In the brave days of old, the story of the Crusades

Front matter

Ti THE BRAVE DAYS OF OLD. Front. PETER THE HERMIT BEFORE URBAN IN THE BRAVE DAYS OF OLD THE STORY OF THE CRUSADES By HENRY FRITH A_ Anthorof1' Ascents and Adventures," " On ihe Wings of the Wind," &*c, &c. LONDON GEORGE ROUTLEDGE AND SONS broadway, ludgate hill New York: 9 Lafayette Place 18S6 Uniform with this Volume By the same Author. 1- ESCAPED FROM SIBERIA The Adventures of Three Distressed Fugitives DEDICATION. TO ANNIE DOUGLAS LOVELL Efjis bolumc is inscribes. WITH VERY KIND REMEMBRANCE, BY HER SINCERE FRIEND, THE AUTHOR. Wandsworth Common, August, 1885.

Preface

. In this Volume the ever-interesting Story of the Crusades has been told with as much lightness and as much adventurous detail as is deemed consistent with such a purely historical subject. "While the writer cannot claim any more credit than is due to his re-arrangement of material in as attractive form as possible, he trusts his method of dealing with the adventurous and chivalric incidents which marked the period of the Crusades will find favour in the eyes of the young people for whose amusement — it may be instruction — he has catered. In the deeds of the leaders of the chivalrous hosts who left home to gain the Holy City, there is much to admire. The self-devotion which many exhibited, the piety of others, and the gallant bearing of all, may still teach us something, and exercise an ennobling influence on our minds even now. In the following pages the varied adventures of Knights and

PREFACE.

. X Monarchs have been recorded with some detail, and the romance of history has been by no means overlooked. The "doughty deeds" of such men as Godfrey de Bouillon, Philip Augustus, Eichard Cœur de Lion, Longsword, Edward the Pirst of England, and St. Louis of France, will surely find appreciation still. The Age of Chivalry affords considerable scope for a writer who seeks to enter into the spirit of the times which he attempts to delineate. This I have endeavoured to do in this Story of the Crusades, and what is lacking in the pen has been supplied amply by the pencils of the artists who have embellished the volume by their most .stirring illustrations. Henry Frith. ILLUSTRATIONS. peter the hermit before urban h. (Frontispiece.) PETER THE HERMIT PRESENTING THE LETTERS FROM THE PATRIARCH TO THE POPE 14 WALTER THE PENNILESS AND THE KING OF HUNGARY ... 23 PETER THE HERMIT AT NISSA . 24 DEFEAT OF THE FOLLOWERS OF WALTER THE PENNILESS . . 31 THE COUNCIL OP CLERMONT 33 GREEK EMPEROR AND HIS THRONE 37 INTERVIEW OF GODFREY DE BOUILLON WITH THE EMPEROR ALEXIS . 41 SIEGE OF NICE (NICEA) 45 TANCRED STOPPED BY BOHEMOND AT THE BATTLE OF DEGORGANHI 48 GODFREY DE BOUILLON ENCOUNTERS A BEAR WHILE HUNTING . 50 COMBAT AT THE SIEGE OF ANTIOCH 57 DISCOVERY OF THE HOLY LANCE AT ANTIOCH 59 TAKING OF ANTIOCH — THE TRAITOR PHIROUS ASSISTING BOHEMOND TO ENTER 63 LAKE OF NICEA OR ASCANIUS 65 CRUSADERS IN BATTLE ARRAY AT ANTIOCH 69 DEFEAT OF THE TURKS BEFORE ANTIOCH 71 THE CHILDREN'S MOCK CRUSADE 73 GODFREY DE BOUILLON IN HIS TOWER AT THE SIEGE OF JERUSALEM 81 THE SIEGE OF THE HOLY CITY 83 PLAN OF ANTIOCH ILLUSTRATIONS.

XII 117 ASSAULT OF JERUSALEM L±l DEPARTURE OF RICHARD I. FOR PALESTINE 128 THE " IRON GATES" OF ANTIOCH 138 GREEK EMPEROR SURROUNDED BY HIS COURT .... 143 BETHELEM 145 PORCH OF THE MOSQUE OF EL'AKSA, JERUSALEM .... 157 st. Stephen's gate, Jerusalem • 165 THE CAPTURE OF RICHARD I. BY LEOPOLD OF AUSTRIA. . . 173 THE WALLS OF THORON 185 GRECIAN EMPRESS 199 THE CRUSADERS CROSSING THE BOSPHORUS 200 CHURCH OF THE HOLY SEPULCHRE, JERUSALEM .... 218 david's tower, Jerusalem 219 ST. LOUIS LANDING AT DAMIETT.i 233 THE COUNT DE JOINVILLE REPULSING THE SARACENS AT MANSOURAH 251 ANCIENT WALLS OF JERUSALEM 265 THE RELIEF OF ACRE BY PRINCE EDWARD 289 EDWARD AND THE ASSASSIN CONTENTS.

Chapter I. Str

4.NGERS AND PILGRIMS THE HOLY CITY MOSLEM AND CHRISTIAN THE SHADOW OF THE CRUSADE. TTTHEN Hadrian had rebuilt Jerusalem, which had been * * destroyed by Titus, the Christians obtained a footing in the city; but it was a very precarious resting-place for the adherents of the New Faith. The conversion of Constantine, however, put a different complexion upon the condition of the Christian population, and it found staunch advocates in the emperor and his mother. Pilgrimages to the Holy City, which had from a very early period been undertaken, now increased in number. The Empress Helena herself went to Jerusalem; she caused the accumulated rubbish of years to be removed, and many of the holy places enclosed within the precincts of a church. This was quite in accordance with the spirit of Constantine, I B who had in 325, at the Council of Nice, declared Christianity to be the religion of the empire.

But it so happened, as it will always happen, that as know ledge declined, superstition advanced. In the declining days of the empire, the regard and reverence for the Founder became transferred to the material objects of association with the religion He inaugurated. The Church of the Nativity, which Helena had built, and the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, founded by Constantine, became the end and aim of pilgrims who went to Palestine, more as a fashion than from strictly religious feeling. Julian, the successor of Constantine, had meantime ascended the throne, and abjured Christianity. He determined to re erect the Jewish temple; but, by what was regarded as a series of miracles, he was prevented from accomplishing his designs, and the Christian pilgrims became more numerous than ever. The roads were crowded, and all kinds of en couragements were held out to pilgrims, who were always welcomed and fed wherever they called.

Thousands of pieces of the True Cross were sold or traded as relics, and made a way by barter for sharp merchants to trade in Eastern fabrics, and to devote their energies to the earthly gain which pilgrims despised. < Jerusalem had naturally increased in importance. The city was ruled by a patriarch ; while churches, monasteries, and STRANGERS AND PILGRIMS. 3 houses were built, attended, and inhabited by the thousands who annually flocked to the holy places, and were welcomed. This state of things could not last for ever, though it continued long. In the beginning of the seventh century (in 611), the Persians, who had never forgiven the western nations for the incursions of Alexander, declared war on the Roman Empire. Heraclius was then emperor; but the Persians invaded the Holy Land, stormed Jerusalem, and nearly destroyed it.

They killed, it is said, nearly ninety thousand of the Christians. They carried away the True Cross, and the patriarch. The Persians then invaded Egypt, and Heraclius paid his foes an annual tribute till he, some ten years after, made war on his oppressors and recovered the Cross, which he carried back on his own shoulders into the city. This day is commemorated as the Festival of the Holy Cross (September 14th) . Security now seemed assured ; but the coming of a mighty disturbance was heralded by the birth in the city of Mecca of a child called Mahomet. This youth showed a curiously religious tendency ; and, devoted to his idea of imposture, he every year retired into solitude, and pretended to have personal interviews with the great angel Gabriel. His religion, appealing as it did to the imagination of an imaginative race — a religion which held out carnal delights in a heaven of enjoyment — did not wait long for adherents.

The Koran, proclaiming that there was only one God, and Mahomet B — His chosen prophet, was eagerly if not universally accepted. The banner of Islam was unfurled ; but the Prophet fled to Medina, whence he issued to overcome and to slay. The fanatics having seized Damascus, and much territory won by Heraclius, advanced under Omar, and besieged Jerusalem. For four months they continued their operations, and the Christians then surrendered to Omar, the caliph, who came in riding upon a camel, clothed in his raiment of camel's hair. But though he raised the mosque which bears his name upon the Temple site, he seems to have been very tolerant in many ways. He, however, would only permit church bells to be tolled (not rung), and the emblem of the cross was suppressed. Mahome dans were permitted to enter Christian churches; and Sophronius, the patriarch, lamented "the abomination of desolation" spoken of in Daniel.

Nevertheless, the Christians, though humbled, were not maltreated until after the death of Omar ; when, his protect ing influence removed, they suffered greatly from the Mussulman. But even under these adverse circumstances Christian Pilgrims continued to make their way by the Itinerary, already trodden by thousands of their predecessors, from Bordeaux to Antioch and the Jordan. Crossing Europe, even amid all the horrors of ■war, pilgrims were uniformly well treated ; the staff and the cockle-shell were passports everywhere. The danger, which was now augmented, only acted as a whet to the fervour of religion, and the glory was all the greater in success. THE HOLY CITY. 5 Notwithstanding many drawbacks, however, the general condition of the Christians in Jerusalem and elsewhere in the Holy Land was not uncomfortable, and under the rule of Harouu Alraschid, the great Caliph of the Abassides' dynasty, they were well treated.

The influence and name of Charlemagne had penetrated to Bagdad, and Haroun Alraschid favoured the Christians. He even caused the Keys of the Holy City and Sepulchre to be presented to Charlemagne; and old writers imagined that the emperor had obtained them in the Holy Land itself. Again the Christians had to encounter persecutions. Civil war reigned in Asia; the once firmly-rooted dynasty of the Abassides yielded, tottered, and fell. Five different claimants for the supreme title of " Commander of the Faithful," declared themselves "Vicar of Mahomet," and confusion reigned over all. The Fatamites raised the green standard and determined to abase the dusky banners of the Saracen. They threatened to invade Syria and displace the old possessions. Antioch was, however, occupied by the Greeks, though little more was attempted by them with success.

Jerusalem surrendered in 960, when Zimisces, the Greek Emperor, was poisoned. Had he not died, his initiatory success might have had durable results, for the people of Jerusalem had promised him obedience. But his death put an end to the hopes the Christians had entertained, and the Fatamites took possession of Syria and Palestine. Hakem, however, the third of this line of caliphs, persecuted the Christians one day and tolerated them the next. From this inconsistency he departed, and finally murdered the believers ; so the blood of Christians flowed through the land unchecked. He did all in his power to obliterate the sacred marks and associa tions, while cruelly destroying all who professed belief in Christ. But persecution did not even now cease. All religious cere monies were forbidden ; the churches were turned into stables, and the Church of the Holy Sepulchre destroyed.

Nature also marked this unhappy period with phenomena which were regarded as signs. Winter-storms, earthquakes, and comets appalled those who lived in places where such had been hitherto unknown. Ice was formed in the Nile; and cities in Asia Minor were overthrown by earthquakes. Curiously the whole vengeance of the Christians in Europe nowr fell upon the Jews instead of upon the Mussulmans who had been the cause of their misfortunes. The impression that the end of the world was to arrive also caused hundreds to visit Jerusalem in the face of persecutions. Better die there in the odour of sanctity than in Western Europe when the final summons came. And so people of all grades, from the prince to the pauper, tried to gain Jerusalem before the end of the world came, forgetting that no matter when they died that time was the end of this world to them.

When we consider the faith that the pilgrims had we may MOSLEM AND CHRISTIAN. 7 well be surprised. They had to pay tribute; they had to undergo many evils; they had no money, and no conveyance except by sufferance. The spirit and devotion of those who undertook the pilgrimage was wonderful, and for any good cause most praiseworthy. With the object of thanksgiving, as an intercession for a dear relative, as a humiliation for sin did men travel on foot for hundreds of miles to Palestine, and many lads were vowed to the journey by their parents while the children were yet in the cradle. A dream, a wish, a lady's command, or a desire for her favour, was sufficient at last to induce a pilgrim to set off, so great was the importance which attached to the act. As we have said, pilgrims were always welcomed, and those who did not or could not go themselves had ever a ready assistance for those who did.

To this feeling we are indebted for the numerous hospices and such refuges in out-of-the-way places — on the Alps and in desert plains. Saint Bernard's name is eternally associated with the places where he founded bis refuges to protect the pilgrims from the annoyances of the Saracens, who had already penetrated into the district of the Monts de Joux. A return stream of monks soon came from Syria and Pales tine to collect subscriptions to enable them to relieve the constant visitors who crowded their monasteries. As the palmers grew more numerous the money was more in demand. Each pilgrim who proposed a visit to the Holy Land carried a palm-branch and wore a cockle-shell in his hat. The branch was the token of victory : the shell a sign that the sea had been crossed. Each one carried a letter from his bishop or ruler.

So year by year the number of the devotees increased. Many men travelled more than once to the Holy Land, and women also undertook the pilgrimage. The father of our William I. was amongst the most celebrated, and history says he undertook the journey to atone for the murder of his brother Richard, whom he had poisoned. He was accompanied by a numerous "staff," walking barefooted himself, and suitably clothed in penitential garments. At length the pilgrims became so numerous, especially the Franks or Frenchmen, who gave their name to all Western visitors, that the countries through which they passed resented the intrusion of the "Armies of the Lord." Many pilgrims were killed in 1054, when Litbert of Cambria set out with three thousand followers, and Utrecht, with no less than seven thousand men left the Rhine for Jerusalem, and were welcomed by Constantine Ducas. This pilgrimage was the forerunner of The Crusades.

Chapter II. The Turks In Jerusalem Persecution Of The Christians Chivalry And

RELIGION PETER THE HERMIT THE COUNCIL OF CLERMONT THE CRUSADES. BUT before the Western nations had time to congratulate themselves upon the cessation of the difficulties of the pilgrimage, a new power arose in the East, and the Christians had to bow in terrified submission. This new scourge for those of the Christian Faith was carried by the Seljukian Turks who issued from the countries beyond the Oxus and invaded Persia. Steadily advancing westward, allying themselves with the caliphs, came the fierce Turkish warriors. The Fatamites were soon defeated, Jerusalem was taken, and a Reign of Terror set in. This invasion was far more disastrous for the Christians than even the advent of the true Mahomedans had been. Omar had chastised the Christians with whips; but the Turks who embraced the Mahomedan faith chastised them with scorpions.

The most wanton cruelties were perpetrated on the pilgrims, who, still expectant of the arrival of the Day of Judgment, had flocked and were flocking into the Holy City. The black flag was again hoisted, and neither Christian nor Egyptian was spared from insult and slaughter. The mosques, equally with the churches, were pillaged; Mussulman and Christian blood mingled in the streets. Not content with the possession of Palestine, the Turks overran Asia Minor and threatened Europe. Nicea was the seat of government where Solyman ruled, so within sight of the city of Constantine the invader had already a local habitation. In Palestine the extortion and cruelty of which Christians were the victims still continued, and but a comparatively few of thousands of pilgrims to the Holy City returned to relate the terrible condition to which all had been reduced.

Such news as this, accumulating horror upon horror, caused a ferment among the Western nations. Not only were the poor pilgrims sufferers and martyrs, but the rich merchants, who combined their devotions with a considerable earthly profit at the fairs and markets of Jerusalem, felt aggrieved at the sufferings entailed upon their pockets. The ships no longer went out to encounter the storms of the sea, when Turkish hordes blocked the high-roads and the mountain-paths, pillaging caravans, and selling the traders as slaves. Thus, independently of the atrocities of the Turks committed upon the pilgrims, the merchants had a grievance and gave it vent. THE TURKS IN JERUSALEM. 11 It was felt by all classes that a speedy and terrible vengeance must be inflicted upon the Infidels by the people of the West.

Sylvester II. had long before this made an ineffectual appeal to arms; Hildebrand had also advised a crusade, and Victor, his unwilling successor, had followed his policy; but the former deserted Jerusalem for his own ends, and Victor III., though successful against the Saracens of Africa, did not live to carry out his designs in Asia. The Church had now to find an energetic leader, and one who would think less of peace than of victory. The clergy had gained a tremendous ascendency in spiritual things, as the barons and the nobility generally had reached power by means of the Feudal System. The Church, in fact, ruled the barons, who ruled the people. This will not appear extraordinary when we remember that in the hands of the clergy all the learning of the time was held. The priesthood, waging the conflict with the consciousness of knowledge, had a great advantage over all classes.

The barons cared little for learning, so that they had plenty of fighting and jousting. The poor people had only religion to assist them, whde the only appeal to religion made by the nobdity was that according to the Laws of Chivalry. The very practices of chivalry separated the nobles from their retainers; so, to get up a popular European demonstration against the Infidels, some means which would unite the views and appeal to the hearts of both classes was necessary. This appeal the clergy founded on the name of Religion and under the Banner of the Cross. Nor was it an unfit combination, this union of Chivalry with Religion. If, as there can be no doubt, there did exist a certain number of knights' who broke their vows and only made their position a stepping-stone to power and lust, there were more whose vow of devotion to ladies, and courteous behaviour with a less reckless and more honest life, extended the better influence of Christianity, and certainly spread civilization over Europe.

Considerable self-denial and in many cases true devotion were prominent virtues of the knights, and even those who scoffed at the clergy believed in the future torments they preached. Even in the worst cases plunder and fighting were to be gained, so the Crusade held out hopes both of temporal and everlasting satisfaction ; for, if they slew the Infidel, their Own salvation would be assured. In 1095 a.d. religious fanaticism, which had been steadily making progress during the previous half century, reached its highest development. The reforms in the morals of the Court of Rome, and of the clergy, to gain which Henry II. had so ardently worked, had given the Church a new power. This fanaticism had only to be united with the military spirit of the age to become irresistible. This union was found in one individual, who was known in the East as Cuckoo-Peter ; in the West as Peter the Hermit.

"Little Peter" had nothing in his appearance to recommend PETER THE HERMIT. 13 him. He was born at Amiens, was a follower of Count Eustace of Lorraine ; short of stature, ungainly and ugly. But he was a brave soldier, and the spark of genius set light to the train which was to shock and startle Europe, while his brilliant eloquence illuminated the track he pursued. . Nature, which had denied him physical attributes, atoned for her neglect by endowing him with a brave and fanatical spirit. He made many diverse attempts to gain human happiness. Marriage, asceticism, learning, soldiering, and the priesthood had all been tried, and his yearning and restless mind remained unsatisfied. The stir of war, the silence of the cloister, the solitude of the cell; fasting and feasting, or society, all in turn palled upon Little Peter, the Soldier and the Hermit, married or celibate.

A Pilgrimage to Jerusalem seemed to him the occupation that would most conduce to his happiness, but the effect was only to irritate and annoy him. He experienced, with hundreds of others, the insolence of the Turks, and conferred with Simeon the Patriarch of Jerusalem as to the action to be taken. " The Greeks were no use there," said Simeon. " Give me letters to the Pope, and to other Western potentates," exclaimed energetic Peter; "record in them the sufferings of our Christian brethren, and I will carry them. I will gain audience from all the Princes, and will exhort and obtain the needed assistance to drive the Infidels from Palestine." IN THE BR.4VE DAYS OF OLD. 14 The devotee passed that night in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, where, it is said, he had a vision of the Saviour exhorting him to arise and deliver the persecuted Christians.

Next day he departed, furnished with letters to the Pope, Urban II. , a vigorous pontiff chosen by the party of Gregory VII., at the suggestion of the Countess Matilda, when he was Bishop of Ostia. This prelate eagerly listened to the animated and energetic pleadings of the Hermit. He regarded Peter as a prophet, recommended him to persevere, and bade him go forth and announce the forthcoming deliverance of the Holy City from the power of the Turks. The Pope on his part promised to bring the claims of the Christian Pilgrims before the council which he had convoked at Plaisance (Piacenza) for the 1st of March, 1095. The Pope was not then in Rome, which was no secure place for him, in consequence of the enmity he had gained by his opposition to the sovereigns of Germany and France. But his influence was equally felt, and at the council he would ventilate the question of the Holy Land.

Meantime, Peter the Hermit rode through Italy preaching the Crusade. He crossed the Alps into France, inflaming all with his contagious zeal. From citv to city in Europe he proceeded appealing to all— to the passion of some, the piety of more. He pictured the condition of the Holy Places of the Christians, the terrors of the Turks, and the PETER THE HERMIT PRESENTING THE LETTERS FROM THE PATRIARCH* TO THE POPE. CHIVALRY AND RELIGION. 15 glory which would be surely reaped by those who delivered Jerusalem. "The people surrounded him in crowds," says Guibert de Nogcnt; "loaded him with presents, and celebrated his sanctity with high eulogiums. In all he said or did, there was something of the Divine ; so much so, that people plucked the hairs from his mule,' which they kept as relics. While out of doors, Peter the Hermit wore ordinarily a woollen tunic with a brown mantle that fell to his heels.

He had his arms and feet bare, eat little or no bread, and lived chiefly upon fish and wine." Thus, by turns, and continually invoking vengeance and pity ; punishment and reward for its infliction, did Peter preach the Holy War, and with a most extraordinary success. By these means he directed public attention to the councd, which had been originally summoned for a very different purpose — to con demn the irreligious practices of Henry and his anti-pope, and to assure the crown of Italy to Conrade. But the preaching of Peter the Hermit gave the meeting an entirely different influence and character. More than two hundred bishops, nearly four thousand clerics, and thirty thousand of the laity assembled in the vast plain (probably Roncaglia) near the town. There the ambassadors of Alexis Comnenus came to indicate the danger which threatened the Eastern Empire, and to demand assistance to engage the Turks.

This the Pope and the assembled Fathers agreed to furnish. But at Clermont the real Crusade was advocated. The Pope there made an address to the multitude in a speech well calculated to arouse religious enthusiasm, as to a people specially favoured by Providence with courage, faith, and strength. He pictured the condition of the Christians in Syria, the desolation of Palestine, and the treatment of the women and children. The Church looked to his hearers, would they disappoint her ? Loud shouts of " God wills it " were the universal answer to this appeal. The enthusiasm was tremendous. Winter though it then was (November), the people had come, incited by the previous council and by Peter, to Clermont, to advocate the Holy War. Men and women of all sorts and conditions attended, and the scene is described as most impressive when the Bishop of Puy stepped forward and received from the Pope one of the Red Crosses which had been consecrated for the ceremony.

The enthusiasm then broke out afresh. Knights and barons, in response to the Pontiff's stirring appeals, came forward, took up the Cross and fastened it upon their shoulders. "Dieu le Veult ! Dieu le Veult," and the emblem gave the expedition its name for evermore. La Croisade had been accepted; the Cross was to be worn. The time was ripe for vengeance, and vengeance was proclaimed against the enemies of the Cross. THE COUNCIL OF CLERMONT. 17 Amongst the first adherents who came forward to wear the sacred emblem, were the ambassadors of Raymond of Toulouse, who on behalf of their lord promised assistance; Hugues, brother of Philip of France ; Godfrey de Bouillon, duke of Lorraine, and his brothers; Robert of Normandy, and Robert of Flanders; Etienne, count of Blois, and many more of lesser rank and fame.

But a whole year was accorded them to make their preparations, and to assemble the force necessary for the expedition. During that period Urban II. did not quit France. He passed the winter at Aries, and convoked new councils there and at Nimes. Not the least singular circumstance of the many attending the preaching of the Crusade was the rapidity with which the decision of the council was promulgated. In an incredibly short space of time the news had spread with what was regarded as miraculous agency, and for months all was preparation. Everybody without distinction essayed to join the Crusade. The maimed, the blind, the aged; women, girls, and lads, all pressed forward to enrol themselves Defenders of the Faith, and to wear the Red Cross. Debtors were released for the purpose, outlaws were permitted to return.

The Church took care of the property of the absent, while priests continued to invoke the assistance of the rich and poor. Signs and portents were seen in the sky; stars and meteors fell ; and all kinds of miraculous displays were perceived in the heavens. Women and maidens urged the departure of C husbands, lovers, and fathers, hundreds even branding themselves with the sign of the Cross. The ignorance of the masses concerning the manner in which Palestine could be reached culminated in the absence of any idea as to where the Holy City was, or its distance from their own town or village. Children cried out at every new castle, " Here is Jerusalem ! " whde the extraordinary sacrifice of property made by thousands anxious to leave a comfortable home, was only one of many incidents of the enthusiasm displayed.

Men and women would sell their household goods or trinkets, or even the instruments of trade and agriculture, to purchase weapons. Such was the fury and popular clamour which succeeded the Conned of Clermont, that the Truce of God had again to be proclaimed. By this peace all strife was originady interdicted between Wednesday and [Monday every succeeding week, no weapons were to be used, all quarrelling with the adherents of the Cross was forbidden. But the "Pledge," like more modern oaths, was repeatedly broken and the Truce was soon shortened. This usage was first ordained to quell the semi-barbarous chiefs; but at Clermont Urban II. again proclaimed the Truce and with very considerable success. The news of the Crusade quickly crossed the channel and arrived in England, whence many barons went to swell the masses upon the Continent who were preparing to set out for Palestine upon the Feast of the Assumption (1096) .

William Rufus fur- THE FIRST CRUSADE. 19 nished ten thousand marks in exchange for the mortgage which Robert of Normandy wished to execute upon his kingdom. In the course of the year 1096 the number of people who were ready to leave all and follow the Cross, amounted to six millions; even in the spring, only a few months after the promulgation of the Crusade, numbers were on their way. Utterly ignorant of the journey or of the perils they might have to encounter, they shod their oxen and harnessed them to little carts, proceeding to the East, expecting every evening to come in sight of Jerusalem ! The strong and valiant went in the hope of booty and reward here or hereafter. The aged and infirm pressed on to the Crown of Martyrdom, and met Death half way.