as the van of the long procession of the Crusaders appeared, gleaming in gold on the summit of a richly-wooded hill, like the sun rising in his glory.

The plain on which the parties were to meet seemed, indeed, like an apt and ample theatre for the splendid and eventful drama that was to be acted on it: it was almost square, and bounded on two of its sides by rocks of dark granite, hewed by the hand of Nature into a resemblance of terraces, and crowded to their very pinnacles by thousands who sent their souls into their eyes."

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The remaining sides were as opposite in their character and scenery as in their position. The march of the Crusaders wound by an easy path down hills, feathered from their base to their summit with the larch, the pine, and the picturesque ash-tree, with its hoary trunk and leaves of the lightest green; and on the rich sward that clothed its declivities, flowers were glowing and scents were breathing, and all that is grand

and lovely in Nature was effusing its bounty and its beauty. As the pageant first rose on the summit of the hill, the voices of thousands of spectators pealing in thunder from the rocks on which their dark and crowded masses rested, (like the clouds from whence the thunder issues) sent forth a shout of mingled triumph on their appearance and approbation of their cause; and its echoes continued to roll round the hills long after the lips of the acclaimers were closed, as if the spirits of the mountains had caught up the sound, and swelled and prolonged it with the powers of more than mortal intonation.

And now between the trees, with their dark trunks and leaves of vivid green slightly discoloured by the tints of autumn, the proud array of the Crusaders came glancing nearer ; and every moment were more distinctly seen the gleams of glittering mantles, of steeds caparisoned in embroidery, of floating plumage and gemmed banners, and they gorgeously emblazoned with all the rich and fantastic pro

fusion of heraldic devices; the group now emerging from the greenwood shade, now concealed by a thick cluster of ancient trees, now gleaming gaily out on a spot of greensward, and now at length pouring the full glory of their march in all the splendour of broad sun-light on the open plain, whose surrounding scenery with all its magnificence of Nature, seemed but an appendage to the dignity who were born to be her lords.

As the great standard floated into the valley, the multitudes, that covered the hills, made the holy sign with the solemn ardour of rapturous devotion. The Bishop of Toulouse caught the signal, and made a sign to the ecclesiastical attendants to raise in chorus the psalm “Quare fremuerunt gentes?" The melody, or chaunt, adapted to these words was so simple and monotonous, that it was easily caught and repeated by those to whose ears it was wafted, and thousands on thousands of voices, above, below, and around, in ascending circles thundered “Quare

fremuerent gentes?" till the very mountains seemed vocal from base to summit; and Nature and the elements appeared inspired and voiceful in the spontaneous eloquence of musical devotion.

Right opposite to the richly-clothed and verdurous hill from which the Crusaders had descended, rose a naked rock, bare, save that here and there it was dotted with a few firs, the sterility of the soil denying any other produce even under the sunny skies of Languedoc. There was no path down its rude sides; the passenger had to make his perilous way from crag to crag, slowly and ungracefully. Nothing in inanimate nature was ever more dreary, comfortless, and unlovely; and nothing in animated nature seemed better suited to the cheerless scene, than the group of the Albigeois, who, clad in the grey woollen garments worn by the peasantry (and some of them in sheep-skins), slowly and painfully wound their way down the dangerous declivities of the hill. The group

consisted of the delegates of the Albigeois, and was chiefly composed of their preachers, Mattathias and the chief of their military leaders having been disabled in their late conflict. Pierre the pastor was in their van; and from long habit and fond associations believing himself unable to walk without the aid of his grand-daughter, he was supported by Genevieve. This sole appearance of an humble female, consecrated by duty and sustained by motive alone, heightened instead of destroying the delicacy among so many persons of the other sex, though of her own community, and silently enhanced the respect it claimed.

As the party advanced into the plain, singing the psalm "In exitu Israel," there was no applause, no echoed thunders of the mountains: violence was indeed forbidden, but disdain and hatred were strongly expressed in the profound silence that attended their progress; and the feeble and ill-modulated strain, supported by tuneless tenors and hoarse bases, contrasted with the choral magnificence