at awaited the warriors in the far East described: immense
spoil would be taken from the unbelievers. Preachers did not even shrink
from extolling the beauty of the women in the lands to be conquered.
This fact recalls Muhammed's promise to his believers that they would
meet the ever-beautiful dark-eyed houris in the life after death. To the
material, sensual allurements, the Church added spiritual blessings and
eternal rewards, guaranteed to those who took the red cross. During the
Crusades the Christians did their utmost to copy the cruelties of the
Moslems. That contempt for human life, that entire absence of mercy and
the sense of pity which is familiar in all countries where Islam has
gained sway is characteristic also of the Crusades.

Although the narrative of the Crusades belongs rather to the history of
Europe than of any one country, it is so closely intertwined with the
history of Egypt at this period that some digression is necessary. About
twenty years after the conquest of Jerusalem by the Turks, in 1076, the
Holy Sepulchre was visited by a hermit of the name of Peter, a native of
Amiens, in the province of Picardy, France. His resentment and sympathy
were excited by his own injuries and the oppression of the Christian
name; he mingled his tears with those of the Patriarch, and earnestly
inquired if no hope of relief from the Greek emperors of the East could
be entertained. The Patriarch exposed the vices and weakness of the
successors of Constantine. "I will rouse," exclaimed the hermit, "the
martial nations of Europe in your cause;" and Europe was obedient to the
call of the hermit. The astonished Patriarch dismissed him with epistles
of credit and complaint; and no sooner did he land at Bari than Peter
hastened to kiss the feet of the Roman pontiff. Pope Urban II. received
him as a prophet, applauded his glorious design, promised to support it
in a general council, and encouraged him to proclaim the deliverance
of the Holy Land. Invigorated by the approbation of the pontiff, this
zealous missionary traversed with speed and success the provinces of
Italy and France. He preached to innumerable crowds in the churches, the
streets, and the highways: the hermit entered with equal confidence the
palace and the cottage; and the people of all classes were impetuously
moved by his call to repentance and arms.

The first Crusade was headed by Godefroy de Bouillon, Duke of Lower
Lorraine; Baldwin, his brother; Hug