orth such incredible multitudes.
The coolest scepticism will remember, that of these religious volunteers
great numbers never beheld Constantinople and Nice. Of enthusiasm the
influence is irregular and transient: many were detained at home by
reason or cowardice, by poverty or weakness; and many were repulsed by
the obstacles of the way, the more insuperable as they were unforeseen,
to these ignorant fanatics. The savage countries of Hungary and Bulgaria
were whitened with their bones: their vanguard was cut in pieces by the
Turkish sultan; and the loss of the first adventure, by the sword, or
climate, or fatigue, has already been stated at three hundred thousand
men. Yet the myriads that survived, that marched, that pressed forwards
on the holy pilgrimage, were a subject of astonishment to themselves
and to the Greeks. The copious energy of her language sinks under the
efforts of the princess Anne: [76] the images of locusts, of leaves and
flowers, of the sands of the sea, or the stars of heaven, imperfectly
represent what she had seen and heard; and the daughter of Alexius
exclaims, that Europe was loosened from its foundations, and hurled
against Asia. The ancient hosts of Darius and Xerxes labor under the
same doubt of a vague and indefinite magnitude; but I am inclined to
believe, that a larger number has never been contained within the lines
of a single camp, than at the siege of Nice, the first operation of the
Latin princes. Their motives, their characters, and their arms, have
been already displayed. Of their troops the most numerous portion
were natives of France: the Low Countries, the banks of the Rhine, and
Apulia, sent a powerful reenforcement: some bands of adventurers were
drawn from Spain, Lombardy, and England; [77] and from the distant bogs
and mountains of Ireland or Scotland [78] issued some naked and savage
fanatics, ferocious at home but unwarlike abroad. Had not superstition
condemned the sacrilegious prudence of depriving the poorest or weakest
Christian of the merit of the pilgrimage, the useless crowd, with mouths
but without hands, might have been stationed in the Greek empire, till
their companions had opened and secured the way of the Lord. A small
remnant of the pilgrims, who passed the Bosphorus, was permitted to
visit the holy sepulchre. Their northern constitution was scorched by
the rays, and infected by the vapors, of a Syrian sun. They consumed,
with heedless prodigality, their stores