The Litchfield County post., 1828-01-10

se.enaerS: hus the multitude of its assail-
 ants was such, ,ha, !, appeared as if the whole world WIS eRcsmpcd before n." { Tlse cily was taken al the first assault, aud
 s~nc ni the crusaders, IhirStiug after her
 e'tc blood only, dcSlred the Legaie to take { care aud have a distinction made between tt.,r trihinl and the unbelievers. Nil all, , the Pope'S Representative, the Lord wal afterwards select those that are hiS. The sentence of death was fulfilled to the very letter, and all were slain. Of men,
 women and children, not one was left alive and the town was reduced to ashes. Co., temporary historians differ as to the num- her tilat per,shed at BeXierS. Some say sixty thousand others say for!y thousand. The legate himself, in his letter 10 Pope
 Innocent the Third, reported it to be if ] teen thousand. Fifteen thousand human beings, then, were masSacred at the word
 of one who calls himself servant of Go,.! 1 The forces of de Montford marched in tri-
 umph to invest CarCasSOne. Strong inter-
 cesson was made to the legate in favor ot the young viSCOunt who was shut up with 1 the inhabitants of that town and the terms were that he might quit the city with 12 ] others, upon condition of surrendering the
 rest of the tOWnsmen and soldiers to the pleasure of the besiegers. " Rather than
 comply with the demand of the legate,''
 replied the heroic youth, I would give my
 self to be fayed alive" The people of
 the city afterwards escaped by secret passage. The enemy took possession of the town, sin the name of the church, and in malignant resentment at thought of so many victims having escaped his fury, burnt or hanged three hundred knights who
 had previously capitulated, upon the guar
 antee of his solemn oath that they should
 not be put to death.
 By this time the dread of the invading 1 army had extended far and wide over the 1 provinces of Provence and Languidoc, & princes and people would have been glad
 to accept any honorable conditions but
 none was offered: the crusade was still
 preached though the whole of France, &
 every year brought thousands of fanatics, to the harvest of slaughter and spoilation.
 In many cases, torture was added to the
 inHiction of death. A hundred of the in-
 habitants of Brom had their eyes torn out, and their noses cut of: Intimidated by this example, the people of Minerva would have surrendered upon condition of hav- ing their lives spared. De Montford to
 whom the application was made, referred them to the legate, "who desired," says the Monk of Vaux Cernay, "that all the
 enemies of Christ should be put to death,
 but he could not take it upon himself to
 condemn them, as being a priest and
 monk" The churchman contrived to
 break off the equalization. The place was
 then taken by assault, and all but three perished by the sword or in the flames.
 Lavour was one of the cities which
 made the most memorable defence. By
 their frequent sorties, their perseverance,
 in repairing the breaches, their intrepid ex-
 posture of life upon the walls, the Albigen-
 ses showed upon this and all other occa- sions, generous courage, which would
 have secured success to their cause, if the
 ranks of their enemies had not been filled up by hosts of new levies, as fast as they
 were thinned by the causalities of the war.
 In the year 1912 the army of the crusa- ders was four times renewed and so uni- versal!y was it understood to be the quar- rel of the church, that ecclesiastical digni- taries came from all quarters to give CO., Tor to the proceedings. We read of the
 Provost of the church of Colongue, the Archdeacon of Paris, the Bishop of Laon, the Bishop of Foul, and the Archbishop of Rouen, who were present upon one oc- casion to inspire the fury of the invaders.
 But to return to Lavour. A practical
 breach was soon made in the walls, and the monkish historian was blind and sav- age enough to relate at full length the part which he himself, and the rest of the Ro-s nj i,h priesthood, who followed the train of Simeon's army, took while the massacre
 was going on. He afirms, that the bishops, the Abbot of Courdeu, who exercised
 the functions of the vice-legate, with all the priests, clothed in their sacred vest
 ments, gave themselves up to thanksgiving when they saw the carnage beginning, and sung the hymn of Veni Creator. He ex-
 plains, too, with all the minute detail of one who exulted in the event, that, when the castle of Armery fell, eighty knights were taken and condemned to be hanged; but as this process was to slow, an order was given to destroy them en massa that the order was received by the pilgrims with avidity, and that they burnt the her. cities alive '0ith greatjoy," Tin the original,