umber of women who followed their husbands and lovers to the war.
One troop of them rode in the attitude and armour of men: their chief wore
gilt spurs and buskins, and thence acquired the epithet of the
golden-footed lady. Conrad was ready to set out long before the French
monarch, and in the month of June 1147, he arrived before Constantinople,
having passed through Hungary and Bulgaria without offence to the
inhabitants.

[Illustration: PILGRIM'S STAFF.]

Manuel Comnenus, the Greek emperor, successor not only to the throne but
to the policy of Alexius, looked with alarm upon the new levies who had
come to eat up his capital and imperil its tranquillity. Too weak to
refuse them a passage through his dominions, too distrustful of them to
make them welcome when they came, and too little assured of the advantages
likely to result to himself from the war, to feign a friendship which he
did not feel, the Greek emperor gave offence at the very outset. His
subjects, in the pride of superior civilisation, called the Germans
barbarians; while the latter, who, if semi-barbarous, were at least honest
and straightforward, retorted upon the Greeks by calling them double-faced
knaves and traitors. Disputes continually arose between them, and Conrad,
who had preserved so much good order among his followers during their
passage, was unable to restrain their indignation when they arrived at
Constantinople. For some offence or other which the Greeks had given them,
but which is rather hinted at than stated by the scanty historians of the
day, the Germans broke into the magnificent pleasure-garden of the
emperor, where he had a valuable collection of tame animals, for which the
grounds had been laid out in woods, caverns, groves, and streams, that
each might follow in captivity his natural habits. The enraged Germans,
meriting the name of barbarians that had been bestowed upon them, laid
waste this pleasant retreat, and killed or let loose the valuable animals
it contained. Manuel, who is said to have beheld the devastation from his
palace windows without power or courage to prevent it, was completely
disgusted with his guests, and resolved, like his predecessor Alexius, to
get rid of them on the first opportunity. He sent a message to Conrad
respectfully desiring an interview, but the German refused to trust
himself within the walls of Constantinople. The Greek emperor, on his
part, thought it compatible neither with his dignity nor hi