mascus become an appanage of Jerusalem, a fief of the French crown, or a German principality ? Days and weeks passed away in fruitless disputes among the crusaders, and at length»it was determined that the prize should be given to the Count of Flanders, because he had twice visited the Holy Land. This decision only increased the dissatisfac-tion. There were rumors of treason in the camp, and the Templars were accused of accepting bribes. A proposition was made to remove the camp to Ascalon, and while de-bate fostered delay the Saracens had time to repair the •fortifications of Damascus, and to summon assistance from the Sultan. The German emperor, terrified with the report that the Emir of Mosul was inarching to the city, was the first to abandon the siege ; and the other leaders, discontent-ed with themselves and with each other, gloomily retraced their steps to Jerusalem. Conrad, with the shattered relics of the German host, immediately returned to Europe '; but the king of the French lingered several months, visiting the holy places, and seeking opportunities to do military ser-vice worthy the expedition ; till at length learning from Pey-r% that Eleanor, through the connivance of Petronilla, had exchanged letters with Saladin, and was meditating a flight to Antioch ; he gathered together the miserable remnant of his army, amounting to three hundred persons, and accom-panied by his enraged queen and her crest-fallen Ama-zons, embarked for Constantinople. Here Eleanor found some small consolation in repairing the sad inroads made upon her wardrobe at the defeat of Laodicea. From Constantinople the dissatisfied pair sailed for France. It was the intention of Louis to put away his wife imme-diately on his return, but the sagacious Abbot Suger dis-suaded him from this course, since he would thus detach from the crown the great duchy of Aquitaine, the probable inheritance of the voung Princesses Mary and Alix. She was, however, closely watched, and forbidden to visit her southern domains. In A.D. 1150, Geoffrey Plantagenet, the Count Anjou, came to the court of Louis VII., with his son Henry, a youth about the age of Saladin, whose 10 ELEANOR. 145