Page:Life in the Old World - Vol. I.djvu/394

410 abjure his faith, admitted her into the prison. Great then became the anger and astonishment of the attendants when they heard her encourage her husband “to continue firm to the end.” “Do not be uneasy about any thing which belongs to this world,” continued the heroic woman; “do not think about leaving me a deserted widow, because, by God's mercy, I will accompany thee to death. Do not think about the sufferings of death—for they are soon over!” And she prayed so earnestly to be permitted to die at the same pile with her husband, that they finally granted her prayer.

During the cruel progress of the Marquis Pianezza through the valleys, the wife and daughters of the brave Janavel fell into his power. The Marquis sent word to him that if he would not renounce his heresy, his wife and daughters should be burned alive. Janavel replied that he “would endure the most cruel torture rather than abjure his religion; that if the Marquis burned his wife and daughters, the flames could, after all, merely destroy their bodies, but that he commended their souls to the hand of God, even as his own.”

A young girl having fled with her old grandfather from a troop of murderous soldiers which roamed about the valleys, found refuge in one of the caves high amongst the mountains, of which many such are to be found in these valleys. One night, when, as was her custom, she stole forth to collect chestnuts for herself and the old man, she was discovered by the soldiers, and tracked to her retreat. They killed the old man, and were about to seize upon the young