_Consequences of the Loss of Edessa--The State of France unfavourable to a new Crusade--View of the Progress of Society--Causes and Character of the Second Crusade--St. Bernard--The Emperor of Germany takes the Cross and sets out--Louis VII. follows--Conduct of the Germans in Greece--Their Destruction in Cappadocia--Treachery of Manuel Comnenus--Louis VII. arrives at Constantinople--Passes into Asia--Defeats the Turks on the Meander--His Army cut to pieces--Proceeds by Sea to Antioch--Fate of his remaining Troops--Intrigues at Antioch--Louis goes on to Jerusalem--Siege of Damascus--Disgraceful Failure--Conrad returns to Europe--Conduct of Suger, Abbot of St. Denis--Termination of the Second Crusade._ The loss of Edessa shook the kingdom of Jerusalem; not so much from the importance of the city or its territory, as from the exposed state in which it left the frontier of the newly established monarchy. The activity, the perseverance, the power of the Moslems had been too often felt not to be dreaded; and there is every reason to believe, that the clergy spoke but the wishes of the whole people, when in their letters to Europe they pressed their Christian brethren to come once more to the succour of Jerusalem. Shame and ambition led the young Count of Edessa to attempt the recovery of his capital as soon as the death of Zenghi, who had taken it, reached his ears. He in consequence collected a large body of troops, and on presenting himself before the walls during the night, was admitted, by his friends, into the town. There he turned his whole efforts to force the Turkish garrison in the citadel to surrender, before Nourhaddin, the son of Zenghi, could arrive to its aid. But the Saracens held out; and, while the Latin soldiers besieged the castle, they found themselves suddenly surrounded by a large body of the enemy, under the command of Nourhaddin. In this situation, they endeavoured to cut their way through the Turkish force, but, attacked on every side, few of them escaped to tell the tale of their own defeat. Nourhaddin marched over their necks into Edessa, and, in order to remove for ever that bulwark to the Christian kingdom of Jerusalem, he caused the fortifications to be razed to the ground. The consternation of the people of Palestine became great and general. The road to the Holy City lay open before the enemy, and continual applications for assistance reached Europe, but more particularly France.