Pope
Urban was calling upon the King of France; and Geoffrey de Sargines, the
heroic representative whom Louis had left in St. Jean d'Acre, at the
head of a small garrison, was writing to him that ruin was imminent, and
speedy succor indispensable to prevent it. In 1261, Louis held, at
Paris, a parliament, at which, without any talk of a new crusade,
measures were taken which revealed an idea of it: there were decrees for
fasts and prayers on behalf of the Christians of the East and for
frequent and earnest military drill. In 1263, the crusade was openly
preached; taxes were levied, even on the clergy, for the purpose of
contributing towards it; and princes and barons bound themselves to take
part in it. Louis was all approval and encouragement, without declaring
his own intention. In 1267, a parliament was convoked at Paris. The
king, at first, conversed discreetly with some of his barons about the
new plan of crusade; and then, suddenly, having had the precious relics
deposited in the Holy Chapel set before the eyes of the assembly, he
opened the session by ardently exhorting those present "to avenge the
insult which had so long been offered to the Saviour in the Holy Land and
to recover the Christian heritage possessed, for our sins, by the
infidels." Next year, on the 9th of February, 1268, at a new parliament
assembled at Paris, the king took an oath to start in the month of May,
1270.

Great was the surprise, and the disquietude was even greater than the
surprise. The kingdom was enjoying abroad a peace and at home a
tranquillity and prosperity for a long time past without example; feudal
quarrels were becoming more rare and terminating more quickly; and the
king possessed the confidence and the respect of the whole population.
Why compromise such advantages by such an enterprise, so distant, so
costly, and so doubtful of success? Whether from good sense or from
displeasure at the burdens imposed upon them, many ecclesiastics showed
symptoms of opposition, and Pope Clement IV. gave the king nothing but
ambiguous and very reserved counsel. When he learned that Louis was
taking with him on the crusade three of his sons, aged respectively
twenty-two, eighteen, and seventeen, he could not refrain from writing to
the Cardinal of St. Cecile, "It doth not strike us as an act of well-
balanced judgment to impose the taking of the cross upon so many of the
king's sons, and especially the eldest; and, albeit we