The following illustration, based on the "Children's Crusades," is a conflation of many different tales that have been embellished for centuries, for their oratory effect. We include this here as a reminder to be careful grabbing stories from the internet and using them without first doing some investigative work:
In 1212 a French shepherd boy by the name of Steven claimed that Jesus had appeared to him disguised as a pilgrim. Supposedly, Jesus instructed him to take a letter to the king of France. This poor, misguided boy told everyone about what he thought he had encountered. Before long he had gathered a large following of more than thirty thousand children who accompanied him on his pilgrimage. As Philip Schaff records it, when asked where they were going, they replied, "We go to God, and seek for the holy cross beyond the sea." They reached Marseilles, but the waves did not part and let them go through dry-shod as they expected.
It was at Marseilles that tragedy occurred. The children met two men, Hugo Ferreus and William Porcus. The men claimed to be so impressed with the calling of the children that they offered to transport them across the Mediterranean in seven ships without charge. What the children didn't know was that the two men were slave traders. The children boarded the ships and the journey began, but instead of setting sail for the Holy Land they set course for North Africa, "where they were sold as slaves in the Muslim markets that did a large business in the buying and selling of human being. Few if any returned. None ever reached the Holy Land." Two cunning men enjoyed enormous financial profits simply because they were willing to sacrifice the lives of thousands of children.
Note: This story was actually published in the following book by none other than Multnomah Press. So even resources from reputable outfits are to be carefully scrutinized. The story was used in: Steve Farrar, Family Survival in the American Jungle, 1991, Multnomah Press, pp. 60- 61.
Most apocryphal stories can be utilized by introducing them as legends but sometimes the subject matter is so egregious that it is ill advised. This is one of them.