is (as he was then called),
Mohammed Mostanser, had for some time been talking of his desire to
become a Christian, if he could be efficiently protected against the
seditions of his subjects. Louis welcomed with transport the prospect of
Mussulman conversions. "Ah!" he cried, "if I could only see myself the
gossip and sponsor of so great a godson!"

But on the 17th of July, when the fleet arrived before Tunis, the
admiral, Florent de Varennes, probably without the king's orders and with
that want of reflection which was conspicuous at each step of the
enterprise, immediately took possession of the harbor and of some
Tunisian vessels as prize, and sent word to the king "that he had only to
support him and that the disembarkation of the troops might be effected
in perfect safety." Thus war was commenced at the very first moment
against the Mussulman prince whom there had been a promise of seeing
before long a Christian.

At the end of a fortnight, after some fights between the Tunisians and
the crusaders, so much political and military blindness produced its
natural consequences. The re-enforcements promised to Louis, by his
brother Charles of Anjou, king of Sicily, had not arrived; provisions
were falling short; and the heats of an African summer were working havoc
amongst the army with such rapidity that before long there was no time to
bury the dead, but they were cast pell-mell into the ditch which
surrounded the camp, and the air was tainted thereby. On the 3d of
August Louis was attacked by the epidemic fever, and obliged to keep his
bed in his tent. He asked news of his son John Tristan, Count of Nevers,
who had fallen ill before him, and whose recent death, aboard the vessel
to which he had been removed in hopes that the sea air might be
beneficial, had been carefully concealed from him. The count, as well as
the Princess Isabel, married to Theobald the Young, King of Navarre, was
a favorite child of Louis, who, on hearing of his loss, folded his hands
and sought in silence and prayer some assuagement of his grief. His
malady grew worse; and having sent for his successor, Prince Philip
(Philip the Bold), he took from his hour-book some instructions which he
had written out for him, with his own hand and in French, and delivered
them to him, bidding him to observe them scrupulously. He gave likewise
to his daughter Isabel, who was weeping at the foot of his bed, and to
his son-in-law the King of Navarre,