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8 the Turks, heretics or oppressors of the weak"; Père Joseph, the secret collaborator of Richelieu, dreamed of uniting Christian Europe for another Crusade; and the wealthy Mazarin left a legacy for a war against Turkey. In 1649 a letter was addressed to the Maronites, a Christian sect resident in the Lebanon, assuring them of the protection of Louis XIV; and when the young King came of age Boileau and Fénelon appealed to him to take up the cross. The Turks were at this time dominating the Mediterranean, embarking on the conquest of Crete and invading Hungary. To join them would have placed Europe at the mercy of Louis XIV; but the temptation was resisted. In 1664 French troops took part in Montecucculi's great victory at St Gotthard; and the French flag was planted on the coast of Algiers as a security against the Moslem pirates who infested the Mediterranean.

It was above all the desire to divert the Catholic zeal of Louis XIV from Protestantism to a combat with Islam that inspired Leibnitz, the German philosopher, mathematician, historian and theologian, to plunge into the region of high politics. In 1671 he composed his Fabula Ludovisia, in which St Louis appears in a dream and urges his descendant to undertake an expedition to Egypt, a command which the King, on awaking, promises to obey. The philosopher hoped for an introduction to Louis through the Elector of Mainz, to whom the scheme had been communicated; but it was agreed to begin by sending a summary of the plan. In February 1672 the French Minister of Foreign Affairs reported that his master wished for further explanations from the author. Leibnitz at once started for Paris, which he reached at the moment when France and England declared war against the Dutch. The Foreign Minister sent a message from headquarters that Holy Wars had gone out of fashion; but in June a quarrel occurred between France and Turkey at Constantinople, and a war was freely discussed. Accordingly, while awaiting the King's return to Paris, Leibnitz drew up a full statement of his design, entitled De Expeditione