ir difficulties. On their arrival in
Jerusalem they found that a sterner race had obtained possession of the
Holy Land. The caliphs of Bagdad had been succeeded by the harsh Turks of
the race of Seljook, who looked upon the pilgrims with contempt and
aversion. The Turks of the eleventh century were more ferocious and less
scrupulous than the Saracens of the tenth. They were annoyed at the
immense number of pilgrims who overran the country, and still more so
because they shewed no intention of quitting it. The hourly expectation of
the last judgment kept them waiting; and the Turks, apprehensive of being
at last driven from the soil by the swarms that were still arriving,
heaped up difficulties in their way. Persecution of every kind awaited
them. They were plundered, and beaten with stripes, and kept in suspense
for months at the gates of Jerusalem, unable to pay the golden bezant that
was to procure them admission.

When the first epidemic terror of the day of judgment began to subside, a
few pilgrims ventured to return to Europe, their hearts big with
indignation at the insults they had suffered. Every where as they passed
they related to a sympathising auditory the wrongs of Christendom. Strange
to say, even these recitals increased the mania for pilgrimage. The
greater the dangers of the way, the fairer chance that sins of deep dye
would be atoned for. Difficulty and suffering only heightened the merit,
and fresh hordes issued from every town and village, to win favour in the
sight of heaven by a visit to the holy sepulchre. Thus did things continue
during the whole of the eleventh century.

The train that was to explode so fearfully was now laid, and there wanted
but the hand to apply the torch. At last the man appeared upon the scene.
Like all who have ever achieved so great an end, Peter the Hermit was
exactly suited to the age; neither behind it nor in advance of it; but
acute enough to penetrate its mystery ere it was discovered by any other.
Enthusiastic, chivalrous, bigoted, and, if not insane, not far removed
from insanity, he was the very prototype of the time. True enthusiasm is
always persevering and always eloquent, and these two qualities were
united in no common degree in the person of this extraordinary preacher.
He was a monk of Amiens, and ere he assumed the hood had served as a
soldier. He is represented as having been ill favoured and low in stature,
but with an eye of surpassing brightness and in