of impiety, or,
what perhaps was esteemed still more disgraceful, of cowardice and
pusillanimity.[**] The infirm and aged contributed to the expedition by
presents and money; and many of them, not satisfied with the merit of
this atonement, attended it in person, and were determined, if possible,
to breathe their last in sight of that city where their Savior had died
for them. Women themselves, concealing their sex under the disguise of
armor, attended the camp; and commonly forgot still more the duty of
their sex, by prostituting themselves without reserve to the army.[***]
The greatest criminals were forward in a service which they regarded
as a propitiation for all crimes; and the most enormous disorders were,
during the course of those expeditions, committed by men inured to
wickedness, encouraged by example, and impelled by necessity. The
multitude of the adventurers soon became so great, that their more
sagacious leaders, Hugh, count of Vermandois, brother to the French
king, Raymond, count of Toulouse, Godfrey of Bouillon, prince of
Brabant, and Stephen, count of Blois,[****] became apprehensive lest the
greatness itself of the armament should disappoint its purpose; and they
permitted an undisciplined multitude, computed at three hundred thousand
men, to go before them, under the command of Peter the Hermit, and
Walter the Moneyless.[*****]

[* Order. Vitalis, p. 720.]

[** W. Malms, p. 133,]

[*** Vertot, Hist. de Chev. de Malte, vol. i. p.
46.]

[**** Sim. Dunelm. p. 222]

[***** M. Paris, p. 17.]

These men took the road towards Constantinople, through Hungary and
Bulgaria; and trusting that Heaven, by supernatural assistance, would
supply all their necessities, they made no provision for subsistence
on their march. They soon found themselves obliged to obtain by plunder
what they had vainly expected from miracles; and the enraged inhabitants
of the countries through which they passed, gathering together in arms,
attacked the disorderly multitude, and put them to slaughter without
resistance. The more disciplined armies followed after; and passing the
straits at Constantinople, they were mustered in the plains of Asia,
and amounted in the whole to the number of seven hundred thousand
combatants.[*]

Amidst this universal frenzy, which spread itself by contagion
throughout Europe, especially in France and Germany, men were not
entirely forgetful of their present interes