led me to get me gone to France, and likewise
those who have counselled me to bide. But I have bethought me that, if I
bide, I see no danger lest my kingdom of France be lost, for the queen,
my mother, hath a many folk to defend it. I have noted likewise that the
barons of this land do say that, if I go hence, the kingdom of Jerusalem
is lost. At no price will I suffer to be lost the kingdom of Jerusalem,
which I came to guard and conquer. My resolve, then, is, that I bide for
the present. So I say unto you, ye rich men who are here, and to all
other knights who shall have a mind to bide with me, come and speak
boldly unto me, and I will give ye so much that it shall not be my fault
if ye have no mind to bide.'"

Thus none, save Louis himself, dared go to the root of the question. The
most discreet advised him to depart, only for the purpose of coming back,
and recommencing what had been so unsuccessful; and the boldest only
urged him to remain a year longer. None took the risk of saying, even
after so many mighty but vain experiments, that the enterprise was
chimerical, and must be given up. Louis alone was, in word and deed,
perfectly true to his own absorbing idea of recovering the Holy Sepulchre
from the Mussulmans and re-establishing the kingdom of Jerusalem. His
was one of those pure and majestic souls, which are almost alien to the
world in which they live, and in which disinterested passion is so strong
that it puts judgment to silence, extinguishes all fear, and keeps up
hope to infinity. The king's two brothers embarked with a numerous
retinue. How many crusaders, knights, or men-at-arms, remained with
Louis, there is nothing to show; but they were, assuredly, far from
sufficient for the attainment of the twofold end he had in view, and even
for insuring less grand results, such as the deliverance of the crusaders
still remaining prisoners in the hands of the Mussulmans, and anything
like an effectual protection for the Christians settled in Palestine and
Syria.

Twice Louis believed he was on the point of accomplishing his desire.
Towards the end of 1250, and again in 1252, the Sultan of Aleppo and
Damascus, and the Emirs of Egypt, being engaged in a violent struggle,
made offers to him, by turns, of restoring the kingdom of Jerusalem if he
would form an active alliance with one or the other party against its
enemies. Louis sought means of accepting either of these offers without
neglecting his p