e, where he found Walter the Pennyless
awaiting him, he was hospitably received by the Emperor Alexius. It
might have been expected that the sad reverses they had undergone would
have taught his followers common prudence; but, unhappily for them,
their turbulence and love of plunder were not to be restrained.
Although they were surrounded by friends, by whom all their wants were
liberally supplied, they could not refrain from rapine. In vain the
Hermit exhorted them to tranquillity; he possessed no more power over
them, in subduing their passions, than the obscurest soldier of the
host, They set fire to several public buildings in Constantinople, out
of pure mischief, and stripped the lead from the roofs of the churches,
which, they afterwards sold for old metal in the purlieus of the city.
From this time may be dated the aversion which the Emperor Alexius
entertained for the crusaders, and which was afterwards manifested in
all his actions, even when he had to deal with the chivalrous and more
honourable armies which arrived after the Hermit. He seems to have
imagined that the Turks themselves were enemies less formidable to his
power than these outpourings of the refuse of Europe: he soon found a
pretext to hurry them into Asia Minor. Peter crossed the Bosphorus with
Walter, but the excesses of his followers were such, that, despairing
of accomplishing any good end by remaining at their head, he left them
to themselves, and returned to Constantinople, on the pretext of making
arrangements with the government of Alexius for a proper supply of
provisions. The crusaders, forgetting that they were in the enemy's
country, and that union, above all things, was desirable, gave
themselves up to dissensions. Violent disputes arose between the
Lombards and Normans, commanded by Walter the Pennyless, and the Franks
and Germans, led out by Peter. The latter separated themselves from the
former, and, choosing for their leader one Reinaldo, or Reinhold,
marched forward, and took possession of the fortress of Exorogorgon.
The Sultan Solimaun was on the alert, with a superior force. A party of
crusaders, which had been detached from the fort, and stationed at a
little distance as an ambuscade, were surprised and cut to pieces, and
Exorogorgon invested on all sides. The siege was protracted for eight
days, during which the Christians suffered the most acute agony from
the want of water. It is hard to say how long the hope of succour or