gular siege. In consequence of this resolution, he divided his troops between himself and his son Amaury, in order to attack the city, at the same time, on each side of the river. Nevertheless, he suffered himself to be surprised by the count of Foix, was pursued as far as Muret, and near being drowned at the passage of the Garonne, in the very place which, four years before, had been signalized by his most glorious victory, and was obliged to bring back his troops in front of the Narbonnese castle, where he joined his son.5

All the other cities of Albigeois appeared ready to follow the example of Toulouse. The rebellion was, however, extinguished at Montauban, by the seneschal of Agenois, and the bishop of Lectoure, who commanded for Montfort: the city was pillaged and burned; but this act of severity only served to redouble the hatred of the Languedocians against the French. Fouquet, bishop of Toulouse, was dispatched into France with James de Vitry, the historian of the last combats of the Holy Land, to preach there a new crusade, whilst the countess of Montfort repaired to the court of Philip Augustus, to solicit his aid. Simon had recourse also to pope Honorius III, who, in fact, wrote to the king of Aragon, to dissuade him from an alliance with the count of Toulouse. But

5 Historia de los fuicts de Tolosa, p. 92.

6 Honorii III, Ep. 823, 826, 827; apud Raynaldi Ann. Eccles. 1217, § Iviii, p 269.

time was requisite before these different measures could form a new army for the heroes of the crusade. The siege, in the mean time, proved very tedious: it was prolonged through the winter, and lasted nearly nine months. The cardinal legate, who shared with Simon the conduct of the army, never ceased reproaching him with his slowness, and attributed his want of success to a failure of

zeal or courage. In the mean time, the besieged had the advantage in numbers and boldness over the assailants; every day they darted from their walls upon the enemy, and caused them great loss. The 25th of June, 1218, the Toulousians, in a sortie, pushed towards a warlike machine, (a cat) which count Simon had just constructed. This count was at the church when he was informed that the besieged were in possession of his machine, and about to set fire to it. He wished, however, to finish the hearing of the mass before he proceeded to battle; but, at the moment of the elevation of the host, he cried like Simeon, Let thy servant henceforth depart in peace, for my eyes have seen thy salvation. He called for his arms, put himself at the head of his old warriors, and once more repulsed the Toulousians. He was standing with his battalion, before the wooden tower which he had just reconquered, when an enormous stone, thrown by a machine from the wall of the city, struck him on the head, and extended him lifeless on the ground. The moment

that his death was known by the Toulousians, a cry of joy resounded through the city. All ran to arms, and rushed upon the besiegers with redoubled fury. They drove them beyond their tents and equipages, took possession of a part of these effects, and destroyed the rest. Amaury de Montfort collected together the scattered soldiers of his father, received the homage of his knights, and their oath of fidelity as successor to Simon in the countship of Toulouse, and for a whole month obstinately persisted in the siege of the city, to which he endeavoured to set fire. But his army was discouraged, and daily diminished in number, whilst the forces and the ardour of the besieged were augmented. He was at last obliged, on the 25th of July, to determine on raising the siege, and to retire to Carcassonne, where he buried the body of his father.R

7 Petri Val. Cern. Hist. Albigens. cap. lxxxvi, et ultim. p. 664. Guil. de Podio, cap. xxx, p. 684. Historia de los faicts de Tolosa, p. 93. Hist. de Languedoc, liv. XXIII, ch. xxviii, p. 303.

8 Hist. de Languedoc, liv. XXIII, ch. xxix, p. 105. Chronol. Roberti Altissiodor. p. 285.

CHAP. IV.

Crusade of the French against the Albigenses, from the death of Simon de Montfort to the death of Louis VIII, 1218-1226.

THE death of Simon de Montfort marks one of those epochs, not unfrequently met with in history, when the historians all forsake us at once; só that although the events themselves continue their course, it becomes very difficult to exhibit their connexion. Curiosity, it is true, ought at the same time to diminish; for when all the writers, as if by common consent, lay down their pens, the reason must be that either fatigue or exhaustion has reduced the nations, if not to an absolute stagnation, at least to a state of languor, in which nothing strongly excites the mind.

The reign of Philip Augustus had been, with regard to France, more fertile in historians than that of any of his predecessors. But Rigord, the first of these, does not pursue his recital beyond the year 1209. William l'Armorique, the king's chaplain, and perhaps, the best amongst the writers of the age, finishes his chronicle in 1219. Nevertheless he outlived Philip, and in the poem which he wrote also in honour of the same king,

he relates his death and obsequies. Peter de Vaux-Cernay's history of the Albigenses ends with the year 1218, at the death of Montfort; the anonymous author of Toulouse, in 1219; and the oriental history of James de Vitry, closes in 1220, soon after the taking of Damietta; so that, in every part, the curtain seemed to have fallen upon that great political drama, which had attracted the eyes of Europe.

1217-1221. The fifth crusade, which was commanded by the council of Lateran, formed, during several years, the grand subject of interest to christendom; on the one hand, it attracted to itself the whole crowd of knights and soldiers, who had been accustomed to subsist either by their hire or by pillage, to seek the strong excitement of war, and to consider security and repose as a state of suffering; and on the other, it procured some respite to the count of Toulouse. The warlike devotion of the French had resumed its first direction towards the east, and the efforts of the bishop Fouquet, to excite new fanatics to the massacre of the Albigenses, remained almost without effect.

1218. The descent of the crusaders into Egypt was followed by more than a year of bloody combats, in which the Musulmans had obtained, notwithstanding their obstinate resistance, such small success, that they offered to surrender Jerusalem to the Christians, provided they would