seech them rather to make prisoners, that the priests of the living God might not be deprived of their promised joys. "Very soon," continues the monk of Vaux-Cernay, "they dragged out of the castle Aimery, lord of Montreal, and other knights to the number of eighty. The noble count immediately ordered them to be hanged upon the gallows; bnt, as soon as Aimery, the stoutest among them, was hanged, the gallows fell; for, in their great haste, they had not well fixed it in the earth. The count, seeing that this would produce great delay, ordered the rest to be massacred; and the pilgrims, receiving the order with the greatest avidity, very soon massacred them all upon the spot. The lady of the castle, who was sister of Aimery, and an execrable heretic, was, by the count's order, thrown into a pit, which was filled up with stones; afterwards, our pilgrims collected the innumerable heretics that the castle contained, and burned them alive with the utmost joy.'

Open hostilities had not yet commenced between Simon de Montfort and the count of Toulouse, but they followed immediately on the taking of Lavaur. The refusal to send provisions to the besiegers might serve as a pretext, but none was wanted for attacking those who were excommunicated. The castle of Montjoyre was the first

2 Cum ingenti gaudio. Petri Val. Cern. Hist. Albigens. c. lii, p. 598, 599.-Bernardi Guidonis Vita Innocentii III, p. 482. This last informs us that 400 heretics were burnt at Lavaur. Guil. de Podio Laurentii, cap. xvii, p. 676.

place, immediately belonging to the count of Toulouse, before which the crusaders presented themselves; and being abandoned, it was burned and rased from top to bottom by the soldiers of the church. The castle of Cassero afforded them more satisfaction, as it furnished human victims for their sacrifices. It was surrendered on capitulation; and the pilgrims seizing nearly sixty heretics burned them with infinite joy. This is always the phrase employed by the monk, who was the witness and panegyrist of the crusade. A great number of castles were afterwards either surrendered to the crusaders or abandoned; and these crusaders finding themselves, about the middle of June, reinforced by a new army from Germany, undertook the siege of Toulouse."

This city was very far from having been converted to the reformation of the Albigenses; the catholics still formed the greater number. But their consuls refused either to renounce their fidelity to their count, though he had been excommunicated, or to deliver up to punishment those of their citizens who were suspected of inclining towards the new opinions. The bishop Fouquet had succeeded in forming in the city an association, named the white company, who engaged to pursue the heretics unto death. This company, by its own authority, erected a tribunal, before

3 Petri Val. Cern. Hist. Albigens. cap. liii, p. 600. Chron. Guill. de Podio Laur. cap. xviii, p. 676.

which it carried those whose faith it suspected, with those whose conduct it accused, or against whom it alleged usurious loans. It afterwards executed its own judgments by open force, by the destruction and pillage of their houses. The partisans of tolerance very soon formed a counter association, which they called the black company; the two troops frequently came to arms in the streets, with ensigns displayed; and many towers, which belonged to one side or the other, were alternately besieged. Thus," continues master William Puylaurens, (a contemporary historian,) "did our Lord, by the ministry of his servant the bishop, instead of a bad peace, excite amongst them a good war."4

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But, whilst the bishop was endeavouring to kindle war amongst his flock, the count was labouring to restore peace amongst his subjects. At the return of the five thousand men of the white company, who had been at the siege of Lavaur, he represented to them that their dissensions would bring ruin on their country; that an attack of the crusaders would involve them all in one common destruction; and that, whatever might be their differences of opinion, they ought to repair their walls, and prepare for their defence, if they would not expose themselves to the hazard of being put to the sword. He succeeded in producing a reconciliation between the two companies, and the 4 Chronica Magistri Guillelmi de Podio Laurentii, c. xv, p. 675.

legate took occasion from it to subject all the Toulousians to a sentence of excommunication." On his part, the bishop Fouquet recalled his clergy, that he might save his priests from that punishment to which he destined the remainder of his flock. All the priests of Toulouse, with the provost of the cathedral at their head, quitted the city, barefoot, carrying the holy sacrament in the procession, and singing litanies. However, the Toulousians did not at that time suffer the fate to which their pastors destined them. Raymond VI, seconded by the counts of Foix and of Cominges, so incommoded the besiegers, by frequent sallies, killed so many of them, and made them so soon endure privations and famine, that Simon de Montfort was obliged to raise the siege on the 29th of June, and soon after saw himself abandoned by the greater part of the crusaders, whose time of service had expired."

To efface the remembrance of this check, Simon de Montfort extended his ravages into the county of Foix, which he desolated with fire and slaughter. He then passed into Quercy, the lordship of which he compelled the inhabitants to give him. But at the same time the count of Toulouse, having collected succours from all his allies, came in his turn to besiege Castelnaudary. He appeared

5 Guillelmi de Podio Laur. cap. xviii, p. 677.

6 Petri Vallis Cern. Hist. Albigens. cap. liv, lv, p. 600, 601. Historia de los faicts de Tolosa, p. 38. Lettre des habitans de Toulouse à Pierre roi d'Aragon. Preuves de l'histoire de Languedoc, p. 232 et seq.

before that city towards the end of September, with the counts of Foix, and of Cominges, the viscount of Béarn, and Savary de Mauléon. Although the crusaders were reduced to an inferiority of number, Simon de Montfort did not abandon the besieged. He shut himself up in their walls, with a chosen troop of his old companions in arms, who did not exceed one hundred knights. At the same time he solicited his lieutenants, his vassals, and his wife, to collect all the soldiers who were at their disposal, and march to his deliverance; but as soon as his fortune began to waver, the hatred, that he had excited through the country, broke out in every part, and those, upon whom he had reckoned the most, declared against him. His mareschal Guy de Levis, and his brother-in-law, Bouchard de Marli, or Montmorency, succeeded, at last, in collecting a numerous body of knights, from the dioceses of Narbonne, Carcassonne, and Beziers. These were crusaders, who, like Montfort, had gained establishments in the country, and who saw, that, without an effort of valour, their conquests would be lost. The valiant count of Foix intercepted them about a league from Castelnaudary, attacked and dispersed them two several times, but his troops having broken their ranks, to pillage the vanquished, were attacked anew either by another body of the crusaders, or by Montfort himself, who at the head of sixty knights had sallied from

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