volume one

62 • niSTOET OF THE CEIJSADES.
under tlie orders of ^^alter tTie Penniless,* whose surname,
preserved by history, proves that the chiefs were as miserable
as the soldiers. This vanguard only reckoned eight horse-
men ;
all the rest went to the conquest of the East asking
charity bv the way. As long as the Crusaders were upon
the French territorv, the charity of the faithful who were
on their route pro^^.ded for their wants. They warmed the
zeal of the Grermans, amongst whom the crusade had not
been preached. Their troop, which was considered everywhere
as the people of Grod, met vriih no enemies on the
banks of the Ehine ; but new Amalekites, the Hungarians
and the Bulgarians, awaited them on the shores of the
Morava and the Danube.
The Hungarians, who had issued from Tartary, had a
common origin with the Tiuks, and, like them, had rendered
themselves formidable to the Christians. In the tenth
century they had invaded Pannonia, and carried the ravages
of war into the richest coiuitries of Europe. !Xations ter-
rified at the progress of their arms, considered them as
a scoui'ge which Avas sent as a forerunner of the end of the
world. Towards the middle of the eleventh century they
embraced the Christianity they had persecuted. Once
obedient to the faith of the Gospel, they began to build
cities and cultivate their land ; they felt what it was to have
a country, and ceased to be the terror of their neighbours.
At the period of the first crusade, the Hungarians boasted
of having a saint among their kings,t but, still separated
from the Christian republic by their position, they did not
at all partake of the fervour of the Crusaders, and looked on
Avith indifference at the preparations of Europe for the
conquest of Asia.
The Bulgarians, who were descended from the ancient
* William of Tyre tells us that "Walter had exchanged his fortune for
the name by which he is known. Latin historians designate him sine
habere, sine pecunid ; the old French chronicles call him, senz avehor,
senz-aveir ; the English writers term him the penniless. Walter was a
Burgnndian gentleman. Some historians say that an uncle of Walter the
Penniless was first named lieutenant to Peter, and that the latter had not
the command till after the death of his uncle, who died just as the
pilgrims entered the territories of the Bulgarians.
t
St. Stephen had been king of Hungary before Coloman, who reigned
at the time of the first crusade.