Their stay among these faithless people was a hard trial to the honest, high-minded German knights. It galled them to have to protect themselves against an ally as if he were an open enemy. If he only had been one or the other, friend or foe, they would have been better pleased. Hypocrisy was unknown wherever German speech was heard. They would rather suffer from honesty than profit from deceit in word or act. The Greeks, on the contrary, were so thoroughly degenerate that they were found now on the one side, now on the other, as one or the other seemed to offer them the greater profit. Boasting their Christian orthodoxy, they persecuted with deadly hatred and sought to exterminate all who differed with them, so that they were as greatly detested in western Europe as the Turks themselves. Indeed, they were so blind as not to see that they were precipitating their own ruin when they, too weak by themselves to resist the enemy of Christendom, were obstructing those who were coming to its rescue. It was impossible to convince either these unfortunate people or their leaders of the fate impending over them. For a long time already, indeed for centuries, they had been controlled and held together only by the absolute and rigorous sway of their masters. They were not content even with those mild and wise sovereigns who ruled by law. Indeed, most of these as well as the tyrants died violent deaths. Sons, urged on by intriguing friends, would dethrone their fathers. Incarcerations and cruel tortures were of common occurrence, and, as so often happens in this world, the very agency by which an undutiful son secured his elevation brought about his ruin. How could any one keep faith in such a country? Craft and dishonesty were the only protection from harm. The person in authority was treacherously flattered so long as it was of advantage; when he could no longer subserve personal advantage he was forsaken, and the faithless friend became the most malignant of enemies. How could such a people, false to each other, be honest with strangers? Such were the reasons for the continual distrust shown by the Germans, and their longing to leave the country. As soon as all the preparations for the crossing were completed they started for Asia, hoping to find more regard for honesty among the Turks, or at least to meet them as foes in the open field. The crossing occupied six days, and was made in Grecian vessels. Even at the last moment the Greeks did everything to obstruct it, and it was only the fear of force that restrained them from violating their agreement and attacking the German rear. Chapter VII Conrad’s Victory in the Valley