e
benedictions of his people, and gratified by hearing their ardent
prayers for the success of his arms. The clergy and the faithful,
assembled in the churches, prayed for the King and his children and
all that should follow him. They prayed also for foreign princes and
nobles who had taken the cross and promised to go into the East, as if
they would, by that means, press them to hasten their departure.

Very few, however, responded to this religious appeal. The King of
Castile, who had taken the cross, had pretensions to the imperial
crown, nor could he forget the death of his brother Frederick,
immolated by Charles of Anjou. It was not only that the affairs of the
empire detained the German princes and nobles; the death of young
Conradin had so shocked and disgusted men's minds in Germany that no
one from that country would have consented to fight under the same
banners as the King of Sicily. So black a crime, committed amid the
preparations for a holy war, appeared to presage great calamities. In
the height of their grief or indignation, people might fear that
heaven would be angry with the Christians, and that its curse would
fall upon the arms of the crusaders.

When Louis arrived at Aigues-Mortes, he found neither the Genoese
fleet nor the principal nobles who were to embark with him; the
ambassadors of Palaeologus were the only persons who did not cause
themselves to be waited for; for a great dread of the crusade was
entertained at Constantinople, and this fear was more active than the
enthusiasm of the crusaders. Louis might have asked the Greek Emperor
why, after having promised to send soldiers, he had only sent
ambassadors; but Louis, who attached great importance to the
conversion of the Greeks, contented himself with removing the
apprehensions of the envoys, and, as Clement IV died at that period,
he sent them to the conclave of the cardinals, to terminate the
reunion of the two churches.

At length the unwilling crusaders, stimulated by repeated exhortations
and by the example of Louis, set forward on their march from all the
provinces, and directed their course toward the ports of Aigues-Mortes
and Marseilles. Louis soon welcomed the arrival of the Count of
Poictiers, with a great number of his vassals; the principal nobles
brought with them the most distinguished of their knights and their
most brave and hardy soldiers; many cities likewise contributed their
supply of warriors. Each troop had its ba