BOOK VI.—A.D. 1142-1148.

SECOND CRUSADE.

Europe aroused to a second crusade by the impending dangers of Jerusalem and the Holy Land—The Abbot St. Bernard—Louis VII. of France—He destroys Vitri, repents, and determines on a crusade against the infidels—Pope Eugenius III. invokes the assistance of the faithful—Pons, abbot of Vezelai—Preaching of St. Bernard—State of the Germanic empire—Conrad III. invokes a general diet at Spires, and engages in the crusade—Many distinguished personages take the cross—Enthusiasm of the Germans—Conrad and Louis VII. arrive at Constantinople—Hypocritical policy of the emperor, and treachery of the Greeks—Alarm created by an eclipse of the sun—The Crusaders defeated by the Turks—The oriflamme—Fatal blunder of Geoffrey de Rançon—Reported death of Louis VII.—Everard des Barres, grand master of the Templars—Perfidious policy of the Greeks—Sufferings of the Crusaders—Louis VII. arrives at Antioch with a small portion of his army—Eleanor of Guienne repudiated by her husband, Louis VII.—He proceeds to the Holy Land—Conrad arrives at Jerusalem—Baldwin III. urges on the war—The Crusaders besiege Damascus, and are repulsed—Ayoub, the father of Saladin—The Sclaves— Crusaders in Spain and Portugal—Suger, minister of France— Unfortunate results of this crusade—The conquests of Noureddin—The deaths of Raymond, Josselin, Suger, and St. Bernard pp. 329-381.