The rabble accordingly
crossed the Bosphorus, and took up their quarters in Bethynia. Here
they became perfectly ungovernable, ravaging the country around, and
committing incredible excesses; at length Peter, utterly disgusted and
despairing, left them to their own guidance and returned to
Constantinople. The bravest of them were annihilated in a battle
fought near Nice, Walter the Penniless falling with seven mortal
wounds. Between two and three thousand alone escaped, brought back to
Constantinople by the troops of Alexius, who rescued them from the
Turks. The emperor dismissed them, with orders to return home, and
thus ended the disastrous expedition of Walter the Penniless and Peter
the Hermit.
14. The fifteen thousand Germans led by Gottschalk never reached
Constantinople, being slaughtered or dispersed during their passage
through Hungary. Hungary was also fatal to another army of crusaders,
the fourth in order, but greatly exceeding in numbers the other three
put together. This terrible horde, consisting of about two hundred
thousand, swept through Germany committing horrible outrages,
especially against the Jews, whom they murdered without mercy. They
were preceded by a goose and a goat, to which they attributed divine
powers. As the rabble advanced, the Hungarians gave themselves up for
lost, the king and nobles were preparing to flee, when the mass fell
asunder of its own accord.
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