The Vaudois of Piedmont: A Visit to Their Valleys

by J. N. Worsfold

"Rise, O Lord, in might victorious,
Rise and give Thy people aid;
Come, O come in triumph glorious,
Overwhelm Thy foes dismayed.
Circled with a thousand wonders,
Girt with all Thy power and strength,
Mid ten thousand thousand thunders
Save, redeem Thy own, at length!"

They also sung the 129th Psalm, and then Arnaud, taking his text from some verses of the latter psalm, spoke to them, and exhorted them to endure hardness as good soldiers of Jesus Christ. The memories of the place as the scene of the martyrdom of the pastor Leydet, who was barbarously put to death near this spot by Papists who overheard him singing psalms, would tend to deepen their emotion and fill their souls with firmer resolves to dare and die for faith and fatherland.

Their courage soon found employment in dislodging a body of 200 troops who were entrenched at the ports of San Guliano. These men contemptuously dared them to the fight, shouting, "Come on, varlets of the devil, we occupy all the passes, and there are three thousand of us!" The Vaudois accepted the challenge, and at a single charge drove them from their trenches and captured all their stores, a very valuable acquisition to the conquerors. Moreover they slew thirty-one of the fugitives, and lost but one of their own number. Following up their successes, they besieged Bobbio, and drove away those who had dispersed its rightful and former occupants. After this they hold a solemn conclave for devotional and deliberative purposes. M. Montoux, Arnaud's colleague in the pastoral office, addressed them, and then Arnaud himself read the following oath, which was solemnly agreed to, viz., "God, by His divine grace, having happily reconducted us to the inheritance of our fathers, there to establish the pure service of our holy religion, ... we, pastors, captains, and other officers, swear and promise before the face of the living God, ... neither to separate nor disunite while God grants us life, even should we have the misfortune to be reduced to three or four.... And to the intent that union, which is the soul of our affairs, should remain inviolable among us, the officers shall swear fidelity to the soldiers, and the soldiers to the officers, promising together to our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ to deliver, if possible, our brethren from the cruel woman of Babylon, and with them to re-establish and maintain his kingdom till death, and observe all our lives with good faith this present ordinance." As I stood upon this consecrated platform (Sibaud), April 11th, 1871, I not only felt richly rewarded for the steep climb, from which the good pastor of Bobbio sought to dissuade me, but I gained an enlarged view of the wonderful power of the gospel of Christ in ennobling and constraining the souls of these valley men to such deeds of daring and suffering. If, as I firmly believe, the gospel teaches that willingness to do and suffer for Christ is the evidence of our belonging to Him, how luminous and abundant are the title-deeds of the Vaudois to be reckoned "not least among the churches of God." May the spirit of the oath still survive, and the day come when every one of those who inhabit the locality shall be as true to the gospel of the grace of God as Arnaud and his brave troops!

After this solemn convocation, and sundry additions to their military organization, an attempt was made by Arnaud to rescue Villaro from the Papists as Bobbio was rescued. At the first the enemy fled, some across the Pelice, and others to the convent. While the Vaudois were closely pressing them in this last-named retreat, their own position was turned by the arrival of a large body of troops. These troops, 12,000 in number, drove back the Vaudois to Bobbio, and threatened to exterminate them all. Eighty made good their escape over the Vandalin by scattering themselves in all directions, and afterwards rejoining the main body. Montoux, the assistant pastor, being thus separated from his friends, was captured by the enemy, and detained a prisoner at Turin until the peace. Arnaud three times gave himself up for lost. Three times, with six of his men, he betook himself to prayer; and three times the Lord sent him deliverance. At last he escaped to the same mountain ridge where the eighty previously dispersed awaited his arrival.

The check received at Villaro led Arnaud to retire from the inhabited parts of the valley of Lucerna to the mountain heights, from which they could attack detachments of troops at favourable intervals, and to which they could betake themselves for safety in spots difficult of access, and easily defended by a small number against large bodies of troops. These mountain recesses, indeed, play an important part in the history of the Vaudois generally, as well as in the exploits of Janavello and Arnaud in particular. One of our sweetest English poets has beautifully apostrophized the feelings of the brave valley men in the following exquisite lines:—

"For the strength of the hills we bless Thee,
Our God, our fathers' God!
Thou hast made Thy children mighty
By the touch of the mountain sod,
Thou hast fixed our ark of refuge
Where the spoiler's foot ne'er trod;
For the strength of the hills we bless Thee,
Our God, our fathers' God.

"The banner of the chieftain
Far, far below us waves,
The war-horse of the spearman
Cannot reach our lofty caves.
Thy dark clouds wrap the threshold
Of freedom's last abode;
For the strength of the hills we thank Thee,
Our God, our fathers' God.

"For the shadow of Thy presence,
Round our camp of rock outspread;
For the stern defiles of battle,
Bearing record of our dead;
For the snows and for the torrents,
For the free heart's burial sod;
For the strength of the hills we bless Thee,
Our God, our fathers' God."

It was chiefly on the heights above Sibaud, the slopes of the Vandalin, La Vachera, and Mont Cervin, that they carried on their predatory and guerrilla warfare. At one time they attacked 600 men, killed one hundred, and lost only four. But they suffered almost incredible privations. Their food oftentimes consisting of only wild fruits, raw cabbages, and other vegetables uncooked. Occasionally they met with better fare; e.g., being at Prali for two days they cut down all the corn in the neighbourhood, and ground it at the mills in the place. Nor did they forget their duties as Christians in the midst of all these hardships. Arnaud administered the holy communion to the troops who were with him, as well as to those in retreat above Bobbio. The retreat of the Piedmontese troops under the command of the Marquis de Parelle, enabled the Vaudois to keep in possession of the valley of San Martino, and to lay up a stock of corn, grapes, chestnuts, apples, and walnuts. The flying camp also were able to capture some convoys of provision, so that they could look forward to the winter (this was now Sept. 16th) without much fear as to supplies. The Vaudois were now in three divisions; the larger part in the valley of San Martino, another body next in number who were scouring the valley of Angrogna, and the third and smaller division at Serre de Cruel over Bobbio. This last detachment destroyed the convent of Villaro lest it should be turned into a fortress. They pulled down the popish church at Rora, reduced the village to ashes, and brought away much spoil. However, as soon as the Piedmontese soldiers were able to cover the mountains with troops they retaliated by setting on fire the Vaudois asylum at Serre de Cruel. The Vaudois resisted, and did much execution; but at last, terrified by the numbers of their adversaries, they forsook their new fortifications at Pausettes and Aiguille, leaving behind them all their winter stores. They were pursued from rock to rock, obliged to hide in the most loathsome caverns, and to subsist almost without food, which was procured only at the peril of their lives. Nothing but a special Providence kept them from entire destruction, and enabled them to rejoin the main body of their friends in the valley of San Martino. The French troops engaged in thus hunting the Vaudois in the month of October were commanded by M. de l'Ombraille, and, with the Piedmontese under Parelle, covered all the villages and passes excepting a few small hamlets and byways. Hence the position of the patriots was one of great danger. Some deserted, and perished miserably by the enemy. A council was held at Rodoret. Divisions of opinion arose, and ruin seemed at hand. At this critical moment Arnaud summoned them to prayer. After this he exhorted his companions to sacrifice their own views for the common good, and advised a retreat upon Balsille. This they happily consented to, and the same night they were on their way to the spot. The dangers of the road may be supposed from the circumstance that much of it had to be passed on their hands and knees, and from the fact that when the Vaudois afterwards saw the places by daylight they were filled with horror.

We shall not be able to realize the good Providence which befriended them at this time unless we consider for a moment the exact position of their new retreat. The chief group of houses in the village of Balsille is close to a torrent at the foot of the mountains in the extreme north-west of the Val Martino. A stone bridge, close to which is a mill, unites the two parts of the village lying eastward, at the foot of the steep rocks of Guignivert, which rises towards the west, and is thickly wooded at its base.[E]