His finances were restored, his kingdom was enlarged; a new generation of warriors had arisen, and he advanced with fresh confidence at the head of six thousand horse and thirty thousand foot.

The loss of Antioch had provoked the enterprise; a wild hope of baptizing the king of Tunis tempted him to steer for the African coast; and the report of an immense treasure reconciled his troops to the delay of their voyage to the Holy Land.

Instead of a proselyte, he found a siege: the French panted and died on the burning sands: St.Louis expired in his tent; and no sooner had he closed his eyes, than his son and successor gave the signal of the retreat.

[100] "It is thus," says a lively writer, "that a Christian king died near the ruins of Carthage, waging war against the sectaries of Mahomet, in a land to which Dido had introduced the deities of Syria." [101] [Footnote 100: See the expedition in the annals of St.Louis, by William de Nangis, p.

270--287; and the Arabic extracts, p.