denote: Cf. Purg. vii. 109.]

[Sidenote: Par. xix. 143-148.]

King Philip of France, seeing his fortune so changed and adverse, and
his fleet, which was bringing victuals to his host, taken and burnt,
was overcome with grief and melancholy in such wise that he fell
grievously sick with fever and a flux, wherefore his barons took
counsel to depart and return to Toulouse, and of necessity they were
forced thereto by lack of victuals, and by reason of the adverse
season of autumn, and because of the sickness of their king. And thus
they departed about the first day of October, carrying their sick king
in a litter, and they dispersed with but little order, each one
getting away as best he could and most quickly; wherefore, when they
were crossing the difficult pass of the Schiuse through the great
mountains of Pirris [? the defiles of the great mountains of Pertus],
the Aragonese and Catalans which were at the pass, sought to hinder
the passing of the litter wherein the king of France lay sick. And
when the French saw this, they gave battle in despair to them which
were at the pass, to the end they might not take the body of the king,
and by force of arms they broke them up and discomfited them, and
drave them from the pass; but many of the French common people on foot
were taken and slain, and many mules and horses and much baggage
destroyed and taken by the Catalans and Aragonese. And a little while
after the departure of the king of France and of his host, the king of
Aragon received Gerona back on conditions. And when the host of the
king of France in guise as if defeated came to Perpignan, as it
pleased God, King Philip of France passed from this life on the 6th
day of October, in the year of Christ 1285; and in Perpignan the queen
of Morea, his wife, with her company made great lamentation and
sorrow. And afterwards Philip and Charles, his sons, caused the body
to be brought to Paris, and he was buried at S. Denys with his
predecessors, with great honour. This enterprise against Aragon was
attended with greater loss of men and more cost in horses and money,
than the realm of France had almost ever suffered in times past; for
afterwards the king which succeeded the said Philip, and the greater
part of the barons, were always in debt and ill provided with money.
And after the death of King Philip of France, King Philip the Fair,
his eldest son, was made king of France, and crowned king in the city
of Rheims, with the