26 THE BOY CRUSADERS.

Christian zeal, when a boy went about France,
singing in his native tongue—

Jesus, Lord, repair our loss,

Restore to us thy blessed cross ;
and met with much sympathy from those of his
ownage. Multitudes of children crowded round him
as their leader, and followed his footsteps wherever
he went. Nothing could restrain their enthusiasm ;
and, assembling in crowds in the environs of Paris,
they prepared to cross Burgundy and make for
Marseilles.

‘And whither are you going, children?’ people
asked.

‘We are going to Jerusalem, to deliver the Holy
Sepulchre,’ answered they.

‘But how are you to get there?’ was the next
question.

‘Oh,’ replied they, ‘you seem not to know how it
has been prophesied that this year the drought will
be very great, that the sun will dissipate all the
waters, and that the abysses of the sea will be dry;
and that an easy road will lie open to us across the
bed of the Mediterranean.’

On reaching Marseilles, however, the young pil-
orims discovered that they had been deluded. Some
of them returned to their homes; but the majority
were not so fortunate. Many lost themselves in the
forests which then covered the country, and died
of hunger and fatigue; and the others became
objects of speculation to two merchants of Marseilles,
who carried on trade with the Saracens. Affecting.
to act from motives of piety, the two merchants