Having chosen 500 men from the Duke's whole army, this leader attacked the Vaudois, who had not the slightest suspicion of the violation of the peace, and massacred them without any distinction of age or sex, spreading consternation throughout the valleys. The following day, as they marched into the Val de Luzerne, with the intention of continuing the carnage, our Vaudois suddenly attacked them in front, rear, and flank, and succeeded in destroying most of these assassins, the rest took to flight, abandoning their prisoners and booty. Perrin (the historian) attributes this victory, in great measure to the slings, which the Vaudois used at that time with the greatest dexterity, and which formed their principal weapon. Blanche, countess of Luzerne and Angrogna, complained in vain of this perfidious invasion: two days afterwards appeared letters from the Duke, forbidding the inhabitants of the valleys to assemble in arms, under a penalty of one hundred silver marks. Bressour, however, contented himself with seizing those Vaudois who were mingled among the Catholics in Lower Piémont, and soon filled his castle, the prisons and Convents at Pignerol, and the inquisition at Turin, with prisoners. After they were tried by the inquisitors, vicar, and assessors, part of them were condemned to the flames, and the rest to several years imprisonment. There were some indeed whose fate was never known.
The Duke, seeing that these persecutions made no impression, and having remarked that, in open warfare, "the skin of a Vaudois always cost fifteen or twenty of his best Catholics," by his letters, forbid them to be further molested on any pretence whatever.
My readers will see that he was here actuated by a political motive* Francis the First, king of France, having demanded a passage for his army destined for the reconquest of the Milanese, the Duke thought proper to refuse, and consequently to employ all his forces to protect the frontiers. It was therefore necessary to engage the Vaudois to defend their passes, through which the French could have directly penetrated. However, notwithstanding all resistance, the enemy soon forced their way through Savoy into Piémont; and, after bearing their part in the sufferings of the war, the Vaudois remained under the government of the French for twenty-three years.
