10.20.2012 VAUDOIS VIII - JANAVEL AND JAHIER

this is a continuation of the events chronicled on VAUDOIS VII.
it has been already stated that the vau of angrogna, and the refugees of the plain of piedmont, had, in great part, retired into the valley of perouse; those of st. martin, forewarned by a man who, although a catholic, was compassionate, of the arrival of the troops of galeazzo, with commission to put all to fire and sword, made hast to gain the valley of pragela; and such of the inhabitants of bobi as contrived to escape the massacre sought an asylum in that of queyras, across frightful snows, precipices, and rocks. all these places of refuge were then within the dominions of the king of france.

with the view of shutting that hospitable coutry against the vau, the duchess of savoy, who appears to have taken a much greater part in thses disastrous events than her son, wrote to the court of france. she wished to prevent her subjects from leaving the valleys and to have them massacred there. mazarin did not enter into her niews; he replied that humanity imposed upon him the duty of opening as asylum to the fugitive vau.

this gave them facilities for rallying, arming and organizing themselves. they wee even able to re-enter their country inmuch greater numbers than they had left it, for a multitude of their brethren from queyras and prgela joined them. meanwhile, a man of energy and ability, captain joshua janavel, who alone had foreseen the treachery, supported, doubtless, by the hand of God (in which no one ever put more absolute confidence than this intrepid warrior), kept in check the enemy's army and, by slow degrees, drove it from the valleys.

this came to pass as follows:
-it will be recollected that the 24th of april was the day fixed for the general massacre of the vau. troops had been contoned in theprincipal place of each commune, except rora; not, however, that that place was to have been spared. accordingly, on the morning of that day of extermination, the marquis of st. damian had sent a battalion of 500 or 600 soldiers from le villar, in order to surprise rora, under the command of count christopher of lucerna, who was designated the count of rora, because his apanage had been given him in that seigneurie. these soldiers climbed the steep slopes of the mountain of brouard, which lay between them and rora. janavel (jana), whose residence was at the base of a long ridge which that mountain sends out in the direction of lucerna, saw the soldierss ascending on the way towards the menaced village; and he, ascending on the way towards the menaced village; and he, ascending also by a different way, gathered together as he went, six determined men like himself, with whom he posted himself in a favourable position on the path by which the troops must pass, who advanced in expectation of taking the village by surprise. there he awaited them with his little party, behind some rocks that left a narrow passage only, through which they must of necessity pass.

so soon as they were engaged in this defile
(a narrow passage, especially between mountains)
jana and his companions united in one loud cry and discharged their peices, of which every one took effect; six soldiers fell, the rest drew back; those who followed, believing the ambuscade to be fomed by a much larger body than it really was, wheeled about, and the advanced guard was then separated from the main body of the squadron. the vau, concealed amongst rocks, where the enemy could form on estimate of their numbers, poured in their fire, and cleared the ground of the advanced guard, causing it to disband and take to flight. the rearguard, which had yet scarcely arrived at the summit of the mountain ridge, seeing that the foremost ranks were endeavouring to re-ascend it, made all hast to get down again by the side on which it was advancing, without having even seen those by whom it hd been attacked; the fugitives likewise, turning their backs upon the vau, saw them as little; and thus a whole battalion retired before a corporal's party, or rather before the exaggerated image of a perilous ambuscade. such incidents are rare, but they can be conceived. it was thus that the entire army of brennus took to flight before the temple of delphi, at the noise made by the priests of apollo, transformed, by the affrighted imagination of the soldiers, into supernatural combatants.

jana, returning by rora, apprise the inhabitants of that village of the danger which they had run. ignorant of the massacres which had been perpetrated on that same day in the valley of lucerna, the people of rora immediately went to complain to the marquis of pianesse, of the invsion atempted against them in the morning.
'if they meant to attack you, it was not by my orders, he replied, the troops which i command never made any such wicked attempt. it can only have been a horde of piedmontese robbers and vagabonds. you would have done me a peasure if you had cut them in pieces. however, he added, with an air of kindness, i shall take care that such alarms do not take place again.
it was not an alarm, in good sooth, which he intended, but a surprise which should crush them all. proof of this was soon afforded.

on the folowing day a new battalion was sent against rora, by the mountain of cassulet. this time jana had 17 men with him; the number seems very small, but under his guidance they were worth an army. of these 18 men, 12 were armed from head to foot, 6 had only slings. he disposed them in three bands of 6 men each, to wit, 4 musketeers and 2 slingers. his position was chosen beforehand; it was again a defile, in which 10 men had scarcely room to manouvre: he had almost twice the number and occupied the most adnatageous position.

as soon as the battalion of the marquis of pianesse had advanced into the dpths of the scene of ambuscade, the vau made their appearance. an officer and 10 foot soldiers fell at ther first dicahge. stones flew like hai, whistling amongst the ranks of the enemy, who fell into disorder.
'every man save himself! cried a coward.
the troops began to diband. jan and his men rushed upon them from the rocks above, a pistol in one hand and a sword in the other. their agility, vigour and intrepidity multiplied their numbers; it seemed as if jaguars or lynxes flew from crest to crest of the rocks, as lightly as winged insects from flower to flower. the battalion, already surprised, thrown into confusion, and half routed, saw its discharges of musketry wasted amongst empty bushes, or upon im0penetrable rocks, and yet men resolute and completely armed, springing up, falling down, and leaping about before their eyes from these bushes and these rocks, and scattering death around their steps. the battalion, or rather the companies which were irst surprised and most engaged, recoiled involuntarily before them. the retrograde movement extended, the contgion of terror spread, one was carried alon by the example of another-and presently these 600 men, who had been led to a field of battle with which they were not acquainted, fled towards lucerna, ignorant alike of the number of their adversaries, and of the number of the dead whom they left behind them.

men who flee do not deefend themselves-they do not see the danger, they aggravate it by their flight, giving arms  to the enemy by their own weakness, and doubling the energy of his assaults. it was thus with the battalion of the moutain of cassulet. it had lost only 12 men in the defile, it lost 40 in the flight. the folowing are the words inwhich jana, thirty years after, when banished from his country, recalled in his exile that glorious event:
'we were but very few in number; a few fusileers, and six or seven slingers, wo were not yet able to use the musket and we defeated the enemy; if we had not, we would have been all destroyed. when they fought down hill, the stones of the slings and the ten fusileers did more execution than you could have believed.

from these few words it appears that amongst that little handful of combatants who saved rora, and who ere long became the salvation of the valleys, there were some young men who were ot yet able to use the musket. it is impossible not to be all the more struck with the success of this heroic phalanx; we know not which most to admire, their courage, or the divine protection which gave them the victory. but valour is not to be measured by age, nor the strength of an army by the number of its soldiers. jana's troop had already given proof of this, and was to give further proof of it.

the marquis of pianesse, a second time frustrated in his projects, sent to rora, cound christopher, the seigneur of the place, to restore confindence amongst the vau and to repudiate, as a mistake, the sending of troops into their valley.
'reports have been made agains you, said he, whose falsehood has been discovered; you have only to keep yourselves quiet, and you shall live in peace
at the same time he cause a battalion, more numerous than the former,to be collected, for the purpose of annihilating them. it seems marvellous that the vau could allow themselves to be caught by such promises; and such impudence of falsehood seems surprising in a man of noble birth; but we must not forget that they considered lying to be a sin, and that he regard it as a virtue. has not the highest organ of catholicism, an ecumenical council, declared that it is lawful to break faith with heretics? and did not the propaganda, jesuitism, and all that constituted the life and power of the romish church at that period, make it a duty? what a protestant would reckon disgraceful, is matter of pride to a papist. to accomplish the shedding of blood by treachery was a legitimate triumph for rome. yet we may suppose that confidence was not completely restored to the minds of the vau.

next day, being the 27th of april, an entire regiment moved into the valley, pressed on towards rora, took possession of all the paths, occupied all the positions, burned a number of houses which lay in its way and carried off a load of plunder and the flocks of the inhabitants, who had retired to the heights of friouland. jana, with his men, beheld from  distance the ravaging of the valley, but durst not approach because of the great numbers of the enemy. however, when he saw them encumbered with booty, and embarassed by the flocks which they took away with them,
he encouraged his seventeen men,
fell upon his knees, offered a fervent prayer to the God of armies, and
with undaunted boldness conducted his little troop to an advantageous position named damasser.
the regiment was arrested in its passage-
did not know the number of the enemy-
did not choose to abandon the booty-
lost its foremost men, and
thought it best to turn bck and retire upon le villar.

but the vau knew their own mountins better than these stranger troops;
they took a short path,
got before them,
posted themselves on their line of passage,
and again cut off their retreat.
this was near the summit of the mountain which separates rora from le villar, on a little grassy plain, named the pian pra, which means the smooth meadow.
the army of pianesse advanced, bearing along with it an immense booty.
it marched in disorder and carelessly,
for the foes over whom it had been unable to gain any advantage had disappeared from its path, and as no trace of them was to be perceived, it seemed that they had thought it best to make no further demonstration.
all at once a destructive fire was opened at a short distance from amongst the trees.
the soldiers, instead of defending themselves, hurried forward in their course.
they were already on the descent of the mountains.
jana's party rolled down upon them an avalanche of stones.
they dispersed themselves in order to avoid them.
hereupon the vau rushed in amongst these disbanded soldierss.
in vain they attempted to rally;
the ground did not any longer permit it;
many of them lost their footing
and were helplessly killed, or fell over the precipices.
however, the greater part of the army arrived at le villar,
but they had left their booty by the way;
the vau lost none of their men,
and recovered possession of all their property which had been carried off.

having re-ascended to the pian pra,
jana caused his men to halt.
'let us give thanks, said he.
his men fell on their knees.
"O God!  exclaimed their intrepid leader,
we bless Thee for having preserved us.
protect our people in these calamities,
and increase our faith!
this short prayer was followed by the Lord's prayer and the apostles' creed.
meanwhile the fugitives arrived at lucerna.
the marquis of pianesse,
furious, humiliated, burning with rage, yet desirous to restrain himself,
perceiving that it would be vain to have recourse to new acts of deceit or perfidious protestations,
convoked the whole forces under his command, from bubiano, from barges and from cavour.
they were all to assemble at lucerna in order to march upon rora;
the day and the hour were appointed;
but the zealot who conducted the massacre oat bobi, ,mario de bagnol, wished to have the glory all to himself of destroying this miserable handful of adventurers, for so they designated these heroic mountaineers who defended, with so much courage, their unhappy families.

captain mario accordingly set out with his musketeers two hours before the other troops. he had three companies of regular troops, one of volunteers and one of piedmontese outlaws. a fifth of irish..they..even received a promise beforehand, that a free grant would be made to them of the dispeopled lands of the valleys. they fought, therefore, for their own interest...

captain mario divided his troops into two parties, of which one took the right, and the other the left side of the vale of rora. they advanced without resistance to the rocks of rummer, already signalized four days before as the scene of jana's first victory. jana was again in trenched there, his little troop augmented by a number of new combatants, and thus raised to the number of from30 to40 men. but the right of the count of bagnol, having deployed upon the heights, had got above rummer, and threatened to attack the vau in the rear, whilst the rest of the assailants would have attacked them in front.

jana saw the trap in which he was on the point of being taken;
and with the promptitude of decision and energy of action which mark military genius,
he exclaimed, 'forward!
to the broua!
(notes: a patois word, signifying the summit)
the victory is up there!
and wheeling about,
he left the position which he had occupied opposite to the front of captain mario,
whose movement in pursuit was retarded by the necessity of scaling rocks,
and turned against the upper detachment which was already deploying upon the smooth brow of the hill;
all the vau had their pieces loaded;
jana turned them directly upon the right wing of that detachment which was maneuvering in order to surround them.
'Fire! cried he.
a terrible discharge was poured in upon the enemy;
the bulk of the troops inclined in that direction to resist the vau;
but jana had flung himself upon his belly on the earth, and the bullets passed over his head:
and immediately taking advantage of the clouds of smoke which still covered him,
instead of pressing on in his original direction,
he made a sudden bend, and proceeded, sword in hand, to cut his way through the left wing,
where the enemy was already weakened by the movement of concentration which had taken place to the opposite side.
breaking in this way the line of the invaders,
he passed through them,
and attained the summit or broua which he had pointed out to his soldiers.
here he had the advantage of the ground;
and all the vau ranging themselves in order of battle,
with their backs against the rocks,
with the triple energy which is given by
a good cause, trust in God, and success,
they faced their foes with an intrepidity that daunted them.
in vain did the two divisions of the count of bagnol's troops re-unite, in order to assail them;
they could make no impression upon the vau.

the enemy formed a circle embracing all the base of the hill,
and as the level of the water rises around a promontory,
the circle closed as the enemy ascended towards them;
but it did not pass a certain limit,
for the soldiers who formed it fell dead as they came within the range of the bullets of the vau.
as the snow melts on the side of a mountain,
this army became gradually less;
and here its course of invasion was stayed.
'the vau, says leger, made so long and courageous a resistance, that at last confusion and a sense of dismay manifestly seized on that great multitude of assailants, and they took flight, leaving 65 of their number dead on the ground, without reckoning the wounded and the corpses which were carried away.

seeing that the enemy retired by the opening of the valley, the vau would have pursued them.
jana stayed them.
'better than that! said he;
they must be utterly destroyed.
and passing along the heights till he had got before the fugitives, he ran to post himself again, with his invincible fusileers, at a narrow pass called pierro capello.

the enemy's troop came up, now beginning to recover breath. at the moment when they least expected it,
the vau fired upon them again,
hurled down masses of rock,
rushed upon them,
and redoubled their affright, their disorder, and their loss;
there was not a shadow of resistance-
a panic, or rather the fear of the God of jacob seized upon these disbanded soldiers,
so that not being able easily to flee, because of the difficulty of the paths,
they flung themselves headlong over rocks, and into ravines and torrents,
and were drowned or lay dead beneath precipices,
if they did not fall by the swords or the bullets of their terrible assailants.
captain mario himself  was with great difficulty drawn out of a hole full of water,
in which he must otherwise have been drowned;
and was carried back without his accoutrements, and without hat or shoes, to lucerna,
where he died a few days after.

..astonishing as were already the repeated victories of jana over enemies 50 times more numerous, it is not without surprise that we observe that the marquis of pianesse now called to arms all the disposable troops under his command, and caused nearly 10,000 men to march against the little commune of rora, so perseveringly defenced by a simple company of ..mountaineers. it was in the beginning of may, 1655: 3000 men set out from bagnol,  3000 from le villar, and 4000 from lucerna, to make a simultaneous assault upon a village of 50 houses.

the division from le villar was the first to make its appearance.
jana repulsed its attack;
but whilst he was engaged in battle,
two other divisions entered the lower part of the valley,
plundered the village,
burned the houses,
massacred the inhabitants,
committed monstrous outrages,
and carried off as prisoners the unfortunates who had not been killed.
the position was no longer tenable;
jana had no longer anything to defend;
rora was destroyed;
its inhabitants were slain or taken captive;
and he withdrew with his ..cohort into the valley of lucerna.

next day he received from the marquis of pianesse a note in these terms:
-'to captain janavel.
your wife and your daughters are in my hands-
they were made prisoners at rora;
i exhort you for the last time to abjure your heresty, which will be the only means to obtain pardon for your rebellion against the authority of his royal highness, and to save the lives of your wife and your daughters, who shall be burned alive if you do not submit. and if youpersist in your obstinacy, without putting myself to the trouble of sending troops against you, i will set such a price upon your head, that were you the devil incarnate, you must certainly  be brought to me dead or alive; and if you fall into my hands alive, you may lay your account with it that there are no torments so cruel that they shall not be inflicted upon you. this warning is for your guidance-consider how you may turn it to your advantage.

the following is janavel's reply:
'there is no torment so cruel that i do not prefer it to the abjuring of my religion; and your threats, instead of turning me from it, confirm me in it all the more.
as for my wife and my daughters, they know if they are dear to me!
but God alone is Lord of their lives;
and if you destroy their bodies, God will save their souls.
may He graciously receive these beloved souls and likewise mine, if it so happen that i fall into your hands.
...a price was immediately set upon his head.

he had still one son, a young boy, who had been committed to the charge of a relative belonging to le villar. fearing lest he also might be made prisoner, the intrepid and afflicted father took with him this child, bore him across the snows to the other side of the alps, descended into dauphiny and there deposited his son- re-victualled his little escort, and took some days' repose, of which he availed himself to recruit his band-and then, still putting his trust in God, he crossed the alps once more, re-entered the valleys and took the field again, more powerful, formidable, and intrepid than ever.

meanwhile leger, the moderator of the vau churches, had proceeded to paris, where he published a statement, addressed to all the protestant  powers of europe. many proofs of the liveliest sympathy and most active interest reached the vau churches from all parts. on the other hand, the court of savoy, or rather the duchess, urged by the propaganda and by the pontifical...nuncio pursued with vigour...the expulsion or complete extermination of the israel of the alps...

after having requested of mazarin that an asylum should be refused them in france and having failed to obtain her request, she next requested that he would have them removed from the frontiers of piedmont, at least three days' journey. the execution of this scheme having been also refused, she requested and obtained a prohibition against french subjects coming to the help of the vu who still remained in the valleys.

she was so active in her proceedings-her designs were so laoudly proclaimed, that even in the valleys themselves, many persons doubted if the vau would ever be able to recover their position. francis guerin, minister of roure, in pragela, confidently prophesied to the refugees that they ought to renounce the hope of returning to their native country, the time being come when the candlestick must be removed out of its place.

the captain of the duke of savoy's swiss guards being from the cnaton of glaris, where there were a few catholic families ill contented to dwell in a protestant country, proposed to charles emanuel II that he should receive these families into the valleys, and send the vau in exchange, into the canton of glaris.

cromwell, on his part, made offer to the vau to receive them into ireland, in place of the natives whom he had expelled from that island. but the reply of the moderator was more in accordance with the interests of his native land; he entreated the protector to send a plenipotentiary to turin, to exert himself for the reestablishment of the vau in the valleys, instead of their removal from thence. the plenipotentiary sent was morland, who rendered such important service in the pacification of that unfortunate country and who afterwards wrote a remarkable history of the events which had there taken place.

most of the foreign powers, from the king of sweden to the helvetic canons, wrote to  charles emanuel in favour of the vau. 'this business makes a great noise in switzerland, as well as in france and germany, wrote the sardinian ambassador...'your highness will give it such consideration as you deem fit at a tie when the common arms might be more profitably employed elsewhere...

...all were unanimous in their condemnations...the court of savoy, however, presently adopted the course of contradicting the news...

in switzerland, in england, in holland and in almost all protestant countries, collections were made and public fasts were held upon account of the vau...catholics..louis XIV..commanded lesdiguieres to receive the vau fugitives kindly, and to assure them of his royal protection.in the valleys of le queyras and pragela, which belonged to france,the people took up arms for the help of the persecuted. the regular troops deserted with the same view...captain janavel had  already  returned to the valleys with his valiant party, augmented by numerous recruits from le queyras...

it was just at this time that janavel effected his junction with captain jahier (27th of may), on the banks of the angrogna. these two warriors, uniting their forces, became more formidable...

next day, at daybreak, having sought encouragement in prayer, and feeling the necessity of some energetic demonstration to save their country, they assailed the town of st. segont, and made themselves masters of it. to preserve themselves from the enemy's fire366last