"
He obtained the grant, and thus raised 1,000 marks, while Richard of
Cornwall actually gained from one archdeacon L600, and in proportion
from others.
Louis, for three years, was detained by the necessity of arranging
matters for the tranquillity of his own kingdom, and not till the Friday
in Whitsun-week, 1248, was he solemnly invested at St. Denis with the
pilgrim's staff and wallet, and presented with the oriflamme, the
standard of the convent, which he bore as Count of Paris. His two
brothers, Robert Comte d'Artois, and Charles Comte d'Anjou, and his wife
Marguerite of Provence, accompanied him, together with a great number
of the nobility, among whom the most interesting was the faithful and
attached Sieur de Joinville, Seneschal of Champagne, who has left us a
minute record of his master's adventures.
They sailed from Aigues Mortes, August 25th, 1248, and Joinville
reflected that he could not imagine how a man in a state of mortal sin
could ever put to sea, since he knew not, when he fell asleep at night,
whether morning would not find him at the bottom of the sea. On coming
near the coast of Barbary, Joinville's ship seems to have been becalmed,
for it continued for three whole days in view of the same round
mountain, to the great dismay of the crew, until a _preux d'homme_
priest suggested, that in his parish, in cases of distress, such as
dearth, or flood, or pestilence, processions chanting the Litany were
made on three Saturdays following.
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