broken through the trammels of their
vows, are reckless to what lengths they go. Their abstinence and their
chastity once abandoned, they plunged at once into orgies of every
kind.

[Illustration: The lust of the army spared neither maiden nor the
virgin dedicated to God Painting by E. Luminais.]

[Illustration]

The lust of the army spared neither maiden nor the virgin dedicated to
God. Violence and debauchery were everywhere present; cries and
lamentations and the groans of the victims were heard throughout the
city; for everywhere pillage was unrestrained and lust unbridled. The
city was in wild confusion. Nobles, old men, women, and children ran
to and fro trying to save their wealth, their honor, and their lives.
Knights, foot soldiers, and Venetian sailors jostled each other in a
mad scramble for plunder. Threats of ill-treatment, promises of safety
if wealth were disgorged, mingled with the cries of many sufferers.
These "pious brigands," as Gunther aptly calls them, acted as if they
had received a license to commit every crime. Sword in hand, houses
and churches were pillaged. Every insult was offered to the religion
of the conquered citizens. Churches and monasteries were the richest
storehouses, and were therefore the first buildings to be rifled.

Monks and priests were selected for insult. The priests' robes were
placed by the crusaders on their horses. The icons were ruthlessly
torn down from the screens or were broken. The sacred buildings were
ransacked for relics or their beautiful caskets. The chalices were
stripped of their precious stones and converted into drinking-cups.
The sacred plate was heaped with ordinary plunder. The altar cloths
and the screens of cloth of gold, richly embroidered and bejewelled,
were torn down, and either divided among the troops or destroyed for
the sake of the gold and silver which were woven into them. The altars
of Hagia Sophia,[48] which had been the admiration of all men, were
broken for the sake of the material of which they were made. Horses
and mules were taken into the church in order to carry off the loads
of sacred vessels and the gold and silver plates of the throne, the
pulpits, and the doors, and the beautiful ornaments of the church. The
soldiers made the chief church of Christendom the scene of their
profanity. A prostitute was seated in the patriarchal chair, who
danced, and sang a ribald song for the amusement of the soldiers.

Nicetas, in speaking