There can be little doubt that the sufferings of the Waldenses reacted upon Ireland, the rather that many Irish refugees were concerned in the massacres. At the end of 1653 it was reported that Irish troops had passed the mountains from Spain and appeared at Nîmes, where there was a strong body of Protestants. The priests secured them a good reception, though they boasted that they would 'tear in pieces and crucify quick' any Protestants they found there. Some of them were induced to settle and take wives 'so that they may in a manner in this town augment and renew the race of that execrable and murdering nation.' Two months later another detachment were refused admission to Nîmes because some of them boasted that they had massacred the English in Ireland, and they went on to Piedmont. Later on it was said that the Waldensian valleys were to be given up to the Irish. It is not therefore surprising that the officers in Ireland, with Fleetwood at their head, should have expressed their horror at the proceedings in Piedmont, and cautioned the Protector against too great leniency in Ireland. 'Let the blood of Ireland be fresh in your view, and their treachery cry aloud in your ears, that the frequent solicitations with which you are encompassed may not slack your hand to an unsafe pity of those whose principles in all ages carry them forth to such brutish and inhuman practices, which consist not with human society; and let not such be left untransplanted here, or unminded in England, whose continuance among us do palpably hazard the very being of Protestant interest in these nations.' And Cromwell himself told the Dutch Ambassador that the example of Ireland was fresh in his memory, where above 200,000 had been massacred. So strong was the feeling in Ireland that the officers contributed a fortnight's pay and the soldiers a week's pay for the relief of the persecuted mountaineers. A large sum was also subscribed privately.[270] [Sidenote: Transplantation proceeds slowly.] [Sidenote: The Loughrea commissioners.] [Sidenote: The Athlone commissioners.]