I prayed for help all night; and, warned by lost Edessa, Baldwin made
Great efforts to placate our God. The answer was a fresh crusade.
This was an answer none could doubt. We heard a preacher more devout
Than ours was quartering the west, and pulling true believers out.
He hight Saint Bernard of Clairvaux, the home of light and miracles.
The wives and mothers trembled so before his spirit's tentacles,
They hid their males—in vain. He swept the Emperor Conrad with him, kept
The collar of his pale adept, emasculated Louis Sept.
He cured King's Evils, raised the dead, he cast out devils by the gross.
'Twas said he promised us twelve legions of angels.... From the darkest regions