LOUIS IX. OF FRANCE.
St. Louis. By Frederick Perry, M.A. (G. P. Putnam's Sons. 5s.)—Mr. Perry gives us an eminently readable biogiaphy of Louis IX. of France, and an exhaustive summary of French his- tory during that Monarch's reign. The book is illustrated with reproductions from old manuscripts. It has also a useful index at the end, making reference easy. Louis ascended the throne in 1226 when only thirteen years old, his mother, Blanche, wife of Louis VIII., becoming Regent. This woman, a born adminis- trator and diplomatist, kept the realm intact for her son during his long minority despite continual plots, and there is no doubt that St. Loins owed many of his greatest qualities to his mother's early training. Perhaps the most interesting part of the book is that dealing with the Egyptian Crusade, which was undertaken in 1249. Landing at the mouth of the Nile, Louis captured Damietta, forded the Tafnis, and defeated the Saracens at Mansourab. His success, however, was but tem- porary. Disasters rapidly followed, and after an absence of six years he returned to Paris with his object unaccomplished. Nevertheless, undeterred by misfortune, he began to prepare in 1267 another Crusade. His armies landed between Tunis and Carthage; but here dysentery broke out, and Louis him- self died, a victim to the disease, on August 25th, 1270.
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