[286] Like many good and affectionate mothers, Blanche was very jealous of the influence of a young wife over her son. Principally for territorial advantages, Louis married Marguerite of Provence, when he was nineteen and the princess thirteen. Immediately after the ceremony, Blanche separated the newly-married couple and kept them apart for six years, under pretext of the youth of the new queen.—Trans.
[287] Bien fou celui qui, ayant quelque pêché sur son âme, se met en un tel danger; car si on s’endort au soir, on ne sait si on se trouvera le matin au fond de la mer.
[288] Michaud has omitted to mention the cause of Louis’ unfortunate choice of a route,—the residence in Cyprus proving so injurious to the army. The most regular and advisable route would have been by Sicily; but after Louis had in vain tried every means of subduing the anger of the pope, his superstitious reverence for the head of the Church prevailed over even his good sense and his prudence, and he declined stopping in Sicily, because that island was part of the dominions of an excommunicated prince.—Trans.
[289] The French had a custom of reckoning sums by twenties: in the text of Joinville this stands, “six vingts livres tournois.”—Trans.
[290] Oncques nul d’eux ne revint.
[291] Matthew Paris, William of Nangis, said Zanfliet are agreed concerning this embassy. We shall revert to it in our Appendix.
[292] Deguignes informs us that the prince Ecalthaï was the lieutenant of the khan of the Tartars in Asia Minor.
[293] Most of the articles which form the correspondence between Christendom and the Tartars are collected in the book of Moshemius, entitled Historia Tartorum Ecclesiastica: the letters of this correspondence do not all merit the same attention or the same confidence.
[294] M. Abel-Remusat, in his learned Memoir upon the Tartars, explains several doubtful circumstances of this embassy; he examines the opposite versions, and does not at all adopt the opinion of M. Deguignes, who views the Mogul ambassadors as nothing but impostors. If it may be allowed me, after these two great authorities, to offer an opinion, I should say that the arrival of Louis having created a great sensation in the East, Ecalthaï, governor of all the provinces of Asia, might send emissaries to ascertain the designs and strength of the Franks; and it may be believed that these emissaries, to perform their mission with more success, feigned several circumstances calculated to increase their credit in the minds of the Christians. It appears to us that this opinion may reconcile that which is opposite in that of the two writers quoted.
[295] No chronicle says that the king of Cyprus went with Louis, although he had taken the cross. This prince is never mentioned in any of the events of the war.