1095, took place that
famous scene in the presence of Pope Urban, when the cry, "God
wills it," thrilled from myriad lips, and became the watchword of
the Crusaders.

Men sold their estates for mere trifles; kings and dukes, like
Robert of Normandy, mortgaged their very crowns, that they might
fight in so holy a cause; and avaricious, cunning, and greedy
monarchs, like Rufus, stayed at home and bought cheaply.

And as with the monarch, so with the vassal; land was a drug in the
market, and horses and arms went up cent per cent.

The principal leaders of the first great Crusade {xxvi} were
Godfrey de Bouillon (duke of the empire), Hugh of Vermandois,
Robert of Normandy, Raymond of Toulouse, Bohemond and Tancred of
the race of Robert Guiscard, the Norman conqueror of southern
Italy.

Under their leadership, Constantinople was reached in safety. Nicea
was besieged, and taken from the Turkish Sultan, Soliman.

Then they first met the Turks in battle array at Dorylaeum--an
awful conflict which took place on the 4th of July 1097, in which
nearly four hundred thousand Moslems were arrayed against the
Crusaders.

The Sultan evacuated Asia Minor, and the expedition passed through
a wasted land and deserted towns, without meeting a single enemy.

Nine months they were delayed before the city of Antioch, from
October 1097 to June 1098, when the city was taken by storm.

Then they were besieged themselves in that city, by nearly half a
million of Turks, and though reduced to the shadow of their former
strength, they sallied forth and utterly defeated their besiegers,
whose camp fell into their hands. Nothing could stand before the
enthusiasm of the western warriors, who fancied they saw spectral
forms of saints and martyrs fighting by their side.

At length, all obstacles removed, in the month of May, in the last
year of the eleventh century, they entered the Holy Land.

On this sacred soil the action of our tale recommences.

. . . . .

It was a lovely evening in May, and the year was the last of the
eleventh century.

The sun had gone down about half an hour, but had left behind him a
flood of golden light in the west, glorious to behold--so calm, so
transparent was that heavenly after glow, wherein deep cerulean
blue was flecked with the brightest crimson or the ruddiest gold.

The moon had risen in the east, and was shining from a deep
dark-blue background, which conveyed the idea of immeasurable
space, with