These speeches cannot be accepted in their literal meaning, any more than those found in the pages of Xenophon or Thucydides. The circumstance also of the Pope deciding clearly and confessedly against his own conscience is evidently the high-coloured statement of a partisan of the oppressed Count. (The scene, it must be remembered, occurs in the second and anti-clerical division of the poem.) But the incidents are related with so much freshness of individual characterisation that the author’s intimate acquaintance with the persons and events described cannot be doubted for a moment. At any rate it is a quaint picture, and not without historic significance, to see the great Pontiff, the breaker of thrones and the umpire of nations, quailing under the storm of fanaticism raised by himself. Moreover, the idea which suggested the situation to the poet is not without its grain of sober truth. For, as has already been said, it is an historic fact that Innocent III. on several occasions showed an unfortunately abortive desire to protect Raimon against the unfettered rage of legates and monks. From the council-chamber we follow our author to the battle-field. Here, also, he is perfectly at home, and his descriptions, although naturally less attractive as regards psychological observation, are none the less vigorous and interesting. There is the true ring of the ‘chanson de geste,’ the genuine popular epic, in his lines. A few historic remarks must precede our quotation. The reader will remember the name of Peter II., the valiant king of Aragon, whose sister was the wife of Raimon of Toulouse. Although by no means favourably inclined towards the heretics, Peter could not calmly look on while his brother-in-law was despoiled of his heritage. His attempts at mediation between Raimon and Simon de Montfort were many. He appealed to the Pope and the King of France. At last, when his peaceful efforts proved in vain, he resolved to brave temporal and eternal perils rather than forsake his friend. He assembled a large army, and in September 1213 joined his forces with those of the Count of Toulouse. The immediate object of the allies was the siege of Muret, a small fortified town, not far from Toulouse, into which Simon had thrown himself. I now leave the word to the old chronicler.