The year 1209 marks the opening of the first crusade. The legates of the Pope guided the sacred army. Amongst the worldly leaders, the name of Simon de Montfort, father of the celebrated Earl of Leicester, is the most prominent. The incidents of this war, which lasted over twenty years, and laid waste the most flourishing provinces of France, are matter of history. Suffice it here to allude briefly to the revolting cruelties of the crusaders, and to such memorable events as the sieges of Lavaur and Beziers, and the decisive battle of Muret, at which Peter II. of Aragon, the brother-in-law and ally of Count Raimon, perished with the flower of his chivalry. It was at the sack of Beziers that that man of God, Arnaud, Abbot of Citeaux, when asked by the soldiers how to distinguish Catholics and heretics, spoke the pious words: ‘Kill them all; the Lord will know his own!’ In the end, the Church remained triumphant. Raimon died with a broken heart and a broken fortune. His valour in the field of battle had been in vain; even his most humiliating attempts at reconciliation with the Roman See had come to naught, owing, in great part, to the personal hatred of the legates and local clergy, who, out-heroding Herod, frustrated the milder intentions of the Pope. It ought to be added, in alleviation of the guilt of the priests, that religious intolerance was supported in this case by worldly ambition and covetousness. The crusade soon took the form of a political war between the North and the South of France; it was a struggle of provincial autonomy against centralisation. This issue also was gained by the invaders. As early as 1215, the lands of the Count of Toulouse were by the Pope given to his champion, Simon de Montfort, who, it is true, never enjoyed their quiet possession, and died in the defence of his ill-gotten title. By his eldest son, Amaury, these claims were ceded to the King of France, who in the meantime had taken a prominent part in the crusade. In the final peace concluded with the crown of France at Paris, in 1229, Count Raimon VII., son of Raimon VI., barely succeeded in retaining possession of the scanty remains of his heritage during his own lifetime. His daughter and heiress was married to the brother of the King of France. This marriage sealed the doom of southern independence; its customs, its traditions, and its literature were rapidly merged in the overpowering influence of northern centralisation. The _langue d’oc_ descended to the level of a local patois. It is sad to relate that the last recorded action of Raimon VII. was his personal attendance at the conviction and burning alive of eighty heretics. With the Treaty of Paris, the last hope of the Albigeois movement had vanished, and its remnants were gradually hunted down by the bloodhounds of the Inquisition, now an established institution in beautiful Provence. CHAPTER XXII. THE EPIC OF THE CRUSADE.