husbandmen routed, together with their bishops, priests, and
people, whilst the sword gleamed, and the flames crackled around
them on every side. Lamentable to behold, in the midst of the
streets lay the tops of lofty towers, tumbled to the ground, stones
of high walls, holy altars, fragments of human bodies, covered
with livid clots of coagulated blood, looking as if they had
been squeezed together in a press;* and with no chance of being
buried, save in the ruins of the houses, or in the ravening
bellies of wild beasts and birds; with reverence be it spoken
for their blessed souls, if, indeed, there were many found who
were carried, at that time, into the high heaven by the holy
angels. So entirely had the vintage, once so fine, degenerated
and become bitter, that, in the words of the prophet, there was
hardly a grape or ear of corn to be seen where the husbandman
had turned his back.

25. Some therefore, of the miserable remnant, being taken in
the mountains, were murdered in great numbers; others, constrained
by famine, came and yielded themselves to be slaves for ever to
their foes, running the risk of being instantly slain, which truly
was the greatest favour that could be offered them: some others
passed beyond the seas with loud lamentations instead of the voice
of exhortation. "Thou hast given us as sheep to be slaughtered,
and among the Gentiles hast thou dispersed us." Others, committing
the safeguard of their lives, which were in continual jeopardy,
to the mountains, precipices, thickly wooded forests, and to the
rocks of the seas (albeit with trembling hearts), remained still
in their country. But in the meanwhile, an opportunity happening,
when these most cruel robbers were returned home, the poor remnants
of our nation (to whom flocked from divers places round about our