on of the Greeks to
the Latins had grown now for centuries. The Latins were tolerable to the
Greeks only when the Greeks needed their aid. The Latins had arrived.
For the present they could do no harm. The emperor, Alexius, intending
to complain, sent messengers to Peter. These returned with tales of
weakness and suffering. They were permitted to journey on, and, with
palms waving, came at last to Constantinople.

[Sidenote: _Peter Captivates Alexius_]

Peter, an object of universal curiosity, if not of admiration, had
audience with the emperor, captivated the monarch as he captivated all,
and went forth loaded with help for his army and some good advice. This
last was to the effect that Peter had better await the arrival of the
military princes and generals who had pledged themselves to the Crusade.
But these, perhaps with calculated delay, lingered at home while other
bodies of Crusaders as ill prepared, as troublesome, and as ill-fated as
those which had followed the lead of Peter, marched away.

[Sidenote: _Roving Crusaders_]

Two notable instances may be given. Gottschalk, a German priest, had
gathered fifteen thousand Crusaders, who made him their leader. His army
arrived in Hungary near the end of summer. Here they gave themselves up
to every kind of wrong-doing. They left behind them daily a trail of
outraged women, robbery, and arson. The Germans were good fighters and
checked the punitive expeditions of the Hungarian ruler. What was not
possible to valor was accomplished by trickery. The Crusaders admitted
the Hungarian chiefs to their camps and fraternized with them. They
yielded to promises and allowed themselves to be disarmed. Promptly they
were attacked and slaughtered.

[Sidenote: _Crusaders Practice on Jews_]

[Sidenote: _Commerce in Jewish Hands_]

Incidentally the Jews suffered from the Crusading craze. One band of
rascally and ungovernable Germans, who had many sins to be washed away
and who availed themselves of the hope for absolution in the promise of
the pope to those who fought for the Holy Tomb, thought it ridiculous to
attack the Unitarian Mussulman so far away, when the Unitarian Jew who
had slain the Lord was close at hand. Then, as now, the commerce of the
world was in Jewish hands, and it was felt that so much wealth ought not
to be in such hands. That element which still exists in the Jewish
character of being purse-proud and offensively familiar in prosperity,
is reported to have