Venetians and the Genoese without arriving at any conclusion or
certainty. Steps were taken at haphazard with full trust in Providence
and utter forgetfulness that Providence does not absolve men from
foresight. On arriving at Aigues-Mortes about the middle of May, Louis
found nothing organized, nothing in readiness, neither crusaders nor
vessels; everything was done slowly, incompletely, and with the greatest
irregularity. At last, on the 2d of July, 1270, he set sail without any
one's knowing and without the king's telling any one whither they were
going. It was only in Sardinia, after four days' halt at Cagliari, that
Louis announced to the chiefs of the crusade, assembled aboard his ship
the Mountjoy, that he was making for Tunis, and that their Christian work
would commence there. The King of Tunis (as he was then called),
Mohammed Mostanser, had for some time been talking of his desire to
become a Christian, if he could be efficiently protected against the
seditions of his subjects. Louis welcomed with transport the prospect of
Mussulman conversions. "Ah!" he cried, "if I could only see myself the
gossip and sponsor of so great a godson!"

But on the 17th of July, when the fleet arrived before Tunis, the
admiral, Florent de Varennes, probably without the king's orders and with
that want of reflection which was conspicuous at each step of the
enterprise, immediately took possession of the harbor and of some
Tunisian vessels as prize, and sent word to the king "that he had only to
support him and that the disembarkation of the troops might be effected
in perfect safety." Thus war was commenced at the very first moment
against the Mussulman prince whom there had been a promise of seeing
before long a Christian.

At the end of a fortnight, after some fights between the Tunisians and
the crusaders, so much political and military blindness produced its