Attracted by the fame of a crusade, by the hope of eternal salvation, and by the more immediate prospect of worldly advantage, crowds of European adventurers now poured into the Peninsula. Among these a body of Normans, under William de Montreuil, laid siege to Barbastro, a populous frontier town of Aragon. Their valor eventually carried the day, and after a gallant defence the place was surrendered under articles of capitulation. Scarcely had the Normans entered, before these were repudiated; the garrison was surrounded and killed; six thousand of the citizens were massacred outside the walls, and the remainder were doomed to slavery. The atrocities practised by these Christian barbarians seem incredible. Such was the amount of booty, that an inferior officer is said to have received as his share five hundred loads of merchandise and fifteen hundred maidens. In the general division, as was customary, the master with his household and possessions were delivered to the fortunate soldier, who at once proceeded, by ingenious tortures, to insult the distress of his victim and inflict upon him exquisite pain in order to compel the discovery of hidden treasure. The female members of his family were violated in his presence. His body was plunged into boiling oil. He was hacked with swords and battle-axes and his limbs were slowly wasted by fire. The inhumanities which attended the capture of Barbastro are hardly paralleled in any of the bloody annals which recount the crusading exploits of Christian Europe.