children.

But in vain was the edict, which the King did not attempt to enforce,
in vain were all the commands and threats and pleas of parents and
guardians. Stephen's Crusade had become an epidemic. If a lad were
locked up that he might not join its ranks, he straightway sickened;
some even died of pining; where commands were the only bar to freedom,
the youths utterly disregarded them and ran away. So, after a few weeks
of Stephen's inflamed preaching there was rebellion in many a before
happy household in France, agony in many a mother's heart, who saw her
children leaving her, never, as her mother instinct told her, to
return.

In the ranks of recruits were many noble youths, sons of counts and
barons, who had from birth been brought up with knights and warriors
who had won fame and honour in former Crusades, and who told glowing
tales of the beauty and charm of the Holy Land to their children, and
these were naturally thrilled at the thought of seeing such scenes and
doing such deeds of valour, in gorgeous armour and on prancing steeds,
for so did they picture themselves, as their fathers had done before
them.

And there were others whose fathers had died in the Wars of the Cross,
whose feverish dream was to make use of their father's honoured sword
and shield and thus complete the work that Death had cut short. When
these youths from the hills on which their homes stood, watched the
processions passing with uplifted crosses and banners waving high, when
they heard the songs and shouts of triumph, they could not be held back
from joining the throng, and from their thousand homes they came to
join the army, while higher and higher swelled the excitement, despite
the opposition of king and clergy.

While Stephen was preaching at St. Denys, trying to gather his army
together with all speed, tidings of the new Crusade were brought to a
boy in a village near Cologne, a boy who had always been keenly
interested in reading and hearing of the Crusades, and who was at once
filled with a desire to follow the leadership of Stephen.

Nicholas, for that was this German lad's name, had a father who was
both clever and ambitious. He knew the precocity of his son, and
desiring to have the boy's talents bring him fame, and perhaps worldly
benefits, worked on the boy's young mind in every possible way, until
Nicholas believed himself to be called of God to imitate the example of
Stephen, and to go to Cologne and preach as Ste