the king had happily returned to France, how piously he bare himself
towards God, how justly towards his subjects, how compassionately towards
the afflicted, and how humbly in his own respect, and with what zeal he
labored to make progress, according to his power, in every virtue, all
this can be attested by persons who carefully watched his manner of life,
and who knew the spotlessness of his conscience. It is the opinion of
the most clear-sighted and the wisest that, in proportion as gold is more
precious than silver, so the manner of living and acting which the king
brought back from his pilgrimage in the Holy Land was holy and new, and
superior to his former behavior, albeit, even in his youth, he had ever
been good and guileless, and worthy of high esteem." These are the words
written about St. Louis by his confessor Geoffrey de Beaulieu, a
chronicler, curt and simple even to dryness, but at the same time well
informed. An attempt will be made presently to give a fair idea of the
character of St. Louis's government during the last fifteen years of his
reign, and of the place he fills in the history of the kingship and of
politics in France; but just now it is only with the part he played in
the crusades and with what became of them in his hands that we have to
occupy our attention. For seven years after his return to France, from
1254 to 1261, Louis seemed to think no more about them, and there is
nothing to show that he spoke of them even to his most intimate
confidants; but, in spite of his apparent calmness, he was living, so far
as they were concerned, in a continual ferment of imagination and
internal fever, ever flattering himself that some favorable circumstance
would call him back to his interrupted work. And he had reason to
believe that circumstances were responsive to his wishes. The Christians
of Palestine and Syria were a prey to perils and evils which became more
pressing every day; the cross was being humbled at one time before the
Tartars of Tchingis-Khan, at another before the Mussulmans of Egypt; Pope
Urban was calling upon the King of France; and Geoffrey de Sargines, the