e
God. Any issue of our expedition is to usward good; if we be conquered
we shall wing our way to heaven as martyrs; and if we be conquerors, men
will celebrate the glory of the Lord; and that of France, and, what is
more, that of Christendom, will grow thereby. It were senseless to
suppose that God, whose providence is over everything, raised me up for
nought: He will see in us His own, His mighty cause. Fight we for
Christ; it is Christ who will triumph in us, not for our own sake, but
for the honor and blessedness of His name." It was determined to
disembark the next day. An army of Saracens lined the shore. The galley
which bore the oriflamme was one of the first to touch. When the king
heard tell that the banner of St. Denis was on shore, he, in spite of the
pope's legate, who was with him, would not leave it; he leaped into the
sea, which was up to his arm-pits, and went, shield on neck, helm on
head, and lance in hand, and joined his people on the sea-shore. When he
came to land, and perceived the Saracens, he asked what folk they were,
and it was told him that they were the Saracens; then he put his lance
beneath his arm and his shield in front of him, and would have charged
the Saracens, if his mighty men, who were with him, had suffered him.

This, from his very first outset, was Louis exactly, the most fervent of
Christians and the most splendid of knights, much rather than a general
and a king.

Such he appeared at the moment of landing, and such he was during the
whole duration, and throughout all the incidents of his campaign in
Egypt, from June, 1249, to May, 1250: ever admirable for his moral
greatness and knightly valor, but without foresight or consecutive plan
as a leader, without efficiency as a commander in action, and ever
decided or biassed either by his own momentary impressions or the fancies
of his comrades. He took Damietta without the least difficulty. The
Mussulmans, stricken with surprise as much as terror, abandoned the
place; and when Fakr-Eddin, the commandant of the Turks, came before the
Sultan of Egypt, Malek-Saleh, who was ill, and almost dying, "Couldst
thou not have held out for at least an instant?" said the sultan.
"What! not a single one of you got slain!" Having become masters of
Damietta, St. Louis and the crusaders committed the same fault there as
in the Isle of Cyprus: they halted there for an indefinite time. They
were expecting fresh crusaders; and they spe