Page:The Queens of England.djvu/60

 4 8 THE QUEENS OF ENGLAND. the preaching of St. Bernard, had landed in France with a large army. The French army traversed Germany, Bohemia and Hungary, the greatest disorder prevailing among them. With so vast a number of women it was impossible to preserve strict discipline ; money and provisions also failing, the wants of the many were supplied by means of rapine and plunder, which irritating against them the inhabitants of the countries through which they passed, they were regarded rather as rob- bers or banditti, whom it was meritorious to destroy, than as soldiers of a faith which was common to all. Thus their num- bers were greatly diminished by the time they reached Con- stantinople. At Constantinople they were received by Manuel Comnenus with apparent kindness, but with the concealed hatred of an enemy. He had already behaved with the greatest treachery towards the Emperor Conrad and his followers, and he now meditated the ruin of the French. Between Constantinople and Antioch numberless* were the difficulties and misfortunes encountered by Louis and his followers, the crowning of which was the signal defeat they experienced in the neighborhood of Laodicea, where, so great was the number of the French either killed or taken prisoners, that out of 30,000 men it is said only 7,000 remained. Louis displayed in this desperate encounter the utmost cour- age, and fought with desperation until forced from the spot where he had beheld many of his most valiant knights expire. He was led by his servants to a rock, where they hoped to find safety for {he night, but they were discovered and dispersed, the king only escaping by climbing a tree. There he defended himself by cleaving the heads, hands or arms of his enemies as they attempted to ascend the tree, until dispersed and dis- couraged, and ignorant of his quality, they at length left him. He remained in this situation the greater part of the night, when some of his own party, informed of. his danger, hastened to meet him. The alarm of the queen and her ladies was re- lieved by the king's arrival, yet the utmost consternation pre- vailed in the camp, not only from the loss of such great num- bers of their friends, but for the want of provisions, their stores having been carried off by the enemy whilst they had yet twelve days' marching before them. At length they reached # Attalia, whence Louis and his queen with their nobility embarked for Antioch, leavingthe infantry