volume one

HISTORY OF THE CRUSADES. 87
pride and liis haughty austerity. He jdelded to no superiority
but that of virtue, with the exception of occasional
submission to the power of beauty. A stranger to all the
motives and interests of policy, he acknowledged no other
law but religion and honour, and was always ready to die in
their cause. The annals of chivalry present no model more
accomplished ; poetry and history have united to celebrate
him, and both have heaped upon him the same praises.
The Crusaders from the southern provinces of France had
marched under the command of Adhemar de Monteil and
Kaymond, count de St. Gilles and Thoulouse. Bishop
Adhemar acted as the spiritual chief of the crusade ; his
title of apostolic legate, and his personal qualities, earned
for him in the holy war the confidence and respect of the
pilgrims. His exhortations and his counsels contributed
greatly to the maintaining of order and discipline. He consoled
the Crusaders in their reverses, he animated them
amidst dangers ; clothed at the same time Avith the insignia
of a pontiff and the armour of a knight, he exhibited in the
tent a model of the Christian virtues, and in the field often
gave proofs of undaunted valour.
Kaymond, who marched with Adhemar, had had the glory
of fighting in Spain by the side of the Cid ; and of conquering
several times the Moors under Alphonso the G-reat,
who had bestowed his daughter Elvira upon him in marriage.
His vast possessions on the banks of the Rhone and the
Dordogne, and still more his exploits against the Saracens,
rendered him one of the most remarkable among the great
leaders of the crusade. Age had not extinguished in the
count of Thoulouse either the ardour or the passions of
youth. Hasty and impetuous, of a character haughty and
inflexible, he had less ambition to conquer kingdoms than to
make every will bend beneath his own. Both Greeks and
Saracens have acknowledged his bravery. His subjects and
his companions in arms hated him for his obstinacy and
\'iolence. Unhappy prince, he bade eternal farewell to his
country, which was one day to be the theatre of a terrible
crusade preached against his own family
All the nobility of Gascony, Languedoc, Provence, the
Limousin, and Auvergne, accompanied E-aymond and Adhemar.
Contemporary historians name among the knights
!