[283] Some romancers, and even some historians, have advanced that Eleanor of Guienne was in love with Saladin, who founded the dynasty of the Ayoubites. Saladin, the son of Ayoub, was born the same year that Eleanor married Louis VII., and was scarcely ten years old at the time of the second crusade. Her second son, by Henry II. of England, became the great rival of Saladin in military glory.—Trans.
[284] Percussit eum inter collum et sinistrum humerum ictu mirabili; ita quòd ensis secuit totum pectus cum humeris et descendit obliquando usque ad latus dextrum, taliter quòd pars dexterior abscissa penitùs cum capite cecidit super terram, et tunc omnes Turci, qui ictum tam formidabilem viderant stupefacti, statìm fugâ remedio nostrorum gladios evaserunt.—G. C. chap. ii.
[285] All these details, and some others which were not known to the authors of the West, are taken from the Arabian chronicle of Ibuferat.
[286] Abulfeda, Abulfarage, and some other Arabian historians speak of the siege of Damascus; but it is difficult to reconcile their account with that of the Latins. We have taken some few circumstances from them that appeared the most probable. The Chronicle of Ibuferat is that which gives the most circumstantial details.
[287] The Chronicle of Geuvais attributes the retreat of the Christians to the perfidy of the Templars:—Cum civitas Christianis reddenda esset, accesserunt Templarii, dicentes se primam habituros pugnam, ut omnes deinde in communi victoriam obtinerent, statuerunt itaque tentoria sua inter civitatem et exercitum Christianorum, et cum his qui erant in civitate paganis proditionis pactum inierunt. Cives igitur eorum agnoscentes cupiditatem, promiserunt eis tres cados plenos bisantis aureis, si eos ab obsidione liberarent. Delusi itaque Christiani per milites Templi, Damasco recesserunt. Post modicum verò cum Templarii promissos à viribus recipissent cados, in eisdem non nummos aureos, sed cupreos invenerunt, miraculoque quæ ascripserunt.
[288] William of Tyre, b. xvii. chap. 6.
[289] This crusade from the north is mentioned by Otto of Frisingen. Saxo the grammarian gives the most ample details in his thirteenth book. The reader may likewise consult the Latin History of Germany, by Kruntz. The History of Denmark, by Mallet, does not say a word of this war.
[290] Arnold, a Flemish preacher, on the publication of the second crusade, exhorted the nations of France and Germany to enrol themselves in this pious army; he followed the Crusaders who laid siege to Lisbon, under the command of Arnold count d’Arschot. Arnold sent an account of this siege to Milo, bishop of Terouane, in a letter published by Dom Martène, in the first volume of his great collection, upon two manuscripts. The relation of Arnold, an eye-witness, different from that of Robert of the Mount, is adopted by Fleury. The historian of Portugal, Manoel de Faria y Sousa, speaks also of this expedition of the Crusaders.
[291] St. Bernard wrote to the Estates of the kingdom, assembled by Suger, to repress the ambition of a brother of the king and some great vassals. He also wrote to the abbot of St. Denis: “Whilst Louis,” said he in his letter, “is fighting for a king whose reign is eternal; whilst in the flower of his age he exiles himself from his kingdom to serve Him who causes them to reign that serve him, is it possible there can be men so rash as to create disorder and troubles in his states, and to attack in his person the Lord and his Christ?”—Ep. 337.
[292] The legend of one of these medals is conceived in these terms:—