A.D . 1253.]] THE KING'S GRIEF AT HIS MOTHER'S DEATH. 503 Yo u must know, that the queen had heard that I had been on a pilgrimage, and had brought back some relics. I sent her by one of my knights four pieces of the camlets which I had purchased ; and when the knight entered her apartment, she cast herself on her knees before the camlets, that were wrapped up in a towel, and the knight, seeing Ihe queen do this, flung himself on his knees also. The queen, observing him, said, " Rise, sir knight, it does not become you to kneel, who are the bearer of such holy relics." My knight replied, that it was not relics, but camlets, that he had brought as a present from me. When the queen and her ladies heard this, they burst into laughter, and the queen said, " Sir knight, the deuce take your lord for having made me kneel to a parcel of camlets. * Soon after the king's arrival at Sajecte, he received the news of the death of the queen his mother, which caused him such grief that he was two days in his chamber without suffering any one to see him. On the third, he sent one of his valets to seek me; and, on my presenting myself he extended his arms, and said, " Ah, seneschal, I have lost my mother I" " Sir," replied I, " I am not surprised at it, for you know there must come a time for her death; but I am indeed greatly so, that you who are considered as so great a prince should so outrageously grieve ; for you know," continued I, " that the wise man says, whatever grief the valiant man suffers in his mind, he ought not to shew it on his countenance, nor let it be publicly known, for he that does so gives pleasure to his enemies and sorrow to his friends." I thus appeased him a little; and he gave orders that most magnificent religious services should be performed in the country in which he then was, for the salvation of the soul of the late queen. He sent likewise to France a load of jewels and precious stones to the national churches, with * After these words, what follows is in the edition of Poitiers : " I forgot to say, that whilst the king was at Sajette, a great person in Egypt sent him a most curions stone, the like was never seen. It split into scales, and when one scale was taken off, there was seen the perfect resemblance of a sea-Ash was deeply impressed between two stones, to which neither colour nor form was deficient, in similar matter to the stone. The king gave me a part of it, and, when it was divided, there was the exact form and colour of a tench, such as it is in nature."