nd crusade started upon its long voyage. At
Constantinople the knights did homage to the Emperor. (For as I have
told you, traditions die hard, and a Roman Emperor, however poor and
powerless, was still held in great respect). Then they crossed into
Asia, killed all the Moslems who fell into their hands, stormed
Jerusalem, massacred the Mohammedan population, and marched to the Holy
Sepulchre to give praise and thanks amidst tears of piety and gratitude.
But soon the Turks were strengthened by the arrival of fresh troops.
Then they retook Jerusalem and in turn killed the faithful followers of
the Cross.

During the next two centuries, seven other crusades took place.
Gradually the Crusaders learned the technique of the trip. The land
voyage was too tedious and too dangerous. They preferred to cross the
Alps and go to Genoa or Venice where they took ship for the east.
The Genoese and the Venetians made this trans-Mediterranean passenger
service a very profitable business. They charged exorbitant rates, and
when the Crusaders (most of whom had very little money) could not pay
the price, these Italian "profiteers" kindly allowed them to "work their
way across." In return for a fare from Venice to Acre, the Crusader
undertook to do a stated amount of fighting for the owners of his
vessel. In this way Venice greatly increased her territory along the
coast of the Adriatic and in Greece, where Athens became a Venetian
colony, and in the islands of Cyprus and Crete and Rhodes.

All this, however, helped little in settling the question of the Holy
Land. After the first enthusiasm had worn off, a short crusading trip
became part of the liberal education of every well-bred young man, and
there never was any lack of candidates for service in Palestine. But the
old zeal was gone. The Crusaders, who had begun their warfare with deep
hatred for the Mohammedans and great love for the Christian people of
the eastern Roman Empire and Armenia, suffered a complete change of
heart. They came to despise the Greeks of Byzantium, who cheated them
and frequently betrayed the cause of the Cross, and the Armenians and
all the other Levantine races, and they began to appreciate the virtues
of their enemies who proved to be generous and fair opponents.

Of course, it would never do to say this openly. But when the Crusader
returned home, he was likely to imitate the manners which he had learned
from his heathenish foe, compared to whom the averag