Page:Readings in European History Vol 1.djvu/337

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page needs to be proofread.

, The Hohenstaufen Emperors and the Popes 301 certain day. They all came together accordingly and took their station in the said village. There they awaited the outcome, hoping rather for war than peace. In the mean- time negotiations were carried on for a week at a place between Montenaken and Landen, but in spite of the inter- vention of the clergy, who tried to bring about an adjust- ment, no peaceful settlement could be reached. At last the count of Namur intervened and effected an armistice, which the others had been unable to arrange. [During the succeeding years there was no end of dis- New troubles order, due mainly to feudal complications. Finally, in 1212,] in . I212 - on the ist of May the burghers of Liege sallied forth to taken and fight Duke Henry of Brabant. But the next day they plundered, returned in disorder and fright. The third day the town was invested and immediately taken and pillaged. On the fourth and fifth days the enemy robbed the people of all their gold, silver, and everything in the way of valuables; women and girls were carried off to the enemy's camp and many burghers taken prisoners. On the sixth day the burghers who were left concluded a peace, but a miserable one ; on the seventh day the army withdrew from Liege ; on the eighth it laid siege to Musal, but did not take the town. Waleffe, on the contrary, was turned over deserted to the duke. A week after Ascension day the army of the duke re- turned home. The count of Namur demanded some security that the duke would keep the peace, for he feared the duke's power. The bishop kept in hiding with a few followers. The next year, however, fortune favored the people of Liege, who under their bishop gained a glorious vic- tory over the duke of Brabant and his army. After a very full account of the affair, our chronicler closes his report of the year with peaceful news of progress. This account of the year must come to an end. But I Reference will first tell of three useful products which we have discov- to coal> ered and which are well worth mentioning. I mean the marl, which is good for enriching the soil ; the black earth,