of the crusades.

Hugh of France returns to Europe, and takes them under his command; part of them are destroyed in Greece, Soliman falling on the rest, cuts them to pieces, and their chief dies abandoned in Asia. So true is it, that insurmountable obstacles are often thrown in the way to frustrate the accomplishment of a desirable and laudable event!

The European christians weakened by their victories, attenuated by sickness and the climate; the division of their conquests, the misunderstanding that existed between their chiefs, and the loss of Edesse, solicit another crusade. St. Bernard preaches the new undertaking with that enthusiasm which characterises him; he rends his clothes, works miracles, prophecies, absolves; and the apostolic zeal electerises again the imflamable French, and the phlegmatic Germans. The emperor Conradus, flies, plundering as he goes, and finally falls in the snares of the tyrant of Iconia, who annihilates his whole army-Young Louis is beaten at Laodicea, and dishonoured by his wife at Antioche: hunger and misery drives what croises survived to Europe. Saladin beats the christians of A. sia at Tyberiad, takes Guy of Lusignas, the true cross, and Jerusalem. All was lost! if (by a wonderful protection from above) that Saladin had not neglected avenging the blood of the infidels, which the christians had not spared on a similar occasion, eighty eight years be fore.

This disaster plunged Europe in the deepest consternation. Barbarousse, the emperor.

swears he will avenge christendom. He sets. out for Asia, beats the enemy twice, takes Iconia by storm, and would have accomplished no less than the complete conquest of the holy land, when, horrid to tell! he is accidentally drowned in the river Cydenus, and leaves only behind him seven or eight thousand men, which his son rallies, to join them to the broken remains of Lusignan's army.

Meanwhile Philip Augustus, and Richard, arrive in Syria: they find themselves at the head of an army of three hundred thousand fighting men. They take Ptolemais, and plan to push their conquest farther. But the devil, who has an interest in ruining the best undertakings, excited a jealousy between the two princes, and Philip returns to France. Richard defeats Saladin at Cesarea; Saladin finally ruins Richard's army, this last being obliged to return to England, falls into the hands of the emperor, Henry VIth, his mortal enemy.

The ardor of the crusades was not yet checked, a multitude of new heroes embark at Venice for Dalmatia; They take Zara at their landing: instead of making for the holy land, Con-. stantinople, which had probably incurred the wrath of Heaven, becomes now the object of their zeal. They escalade, ransack, pillage and burn, that superb city. They blasphsme, ravish and lay waste all they meet, destroy the churches, dash the altars and images to shivers, dance in the Sanctum Sanctorum of St. Sophia, and precipitate the emperor Mirzuflos from the top of a high column. To crown. the work

Baudoin of Flanders usurps the crown of the murdered emperor; but the Bulgars having taken the new sovereign, cut off his legs and arms, and exposed his mangled trunk, to the wild beasts.

Asia is not the only stage where the valour of the croises is diplayed. Two large bodies of men are raised against the Albigenses and Moors. One of these armies takes Bezeirs, and exterminates all its inhabitants; ruins those of Carcassona,seizes on Lavaur,murders eighty knights, together with the lord of that city, drowns the daughter of the last in a well, and burn to death round her remains, three hundred of the citizens, to complete the groupe. The other ransacks the whole country through which they pass; kills one hundred thousand of the Moors in the plains of Tolosa, puts in irons three hundred thousand more of those infidels, and returns home, giving thanks to the almighty for the success of so glorious an expedition.

The pious ardour for the crusades does not abate even children burn with a desire of signalizing their zeal for the recovery of the holy land; a multitude of school boys set out under care of some monks their school masters; but the devil tempted their conductors, who sold one half of them to the Turks, and the rest perished with misery on the route.

Mean while the croises of Asia take Damiet ta, and become able to push their conquest in Egypt. At this juncture a dominican friar disputes the command of the army with the king of Jerusalem.-God's ambassador makes

his claim good, and no sooner has the authority, than he pens the army between two arms of the Nile, to secure it from surprise but the Sultan Meledine (advised by hell itself) overflows the camp of the croises, forces them to sign a shameful truce, and to return to Phenicia.

St. Lewis, inspired with the same enthusiasm, hopes to do much better than his predecessor; he equips a fleet, leaves France, and lands in Egypt. The want of temperance, the prevalence of debauchery and consequent sickness, destroy one full half of his army, the Saracens defeat the rest at Massoura, and take him prisoner with his two sons: in consequence of that disaster he is obliged to restore Damietta to the enemy, to pay no less than four hundred thousand livres for his ransom, and to return to France without having effected any thing.

Some years after the king's zeal is revived, he undertakes a voyage with a view to convert the king of Tunis: He lands near the ruins of Carthage; but the plague afflicts his army, and being himself infected with it, he dies through humility on a heap of ashes.

This deplorable event, which God in his infinite wisdom had permitted, obliges the croises. to sign a truce with the intended proselyte, and to sail back for Sicily, there to establish their winter quarters.

They open the next campaign in Asia, where they have now turned their arms they take Jaffa, Beaufort, Nazareth and Antioch; kill seventeen thousand men, and carry away upwards

of one hundred thousand slaves. Such merciful successes gave hope for the re-establishment of the order of things in that quarter: but the reverse happens. The Sultan Melecseraph retakes Tyre and Sydon, and several other towns, beats the christians wherever he meets them, and ruins their affairs in the Holy Land.

How comes it, observed I to the friar, that so many croises perished in Egypt, if God was the instigator of the holy wars? How can you account for their innumerable and flagitious crimes? why were all their conquests wrested from their hands?

To your first question, said the Dominican, I shall answer, that the Almighty permitted such losses, to shew that we cannot pay too dearly for the redemption of that holy land, that sacred spot, which his divine Son had honored with his presence and bedewed with his blood. I say next, that the most laudable enterprize, the purest zeal, are more or less mixed with natural corruption, such is the fragility of human nature: but even that corruption with all its concomitants,is but a trifling evil when God's glory and the accomplishment of his will are at stake.

As to your third question, I own it appears astonishing at first glance, that God should suffer the croises to lose their conquests: but upon mature deliberation, you will confess, that the other advantages which resulted ultimately from the crusades, were of no less consequence than the possession of all Palestine itself. you are open to conviction you have but to listen; I'll be short.

If