volume one

354 HISTORY OF THE CETJSAHES.
tas,* who some rears after saw their heaped-up hones, could
not help saying, whilst praising the courage of the Franks,
" that if such men did not take Constantinople, their moderation
and patience were much to be admired."
After the battle they had fought with the Saracens, some
pilgrims asserted that they had seen a knight, clothed in
white, march at the head of the army, and give the signal for
victory . Odo of Deuil, an ocular '^\-itness, speaks of this
apparition, without gi'^'ing faith to it, and satisfies himself
with saying that the Christians would not have triumphed
over the Turks without the protection and the will of God.
This victory gave great confidence to the Crusaders, and
rendered their enemies more cautious. The Turks, whom it
was impossible to pursue far in an unknown country, rallied
again after the battle of the Meander. Less confident in
their strength, and not daring to attack an army that had
conquered them, they watched for a moment in which they
might safely surprise them. The imprudence of a leader
who commanded the French vanguard soon presented to
them this opportunity. On quitting Laodicea, a city
situated on the Lvcus, the Crusaders had directed their
course towards the mountains which separate Phrygia from
Pisidia. These mountains ofiered nothing but narrow passages,
in which they constantly marched between rocks and
precipices. The French army was divided into two bodies,
commanded every day by new leaders, who received their
orders from the king.
Every evening they laid down in council the route they
were to foUow the next day, and appointed the place where
the army was to encamp. One day when they had to cross
one of the highest mountains, the order had been given to
the vanguard to encamp on the heights, and to wait for the
rest of the army, so that they might descend into the plain
the next day in order of battle. Geoffrey de Ean9on, lord
of Taillebours:, this dav commanded the first bodv of the
French army, and bore the Oriflamme, or royal standard.
* Nicetas, in his account, confounds the army of the French with that
of the Germans, who did not fight on the banks of the Meander ; all
which Louis did he attributes to Conrad. The German historians have
followed him, and state the victory near the Meander to have been gjiined
by the sovereign of their own nation.