lds were
encumbered with people, who, unable to procure lodging, pitched their
tents under the trees and by the way-side. All the neighbourhood presented
the appearance of a vast camp.

[Illustration: THE CATHEDRAL OF CLERMONT.]

During the seven days' deliberation, a sentence of excommunication was
passed upon King Philip for adultery with Bertrade de Montfort, Countess
of Anjou, and for disobedience to the supreme authority of the apostolic
see. This bold step impressed the people with reverence for so stern a
Church, which in the discharge of its duty shewed itself no respecter of
persons. Their love and their fear were alike increased, and they were
prepared to listen with more intense devotion to the preaching of so
righteous and inflexible a pastor. The great square before the cathedral
church of Clermont became every instant more densely crowded as the hour
drew nigh when the Pope was to address the populace. Issuing from the
church in his full canonicals, surrounded by his cardinals and bishops in
all the splendour of Romish ecclesiastical costume, the Pope stood before
the populace on a high scaffolding erected for the occasion, and covered
with scarlet cloth. A brilliant array of bishops and cardinals surrounded
him; and among them, humbler in rank, but more important in the world's
eye, the Hermit Peter, dressed in his simple and austere habiliments.
Historians differ as to whether or not Peter addressed the crowd, but as
all agree that he was present, it seems reasonable to suppose that he
spoke. But it was the oration of the Pope that was most important. As he
lifted up his hands to ensure attention, every voice immediately became
still. He began by detailing the miseries endured by their brethren in the
Holy Land; how the plains of Palestine were desolated by the outrageous
heathen, who with the sword and the firebrand carried wailing into the
dwellings and flames into the possessions of the faithful; how Christian
wives and daughters were defiled by pagan lust; how the altars of the true
God were desecrated, and the relics of the saints trodden under foot.
"You," continued the eloquent pontiff (and Urban II. was one of the most
eloquent men of the day), "you, who hear me, and who have received the
true faith, and been endowed by God with power, and strength, and
greatness of soul,--whose ancestors have been the prop of Christendom, and
whose kings have put a barrier against the progress of the infidel,--I