482 ANNALS OF BOGEB BE FXOVEDEN. A.B. 1178. point of his own sword by thy hands. For if in this contest the portion of Christ is conquered, or if in the slightest degree or in the smallest point mother Church is trodden under foot, we know for certain that the cause is not wanting in goodness but in defenders ; we know also that the triumph will not be denied to our champion, if when fighting he wages the warfare inspired by love of the faith. But inasmuch as, according to the word of truth, ' The harvest is plenteous and the labourers are few,' the ravagers, good Jesus, of Thy fields, being arrayed as deeeitful labourers, think if they shall enter boldly, by their ravages, as it were, to forestall the day of gathering in thy harvest, and rather to root up what is unripe than to reap what has attained maturity : where, then, are Thy husbandmen appointed by Thee over Thy fertile and pleasant field, blossoming with Thy blood, and watered with the sprinkling thereof? Let them arise and assist us, and let them shield us in our necessity, and oppose themselves as a wall of defence for us against these blood-stained beasts. Arise, I say, arise, husbands, fathers, leaders of nations, princes of the people, drive away these vilest of savage brutes, which we have beheld, which we point out, or at least expel these cubs of foxes ; and yet it is better to take them, but who is fitted so to do ? They have no certain paths, they walk along winding ways, and these most savage monsters are hidden in a kind of labyrinth made by their own frauds. Like a fawn they make their escape from the hand, and are like unto writhing serpents ; the more tightly you grasp them, the more easily do they slip away. Thanks to God, however, that, although they cannot be taken, they may be driven away, that so when they have failed in the exertions they were making against us, they may be confounded and perish of themselves. And, that this can easily be effected, we will prove by things that we have beheld, and in which we have taken part ; so that if, from this time forward, it is not done, we shall have to deplore, not so much their wickedness as our own short-comings, and the negligence of our people. For it lately happened that, at the command of our lord the pope, and at the exhortation of the most pious princes, Louis, king of the Franks, and Henry, king of the English, the lord Peter, the legate of the Apostolic See, and the venerable men the bishops of Poitou and Bath, and ourselves, went to Toulouse, a city in their county, which, as it was stated to be a city containing a vast multitude, was also s;iid