Relieved by the departure of Conrad III, Manuel and the Byzantines now had to deal with Louis VII of France. Manuel sent Michael Palaiologos and Michael Branas to greet Louis as he crossed the Danube. They reached Ratisbon, where they had to wait several days before the arrival of a crusader delegation sent from Worms, consisting of Alvisus, archbishop of Arras, Leo, abbot of St Bertin and Batholomew the chancellor. Louis himself attived later. The French (in Odo of Deuil) claim to have met two ambassadors, Demetrios and Mauros. They brought letters beginning with flattering verbiage which offended Godfrey of Langres. They made two demands for the passage of the crusaders, first that they not capture any town belonging to the Byzantines, second that they freely restore to the emperor any place they captured which had recently belonged to him. The council of Louis VII assented to the first, but not to the second, with seemed unfair in not recognising their efforts and imprecise in the absence of geographical definitions. Delays led to menaces that Manuel might destroy all the food collected and threaten the crusade with starvation. The crisis of the second issue was glossed over by more general mutual guarantees, and postponed for discussion in Constantinople. The Byzantine ambassadors were reported (by Kinnamos) to have been welcomed by the king with gratitude and without excessive pride. At the end of negotiations (according to Odo), Demetrios disappeared abruptly, but Mauros stayed to conduct a French embassy to the capital