ahometans look on him with reverence; so that when the Sultan to whom
he had become prisoner was murdered by his own people, they thought of
choosing the captive Christian king for their chief. Lewis refused to
make any treaty for his deliverance unless all his companions might have
a share in it; and, although he might have been earlier set free, he
refused to leave his captivity until all the money was made up for the
ransom of himself and his followers. On being at length free to leave
Egypt, he went into the Holy Land, where he visited Nazareth with deep
devotion. But, although he eagerly desired to see Jerusalem, he denied
himself this pleasure, from a fear that the crusading spirit might die
out if the first of Christian kings should consent to visit the holy
city without delivering it from the unbelievers.

After an absence of six years, Lewis was called back to France by
tidings that his mother, whom he had left as regent of the kingdom, was
dead (A.D. 1254). But he did not think that his crusading vow was yet
fulfilled; and sixteen years later he set out on a second attempt, which
was still more unfortunate than the former. On landing at Tunis, he
found that the Arabs, instead of joining him, as he had expected,
attacked his force; but these were not his worst enemies. At setting
out, the king had been too weak to bear armour or to sit on horseback;
and after landing he found that the bad climate, with the want of water
and of wholesome food, spread death among his troops. One of his own
sons, Tristan, who had been born during the king's captivity in Egypt,
fell sick and died. Lewis himself, whose weak state made him an easy
victim to disease, died on the 25th of August, 1270, after having shown
in his last hours the piety which had throughout marked his life. And,
although his eldest son, Philip, recovered from an attack which had
seemed likely to be fatal, the Crusaders were obliged to leave that
deadly coast with their number fearfully lessened, and without having
gained any success. Philip, on his return to France, had to carry with
him the remains of his father, of his brother, of one of his own
children, and of his brother-in-law, the king of Navarre. Such was the
sad end of an expedition undertaken by a saintly king for a noble
purpose, but without heeding those rules of prudence which, if they
could not have secured success, might at least have taught him to
provide against some of the dangers which were