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of the New Testament written in Romaunt, the common dialect of Southern Europe. Although the Roman Catholic Church loudly proclaimed that any layman possessing the Scriptures was to be arrested and punished, the Waldenses had, with precise attention, patience, and dedication, translated the heavy, illustrated tombs of Latin text into small, plain, portable volumes that could be read and understood by all.
    Those who lived in Piedmont already declared that the Waldensian Church was older than Rome, and the Romaunt translation was theirs by preeminent right. Others said the book was the product of a rebel faction of faith that found criminal refuge in the mountains during the eleventh century. And, then, many deemed the matter to be of no importance; dead men alone knew the answer, and dead men would not speak. It existed, and none could dispute that it did.
    And so the Romaunt version stated that every man, woman, and child had a right to read and interpret the Bible themselves. And as the Vaudois—another name for the Waldenses—read the Old and New Testaments they had come to proclaim many beliefs that were contradictory to the official doctrine of Rome.
    They did not believe in the infallibility of the pope or the necessity of a priest to mediate God's forgiveness. Even more disturbing to the Catholic Church, they declared that prayer offered in a barn was every bit as sacred as prayer in a church as long as it came from a sincere and contrite heart. But, most alarming, the Vaudois stated that the "bone relics" of Rome were most likely the bones of God-only-knows-who and had little or no value before the Lord.
    Such blasphemy could not be endured ...
    And at the heart of it, the Waldenses believed that the atoning death and justifying righteousness of Christ was the cardinal truth, and that only the Lord had the power to forgive sins. They believed in the Trinity, in the need for divine grace to do works of righteousness, in the resurrection of the body, in heaven and hell. And they believed that the Lord, and not man, was Judge of all the Earth.
    Yet because of the scarcity of the Romaunt Scriptures, both laymen and barbes were asked to memorize large sections so that the written books might be distributed outside the valley to people everywhere, that all might know what was written in God s Word and decide their own minds.
    As the Captain of the Militia of Rora, Gianavel was responsible for confronting those who invaded the valley. His militia, if it could be so termed, was exceedingly small, unless war was declared, and then every man fought as they had fought in the past, father passing to son the heart and courage to stand in the gap, to defend the weak.
    None were perfect, but courage breeds courage. Some things, even the world cannot deny.
    Gianavel squinted against a wind sharp with cold. But he knew the cold would fade quickly as the sun was already above the cliffs, thickening shadows into a semblance of what cast them. He could still not discern every detail in the distance, but the pass and ravine were clear enough. And if anyone, whether alone or with an invading force, crossed the snowcapped Alps, he would see them. Nor was he defenseless, though he was reluctant to use weapons.
    His flin tlock rifle, which had replaced his old cumbersome matchlock, was effective to more than a hundred meters, and he could discharge a second shot in twenty seconds. He also carried his saber, four feet in length with a full hand guard, a flintlock pistol, and a forthright poniard that was eighteen inches long and double-bladed for the entire length down to the oval-shaped hilt and spiked pommel.
    Altogether, the weapons had cost him forty doubloons, but Gianavel was practical. He was the marshal of a small valley surrounded by forces that sometimes seized Waldenses, even today, when they ventured outside Piedmont and tortured them to death without trial or even an accusation of wrongdoing. Many wars had been waged to destroy