This was the worst paroxysm of the madness of Europe; and this passed, her
chivalry stepped upon the scene. Men of cool heads, mature plans, and
invincible courage stood forward to lead and direct the grand movement of
Europe upon Asia. It is upon these men that romance has lavished her most
admiring epithets, leaving to the condemnation of history the vileness and
brutality of those who went before. Of these leaders the most
distinguished were Godfrey of Bouillon duke of Lorraine, and Raymond count
of Toulouse. Four other chiefs of the royal blood of Europe also assumed
the cross, and led each his army to the Holy Land; Hugh count of
Vermandois, brother of the king of France; Robert duke of Normandy, the
elder brother of William Rufus; Robert count of Flanders, and Bohemund
prince of Tarentum, eldest son of the celebrated Robert Guiscard. These
men were all tinged with the fanaticism of the age, but none of them acted
entirely from religious motives. They were neither utterly reckless like
Gautier sans Avoir, crazy like Peter the Hermit, nor brutal like
Gottschalk the Monk, but possessed each of these qualities in a milder
form; their valour being tempered by caution, their religious zeal by
worldly views, and their ferocity by the spirit of chivalry. They saw
whither led the torrent of the public will; and it being neither their
wish nor their interest to stem it, they allowed themselves to be carried
with it, in the hope that it would lead them at last to a haven of
aggrandisement. Around them congregated many minor chiefs, the flower of
the nobility of France and Italy, with some few from Germany, England, and
Spain. It was wisely conjectured that armies so numerous would find a
difficulty in procuring provisions if they all journeyed by the same road.
They therefore resolved to separate; Godfrey de Bouillon proceeding
through Hungary and Bulgaria, the Count of Toulouse through Lombardy and
Dalmatia, and the other leaders through Apulia to Constantinople, where
the several divisions were to reunite. The forces under these leaders have
been variously estimated. The Princess Anna Comnena talks of them as
having been as numerous as the sands on the sea-shore, or the stars in the
firmament. Fulcher of Chartres is more satisfactory, and exaggerates less
magnificently, when he states, that all the divisions, when they had sat
down before Nice in Bithynia, amounted to one hundred thousand horsemen,
and six hundred thousan