PROFIT TO BE DERIVED FROM THE THREATENINGS OF GOD

Now let us return to our subject, and proceed. After we had escaped from these two perils, the king sat himself on he bulwark of the ship, and made me sit at his feet, and spoke hues: “Seneschal, our God has shown us His great power 1 this: that a little wind not one of the four great master hends! has come near to drowning the King of France, is wife, and his children, and all his company. Now are we found to give Him grace and thanks for the peril from which .e has delivered us. Seneschal,” said the king, “ such tribulations, when they come to people, or great sicknesses, I great persecutions, are, as the saints tell us, the threaten- digs of our Saviour.

For just as God says to those who scape from great sicknesses: ‘ Now see how I might have trough your life to an end, had/such been My will,’ even so oculi He now say to us: ‘ You see how I might have drowned of all, had such been My will,’ Now ought we,” continued he king, “ to look to ourselves, and see if there is anything n us that displeases Him, and on account whereof He has hues placed us in fear and jeopardy; and if we find anything n us that displeases Him, we should cast it out. For if we lo otherwise, after the warning He has given us, He will mite us with death, or with some other great tribulation, to he destruction of our bodies and of our souls.” And the The present king, Philip the Fair, whose sister Blanche named Rudolph, the son of the King or Emperor of Germany.

king added: “ Seneschal, the saint says: Lord God, why dost thou threaten us? For if thou destroys us all, Thou wilt be none the poorer; and if Thou saves as alive Thou wilt be none the richer. Whereby we may see,’ says the saint, ‘ that the warnings that God gives us can neither be to His advantage, nor save Him from harm; and that it is only out of His great love that He sends His warnings to awaken us bulgaria tour, so that we may see our defects clearly, and remove from us all that is displeasing to Him.’ Now let us do this,” said the king, “ and we shall be acting wisely.”

THE ISLE OF LAMPEDOUSA

We left the island of Cyprus after we had watered there, and taken in such other things as we required. Then we came to an isle called Lampedousa, where we took a great quantity of conies; and we found an ancient hermitage ir the rocks, and found the garden that the hermits who dwell there had made of old time: where were olives, and figs, and vines, and other trees. The stream from the fountain rare through the garden. The king, and we all, went to the end of the garden, and found an oratory in the first cave, white-washed with lime, and there was there a cross of red earth We entered into the second cave, and found two bodies oil dead men, with the flesh all decayed; the ribs yet held al together, and the bones of the hands were on their breasts and they were laid towards the East, in the same manner that bodies are laid in the earth. ‘When we got back to out ship, we found that one of our mariners was missing; and the master of the ship thought he had remained there to be a hermit: wherefore Nicholas of Soisi, who was the king’s master sergeant, left three bags of biscuit on the shore, so that the mariner might find them, and subsist thereon.

Soldan without first speaking

The master told these things to the king; and the king was greatly surprised, and sari; the master had been over bold in holding speech or negotiating with the Soldan without first speaking to him, the king; and the king added that reparation should be made. And the reparation was made in this wise: The king caused the flaps of three of his pavilions to he raised; and all the commonalty of the host who would, had leave to assemble there and see what was toward. And thither came the Master of the Temple, and all his brotherhood of knights, all barefoot, right through the camp, because their quarters were outside.

Soldan’s envoy

And the king caused the Master of the Temple to sit in front of him, and also the Soldan’s envoy; and the king said to the master, in a loud voice: “ Master, you will tell the Soldan’s envoy that it repents you that you have made any treaty with the Soldan without first speaking to me; and because you did not first so speak to me, you must hold the Soldan discharged from what he has covenanted, and return him all his cove nans.” Thereupon the master took the written agreements and gave them to the emir; and then the master said: “ I give you back the agreements that I entered into wrong fully; whereof it repented me.”

Then the king told the master to rise, and to cause all the brethren to rise; and he did so. And the king said: “ Now kneel, and make reparation, because you have gone to the Soldan against my will.” The master knelt, and handed the end of his mantle to the king, and gave over to the king all that they possessed to take therefrom such fine and penalty as the king might determine. “ And I declare in the first place,” said the king, “ that Brother Hugh, who made these agreements, shall be banished from all the realm of Jerusalem.” Neither the master, who was godfather with the king to the Count 01 Alenfon, boom at Castle Pilgrim, nor even the queen, no: any other, was able to do aught on behalf of Brother Hugh he had to avoid the Holy Land and the kingdom of Jerusalem.

The queen was brought to bed of a son

The queen was brought to bed of a son, who had for name John; and they called him Trist ram for the great sorrow and anguish that were about his birth. On the very day that she was brought to bed, she was told that those of Pisa, and Genoa, and the other free cities, were minded to flee away; and on the day following she had them all called before her bed, so that the chamber was quite full, and said to them:

Lords, for God’s sake do not leave this city; for you see if this city were lost, my lord the king would be utterly 1st, and all those who have been taken captive with him. nd if this moves you not, yet take pity upon the poor weak renature lying here, and wait till I am recovered.”

And they replied: “ Lady, what can we do? For we are yang of hunger in this city.” And she told them that for imine they need not depart, “ for,” said she, “ I will cause all re food in this city to be bought, and will keep you all from henceforth at the king’s charges.” They advised together, ad came back to her, and said they consented to remain got willingly. Then the queen whom may God have in [is grace! caused all the food in the city to be bought at a of three hundred and sixty thousand liters and more, re due time she had to rise from her bed, because the city lust needs be surrendered to the Saracens. Then the queen rime to Acre to await the king.

THE KING ADJOURNS HIS CLAIMS AGAINST THE SARACENS PASSAGE TO ACRE

While the king was waiting for the deliverance of his rother, he sent brother Raoul, a preaching brother, to an , whose name was Faress Eddin Octay, one of the most Saracens I have ever seen. And the L ng notified to le emir that he greatly marveled how he and the other could suffered the treaty to be so villainously ; for they had killed the sick whom they were bound o entertain, and made litter of his engines of war, and had the sick, as well as the salted swine’s flesh that they ‘ere bound to preserve.