the Crusaders appeared to have the advantage, but suddenly they were seized with terror, and began to disperse. The Hungarian troops pursued and slew them. So dreadful was the slaughter, that not only were the fields strewed with the corpses of the slain, but the rivers flowed with blood, and the waters of the Danube are said to have been choked and impeded in their course by the bodies of the dead.*

The fate of these expeditions is a frightful fact in the page of history. No fewer than two hundred and fifty thousand human beings are supposed to have perished. How saddening is such a wasteful expenditure of human life, and energy, and passion, to think of! To what higher purposes it might have been consecrated! Who can calculate the achievements which, under a right direction, it might have effected? How mournful that the close of the eleventh century of the Christian era should have found even Christendom itself engrossed in the thick darkness which these expeditions indicate!

The chief historical question of importance is the service of these expeditions to those which followed. They were not altogether without their utility. The popular enthusiasm had reached a height which was past all human control. Like a mighty river, whose waters, after having been frozen up, are suddenly thawed and swollen by the melting snows of adjacent hills, the popular enthusiasm in favour * Albertus, lib. 1. cap. xxxi. Gulielmus Tyrii, lib. i. cap. xxx.

of the Crusades rolled along in its own ungovernable course, incapable of restraint, and sure to force an outlet. This the expeditions of Peter and Walter, and others, supplied.

The Hermit survived the fate of his followers, and joining the regular armies of Europe, afterwards made an occasional but very subordinate appearance in the history of the First Crusade.* Still, his previous career places him among the most extraordinary men of his own or of any other age. His character has been variously estimated, his cotemporaries looking upon him as a heaven-inspired prophet, and some modern historians being divided, as to whether he was an impostor or a madman. To speak of him as a prophet inspired by God would be a libel on the Divine character. That his enthusiasm was sometimes near akin to madness is unquestionable; but that a madman should have pursued his course for so long a period with such uniform consistency, and with so much political wisdom, is scarcely admissible. His madness, at least, was only a complete development in his person of the spirit of his times. That he was not an impostor is equally conclusive. It would be too much to affirm that the eloquence of his tongue was never more glowing than the feelings of his heart-that he never practised deception-or that he did not employ, in the mode of his dress and the habits of his life, all that art and policy could suggest to further his mission, and to exalt himself * See page 53.

in popular favour; but that his whole career was one of intentional hypocrisy and fraud must be denied. Had not his own passion for the Crusades been sincere, he would hardly have been so successful in awakening it in the minds of others. Artificial fires could never have kindled so general an enthusiasm. The truth appears to be, that Peter the Hermit was a bold fanatic, whose spirit had first caught fire at the altar of superstition, which his own age had reared, and then, aided by an ardent imagination and a glowing eloquence, he spread throughout Christendom the flame which had been lighted up in his own soul.

CHAPTER III.

THE FIRST CRUSADE. A.D. 1096-1099.

THE enthusiasm of the undisciplined multitudes, who had enlisted under the banner of Peter and Walter, and others, was now quenched in death, and their bones lay either strown along the countries through which they had passed, or were left to whiten on the sunny plains of Asia. The regular armies of the cross now took the field with all the pomp and splendour of chivalry. The First Crusade is usually dated from the commencement of their mareh.

The four most distinguished leaders were Godfrey of Bouillon, Hugh the Great, Boemond, prince of Tarentum, and Raymond, count of Toulouse. To these were added, Robert, duke of Normandy, Stephen, count of Blois, and Robert, count of Flanders, each commanding a distinct body of Crusaders, but ultimately joining the expedition of Hugh the Great. Boemond also was accompanied by his noble kinsman, Tancred. Let us hastily glance at the most illustrious of these lordly knights.A

B

RAYMOND was the son of the most noble William, count of Toulouse. Though a valiant soldier, he had lived a dissolute life, for war and dissipation are not unusually concomitants. Grown old and grey, but still in ignorance of the true doctrine of atonement by the blood of Christ, he assumed the cross in expiation of his sins, making a vow never to return to his native land, expecting to lessen the weight of his past offences-vain delusion !-by perpetual hostilities against the Turks. Under his standard marched the Goths and Garçons, and all the people scattered throughout the regions of the Pyrenees and the Alps.

*

BOEMOND was an Italian by residence, but a Norman by descent. He was son of the famous Robert Guiscard. Italy, and the whole province from the Tuscan to the Adriatic sea, marched under his command. His army numbered ten thousand cavalry, and a still larger number of foot soldiers. The news of the holy wars first reached him in the camp. He was engaged in the siege of Amalfi. His soul kindled at the tidings, and he became impatient for the enterprise. In the enthusiasm of the moment, he is said to have caused his mantle to be cut into crosses, and distributed among his troops. Distinguished alike for his wisdom and bearing, a selfish ambition notwithstanding appears to have been his ruling passion. In all the shining qualities of chivalry, however,

* William of Malmesbury, book iv. cap. ii. pp. 417, 473.