nner, and formed a separate
corps, bearing the name of a city or a province, the battalions of
Beaucaire, Carcassonne, Chalons, Perigord, etc., attracted observation
in the Christian army. These names, it is true, excited great
emulation, but they also gave rise to quarrels, which the wisdom and
firmness of Louis had great difficulty in appeasing. Crusaders arrived
from Catalonia, Castile, and several other provinces of Spain; five
hundred warriors from Friesland likewise ranged themselves with full
confidence under the standard of such a leader as Louis, saying that
their nation had always been proud to obey the kings of France.

Before he embarked, the King wrote once more to the regents of the
kingdom, to recommend them to watch carefully over public morals, to
deliver France from corrupt judges, and to render to everybody,
particularly the poor, prompt and perfect justice, so that He who
judges the judgments of men might have nothing to reproach him with.

Such were the last farewells that Louis took of France. The fleet set
sail on the 4th of July, 1270, and in a few days arrived in the road
of Cagliari. Here the council of the counts and barons was assembled
in the King's vessel, to deliberate upon the plan of the crusade.
Those who advocated the conquest of Tunis said that by that means the
passages of the Mediterranean would be opened and the power of the
mamelukes would be weakened; and that after that conquest the army
would go triumphantly into either Egypt or Palestine. Many of the
barons were not of this opinion; they said that, if the Holy Land
stood in need of prompt assistance, they ought to afford it without
delay. While they were engaged on the coast of Africa, in a country
with which they were unacquainted, the Christian cities of Syria might
all fall into the hands of the Saracens. The most redoubtable enemy of
the Christians was Beibars, the terrible Sultan of Cairo; it was him
they ought first to attack; it was into his states, into the bosom of
his capital, that the war should be carried, and not to a place two
hundred leagues from Egypt. They added to this, remembrances of the
defeats that ought to be avenged upon the very theatre of so many
disasters. Contemporary history does not say to what extent Louis was
struck with the wisdom of these last opinions; but the expedition to
Tunis flattered his most cherished hopes. It had been proposed by the
King of Sicily, whose concurrence was necessary t