ade was even more disastrous than the
last; for the Germans contrived not only to embitter the Saracens against
the Christians of Judea, but to lose the strong city of Jaffa, and cause
the destruction of nine-tenths of the army with which they had quitted
Europe. And so ended the fourth Crusade.

The fifth was more important, and had a result which its projectors never
dreamed of--no less than the sacking of Constantinople, and the placing of
a French dynasty upon the imperial throne of the eastern Caesars. Each
succeeding pope, however much he may have differed from his predecessors
on other points, zealously agreed in one, that of maintaining by every
possible means the papal ascendency. No scheme was so likely to aid in
this endeavour as the Crusades. As long as they could persuade the kings
and nobles of Europe to fight and die in Syria, their own sway was secured
over the minds of men at home. Such being their object, they never
inquired whether a Crusade was or was not likely to be successful, whether
the time were well or ill chosen, or whether men and money could be
procured in sufficient abundance. Pope Innocent III. would have been proud
if he could have bent the refractory monarchs of England and France into
so much submission. But John and Philip Augustus were both engaged. Both
had deeply offended the Church, and had been laid under her ban, and both
were occupied in important reforms at home; Philip in bestowing immunities
upon his subjects, and John in having them forced from him. The emissaries
of the pope therefore plied them in vain; but as in the first and second
Crusades, the eloquence of a powerful preacher incited the nobility, and
through them a certain portion of the people; Foulque bishop of Neuilly,
an ambitious and enterprising prelate, entered fully into the views of the
court of Rome, and preached the Crusade wherever he could find an
audience. Chance favoured him to a degree he did not himself expect, for
he had in general found but few proselytes, and those few but cold in the
cause. Theobald count of Champagne had instituted a grand tournament, to
which he had invited all the nobles from far and near. Upwards of two
thousand knights were present with their retainers, besides a vast
concourse of people to witness the sports. In the midst of the festivities
Foulque arrived upon the spot, and conceiving the opportunity to be a
favourable one, he addressed the multitude in eloquent language, an