Up to this point the German expedition had been decidedly successful. But the utter consternation that fell upon it after the Emperor’s death did more for Islam than the tricks of Kilidj Arslan and the deserts and defiles of Asia Minor. Many knights hastened to the coast and took ship home. Duke Frederick of Swabia, Barbarossa’s second son, assumed the command of the dispirited remnant, which, after resting a while in the friendly land of the Armenians, entered Syria. [Sidenote: Destruction of the German Army.] The reins of discipline were now hopelessly relaxed. The army broke up into various bands, and the disconnected fragments were so severely handled by the Saracens that German slaves were cheap for many a day in every market of Syria. Duke Frederick at last reached Antioch, where he buried the perishable parts of his father’s body in the church of St. Peter. The plague now decimated the much tried host, and only a miserable remnant followed Duke Frederick to join in the siege of Acre. Before long the Duke of Swabia died, and the Germans were now so utterly demoralised that they lost the sacred bones of their Emperor, which they had preserved in the hope of giving them a worthy tomb in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. The great German army was of less account in Palestine than the scattered bands that came from Lower Germany by sea and finally got to Acre after doing good service against the Moors in Spain, or the little host that had sailed from Brindisi under the Landgrave Louis of Thuringia, and also reached Syria in safety.