The day was Saturday, and the crew
acted on his advice, making the procession round the masts, even the
sick being carried by their friends. The next day they were out of sight
of the mountain, and on the third Saturday safely landed at Cyprus. Here
the Crusaders remained for eight months, since Egypt was the intended
point of attack, and they wished to allow the inundation of the Nile to
subside. At length, in the summer of 1249, they arrived before Damietta,
which was even better fortified than when it had previously held out for
fifteen months; but it now surrendered, after Fakreddin, the Mameluke
commander, had suffered one defeat under its walls, and the Christians
entered in triumph. Here Louis made an unfortunate delay, while waiting
for reinforcements brought by his brother Alfonse, Comte de Poitiers.
To the rude and superstitious noblesse, a Crusade appeared a certain
means of securing salvation, as indeed the clergy led them to believe;
and this belief seemed to remove all restraint of morality from the
ill-disposed, so that the pure and pious King was bitterly grieved by
the license which he found himself unable to restrain. Much harm was
done by the excess in which the troops indulged while revelling in the
plunder of Damietta. The prudent would have reserved the stores there
laid up for time of need, but old crusaders insisted on "the good old
custom of the Holy Land," as they called it, namely, the distribution of
two-thirds among the army; and though the King ransomed some portion,
the money did as much harm in promoting revelry as the provisions
themselves.
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