to obedience the turbulent nobles, who, being constantly at war with one another, were unable to make any effectual resistance to his operations, which were planned with prudence, and executed with vigour.

He next displayed his policy in supporting the sons of Henry II. in their repeated rebellions against their father; by which he counterbalanced the power of that prince in France. He afterwards undertook, in concert with Richard I., the crusade so celebrated in English history. Philip Augustus derived no benefit from the conquests made by his troops in the crusades; but he projected other schemes of aggrandisement. In consequence of king John's being excommunicated by the Pope, and his kingdom's being given to any Christian prince who might be able to gain its possession, Philip resolved to attempt the conquest, and made great preparations for so arduous an enterprise.

The submission of John to the Holy See induced the Pope to lay his injunctions on Philip to desist from his undertaking. But the French monarch was not so easily to be deterred from the execution of a project which flattered his ambition. His fleet, however, had no sooner sailed from the mouth of the Seine, than it was defeated, and almost entirely destroyed by the English. This loss was soon compensated by the most brilliant successes. Philip seized the territories of the count of Flanders, as being the ally of England; and at the battle of Bouvines, A. D. 1214, he gained a victory over the army of the Emperor Otho, and his allies, three times

as numerous as his own. The courage and conduct which Philip displayed in that conflict, procured him a high reputation as a military commander, and his victory gave to France complete security on the side of Germany. The distracted state of England, occasioned by the weakness, and the oppressive tyranny of John, soon afforded Philip Augustus an opportunity of resuming his designs with respect to that kingdom. The English barons, revolting against their arbitrary and capricious monarch, offered the crown to Louis the son of the French sovereign. Of this favourable circumstance he eagerly availed himself, and sent Louis with a strong force into England. The young prince met with a cordial reception, and was proclaimed king at London. His affairs continued to prosper till he was master of nearly the whole kingdom; when John dying in 1216, the resentment of the English against him was extinguished by his death, and the greater part of the barons declared in favour of his son, Henry III.

The balance, now, turned against Louis; he was defeated, besieged in London; but having obtained an honourable capitulation, he departed from England. Philip Augustus died, A. D. 1223, in the fifty-ninth year of his age and the forty-fourth of a prosperous and glorious reign.

The character of Philip Augustus exhibits a mixture of splendid qualities and great vices. Prudent and artful; ambitious; valiant and enterprising; he possessed all the qualifications requisite for the cabinet or the camp; but he was intriguing, treacherous, and unprincipled.

He was the greatest political genius of his age, but never scrupulous concerning the means which he used for the attainment of his objects. By his great talents and wary conduct, he raised his country from extreme depression to high power and importance.

LOUIS IX.

LOUIS IX., commonly known by the name of St. Louis, was only twelve years of age, when his father Louis VIII., the son of Philip Augustus, died, A. D. 1226. During his minority he was under the guardianship of Blanch, his mother, a wise and prudent princess, who held the sceptre with so firm a hand, and so well restrained the turbulence of the factious nobles, that when Louis received the reins of government, he found himself possessed of an authority not inferior to that of his predecessors. The most remarkable events of his reign were his two crusades against the Mahommedans of Egypt and Tunis. In the first of these expeditions, which took place A. D. 1248, he was accompanied by his three brothers, and a numerous train of nobles His first operations were crowned with success. He made himself master of Damietta, a considerable town of Egypt; and on several occasions, both he and his troops performed prodigies of valour. But this sunshine was followed by a dreadful storm. The French army was reduced, by famine and sickness, to the greatest distress.

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The king, his brothers, and a great number of his principal officers were taken prisoners, while multitudes perished by the sword.

In consequence of this disaster, Louis was obliged to pay an enormous sum for his ransom, to give up Damietta, and to evacuate Egypt. He afterwards proceeded to Palestine, and repaired the fortifications of several towns which had long been in possession of the Christians. This disastrous expedition was, however, productive of some beneficial effects; as by various negociations he obtained the liberty of more than twelve thousand Christian captives.

The crusade which St. Louis undertook against Tunis, was yet more unfortunate than that of Egypt. Having landed on the African coast with an army of sixty thousand men, the plague broke out in his camp, and after seeing one of his sons expire, he himself fell a victim to its fury.

After his death, Philip le Hardi, having defeated the Saracens, concluded a treaty of peace with the king of Tunis, and thus saved the shattered remains of the French army. This was the last of those wild expeditions which, during a period of one hundred and seventy-four years, had, at different intervals, agitated Europe and Asia.

St. Louis is one of the most extraordinary characters found in the annals of royalty. Devout in the closet and the temple; in the field brave and intrepid. He was strict and inflexible in the administration of justice; and he maintained the most rigid discipline in the camp. He curbed the

turbulence of the ambitious nobles, and firmly opposed the encroachments which popes and prelates were inclined to make on the royal authority. But while his government of the kingdom was characterised by vigorous measures, he made a quite different appearance in his domestic economy. His servants were his masters, and his time was spent in the most rigid practices of superstitious devotion. His soul was fired only by great objects, and he disdained to bestow his attention on what he called trifles. His prudence was equal to his courage. The virtues of St. Louis were his own; his errors were those of the times. His name is held in veneration by every Frenchman.

Bigland.

CYRUS THE GREAT.

CYRUS was the son of Cambyses king of Persia, at that time a small province only of what was afterwards the Persian empire, and of Mandane daughter of Astyages, monarch of the Medes. He passed the first twelve years of his life with his parents, in his native country, being brought up, like the other Persians, in habits of the strictest temperance, of truth, of self command, of laborious bodily exercise. Upon the invitation of Astyages, Mandane conducted her son into Media, where, by his amiable disposition, his generous and obliging conduct, he gained