should be the first to arm themselves against those of their fellow-citizens who had abandoned the catholic faith. He had enrolled them into a society which named itself, the White Company, and engaged to destroy the heretics by fire and sword. Having thus inflamed their zeal, he sent five thousand of these fanatics to the siege of Lavaur.1

Whilst this siege was going on, count Raymond made one more attempt at reconciliation with the legate and Simon de Montfort; but all his offers having been rejected, he saw, at last, that a more vigourous conduct was his only resource; and upon this he ought doubtless, long since, to have determined, if so much resolution had belonged to his character. He formed a close alliance with the counts of Cominges, and of Foix; with Gaston, viscount of Bearn; Savary de Mauleon, seneschal of Aquitaine, and the other lords of those provinces, who were accused of tolerance or of heresy, and whose interests were become one with his own. These lords, informed that the German body of crusaders, from the duke of Austria, and the counts of Mons and Juliers, had advanced as far as Montjoyre, between the Tarn and the Garronne, and that it was marching to the siege of Lavaur, six thousand strong, detached a chosen body of troops, under the command of the count of Foix, of his son, and of Guiraud de Pepieux,

1 Petri Val. Cern. Hist. Albigens. cap. xlix, 1, p. 596. 597. Guil. de Podio Laurentii, cap. xvi, xvii, p. 676.

who laid an ambush for the Germans, and cut them in pieces before Simon de Montfort could come to their assistance. On the other side count Raymond had prohibited all his subjects, from carrying provisions to the camp of the crusaders, who were thereby reduced to great extremities. But they were commanded by a chief, as much superior to the other captains by his skill and prudence, as he outdid the rest of the fanatics by his cold ferocity. Simon de Montfort had profited by all the progress which the art of war had made in that age. He had himself served in the Holy Land, and there were in his camp a great number of knights who had combated against the Turks and the Greeks, and who had, in the East, acquired the knowledge of the attack and defence of fortified places. He employed, therefore, to overthrow the walls, ingenious machines, whose introduction was quite recent amongst the Latins, and which were as yet unknown to the inhabitants of the Pyrenees.

The most fearful was that which was called the cat. A moveable wooden tower, strongly constructed, was built out of the reach of the besieged. When it was entirely covered with sheepskins, with the fur outwards to guard it from fire, and provided with soldiers at its openings, and on the platform at its summit, it was moved on rollers to the foot of the wall, Its side then opened, and an immense beam, armed with iron

hooks, projected like the paw of a cat, shook the wall by reiterated strokes, after the manner of the ancient battering ram, and tore out, and pulled down, the stones which it had loosened. Simon de Montfort had constructed a cat, but the wide ditches of Lavaur prevented him from bringing it near enough to the walls. The crusaders, under the orders of Montfort, laboured unceasingly to fill up the ditch, whilst the inhabitants of Lavaur, who could descend into it by subterranean passages, cleared away each night all that had been thrown in during the day. At last Montfort succeeded in filling the mines with flame and smoke, and thereby prevented the inhabitants from passing into them. The ditches were then speedily filled; the cat was pushed to the foot of the wall; and its terrible paw began to open and enlarge the breach.

On the day of the finding of the holy cross, the 3rd of May, 1211, Montfort judged the breach to be practicable. The crusaders prepared for the assault. The bishops, the abbot of Courdieu, who exercised the functions of vice-legate, and all the priests clothed with their pontifical habits, giving themselves up to the joy of seeing the carnage begin, sang the hymn Veni Creator. The knights mounted the breach. Resistance was impossible; and the only care of Simon de Montfort was to prevent the crusaders from instantly falling upon the inhabitants, and to be

66

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.