RORA AND JANAVELLO.
In order to reach this spot, my companion and I left the town of La Torre
by a street bounded on one side by Trinity College. We then crossed the
Pelice by a somewhat rustic bridge, and found ourselves very quickly
immersed in woods on the mountain side with numberless bye-paths. These
paths were very circuitous, and we had occasion often to ask our way from
some friendly woodman or inhabitant of a wayside chalet. Every now and then
we came to a kind of table-land, where we could indulge in a panoramic
survey. The steepness of the ascent, and the occasional ruggedness of our
path, served to intensify our realization of the interest of the locality,
as the scene of so many heroic deeds by Janavello and his little but brave
band of patriots against the assailants of their hearths, faith, and homes.
About an hour and a half from the time we had left La Torre we came to the
Plas Janavel, which constitutes a magnificent amphitheatre, planted with
vines, and corn, and chestnut trees. From this locality we bore away in a
south-westerly direction, over a rocky eminence crowned with wood, and
descended through gardens and orchards to a kind of ravine or narrow
valley, on the sloping side of which stands Janavello's house. We found an
old, but obliging, Roman Catholic in possession of the premises, once so
bravely defended by their patriotic owner. However, overwhelmed by numbers,
he was compelled to retreat after performing prodigies of valour, his
sister, with babe at her breast, being shot by his side. We were shown the
entrance to the subterranean outlet by which Janavello made his escape. The
initials G. G., with the date of the year, we also read, cut in the stone
above.
So soon, however, as Janavello had placed his little son, only eight years
of age, in the care of friends in Dauphiny, he returned to his native
valleys, and became the David of his people against the bands of
Philistines who were yet in the land. The skill and bravery already
displayed by Janavello in so successfully resisting the troops of Pianezza,
led the latter at first to attempt to win over the patriot warrior by
offering him a pardon for himself and the safe return of his wife and three
daughters (who had been captured at Rora) if he would renounce his
"heresy," but threatening him if he refused with the severest treatment. To
this Janavello nobly replied, "That there were no torments so cruel, nor
death so barbarous, which he would not prefer to abjuration; that if the
marquis made his wife and daughters to pass through the fire, the flames
could only consume their bodies; that as for their souls, he commended them
to God, trusting them in His hands equally with his own, in case it should
please Him to permit his falling into the hands of the executioners."
Janavello's troop, led by himself and his lieutenant, Jahier, had many
successful contests with the enemy during the months of May, June, and
July. They captured the town of Secondo, occupied by their enemies, and
while putting to death large numbers of the Irish soldiers who had been
guilty of such enormities, they yet spared the sick, aged, and children,
unlike the treatment accorded to themselves. One of their chief services,
however, was to keep in check the garrison which had been placed in the
fort at La Torre. A splendid victory on the heights of Angrogna was sadly
clouded by a wound received by Janavello. For a time it was thought to be
mortal. However, Janavello, being removed to a distance, gradually
recovered; but a yet worse thing happened later in the day. Jahier, to whom
the command had been entrusted by Janavello, with the request to cease the
conflict for that evening, was induced by a traitor to disregard that
instruction, and fell, with fifty of his men, into an ambush of the enemy.
Jahier, his son, and all his companions but one, fell, covered with wounds,
and fighting with the courage of heroes. Leger speaks of Jahier as a
perfect captain, had it not have been for his imprudent boldness.
However, Janavello mercifully recovered from his wound, and when the
Vaudois, wearied beyond endurance by the cruelties inflicted upon them by
the successive governors of that fort at La Torre which had been most
unjustly restored in 1655 after its destruction by the French in 1593,
could no longer submit, the hero of Rora (notwithstanding a price was set
upon his head) assembled some two or three hundred patriots to resist the
plundering bands of De Bagnol and Paolo de Berges. Such was the terror
caused by these wretches that the people of Giovanni, La Torre, Rora, and
Lucerna, fled to the mountains on the French territory. Then, as if
disappointed of his prey, De Bagnol issued an edict commanding them within
three days to return and present themselves at the fort. No exception was
to be allowed for age, sex, or condition. The majority were wise enough to
disobey this order, but some, thinking they might be allowed to cultivate
their lands again, ventured to return, but, alas! they had occasion to
bitterly lament the result. Whilst the commandant of the fortress of La
Torre ordered the fugitives to return, Janavello exerted his influence to
keep them back. Before the final date, June 25th, 1662, had arrived, an
army, commanded by the Marquises of Fleury and Angrogna, appeared at the
entrance of the Val Pelice, so that the Vaudois could no longer doubt the
intentions of their enemies. But at this stage happened one of those
remarkable displays of loyalty to their prince on the part of the Vaudois
which was only equalled by their fidelity to God. The troops of the duke
were prevented by the armed population of the valleys from crossing the end
so as to reach the fort of Mirabouc beyond Bobbio, which was then destitute
of provisions, and which it was desired to reinforce. Under these
circumstances the commanders of the Piedmontese troops requested the chief
persons of the commune to give a proof of submission and good-will to their
sovereign by escorting a convoy which was on its way to the fortress. They
were assured that if they would do this that peace would be promptly
restored. The devoted Vaudois, more willing to risk their own safety than
appear to distrust their prince, complied with this request; yea, even more
than once, though a war of extermination was being urged against them; for
their enemies, unable to discover any marks of merit in those they
stigmatized as heretics, were seeking to occupy the heights of La Vachere
and obtain possession of their citadel, the Pra del Torre. On the 6th of
July, 1663, the enemy ascended the mountains from four different points.
The two first divisions, numbering four thousand men, were fortifying
themselves on the hill of Plans before attempting to force through the
narrow pass called the gate of Angrogna, occupied by a detachment of
Vaudois placed there by Janavello. In the meantime the two other divisions
of the enemy's force, approaching from the side of Giovanni and La Torre,
repulsed the six or seven hundred mountaineers who had been hastily
gathered at that point; but when they reached the rocks and ruins of
Roccamanetto, the scene of many a victory won by the patriot bands, and
which, said Janavello on this occasion, is "our Tabor," the Vaudois stayed
the course of their assailants and finally compelled them to retreat with
considerable slaughter. Janavello then gave thanks to God, and after
leaving a guard led his troops down the valley, exclaiming, "Let us sweep
these cowards from the hills!"
After a determined charge in flank, and the renewed efforts of the Vaudois
already posted at the gate of Angrogna, the Piedmontese fled, leaving
behind them over six hundred dead, besides many wounded. As the results of
these discomfitures, a new general was appointed for the Piedmontese
troops, Count Damian; and although other successes followed the arms of the
patriots, yet they suffered a reverse at St. Germano, and frightful
cruelties were perpetrated by their enemies; _e.g._, at Roccapiatta they
burnt to death a woman nearly one hundred years of age, and bedridden. At
St. Germano a young woman is treated with every possible indecency, and
then left to die, after having her flesh cut from her bones. Other
atrocities also were wrought upon persons falling into the hands of the
soldiers, which it is impossible to recite. The Duke of Savoy now began to
feel disappointed at the results of this persecution of his subjects; and
the deputies of the Swiss cantons tried to obtain honourable conditions for
the Vaudois. Therefore a kind of amnesty was published Feb. 14th, 1664,
which, although professing to confirm the articles of the treaty of
Pinerolo, really abridged many of the privileges formerly enjoyed by the
Vaudois. It also imposed a fine of two million francs. Janavello was
refused any share in the benefits of this treaty, and consequently retired
to Geneva, where his valuable counsel stood Arnaud in good stead at a later
period. In the war between Charles Emmanuel of Savoy and the Genoese, in
1672, the Vaudois rendered such cheerful and valuable help that their
sovereign was constrained to make a public acknowledgment of their
services. A brighter day now seemed dawning upon these faithful valley men.
To be the object of their ruler's confidence and affection was a pleasure
as sweet to their taste as rare in their experience. But, alas! this
pleasant change is but a break in the dark clouds which have so long
overshadowed their troubled life, and but the precursor of a storm of
bitterness and cruelty unsurpassed even in their annals of woe and sadness.
Charles Emmanuel died on the 3rd of June, 1678. For a few years, under the
regency of his widow and the reign of his son, Victor Amadeus VII., there
was peace. But just at the time when their services against the banditti
of Mondovi might seem to have added to their claims and expectation, new
dangers appear.
It was in this wise. Louis XIV. of France thought to atone for the misdeeds
of a life of sensuality by the forced conversion of his subjects to popery,
and so, after a series of preliminary brutalities, to which he had been
stimulated by his confessor and others, he revokes the edict of Nantes, and
gives to the prosperity of his country a blow from which it has never
recovered. But the grand monarque of France was not content to tread this
royal road to heaven alone. He wished his neighbour of Savoy to share in
the benedictions of the pretended successor of St. Peter. However, the
young duke shrank from imitating such conduct, until he was politely
reminded by the French ambassador that his master would drive away the
heretics with fourteen thousand men, but that he would also retain their
valleys for himself. In consequence of this Amadeus engages to join with
the king of France in shedding the blood of the saints. A painful
foreboding of suffering filled the minds of the Vaudois as soon as they
heard of the revocation of the edict of Nantes; but they were not prepared
for the actual severity of the edict of January 30th, 1686, which forbade,
under pain of death, all religious services except the Romish, and ordered
the destruction of their temples, the banishment of their ministers and
schoolmasters, and the baptism and education of their children henceforth
in the false creed of Rome. This was indeed the bitterest drop in their cup
of overflowing grief. Staggered by the enormity of the evil, they first of
all sought the ear of their own prince. Disappointed, they began to make
preparations to defend themselves against the troops which were gathering
on their frontiers. On the 22nd of April the popish army began its march,
the Piedmontese led by Gabriel of Savoy, uncle of the duke, the French
commanded by Catinat. The latter began operations in the valley of Clusone.
They attacked the Vaudois entrenchments at Pramol, but were so obstinately
resisted, although they outnumbered the defenders as six to one, that after
ten hours' fighting they fell back, followed by the Vaudois as far as the
temple 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 were
distributed in thirteen or fourteen prison fortresses. Husbands were
separated from their wives, parents from their children, some two thousand
children being placed among papists for the purposes of perversion. These
were chiefly sent to the district of Vercelli, in Piedmont. And thus the
church of Rome won a triumph even more complete than her sanguinary labours
in the low countries. She had now silenced the gospel in Italy. That pure
flame in the valleys of Piedmont no longer shone amidst the darkness.
Those pious mountaineers no longer sang their psalms by hill-side, nor
offered the worship of a free heart in their lowly dells. The pure morals
of those shepherds and vine-dressers no longer rebuked the foul
licentiousness which flourished amid the benedictions of Santa Chiesa,
provided heretics were exterminated. That gospel which apostles taught, and
Rome once received, was no longer heard from the lips of pastors who
disdain the polluting touch of hands more able to confer the gifts of Simon
Magus than those of Simon Peter.
But yet these children of a pure faith are not conquered. They leave their
homes in the months of November, December, and February. Hundreds perish by
the way. How could it be otherwise? At that season of the year, and after
the treatment they had received in the dungeons in which they had groaned,
even strong men would have shrank from crossing the Alps, to say nothing of
the aged women and young children. Alas! O Rome, thy tender mercies are
cruel! The Swiss Protestants did nobly to soften the horrors of the
treatment awarded to their suffering co-religionists. They not only
remonstrated at the Court of Turin, but provided clothing and food to
assist the sufferers; they kept a solemn fast-day; they made collections;
they stationed themselves, by the consent of the Piedmontese authorities
(let it be said), at various places along the route. So by the end of
February, 1687, some two thousand six hundred Vaudois, men, women, and
children, were received within the hospitable walls of the city of Geneva.
Afterwards their numbers reached three thousand, and these were all that
remained out of a population of about sixteen thousand, dragged or driven
from the valleys. Nine pastors had been imprisoned in the citadel of Turin
with their families, and although their liberation was earnestly asked for
by the Swiss commissioners, it does not appear that they were ever allowed
to join their exiled brethren in Switzerland. However, the Vaudois, though
deeply touched with the kindness shown them by their friends in Switzerland
and Germany, yet sighed after their own dear valleys. Although Janavello
could not lend them active aid by his no longer stalwart arm and heroic
presence, yet he took a deep interest in the preparations for their return,
and praised God that He had provided them a captain. Who this captain was,
and the nature of the deliverance wrought by his instrumentality, must be
left for another chapter.