the deliverance
of his father and the pacification of the kingdom had been the reward
of his exploits. It was his esteem for the character of Louis IX, more
than the spirit of devotion, that induced him to set out for the East.
The King of France, who himself exhorted him to take the cross, lent
him seventy _livres tournois_ for the preparations for his voyage.
Edward was to follow Louis as his vassal, and to conduct under his
banners the English crusaders, united with those of Guienne. Gaston de
Bearn, to whom the French monarch advanced the sum of twenty-five
thousand livres, prepared to follow Prince Edward to the Holy Land.

The period fixed upon for the departure of the expedition was drawing
near. By order of the legate, the _cures_ in every parish had taken
the names of the crusaders, in order to oblige them to wear the cross
publicly, and all had notice to hold themselves in readiness to embark
in the month of May, 1270. Louis confided the administration of his
kingdom, during his absence, to Matthew, Abbot of St. Denis, and to
Simon, Sieur de Nesle; he wrote to all the nobles who were to follow
him into the Holy Land, to recommend them to assemble their knights
and men-at-arms. As religious enthusiasm was not sufficiently strong
to make men forget their worldly interests, many nobles who had taken
the cross entertained great fears of being ruined by the holy war, and
most of them hesitated to set out. Louis undertook to pay all the
expenses of their voyage, and to maintain them at his own cost during
the war--a thing that had not been done in the crusades of Louis VII
or Philip Augustus, in which the ardor of the crusaders did not allow
them to give a thought to their fortunes or to exercise so much
foresight. We have still a valuable monument of this epoch in a
charter, by which the King of France stipulates how much he is to pay
to a great number of barons and knights during the time the war beyond
the seas should last.

Early in the month of March, Louis repaired to the Church of St.
Denis, where he received the symbols of the pilgrimage and placed his
kingdom under the protection of the apostles of France. Upon the day
following this solemn ceremony, a mass for the crusade was celebrated
in the Church of Notre Dame at Paris. The monarch appeared there,
accompanied by his children and the principal nobles of his court; he
walked from the palace barefooted, carrying his scrip and staff. The
same day he wen