95. The fleet was made ready, and the glorious prince retreating with his cowardly troop, sails over the Etruscan Sea. Having landed on the German coast, he spreads abroad among the people, during the whole of his journey, that that traitor the king of England, from the first moment of his arrival in Judea, had endeavoured to betray his lord the king of the French to Saladin; that, as soon as he had obtained Tyre, he caused the marquess to be murdered; that he had despatched the duke of Burgundy by poison; that at the last he had sold generally the whole army of the Christians who did not obey him; that he was a man of singular ferocity, of harsh and repulsive manners, subtle in treachery, and most cunning in dissimulation; that on that account the king of the French had returned home so soon; that on that account the French who remained had left Jerusalem unredeemed. This report gained strength by circulation, and provoked against one man the hatred of all.
Sect. 96. The bishop of Beauvais, having returned to France, secretly whispered in the king’s ear, that the king of England had sent assassins to France who would murder him. The king, alarmed at that, appointed, though against the custom of his country, a chosen body-guard; he further sent ambassadors to the emperor of Germany with presents, and carefully persuaded his imperial majesty to a hatred of the king of England. So it was enjoined by an imperial edict, that all cities and princes of the empire should take the king of the English by force, if by chance in his return from Judea he should happen to pass through their countries, and present him to him alive or dead. If any one spared him, he should be punished as the public enemy of the empire. All obeyed the emperor’s charge; and especially that duke of Austria whom the king of England had dismissed at Acre.
Sect. 97. Henry, count of Champagne, now the only one of the French nobles left in Judea, returned to the king of the English, to Jaffa; and when he announced to him both the death of the duke of Burgundy and the departure of the French, the hope of the king so revived, that he presently experienced a perfect convalescence with a healthy perspiration; and having resumed his strength of body more by the high temper of his mind than by repose or nourishment, he issued a command through the whole coast from Tyre to Ascalon, that all who were able to serve in the wars should come to the service at the king’s charges. There assembled before him a countless multitude, the greater part of whom were foot; which being rejected, as they were useless, he mustered the horse, and scarcely found five hundred knights and two thousand shield-bearers whose lords had perished. And not mistrustful on account of their small number, he being a most excellent orator, strengthened the minds of the fearful in a seasonable harangue. He commanded that it should be proclaimed through the companies that on the third day they must follow the king to battle, either to die as martyrs or to take Jerusalem by storm. This was the sum of his project, because as yet he knew nothing of the truce. For there was no one who duist even hint to him, who had so unexpectedly recovered, that which, without his knowledge, they had undertaken through fear of his death. However, Hubert Walter, bishop of Salisbury, took counsel with Count Henry concerning the truce, and obtained his ready concurrence in his wishes. So having deliberated together by what stratagem they might be able without danger to hinder such a hazardous engagement, they conceived one of a thousand, namely, to dissuade the people if possible from the enterprise. And the matter turned out most favourably; the spirit of those who were going to fight had so greatly failed, even without dissuasion, that on the appointed day, when the king, according to his custom leading the van, marshalled his army, there were not found of all the knights and shield-bearers above nine hundred. On account of which defection, the king, greatly enraged, or rather raving, and champing with his teeth the pine rod which he held in his hand, at length unbridled his indignant lips as follows:—“O God!” said he, “O God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? For whom have we foolish Christians, for whom have we English come hither from the furthest parts of the earth to bear our arms? Is it not for the God of the Christians? O fie! How good art thou to us thy people, who now are for thy name given up to the sword; we shall become a portion for foxes. O how unwilling should I be to forsake thee in so forlorn and dreadful a position, were I thy lord and advocate as thou art mine! In sooth, my standards will in future be despised, not through my fault but through thine; in sooth, not through any cowardice of my warfare, art thou thyself, my King and my God, conquered this day, and not Richard thy vassal.”
Sect. 98. He said, and returned to the camp extremely dejected; and as a fit occasion now offered, Bishop Hubert and Henry, count of Champagne, approaching him with unwonted familiarity, and as if nothing had yet been arranged, importuned under divers pretexts the king’s consent for making such overtures to the Gentiles as were necessary. And thus the king answered them: “Since it generally happens that a troubled mind rather thwarts than affords sound judgment—I, who am greatly perplexed in mind, authorize you, who have as I see a collected mind, to arrange what you shall think most proper for the good of peace.” They having gained their desires, chose messengers to send to Saffatin upon these matters; Saffatin, who had returned from Jerusalem, is suddenly announced to be at hand; the count and the bishop go to meet him, and being assured by him of the truce, they instruct him how he must speak with the lord their king. Saffatin being admitted to an interview with the king as one who before had been his friend, could scarcely prevail with the king not to make himself a sacrifice, and to consent to the truce. For so great were the man’s strength of body, mental courage, and entire trust in Christ, that he could hardly be prevailed upon not to undertake in his own person a single combat with a thousand of the choicest Gentiles, as he was destitute of soldiers. And as he was not permitted to break off in this way, he chose another evasion, that, after a truce of seven weeks, the stipulations of the compact being preserved, it should remain for him to choose whether it were better to fight or to forbear. The right hands are given by both parties for faithfully observing this last agreement; and Saffatin, more honoured than burdened with the king’s present, goes back again to his brother, to return at the expiration of the term for the final conclusion or breaking off of the above truce.
Sect. 99. Richard, king of England, held a council at Acre, and there prudently regulating the government of that state, he appointed his nephew, Henry, count of Champagne, on whom he had formerly conferred Tyre, to be captain and lord of the whole Land of Promise. Only he thought proper to defer his consecration as king till haply he might be crowned at Jerusalem. King Richard now thinking to return home, when with the assistance of Count Henry he had appointed chosen men for all the strongholds that had been taken in his territories, found Ascalon alone without ward or inhabitant for want of people. Wherefore, taking precaution that it might not become a receptacle of the Gentiles, he caused the ramparts and fortifications of the castle to be cast down. The seventh day of the seventh week appeared, and behold Saffatin, with many mighty ones who desired to see the face of the king, drew near; the truce was confirmed on both sides by oath, this being added to that which had been previously settled, that during the continuance of the truce no one, whether Christian or Gentile, should inhabit Ascalon, and that the whole of the tillage pertaining to the town should remain to the Christians. Hubert, bishop of Salisbury, and Henry, captain of Judea, together with a numerous band, went up to Jerusalem to worship in the place where the feet of Christ had stood. And there was woeful misery to be seen—captive confessors of the Christian name, wearing out a hard and constant martyrdom; chained together in gangs, their feet blistered, their shoulders raw, their backsides goaded, their backs wealed, they carried materials to the hands of the masons and stone-layers to make Jerusalem impregnable against the Christians. When the -captain and bishop had returned from the sacred places, they endeavoured to persuade the king to go up; but the worthy indignation of his noble mind could not consent to receive that from the courtesy of the Gentiles which he could not obtain by the gift of God.
* Henry, son of King Henry II., is frequently styled Henry the Third, in the early Chronicles.
† Jews, so called probably from their usurious practices.
* Stephen de Marzia, otherwise called Stephen de Turonis.
