who,
although his pockets were empty, seems to have been a brave and good
soldier, was killed in battle near Nicaea, the place where the first
general council had been held,[73] but which had now become the capital
of the Turks; and the bones of his followers who fell with him were
gathered into a great heap, which stood as a monument of their rashness.
It is said that more than a hundred thousand human beings had already
perished in these ill-managed attempts before the main forces of the
Crusaders began to move.

[73] Part I., p. 45.

PART II.

When the regular armies started at length, A.D. 1096, part of them
marched through Hungary, while others went through Italy, and there took
ship for Constantinople. The chief of their leaders was Godfrey of
Bouillon, a brave and pious knight; and among the other commanders was
Robert, duke of Normandy, whom we read of in English history as the
eldest son of William the Conqueror, and brother of William Rufus. When
they reached Constantinople, they found that the Greek emperor, Alexius,
looked on them with distrust and dislike rather than with kindness; and
he was glad to get rid of them by helping them across the strait to
Asia.

In passing through Asia Minor, the Crusaders had to fight often, and to
struggle with many other difficulties. The sight of the hill of bones
near Nicaea roused them to fury; and, in order to avenge Walter the
Pennyless and his companions, they laid siege to the city, which they
took at the end of six weeks. After resting there for a time, they went
on again and reached Antioch, which they besieged for eight months
(Oct., 1097-June, 1098). During this siege they suffered terribly. Their
tents were blown to shreds by the winds, or were rotted by the heavy
rains which turned the ground into a swamp; and, as they had wasted
their provisions in the beginning of the siege (not expecting that it
would last so long), they found themselves in great distress for food,
so that they were obliged to eat the flesh of horses and camels, of dogs
and mice, with grass and thistles, leather, and the bark of trees. Their
horses had almost all sunk under the hardships of the siege, and the men
were thinned by disease and by the assaults of their enemies.

At length Antioch was betrayed to them; but they made a bad use of their
success. They slew all of the inhabitants who refused to become
Christians. They wasted the provisions which they found in the city, or
wh