ult! Dieu le veult!_' Let whoever is inclined to devote
himself to this holy cause make it a solemn engagement, and bear the cross
of the Lord either on his breast or his brow till he set out; and let him
who is ready to begin his march place the holy emblem on his shoulders, in
memory of that precept of our Saviour, 'He who does not take up his cross
and follow me is not worthy of me.'"

The news of this council spread to the remotest parts of Europe in an
incredibly short space of time. Long before the fleetest horseman could
have brought the intelligence, it was known by the people in distant
provinces; a fact which was considered as nothing less than supernatural.
But the subject was in every body's mouth, and the minds of men were
prepared for the result. The enthusiastic merely asserted what they
wished, and the event tallied with their prediction. This was, however,
quite enough in those days for a miracle, and as a miracle every one
regarded it.

For several months after the Council of Clermont, France and Germany
presented a singular spectacle. The pious, the fanatic, the needy, the
dissolute, the young and the old, even women and children, and the halt
and lame, enrolled themselves by hundreds. In every village the clergy
were busied in keeping up the excitement, promising eternal rewards to
those who assumed the red cross, and fulminating the most awful
denunciations against all the worldly-minded who refused or even
hesitated. Every debtor who joined the Crusade was freed by the papal
edict from the claims of his creditors; outlaws of every grade were made
equal with the honest upon the same conditions. The property of those who
went was placed under the protection of the Church, and St. Paul and St.
Peter themselves were believed to descend from their high abode, to watch
over the chattels of the absent pilgrims. Signs and portents were seen in
the air, to increase the fervour of the multitude. An aurora-borealis of
unusual brilliancy appeared, and thousands of the Crusaders came out to
gaze upon it, prostrating themselves upon the earth in adoration. It was
thought to be a sure prognostic of the interposition of the Most High; and
a representation of his armies fighting with and overthrowing the
infidels. Reports of wonders were every where rife. A monk had seen two
gigantic warriors on horseback, the one representing a Christian and the
other a Turk, fighting in the sky with flaming swords, the Christian