S. Lotas. some one more competent than myself to rule this realm.” And he sent her away with liberal alms. The King at one time suffered from a boil on his leg. In his bedroom slept one or two of his servants and an old man named John, who had been nightwatch with Philip Augustus. One night after Louis had undressed by the firelight and was going to bed, he tried to look at his boil, and see whether it was redder than the day before. John lit a wax-candle and brought it over to assist at the inspection, but inadvertently let fall some scalding wax on the inflamed spot of flesh. The King bounded into bed, crying; “ Hei ! hei ! hei !” Said the old man, “ What is this outcry about; have I hurt you ?” “For a less matter my grandfather turned you out of your office of nightwatch !” said the smarting King. This was true, old John had been dismissed by Philip Augustus for poking the fire noisily during the night. It struck the servants of King Louis with amazement that the old man was not punished for dropping the wax.

But, above all exaggeration of virtue, there were high Christian graces of a nobler order, conscientiousness which never swerved either through ambition or policy from strict rectitude. No acquisition of territory, no extension of the royal power, would have tempted Louis IX. to unjust aggression. He was strongly urged to put to death the son of the chief of the rebels in arms against him, the Count de la Marche, who had fallen into his hands. He nobly replied, “ A son cannot refuse to obey his father’s orders.” The one great war in which he was involved, before his departure for the Crusade, which ended in the humiliation of the great vassals of the Crown, and of the leader in that revolt, Henry III. of England, the chief of those great vassals, was provoked by no oppression or injustice on his part, was conducted with moderation unusual in that age; and his VOL. IX. IQ victory was not sullied by any act of wanton revenge or abuse of power. If he published an oppressive act against the Jews, it was to insist on all debts due to them being cleared off before the termination of three years, and to forbid his subjects in future borrowing money from them — the object was not persecution of the Hebrews, but the prevention of usury.

In 1234 Louis married Marguerite of Provence, a maiden as comely in face as she was virtuous in her conduct. They lived happily together in the warmest attachment, only troubled in the first years of their married life by the jealousy of Queen Blanche, who was ill pleased to see her power, authority, and influence slip away. She behaved with singular want of kindness at a period when women’s sympathies are usually most lively; but S. Louis bore his mother’s roughness without resentment, at least without open expression of annoyance.

On the 10th of December, 1244, S. Louis was seized at Pontoise with a violent attack of dysentery and tertian ague. His illness increased, and he sent for all the officers of his household and took leave of them, humbly thanking them for the services they had rendered him. Having arranged all his worldly affairs, he prepared for death, and fell into a trance which deprived him of consciousness, so that one of his nurses, thinking him dead, would have covered his face with a cloth, had not her hand been stayed by a companion. A low sob gave token that he was not as yet dead, and presently the king extended his arm and murmured, “ Visitavit me per Dei gratiam, Oriens ex alto, et a mortuis 1 revocavit me.’' (The dayspring from on high hath visited me by the grace of God, and hath called me back from death.) When a little further recovered, he sent for the Bishop of Paris, and said, “ My Lord Bishop ! put, I pray thee, on my S. Louis.

shoulder the cross of voyage beyond the sea.” The bishop saw the folly and danger of the demand; seconded by the Bishop of Meaux, he endeavoured to turn the King from his purpose. He was resolute. When Blanche, the Queenmother, came into the sick-room, and saw her son crossed for the Crusade, she recoiled aghast. Her prudence showed her the madness of the undertaking, and she swooned away. The same year saw the birth to Louis of a son, John, who, however, died early, and the heirship passed to Philip, born In 1245, in furtherance of his vow, S. Louis convoked a parliament at Paris, which was attended by many of the great prelates and barons. The Archbishops of Reims and Bourges, the Bishops of Beauvais, Laon and Orleans, the King’s brothers, Robert, Alphonsus and Charles, the Dukes of Burgundy and Brabant, the Counts of S. Pol, Brittany, La Marche, Montfort, Bar, Soissons, Rhdtel, and many other nobles took the cross.

Yet the publication of the Holy War created in the nation much more sorrow than warlike ardour. Queen Blanche and the most prudent of the ministers, who had at first endeavoured to divert Louis IX. from the Crusade, repeated their efforts several times, and now resolved to make a final effort.

They went to the King in a body. The Bishop of Paris represented to Louis that a vow made in sickness ought not to bind him to that which must infallibly interfere with the interests of his realm; that the duty of governing his people, and maintaining them in peace and happiness, was a duty prior to any rash engagement made when his mind was debilitated by weakness. Many of the nobles to whom Louis had confided the most important offices in the State, spoke after the Bishop of Paris and to the same • effect. Queen Blanche spoke last. “ My son,” said she, “ Providence used me to watch over your infancy and preserve your crown. I have therefore a right to remind you of your duties as a monarch, and of the obligations which the safety of the kingdom over which God has placed you imposes upon you. If you depart, the country will be torn by factions. Your children need your presence, your daily lessons, and your guidance. Are they not dearer to you than the Christians of the East ? Remain then in Europe, where you will have so many opportunities of displaying the virtues of a great king, of a king who is the father of his subjects, the model and support of the princes of his house.” Then she burst into tears, and Louis was moved. He rose and threw himself into his mother’s arms. But his determination was unaltered. When he spoke, it was to announce to them that nothing would alter his purpose. The deputation withdrew in silence, with their hearts oppressed by gloomy anticipations.

At Christmas, 1245, Louis practised perhaps the only act of treachery of which he was guilty in his life. It was the custom for the kings of France, at great solemnities, to give such of their subjects as were at Court certain capes or furred mantles, with which the latter immediately clothed themselves before leaving Court. In the ancient accounts these capes are called livr'ees, whence our word livery, because the monarch gave them (ks Hvrait) himself. Louis ordered a vast number of these to be prepared against Christmas Eve, upon which crosses were embroidered in silk. At the proper moment, in the dusk, before adjourning to the chapel for the religious offices of the eve, every one covered himself with the cape that had been given him, and followed the monarch to the chapel. By the light of the wax-tapers they perceived upon all before them and on themselves, the sign of an engagement they had never contracted. It would have been indecent, have betrayed an S. Louis.

unknightly shrinking from danger, to throw aside the crosses; so, with true French levity, they laughed and wept at once, and made up their minds to accompany their master on his dangerous expedition, and extract from it what pleasure they might.

From this time the whole thoughts of Louis were absorbed in the Crusade. He resisted the offers of Pope Innocent to befriend him in a war against England — even an invasion of England. He took no part in the confederacy of the French nobility to resist the exactions of the Pope and of the hierarchy. So far, on the other hand, had his strife with the Emperor absorbed all other religious passions in the Pope, that not only was there no cordial co-operation on the part of Innocent in the Crusade of S. Louis, but absolutions from their vows were sold freely to Crusaders to provide the Pope with funds for carrying on his contest with the German Emperor.

The Crusaders were invited by Innocent into Italy to fight the Christian soldiers of Frederick II., and all the privileges, indulgences, and blessings which would be theirs if they crossed the sea to fight the Mussulman would be theirs on the easier terms of a campaign in Italy, in union with the forces of the Pope. S. Louis passed down the Rhone; he was urged to avenge the death of his father on rebellious Avignon, before whose walls Louis VIII. had contracted the fever which ended his days. " I have taken up arms to revenge Jesus Christ, not my father,” said the King.

The island of Cyprus was the place of rendezvous for the Crusaders. In Cyprus there was a delay of eight months. Want of discipline and a fatal epidemic made great ravages in the army; but for supplies sent by the Emperor Frederick there would have been famine. The grateful Louis made an effort to mediate between the Pope and the Emperor, but his overture was contemptuously rejected. Messages from the Christians beyond the seas were sent to the Sovereign Pontiff to intercede for Frederick, who offered, if Innocent would cancel his sentence against him, to descend from his throne, and pass the remainder of his days in Palestine. The offer of the Emperor was fettered with the condition that his son Conrad should succeed him. Innocent would be satisfied with nothing short of the complete ruin of the Hohenstauffen race. The Patriarch of Armenia wrote to the Court of Rome to demand favour for Frederick; he demanded it in the name of the threatened Christian colonies; in the name of the City of God, fallen into ruins; in the name of the sepulchre of Christ, profaned by barbarians. The Pope disdained even to reply to this letter. Innocent did not blush to write to the Sultan of Cairo, and invite him to break the truce he had concluded with _ Frederick. The Sultan haughtily replied, that Moslems were accustomed to regard their promises as sacred. In concluding a peace with the Emperor Frederick, the Sultan supposed that he was making one with Western Christendom. He was therefore surprised and distressed when from Cyprus he received a declaration of war from Louis of France. He is said to have wept when he received the letter. His answer was a passage from the Koran: — “They who fight unjustly shall perish.’' This message contained predictions that were but too fully realized in the end.

The signal for departure was given on Friday before Pentecost, a.d. r249, and a numerous fleet, in which were embarked the French army and the warriors of the isle of Cyprus, sailed gallantly out of the port of Limisso. The fleet was scattered by tempest, and it was not till Trinity Sunday, May 30th, that they were able again to start from Limisso, into which they had put back.

.S’. Louis. On the fourth day, at sumise, the watch on deck cried, Land ! land !” A sailor, who served as pilot, ascended to the round-top of the leading vessel, and declared that they were off Damietta. A landing was effected, and after a feeble resistance, the city was deserted by the Saracens [medieval Christian name for Arab and Muslim peoples], and the Christian host entered Damietta in triumph at the easy victory, and with sanguine expectations of future successes. But never were the terror and advantages of a first success so thrown away. Months were wasted. While Louis spent his time in devotion, the Crusaders abandoned themselves to every kind of oriental debauchery and occidental riot. S. Louis had dismissed some of his servants in France for not having fasted on Friday; he was obliged in Egypt to wink at their commission of much graver faults.

An interchange of half playful, half insulting letters between the Sultan and S. Louis amused the tedium of the inactivity of both parties. The Mussulman prince in one of his letters congratulated the King of France on his arrival in Egypt, and asked him at what period it would please him to depart again. In another letter, he offered the King a general battle on the 25th day of June at a place to be determined upon. Louis IX. answered the first letter of the Sultan by saying that he had landed in Egypt on the day he had appointed, and as to the day of his departure, he would think about it at leisure. With regard to the proposed battle, the King contented himself with replying that he would neither accept the day nor choose the place, because all days and all places were equally fit for fighting with infidels.

In the meantime a spirit of dissatisfaction manifested itself in the Christian host, condemned to waste precious time in inactivity. The knights forgot both their warlike virtues and the object of the Holy War. The riches of Egypt and the East having been promised them, they squandered the money they had raised in Europe by the sale or mortgage of their estates upon festivities and debauchery. The passion for gaming got possession of both leaders and soldiers; and after losing their fortune, they risked even their horses and arms. Damietta swarmed with camp-followers ministering to the passions of the soldiers; the leaders pillaged the traders who provisioned the camp, so that Damietta was threatened with famine. The most ardent made distant excursions, surprised caravans, devastated villages, and bore away Mussulman women, whom they brought as spoil to the Christian camp. As corruption increased, the authority of the King waned, and was daily less respected. The Earl of Salisbury, to whom the Count d’ Artois had behaved ill, complained of him to Louis, but could obtain no satisfaction. He left in anger and disgust, after having flung at S. Louis the bitter taunt, “ If you are not able to administer justice, you are not a king.’' At length, after the loss of five precious months, the disorganized, demoralized Christian army was set in motion.. Louis, though brave as a hero, was incompetent as a general. He led the host into a trap. The Crusaders followed the canal of Aschmoum till they reached a comer where they were enclosed as in a cul-de-sac, and where they were distressed by the flying bands of the enemy, who rained on them the torturing Greek fire. When Louis IX. saw the flaming barrels with their tails of fire shot across the sky, and explode in a burning torrent over his soldiers, he burst into tears, and piteously exclaimed, “Great God! Jesus Christ, protect me and all my people ! ” A month was expended in this place, in vain endeavours to bridge over the canal and escape from it. The treason of an Arab revealed to them a ford, or their camp would have been the grave of the army. The canal was passed, S. LOUIS BURYING THE DECOMPOSED BODIES OF CRUSADERS. From a Mural Painting by L. Matout at S. Sulpice, Paris, and the host extricated from the fatal position in which bad generalship had involved it. The unrivalled valour of the French was wasted in unprofitable victories or in miserable defeats. The camp was formed on the further side of the canal; the army could not advance, and would not retreat. It wasted away; almost all its horses were dead, and many of its most gallant warriors had fallen by the sword of the enemy or by disease. The canal was poisoned by the dead bodies floating in it, and exhaled pestilential effluvia. Scurvy ravaged the host. Louis IX. employed every effort to mitigate the evils that desolated the army. If anything could have consoled the Crusaders in their miserable plight it must have been to see a king of France himself attending the sick, lavishing upon them every kind of assistance, and preparing them for death. In vain was he conjured not to expose himself to dangers greater than those of the battlefield; nothing could shake his courage or check the ardour of his charity; he considered it a duty, he said, to expose his life for those who every day exposed theirs for him. He might have added, whom his rash enthusiasm and want of military skill had brought to destruction. One of his servants, a worthy man, being at the point of death, and exhorted to meet his fate like a Christian, replied, “ I cannot die till I have seen the King.” Louis heard of the sick man’s desire, and hastened to him. The man died in peace with his eyes fixed on his beloved master, consoled by his words of sympathy. But at length he who consoled all others fell sick himself. The King was unable to leave his tent; the desolation became more profound and general; the sufferers lost hope; it seemed as if Providence had abandoned them, as if heaven had doomed to destruction the soldiers of the Cross. The Saracens remained motionless in their camp, leaving their awful auxiliaries, disease and famine, to perform their mission undisturbed. The galleys of the enemy cut off communication with Damietta; neither bread nor news reached the perishing Crusaders. Both leaders and soldiers were seized with the deepest despondency; and the King at length judged it best to attempt to negotiate a truce with the Mussulmans. The Sultan insisted on the surrender of the French King into his hands as hostage. The King would willingly have purchased the safety of his people on these terms, but a crowd of warriors warmly declared that they could not suffer such a disgrace, and that they would die rather than place their King in pledge.

At last, finding that there was no possibility of advancing, on the 5th of April the camp broke up, after having consumed four months in their charnel-house on the Aschmoum canal, and lost the only favourable opportunities that had presented themselves for effecting a retreat. The women, the children, and the sick were embarked on the Nile by night, to escape the observation of the enemy. The bank of the river presented the most heart-breaking spectacle; nothing was to be seen but Crusaders overcome by their sufferings, parting, with tears in their eyes, from friends they were doomed never to see again. Amidst these painful scenes, the Arabs burst into the camp, plundered the baggage, and slaughtered every living creature they met with. The Papal legate [an official representative sent by the pope] and several French nobles were placed on board a large vessel; but Louis would not leave the army which he had led into such a desperate position. In vain did his anxious friends represent to him that his state of weakness would not permit him to fight, and exposed him to the risk of falling into the hands of the Saracens. He replied that no danger should separate him from his faithful warriors; that as he had led them there he would retreat with them, and, if necessary, die in their midst. His determination, the inevitable consequences of S'. Louis.

which were foreseen, plunged all his knights in consternation. The soldiers, partaking the feelings of the knights, ran along the bank of the Nile, crying to those in the boats, “Wait for the King! wait for the King!” Arrows and javelins were falling thick upon the vessels which continued to go down the river. Many stopped; but Louis insisted on their pursuing their course. The retreat of the army was like a rout; want of discipline and despair had con verted the host into a rabble. The bridge over the canal was not destroyed, so that the Mussulmans were enabled to pour over it and pursue, then surround, the retreating army. Escape was cut off. The Bishop of Soissons, giving up all hope of gaining Damietta and revisiting France, resolved to seek death, and rushed, followed by his knights, into the thick of the fight, and fell. Sergines, standing beside the King, covered him with his sword. Contemporary history, which describes him driving away the Saracens that surrounded Louis, compares him to the servant who brushes away the flies from his master’s cup.

For a moment the Christians were inspired with a transient hope. A whirlwind of dust drove in the face of, and perplexed, their adversaries. The Sheik Ezzdin, seeing that victory inclined towards the Christians, raised his hands to heaven and cried, “ O wind ! direct thy breath against our enemies !” The tempest changed its direction and blew in the eyes of the Crusaders. The rear-guard of the Christians, always pursued and unceasingly attacked, arrived with much difficulty before the little town of Minieh. The King, escorted by a few knights, preceded the troops into the city, where he alighted as weak “ as a child in its mother’s lap.” Fatigue, sickness, and grief had so overcome him, that all believed he was about to die. There the last relics [the bodily remains of a saint, or objects they used, kept with honor] of the Christian army fell into the hands of the Mussulmans. The oriflamme, the other standards, and eftthe baggage, all became the prey of the Saracens. The Crusaders who had embarked upon the Nile had no better fate than those who marched by land. All their vessels, except that of the legate, were sunk by the tempest, consumed by Greek fire, or taken by the Mussulmans. More than thirty thousand Christians lost their lives in those days of disaster, killed on the battlefield, drowned in the Nile, or massacred after the fight.

Alphonsus of Poitou and Charles of Anjou, brothers of the King, shared his captivity. His Queen, far advanced in pregnancy, remained with an insufficient force in Damietta. She was thought to be on the point of death. A knight of more than eighty years of age served her as esquire, and never left her night or day. The unhappy Marguerite, after having for a moment sobbed herself to sleep, started up in the greatest terror, imagining that her chamber was filled with Saracens. The old knight, who had hold of her hand while she slept, pressed it, and said: “ Be not afraid, madame, I am with you.” An instant after she had reclosed her eyes she awoke again, trembling with fear, and the grave esquire reassured her again. At length, the Queen ordered every one to leave the chamber except the old knight, and then, throwing herself on her knees before him, with tearful eyes, she said: “ Sir ! I beseech you promise me this, that if the Saracens should take this city, you will strike off my head rather than suffer me to become their captive.” “ Madame,” answered he, “ I meant to do so, if the thing should so happen.”

On the morrow she prematurely gave birth to a son, who was named Tristan, in allusion to the melancholy circumstances under which he first saw the light. Adversity brought out the greatness of the character of S. Louis. He was treated at first with courtesy; he was permitted to hear the canonical Hours recited by the single priest who had escaped; his breviary, the loss of which he S. Louis.

deplored above all losses, was replaced by another. But he had the bitter aggravation of his misery, that of the ten thousand prisoners made by the Saracens, all who would not abandon their faith met with a cruel death. But to all the courteous approaches of the Sultan, Louis was jealously on his guard, lest he should compromise his dignity as a king or his purity as a Christian; he would not receive the present of a dress from the unbeliever. To his exorbitant demands and menaces he gave a calm and determined reply. The Sultan demanded the surrender of all the fortresses in Syria; these, it was answered, belonged not to the King of France but to Frederick II. as King of Jerusalem.1 To that of yielding up the castles garrisoned by the Knights of the Temple and of S. John, the answer was that the Orders could not surrender them without violating their vows. The King was threatened with torture — torture of the most cruel kind — the barnacles, which crushed the legs. “ I am your prisoner,” he said, “ ye may do with me what ye will.” At length a truce was agreed to for ten years, Louis was to surrender Damietta, and pay as ransom a million gold bezants. The ransom was paid..When it was being weighed, De Montfort, inheriting the family traditions of how to deal with heretics, laughingly told the King that they had cheated the Saracens of ten thousand bezants. S. Louis indignantly scorned such baseness, even with infidels, and ordered the money to be paid in full.

The release of the King on such favourable terms, at a price so much below the value of such a captive, astonished both the Christians and the Mussulmans. The Sultan, however, was anxious to be rid of the invaders, and dreaded lest too great severity should cause the other Christian kings to arm for his rescue.

The King and the remainder of his famishing army were ' Frederick claimed the crown of Jerusalem as husband of lolante, daughter of John de Brienne.

suffered to embark at Damietta, after having been regaled by the Saracens on cheese and hard boiled eggs in gaily painted shells; and a few days after landed at Ptolemais, October, 1251.

The most judicious course for Louis would have been to return at once to France. But he could not reconcile himself to this prospect, involving the abandonment of all the brilliant hopes which had allured him to the East. He was deserted by his brothers and most of his barons, who shared neither his enthusiasm nor his delusion. His weary sojourn in Palestine was occupied in nursing and burying the soldiers, who died daily in scores, and who might, and probably would, have recovered if restored to the salubrious air of their native France. Joinville tells us that he saw twenty funereal convoys pass his windows daily, and that every time he heard the mournful chant, “Libera me, Domine ! ” he could not refrain from tears. In vain did his nobles exhort Louis to desert the uncongenial soil of Palestine. He lingered on there for a whole year, in fruitless negotiations with the Sultan of Aleppo on one side, and with the Egyptians on the other, expending enormous sums in the purchase of Mohammedan or heathen slaves, whom he caused to be baptized.

It was only the death of the Queen-mother Blanche, and the imperious necessity for his presence in his kingdom of France, that forced him at last to leave the hallowed soil. He returned, without warlike fame, to find every one impressed with the profoundest reverence for his sanctity. After his return to France, Louis lived a more austere life than before, using a hard bed of wood covered with a thin mattress, and attending matins at midnight and lauds at daybreak. He spent long hours at night in prayer, lying prostrate on the ground, and when he rose, was often so dazed in his head, and so stiffened in his limbs, as to be S. Louis.

unable to reach his bed without assistance. He would then call his chamberlains in a low voice, so as not to disturb the knights who slept in his chamber. He amazed those who shared his room by the celerity with which he got through his dressing in the morning. He was out of bed and in his clothes so quickly that they had often to run after him to church without having had time to put on their shoes and stockings. But the secret of his speed was, that he tumbled into bed with his clothes on after matins, so as to be ready at the first stroke of the bell to rise for lauds. As has been already said, he heard mass every day. He was also fond of hearing sermons, and would sit on the rushes which strewed the floor, with the greatest attention following the words of the preacher. Henry III. of England attended many masses every day, but was not partial to sermons. Louis, one day, when they were together, advised him to listen to them with more zest and patience. “ My good brother," said Heniy, “ when one has a dear Friend, one prefers infinitely to see Him to hearing another person talk about him.”

S. Louis delighted in the society of learned theologians; he had no interest in any other sort of learning, and was profoundly ignorant of polite literature. His ear was attuned to the Gregorian chant, but he could not endure secular music. S. Thomas Aquinas dined at his table one day, and, as was his wont, went off on a train of thought which made him forget where he was and with whom he dined. Suddenly down came the fist of the Angelical Doctor on the table, making the plates rattle; and he exclaimed, “ That is an argument to confound the Manichees; it would have overthrown Manes himself.” Then recovering himself, he apologized to the King, who instantly called for paper and ink that the convincing argument might be written down before it was forgotten.

It is unnecessary to do more than allude to the unswerving fidelity of S. Louis towards his Queen, whom he always treated with the greatest deference, and the most thoughtful attention. On his wedding ring he had inscribed “ Dieu, France et Marguerite,” 'and he was wont to say, pointing to it, “ Hors de cet anel n’ai point d’amour.” A part of his evenings was spent with his children, who appeared before him with roses in their hair, except in Lent [the forty days of fasting before Easter]. He marched them every day to mass, taught them the services of the Church, and gave them sound advice. Joinville gives us an anecdote or two of his dealings with his children. “ The good King, being once dangerously ill at Fontainebleau, said to my Lord Louis, his eldest son, ‘ Fair son, I beseech thee to make thyself beloved by the people of thy kingdom; for, in truth, I should prefer to see a raw Scotchman from Scotland, or from any other distant and unknown country, govern the subjects of my realm well and loyally than that thou shouldst rule them wickedly and reproachfully/ The good King called to him one day my Lord Philip, his son, and Thibault his son-in-law, and seating himself at the door of his oratory, he put his hand on the ground, and said to his sons, ‘ Seat yourselves here near me, that you may be out of sight.’ ‘Ah, Sire,’ replied they, ‘excuse us if you please, for it would not become us to sit so close to you.’ The King then addressing me, said, ‘ Seneschal, sit down here,’ which I did, and so near him that my robe touched his. Having made them sit down by my side, he said, ‘ You have behaved very ill, being my children, in not instantly obeying what I ordered of you. Take care that this never occurs again.’ They answered that they would be cautious that it should not.”

S. Louis had clear perception of the dangers to 'the crown and unity of France which arose from the power of the great nobles. He brought the haughty feudal nobles, S'. Louis.

and even the Churchmen, under the impartial sovereignty of the law of the land. The barons resisted, but were brought to submission, and Louis IX. prepared the way for the final breaking of their power by the crafty polity of Louis XI. The clergy, living under their own law, escaped punishment for the gravest crimes. Even Alexander IV. could not close his eyes to the monstrous fact of the crimes of the clergy, secured from adequate punishment by the immunities of their sacred persons. The Pope made a concession: the king’s judge was not excommunicated for arresting, subject to the judgment of the ecclesiastical courts, priests notoriously guilty of capital offences. Alexander threw off from the Church, and abandoned as scapegoats to the secular courts, all married clergy and those exercising low trades; with them the law might take its course, they had forfeited the privilege of clergy. But Louis would not be the slave of narrow intolerance. The whole prelacy of France, writes the Sieur de Joinville, met to rebuke the King for not enforcing with his sword their sentences of excommunication. “Sire,” said the Bishop of Auxerre, “Christianity is falling into ruin in your hands.” “How so?” said the King, making the sign of the cross. “ Sire, men regard not excommunication which is not backed up with force. The bishops admonish you to order all the royal officers to confiscate the lands and chattels of all such as are excommunicated, and thus compel them to seek absolution.” The King shook his head. “ I will willingly do so to all such as shall be proved to me to have wronged Holy Church.” “ It belongs not to you to judge such cases, whether just or unjust,” said the bishop, haughtily. Then Louis answered, “ I will not act otherwise. It were a sin against God and against reason to force those to seek absolution to whom the clergy have done wrong.” The Pragmatic Sanction was promulgated about a.u 1268. The objects of this famous charter were the establishment of the rights of patrons to appoint to vacant benefices, to confirm to the cathedral churches the freedom of election of their bishops, to cut off the sin of simony, to limit the fees for promotions, collations, and the like; to forbid the collection in France of “any manner of exactions or assessments of money, which have been imposed by the Court of Rome, by which our' realm has been miserably impoverished, or which hereafter shall be imposed,” unless the cause be reasonable and approved by the King.

S. Louis had always cherished the mad idea of returning to the East to prosecute the war of the Cross against the Crescent; and after his return from the disastrous Crusade in Egypt, his attendants saw with regret that he still kept the cross on his mantle. The enthusiasm smouldered in the King’s breast for ten years; it was fanned into a flame by the disastrous accounts which every returning pilgrim brought with him from the East. But for so important an undertaking as a Crusade money was wanting, and the King began to retrench all the unnecessary expenses of his household, to the astonishment of those who were accustomed to his magnificent liberality. In 1265, when Clement IV. ascended to the throne of S. Peter, S. Louis sent to him for his opinion on the advisability of undertaking another Crusade. Clement followed the impulse of his heart rather than the dictates of reason, and in a letter dated October 14th, 1265, wrote, “ Act a manly part, O dearest of sons ! son of blessing and favour ! and laudably bring forth your laudable conception; put your hand with vigour to the work.” S. Louis being thus encouraged to prosecute his chivalrous and foolhardy enterprise, summoned all the prelates, barons, and nobles of his kingdom to meet at Paris in the Lent of 1267, and by Thursday, March 1 2th, a great number were assembled, but few knew the object for which they were summoned. S. Louis.

On the Feast of the Annunciation S. Louis brought the crown of thorns, which he had procured from Constantinople at an enormous cost, from the Sainte Chapelle which he had erected to enshrine it, and showing it to the assembled barons, exhorted them with earnestness to assume the cross. When he ceased to speak, a sad but profound silence expressed at once the surprise and grief of his barons and prelates with the respect they bore for the holy monarch. Louis received the cross from the hands of the Cardinal of S. Cecilia, the Papal legate, and his example was followed by three of his sons. Among the princes the assembly was affected to behold Jean Tristan, Count of Nevers, who was born at Damietta amidst the calamities of the preceding Crusade.

The determination of S. Louis spread deep regret throughout the kingdom; his people could not behold without sorrow the departure of a prince whose presence alone preserved peace, and maintained order and justice everywhere. The health of the King was so feeble that he could not endure the weight of armour, or sit for many hours on horseback. Yet notwithstanding the general regret, there were no complaints raised against the King; the spirit of resignation to inevitable evil weighed on the people. Joinville expresses the general opinion when he says, “ They who advised the King to undertake this voyage sinned mortally.’' “ What shall we do ?” said one knight to another, within Joinville’s hearing, at the mass in the chapel. “ If we take the cross with the King we shall ruin him and injure ourselves, for if he leaves, it will be the most fatal day ever seen in France; and if we take the cross it is from no other reason than to please the King, and so we shall forfeit God’s grace.”

The clergy loudly protested against the Crusade, because they saw that when the Kang was gone, anarchy would ensue, but chiefly because the Crusade was to be paid for by a levy of a tenth on their revenues for three years, accorded by the Pope.

The period fixed upon for the departure of the expedition was May, 1270; the intervening years were spent in active preparation. Money was grudgingly furnished; Crusaders were reluctantly enrolled. The fleet sailed on July 4th, 1270, and in a few days arrived in the roads of Cagliari. As yet no plan of operations had been formed: nobody knew, for it had not been decided whether the Crusaders should fall on Egypt or the Holy Land. It was now arranged to sail for the Nile, and wipe out the disgrace of the Seventh Crusade by the achievements of the Eighth. The fleet accordingly made for the African coast, and the army disembarked on July 17th on the site of ancient Carthage. A month was spent before Tunis; the Crusaders suffered from the attacks of the Saracens, from a pestilence, and from deficiency of food. Nothing was done; the army waited for the arrival of the King of Sicily, who had no very real desire of risking his troops and fortune on the sands of Africa. Tristan, Count of Nevers, his father’s favourite son, now died: the sickly boy exposed to the hardships of a camp and the infection of disease succumbed at once. Prince Philip also felt the effects of the contagion. Louis fell ill with dysentery, and it was clear to himself and all around him that he would not recover. Philip, who was his successor to the throne, was in the tent with him. Louis called him to his bedside and gave him his dying exhortation. “ I bestow upon thee,” said he, in conclusion, “ all the benedictions that a father can bestow on a dear son. Aid me by mass and prayer, and let me have a part in all the good actions thou shalt perform. I beseech our Lord Jesus Christ, of His great mercy, to guard thee from all evils, TOMB OF LOUIS, eldest son of S. Louis, died 1260. and to keep thee from doing anything contrary to His will; and that, this mortal life ended, we may see Him, love Him, and praise Him together, throughout eternity.” Louis then turned to his daughter, the Queen of Navarre, and bade her a touching farewell. He parted from his children, and they saw him no more.

He then received the ambassadors of the Emperor of Constantinople. He assured them that if he did recover he would do everything that lay in his power to fulfil the wishes of the Emperor which they expressed, and if, as it seemed most likely, he were about to die, his last prayer would be for the peace and reconciliation of the Church. S. Louis received the last sacraments on Sunday, August 24th. When his chaplain entered, bearing the Viaticum, he found that the King had risen from his bed,, and was kneeling to receive the heavenly gift.

“ Sire,” said his confessor [in old usage, a saint who was not martyred, or who suffered for the faith without being killed] to the King, “ dost thou believe this to be verily and indeed the true body of our Lord?” “Yea, my father,” replied S. Louis, with all the earnestness his fast ebbing strength would permit. “ I could not more firmly believe it to be Jesus Christ if I were to see Him ascending to heaven in visible shape.” From three o’clock in the afternoon of Sunday until nine o’clock the next morning, the King was heard to praise God incessantly, and pray for his people and army. About nightfall he murmured, “ We will go to Jerusalem !” It was to the heavenly Jerusalem he was about to journey. He had a little sleep on Sunday night. On Monday morning he was heard to murmur, “ I will come into thy house, even upon the multitude of thy mercy; and in thy fear will I worship towards thy holy temple !” Then, for the last time, to sigh, “ Lord, into thy hands I commend my spirit.” And he was dead.

No sooner was the King dead than his brother Charles of Anjou, King of Sicily, arrived. The half-hearted Crusaders were glad to arrange a truce with the Sultan of Tunis and to return to France, bearing with them the body of their beloved King.

Thus ended ignominiously the last of the Crusades, except the desperate and ineffectual struggle which was now about to take place under Prince Edward of England for the narrow remnant of the Holy Land.

The relics of S. Louis were scattered at the French Revolution; all that remain of him are a jawbone and one of his shirts in Notre Dame at Paris.