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 assault; They kill all the living, as they did at Chasseneuil, 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 God; 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 Carcassonne!" Cries the papal legate. "Fall to, Montfort! On the march! His Holiness has issued the order. To Carcassonne! Kill, pillage, burn the heretics, as we have done At Chasseneuil and Beziers! To Carcassonne!"

"On to Carcassonne! Kill, pillage, burn the heretics as we have done At Chasseneuil and Beziers! On to Carcassonne," echoes Montfort. And behold them, they march on Carcassonne, The Cath'lic Crusaders, the priests in the lead! The red cross on their breasts, The name of Jesus on their lips, The sword in one hand, The fagot in the other! To the rape, to tortures and slaughter! What wrong have we done to these priests? Oh, what wrong have we done unto them!