Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, vol 6 | Page 8

could only
afford room for his knights and nobles; and the plebeian crowd of
infantry was left to perish at the foot of the Pamphylian hills. The
emperor and the king embraced and wept at Jerusalem; their martial
trains, the remnant of mighty armies, were joined to the Christian
powers of Syria, and a fruitless siege of Damascus was the final effort
of the second crusade. Conrad and Louis embarked for Europe with the
personal fame of piety and courage; but the Orientals had braved these
potent monarchs of the Franks, with whose names and military forces
they had been so often threatened. ^22 Perhaps they had still more to
fear from the veteran genius of Frederic the First, who in his youth had
served in Asia under his uncle Conrad. Forty campaigns in Germany
and Italy had taught Barbarossa to command; and his soldiers, even the
princes of the empire, were accustomed under his reign to obey. As
soon as he lost sight of Philadelphia and Laodicea, the last cities of the
Greek frontier, he plunged into the salt and barren desert, a land (says
the historian) of horror and tribulation. ^23 During twenty days, every
step of his fainting and sickly march was besieged by the innumerable
hordes of Turkmans, ^24 whose numbers and fury seemed after each
defeat to multiply and inflame. The emperor continued to struggle and
to suffer; and such was the measure of his calamities, that when he
reached the gates of Iconium, no more than one thousand knights were
able to serve on horseback. By a sudden and resolute assault he
defeated the guards, and stormed the capital of the sultan, ^25 who
humbly sued for pardon and peace. The road was now open, and
Frederic advanced in a career of triumph, till he was unfortunately
drowned in a petty torrent of Cilicia. ^26 The remainder of his
Germans was consumed by sickness and desertion: and the emperor's
son expired with the greatest part of his Swabian vassals at the siege of
Acre. Among the Latin heroes, Godfrey of Bouillon and Frederic
Barbarossa could alone achieve the passage of the Lesser Asia; yet
even their success was a warning; and in the last and most experienced
age of the crusades, every nation preferred the sea to the toils and perils
of an inland expedition. ^27 [Footnote *: This was the design of the

pilgrims under the archbishop of Milan. See note, p. 102. - M.]
[Footnote !: Conrad had advanced with part of his army along a central
road, between that on the coast and that which led to Iconium. He had
been betrayed by the Greeks, his army destroyed without a battle.
Wilken, vol. iii. p. 165. Michaud, vol. ii. p. 156. Conrad advanced
again with Louis as far as Ephesus, and from thence, at the invitation of
Manuel, returned to Constantinople. It was Louis who, at the passage of
the Maeandes, was engaged in a "glorious action." Wilken, vol. iii. p.
179. Michaud vol. ii. p. 160. Gibbon followed Nicetas. - M.] [Footnote
21: As counts of Vexin, the kings of France were the vassals and
advocates of the monastery of St. Denys. The saint's peculiar banner,
which they received from the abbot, was of a square form, and a red or
flaming color. The oriflamme appeared at the head of the French
armies from the xiith to the xvth century, (Ducange sur Joinville,
Dissert. xviii. p. 244 - 253.)] [Footnote *: They descended the heights
to a beautiful valley which by beneath them. The Turks seized the
heights which separated the two divisions of the army. The modern
historians represent differently the act to which Louis owed his safety,
which Gibbon has described by the undignified phrase, "he climbed a
tree." According to Michaud, vol. ii. p. 164, the king got upon a rock,
with his back against a tree; according to Wilken, vol. iii., he dragged
himself up to the top of the rock by the roots of a tree, and continued to
defend himself till nightfall. - M.] [Footnote 22: The original French
histories of the second crusade are the Gesta Ludovici VII. published in
the ivth volume of Duchesne's collection. The same volume contains
many original letters of the king, of Suger his minister, &c., the best
documents of authentic history.] [Footnote 23: Terram horroris et
salsuginis, terram siccam sterilem, inamoenam. Anonym. Canis. p. 517.
The emphatic language of a sufferer.] [Footnote 24: Gens innumera,
sylvestris, indomita, praedones sine ductore. The sultan of Cogni might
sincerely rejoice in their defeat. Anonym. Canis. p. 517, 518.]
[Footnote 25: See, in the anonymous writer in the Collection of
Canisius, Tagino and Bohadin, (Vit. Saladin. p. 119, 120,) the
ambiguous conduct of Kilidge Arslan, sultan of Cogni, who hated and
feared