t to sleep at Vincennes, and beheld, for the last time,
the spot on which he had enjoyed so much happiness in administering
justice to his people. And it was here too that he took leave of Queen
Marguerite, whom he had never before quitted--a separation rendered so
much the more painful by the sorrowful reflection it recalled of past
events and by melancholy presentiments for the future.

Both the people and the court were affected by the deepest regret; and
that which added to the public anxiety was the circumstance that
everyone was ignorant of the point to which the expedition was to be
directed: the coast of Africa was only vaguely conjectured. The King
of Sicily had taken the cross without having the least inclination to
embark for Asia; and when the question was discussed in council he
gave it as his opinion that Tunis should be the object of the first
attack. The kingdom of Tunis covered the seas with pirates, who
infested all the routes to Palestine; it was, besides, the ally of
Egypt, and might, if subdued, be made the readiest road to that
country. These were the ostensible reasons put forth; the true ones
were that it was of importance to the King of Sicily that the coasts
of Africa should be brought under European subjection, and that he did
not wish to go too far from Italy. The true reason with St. Louis, and
that which, no doubt, determined him, was that he believed it possible
to convert the King of Tunis, and thus bring a vast kingdom under the
Christian banners. The Mussulman Prince, whose ambassadors had been
several times in France, had himself given birth to this idea, by
saying that he asked nothing better than to embrace the religion of
Jesus Christ; thus, that which he had said to turn aside an invasion
was precisely the cause of the war being directed against his
territories. Louis IX often repeated that he would consent to pass the
whole of his life in a dungeon, without seeing the sun, if, by such
sacrifice, the conversion of the King of Tunis and his nation could be
brought about; an expression of ardent proselytism that has been
blamed with much bitterness, but which only showed an extreme desire
to see Africa delivered from barbarism and marching with Europe in the
progress of intelligence and civilization, which are the great
blessings of Christianity.

As Louis traversed his kingdom on his way to Aigues-Mortes, where the
army of the crusaders was to embark, he was everywhere hailed by th