great, that the sun will
dissipate all the waters, and that the abysses of the sea will be dry;
and that an easy road will lie open to us across the bed of the
Mediterranean.'

On reaching Marseilles, however, the young pilgrims discovered that they
had been deluded. Some of them returned to their homes; but the majority
were not so fortunate. Many lost themselves in the forests which then
covered the country, and died of hunger and fatigue; and the others
became objects of speculation to two merchants of Marseilles, who
carried on trade with the Saracens. Affecting to act from motives of
piety, the two merchants tempted the boy-pilgrims by offering to convey
them, without charge, to the Holy Land; and, the offer having been
joyfully accepted, seven vessels, with children on board, sailed from
Marseilles. But the voyage was not prosperous. At the end of two days,
when the ships were off the isle of St. Peter, near the rock of the
Recluse, a tempest arose, and the wind blew so violently that two of
them went down with all on board. The five others, however, weathered
the storm, and reached Bugia and Alexandria. And now the young Crusaders
discovered to their consternation how they had been deceived and
betrayed. Without delay they were sold by the merchants to the
slave-dealers, and by the slave-dealers to the Saracens. Forty of them
were purchased for the caliph and carried to Bagdad, where they were
forced to abjure Christianity, and brought up as slaves.

Now, among the boys who had yielded to the prevailing excitement, and
repaired to Marseilles to embark for Syria, was Osbert Espec; and ever
since Walter received from his kinsman, the prior, intelligence of his
brother's disappearance, and heard the rumours of what had befallen the
young pilgrims on their arrival in the East, his memory had brooded over
the misfortune, and his imagination, which was constantly at work,
pictured Osbert in the caliph's prison, laden with chains, and forced to
forswear the God of his fathers; and the thought of his lost brother was
ever present to his mind. And therefore was Walter Espec's heart sad,
and therefore was his smile mournful.

CHAPTER IV.

ST. LOUIS.

AMONG the names of the European princes associated with the history of
the Holy War, that of St. Louis is one of the most renowned. Although
flourishing in a century which produced personages like Frederick,
Emperor of Germany, and our first great Edward, who fa