[494] Hist. ecclés., i. 29; Crespin, fol. 116; De Thou, ubi supra; Sleidan, ii. 254. The deposition of Antoine d'Alagonia, Sieur de Vaucler, a Roman Catholic who was present and took an active part in the enterprise (Bouche, ii. 616-619), is evidently framed expressly to exculpate D'Oppède and his companions, and conflicts too much with well-established facts to contribute anything to the true history of the capture of Cabrières.
[495] De Thou, i. 543; Sleidan, ii. 255. Of the affair at La Coste, the Letters-Patent of Henry II. say: "Au lieu de La Coste y auroit eu plusieurs hommes tués, femmes et filles forcées jusques au nombre de vingt-cinq dedans une grange." Ubi supra, i. 47.
[496] "Et infinis pillages étaient faits par l'espace de plus de sept semaines." Ibid, ubi supra.
[497] Hist. ecclés., i. 30.
[498] Letters-Patent of Henry II., ubi sup.
[499] At Geneva the fugitives were treated with great kindness. Calvin was deputed by the Council of the Republic, in company with Farel, to raise contributions for them throughout Switzerland. Reg. of Council, May, 1545, apud Gaberel, Hist. de l'église de Genève, i. 439. Nine years later the council granted a lease of some uncultivated lands near Geneva to 700 of these Waldenses. The descendants of the former residents of Mérindol and Cabrières are to be found among the inhabitants of Peney and Jussy. Reg. of Council, May, 10, 1554, Gaberel, i. 440.
[500] Bouche, ii. 620, states, as the results of the investigations of Auberi, advocate for the Waldenses, that about 3,000 men, women and children were killed, 666 sent to the galleys, of whom 200 shortly died, and 900 houses burned in 24 villages of Provence.
[501] Francis I., on complaint of Madame De Cental, whose son had lost an annual revenue of 12,000 florins by the ruin of his villages, had, June 10, 1545, called upon the Parliament of Aix to send full minutes of its proceedings. Bouche, ii. 620, 621.
[502] De Thou, i. 544.
[503] "Et sachant que la plainte en était venue jusqu'à [notre] dit feu père, auraient envoyé ledit De la Fond devers lui, lequel ... aurait obtenu lettres données à Arques, le 18me jour d'août 1545, approuvant paisiblement ladite exécution; n'ayant toutefois fait entendre à notre dit feu père la vérité du fait; mais supposé par icelles lettres que tous les habitane des villes brûlées étaient connus et jugés hérétiques et Vaudois." Letters-Patent of Henry II., ubi supra, i. 47; De Thou, i. 544.