2S0 ROGER OF WEN DOVER. [A.D. 1214. send them away from amongst them, otherwise they would he excommunicated, and their blood be on their own beads. The heretics and their allies soorufully refused to accede to this, and mutually swore to defend the city; and, when they had pledged their faith, they hoped to be able for a long time to sustain the assaults of the crusaders. After the city was laid siege to, on the feast of St. Mary Magdalen, the catholic barons considered how they could save those amongst them who were catholics, and made overtures for their liberation ; but the rabble and low people, without waiting for the command or orders of the chiefs, made an assault on the city, and, to the astonishment of the Christians, when the cry to arms was raised, and the army of the faith was rushing in all directions to the assaults, those who were defending the walls inside threw out the book of the go-pel from the city on them, blaspheming the name of the Lord, and deriding their assailants; -'Behold," they said, "your law, we take no heed to it ; yours it shall be." The soldiers of the faith, incensed by such blasphemy and provoked by their insults, in less than three hours' time crossed the fosse and scaled the wall.-, by the Lord's assistance. Thus was the city taken, ami on the same day it was sacked and burnt, a great slaughter of the infidels taking place as the punishment of God ; but, under his protection, very few of the catholics were slain. After the lapse of a few days, when the report of this miracle was spread abroad, the Lord scattered before the face of the crusaders, as it were without their assistance, those who had blasphemed his name and his law, and at length the followers of this heretical depravity Avere so alarmed that they (led to the recesses of the mountains, and what may be believed, they left more than a hundred untenanted castles, between Jie/iers and Carcassone, stocked with food and all kinds of stores, which they could not take with them in their flight. The capture of the citi/ and rasile oft'arca ssone. The crusaders, moving their camp from this place, arrived on the feast of St. Peter "ad vinenhi" at Cai-cassone, a populous city, and till now glorying in its wickedness, abounding in riches, and well fortified. On the following day they made an assault, and within two or three hours they crossed the entrenchments and scaled the walls amidst