What makes this step still more cruel and unjust, if possible, is, that it took place in the winter of 1654, when Charles Emanuel II. had, by an edict of 3rd December, just confirmed all their privileges, &c.* In this, and in the one of the preceding year, they were mentioned as faithful and obedient subjects; nay more, at the very time the lawyers were employed in verifying the original charters, the last decree was about to be enrolled, and the sum of money exacted on these occasions had long been paid.
It will easily be imagined that no time was lost in sending deputies to Turin, and trying every means to obtain a mitigation of this dreadful sentence. These deputies were amused by an affected deliberation on their petition, and were referred sometimes from the Duke to his mother, sometimes from the Duchess to the Marquis di Pianezza, and from him to the Propaganda, till they received information on the 16th of April (though they were promised a final audience on the 17th) that the Marquis was already at Luzerne with his forces, and that they had better provide for their own safety.
Thus, by a series of base treachery, duplicity, and cruelty, was the way prepared for those dreadful massacres, which have cast so foul a stain on the reign of Charles Emanuel the Second.
* This seems to have been necessary every new reign, these confirmations being personal acts of the sovereign.--T.
** Which excited the compassionate muse of Milton.--T.
It was on the 17th of April, 1655, that the Marquis di Pianezza entered the valleys with an army of 15,000 men, composed of the troops of the Duke, four French regiments, one German corps, and 1200 Irish.
On the 18th, this army ravaged the parishes of St. Jean and La Tour. On the 19th, they even attacked them in quarters to which the order of Gastaldo (to abandon their possessions) did not extend; the enemy was repulsed, notwithstanding his immense superiority of numbers; and, on the 20th, vainly attempted to burn the church of St. Jean.
In consequence of this spirited resistance, Pianezza had recourse to the most infamous treachery. Having sent to demand a conference, he protested to the deputies that his only object was to enforce the order which had been given by Gastaldo, and that the parishes not falling within it might rest secure of peace, if, in sign of their obedience, they would permit a regiment of infantry and two troops of cavalry to be quartered in their territory for two or three days.