y the Turks, and numbers of them
slain; and when, in the spring of the next year, Godfrey de Bouillon and
the other Crusader chiefs, with a real army of knights and men-at-arms,
reached that locality, and marched to besiege Nicaea, the first important
Turkish stronghold on their line of march, they saw coming to meet them
a miserable band, with every indication of woful destitution, at whose
head appeared Peter the Hermit. It was the handful of destitute
wanderers that remained from the hundreds of thousands who had set out
with such high hopes a year before.

Thus began that great movement from Europe towards Asia, which was to
continue for several centuries, and end at length in disaster and
defeat. But we are concerned here only with Peter the Hermit, and the
conclusion of his career. He had set the flood in motion; how far was he
to be borne on its waves?

The chiefs of the army welcomed him with respect and consideration, and
heard with interest and feeling his account of the misfortunes of those
under his leadership, and how they were due to their own ignorance,
violence, and insubordination. With the few who survived from the
multitude he joined the crusading army, and regained the ardent hopes
which had almost vanished from his heart.

The army that reached Nicaea is said to have been six hundred thousand
strong, though they were probably not nearly so many. On they went with
many adventures, meeting the Turks in battle, suffering from hunger and
thirst, enduring calamities, losing many by death, until at length the
great city of Antioch was reached and besieged.

Here at first food was plenty and life easy. But the Turks held out,
winter came, provisions grew scarce, life ceased to be agreeable. Such
was the discouragement that succeeded that several men of note deserted
the army of the cross, among them Robert, duke of Normandy, William,
viscount of Melun, called the _Carpenter_, from his mighty battle-axe,
and Peter the Hermit himself. Their flight caused the greatest
indignation. Tancred, one of the leaders, hurried after and overtook
them, and brought them back to the camp, where they, overcome by shame,
swore on the Gospel never again to abandon the cause of the cross.

In time Antioch was taken, and the Turks therein massacred. But, unknown
to the Crusaders, an immense army of Turks was being organized in Syria
for its relief; and four days after its capture the Crusaders found
themselves in their tu