heraldryofyorkmi01custuoft

INTRODUCTION. 37
" Loose in the winde waived their banner light,
Their standard Roial towards Heaven they spread,
The Cross triumphant o'er the Pagan dead."
There have been some translations of Tasso since, but none, I think, better.
Tasso is no authority on chivalry, as he lived after its date, 1544-95 ; but
his poem is grand and stirring, and his description of the Crusaders falling
on their knees, bareheaded, when they first saw Jerusalem, is, if imaginary,
very touching and effective.
The second Crusade was excited by the preaching of St. Bernard,
1147. The third, in which Richard I.
joined, was commenced 1191.
Altogether these futile wars lasted two hundred years, and, Voltaire says,
cost the lives of two millions of men.
This contact with the Saracens, however, produced two definite results :
ist, that attention to the breeding of horses, and that extraordinary love
and care for them which have always marked Orientals, and which may
specially be noted in the Middle Ages in England ; and the other, the
development of Heraldry, for the Saracens abounded in every magnificent
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