The Boy Crusaders: A Story of the Days of Louis IX.

Opening of the book

Inscription

[1]

In vain were all attempts to drag him from his

steed; before his mighty battle-axe the Saracens

seemed to fall as corn before the reaper.—p. 169.

In vain were all attempts to drag him from his steed; before his mighty battle-axe the Saracens seemed to fall as corn before the reaper.—p. 169.

THE

BOY CRUSADERS:

A Story of the Days of Louis IX.

BY

J. G. EDGAR,

AUTHOR OF 'THE BOY PRINCES,' ETC.

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Eight Full Page Illustrations.

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Edinburgh:

GALL & INGLIS, 6 GEORGE STREET.

PREFACE.
AMONG the many adventurous enterprises which rendered the
age of feudalism and chain-armour memorable in history,
none were more remarkable or important than the 'armed
pilgrimages' popularly known as the Crusades; and, among
the expeditions which the warriors of mediæval Europe
undertook with the view of rescuing the Holy Sepulchre
from the Saracens, hardly one is so interesting as that
which had Louis IX. for its chief and Joinville for its
chronicler.
In this volume I have related the adventures of two
striplings, who, after serving their apprenticeship to
chivalry in a feudal castle in the north of England,
assumed the cross, embarked for the East, took part in the
crusade
headed
by
the
saint-King
of
France,
and
participated in the glory and disaster which attended the
Christian army, after landing at Damietta—including the
carnage of Mansourah, and the massacre of Minieh.
In writing the 'Boy Crusaders' for juvenile readers, my
object has been—while endeavouring to give those, for
whose perusal the work is intended, as faithful a picture
as possible of the events which Joinville has recorded—to
convey, at the same time, as clear an idea as my limits
would permit, of the career and character of the renowned
French monarch who, in peril and perplexity, in captivity
and chains, so eminently signalised his valour and his
piety.
J. G. E.
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER
PAGE
I.  A Feudal Castle
9

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