Excerpt from Sir Guy De Lusignan, Vol. 2 of 2: A Tale of Italy As to papers or anything else concerning the family of Lusignan, they were perfectly ignorant, and they appeared more anxious to ask questions than to answer them, for When they heard that Lusignan came from Italy, they wanted to know of him the real opinion of the sacred college with respect to the order of Dominicans, or friars prea chers, (47) newly established in their city. They knew not what to think of their zeal and wished to know if their influence were great in Rome, or otherwise. Lusignan had little information to give them on a subject which had never taken up his thoughts; and which he scarcely recollected to have heard mentioned. He indeed remembered having heard but too much of the fanaticism of the Albigeois and of the bulls issued against them. It appeared to him that the sacred name of reli gion had been misused to justify rebellion on the one hand and persecution on the other. He wished that the war between the former Count of Toulouse and De Montfort could be for ever veiled from the eye of' retrospection but as those unhappy times had long sinced passed away; and he was not born when the torch of discord was blazing amidst those ardent Spirits of the south of Gaul, he could not tell whether it were likely to be revived or extinguished by the brethren of Saint Dominick. The Palladian city, as Toulouse had long been called, from the cultivation of arts and letters by which it was distinguished, was at this period governed by Alphonso, one of the King's brothers, who married the only child of the late Count Raymond. Lewis, equally wise and generous as an enemy, never made war without having peace in view; and when he concluded this treaty of marriage for his brother, he advised him to reside as much as possible in his new states, that he might gain the affections of the people. Alphonso was now preparing to join him for the second time in an expedition to the Holy Land and Sir Guy de Lusignan, from the moment in which he heard that Philip was gone thither, felt a strong desire to revisit his native country. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.