The crossbowman loaded and loosed off a bolt which hit the gatekeeper straight in the head and stuck in. The gatekeeper, mortally wounded and aware that he had been struck, went back through the gate with the intention of securing the wicket gate
3 but he could not for he fell down dead.
Aimerigot and his companions hastened to the gate and entered through the wicket gate. There they found the gatekeeper dead and his wife in terrible distress at his side. They did her no harm but asked her where the castellan
4 was to be found. She replied that he was in
Clermont. The companions promised to spare the woman's life so that she would surrender to them the keys to the castle and keep. This she did because she could not defend herself in any way. Then they shut her out, after returning all of her belongings, or at least as much as she could carry. She travelled to
Saint-Flour, a city one league away. The people were alarmed to learn that
Alleuze was in possession of the
English, as were the people of the surrounding area.
SHF 2-95 syncShortly after that,
Aimerigot Marchès recaptured the strong
castle of Vallon by scaling its walls. When he was inside, there was the captain asleep in the great tower which was impossible to take by force; and on this tower depended the security of the entire castle. So
Aimerigot devised a cunning scheme. He had captured the captain's father and mother, and so he had them brought before the tower and made them believe he would behead them if their son did not surrender the tower. Those good people feared they would die and so cried to their son in the tower to take pity on them, and they both wept bitterly.
The squire was deeply moved and would never have allowed his father and mother to be put to death, so he promptly surrendered the tower and they were thrown out of the castle. Consequently
Vallon remained
English; a situation which was very damaging to the country because all manner of people who wished to do evil withdrew either to
Chalusset two leagues from
Limoges, or to
Carlat,
Alleuze, or
Ventadour, and to many other castles besides. When these garrisons were gathered together they must have amounted to at least five or six hundred lance, and they overran the country and the lands of the count
dauphin of Auvergne who was their close neighbour, because none stood in their way while they were riding out together. It is certainly true that the
lord of Apchier was their great enemy, as was the
lord of Solleriel, the
Bâtard de Solleriel, his brother, and a squire of the
Bourbonnais named
Gourdinot. This
Gourdinot encountered
Aimerigot Marchès one day, capturing him by a fine feat of arms and ransoming him for five thousand francs, which he gained. This was the way of the deeds of arms in
Auvergne and
Limousin and the surrounding lands.
SHF 2-96 sync
Of the schism in the church and how it came about, and of the Breton men-at-arms who fought against the citizens of Rome, and of the queen of Naples who gave her territories into the hands of pope Clement.
I have not spoken for a long while on the affairs of the church, yet I should like to return to them since the matter calls for it. You have already heard it told and recounted how on the initiative of the
Romans, the cardinals in office at the time, to placate the people of
Rome who were greatly infuriated with them, chose a pope, appointing the
archbishop of Bari whose name beforehand was
Bartolomeo Prignano.
pb 7 v