ROGER OK WKNDOVF.R. [A. D . 12-2G. person worthy of such a high station, by the common consent of the community, elected their clerk William, archdeacon of Worcester, it learned and honourable man, and presented him to the king; the latter however made some frivolous objections and refused to receive him, on which the monks sent some of their order to Home, to obtain a confirmation of the election by the authority of the supreme pontiff. The king, when he heard of this, scut the bishop of Chester and the prior of Lan tony to Rome, to oppose the monks and to frustrate their intentions; and as they continued the dispute for a long time, the matter continued undetermined. Of the siege of A vigiion hy Louis the French king. Γη the meantime our Lord's ascension arrived, on which day all the French crusaders had been ordered by the king and the legate to assemble without fail. The king, having made all the necessary preparations for the expedition at Lyons, proceeded on his journey with, as it seemed, an invincible army, followed bv the. legate, the archbishops, bishops, and other prelates of the churches; the army was computed to consist of about fifty thousand knights and horse-soldiers, besides foot-soldiers, who could hardly be counted. The legate then publicly excommunicated the count of Toulouse and all his abettors, and laid all his territory under an interdict. The king, as we have said, set out with shields and standards glittering, and bis march was so awful that it looked like an army of castles in motion, and at length entered the province of the count of Toulouse. ()n the eve of Whit-Sunday thev all reached Avignon, which was the first city in the count's dominion that they came to, and they determined to commence their attacks there, and thus to subdue the whole of the count's territory with the inhabitants of it from beginning to end. The king and the legate on their arrival there deceitfully asked leave of the inhabitants to pass through the citv, saying that they had come thither with peaceable intentions, and asked a passage through the city only to make a short cut in their march. The citizens, however, after deliberating on this request, put no faith in their assertions, and said that they wanted to get into the city with treacherous intentions rather than to make a short cut. The king then becoming enraged, swore that