who practised.

In 1270 the affairs of the East again attracted the attention of Europe,
and recalled Louis to the fulfilment of his vow, which he had only
postponed. The Greeks had retaken the city of Constantinople from the
French and Venetian Crusaders some years previously, yet the
reconstitution of the Christian Empire of the East had not availed to
check the aggressions of the Moslem in Palestine. Benocdar, the Sultan
of Egypt, had already taken Caesarea and Jaffa; and news now came that
Antioch had fallen, 100,000 Christians having been massacred in the
siege. The seventh and last Crusade was at once set on foot by outraged
Europe, and Louis led the expedition, in which France was, as usual,
foremost. He raised an army of 6,000 horse and 30,000 foot, and was
accompanied by his three sons, the King of Navarre, and several nobles
of high rank. His brother, Charles of Anjou (the new King of Naples),
and Edward I., of England, (then prince), were to join the French in the
course of the year. Some romantic intelligence that the Moslem King of
Tunis was desirous of being baptized, induced the pious Louis again to
try the African, instead of the Asiatic, route to Palestine. He narrowly
escaped with his life, in a tempest which overtook the fleet in the
Mediterranean, but landed in Sardinia, and after recruiting here again
set sail, and anchored off Carthage. He met with opposition, instead of
welcome, from the inhabitants of the coast, and was obliged to besiege
Tunis. The excessive heat of the climate and the unhealthiness of the
soil proved a second time fatal to the army. Plague at last broke out,
and Louis was himself seized. Finding himself dying, he sent for Philip,
his eldest son and successor. Placing in his hand a written paper, the
good king prayed his son to follow the directions which it
contained--directions for the conduct of his life, as king and
individual; enforcing those principles of love to God and man which had
guided his own career. Then, requesting to be lifted from his bed, Louis
instructed his attendants to strew the floor of his tent with ashes and
place him thereon, that he might die as he had lived, in an attitude of
humiliation and penitence toward his creator. This was done, and shortly
afterward, as though in vision fulfilling the vow which he was not
permitted to realize, he uttered, "I will enter thy house--I will
worship in thy sanctuary!" and expired. His age was but fifty-four.

A f