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 ELEANOR OF AQUITAINE. 49 to await other transports. They, however, impatient to join their monarch, proceeding forward by land, encountered so many fresh difficulties that but few of the number were left. When Louis arrived at Antioch with his queen and her es- cort of ladies, he was received by Raymond of Poitou, the reigning monarch, and uncle of Eleanor, with every possible mark of respect and joy. He loaded the king with presents, and sought by every means in his power to ingratiate himself with the young queen, his niece. From this moment com- menced that jealousy of his wife in the breast of Louis and those bitter misunderstandings between them which finally ended in divorce. Raymond of Poitou, though the uncle of Eleanor, was still a handsome man of attractive manners ; and so completely did she give herself up to the fascinations of his society that Louis, in a fit of rage and jealousy, suddenly car- ried her off one night to Jerusalem. Whatever might have been the religious ardor which in- duced Eleanor to commence this crusade, it was wholly cooled by the time she reached the Holy City, and no sentiment re- mained in her heart but resentment against her husband for what she considered his unjustifiable severity. Louis lingered in Palestine, desirous of rendering some service to the Chris- tian cause; but the Crusade terminated unfortunately, and the king returned to France, in compliance with the earnest wish of his minister, to defeat the cabal of the Count of Dreux, his brother, in the autumn of 1149. Various statements have been made by historians concerning the conduct of Queen Eleanor whilst in Palestine. While one author accuses her of intriguing with her uncle, another speaks of her levity with a young Turkish emir named Saladin ; others again narrate a romantic history in which the celebrated Sala- din himself figures as the object of the king's jealousy, and the Archbishop of Tyre intimates in general terms that the queen, whilst at Antioch, forgot by her irregularities the respect due to her rank and the king her husband. Nothing, however, was proved against her honor; nevertheless Louis retained his sus- picions, and returned home resolved on obtaining a divorce. From this his prudent minister Segur seems to have dissuaded him, from the consideration that the restoration of her mag- nificent dower was undesirable, as well as that it would be detrimental to the interests of their daughter, the Princess Mary.