e killed, and mostly by these returned
Italians. As the victorious crusaders passed through the streets,
women, old men, and children, who had been unable to flee, met them,
and, placing one finger over another so as to make the sign of the
cross, hailed the Marquis of Montferrat as king, while a hastily
gathered procession, with the cross and the sacred emblems of Christ,
greeted him in triumph.

Then began the plunder of the city. The imperial treasury and the
arsenal were placed under guard; but with these exceptions the right
to plunder was given indiscriminately to the troops and sailors. Never
in Europe was a work of pillage more systematically and shamelessly
carried out. Never by the army of a Christian state was there a more
barbarous sack of a city than that perpetrated by these soldiers of
Christ, sworn to chastity, pledged before God not to shed Christian
blood, and bearing upon them the emblem of the Prince of Peace.
Reciting the crimes committed by the crusaders, Nicetas says, with
indignation: "You have taken up the cross, and have sworn on it and on
the holy Gospels to us that you would pass over the territory of
Christians without shedding blood and without turning to the right
hand or to the left. You told us that you had taken up arms against
the Saracens only, and that you would steep them in their blood alone.
You promised to keep yourselves chaste while you bore the cross, as
became soldiers enrolled under the banner of Christ. Instead of
defending his tomb, you have outraged the faithful who are members of
him. You have used Christians worse than the Arabs used the Latins,
for they at least respected women."

An immense mass of treasure was found in each of the imperial palaces
and in those of the nobles. Each baron took possession of the castle
or palace which was allotted to him, and put a guard upon the treasure
which he found there. "Never since the world was created," says the
marshal, "was there so much booty gained in one city. Each man took
the house which pleased him, and there were enough for all. Those who
were poor found themselves suddenly rich. There was captured an
immense supply of gold and silver, of plate and of precious stones, of
satins and of silk, of furs, and of every kind of wealth ever found
upon earth."

The sack of the richest city in Christendom, which had been the bribe
offered to the crusaders to violate their oaths, was made in the
spirit of men who, having once