ith
generosity, and listened to the terms of ransom which he proposed. The
queen remained at Damietta, which was strongly garrisoned. Fearful,
nevertheless, of falling into the hands of the Moslems, who would have
carried her into the sultan's harem, she prayed an old knight in her
suite to slay her with his sword, should there be any danger of that
event. "I had determined on so doing, madam," was the answer. Margaret's
heroism was not put to this severe test, for the surrender of Damietta
was one of the conditions of her husband's release; and after paying in
addition a sum of 400,000 livres, Louis was on the point of being set
free. An insurrection, however, suddenly arose among the Mamelukes, or
Tartarian troops, in whose hands the real power of the state was placed,
and the sultan was murdered. A party of the assassins, it is said,
entered the chamber of Louis with their scimitars drawn, but his calm
dignity saved him, and the treaty was carried out by the new sultan.

Many of the French nobles returned home, but the king, faithful to his
vow, proceeded to Syria, and spent four years in strengthening the
fortresses of Tyre and other Christian towns, redeeming many Crusaders
from slavery, and reducing to order the disturbed condition of the
country.

The death of the Queen Dowager Blanche, who had governed France wisely
during her regency, recalled him in 1254, after an absence of six years.
He still wore the cross upon his shoulder, as a token that his oath as a
Crusader was not yet fulfilled; but he never once neglected the more
pressing and necessary duties which devolved on him as a monarch. His
immediate work was to supersede the arbitrary legislation which the
nobles exercised in their manorial courts over their tenants. He
accordingly introduced into general use the famous code of Roman laws
known as the Pandects of Justinian, and constituted the chief civil
lawyers, who had studied its contents and were best acquainted with its
principles, into a Parliament, or Court of Justice. The nobles and the
clergy were duly represented in this assembly; but its clerks, or
lawyers, were especially favored by the king, who seconded their own
efforts to absorb the business of the court as much as possible. Louis
further mediated between the tyranny of the nobles and the weakness of
their tenants, by encouraging the practice of appealing to the crown in
case of injustice. This he even extended to ecclesiastical matters;