us III.
"Who am I," he wrote to him, "that I should form a camp, and march at the
head of an army? What can be more alien to my calling, even if I lacked
not the strength and the ability? I need not tell you all this, for you
know it perfectly. I conjure you by the charity you owe me, deliver me
not over, thus, to the humors of men." The pope came to France; and the
third grand assembly met at Etampes, in February, 1147. The presence of
St. Bernard rekindled zeal; but foresight began to penetrate men's minds.
Instead of insisting upon his being the chief of the crusade, attention
was given to preparations for the expedition; the points were indicated
at which the crusaders should form a junction, and the directions in
which they would have to move; and inquiry was made as to what measures
should be taken, and what persons should be selected for the government
of France during the king's absence. "Sir," said St. Bernard, after
having come to an understanding upon the subject with the principal
members of the assembly, at the same time pointing to Suger and the Count
de Nevers, "here be two swords, and it sufficeth." The Count de Nevers
peremptorily refused the honor done him; he was resolved, he said, to
enter the order of St. Bruno, as indeed he did. Suger also refused at
first, "considering the dignity offered him a burden, rather than an
honor." Wise and clear-sighted by nature, he had learned in the reign of
Louis the Fat, to know the requirements and the difficulties of
government. "He consented to accept," says his biographer, "only when he
was at last forced to it by Pope Eugenius, who was present at the king's
departure, and whom it was neither permissible nor possible for him to
resist." It was agreed that the French crusaders should form a junction
at Metz, under the command of King Louis, and the Germans at Ratisbonne,
under that of the Emperor Conrad, and that the two armies should
successively repair by land to Constantinople, whence they would cross
into Asia.

Having each a strength, it is said, of one hundred thousand men, they
marched by Germany and the Lower Danube, at an interval of two months
between them, without committing irregularities and without meeting
obstacles so serious as those of the first crusade, but still much
incommoded, and subjected to great hardships in the countries they
traversed. The Emperor Conrad and the Germans first, and then King Louis
and the French, arrived at