170 THE HISTORY OF THE ORDER OF [book II.

treated, and made prisoner; in Western Africa wasto die of the plague. The spirit of the holy warshad become quite defunct. Whether good or bad,this was the fact. The French barons seem to havebeen ready to go with St. Louis anywhere. Jeru-salem was only an accessory; nor did they care forPalestine. So it was not till off Sardinia that theydetermined on Tunis—St. Louis alone being ledaway by the hope of converting that dey, whichAnjou fomented from policy, to root out the pirateswho annoyed Sicily; if he was not the first to putTunis into St. Louis’s head, and so was the badadviser Joinville alludes to. The crusades, chieflythe last, led to forgetfulness of Jerusalem. Theydiscouraged the Christians upon the whole . 1 Asto Carthage, neither St. Louis nor his grandeesever heard or read anything about it . 2

While the reverses were going on near Tunis,and St. Louis’ death, and the return of that cru-sade, matters in Acre continued towards its cala-mitous destiny. There is an air of preparation ineven these documents, as of people getting readyfor removal, and unwilling to leave their affairs indisorder. So here is a solemn documentary resti-tution of forty-four papers which had been kept.

1 Michaud : Hist., v. 95.

2 Id.: Id., 57.—Sismondi: Ecp. Ital. iii. 332-5.