volume one

226 nisTOBT OF the ceusades.
and, in their enthu-
believe what was passing before them ;
siasm, they expressed astonishment that God should thus
have employed only a single man to stir up so many nations,
and to effect such prodigies.
The sight of the brethren they had delivered, no doubt
recalled to the minds of the pilgrims that they were come
for the purpose of adoring the tomb of Christ ; and the pious
Godfrey, who had abstained from carnage after the victory,
quitted his companions, and, followed by three attendants,
repaired without arms and barefooted to the church of the
Holy Sepulchre.* The news of this act of devotion was
soon spread through the Christian army, and immediately
all vengeance and all fury were at an end ; the Crusaders,
castinor away their bloodv vestments, made the city resound
with their groans and their sobs, and, conducted by the
clergy, marched together, with their feet bare and their
heads uncovered, towards the church of the [Resurrection.
^Tien the Christian army was thus assembled on Calvary,
night began to fall ; silence reigned over the public places
and around the ramparts ;t nothing was heard in the holy
city but hymns of penitence and these words of Isaiah,
" Tou who love Jerusalem, rejoice with her^^ The Crusaders
exhibited a devotion so animated and so tender, that it
might have been said, according to the remark of a modern
historian,;^: that these men who had just taken a city by
assault, and had committed a horrible carnage, had come
forth from a long retirement and a profound meditation
upon our mysteries. These inexplicable contrasts are often
to be observed in the history of the crusades. Some writers
have believed that they found in them a pretext to accuse
the Christian religion itself, whilst others, not less blind or
passionate, have endeavoured to palliate the deplorable
excesses of fanaticism ; the impartial historian contents
himself with relating them, and mourns in silence over the
weaknesses of human nature.
* Albert d'Aix names these three attendants Baldric, Adelborde, and
Stabulon.
f Some historians say that the Christians did not go to the Holy
Sepulchre until the day after the conquest. We here adopt the opinion
of Albert d'Aix, which appears to us the most probable.
i Le P. Maimbourg, Histoire des Croisades,