again and my
Audiart shall recover his Beaucaire; then ladies and their lovers will
regain their lost delights." Such was the attitude of many troubadours
towards the crusade and they seem to represent the views of a certain
section of society. There is no trace on this side of any sense of
patriotism; they hated the crusade because it destroyed the comforts of
their happy existence. But the South of France had never as a whole
acquired any real sense of nationalism: there was consequently no
attempt at general or organised resistance and no leader to inspire such [84]
attempts was forth-coming.

On the other hand, special districts such as Toulouse, showed real
courage and devotion. The crusaders often found much difficulty in
maintaining a force adequate to conduct their operations after the first
energy of the invasion had spent itself, and had the Count of Toulouse
been an energetic and vigorous character, he might have been able to
reverse the ultimate issue of the crusade. But, like many other petty
lords his chief desire was to be left alone and he was at heart as
little interested in the claims of Rome as in the attractions of heresy.
His townspeople thought otherwise and the latter half of the _Chanson de
la Croisade_ reflects their hopes and fears and describes their
struggles with a sympathy that often reaches the height of epic
splendour. Similarly, certain troubadours were by no means absorbed in
the practice of their art or the pursuit of their intrigues. Bernard
Sicart de Marvejols has left us a vigorous satire against the crusaders
who came for plunder, and the clergy who drove them on. The greatest
poet of this calamitous time is Peire Cardenal. His work falls within
the years 1210 and 1230. The short notice that we have of him says that
he belonged to Puy Notre Dame in Velay, that he was the son of a noble
and was intended for an ecclesiastical career: when he was of age, he
was attracted by the pleasures of the world, became a troubadour and [85]
went from court to court, accompanied by a _joglar_: he was especially
favoured by King Jaime I. of Aragon and died at the age of nearly a
hundred years. He was no singer of love and the three of his _chansos_
that remain are inspired by the misogyny that we have noted in the case
of Marcabrun. Peire Cardenal's strength lay in the moral _sirventes_: he
was a fiery soul, aroused to wrath by the sight of injustice and
immorality and the special objects o