The Crusader Army surrounded this Cathar stronghold and began to lay seige. Some city burghers mounted a poorly organized sortie which failed. As the city's defenders retreated towards the city walls the crusaders followed and slipped through the open gates. The massacre that followed was one of the worst of the Middle Ages. The city's residents were all slaughtered - men and women, Catholics and heretics, even those who took refuge in the church.
