d, and serried shields, in thick array,
Of depth immeasurable.
_Paradise Lost_.

[Illustration: E]

Every age has its peculiar folly; some scheme, project, or phantasy into
which it plunges, spurred on either by the love of gain, the necessity of
excitement, or the mere force of imitation. Failing in these, it has some
madness, to which it is goaded by political or religious causes, or both
combined. Every one of these causes influenced the Crusades, and conspired
to render them the most extraordinary instance upon record of the extent
to which popular enthusiasm can be carried. History in her solemn page
informs us, that the Crusaders were but ignorant and savage men, that
their motives were those of bigotry unmitigated, and that their pathway
was one of blood and tears. Romance, on the other hand, dilates upon their
piety and heroism, and portrays, in her most glowing and impassioned hues,
their virtue and magnanimity, the imperishable honour they acquired for
themselves, and the great services they rendered to Christianity. In the
following pages we shall ransack the stores of both, to discover the true
spirit that animated the motley multitude who took up arms in the service
of the cross, leaving history to vouch for facts, but not disdaining the
aid of contemporary poetry and romance, to throw light upon feelings,
motives, and opinions.

In order to understand thoroughly the state of public feeling in Europe at
the time when Peter the Hermit preached the holy war, it will be necessary
to go back for many years anterior to that event. We must make
acquaintance with the pilgrims of the eighth, ninth, and tenth centuries,
and learn the tales they told of the dangers they had passed and the
wonders they had seen. Pilgrimages to the Holy Land seem at first to have
been undertaken by converted Jews, and by Christian devotees of lively
imagination, pining with a natural curiosity to visit the scenes which of
all others were most interesting in their eyes. The pious and the impious
alike flocked to Jerusalem,--the one class to feast their sight on the
scenes hallowed by the life and sufferings of their Lord, and the other,
because it soon became a generally received opinion, that such a
pilgrimage was sufficient to rub off the long score of sins, however
atrocious. Another and very numerous class of pilgrims were the idle and
roving, who visited Palestine then a