e laden with fruit."
These facilities of existence, the softness of the climate, the
pleasantness of the places, the frequency of leisure, partly pleasure
and partly care-for-nothingness, caused amongst the crusaders
irregularity, license, indiscipline, carelessness, and often perils and
reverses. The Turks profited thereby to make sallies, which threw the
camp into confusion and cost the lives of crusaders surprised or
scattered about. Winter came; provisions grew scarce, and had to be
sought at a greater distance and at greater peril; and living ceased to
be agreeable or easy. Disquietude, doubts concerning the success of the
enterprise, fatigue and discouragement made way amongst the army; and
men who were believed to be proved, Robert Shorthose, duke of Normandy,
William, viscount of Melun, called the Carpenter, on account of his
mighty battle-axe, and Peter the Hermit himself, "who had never
learned," says Robert the monk, "to endure such plaguy hunger," left the
camp and deserted the banner of the cross, "that there might be seen, in
the words of the Apocalypse, even the stars falling from heaven," says
Guibert of Nogent. Great were the scandal and the indignation. Tancred
hurried after the fugitives and brought then back; and they swore on the
Gospel never again to abandon the cause which they had preached and
served so well. It was clearly indispensable to take measures for
restoring amongst the army discipline, confidence, and the morals and
hopes of Christians. The different chiefs applied themselves thereto by
very different processes, according to their vocation, character, or
habits. Adhdmar, bishop of Puy, the renowned spiritual chief of the
crusade, Godfrey de Bouillon, Raymond of Toulouse, and the military
chieftains renowned for piety and virtue made head against all kinds of
disorder either by fervent addresses or severe prohibitions. Men caught
drunk had their hair cut off; blasphemous and reckless gamesters were
branded with a red-hot iron; and the women were shut up in separate
tents. To the irregularities within were added the perils of incessant
espionage on the part of the Turks in the very camp of the crusaders:
and no one knew how to repress this evil. "Brethren and lords," said
Bohemond to the assembled princes, "let me undertake this business by
myself; I hope, with God's help, to find a remedy for this complaint."
Caring but little for moral reform, he strove to strike terror into t