ote a: A.D. 1655 June 19.]

judgment of Gastaldo, but sent deputies to Turin, to remonstrate; in a
few days a solemn fast was proclaimed; the ministers excommunicated every
individual who should sell his lands in the disputed territory; the natives
of the valleys under the dominion of the king of France met those of the
valleys belonging to the duke of Savoy; both bound themselves by oath to
stand by each other in their common defence; and messengers were despatched
to solicit aid and advice from the church of Geneva and the Protestant
cantons of Switzerland. The intelligence alarmed the Marquess of Pianeze,
the chief minister of the duke; who, to suppress the nascent confederacy,
marched from Turin with an armed force, reduced La Torre, into which the
insurgents had thrown a garrison of six hundred men, and, having made an
offer of pardon to all who should submit, ordered his troops to fix their
quarters in Bobbio, Villaro, and the lower part of Angrogna. It had
previously been promised[a] that they should be peaceably received; but
the inhabitants had already retired to the mountains with their cattle and
provisions; and the soldiers found no other accommodation than the bare
walls. Quarrels soon followed between the parties; one act of offence was
retaliated with another; and the desire of vengeance provoked a war of
extermination. But the military were in general successful; and the
natives found themselves compelled to flee to the summits of the loftiest
mountains, or to seek refuge in the valleys of Dauphine, among a people of
similar habits and religion.[1]

[Footnote 1: Siri, xv. 827-833. It would be a difficult task to determine
by whom, after the reduction of La Torre, the first blood was wantonly
drawn, or to which party the blame of superior cruelty really belongs. The
authorities on each side are interested, and therefore suspicious; the
provocations alleged by the one are as warmly denied by the other; and
to the ravages of the military in Angrogna and Lucerna, are opposed the
massacres of the Catholics in Perousa and San Martino. In favour of the
Vaudois may be consulted Leger, Histoire Generale des Eglises Evangeliques,
&c. (he was a principal instigator of these troubles); Stouppe, Collection
of the several papers sent to his highness, &c. London, 1655; Sabaudiensis
in Reformatam Religionem Persecutionis Brevis Narratio, Londini, 1655;
Morland, 326-384, and the papers in Thurloe, iii. 361, 384, 412, 416,