over the Holy Sepulchre, and re-open it to the
pilgrimages of the faithful, had come to inflame the minds of men with
such vehemence, that nothing approaching to it had ever before occurred in
the world. It had pervaded alike the great and the humble, the learned and
the ignorant, the prince and the peasant. It had torn up whole nations
from Europe, and precipitated them on Asia. It had caused myriads of armed
men to cross the Hellespont. In Asia Minor, on the theatre of the contest
of the Greeks and Trojans, it had brought vast armies into collision, far
outnumbering the hosts led by Hector or Agamemnon. It had brought them
together in a holier cause, and on more elevated motives, than prompted
the Greek confederates to range themselves under the king of men. It had
impelled Richard Coeur-de-Lion and Godfrey of Bouillon from Europe. It
had roused Saladin and Solyman the Magnificent in Asia. Unlike other
popular passions, it had continued through successive generations. It had
survived for centuries, and declined at length less from want of ardour in
the cause, than from failure of the physical and material resources to
maintain at so vast a distance so wasting a struggle, and supply the
multitudes of the faithful whose bones whitened the valley of the Danube
or the sands of Asia.

But religious and devout emotions had not alone become all-powerful from
the blending of the ardour of a spiritual faith with the fierce energy of
northern conquests. The northern nations had brought with them from their
woods two principles unknown to the most civilized nations of antiquity.
Tacitus has recorded, that a tribe in Germany maintained its authority
solely by the justice of its decisions; and that in all the tribes, women
were held in the highest respect, and frequently swayed the public
councils on the most momentous occasions. It is in these two principles,
the love of justice and respect for women, that the foundation was laid
for the _manners of chivalry_, which form the grand characteristic and
most ennobling feature of modern times. New elements were thence infused
into the breast of the warriors, into the heart of women, into the songs
of poetry. Chivalry had arisen with its dreams, its imaginations, its
fantasy; but, at the same time, with its elevation, its disinterestedness,
its magnanimity. The songs of the Troubadours had been heard in southern
Europe; the courts of love had been held in Provence; the exploits of
Charl