ign of
this stamp to leave a sphere of domestic activity for the fantastic
wars of the crusades. Once, in the midst of his Italian feud, when the
deeds of Alexander the Great were read aloud to him, he exclaimed:
"Happy Alexander, who didst never see Italy! happy I had I never been
in Asia!" Whether piety or love of fame ultimately decided him, he
felt within himself the energy to take a great decision, and at once
proceeded to action. The aged Emperor once more displayed in this last
effort the fulness of his powerful and ever-youthful nature. For the
first time during these wars, since the armed pilgrimages had begun,
Europe beheld a spirit conscious of their true object, and capable of
carrying it out. The army was smaller than any of the former ones,
consisting of twenty thousand knights and fifty thousand squires and
foot soldiers; but it was guided by one inflexible, indomitable will.
With strict discipline, the imperial leader drove all disorderly and
useless persons out of his camp; he was always the first to face every
obstacle or danger, and showed himself equal to all the political or
military difficulties of the expedition. The Greek empire had to be
traversed first, whose Emperor, Isaac, had allied himself with
Saladin; but at the sight of these formidable masses he shrank in
terror from any hostile attempt, and hastened to transport the German
army across into Asia Minor.

There they hoped for a friendly reception from the Emir of Iconium,
who was reported to have a leaning toward Christianity; but in the
mean time the old ruler had been dethroned by his sons, who opposed
the Germans with a strong force. They were destined to feel the weight
of the German arm. After their mounted bowmen had harassed the
Christian troops for a time with a shower of arrows, the Emperor broke
their line of battle, and scattered them by a sudden attack of cavalry
in all directions, while at the same moment Frederick's son
unexpectedly scaled the walls of their city. The crusaders then
marched in triumph to Cilicia; the Armenians already yielded
submissively to a cessation of hostilities; and far and wide
throughout Turkish Syria went the dread of Frederick's irresistible
arms. Even Saladin himself, who had boldly defied the disorderly
attacks of the hundreds of thousands before Ptolemais, now lost all
hope, and announced to his emirs his intention of quitting Syria on
Frederick's arrival, and retreating across the Euphrates.