Constantinople in the course of the summer of
1117. Manuel Comnenus, grandson of Alexis Comnenus, was reigning there;
and he behaved towards the crusaders with the same mixture of caresses
and malevolence, promises and perfidy, as had distinguished his
grandfather. "There is no ill turn he did not do them," says the
historian Nicetas, himself a Greek. Conrad was the first to cross into
Asia Minor, and, whether it were unskilfulness or treason, the guides
with whom he had been supplied by Manuel Comnenus led him so badly that,
on the 28th of October, 1147, he was surprised and shockingly beaten by
the Turks near Iconium. An utter distrust of Greeks grew up amongst the
French, who had not yet left Constantinople; and some of their chiefs,
and even one of their prelates, the Bishop of Langres, proposed to make,
without further delay, an end of it with this emperor and empire, so
treacherously hostile, and to take Constantinople in order to march more
securely upon Jerusalem. But King Louis and the majority of his knights
turned a deaf ear: "We be come forth," said they, "to expiate our own
sins, not to punish the crimes of the Greeks; when we took up the cross,
God did not put into our hands the sword of His justice;" and they, in
their turn, crossed over into Asia Minor. There they found the Germans
beaten and dispersed, and Conrad himself wounded and so discouraged that,
instead of pursuing his way by land with the French, he returned to
Constantinople to go thence by sea to Palestine. Louis and his army
continued their march across Asia Minor, and gained in Phrygia, at the
passage of the river Meander, so brilliant a victory over the Turks that,
"if such men," says the historian Nicetas, abstained from taking
Constantinople, one cannot but admire their moderation and forbearance."

[Illustration: Defeat of the Turks----16]

But the success was short, and, ere long, dearly paid for. On entering
Pisidia, the French army split up into two, and afterwards into several
divisions, which scattered and lost themselves in the defiles of the
mountains. The Turks waited for them, and attacked them at the mouths
and from the tops of the passes; before long there was nothing but
disorder and carnage; the little band which surrounded the king was cut
to pieces at his side; and Louis himself, with his back against a rock,
defended himself, alone, for some minutes, against several Turks, till
they, not knowing who he was, dre