were preparing to seize it. They would have been within their right.
But Baldwin conceived an idea, so clever that it must have been
suggested by a Greek, which, if successfully carried out, would result
in the attainment of much more money by its means. He would _give_ it
to Louis IX of France. A relic of such importance might be pawned, it
might be given, but it could not be sold. Therefore Baldwin gave it to
King Louis. By this plan the Venetians were tricked of their relic, on
which they had counted; the debt was transferred to France, which
easily paid it; the precious object itself, to which Frederick II
granted a free passage through his dominions, was conveyed by
Dominican friars to Troyes, whither the French court advanced to
receive it, and a gift of ten thousand marks reconciled Baldwin and
his barons to their loss. After all, as the prospects of the State
were so gloomy, it might be some consolation to them to reflect that
so sacred a relic--which had this great advantage over the wood of the
true Cross, that it had not been and could not be multiplied until it
became equal in bulk to the wood of a three-decker--was consigned to
the safe custody of the most Christian King of France.

This kind of traffic once begun, and proving profitable, there was no
reason why it should not continue. Accordingly, the Crown of Thorns
was followed by a large and very authentic piece of the true Cross.
St. Louis gave Baldwin twenty thousand marks as an honorarium for the
gift of this treasure, which he deposited in the Sainte-Chapelle. Here
it remained, occasionally working miracles, as every bit of the true
Cross was bound to do, until the troubles of the league, when it was
mysteriously stolen. Most likely some Huguenot laid hands upon it, and
took the same kind of delight in burning it that he took in throwing
the consecrated wafer to the pigs.