d shepherds.
A scanty supply of provisions was rudely demanded, forcibly seized, and
greedily consumed; and on the first quarrel, the crusaders gave a loose
to indignation and revenge. But their ignorance of the country, of war,
and of discipline, exposed them to every snare. The Greek praefect of
Bulgaria commanded a regular force; at the trumpet of the Hungarian
king, the eighth or the tenth of his martial subjects bent their
bows and mounted on horseback; their policy was insidious, and their
retaliation on these pious robbers was unrelenting and bloody. About a
third of the naked fugitives (and the hermit Peter was of the number)
escaped to the Thracian mountains; and the emperor, who respected the
pilgrimage and succor of the Latins, conducted them by secure and easy
journeys to Constantinople, and advised them to await the arrival of
their brethren. For a while they remembered their faults and losses; but
no sooner were they revived by the hospitable entertainment, than their
venom was again inflamed; they stung their benefactor, and neither
gardens, nor palaces, nor churches, were safe from their depredations.
For his own safety, Alexius allured them to pass over to the Asiatic
side of the Bosphorus; but their blind impetuosity soon urged them to
desert the station which he had assigned, and to rush headlong against
the Turks, who occupied the road to Jerusalem. The hermit, conscious
of his shame, had withdrawn from the camp to Constantinople; and his
lieutenant, Walter the Penniless, who was worthy of a better command,
attempted without success to introduce some order and prudence among the
herd of savages. They separated in quest of prey, and themselves fell
an easy prey to the arts of the sultan. By a rumor that their foremost
companions were rioting in the spoils of his capital, Soliman tempted
the main body to descend into the plain of Nice: they were overwhelmed
by the Turkish arrows; and a pyramid of bones informed their companions
of the place of their defeat. Of the first crusaders, three hundred
thousand had already perished, before a single city was rescued from the
infidels, before their graver and more noble brethren had completed the
preparations of their enterprise.

"To save time and space, I shall represent, in a short table, the
particular references to the great events of the first crusade."

[See Table 1.: Events Of The First Crusade.]

None of the great sovereigns of Europe embarked their p