[546] A curious essay might be written on the classes or castes in Europe at that period. It is quite a mistaken notion which some persons have entertained, that the only distinctions under the monarch, were noble and serf. We find an immense class, or rather various classes, all of which consisted of freemen, interposed between the lord and his slave. Thus Galbertus Syndick, of Bruges, in recounting the death of Charles the Good, Count of Flanders, A. D. 1130, mentions not only the burghers of the town, but various other persons who were not of the noble race, but were then evidently free, as well as the Brabançois or Cotereaux, a sort of freebooting soldier of that day. Guibert of Nogent, also, in his own life, and Frodoardus, in the history of Rheims, refer to many of whose exact station it is difficult to form an idea. [547] Rouillard, Histoire de Melun: Vie de Bouchard. [548] I know that I use this word not quite correctly, but I can find none other to express more properly what I mean. [549] Suger in vit. Ludovic VI. [550] Galbert in vit. Carol. [551] Suger in vit. Ludovic VI. [552] Chron. Vezeliac. [553] Guibert Nog. in vit. s. [554] Chron. Vezeliac. [555] Gesta regis Ludovici VII. [556] The only two I know who accompanied this crusade, and wrote any detailed account of it, are Odon de Deuil, or Odo de Diagolo, and Frisingen, or Freysinghen. It is an extraordinary fact, that the Cardinal de Vitry makes no mention of the second crusade. [557] William of St. Thierry, Mabillon. [558] Geoffroi de Clairvaux, Continuation of the Life of St. Bernard. [559] Odo of Deuil. [560] Mabillon. [561] Guizot. [562] A. D. 1147 [563] Odon de Deuil. [564] William of Tyre. [565] Odon de Deuil. [566] See note X. [567] It appears from the passage of Odo of Deuil which mentions the curious servility, as he designates it, of the Greeks never sitting down in the presence of a superior till desired to do so, that the French of that day were not quite so ceremonious as in that of Louis XIV. [568] Odo of Deuil. [569] Nicetas. [570] Cinnamus, cited by Mills. [571] Odon de Deuil. [572] Ibid. [573] Manuel Comnenus had married Bertha, and Conrad, Gertrude, both daughters of Berenger the elder, Count of Sultzbach. [574] Odon de Deuil. [575] William of Tyre; Odon de Deuil. [576] The Pope, in his exhortation to the second crusade, had not only regulated the general conduct of the crusaders, and formally absolved all those who should embrace the Cross, but he had given minute particulars for their dress and arms, expressly forbidding all that might encumber them in their journey, such as heavy baggage, and vain superfluities, and all that might lead them from the direct road, such as falcons and hunting-dogs. "Happy had it been for them," says Odo of Deuil, "if, instead of a scrip, he had commanded the foot pilgrims to bear a cross bow, and instead of a staff, a sword." [577] Odo of Deuil; Will. Tyr.