eir
march. They soon found themselves obliged to obtain by plunder what
they had vainly expected from miracles; and the enraged inhabitants of
the countries through which they passed, gathering together in arms,
attacked the disorderly multitude, and put them to slaughter without
resistance. The more disciplined armies followed after; and passing
the straits at Constantinople, they were mustered in the plains of
Asia, and amounted in the whole to the number of seven hundred
thousand combatants [t].
[FN [o] Order. Vital. p. 720. [p] W. Malm. p. 133. [q] Vertot, Hist.
de Chev. de Malte, vol. i. p. 46. [r] Sim. Dunelm. p. 222. [s]
Matth. Paris, p. 17. [t] Matth. Paris, p. 20, 21.]

Amidst this universal frenzy, which spread itself by contagion
throughout Europe, especially in France and Germany, men were not
entirely forgetful of their present interests; and both those who went
on this expedition, and those who stayed behind, entertained schemes
of gratifying, by its means, their avarice or their ambition. The
nobles who enlisted themselves were moved, from the romantic spirit of
the age, to hope for opulent establishments in the East, the chief
seat of arts and commerce during those ages; and in pursuit of these
chimerical projects, they sold at the lowest price their ancient
castles and inheritances, which had now lost all value in their eyes.
The greater princes, who remained at home, besides establishing peace
in their dominions by giving occupation abroad to the inquietude and
martial disposition of their subjects, took the opportunity of
annexing to their crown many considerable fiefs, either by purchase,
or by the extinction of heirs. The pope frequently turned the zeal of
the crusaders from the infidels against his own enemies, whom he
represented as equally criminal with the enemies of Christ. The
convents and other religious societies bought the possessions of the
adventurers, and as the contributions of the faithful were commonly
intrusted to their management, they often diverted to this purpose
what was intended to be employed against the infidels [u]. But no one
was a more immediate gainer by this epidemic fury than the King of
England, who kept aloof from all connexions with those fanatical and
romantic warriors.
[FN [u] Padre Paolo Hist. delle benef. ecclesiast. p. 128.]

[MN Acquisition of Normandy.]
Robert, Duke of Normandy, impelled by the bravery and mistaken
generosity of his spirit, had