Holy Land, he went to his
oratory, fell on his knees before the altar, submissive to the will of
God, and cried out with tears in his eyes, that he had loved the
queen, "his most dear lady and mother, beyond all mortal creatures."

[Footnote 51: She was wont to say to her son--"I would rather see thee
die than commit a mortal sin."]

The king's conception of his office was summed up in two
words--_Gouverner bien_. "Fair son," said he one day to Prince Louis,
his heir, "I pray thee win the affection of thy people. Verily, I
would rather that a Scotchman came from Scotland and ruled the kingdom
well and loyally than that thou shouldst govern it ill." Joinville his
biographer tells with charming simplicity how the king after hearing
mass in the chapel at Vincennes outside Paris was wont to walk in the
woods for refreshment and then, sitting at the foot of an old oak
tree, whose position is still shown, would listen to the plaints of
his poorer people without let of usher or other official and
administer justice to them. At other times, clothed in a tunic of
camlet, a surcoat of wool (_tiretaine_) without sleeves, a mantle of
black taffety, and a hat with a peacock's plume, he would walk with
his Council in the garden of his palace in the Cite, and on the poorer
people crowding round him all speaking at once he would cry: "Silence!
one at a time," and call for a carpet to be spread on the ground, on
which he would sit, surrounded with his councillors, and judge them
diligently.

In 1238 St. Louis was profoundly shocked by the news that the crown of
thorns was a forfeited pledge at Venice for an unpaid loan advanced by
some Venetian merchants to the Emperor Baldwin of Constantinople. He
paid the debt,[52] redeemed the pledge, and secured the relic for
Paris. The king met his envoys at Sens, and barefooted, himself
carried the sacred treasure enclosed in three caskets, one of wood,
one of silver and one of gold, to Paris. The procession took eight
days to reach the city, and so great were the multitudes who thronged
to see it, that a large platform was raised in a field outside the
walls, from which several prelates exposed it in turn to the
veneration of the people. Thence it was taken to the cathedral of
Notre Dame, the king dressed in a simple tunic, and barefoot, still
carrying the relic. From the cathedral it was transferred to the royal
chapel of St. Nicholas within the precincts of the palace. A year
later the Emp