similarity between the Christian and the Muhammedan procedure. The
Church, when espousing the cause of the Crusader, did exactly what
Muhammed had done when he preached a holy war. The Church addressed
itself to the weaknesses and passions of human nature. Fallen in
battle, the Moslem, so he was told, would be admitted--be he victor
or vanquished--to the joys of Paradise. The same prospect animated
the Crusader and made him brave danger and die joyfully in defence of
Christianity. "Let them kill the enemy or die. To submit to die for
Christ, or to cause one of His enemies to die, is naught but glory,"
said Saint Bernard. Eloquently, vividly, and in glowing colours were
the riches that awaited the warriors in the far East described: immense
spoil would be taken from the unbelievers. Preachers did not even shrink
from extolling the beauty of the women in the lands to be conquered.
This fact recalls Muhammed's promise to his believers that they would
meet the ever-beautiful dark-eyed houris in the life after death. To the
material, sensual allurements, the Church added spiritual blessings and
eternal rewards, guaranteed to those who took the red cross. During the
Crusades the Christians did their utmost to copy the cruelties of the
Moslems. That contempt for human life, that entire absence of mercy and
the sense of pity which is familiar in all countries where Islam has
gained sway is characteristic also of the Crusades.

Although the narrative of the Crusades belongs rather to the history of
Europe than of any one country, it is so closely intertwined with the
history of Egypt at this period that some digression is necessary. About
twenty years after the conquest of Jerusalem by the Turks, in 1076, the
Holy Sepulchre was visited by a hermit of the name of Peter, a native of
Amiens, in the province of Picardy, France. His resentment and sympathy
were excited by his own injuries and the oppression of the Christian
name; he mingled his tears with those of the Patriarch, and earnestly