After these things it chanced, as it pleased God, that great illness fell upon the king at Paris, by which he was brought to such extremity that one of the women who watched by his side wanted to draw the sheet over his face, saying that he was dead; but another woman, who was on the other side of the bed, would not suffer it, for the soul, she said, had not yet left the body. While he was listening to the dispute between these two, our Lord wrought upon him and quickly sent him health; for before that he was dumb, and could not speak. He demanded that the cross should be given to him, and it was done. When the queen, his mother, heard that he had recovered his speech, she exhibited as much joy as could be; but when she was told by himself that he had taken the cross, she displayed as much grief as if she had seen him dead. [Sidenote: Prominent Frenchmen who followed his example] After the king put on the cross, Robert, count of Artois, Alphonse, count of Poitiers, Charles, count of Anjou, who was afterwards king of Sicily--all three brothers of the king--also took the cross; as likewise did Hugh, duke of Burgundy, William, count of Flanders (brother to Count Guy of Flanders, the last who died), the good Hugh, count of Saint Pol, and Monseigneur Walter, his nephew, who bore himself right manfully beyond seas, and would have been of great worth had he lived. There was also the count of La Marche, and Monseigneur Hugh le Brun, his son; the count of Sarrebourg, and Monseigneur d'Apremont, his brother, in whose company I myself, John, Seigneur de Joinville, crossed the sea in a ship we chartered, because we were cousins; and we crossed over in all twenty knights, nine of whom followed the count of Sarrebourg, and nine were with me.... The king summoned his barons to Paris, and made them swear to keep faith and loyalty towards his children if anything happened to himself on the voyage. He asked the same of me, but I refused to take any oath, because I was not his vassal.... [Sidenote: Embarking on the Mediterranean]