Then they came into the town, accompanied by thousands
of sufferers, labouring people, old soldiers, warriors,
courtesans, and others, whom the said girls had succoured,
saved from misfortune, from hunger and misery, and
searched all the poor dwellings of the town where
lay those to whom she had done good. Thus all
were stirred up and called together to the plain of
Mount-Louis under the protection of the soldiers of
the said lords; they had for companions all the scape-graces
of the said twenty leagues around, and came one morning
to lay siege to the prison of the archbishop, demanding
that the Moorish woman should be given up to them
as though they would put her to death, but in fact
to set her free, and to place her secretly upon a
swift horse, that she might gain the open country,
seeing that she rode like a groom. Then in this
frightful tempest of men have we seen between the battlements
of the archiepiscopal palace and the bridges, more
than ten thousand men swarming, besides those who
were perched upon the roofs of the houses and climbing
on all the balconies to see the sedition; in short
it was easy to hear the horrible cries of the Christians,
who were terribly in earnest, and of those who surrounded
the jail with the intention of setting the poor girl
free, across the Loire, the other side of Saint Symphorien.
The suffocation and squeezing of bodies was so great
in this immense crowd, bloodthirsty for the poor creature
at whose knees they would have fallen had they had
the opportunity of seeing her, that seven children,
eleven women, and eight citizens were crushed and
smashed beyond all recognition, since they were like
splodges of mud; in short, so wide open was the great
mouth of this popular leviathan, this horrible monster,
that the clamour was heard at Montils-les-Tours.
All cried ’Death to the Succubus! Throw
out the demon! Ha! I’d like a quarter!
I’ll have her skin! The foot for me, the
mane for thee! The head for me! The something
for me! Is it red? Shall we see? Will
it be grilled? Death to her! death!’ Each
one had his say. But the cry, ‘Largesse
to God! Death to the Succubus!’ was yelled
at the same time by the crowd so hoarsely and so cruelly
that one’s ears and heart bled therefrom; and
the other cries were scarcely heard in the houses.
The archbishop decided, in order to calm this storm
which threatened to overthrow everything, to come
out with great pomp from the church, bearing the host,
which would deliver the Chapter from ruin, since the
wicked young men and the lords had sworn to destroy
and burn the cloisters and all the canons. Now
by this stratagem the crowd was obliged to break up,
and from lack of provisions return to their houses.
Then the monks of Touraine, the lords, and the citizens,
in great apprehension of pillage on the morrow, held
a nocturnal council, and accepted the advice of the
Chapter. By their efforts the men-at-arms, archers,
knights, and citizens, in a large number, kept watch,