volume one

372 HisTOBT or the ceusadzs.
posaeflB themselves of cities which might protect the march
of pilgrims into Syria. "We admire the patience with which
they endured the outrages and the perfidies of the Greeks
but this moderation, more rehgious than poUtic, only led
them to their ruin. We must add that they entertained too
low an opioion of the Turks, and did not take sufficient
heed of the means necessary to contend with them. The
Grermans, in particular, were so fuU of confidence, that,
according to the report of !Xicetas, they would rather have
thought of taking shovels and pick-axes with them than
swords or lances, believing that they had nothing to do but
to cut themselves a road across Asia ]Minor. By another
singularity, the Crusaders, in this war, did not employ the
cross-bow* which a council of the Lateran had condemned
as too miurderous, and the use of which was interdicted to
the warriors of the West. The infantry was left almost
without arms, and when the Crusaders had lost their cavalry,
thev had no defence against an enemy.
The Christian armies, as in the first crusade, dragged in
their traiu a great number of cliildren. women, and old men,
who could do nothing: towards victorv. and vet alwavs oreatlv
augmented the disorder and despair consequent upon a
defeat. With this multitude no discipline could be established
; nor is it apparent that the leaders made any attempt
to prevent the etfects of Hcense. Geofii^ey de Eancon,
whose imprudence caused the destruction of half the French
armT. and placed the king of France in the greatest peril,
had no other punishment but his repentance, and thought
he expiated his neglect of duty by prostrating himself at
the tomb of Christ. That which was still more injurious to
discipline was the depravity- of manners in the Christian
army, which must be principally attributed to the gi'eat
number of women that had taken arms, and mixed in. the
raiil:f= of the soldiery. La. this crusade there was a troop of
A--:. OS, commanded by a general whose dress was much
: : : e admired than her courage, and whose gilded boots
r rd her the name of " tlie lady with the legs ofgold.''
Another cause of the dissoluteness of manners was the
extreme facility with which the most vicious men, even convi
r- 1 malefactors, were admitted amone the Crusaders,
be. Bernard, who considered the crusade as a road to heaven,
^ ;