THE TEMPLE IN THE EAST 47
new duties, accompanied by a strong body of Templars. He
had already won a reputation as a man " of great religious
character and a model of valour to the knights ", and the
proposal that he should organise the advance was popular.
" It was unanimously resolved ", says Odo de Deuil, " that
all wo^ld unite with the brotherhood of the Temple, rich
and poor promising on their faith ... to obey in everything
the commands that he gave them." Under his wise leader-
ship, the journey to the Byzantine port of Attalia was com-
pleted without further misfortune.
At Attalia, the French nobles rebelled and refused to con-
tinue the march. They insisted that they should sail to St.
Simeon, the port of Antioch, and Louis was forced to consent.
Attalia could not provide sufficient ships to take more than a
small part of the French troops, but the Byzantine governor
promised to send the remainder of the army to Tarsus by land
under safe conduct. The promise was not kept, however, and
most of the Crusaders left behind in Attalia perished from
disease or starvation or were slaughtered by the Turks.
Louis and those who had accompanied him by sea reached St.
Simeon in safety and entered Antioch at the beginning of
March, 1148. The army of between 100,000 and 150,000
men with which the king had set out from Europe now
numbered no more than thirty thousand.
Louis was anxious to press on to Jerusalem, but Raymond,
prince of Antioch, had other plans* He wanted to keep the
French in his territory and use them to dislodge the Moslems
from some towns which had been captured from him. When
Louis refused to consider this scheme, Raymond appealed to
Eleanor of Aquitaine, Eleanor, the niece of Raymond, was
tired of the tedious and dangerous journey and seemed very
ready to linger in Antioch, but she could not coax Louis to
*delay his departure. The French king believed, or affected to
believe, that Raymond was Eleanor's lover, and in the end
he carried off Eleanor by force to Jerusalem. On reaching