volume one

76 IIISTOKY OF THE CEUSADES.
Son. From tliat time it was quite eA'ident that tLe apostle
of the holy war possessed no quality to enable him to act as
Coolness, prudence, inflexible firmness, alone could
its chief. *
conduct a multitude whom so many passions impelled, and
who listened to nothing but enthusiasm. The cenobite
Peter, after having prepared the great events of the crusade
by his eloquence, lost in the crowd of pilgrims, played
nothing but an ordinary part, and was in the end scarcely
to be perceived in a war that was his work.
Em^ope, without doubt, learnt with terror and astonishment
the unhappy end of three hundred thousand Crusaders,
whom she had seen depart ; but they who were to follow
were not at all discouraged, and resolved to profit by the
lessons which the disasters of their companions had given
them. The West soon saw on foot armies more regular and
more formidable than those which had been destroyed
the banks of the Danube, and in the plains of Bithynia.
on
AYhen describing their march and their exploits, we are
about to trace much nobler pictures. Here the heroic spirit
of chivalry will display itself in all its splendour, and the
brilliant period of the holy war \nl\ commence.
The leaders of the Christian armies which now quitted the
West were ah-eady celebrated by their valour and their
deeds. At the head of the great captains who commanded
in this crusade, history, as well as poetry, must place
Godfrev de BouiUon,* duke of the Lower Lorraine. He
was of the illustrious race of the counts of Boulogne, and
descended on the female side from Charlemagne. From his
earliest youth he had distinguished himself in the open war
carried on between the Holy See and the emperor of Germany.
On the field of battle he had killed Eodolphe de
!Rhenfield, duke of Suabia, to whom Gregory had sent the
imperial crown. ^AHien the war* broke out in Italy for the
cause of the anti-pope Anaclet, Godfrey was the fiLrst to
enter the city of Eome, besieged and taken by the troops of
Henry. He afterwards repented of ha^ing embraced a party
* Godfrey of Bouillon was born at Baysy, a village of Wallon Brabant,
now in the department of La Dyle, two leagues south-east of Nevilles,
and not far from Fleurus. Aubert le Mire, and the Baron Leroy, in the
geography of Brabant, report that in their time the remains of the castle
in which Godfrey was brought up were to be seen.