Friday, September 1, 2017

A Dancer in the Infinite - Chapter 61


Chapter 61   Victory at Termes

There is no future. There is no past. Do you see? Time is simultaneous, an intricately structured jewel that humans insist on viewing one edge at a time, when the whole design is visible in every facet. – Alan Moore

 

From the north will Evil come forth, upon all the inhabitants of the earth.  (Jeremiah 1:14)

 

     Simon was not waiting for news from Toulouse from Amaury, he was pressing his advantage throughout the lowlands, crushing the heretics wherever he found them.  He had decided however to attempt another siege of yet another Cathar mountain stronghold, this time Termes in Corbieres, long thought as unassailable as Lastours.  The buzzing in his head give him the ideas that he was certain would bring him victory this time.

     As his wife Alix brought in fresh troops through the dangerous paths up, the Lion of Montfort had his catapults hauled to another mountain peak, just across the valley from high Termes.  Simon had his best siege engineer set up and direct the catapaults which from the position on the nearby mountaintop had an unimpeded access to fling firey projectiles at the Cathar fortress, while Simon and his men held siege dangerously exposed on the mountainside beneath Termes.  However, the defenders under constant assault from Simon’s catapults could not press their advantage against Simon’s men, and within just more than a month of constant bombardment, the defenders of Termes surrendered.

     This surrender shook the Cathar defenders courageous defiance badly.  After the victories at Minerve and Termes, Peter of Castenou pressed for rpeace, abandoning the fortresses of Lastours.  The armies of the Crusaders then turned their attention again to the lowlands and the hangings and burnings or the Cathar faithful continued with increasing vigor and frequency across the land of Languedoc.  Nothing, it seemed could now stand in Raymond’s way.

     When the news reached him from Amaury that in response to Raymond’s trial and the reinstitution of his excommunication, Raymond’s son was to be next in line for the seat of Toulouse which had then fallen under the King of Aragon in Spain’s dominion until such a time that he came of age to take control of his lands.  In essence, Languedoc was now Simon’s domain, save the vicinities of Toulouse which were now part of the Kingdom of Aragon.  Simon de Montfort had become Lord of Languedoc.  The buzzing in his head made him relish this.

copyright 2017 Diana Hignutt

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