CIIAP. IX.]

ST. JOHN OF JERUSALEM.

89

doubt, but even of delay. Thousands upon thou-sands were in readiness to depart forthwith. Itrequired the hermit himself to persuade them towait for a few months, that estates might be soldor mortgaged, and that the lowest classes that pos-sessed anything, should convert their furniture andhousehold goods into a little money.

Yet, where all wished to sell, and none to buy,what but hamper themselves, each with as much asever he could, and leave the rest for any personthat should pass? Heaps of articles strewed everyroad in Europe, and lay neglected, though theywould have been all stolen at any other time; butnow the meanest mendicant refused to lose amoment by looking on them. What was proposedto all, and was the duty of all, was so paramountto arms, provisions, horses, ships, in the appre-hension of millions, that they smiled at such super-fluous cares, and held them in supreme disdain.Yet some had the prudence to occupy themselvesa little with these trifles, nor every head of afamily deemed it praiseworthy to renounce hisduties of providing for those whom his Creator hadconfided to his administration; it were a temptingof Providence! But no further deferring thanwas absolutely necessary.

To every class of the community the crusade