In addition to the three hundred gallant knights who had accompanied Raymond Roger, on the strength of the legate's safe conduct, and who had, with him, been treacherously overpowered and imprisoned, the scouts of the army had captured a number of poor fugitives in the act of escaping by mountain-passes, and through forest tracks, from the beleaguered city. Many of these were women; mothers with their infants, and maidens seeking to rescue their still younger brothers and sisters from the sword of slaughter, or hastening in silent panic to hide themselves, after the terrific view obtained from the walls, of that fierce band of violent and cruel men. From all these, Arnold selected four hundred and fifty individuals, as lying under just suspicion of heresy, and condemned them to public execution. To vary the spectacle, and as far as he could to gratify the taste of his followers, he ordered fifty of these to be hanged, while four hundred were burnt alive. At Beziers, the work was a general massacre; this bore more of the aspect of a martyrdom. There, the word was, "Kill them all!" here, from a limited number, entrapped by shameful fraud, or seized by cruel force, a selection was made, and every individual suffered as a Christian. We humbly trust that all among them deserved the name; that such as had not fled from the sorceries of Great Babylon, and laid hold on the free mercies of God in Christ Jesus, were enabled so to do, in that day of calamity, and were made worthy of the martyr's crown. The day is coming that shall reveal all these things; and when the past is laid open to our view, with all its horrors, when we see before us those who were most cruelly tortured and slain for the testimony of Jesus, we may comprehend somewhat of the spirit of that exulting apostrophe, "Rejoice, ye heavens,

and ye holy apostles and prophets; for God hath avenged you of her!"

The last ember of the fading fires had died away, and the suspended bodies waved, cold and rigid, in every light breeze that swept over the lofty turrets of Carcassonne, and none survived but the captive in his lonely dungeon, of all who had peopled the busy scene, and had owned its many habitations. In their stead was to be seen a motley crew, gathered from among all classes, and wearing the costume respectively of France, of England, Germany, Italy, and the provinces. Innumerable, and active beyond all others, were the swarms of priests and friars, passing to and fro, kindling and keeping alive the spirit of merciless bigotry in the bosoms of men who regarded them as their only guides to heaven; and who never paused to enquire how far the doctrines taught, the example set, and the actions prompted by them accorded with the universally admitted fact, that the God whom they professed to repre· sent is a God of holiness and mercy; of truth and love. But for these firebrands of Rome, the flame of persecution against God's heritage had never been kindled : under their rule it was likely never to be quenched, while one mortal was supposed to breathe, independent of the papal will.

Grouped together, in one of the open squares, near which hung the ghastly forms of several of Raymond Roger's noble knights, might be seen some warriors of lofty bearing, whose brows were clouded, and their tones bespoke a swelling indignation. There were lords of France, who, while they saw the fairest scenes of their fertile country desolated, and the life-blood of their countrymen and countrywomen shed like water on every side by the hands of a foreign banditti, while

murder in cold blood was the finale to every combat, and the vilest were selected to butcher the noble and the fair,had begun to ask themselves how far it consorted with their knightly and national honour to take part in such disgraceful scenes at the bidding of a monk. Arnold Amalric could not remain in ignorance of any whisper that was breathed touching the supreme power of Holy Church; and this, of course, speedily reached his ears. He therefore prepared to meet the rising spirit of dissa tisfaction, by a new prize for the ambitious to grasp at. He called a council, and set before the assembled nobles the necessity of placing the conquered provinces under the rule of some prince, whose martial prowess should help forward the work, and his devotion to the Church prove a guarantee for his zealous co-operation in utterly exterminating heresy. The viscounties of Beziers and Carcassonne were now at his disposal; and he concluded by declaring his intention of conferring them on the duke of Burgundy. That prince, however, much to the legate's dismay, not only rejected the gift, but declared that they had done Raymond Roger wrong enough already, without also despoiling him of his heritage. Language so accordant with their newlyawakened feelings of compunction was eagerly echoed by other princes: The Count of Nevers, and the Count of St. Paul, to whom it was alternately offered, expressed themselves to the same effect; and Arnold began to feel the perplexity of his situation; and, to lighten the burden, took two bishops and four knights into commission with himself, to deliberate and decide on the fate of the desolated provinces. They made sure of their man before again subjecting their princely offer to a refusal. Simon de Montfort, avaricious, ambitious, cruel, and utterly without scruple as to the means by

which his evil propensities were to be gratified, was not likely to decline the gift, or to shrink from the deed that would most effectually confirm it. He accepted the lordship of his noble prisoner, Raymond Roger; and he sealed the contract by administering to the Viscount, who, it will be remembered, was committed to his safe-keeping, a dose of poison.

It was publicly announced, with all due manifestations of regret, that Raymond Roger had died of a severe epidemic, and only the suspicion that must rest on such an event, at that juncture and under those cir'cumstances, could be brought to contradict it; but the master-spirit of all this iniquity, the presiding Pope, has left it on record in his voluminous correspondence, that Raymond Roger died a violent death. In the Beast's war with the saints, he thus fell, firmly espousing and faithfully upholding the cause of the saints: and we do trust, that the great day of the Lord will reveal him, numbered with the saints in glory everlasting.

But this assassination was not perpetrated until the November following, although we may well believe that it formed part of the original plan. The wretched Count of Toulouse was an eye-witness to all that his cowardly perfidy had brought on his noble nephew, and the many thousands of innocent victims whose blood cried aloud from the ground. But no hope could exist that the Viscount of Beziers would ever so bend his neck beneath the yoke. Excommunication having been fulminated against him, followed by forcible deposition and imprisonment, death only remained. He was no longer the lord of those magnificent domains, but a private individual, accused of heretical pravity. Nevertheless, the fact was plain, that he still reigned in

the warmest affections of his people; and it also became manifest that his brother nobles entertained a strong feeling of sympathy for his afflictions: they had come up to fight against him: and, blinded by the sorceries of Rome, they had connived at the infamous act by which he was decoyed, betrayed, and captured. Still, when they saw a comparative stranger, of character so repulsive as de Montfort, taking high state upon him, and carrying on a war of extermination against the refugees who were now his subjects, as one by one he reduced the castles where they had endeavoured to fortify themselves, these nobles were moved by a spirit of commiseration for the young Viscount that might ripen into something dangerous to Simon's ill-acquired power; and hence the execution of the last enormity-the murder of the imprisoned Raymond.

The expiration of the forty days had found de Montfort embarrassed by his recent acquisition; and had all the crusaders then returned to their homes, he might have sought in vain to make good his hold on the prey: but though many withdrew, others were found willing to prolong the term of their service, in the prospect of farther blood and spoil. Besides, they were now in some sort, under the leadership of him who assumed to be lord of the territory, and who would have it in his power to reward, with permanent advantages, such as might show themselves zealous in assisting to establish his dominion. Here we see the craft and subtilty of Satan and his agents: much of the fierce fanatic zeal that led the army forth, had now been quenched in blood; many who seriously made the bargain with God's pretended vicegerent, purchasing absolution for all their sins at the regular price of forty days' service in the cause of "the church," having fulfilled their part of the