He was austere in morals, easily jealous, and religiously scrupulous, and for a moment he was on the point of separating from his wife; but the counsels of his chief barons dissuaded him, and, thereupon, taking a sudden resolution, he set out from Antioch secretly, by night, carrying off the queen almost by force.

"They both hid their wrath as much as possible," says the chronicler; "but at heart they had ever this outrage." We shall see, before long, what were the consequences.

No history can offer so striking an example of the importance of well-assorted unions amongst the highest as well as the lowest, and of the prolonged woes which may be brought upon a nation by the domestic evils of royalty.
On approaching Jerusalem, in the month of April, 1148, Louis VII.

saw coming to meet him King Baldwin III., and the patriarch and the people, singing, "Blessed be he that cometh in the name of the Lord!" So soon as he had entered the city, his pious wishes were fulfilled by his being taken to pay a solemn visit to all the holy places.

At the same time arrived from Constantinople the Emperor Conrad, almost alone and in the guise of a simple pilgrim.