510 JOINVILLE'S MEMOIRS OF 8A INT LOUIS IX. QPT. IL of these four winds, the king, the queen, our children, and so many other persons, might hare been drowned? For our de liverance from this danger, we ought to pay him our sincerest thanks." The good king talked incessantly of the imminent danger we had been in, and of the power which God had displayed He*said to me, " Seneschal, when such tribulations befeu man kind, or other misfortunes of sickness, the saints say they are threatenings from our Lord. I therefore maintain, that the perils we have been in are the same kind of threatening from our Lord, who might say, * Now consider how very easily I might have suffered you all to be drowned, bad I so willed it.' "For this reason," continued the holy king, " we should examine ourselves well that there be nothing in our conduct displeasing to God our Creator ; and whenever we may find there is any thing wrong, we ought instantly to make ourselves clear of it. When we thus act, God wull love us and pre serve us from all perils; but, should we follow a contrary be haviour after having noticed these menaces, he will afflict us with some grievous malady, perhaps death, and permit us to descend to hell, without hope of redemption." The good and holy king continued,—" Seneschal, that good man Job said to God, ' Lord God, wherefore dost thou afflict us ? for if thou destroy us, thou wilt not be the poorer ; aud if thou wert to call us all to thee, thou wouldst not be more powerful nor more rich.' Whence we may see," added he, " that the menaces of God are uttered against us from his great love to us, and for our welfare, not for his own; that we may the more clearly discover our faults and demerits, and purify our consciences from all that may be displeasing to him. Let us therefore act in this manner, and we shall be the wiser and better for it" After having taken water on board at the island of Cyprus, and some other necessary articles, we again set sail when the tempest had ceased, and saw another island called Lampedusa.* We landed on it, and catched a great many rabbits. * This is the island of Lampedusa, called by Ptolemy Lapadtua, by the Italians Lampadotua, and by Ariosto in his fourth canto Lipaduta, who represents it as being uninhabited, as well as the lord de Joinville. It is 100 miles distant from Malta. Geographers remark, there is at present a church called Sancta Maria de Lampedusa, divided into two parts, as described by our author.