sufficient for the attainment of the twofold end he had in view, and even
for insuring less grand results, such as the deliverance of the crusaders
still remaining prisoners in the hands of the Mussulmans, and anything
like an effectual protection for the Christians settled in Palestine and
Syria.

Twice Louis believed he was on the point of accomplishing his desire.
Towards the end of 1250, and again in 1252, the Sultan of Aleppo and
Damascus, and the Emirs of Egypt, being engaged in a violent struggle,
made offers to him, by turns, of restoring the kingdom of Jerusalem if he
would form an active alliance with one or the other party against its
enemies. Louis sought means of accepting either of these offers without
neglecting his previous engagements, and without compromising the fate of
the Christians still prisoners in Egypt, or living in the territories of
Aleppo and Damascus; but, during the negotiations entered upon with a
view to this end, the Mussulmans of Syria and Egypt suspended their
differences, and made common cause against the remnants of the Christian
crusaders; and all hope of re-entering Jerusalem by these means vanished
away. Another time, the Sultan of Damascus, touched by Louis's pious
perseverance, had word sent to him that he, if he wished, could go on a
pilgrimage to Jerusalem, and should find himself in perfect safety. "The
king," says Joinville, "held a great council; and none urged him to go.
It was shown unto him that if he, who was the greatest king in
Christendom, performed his pilgrimage without delivering the Holy City
from the enemies of God, all the other kings and other pilgrims who came
after him would hold themselves content with doing just as much, and
would trouble themselves no more about the deliverance of Jerusalem." He
was reminded of the example set by Richard Coeur de Lion, who, sixty
years before, had refused to cast even a look upon Jerusalem, when he was
unable to deliver her from her enemies. Louis, just as Richard had,