Produced by Marilynda Fraser-Cunliffe and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was made using scans of public domain works in the International Children's Digital Library.) Presented to Master Thomas St. Lawrence Stephenson as a Birthday present from the Crew of the yacht "Northumbria" Sept. 12th 1841[1] [Illustration: 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. =Eight Full Page Illustrations.= =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 mediaeval 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.