Before the combined armies of Louis VII and Conrad III reached Esseron (Achyraus?), Odo of Deuil reminded Louis that Conrad and Frederick of Swabia were harming St Denis by retaining Esslingen (Swabia) and the castle of Estusin (Alsace). Pope Eugenius III had talked of excommunication in the case at Easter. Louis undertook the task with enthusiasm. He asked them first in private then in public; Conrad's reply was first ambiguous, in the hope that Louis would soon tire, but the emperor was later forced to a refusal. Odo made a report to Suger of St Denis irrelevant to his narrative: Louis, for whom Suger should pray, had been doing the work of St Denis even in Anatolia