orca, the fleet was dispersed by a tempest; one
part of the vessels gained the coasts of Asia, another took shelter in
the ports of Sardinia, the vessel that the King of Arragon was on
board of was cast upon the coast of Languedoc.

The arrival at Ptolemais of the Aragonese crusaders, commanded by a
natural son of James, restored some hopes to the Franks of Palestine.
An envoy from the King of Aragon, according to the oriental
chronicles, repaired to the Khan of the Tartars, to announce to him
that the Spanish monarch would soon arrive with his army. But whether
he was detained by the charms of Berengaria, or whether the tempest
that dispersed his fleet made him believe that heaven was averse to
his pilgrimage, James did not arrive. His departure, in which he
appeared to despise the counsels of the holy see, had been severely
censured; and his return, which was attributed to his disgraceful
passion, met with an equal share of blame. Murmurs likewise arose
against the King of Portugal, who had levied the tenths, but did not
leave his kingdom.

All those who in Europe took an interest in the crusade, had, at this
time, their eyes directed toward the kingdom of Naples, where Charles
of Anjou was making great preparations to accompany his brother into
the East; but this kingdom, recently conquered, was doomed again to be
the theatre of a war kindled by vengeance and ambition. There fell out
in the states of Naples and Sicily, which had so often changed
masters, that which almost always takes place after a revolution:
deceived hopes were changed into hatreds; the excesses inseparable
from a conquest, the presence of an army proud of its victories, with
the too violent government of Charles, animated the people against
their new King.

Clement IV thought it his duty to give a timely and salutary warning.
"Your kingdom," he wrote to him, "at first exhausted by the agents of
your authority, is now torn by your enemies; thus the caterpillar
destroys what has escaped the grasshopper. The kingdom of Sicily and
Naples has not been wanting in men to desolate it; where now are they
that will defend it?" This letter of the Pope's announced storms ready
to break forth. Many of those who had called Charles to the throne
regretted the house of Swabia, and directed their new hopes toward
Italy, strengthening Conradin, heir of Frederick and of Conrad. This
young Prince quitted Germany with an army and advanced toward Italy,
strengtheni