accept and ratify it without any contradiction; for I see clearly, that we cannot maintain ourselves in this city, on account of the multitude of countrymen, women, and children, who have taken refuge here. We cannot reckon them, and they die every day in great numbers. But were there only myself and my people here, I swear to you, that I would rather die of famine, than surrender to the legate." When the king of Aragon had related this discourse to the Abbot of Citeaux, he I could better judge what sortitions he of might make to a generous man, with the assurance that they would not be accepted; for whilst he dared not absolutely repel such a mediator as the king of Aragon, yet he wished not to have a peace which should suspend the massacres. therefore caused the viscount to be informed, that the only terms which could be granted him were, that he might quit the city with twelve others, and that the remainder of the citizens and soldiers should be abandoned to his good pleasure." " Rather than do what the legate demands of me," replied Raymond Roger, "I would suffer myself to be flayed alive. He shall not have the least of my company at his mercy, for it is on my account they are in danger." Peter II approved the generosity of his nephew, and turning towards the knights and citizens of Carcassonne, to whom these conditions had also been announced, he said to them, "You now know what you have to

He

expect; mind and defend yourselves well, for he who defends himself always finds good mercy at last."6

The king of Aragon was scarcely departed, before the crusaders made an assault upon the walls. They endeavoured to fill the ditches with faggots, which they brought for that purpose, encouraging ́each other by loud shoutings. But, as soon as they approached the walls, the besieged poured upon them streams of boiling water and oil, they crushed them with stones and projectiles of every kind, and forced them to retire. The attack was prolonged, and many times renewed, but the assailants were at last obliged to retreat with great loss. The time was now approaching when the greater part of the crusaders would have finished their forty days' service; they had reckoned upon a miracle in their favour, and already had been repulsed in two assaults. The legate remarked in his army some symptoms of discouragement; he therefore employed a gentleman related to the viscount, who happened to be with him, to enter into the city and renew the negociations. Raymond Roger, on his side, greatly desired an honourable capitulation, for he began to perceive the failure of water in the cisterns of the city, which the extreme heat of the season had dried up. He was so fully satisfied of the, rectitude of his proceedings, that he could not but believe, when the 6 Historia de los faicts de Tolosa, p. 15.

injustice of which he had been the victim should be known, that it would excite the commiseration of the great lords and the ecclesiastics, whom zeal for Christianity had alone armed against him. He persuaded himself, that if he could gain a hearing he should be able to remove all the difficulties which he had hitherto encountered, and he only asked of the mediator who presented himself, to procure him a safe conduct, that he might repair to the camp of the crusaders. He obtained, both from the legate and the lords of the army, the most complete guarantee for his safety and liberty, and the promise of the crusaders was confirmed by oaths. He then quitted the city, attended by three hundred knights, and presented himself at the tent of the legate, where all the principal lords of the army were assembled. After having nobly and powerfully defended his conduct, he declared that he submitted, as he had always done, to the orders of the church, and that he awaited the decision of the council.

But the legate was profoundly penetrated with the maxim of Innocent III, that "to keep faith with those who have it not, is an offence against the faith." He caused the young viscount to be arrested with all the knights who had followed him, and confided him to the care of Simon de Montfort. By this treachery, he thought to strike with terror the souls of the inhabitants of Carcassonne; but the effect of it was precisely to withdraw from

his power the victims whom he had destined to the flames. The citizens were acquainted with a secret passage by which they could escape from the town. It was a cavern, three leagues in length, which goes from Carcassonne as far as the towers of Cabardes. During the night they escaped by this cavern, abandoning all their riches to the avidity of their enemies. The next morning, the besiegers were astonished at not seeing any person on the walls of the city; but it required a considerable time to convince them that it was entirely deserted. They then entered, and the legate took possession of the spoil in the name of the church, excommunicating those of the crusaders who should have appropriated the smallest part. Nevertheless, he thought himself obliged to dissemble the villainy to which he had had recourse, and which had so badly succeeded. He announced that on the 15th of August, the day of the occupation of the city, he had signed a capitulation, by which he permitted all the inhabitants to quit it with their lives only. He thought it also proper, for the honour of the holy church, not to let it be supposed that all the heretics had escaped him. His scouts had collected in the fields a certain number of prisoners, and amongst the fugitives from Carcassonne some had been overtaken and brought to the camp. He had in his hands, besides, the three hundred knights who had accompanied the viscount. Out of all these, he

made choice for execution of four hundred and fifty men and women, who might be suspected of heresy. Four hundred he caused to be burned alive, and the remaining fifty to be hanged."

8

The principal object of the crusade was now accomplished: the count of Toulouse, who had been accused of favouring the heretics, had submitted to the most degrading humiliations to make his peace. The viscount of Narbonne, to avoid the visit of the crusaders, had published against the heretics laws more rigorous than even the church demanded. The viscount of Beziers was a prisoner; his two strongest cities were destroyed, and the greater number of his castles contained not a single inhabitant. The French lords, who, to gain the pardons of the church, had marched to the crusade, began to feel some shame for all the blood which had been shed, and for their word which had been falsified. The knights and soldiers having fulfilled the term of their service, demanded their dismissal; but the abbot of

The recitals of the ancient historians are so contradictory respecting the taking of Carcassonne, that we can scarcely recognize the same event. I have followed the history in the provençal tongue, des grands faicts d'armes de Toulouse, p. 16, 17, 18. And I have attributed to the desire of the legate to accredit a recital more honourable for him, the narration of the following, Epistolæ Innocentii III, apud Petrum Val., Ed. 1615, p. 322. Præclara Francor. facinora, p. 765. Guillelmi de Podio Laurentii, cap. xiv, p. 674. Petri. Val. Cern. Albigens., cap. xvi, p. 571. Philippidos, lib. viii, p. 220. Cæsar Heisterbachiensis, lib. v, cap. 21. It appears that the authors of l'histoire de Languedoc have judged the same, liv. xxi, chap. lxi. See also Rob. Altissiodor., t. 18, p. 276.

8 Histoire de Languedoc, liv. xxi, ch. Iviii, p. 169.