the energy of despair would have enabled them to hold out: their
treacherous leader cut the matter short by renouncing the Christian
faith, and delivering up the fort into the hands of the Sultan. He was
followed by two or three of his officers; all the rest, refusing to
become Mahometans, were ruthlessly put to the sword. Thus perished the
last wretched remnant of the vast multitude which had traversed Europe
with Peter the Hermit.

Walter the Pennyless and his multitude met as miserable a fate. On the
news of the disasters of Exorogorgon, they demanded to be led instantly
against the Turks. Walter, who only wanted good soldiers to have made a
good general, was cooler of head, and saw all the dangers of such a
step. His force was wholly insufficient to make any decisive movement
in a country where the enemy was so much superior, and where, in case
of defeat, he had no secure position to fall back upon; and he
therefore expressed his opinion against advancing until the arrival of
reinforcements. This prudent counsel found no favour: the army loudly
expressed their dissatisfaction at their chief, and prepared to march
forward without him. Upon this, the brave Walter put himself at their
head, and rushed to destruction. Proceeding towards Nice, the modern
Isnik, he was intercepted by the army of the Sultan: a fierce battle
ensued in which the Turks made fearful havoc; out of twenty-five
thousand Christians, twenty-two thousand were slain, and among them
Gautier himself, who fell pierced by seven mortal wounds. The remaining
three thousand retreated upon Civitot, where they intrenched themselves.

Disgusted as was Peter the Hermit at the excesses of the multitude,
who, at his call, had forsaken Europe, his heart was moved with grief
and pity at their misfortunes. All his former zeal revived: casting
himself at the feet of the Emperor Alexius, he implored him, with tears
in his eyes, to send relief to the few survivors at Civitot. The
Emperor consented, and a force was sent, which arrived just in time to
save them from destruction. The Turks had beleaguered the place, and
the crusaders were reduced to the last extremity. Negotiations were
entered into, and the last three thousand were conducted in safety to
Constantinople. Alexius had suffered too much by their former excesses
to be very desirous of retaining them in his capital: he therefore
caused them all to be disarmed, and, furnishing each with a sum of
money, he se