None of them now thought of buying what he needed, but instead each
man strove for what he could get by theft and murder, boasting with
amazing impudence that he would easily do the same against the Turks.
On their way they came to a castle that they could not avoid passing
through. It was sited so that the path allowed no divergence to the
right or left. With their usual insolence they moved to besiege it,
but when they had almost captured it, suddenly, for a reason that is
no concern of mine, they were overwhelmed; some died by sword, others
were drowned in the river, others, without any money, in
abject poverty, deeply ashamed, returned to France. And because this
place was called Moisson, and when they returned they said that they
had been as far as Moisson, they were greeted with great laughter
everywhere.[99]

When he was unable to restrain this undisciplined crowd of common
people, who were like prisoners and slaves, Peter, together with a
group of Germans and the dregs of our own people, whose foresight had
enable them to escape, reached the city of Constantinople on the
calends of August (July 30). But a large army of Italians, Ligurians,
Langobards, together with men from parts of countries beyond the
Alps, had preceded him, and had decided to wait for his army and the
armies of the other Frankish leaders, because they did not think that
they had a large enough army to go beyond the province of the Greeks
and attack the Turks. By order of the emperor they had been granted
permission to buy everything they wanted, and to conduct business in
the city, but, on the advice of this prince, they were forbidden to
cross the Arm of Saint George, which was the sea that provided border
with the Turks, because he said that it was sure destruction for so
few men to go up against so many. But they were not held back by the
decency of the people of the province, nor were they mollified by the