Skochy, Czriuczin, &c. ; yea, and the auditories. themselves were either slain, (as in the town of Skochy, where there was a very flourishing church of the Bohemian exiles, sixty persons both men and women were cruelly put to death,) or else they were scattered abroad, so that there remained not one place wherein the worship of be celebrated. Lo, this is the most

God may miserable state and condition of our churches! Moreover our countrymen, to the number of five thousand, besides youths and children, being dispersed in banishment (which hath now befallen most of us the second time), especially throughout Silesia, as also through the Marck, Lusatia, Hungary, &c. find no comfort, but much misery, and are there exposed to the hatred and envy of men. We that are pastors dare not openly minister to our auditories with the word and sacraments, but only in private meetings, or in woods among fenny places, God only seeing us, who is witness of these calamities, and our comfort in extremities. Indeed, being thus destitute of all things, we lead a wretched life in banishment, being afflicted with hunger and nakedness, and are become next to the most miserable Waldenses, the greatest spectacle of

calamity to the Christian world; for so it hath seemed good to that sovereign wisdom that governs all things, that we should be the inheritors of the cross and persecution of those men from whom we have derived the original of our doctrine and external succession: for truly we are the remaining progeny even of the Waldenses, with whom being raised from the ashes of blessed Huss, and with whom combining into the same holy fellowship of the faith and afflictions of Christ, we have for two whole ages and more, been perpetually subject to the like storms of calamities, until at length we fell into this calamity, greater than ever was known in the memory of our fathers, and which threatens us with utter destruction, unless God prevent it. The truth is, this business constrains us to amazement and tears, greater than can be expressed in words, to set forth our affliction and sorrow. If there be any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any bowels and mercies, we desire that this affliction of Joseph may be recommended, especially to all that are of the household of faith. Let them not suffer those to perish whom the same Spirit of Christ hath joined with them

in so near a relation; we beseech them in the name of Christ, that they would rather make haste to relieve those who are ready to perish, we being assured that we suffer this persecution upon no other account, than for the confession of the truth, from those enemies who have acted such things as these against us in times past, and are now at length, by God's permission, pouring out their fury upon us."

CHAP. VIII.

New artifices to ruin the Waldenses-their loyalty to their Sovereign-they enjoy a short respite from suffering-are again persecuted by Victor Amadeus II.— are forced to arm in their own defence-they are compelled to yield to the superior forces of France and Savoy-are all either massacred or imprisoned—the awful sufferings of the survivors-three thousand of them released from prison and banished-Piedmont repeopled with Roman Catholics-Henri Arnaud marches at the head of the Vaudois for the recovery of their native valleys-astonishing achievements of the exiles-their sanguinary conflicts—their intrepidity during the siege of Balsille-termination of the war, and restoration of the Vaudois to their country— reflections by Arnaud on the issue of the contest.

NOTWITHSTANDING the disadvantageous terms of the treaty of Pignerol, numbers of the Waldenses who had fled from the massacres of 1665, returned to their native valleys. But, alas! it was only to endure still farther persecutions, and to share with their brethren the dreadful suffer

ings to which the Romish Church subjected all who dared to call in question her usurped and despotic power. Besides seizing a great part of the collections which had been made for these poor people in Protestant countries, and building forts in their valleys, the garrisons of which were guilty of innumerable instances of violence and bloodshed, their enemies devised a third scheme to effect their ruin, namely, that of summoning multitudes of them to Turin to answer for crimes of which they were completely innocent. Thirty-eight of the inhabitants of Lucerna were treated in this manner. If they did not appear, they were condemned as guilty; if they answered, they were afraid of the Inquisition, which defied the secular power. Many were condemned to death as being contumacious, or if, in the plenitude of their power, a milder sentence was awarded, that sentence at least consigned them to the galleys, and confiscated their goods. Pardon, and even favour, was conferred on those who put them to death, in consequence of which the soldiers hanged not a few, under pretence that they thought them condemned; while others were plundered, and their houses razed to the foundation. Although the Wal