his allegiance to Louis, formed a 'league of nobles, and called on Henry III., his step-son, to support him. That monarch did come with an army to his defence, whilst Louis advanced to chastise the refractory vassal. The two kings met on the banks of the Charente, at a castle called Taillebourg, which commanded a bridge over the river. Some negotiations went forward: and it appears that the English, afraid of being surprised or betrayed, abandoned the post in a panic and fled. They were pursued by Louis, on the following day, to Saintes. A battle ensued, in which Henry III. and the count de la Marche were defeated. The latter, as well as his proud wife, was compelled to submit to the conqueror. The count of Toulouse had also been engaged in this rebellion he submitted in time, however; as did all the great vassals, on learning the victory of Saintes.

Another marriage completed for the royal family the acquisition of the south. A considerable portion of it obeyed Raymond Berenger, as count of Provence. He had no male heirs. Of his five daughters, the eldest was queen of France; another queen of England. Jealous of having his patrimonial country swallowed up in a great kingdom, Raymond Berenger, by testament, constituted his youngest daughter, Beatrix, his heir. It was arranged that she should espouse Raymond count of Toulouse, who would thus restore the fallen grandeur of his house, and unite all the south beneath his sway. These plans of Raymond were frustrated. Count Raymond Berenger died unexpectedly. Charles count of Anjou, Louis IX.'s youngest brother, became a suitor of Beatrix, and advanced with an army to woo. Louis seconded him. The Provençals, dreading more the enmity of France than that of the count of Toulouse, favoured the pretensions of the young prince; and Charles, with the hand of Beatrix, secured to himself the county of Provence.

Louis IX. was in the mean time diverted from plans of policy and domestic aggrandisement. In the year 1244, he fell seriously ill at Pontoise, and was reduced to the last extremity. Some of his attendants deemed

1244.

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him already dead. He recovered, however; and his first words were a vow to take the cross and lead a crusade against the infidels. No entreaties could dissuade him from this resolve; and while yet on his bed of sickness he received the cross from the bishop of Paris. The events of the East were indeed such as to call for the sympathy and aid of all Christian knights. It was at this period that the Moguls had left the pasturages of Tartary, to over-run and spoil the nations of the West. They had invaded Muscovy, Poland, and had even penetrated into the dominions of the emperor Frederic. The Greek empire was equally menaced by them. The Khorasmians, a nation driven by the Moguls from the east of the Caspian, and fleeing from their conquerors, as the Goths from the Huns of old, flung themselves upon Syria. The Saracens and the Christians of Syria leagued against the barbarians; the crescent and the cross fought for the first time in alliance; it proved unfortunate. The Khorasmians defeated their opponents on the plain of Gaza. More ruthless than Saladin, they almost entirely destroyed the Knights Templars and Hospitallers, and massacred all the Christians of Jerusalem. Europe, during these reverses of her creed and sons, was convulsed with the quarrel betwixt pope Innocent and the emperor Frederic. The latter was most eager to fly to the relief of the Holy Land; but the pontiff, bent on his own selfish schemes, his own views, and the church's aggrandisement, was deaf to all offers and treaties of accommodation. He sought to draw Louis into his party against the emperor, and even undertook a journey to France for that purpose; when the illness and piety of the king bound him in a vow, which he resolved not to neglect, even for the exhortations or dispensations of the father of the faithful.

The mind of Louis was henceforth bent on the crusade, and the preparatives necessary. He made peace with Henry III., formed alliances with all neighbouring princes, and offered to restore any possessions that the

crown had usurped. He induced the greater number of his turbulent barons to accompany him; Peter of Britany amongst the rest, the count of Toulouse, and Thibaud count of Champagne, who, by inheritance, had become king of Navarre. Thibaud, or Theobald, had not long returned from an unfortunate crusade, which he had led into the East: with him went his vassal Joinville, the well known historian of St. Louis. The good king spared no pains to enlist followers; he had even recourse to artifice for that purpose, being necessitated to it by the decay of that devotional and chivalresque zeal which alone had furnished so many thousands to the early enterprises of the kind. At Christmas it was the custom of great lords to distribute new dresses to their followers; from whence comes the word livrée, livery. Louis prepared a great number; and inviting his courtiers to attend mass with him before daybreak, mantles were distributed to them previously. When day broke, and the sun's rays illumined the church, each person was surprised, on looking at his new mantle, to discover that the badge of the cross was attached. They were ashamed to tear off the sacred symbol, and thus found themselves tricked into the warlike pilgrimage by the devout humour of the monarch.

In August, 1248, Louis sailed from Aigues Mortes, a port that himself had founded. He directed his course to Cyprus, where Henry of Lusignan reigned, and reached it in four and twenty days. The island was the general rendezvous of the crusade. Louis wintered there, collecting information, and forming plans for his future campaign.

Instead of disembarking in Palestine, Louis formed the project of attacking Egypt. The most powerful of the Saracen chiefs reigned at Cairo. Syria, to use a baronial expression, was in reality but a fief held under the soldan of Egypt. To attack the latter was to aim at the head, and to give the most deadly blow to Mahometan power. In June, 1249, the crusading force, filling 1800 vessels, mere boats we must suppose many

1249.

BATTLE OF MANSOURAH.

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of them, bearing nearly 3000 knights, with their warlike and domestic suites, sailed from Cyprus. Their first misadventure was to be assailed by a tempest, and separated. Louis, however, arrived with a certain portion of the fleet off Damietta. There was a show of resistance. Many were against disembarking, but the French king would not remain on board; he sprang ashore, himself among the foremost, to withstand the charge of the Saracen cavalry, and routed them. Damietta was found to be evacuated, and was occupied on the following day.

It

The great object of the crusaders was the seizure of Cairo, the soldan's capital, styled Babylon by the monkish writers of the day. The rise of the Nile, however, kept them for many months inactive at Damietta. was not until November that they began their march. The lassitude endured under that burning climate caused them to linger, and another month elapsed ere they reached Mansourah, not many leagues up the Nile. Here was a canal or river to cross, called the Thanis. The Saracens defended the passage; wooden fortifications were raised on both sides; but the crusaders suffered infinitely more than their enemies, from the Greek fire with which the latter assailed them. To the great joy of the French a ford was discovered. King Louis's brother, Robert count of Artois, passed it the next day. He took the Saracens by surprise, routed them, and in the heat of victory pursued them rashly into the town of Mansourah. Their chief was killed; but in the narrow streets and embarrassed passages the Egyptians rallied. The count of Artois, lord Salisbury, and Robert de Vere, who carried the banner of England, were here slain: the grand master of the Temple lost an eye. A thousand knights perished in the rout, amongst whom were almost all the English. After this defeat the project of advancing on Cairo was abandoned. To retreat was equally difficult. A pestilence seized on the army, and paralysed it. All that was left to the pious monarch to perform were his prayers.

The retreat to Damietta was commenced after Easter, but it was found impossible to accomplish it, so closely were they pressed. In a few days the army and its chief were prisoners. Every Christian under the rank of knighthood had to choose between apostasy or death. Such was the untoward consequence of a war undertaken for the propagation of religious belief.

Another circumstance came to complicate the king's disaster. The Mamelukes grew suddenly jealous of their young sultan. He favoured his French prisoners, and they suspected him of seeking to reserve their ransom to himself. They conspired, attacked him in a tower, and pursuing him thence into the Nile, where he had flung himself, massacred him before the eyes of the French. One of them tore out the victim's heart, and presented it to the king, asking a reward for having slain his enemy. This increased the difficulties of an accommodation; but it was at last effected. Louis restored Damietta as the price of his own ransom, promised 400,000 livres as that of his followers: the count of Poitiers remained hostage for the fulfilment. A truce was agreed on for ten years.

Louis, after his delivery, sailed for Palestine, determined to see his barons free ere he quitted the Levant. The obligation of his vow held him also, perhaps, as well as the shame of returning with the news of so disastrous an expedition. Four years Louis sojourned in Palestine, endeavouring to effect by policy that which he had failed to accomplish by arms. He fortified Acre, Sidon, Jaffa, and other principal towns held by the Latins. He negotiated with the Arabs, and laboured to reconcile the differences betwixt the chiefs of Syria. At length, on learning the death of his mother, queen Blanche, who had been regent in his absence, he sailed from Palestine, arriving in France during the autumn of the year 1254. It was remarked, that amidst all the joy and congratulations of his return, Louis preserved the aspect of profound melancholy; he would not admit of consolation, listen to music or to gaiety. He still retained on