The Great Events by Famous Historians [Volumes 1-14]

At length the unwilling crusaders, stimulated by repeated exhortations and by the example of Louis, set forward on their march from all the provinces, and directed their course toward the ports of Aigues-Mortes and Marseilles. Louis soon welcomed the arrival of the Count of Poictiers, with a great number of his vassals; the principal nobles brought with them the most distinguished of their knights and their most brave and hardy soldiers; many cities likewise contributed their supply of warriors. Each troop had its banner, and formed a separate corps, bearing the name of a city or a province, the battalions of Beaucaire, Carcassonne, Châlons, Perigord, etc., attracted observation in the Christian army. These names, it is true, excited great emulation, but they also gave rise to quarrels, which the wisdom and firmness of Louis had great difficulty in appeasing. Crusaders arrived from Catalonia, Castile, and several other provinces of Spain; five hundred warriors from Friesland likewise ranged themselves with full confidence under the standard of such a leader as Louis, saying that their nation had always been proud to obey the kings of France.

Before he embarked, the King wrote once more to the regents of the kingdom, to recommend them to watch carefully over public morals, to deliver France from corrupt judges, and to render to everybody, particularly the poor, prompt and perfect justice, so that He who judges the judgments of men might have nothing to reproach him with.

Such were the last farewells that Louis took of France. The fleet set sail on the 4th of July, 1270, and in a few days arrived in the road of Cagliari. Here the council of the counts and barons was assembled in the King's vessel, to deliberate upon the plan of the crusade. Those who advocated the conquest of Tunis said that by that means the passages of the Mediterranean would be opened and the power of the mamelukes would be weakened; and that after that conquest the army would go triumphantly into either Egypt or Palestine. Many of the barons were not of this opinion; they said that, if the Holy Land stood in need of prompt assistance, they ought to afford it without delay. While they were engaged on the coast of Africa, in a country with which they were unacquainted, the Christian cities of Syria might all fall into the hands of the Saracens. The most redoubtable enemy of the Christians was Beibars, the terrible Sultan of Cairo; it was him they ought first to attack; it was into his states, into the bosom of his capital, that the war should be carried, and not to a place two hundred leagues from Egypt. They added to this, remembrances of the defeats that ought to be avenged upon the very theatre of so many disasters. Contemporary history does not say to what extent Louis was struck with the wisdom of these last opinions; but the expedition to Tunis flattered his most cherished hopes. It had been proposed by the King of Sicily, whose concurrence was necessary to the success of the crusade. It was, therefore, decided that the Genoese fleet should direct its course toward Africa; and two days after, on the 20th of July, it arrived in sight of Tunis and Carthage. At the sight of the Christian fleet, the inhabitants of the coast of Africa were seized with terror, and all who were upon the Carthage shore took flight toward the mountains or toward Tunis. Some vessels that were in the port were abandoned by their crews; the King ordered Florent de Varennes, who performed the functions of admiral, to get into a boat and reconnoitre the coast. Varennes found nobody in the port or upon the shore; he sent word to the King that there was no time to be lost—he must take immediate advantage of the consternation of the enemy. But it was remembered that in the preceding expedition the descent upon the coast of Egypt had been too precipitate; in this it was determined to risk nothing. Inexperienced youth had presided over the former war; now it was directed by old age and ripe manhood, and it was resolved to wait till the morrow. The next day at dawn the coast appeared covered with Saracens, among whom were many men on horseback. The crusaders, nevertheless, commenced their preparations for landing. At the approach of the Christians, the multitude of infidels disappeared; which, according to the account of an eyewitness, was a blessing from heaven, for the disorder was so great that a hundred men would have been sufficient to stop the disembarkation of the whole army. When the Christian army had landed, it was drawn up in order of battle upon the shore, and, in accordance with the laws of war, Pierre de Condé, almoner to the King, read with a loud voice a proclamation by which the conquerors took possession of the territory. This proclamation, which Louis had drawn up himself, began by these words: "I proclaim, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, and of Louis, King of France, his sergeant," etc. The baggage, provisions, and munitions of war were landed; a vast space was marked out, and the Christian soldiers pitched their tents. While they were digging ditches and raising intrenchments to protect the army from a surprise, they took possession of the tower built on the point of the cape, and on the following day five hundred sailors planted the standard of the lilies upon the castle of Carthage. The village of Marsa, which was close to the castle, fell likewise into the hands of the crusaders; the women and the sick were placed here, while the army remained beneath their tents. Louis still hoped for the conversion of the King of Tunis, but this pious illusion was very quickly dissolved. The Mussulman Prince sent messengers to the King to inform him that he would come and meet him at the head of a hundred thousand men, and would require baptism of him on the field of battle; the Moorish King added that he had caused all the Christians in his dominions to be seized, and that every one of them should be massacred if the Christian army presumed to insult his capital. The menaces and vain bravadoes of the Prince of Tunis effected no change in the plans of the crusade; the Moors, besides, inspired no fear, and they themselves could not conceal the terror which the sight only of the Christians created in them. Not daring to face their enemy, their scattered bands sometimes hovered around the Christian army, seeking to surprise any stragglers from the camp; and at others, uniting together, they poured down toward the advanced posts, launched a few arrows, showed their naked swords, and then depended upon the swiftness of their horses to secure them from the pursuit of the Christians. They not unfrequently had recourse to treachery; three hundred of them came into the camp of the crusaders, and said they wished to embrace the Christian faith, and a hundred more followed them announcing the same intention. After being received with open arms, they waited for what they deemed a favorable opportunity, and fell upon a body of the Christians, sword in hand; but being overwhelmed by numbers, most of them were killed, and the rest were allowed to escape. Three of the principals fell on their knees and implored the compassion of their leaders. The contempt the Franks had for such enemies obtained their pardon, and they were driven out of the camp. At length the Mussulman army, now emboldened by the inaction of the Christians, presented itself several times on the plain. Nothing would have been more easy than to attack and conquer it; but Louis had resolved to act upon the defensive, and to await the arrival of the King of Sicily, before beginning the war—a fatal resolution, which ruined everything. The Sicilian monarch, who had advised this ill-starred expedition, was destined to complete, by his delays, the evil he had begun by his counsels. The Mussulmans flocked from all parts of Africa to defend the cause of Islamism against the Christians. Preparations were carried on in Egypt to meet the invasion of the Franks; and in the month of August, Beibars announced by messengers that he was about to march to the assistance of Tunis. The troops which the Sultan of Cairo maintained in the province of Barca received orders to set forward. Thus the Moorish army was about to become formidable; but it was not this host of Saracens that the crusaders had most to dread. Other dangers, other misfortunes, threatened them: the Christian army wanted water; they had none but salted provisions; the soldiers could not endure the climate of Africa; winds constantly prevailed, which, coming from the torrid zone, appeared to the Europeans to be the breath of a devouring fire. The Saracens upon the neighboring mountains raised the sand with certain instruments made for the purpose, and the dust was carried by the wind in burning clouds down upon the plain upon which the Christians were encamped. At last, dysentery, that fatal malady of warm climates, began to commit frightful ravages among the troops; and the plague, which appears to be born of itself upon this burning, arid sand, spread its dire contagion through the Christian army.