The figure at the foot of the preceding page, is a pprtrait^qf Margaret of
Provence, the beautiful and- accomplished wife oipfb. Louis, hing of France.
Margaret was the eldest daughter óf Raymond Berenger IV^Öiaiit of Province,
whose'court was, in the earlier half of the thirteenth;century}' the,resort
of all that was beautiful and accomplished in the .south" of lEurope, the-head
quarters of the rmost skilful troubadours. Margaret was married -tc^King
Louis on the 27th of May,'. 1234,tend'carried with her to the coipt‘|h fier
husband the testes, and fashions which had-flourished, in that of h|||tether.
In aI'250,-she 'accompanied her. husband to_Egypt,' and partook in" all ffiis
anxieties and dangers* during that disastrous expedition. When the army^of
the Crusaders was destroyed, and the'-king made prisoner by theiinfidelsfat
the fatal battle of Mansourah, Margaret was left in command of the town of
Damietta, where, amid the alarm and terror which that' byëht occasioned, aid
while the ramparts of the town itself were attacked b^'^K-Saracens, she gave
birth to a child. * During the life of St. Louis, the*’ ..piety and charity of
Margaret shone no less than his ow n a n d after his death, she hetiredyh-om
public life to end her days in the tranquility of a monastery. She 'died in
1295, Tp." the convent-of the nuns of Sh Clair,’which she hacl ^fierseWf« i d ( id
in the faubourg St. Marcel.
The old historians relate overal anecdotes of Margaret’s confage'^^x constancy
under the severe trials to which she was exposed in the" expedition to
the East. When - she was^ shut up in- Damietta, cl©selyj.|nd^^fi^.^y Be
Saracens, and intelhgence nrrived that the Mhg laid been deflated nncM^di
prisoner by his enemies, the queen sent alLher attendants outiofithe rboni|^|ept
one a^sd knight to. whose guard she was entrusted
of giving birth to her child): she fell on her knees befure hbn, a i^ |^ g « .d
he would give his word to perform a request shè.rha'drtp makej*^d^ ^ ® n
as he had promised ’to do this, she said^ “ Sir, what
faith which yóii have pledged,7 is, that i f Damietta shrduld,, be ^takên^qy R e
Saracens^you will immediately cut off mw hea&*ihat I
thé hands of the infidels ” The knight answer^with1 great^ng%oid, You
»ball be obeyed—I had already thought of doing sot”