"The two chronicles here presented, each composed by a man who took part in such an expedition, give a truer picture of an enterprise in which the darker as well as the brighter side of human nature is shown in the actions of those who took the cross." Introduction, p. 7

"Joinville's Life of Saint Louis stands as a worthy tribute to a king who by his example set before the world of his day an ideal of how a Christian ought to live, a knight should bear himself, and a man in authority govern the people committed to his charge. All his love and reverence for this good king, no less than his grief at the loss of so dear a friend, find supreme expression in Joinville's dream of Saint Louis, which comes as a fitting conclusion to his book." Introduction, p. 23

"But the men in charge, and...