g, as if for evidence that the whole was not a
dream, 'I begin to think that I must assuredly have been born with luck
on my side, as you say; and, with such luck on my side, I need not even
despair of finding the brother I have lost.'

'Credit me, at all events,' said Bisset, looking wise, 'when I tell you
that you have got upon the ladder of life.'

CHAPTER XI.

THE VOYAGE.

IT was the Saturday before Pentecost, in the year 1249, when the fleet
of King Louis and the armed pilgrims, consisting of no fewer than
eighteen hundred vessels, great and small, issued gallantly from the
port of Limisso, and steered towards Egypt.

At first nothing could have been more gay and pleasant than the voyage
of the Crusaders. It seemed as if the whole sea, so far as the eye could
reach, was covered with cloth and with banners of bright colours.
Everything appeared promising. The voyage, however, was not destined to
prove prosperous. Suddenly the wind, which had been favourable, changed,
and blew violently from the coast of Egypt. Great confusion was the
consequence; and, though the Genoese mariners exerted all their skill,
the fleet was utterly dispersed. Indeed, when King Louis, having put
back, reached Limisso, he found, to his horror, that not more than
two-thirds of the armed pilgrims remained in his company. Concluding
that his companions had been drowned, the saintly monarch was grieved
beyond measure, and on the point of giving way to despair.

It happened, however, that while Louis was mourning over the mishap,
William Longsword, Earl of Salisbury, arrived at Cyprus with the English
Crusaders, and administered some degree of consolation. In truth,
Longsword was just the man to explain all in the most satisfactory
manner. Having been accustomed from his youth to cross the narrow seas,
he felt none of that vague terror of the ocean which made the French
knights, when they embarked, invoke the protection of the saints; and he
expressed his opinion that, in all probability, the missing vessels were
safe on the Syrian coast. But the indifference which the earl showed for
dangers at which the French trembled had the effect of making him many
enemies, and arousing the natural jealousies which afterwards proved so
baneful to the expedition.

It ought to be borne in mind, that at the period of St. Louis's crusade
there existed no love between the nobles of France and the nobles of
England; and it appears that the French