which were penetrated by their hordes. The name and
description of these barbarians, the fame and dread of their
devastations, ran rapidly through the whole of Christian Europe. "What
must we do in this sad plight?" asked Queen Blanche of the king, her son.
"We must, my mother," answered Louis (with sorrowful voice, but not
without divine inspiration, adds the chronicler), "we must be sustained
by a heavenly consolation. If these Tartars, as we call them, arrive
here, either we will hurl them back to Tartarus, their home, whence they
are come, or they shall send us up to Heaven." About the same period,
another cause of disquietude and another feature of attraction came to be
added to all those which turned the thoughts and impassioned piety of
Louis towards the East. The perils of the Latin empire of
Constantinople, founded, as has been already mentioned, in 1204, under
the headship of Baldwin, Count of Flanders, were becoming day by day more
serious. Greeks, Mussulmans, and Tartars were all pressing it equally
hard. In 1236, the emperor, Baldwin II., came to solicit in person the
support of the princes of Western Europe, and especially of the young
King of France, whose piety and chivalrous ardor were already celebrated
everywhere. Baldwin possessed a treasure, of great power over the
imaginations and convictions of Christians, in the crown of thorns worn
by Jesus Christ during His passion. He had already put it in pawn at
Venice for a considerable loan advanced to him by the Venetians; and he
now offered it to Louis in return for effectual aid in men and money.
Louis accepted the proposal with transport. He had been scared, a short
time ago, at the chance of losing another precious relic deposited in the
abbey of St. Denis, one of the nails which, it was said, had held Our
Lord's body upon the cross. It had been mislaid one ceremonial day
whilst it was being exhibited to the people; and, when he recovered it,
"I would rather," said Louis, "that the best city in my kingdom had been
swallowed up in the earth." After having taken all the necessary
precautions for avoiding any appearance of a shameful bargain, he
obtained the crown of thorns, all expenses included, for eleven thousand
livres of Paris, that is, they say, about twenty-six thousand dollars of
our money. Our century cannot have any fellow-feeling with such ready
credulity, which is not required by Christian faith or countenanced by
sound criticism;