The men in arms are on the ramparts; Women and children weep in the houses.
The women and children weep in the houses, The Crusaders have sighted the town.
Behold Abbot Reynier of Citeaux.
He steps forth; he speaks. He says: "Heretics of Cha.s.seneuil, choose-- The Catholic faith or death!"
The answer comes: "Monk, be gone!
Romanist, avaunt!
We prefer death to the Church of Rome!
The devil take the Pope!
Monk be gone!
We prefer death to the Church of Rome!"
Abbot Reynier, in a pa.s.sion, Back to the Crusaders he rides, and he cries: "Kill, burn, pillage, ravage!
That not one of the Cha.s.seneuil heretics Escape the sword or the flames!
Their goods now belong to the Catholics!
Kill, burn, pillage, ravage!"
The a.s.sailants are wild, no less so th" a.s.sailed.
How the blood flows! Oh! How it flows!
The besiegers are in numbers, uncountable: The besieged are but few.
Woe to the vanquished!
The ramparts being scaled The priests pour in, cross in hand: "Kill--kill the Cha.s.seneuil heretics!
Kill--kill the Cha.s.seneuil heretics!"
The Crusaders have ma.s.sacred, slaughtered and killed Old men and young, Aged grand-mothers, youthful grand-daughters, Virgins and infants!
The blood runs in streams through the streets of Cha.s.seneuil!
The blood runs red and steaming, As waves in the butcher"s place of slaughter!
They have ma.s.sacred at Cha.s.seneuil Full seven thousand of our people, The Catholic Crusaders!
They have slaughtered seven thousand at Cha.s.seneuil!
At last, tired of carnage and outraging women, They pillage and pillage again!
In pillaging houses they meet women and old men, Children and many of the wounded, Who sought refuge in places concealed.
The gibbets are raised!
The pyres are lighted!
The rope and the flames end the work Which the sword set on foot.
Torture and slaughter!
The rope and the flames end the work Which the sword set on foot!
Ravaged from one end to the other, The city contains but corpses in heaps!
"To Beziers!"
Now cries the papal legate.
"Fall to, Montfort, up and to work!
His Holiness has issued the order!
Kill, pillage, burn all heretics, As was done at Cha.s.seneuil!"
"To Beziers!" echoes back the Count of Montfort.
And, behold, they march to Beziers, The Catholic Crusaders, The red cross on their b.r.e.a.s.t.s, The name of Jesus on their lips, The sword in one hand, The f.a.got in the other, To torture and to slaughter!
What wrong have we done to these priests?
What wrong have we done unto them!
CHAPTER VII.
SONG ON THE BUTCHERY OF BEZIERS.
Behold, them, the Cath"lic Crusaders, Arrived before fortified Beziers!
They are gorged with pillage and blood, The priests ever leading the way!
At the side of Montfort are the Archbishops of Sens and Bordeaux, The Bishops of Puy, Autun, Limoges, Bazas and Agde, Besides from Clermont, Cahors and Nevers.
The Army of the Faith encircles the town.
Reginald of Montpayroux, the Bishop of Beziers, Whom, together with all of his priests, the people Had left unincommoded in his episcopal palace, Reginald of Montpayroux, then addresses the town: "Renounce your heresy, Submit to the Catholic Church; If not, by the Catholic Church I swear to you, Not one house I"ll leave standing in your town of Beziers!
Not one living being shall be left with his life!"
"Be gone, bishop!" he"s answered aloud, "Be gone, Romanist! Sooner we"ll kill ourselves, Ourselves, our wives and our children than submit to your Church!"
"Be gone, bishop! Sooner we"ll kill ourselves, Ourselves, our wives and our children than submit to your Church!"
Thus did the people make answer. To Montfort The bishop reports, and he adds: "Fall to, Montfort!
His Holiness has issued the order To arms!
Kill, burn, pillage and ravage!
Let not a single heretic escape death!
Their goods are now ours!"
"Yes!" cries the Abbot of Citeaux. "Not even if Twenty thousand, a hundred thousand they be, Not one of them, no, not a single one shall escape The rope, or the sword, or the flames!
Torture and slaughter!"
No! Not a single creature escapes The rope, or the sword, or the flames!
"But," answers Montfort, "There are Catholics at Beziers; How are we, in the midst of the carnage To distinguish the faithful?"
The papal legate cries in answer: "Kill away!
Kill them all!
_The Lord will distinguish His own!_"
"Kill them all!" cries the papal legate, "The Lord will distinguish His own!"
Beziers is taken by a.s.sault; They kill all the living, as they did at Cha.s.seneuil, The Cath"lic Crusaders!
First, seven thousand children, sheltered in St. Madeleine"s Church, Are put to the sword And the carnage continues two consecutive days.
Aye, two consecutive days, from sun-rise to sun-rise.
And the time is all needed, those two days and nights, To slaughter sixty-three thousand creatures of G.o.d; Aye, sixty-three thousand, Catholics and heretics killed at Beziers!
Sixty-three thousand.
That is the number of Beziers" victims.
After the raping of women and slaughter, the pillage; After the pillage, the torch of th" incendiary.
The booty is placed upon wagons outside the town And then--"Burn up Beziers! Burn up the heretic hot-bed!"
And all is burned down--all-- Artisans" houses and houses of bourgeois; The communal City Hall, and the viscount"s palace; The hospital of the poor, and the great cathedral built by Gervais.
Everything burned, aye everything.
And when all is burnt down, and the wagons of booty heaped high, And the vine-stocks pulled up by the roots, And the olive trees cut down in the orchard, And the crops consumed by the flames in the garrets, "To Carca.s.sonne!"
Cries the papal legate.
"Fall to, Montfort! On the march!
His Holiness has issued the order.
To Carca.s.sonne!
Kill, pillage, burn the heretics, as we have done At Cha.s.seneuil and Beziers!
To Carca.s.sonne!"