WEAKENING OF THE EMPIRE BY THE CIIUSAUES. 129 tliat tlic subjects of the empire had lost all hope of relief against the Mahometans from the soldiers of the West. As the army of Frederic advanced its suiferings became more intense. The Turks liarassed them daily, and failure of the yet wcrc always defeated. The straits to which the expeditiou. V-, ^ ^ ■> ., i -r-r Crusaders were reduced were terrible. Horses were killed in order that their blood might be drunk. The foul, fever-impregnated water of the marshes became sweet to the soldiers in their extremity. Some even deserted the faith and went over to the infidels. Yet the discipline preserved by Frederic was worthy of the race which he led. The xVr- menian patriarch, writing to Saladin, describes the Germans as extraordinary men, of inextinguishable courage — an army subjected to the severest discipline and in which no crime re- mained unpunished. Passing from Asia Minor through the territory of the Armenians in Cilicia, Frederic proceeded to Antioch, and the conquest of Palestine appeared within his grasp. There, however, his progress was checked. lie died Death of i^ June, 1190, according to one account, from cold Frederic. cauglit wliilc bathing in the Calycadnus, near Se- leucia. Nicetas, however, affirms that he was drowned in that river. The Greek historian, like the Western writers, does justice to his ability, his burning zeal for Christianity, his bravery, and his disinterestedness. After his death his son, also named Frederic, became the leader of the German Crusaders. Their success was, how- ever, slight, and six months after his father's death the son perished with a good many of his followers. A hundred thousand Crusaders had left Europe. Only five thousand arrived in Palestine. Battle and disease had worked havoc among them. In all the country of North Syria, says an Arab writer, there was not a family which had not three or four German slaves. The German army, in the words of Michaud, overcame every enemy which it met, and disappeared at the moment when its obstacles and its dangers had been overcome. Saladin was for a time everywhere suc- cessful. While Eichard of England was on his way to Palestine, 9
