Aware that the Crusaders were on the way, Raymond-Roger reconsidered his position and joined them en route to offer his submission too, but it was rejected. (If he joined them as well, his lands would be protected and there would be no-where for the Crusaders to destroy and pillage - which is why Arnaud Amaury rejected the offer.) Raymond-Roger returned to Carcassonne, ordering Béziers to prepare for action on his way. He sent all Jews away to safety, knowing that the Catholic army would kill them if they ever got hold of them. This was a precaution as no-one expected Béziers to fall, and certainly not for a long time. Everyone had known that the Jews would have been slaughtered if the town fell, but not that the Crusaders would massacre everybody they found, Catholics included, if they took the town, as they did on 22nd of July 1208. Still under the command of their leader Arnaud Amaury Abbot of Cîteaux, appointed by Pope Innocent III, the Crusaders now turned towards Carcassonne.