384 JOINYTLLE'S MEMOIRS OF SAINT LOUIS rx. [FT . Π. Maura, came forward and said, "Gentlemen, I never remember any distress in our parish, either from too much abundance, or for want of rain or any other plague, but that God and his mother delivered us from it, and caused every thing to happen as it could be wished, when a procession had been made three times with devotion on a Saturday." Now this day was a Saturday, and we instantly began a procession round the masts of the ship. I remember well that I was forced to be supported under my arms, because I was at the time very sick. Immediately afterwards we lost sight of this mountain, and arrived at Cyprus the third Saturday after we had made our procession. W e found, on our landing at Cyprus, that the good king, St. Louis, was already there, and had laid in provisione in great abundance.* You would have taken his cellars, at a distance, for great houses formed of casks of wine, placed one on the other, which his purveyors had bought two years before, and had left in the open fields. In like manner was the wheat, barley, and other grain in large heaps, which, from their immense size, appeared like mountains ; and in truth many would have supposed them such ; for the rains which had battered their sides had made the corn grow, so that there was nothing to be seen bnt green corn. When the army of the king came to remove the grain, in order to its being sent to Egypt, and to take off the crust of green corn, they found the corn underneath as fine and fresh as if it had been just threshed. The good king was impatient to set sail, so that if it had not been for his barons, and near relatione, who prevailed on him to wait the arrival of forces that were daily expected, he would have embarked alone, or with a very small company. While the king remained in Cyprus, the great cham of E * Matthew Paris writes, then when the king's army was in want of revision, the Venetians and the inhabitants of some other towns, which e does not name, brought succour. The emperor Frederick also sent him assistance, for which the king felt so much obliged, that he wrote in his favour to the pope to obtain his absolution. Queen Blanche likewise thanked him by her letters, and sent him various presents, aa an acknowledgment to him from France, assuring him that the whole French army was indebted to him for its preservation.