Meanwhile, crusaders, under Hermann the Carpenter, assembled at Cologne on the eve of Pentecost. The members of this oldest congregation of Germany prepared for the worst; but they entreated the protection of the citizens and the bishop. Touched with pity for their Jewish fellow-citizens, humane burghers of Cologne received the Jews into their houses. When the furious mob, at break of day on Pentecost (Friday, May 30th), entered the houses of the Jews, they found them empty, and had to spend their fury on stones and wood. They destroyed the dwellings, pillaging the contents and crushing the scrolls of the Law on the very day when the giving of the Law was celebrated. An earthquake which occurred on the day incited the madmen to fresh fury; they considered it as a sign of heaven's approval. One man and his wife fell victims to their rage on this day. The pious man, Mar-Isaac, willingly accepted a martyr's death. He did not desire to escape, and remained in his house, engaged in prayer. He was dragged to the church, and spitting on the crucifix that was held up before him, was killed. The rest of the Jews of Cologne remained unhurt in the houses of the citizens and in the bishop's palace. The noble bishop, Hermann III, whose name deserves to be immortalized, assisted the Jews to depart secretly from the city, and to be safely housed in seven neighboring towns and villages belonging to his diocese. Here they passed three weeks in anxiety, praying and fasting day after day, and when they heard that the pilgrims had come to Neus, one of their cities of refuge, for the feast of St. John (1st Tamuz, 24th June), they fasted on two days in succession. The pilgrims had prepared themselves for renewed massacres by a mass on the day of St. John, and killed all the Jews who had taken refuge in Neus, according to one authority, not indeed very reliable, two hundred in number. One Samuel ben Asher, who had exhorted his brethren to remain firm, and his two sons, were brutally murdered, and their bodies hung to the door of their house. The pilgrims had at last discovered the refuge of the Jews of Cologne, and now hunted them out of their hiding-places. Many ended their lives in the lakes and bogs, following the example of Samuel ben Yechiel, a learned and pious man. Standing in the water, and pronouncing a blessing, he killed his son, a handsome and strong youth, and as the victim said "Amen," all those looking on intoned their "Hear, O Israel," and threw themselves into the water.