The last edition proves that the history of St.Louis was finished A.D.1309, without explaining, or even admiring, the age of the author, which must have exceeded ninety years, (Preface, p.x.Observations de Ducange, p.

17.)] [Footnote 95: Joinville, p.32.Arabic Extracts, p.549.

* Note: Compare Wilken, vol.vii.p.

94 .-- M.] In complete armor, the oriflamme waving before him, Louis leaped foremost on the beach; and the strong city of Damietta, which had cost his predecessors a siege of sixteen months, was abandoned on the first assault by the trembling Moslems.

But Damietta was the first and the last of his conquests; and in the fifth and sixth crusades, the same causes, almost on the same ground, were productive of similar calamities.