The Historians' History of the World 08 [Parthians, Sassanids and Arabs; The Crusades and the Papacy]

Vinsaufg tells how Richard, as ardent in pleasure as in war, enjoyed the amusement of falconry, heedless of the enemy. On one occasion the royal party would have paid dearly for their temerity, if a Provençal gentleman, named William de Pratelles, had not cried aloud, “I am the king”; and by this noble lie the attention of the Saracens was drawn upon himself, while the real sovereign escaped. Shortly afterwards a body of Templars fell into an ambuscade of the Turks. Richard sent the earl of Leicester to the aid of the brave but exhausted knights, and promised to follow straight. Before he could buckle on his coat of steel, he heard that the enemy had triumphed. Despising all personal solicitude, and generously declaring he should not deserve the name of king if he abandoned those whom he had vowed to succour, he flew to the place of combat, plunged into the thickest of the fight, and his impetuosity received its usual reward of success.

The fortifications of Joppa were at length restored, a vigorous renewal of the war was determined on, and Plantagenet declared to the Saracens that the only way of averting his wrath would be to surrender to him the kingdom of Jerusalem, as it existed in the reign of Baldwin the leper. Saladin did not reject this proposal with disdain, but made a modification of the terms, in offering to yield Palestine from the Jordan to the sea. The negotiation lasted for some time. Richard was deceived and cajoled by the presents and blandishments of Saphedin [Saif ad-Din], who was the brother of Saladin, and the Christians were ashamed that their leader should be so friendly with an infidel. The barons soon saw, and compelled their royal lord to see, the artifice of the Turks, who resumed their attacks, and the negotiation was broken off. But the Templars, Hospitallers, and Pisans, dissuaded the king from attacking Jerusalem, on the argument that even if it should be taken they would immediately have to fight with the Turks in the neighbourhood. Richard commanded a retreat, and the army fell back upon Ramula, and then continued its retrogression to Askalon, a city of high consequence in the judgment of the Latins, because it was the link between the Turks in Jerusalem and the Turks in Egypt.

Until the return of the spring, all commerce between Askalon and other countries was cut off, and the army endured therefore the hardships of famine in addition to the usual severities of the climate. The impatient duke of Burgundy deserted the standard of Richard; some of the French soldiers went to Acre and Joppa; and others found a welcome reception at the court of the marquis of Tyre. But discontent gave place for a while to better feelings; and, at the solicitation of Plantagenet, most of the deserters returned to their duty. But Conrad disdained an answer to the royal summons. The walls of Askalon were soon repaired, for the proudest nobles and the most dignified clergy worked like the meanest of the people. The duke of Austria was the only distinguished man who was wrapped in haughty selfishness, and who could say that he was neither a carpenter nor a mason. Before indeed the works were completed, Richard lost the aid of his French allies, who, more mercenary than chivalric, retired to Acre, because the royal coffers were exhausted, and the king could not give them their stipulated pay. Commercial jealousy, as well as military envy, obstructed the Crusades. The Genoese and Pisans made Acre the theatre of their animosities; and an appearance of dignity and disinterestedness was given to their feuds, when they fought in the name and for the interests of their respective friends, Conrad and Guy. The marquis of Tyre joined his troops to the Genoese, and the civil war would have spread through all the Christian powers, if Plantagenet had not marched from Askalon to Acre. Conrad prudently retraced his steps, and by the address of the English king the breach between the republicans was closed. Richard endeavoured to conciliate the marquis; but the young nobleman aspired to independence and sovereign power, drew seven hundred French soldiers from Askalon to Tyre, and allied himself with Saladin. When Richard had retired from Jerusalem, and his army became broken, Saladin had dismissed many of his troops to their families and homes; but when he heard of the defection of Conrad, he thought that the moment of active hostility was arrived, and he accordingly spread his standard, and summoned his hosts.