1. vii.

BOOK I. taken, thought it adviseable to retire, when it began to grow dark; left the French vanguard fhould return, and fall upon them in that diforder. Nor were their apprehenfions ill founded. For, as foon as Louis faw his rear-guard attacked, rightly conjecturing from what this unexpected difafter had happened, he fent Odo de Deuil, his chaplain and fecretary, to try if he could difcover fome other path in the mountain, leading from thence to the plain, and go by that way, to inform his van-guard of the peril he was in, and order them to haften to his afOdo de Diog. fiftance. That monk (whofe memoirs I have principally followed) performed his commiffion unperceived by the enemy: but, having been obliged to take a great circuit, he arrived too late to prevent the defeat of the rear-guard, by any fuccours from thofe to whom he came. The baron de Taille-. bourg and the earl of Maurienne fet out indeed, as foon as they hard the news he brought, with all the best of their troops, and re-afcended the mountain, as faft as the fteepness of the afcent would permit: but, before they could reach the top, they met the king. After the enemy were retired, fome of his rear-guard, who had efcaped from the flaughter by hiding themselves in the caverns of the hill, happened to pafs very near him. Finding them to be Frenchmen, by the language they fpoke, he made himfelf known to them. One of them immediately

mediately furnished him with a hoffe, on BOOK I. which he rode through the heaps of his dead or dying fubjects, and wandered fome time in the intricate paths of the mountain, feeking his way, in the darkness of the night, without any guide, and under continual apprehenfions of meeting the Turks, till he difcovered the fires of his camp on the plain. These ferving to direct him, he defcended the hill, about the middle of which he fellin with the cavalry, that was coming to his' aid, under Geoffry de Rançon and the earl of Maurienne. They, with mixed fentiments of joy and fhame, received and conducted him fafe from thence to the camp ;' where his arrival difpelled fome part of the terror which had feized the queen and the other ladies. But, notwithstanding the confolation they found in his fafety, the whole camp was now a fcene of affliction and mourning. In every tent, a near relation, or a dear friend, was bewailed. Their forrow was aggravated by the great danger they were in of wanting provifions; most of the ftores they had collected at Laodicea having been taken by the enemy, together with the baggage of the rear-guard. It was ftill twelve days march from thence to Attalia, the capital of Pamphylia, which was the first place, on their road, where they could hope to receive any affiftance or refreshment; and they were informed that the enemy had destroyed all the forage in the country through VOL. II. I which

BOOK I. which they were neceffarily to pafs. Thefe difficulties, added to the grief and the ignominy of fuch a defeat, raised an univerfal refentment against Geoffry de Rançon, who, by the breach of his orders, had occafioned their misfortune. All the army, with one voice, demanded his death; and, doubtless, he ought to have fuffered a capital punishment but he was faved by the clemency of Louis and the warm interceffions of the earl of Maurienne, who, being confcious that he had himself a fhare in his fault, was extremely follicitous to procure him a pardon. Indeed the relaxation of military difcipline, which was one caufe of the deftruction of fo many armies in these expeditions, arose from the feudal government. For the great barons were accuftomed to fo much. independence, that they would hardly obey their leaders, who were obliged to treat them with fuch regards, as much impaired the force of authority neceffary to keep an army in order. Louis, having yielded to his uncle's entreaties in favour of the culpable baron de Taillebourg, took however fome care to fecure himself, for the future, from fuffering again by a fimilar difobedience. Inftead of permitting all his principal barons to lead his army by turns, as they had hitherto done, he now conferred the perpetual command of his van-guard, with a fuperior authority over the whole, upon an old officer of great merit, whom the hiftorian

I follow

I follow names only Gilbert, without giving BOOK I.
him any additional title of honor.
The Odo de Diog.

fame writer informs us, that he was elected 1. vii.
by a majority of the votes of the army,
whom the king was pleafed to confult with
in this affair. The conduct of the rear-
guard was given to Everard des Barres,
master of the Temple, who, with a troop
of his knights, had joined the army not
long before: but he was to act under the
orders of Gilbert, whom Louis declared he
would himself submit to obey; and whofe
directions that prince followed, in forming
a ftrong body, out of the beft of his forces,
both horse and foot, which he commanded
in perfon, and placed between the van and
the rear-guard, for the defence of the bag-
gage, and to fuccour, occafionally, either the
one or the other. All, who had escaped
by flight from the late action, were now
come in: but many of thefe having loft
their horfes, they, with fome bands of foot,
were pofted in the hindmoft ranks of the
rear, and armed with bows and arrows;
that when the Turks, as their cuftom was,
fhould make their discharge at a distance,
thefe archers might annoy them in the fame
manner, and prevent their being fecured by
the fuddennefs of their flight. This good
difpofition had fuch an happy effect, that,
being attacked by the enemy in the firft
days of their march, they not only repulfed
them without any confiderable lois to them.
I 2
felves,

"

BOOK I. felves, but cut to pieces a great part of their army; which fo daunted the reft, that they left off the purfuit: and the French continued their journey in quiet, for several days, through a most difficult and dangerous country. But, though they met with no enemy, they fuffered grievous hardships, by the want of provifions for themselves and their horfes against which calamity they could find no refource, but to feed on the latter; preferving only the best and strongest, by fome fcanty fupplies, which they procured, at a great price, from the avarice of the neighbouring Greeks. Thus they, at laft, came fafe to Attalia, a city of the Greek empire, but tributary to the Turks, whofe territories bordered upon it every way, except to the fea, on the coaft of which it: was fituated. The governor did not dare to refuse the king of France and his army admittance: but, that he might deliver himself from them as fpeedily as he could, he offered them fhips, to convey them into V. epift. 39. the dominions of Antioch by fea. The proLud. ad Sug. pofition was relished by Louis and his council, the paffage being much shorter, and lefs dangerous, by fea, than by land; efpecially as the cavalry was almoft difmounted. It was this circumftance, which made it feem practicable to procure fhipping for them; men being much more easily tranfOdo de Diog. ported than horfes; but, after a delay of ut fuprà. five weeks, the king had the mortification