292 THE DECLINE AND FALL advice for his conduct in the Turkish Avarfare ; and history re- peats with pleasure this lively example of the manners of his age and country. Their review The conouest of Asia was undertaken and achieved bv Alex- and numbers ^ ^ A.D. 1097, ander, with thirty-five thousand Macedonians and Greeks;"^ and May 1 his best hope was in the strength and discipline of his phalanx of infantry. The principal force of the crusaders consisted in their cavalry ; and, when that force was mustered in the plains of Bithynia, the knights and their martial attendants on horse- back amounted to one hundred thousand fighting men com- pletely armed with the helmet and coat of mail. The value of these soldiers deserved a strict and authentic account ; and the flower of European chivalry might furnish, in a first effort, this formidable body of heavy horse. A part of the infantry might be enrolled for the service of scouts, pioneers, and archers ; but the promiscuous crowd were lost in their own disorder ; and we depend not on the eyes or knowledge, but on the belief and fancy, of a chaplain of count Baldwin," in the estimate of six hundred thousand pilgrims able to bear arms, besides the priests and monks, the women and children, of the Latin camp. The reader starts ; and, before he is recovered from his surprise, I shall add, on the same testimony, that if all who took the cross had accomplished their vow, above six millions would have migrated from Europe to Asia. Under this oppression of faith, I derive some relief from a more sagacious and thinking writer,"'^ who, after the same review of the cavalry, accuses the credulity of the priest of Chartres, and even doubts whether the Cisalpine regions (in the geography of a Frenchman) were sufficient to pro- duce and pour forth such incredible multitudes. The coolest scepticism will remember that of these religious volunteers great numbers never beheld Constantinople and Nice. Of enthusiasm the influence is irregular and transient ; many were detained at home by reason or cowardice, by poverty or weakness ; and many were repulsed by the obstacles of the way, the more in- "5 There is some diversity on the numbers of his army ; but no authority can be compared with that of Ptolemy, who states it at five thousand horse and thirty thousand foot (see Usher's Annales, p. 152). "s Fulcher. Carnotensis, p. 387. He enumerates nineteen nations of different names and languages (p. 389) ; but I do not clearly apprehend his difference between the Franci and Galli, Itali and Apuli. Elsewhere (p. 385) he contempt- uously brands the deserters. " Guibert, p. 556. Yet even his gentle opposition implies an immense multi- tude. By Urban II., in the fervour of his zeal, it is only rated at 300,000 pilgrims (Epist. xvi. Concil. torn. xii. p. 731).
