While the undisciplined and barbarous multitudes who first set out were hurrying to destruction, various princes and leaders were engaged, as I have before said, in collecting the Chivalry of Europe under the banner of the Cross. Six distinguished chiefs--Godfrey of Bouillon, Duke of Loraine--Hugh the Great, Count of Vermandois, and brother of Philip, King of France--Robert, Duke of Normandy, brother of William Rufus--Robert, Count of Flanders--Boemond, Prince of Tarentum--and Raimond, Count of Toulouse--conducted six separate armies towards Constantinople: and I propose, in this chapter, to follow each of them till their junction in Bithynia. It is indeed a pleasure to turn our eyes from scenes of horror and crime to the contemplation of those great and shining qualities--those noble and enthusiastic virtues, which entered into the composition of that rare quintessence, the spirit of Chivalry. Doubtless, in the war which I am about to paint there occurred many things that are to be deeply regretted, as furnishing abundantly that quantity of alloy which is ever, unhappily, mixed with virtue's purest gold: but, at the same time, I now come to speak of men, in many of whom splendid courage, and moral beauty, and religious zeal, and temperate wisdom, and generous magnanimity, combined to form the great and wonderful of this earth's children. Indeed, if ever there was a man who well merited the glorious name of a true knight, that man was Godfrey of Bouillon; and few have described him without becoming poets for that once. I will not borrow from Tasso--who had the privilege of eulogium--but, in striving to paint the character of the great leader of the crusade, I shall take the words of one of the simplest of the writers of his age,[138] and give them as nearly as possible in their original tone: "He was beautiful in countenance," says Robert the Monk, "tall in stature, agreeable in his discourse, admirable in his morals, and at the same time so gentle, that he seemed better fitted for the monk than for the knight; but when his enemies appeared before him, and the combat approached, his soul became filled with mighty daring; like a lion, he feared not for his person--and what shield, what buckler, could resist the fall of his sword?" Perhaps of all men of the age, Godfrey of Bouillon was the most distinguished. His mother Ida, daughter of Godfrey, Duke of Loraine, was celebrated for her love of letters,[139] and from her it is probable that Godfrey himself derived that taste for literature, so singular among the warriors of that day. He spoke several languages, excelled in every chivalrous exercise, was calm and deliberate in council, firm and decided in resolution; he was active, clearsighted, and prudent, while he was cool, frank, and daring; in the battle he was fierce as the lion, but in victory he was moderate and humane.