On our return we visited the ancient town of Aigues-Mortes, near the sea, famous for having been the place where the Protestant women were confined and punished even to death.

" [Illustration: Fig. 33.Ramparts of the Town of Aigues-Mortes, one of the Municipalities of Languedoc.]

Au lieu de ces cotes uniformement prolongees, qui n'offroient aucune pointe, aucun piton, aucune eminence, on voyait se dessiner sur cette ile des roches aigues, solitaires, qui, comme autant d'aiguilles, sembloient s'elancer de la surface du sol.

y est difficile, a cause des prismes de basalte qui, couches horizontalement sur le sol, presentent leurs aretes aigues en saillantes et dehors.

Si l'on choisit la voie de mer, on aura le choix de s'embarquer, soit à Aigues-Mortes soit à Marseille

No such transformation was near taking place in the case of the invasions of the Saracens in Southern Gaul; they continued to infest Aquitania, Septimania, and Provence; their robber-hordes appeared frequently on the coasts of the Mediterranean and the banks of the Rhone, at Aigues-Mortes, at Marseilles, at Arles, and in Camargue; they sometimes penetrated into Dauphine, Rouergue, Limousin, and Saintonge.

On arriving, in the early part of August, at Aigues-Mortes, he found assembled there a fleet of thirty-eight vessels with a certain number of transport-ships which he had hired from the republic of Genoa; and they were to convey to the East the troops and personal retinue of the king himself.

Ten thousand prisonersthis was all that remained of the crusade that had started eighteen months before from Aigues-Mortes.

It was once more at Aigues-Mortes that he went to embark.

On arriving at Aigues-Mortes about the middle of May, Louis found nothing organized, nothing in readiness, neither crusaders nor vessels; everything was done slowly, incompletely, and with the greatest irregularity.

Charles V. being forced by contrary winds to touch at the Island of Sainte-Marie, made a proposal to Francis I. for an interview at Aigues Mortes; Francis repaired thither on the 14th of July, 1538, and went, the very same day, in a small galley, to pay a visit to the emperor, who stepped eagerly forward, and held out a hand to him to help him on to the other vessel.

Next day, the 15th of July, Charles V., embarking on board one of the king's frigates, went and returned the visit at Aigues-Mortes, where Francis, with his whole court, was awaiting him; after disembarkation at the port they embraced; and Queen Eleanor, glad to see them together, "embraced them both," says an eyewitness, "a round the waist."

An unexpected event occurred to give this friendly meeting at Aigues-Mortes a value which otherwise it would probably never have attained.

The temptation was great; but whether it were from prudence or from feudal loyalty, or in consequence of the meeting at Aigues-Mortes, and of the prospects set before him by Charles of an arrangement touching Milaness, Francis rejected the offer of the Ghentese, and informed Charles V. of it.

Some of his councillors pressed him to annex some conditions, such, at the least, as a formal and written engagement instead of the vague and verbal promises at Aigues-Mortes.

DELILAH, the Philistine woman who beguiled and betrayed Samson. DELILLE, JACQUES, a French poet, born at Aigues Perse, in Auvergne; translator of the "Georgics" of Virgil into verse, afterwards the "Æneid" and "Paradise Lost," besides producing also certain didactic and descriptive works; was a good versifier, but properly no poet, and much overrated; died blind (1738-1813).