of others—were greatly aggravated by these proceedings, and it was not long before this burst out into a flame. All over Northern France and Germany, the Jews seem to have been numerous at this time; but in what is now Rhenish Prussia, and along the banks of the Moselle, they were to be found in the greatest abundance. It was near the city of Treves that the first vast multitude of undisciplined fanatics assembled, under the leadership of Walther von Habenicht and Peter the Hermit. As they set forth, under the guidance of a goat and a goose, to find their way to the Holy Land, a cry was suddenly raised, doubtless by some enemy of the Jews, that while they were marching to destroy the enemies of the Lord Jesus in Palestine, they were leaving unassailed at home those who were not only His enemies, but His murderers—the Jews! The cry was instantly caught up, the frantic crowd rushed into Treves, and began a general pillage of the Jews’ houses, and a massacre of their occupants. Taken by surprise, the authorities offered no interference; indeed, no interference they could have offered would have been of the slightest avail. The unhappy Jews, equally unprepared, could neither resist nor escape. Scenes too shocking for description ensued. Women tied heavy weights round their necks, and threw themselves into the rivers to avoid the last dishonour. Men slew their own children, to save them from the tortures to which they would be subjected; their own lives they yielded up in despairing silence. Some fled to the citadel, hoping to be protected against the violence of their assailants; but the Bishop of Treves received them with threats and reproaches, refusing to interfere in their behalf, unless they would accept baptism. The same scenes took place in Cologne, Worms, Spires, and Mayence. Everywhere the only hope of escape from torture and death was baptism; except, indeed, where a heavy bribe had been paid for episcopal protection, or where, as at Spires, the Jews armed themselves and sold their lives dearly. The tide of murder rolled on, sweeping the shores of the Maine and the Danube, the same scenes being everywhere repeated. In Bavaria, it is said that as many as 12,000 Jews were slaughtered. The Emperor Henry IV. seems to have been the only potentate whom these atrocities struck with horror. He issued a decree, repairing, so far as was possible, the wrongs that had been done, and forbidding them for the future. But, for the most part, the historians of those times relate the horrors that took place with a _sangfroid_ which speaks volumes as to the light in which they were regarded by those who witnessed them.