Astrology was one of the fads of this period; it reached its highest development in the sixteenth century, and was not wholly extinguished till the seventeenth. The astrologers pretended to read in the stars the destiny of human lives. Another folly was the search of the alchemists for the philosopher’s stone--that is to say, the method of creating gold by the transmutation of metals. These dreams, however, led to happy results: the astrologers from much star-gazing discovered the laws that governed the movements of those bodies; the alchemists found in their crucibles--not gold, indeed, but new substances, or new properties of those already known. So were discovered the process of forming salts by distillation, powerful acids, enamels, and convex glasses leading to the making of spectacles.[c] FOOTNOTES [8] [This is called by many historians the Fourth Crusade.] [9] [“St. Louis,” says Guizot,[m] “was above all a conscientious man, a man who before acting weighed the question to himself of the moral good or evil, the question as to whether what he was about to do was good or evil in itself, independently of all utility, of all consequences. Such men are rarely seen and still more rarely remain upon the throne. Truly speaking, there are hardly more than two examples in history, one in antiquity, the other in modern times: Marcus Aurelius and St. Louis. These are, perhaps, the only two princes who, on every occasion, have formed the first rule of their conduct from their moral creeds--Marcus Aurelius, a stoic, St. Louis, a Christian.”] [10] [Custom had permitted that when anyone had murdered, wounded, or beaten another the victim or his relatives might immediately avenge themselves by killing, wounding, or beating the offender or any of his relatives, even if the latter were ignorant of what had occurred. The ordinance of _quarantaine-le-roi_, forbade the injured to attack any of the offender’s family until after the lapse of forty days (_une quarantaine_). During the interval the offender himself was alone held answerable for his action. Furthermore, if either victim or offender chose to submit his cause to his suzerain he could secure inviolability (_asseurement_), for his goods and person, until a judicial decision had been given. When this inviolability had been demanded its breach was punishable by death.] [11] [The livres of Tours and of Paris; their values being 20 and 25 sous respectively.] [12] The disquisitions of the _troubadours_ or the _trouvères_ on questions of gallantry were called _jeux partis_; whence grew those “courts of love” in which were tried, before tribunals of noble ladies, complicated cases and subtle questions. These “courts of love” were of course but a poetical fiction, never a serious or permanent institution. [Illustration] CHAPTER IV. PHILIP III TO THE HOUSE OF VALOIS