98 THE HISTORY OF THE ORDER OF [book i.

express astonishment at what now surprises us.All were actors; there was no audience, posteritywere to be that. Immense armies, many of them,might have been formed out of that multitude;enough, and far more than enough. But the chiefcaptains agreed among themselves to set aboutmaking the preparations absolutely necessary, andthen to take different roads, and meet again atConstantinople.

But first of all was it requisite to skim off thedross, and rid themselves of that heterogeneous andmost unmilitary crowd. All the various gangs ofthat description were to proceed in three divisions.So the Heaven-elected hermit’s insane squad, thatwas to form the first division, departed instantlywith Sansavoir leading the vanguard. Thezealous Cenobite, as fit for the mad hospital as anyof them, convinced that a good hot will is enoughto insure success in war, and that the undisciplinedmob would obey his voice, figured at the head ofthat oddest of columns, in his woollen gown, andwith cowl and sandals, riding jovially that same shemule which had carried him over all Europe—Eng-land included. But he had outriders with hispenniless lieutenant, who had been followed closeby two of the horsemen ; so there w r ere only eighthorses to be scattered through the main body.