volume one

346 histout of the ckusades.
Nevertheless Louis YII. prepared for his undertaking
by acts of devotion ; he visited the hospitals, and caused
prayers to be put up in all the churches for the success of
the crusade. "When his departure drew near, he went to
St. Denis, to take the famous Oriflamme, which was borne
before the kings of France in battle. The church of St.
Denis was at that time decorated with great magnificence
amono' the historical monuments which were there collected,
the portraits of Grodfrey de Bouillon, Tancred, Eavmond de
St, Gilles, and the battles of Dorylseum, Antioch, and
Ascalon,* traced upon the windows of the choir, must have
attracted the eyes and fixed the attention of Louis and his
companions in arms. The king, prostrated on the tomb of
the holv apostle of France, implored his protection and that
of his pious ancestors, whose ashes reposed in the same
place. The pope, who had come to St. Denis, placed anew
the kingdom of France imder the safeguard of rehgion, and
presented to Louis YII. his scrip and stafi", as the emblems
of his pilgrimage. After this ceremony Louis set out,
accompanied by Queen Eleanor and a great part of his court.
He wept while he embraced Abbot Suger, who could not
himself restrain his tears. The people, says a modem historian,
who crowded his passage, after having followed him
for a long distance with the most vociferous applauses, returned
in melancholy silence to their homes as soon as he
was out of sight. He left Metz at the head of a hundred
thousand Crusaders, traversed Grermany, and directed his
march towards Constantinople, where he had appointed to
meet the emperor of the West.
The emperor Conrad, after having caused his son Henry
to be crowned, left Eatisbon in the beginning of spring. He
was followed by an army so numerous, that, according to the
report of Otho, of Frisingen, the waves were not sufficient
to transport it, nor the fields spacious enough to contain all
its battaHons. He had sent ambassadors to announce his
coming to Constantinople, and to demand permission to cross
the territories of the Grreek empire. Manuel Comnenus returned
him a most friendly and flattering answer ; but when
* Montfaucon speaks of these pictures in Les Monuments de la Mo-
narchie Francaise, vol. i.
;