children, sufficient to form a host of themselves. If it were possible
to find a rabble more vile than the army of Walter the Pennyless it
was that led by Peter the Hermit. Being better provided with means,
they were not reduced to the necessity of pillage in their progress
through Hungary; and had they taken any other route than that which
led through Semlin, might perhaps have traversed the country without
molestation. On their arrival before that city, their fury was raised
at seeing the arms and red crosses of their predecessors hanging as
trophies over the gates. Their pent-up ferocity exploded at the sight.
The city was tumultuously attacked, and the besiegers entering, not by
dint of bravery, but of superior numbers, it was given up to all the
horrors which follow when Victory, Brutality, and Licentiousness are
linked together. Every evil passion was allowed to revel with
impunity, and revenge, lust, and avarice, -- each had its hundred
victims in unhappy Semlin. Any maniac can kindle a conflagration, but
it requires many wise men to put it out. Peter the Hermit had blown
the popular fury into a flame, but to cool it again was beyond his
power. His followers rioted unrestrained, until the fear of
retaliation warned them to desist. When the King of Hungary was
informed of the disasters of Semlin, he marched with a sufficient
force to chastise the Hermit, who at the news broke up his camp and
retreated towards the Morava, a broad and rapid stream that joins the
Danube a few miles to the eastward of Belgrade. Here a party of
indignant Bulgarians awaited him, and so harassed him as to make the
passage of the river a task both of difficulty and danger. Great
numbers of his infatuated followers perished in the waters, and many
fell under the swords of the Bulgarians. The ancient chronicles do not
mention the amount of the Hermit's loss at this passage, but represent
it in general terms as very great.