Such was the state of Syria when Louis IX. undertook his Crusade. His earnest and pious soul had long felt the most genu

then concluded was fatal to the Christian | having got all the use he could out of his establishments in Palestine. The Franks Kharismian allies, quarrelled with them still held possession of Jerusalem, Bethle- about the division of the spoil, allowed hem, Nazareth, and the route to Jaffa, of them, in their turn, to be annihilated by Cæsarea, Acre, Tyre, and other places on Malek Mansour, who collected a fresh army the coast, and their alliance was sought for and gave battle under the walls of Emessa; equally by the Sultan of Egypt and by the and the Kharismians now disappear in hisleague of the Princes of Aleppo, Damascus, tory. Emessa, and Hamath, with which the former was at war. The Grand-Masters of the military orders of the Temple and the Knights of St. John, and the barons of Pal-ine desolation at the miserable condition of estine, concluded an alliance with the Princes of Syria, as best suited to their interests, in 1244. The Sultan of Egypt, alarmed at this formidable coalition, called to his aid the Kharismian Turks, a nation who had been driven from Persia by the hordes of Djinghiz-Khan, and were now in a nomad state on the borders of Syria, waiting, like hungry beasts driven from their usual haunts by a deluge, for something to devour. The Sultan of Egypt proposed to this horde of barbarians to unite together in a common effort to crush the Mussulman and Chris-Louis XIV. on the advantage which would tian sovereigns of Syria.

the kingdom of Jerusalem, founded and maintained at the cost of such an extravagant expenditure of Christian blood, the object of all the most ardent devotion of the time, and he foresaw that its absolute extinction could only be averted by another great sacrifice on the part of Christendom.

But he has been censured not only for undertaking the Crusade at all, but for having directed it towards Egypt. Such, however, was not the opinion of Leibnitz, who addressed a most remarkable memoir to

ensue to France and to Europe from the The Kharismians seized at the offer with conquest of Egypt, and proposed anew a avidity; they set themselves at once in mo- sort of Egyptian Crusade in the seventeenth tion to effect a junction with the Sultan of century; nor of Napoleon, who acted on Egypt, who advanced from Gaza. They the conviction that the occupation of Egypt invaded the kingdom of Jerusalem by the was the most effectual way to the establishside of Tiberias burning, destroying, ment of a permanent Eastern dominion. and massacring everything in their route, The Sultan of Egypt at that time was after the usual fashion. The majority of Malek-Saleh-Negour-Eddin, an Ayoubite the Christian population of Jerusalem re- prince, grandson of the celebrated Malek solved to fly before the coming storm, and Adhel, the brother of Saladin, and son of wait for better times; but on their march the Sultan Malek Kamel, who defeated Jean to Jaffa they were decoyed back by a strat-de Brienne at Mansourah; and he was the agem, overtaken in a second flight, and most powerful Oriental potentate of his seven thousand Christians were slain in the time. It was the Egyptian power which mountain passes between Jerusalem and had conquered Jerusalem from the Franks; Jaffa. Jerusalem itself was ravaged with and to strike at the heart of that was the fire and sword. The Kharismians burst surest way to effect the liberation of Palesinto the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, and tine. murdered the Christians before the altars, and in the Holy Sepulchre itself, ripping up and disembowelling men, women, and children. They destroyed the tombs as well as the altars, and the bones and bodies of Godfrey de Bouillon, with his companions and successors, were torn from their graves, and, together with all the relics of the saints, either burnt or cast out on the heaps of refuse at the gates of the city. Such was the manner of the final loss of Jerusalem to Christianity. And not long after, the Christians suffered another terrible disaster in the loss of the great battle of Gaza, which was fought in company with Malek Mansour, the Sultan of Damascus, against the Sultan of Egypt, and in which an entire army was annihilated. The Sultan of Egypt

The preparations for the Crusade were made by the King with great care and foresight. Louis did all in his power to leave his kingdom in a state of well-ordered security, and he was the less solicitous about the prejudice which might be caused by his absence, on account of his confidence in the vigour of character and political capacity of the Queen-mother. His chief anxiety was the pacification of Christendom, and he did his utmost, but in vain, to reconcile the Pope with Frederic II., for open war was now being carried on between the two, and the Pope had even excommunicated and deposed the German Emperor, and preached a crusade against him contemporaneously with that forming under Saint Louis.

The French King appointed Cyprus for

the general rendezvous of the armament. He hired a Genoese fleet to convey him to Limisso, a southern port in the island, and he gave directions for collecting in its neighbourhood enormous stores of provision, of wine and corn and barley, purchased in all the most fertile countries of Europe, which were so faithfully executed by Thibaud, Count of Bar, and Hubert de Beaujeu, Connétable de France, that when the Crusaders arrived off the coasts of Cyprus they found mountains of grain piled up on the seashore; and his foresight even went so far that he had prepared not only the necessary materials for the construction of siegetowers, catapults, and military engines of all kinds, but every sort of agricultural implement for the permanent occupation of Egypt.

Knights leapt on shore they knelt and formed in a line, with the points of their triangular shields fixed in the sand, with the butt-ends of their lances on the ground, and the points turned towards the enemy. The Arab and Turk cavalry, the Mamelukes, tried to break their line, with several charges, but failed, then became disheartened and retreated.

The French army gained at the outset an unhoped easy advantage in the capture of Damietta, which had thirty years ago withstood for fifteen months such a terrible siege by the Crusaders under Jean de Brienne. The town was evacuated by the cowardice of its defenders, and the campaign opened under the most brilliant auspices. The Moslem troops were cowed and disorganized, and had Saint Louis been a great general, and known the value of time, he might have been in Cairo in three weeks; but this first success was the only one of the campaign; the chiefs of the army were afraid of advancing through the low flat regions at the mouth of the Nile, where the army of Jean de Brienne had been surprised by an inundation; the river itself they regarded with superstitious dread, believing it flowed from Paradise; and the King and his barons remained waiting for reinforcements at Damietta, watching with apprehension every rise in the level of the stream, and consuming their provisions. They did not begin

All the most illustrious nobles of France naturally took the cross likewise; he was accompanied by his wife Marguerite, and his brothers Robert Comte d'Artois, Alphonse Comte de Poitiers, Charles Comte d'Anjou and Provence, whose wives also shared the perils of the expedition "d'outremer" with their husbands. His parting with his mother, who had protected his childhood, and with whom he had lived on terms of unalloyed affection, heightened by veneration for her piety, and by the admiration and gratitude which he owed her for the prudent administration of his affairs during to move from Damietta till after the arrival his minority and afterwards, was necessarily an immense trial on both sides. Blanche felt a presentiment that she should see her son no more; she fainted twice at the final interview. "Beau trés doux fils," she said to him, "beau tendre fils, jamais je ne vous verrai plus! Le cœur me le dit bien."

After passing the winter at Cyprus the French armament put to sea from Limisso, and arrived in sight of Damietta, which was announced by the pilot of the first vessel crying, "Que Dieu nous aide, que Dieu nous aide, nous voici devant Damiette!" and the King gave orders to make preparations for landing.

The Egyptian troops were drawn up on the shore expecting them, under the command of Fakreddin. He was an able general of the Sultan, who himself was very ill, and on the point of death.

"When the good King Louis," says Joinville, "saw that the enseigne Saint Denis (the Oriflamme) was on shore, he no longer waited for his boat to approach nearer the land, but he threw himself into the sea, and the water reached up to his shoulders; then he went straight towards the paiens,' with his shield on his neck, helmet on head, and lance in hand." As soon as the French

of his brother Alphonse de Poitiers with the arrière garde of the Crusade. Queen Marguerite and the rest of the ladies were left at Damietta, while Louis with his army marched to Mansourah.

The French host were fatally slow in advancing, and took thirty-one days to reach Mansourah, at a distance of about sixty miles from Damietta. To relieve Louis, however, somewhat from the responsibility of the bad conduct of the expedition, it must be remembered that a feudal host was one of the most unmanageable kind of armies ever invented; there was no subordination, no regular organization, no general system of discipline on the unwieldy mass; the feudal chieftains held themselves, if they pleased, entirely independent of general orders, and even their chevaliers might, if displeased, threaten .to abandon them at any moment.

At Mansourah it was necessary to cross a branch of the Nile called the Thanis, and there the calamities of the Crusaders commenced. They had provided no means of making a bridge, and they began, under the superintendence of the King, to construct a causeway for the purpose of passage. The Saracens on the other side of the river were

HISTOIRE DE SAINT LOUIS.

drawn up, and used every device of missile- | in early dawn took the Saracens entirely by weapon and Greek fire to impede the con- surprise, and the Franks were complete struction of the chaussée. Moreover, they masters of the camp, and cut to pieces the worked on their side so as to cut away the Saracens, with their general, who was bank in precisely the same measure as the aroused in astonishment from his slumbers. causeway advanced on the opposite side, So far, the disobedience of the young Prince and make the distance of water to cross had a happy result, and had he stopped over remain undiminished. consumed a month and a half over these from his position, now in front of the ChrisThe Franks there, and awaited the King, or assisted operations, the two armies face to face tian camp, the remainder of the army to on the opposite banks. offered, for a reward of five hundred bezants another issue. At last a Bedouin pass over, the campaign might have had d'or to guide the Franks to a ford. His morning's work, Robert was raging for But maddened with his offer was accepted; the King verified the something fresh to do; the demon spirit of fact that a ford, distant four miles from his war was working in his hot blood, and it camp, and lower down, was passable. As- was impossible to hold him; he insisted on sisted by a council of war, Louis made the pushing straight on for Mansourah. In vain wisest possible regulations for passing the did the Grand-Master of the Temple, Guilhost safely over at daybreak on the 8th of laume de Sonnac, try to check his wild February. His brother, the Comte d'Artois, courage, saying that he had already desolicited the honour of being allowed to cross parted from the King's orders, though, to the first. This was the favourite brother of soothe him, he said he had done one of the the King, who, however, was well aware of finest deeds of chivalry that ever was his reckless and impetuous spirit, so he de- formed manded a formal oath from the young man warned him that if he advanced further, the "dans la terre d'outre mer; perthat he would observe all his instructions enemy, the main body of whom were at " he and not advance without orders. This the Mansourah, would recognize the smallness Count took, swearing by the Holy Gospels of his troop. Robert replied, his language that he would obey the King's word in thing, and, as a last precaution, Louis or- by to the scandalous rumours that the every- ."sentait le poil de loup" dered that a body of the Knights-Templars Knights-Templars had too often underhand - alluding thereshould, on the other side, precede his dealings with the wolves, the Saracens. In brother's own troop. The Comte d'Artois had no sooner re-bury, put in a word of remonstrance. Robvain did William Longsword, Earl of Salisceived permission than he dashed into the ert replied to him in insulting terms, in ford, followed by his knights and men-at- which he made use of a favourite mediaval arms, the Knights-Templars and Hospital- scoff against the English, that they were lers, William Longsword, Earl of Salisbury, and his English followers, and all the avant "Count Robert," replied William Long66 men with tails". •hommes à queue." garde. The ford was found to be more dif- sword, "I can face death without fear, and ficult than they expected; they had to swim we will both be presently where ye shall not their horses, and the obscurity of the hour dare to come near the tail of my horse." before daybreak increased their danger. In vain, moreover, did the knight deThe Saracen general, Fakreddin, was aware spatched by the King for that purpose enof the existence of the ford, and placed join Robert to wait where he was. there a guard of three hundred horsemen. replied he had already put the Saracens to Nevertheless, the Comte d'Artois and the flight and he would wait for nobody; and vanguard passed over with small loss, and setting spurs to his horse, he galloped the Saracen cavalry, taken by surprise on straight towards Mansourah, followed by the opposite bank, fled without resistance. the vanguard, all of whom were taunted Flushed with the excitement of his success- into following the young madcap to the ful manœuvre, and wild, we may suppose, death. The troop, barely fifteen in numwith sudden excitement after being cooped ber, galloped into Mansourah. The Saraup so long in camp in inaction, the hot- cens were so terrified that they thought the blooded young Count, instead of observing whole Christian army was with them, and the oath he had sworn, wheeled sharp round they fled on all sides from their path, and to the left, mounted the right bank of the Count Robert rode with his troop right river, and led the vanguard on his own sud- through the town to the far side, to the den in pulse and authority in full charge banks of the Nile. But their number had against the Saracen camp, opposite to been counted by Bibars Bondocdar, the which they had so long remained in check chief of the Baharite Mamelukes, a comthe other side of the river. The attack mander of great skill and courage, who

66

He

became ultimately Sultan of the Mameluke | came and kissed his hand, still gauntleted, soldiers in Egypt. He rallied together a and asked him if he had news of the Comte body of his soldiers, and cut off the retreat d'Artois. The King replied "he had news; of Robert and his followers. The whole his brother was in Paradise." The prior French vanguard was shut up in the town, then, to turn the King's thoughts in another exposed to a population who took heart on be- direction, spoke of the battle he had won coming aware of the small number of the as-" Et le roi repondait que Dieu fut adoré de sailants. The Crusaders were assailed on all ce qu'il lui donnait, et lui tombaient les sides with projectiles hurled from the house- larmes des yeux fort grosses." 8th Februtops, with missiles of every kind. Crowds ary 1250-Louis now established himself of fresh soldiers pressed upon them in the à cheval on the canal of the Thanis, some of narrow streets, where they found it impossi- his infantry still remaining on the French camp ble to manoeuvre their tired horses, and af- on one side, under the Duke of Burgundy, ter a bootless struggle the whole vanguard while he himself occupied what had lately was massacred nearly to a man. A crowd been the Saracen camp on the other, with of the best nobles of France were cut to the rest of the infantry and his cavalry. pieces. Two hundred and eighty Knights- He caused his chief officer of engineers, Templars perished. William Longsword, Josselin de Cornaut, to complete the bridge, with three hundred English knights, fell and fortify it with a barbican, and to surthere likewise; the standard-bearer wrap-round the camp with palisades made of the ping himself in the English banner as he fell by the side of the young French Prince, whose surcoat of blue velvet, strewn with golden fleurs-de-lis made the Saracens think they had killed the King himself.

This senseless temerity of the Comte d'Artois ruined all the plans of the King. He had crossed the ford with his cavalry alone, with the Duke of Burgundy and the infantry still on the other side, occupying the Frank camp, when, advancing to the support of the vanguard, of whose danger he had been informed, he found himself attacked by the whole Saracen army, and a battle of a most tumultuous character ensued. After a day's incessant fighting, after the King himself displayed prodigies of valour, and after the Duke of Burgundy had succeeded, by using up all the materials and engines in the camp, in completing the causeway, and passing some of the infantry over, the Saracens were put to flight, the Franks remained masters of the field, and the King slept in the Saracen camp; but it was one of those victories which are as bad as a defeat. All agreed, however, that the coolness and intrepidity of the King saved the army; and the instinct and rapidity of view of a commander never deserted him during the whole day. As soon as he found a general action was inevitable, he mounted on a slight eminence to take the survey of the field, and see what resources the ground offered. His intrepid mien and coolness struck all with admiration. Jamais," writes Joinville of that day, "je ne vis si bel homme armé, il paraissait au dessus de ses gens depuis les épaules jusqu'en haut, un heaume doré sur sa tête, une épée d'Allemagne en sa main." After the battle, the prior of the Hospitallers, wishing to know if the King was aware of the death of his brother,

materials of the Saracen engines found in the camp. But the French army was virtually in a state of siege, subject to incessant attacks of the Saracen army, to whom the arrival of their young Sultan, Malek Moadam, from Mesopotamia, to take possession of the sovereignty (since Negour Eddin was now dead), gave a fresh audacity and spirit. Tremendous conflicts took place almost daily on all sides of the camp; but the chivalry of France were not accustomed to remain on the defensive, and were ill calculated to sustain patiently that kind of warfare; and, moreover, they had lost the greater number of their horses in the terrible melée of Mansourah, and were obliged to fight on foot, contrary to their habits and education. The disaster of the Comte d'Artois affected all with gloomy presentiments of worse dangers to come; and their besieged position became before long intolerable. They were pent up in camp beneath the burning sun of Egypt, by the side of a canal whose water became in a short time a dead mass of putrefaction from the quantity of dead bodies, the slain of Mansourah, which the Saracens threw into it, and which accumulated in floating putrescence against the causeway and the bridge, until they stretched right across the river for the length of a stone's-throw. Louis set a hundred of his camp-followers to free the river of this horrible mass of corruption to bury the Christian bodies, and set the Saracen corpses floating down the stream; but before the wish could be accomplished, scurvy and pestilence and frightful disease raged through the host. To make the sanitary condition of the army still more deplorable, Lent came on. The whole army observed the rules of fasting as strictly as if they were not in campaign,