneot, where the Vaudois had resolved to make a stand. Their fighting men were posted along its ridge. Their armont was of the simplest. The bow was almost their only weapon of attack. They wore bucklers of skin, covered with the bark of the chestnut tree, the better to resist thrust of pike or cut of sword. In the hollow behind, protected by the rising ground on which their fathers, husbands, and brothers were posted, were a number of women and children gathered there for shelter.
" The attacking host now pressed up the acclivity, letting fly a shower of arrows as they advanced, and the Waldensian line on which their missiles fell seemed to waver, and be on the point of giving way. Those behind, espying the danger, fell on their knees, and, extending their hands in supplication to the God of battles, cried aloud, O God of our fathers, help us O God, deliver us! ' That cry was heard by the attacking host, and especially by one of its captains, Le Noir of Mondovi, or the Black Mondovi, a proud, bigoted, blood-thirsty man. He instantly shouted out that his soldiers would give the answer, accompanying his threat with horrible blasphemies. The Black Mondovi raised his visor as he spoke. At that instant an arrow from the bow of Pierre Revel, of Angrogna, entering between his eyes, transfixed his skull and he fell on the earth a corpse. The fall of this daring leader disheartened the Papal army.
The soldiers began to fall back. They were chased down the slopes by the Vaudois, who now descended upon them like one of their own mountain torrents. Having driven their invaders to the plain, cutting off not a few in their flight, they returned as the evening began to fall, to celebrate with songs, on the heights where they had won it, the victory with which it had pleased the God of their fathers to crown their arms."
Transported with rage and shame at being defeated by a few unarmed herdmen, Cataneo prepared a second attack, vowing a double vengeance on the poor Vaudois, when once they were within his power. But the Pope's legate had to learn that it was one thing to threaten, and another to perform. Better would it have been for him and his followers, had they learned wisdom by their first defeat and desisted, for a second was to overtake them, more awful, irretrievable, and from which there would be no escape.