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parts of the kingdom, was long held in siege by the admirals of the sultan.
If it were not for famine, which conquers all places however secure, this
fortress would be impregnable. There is also a castle called Mount Royal,
distant about twenty leagues from the aforesaid city, lying further towards
Egypt. Against this also the sultan had sent his admirals at the beginning of
the war; trusting to reduce it by famine, though he could not by arms. They
did not, therefore, erect machines or try to assault it; for it would be
ridiculous to try to scale heaven and to carry by storm a place which could
not be approached. The siege was protracted two years, when our people
began to feel want, and they endured all the horrors which the Spaniards
are said in ancient times to have suffered at Saguntum or the Romans at
Perusium; but they still kept up their courage, nor did they decline to eat

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food at which manÕs usual habits and nature revolt. Fatherly affection
renounces its rights; love, too, heeds no longer what it had once delighted
in; the father rejects his son, the son his decrepit parents, and the husband
his newly-married bride. They are driven out weeping from the walls and
exposed without protection to the enemy, that the remaining stock of food
may the longer maintain the fighting men. At last, worn out and half dead
with hunger, they enter into terms of capitulation, but yet such as honour
would sanction; for they obtained a free passage for themselves and liberty
for their lord Remfrid of Tours who had been taken prisoner. By a similar
fortune, Gerard do Riddeford, master of the Temple, was also released on
the surrender of certain fortresses; and the father of the marquis obtained
his liberty in exchange for some of the Mahomedan captives.
Chapter XVI. Ñ How Saladin, extolling the law of Mahomet, is reproved by a
jester.
Saladin by these means had got possession of nearly all the kingdom,
and every thing succeeded to his wishes. Elevated with his proud
triumphs, he talked in magnificent terms of the law of Mahomet, and
pointed to the result of his enterprise as a proof that it was superior to the
law of Christ.
These insolent vaunts he often threw out in the presence of the
Christians, one of whom, well known to him for his loquacity, on a certain
occasion, inspired by the Almighty, turned him into ridicule by the
following reply: ÒGod, who is the father of the faithful, judging the
Christians worthy of reproof and correction for their crimes, has chosen
thee, O prince, as his agent in this matter: thus sometimes a worldly father
in anger seizes a dirty stick out of the mire, wherewith when he has
chastised his erring sons, he throws it back among the filth where be found
it.Ó

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Chapter XVII. Ñ First of Richard, earl of Poitou, then of Henry, king of the
English, and of Philip, king of the French.
Whilst these things were done in Palestine, the archbishop of Tyre
had embarked on ship-board, and already reported to Christendom the
news of this great calamity, and the affliction of so small a kingdom was
felt as a calamity over many countries. Fame had carried to the ears of all
the kings, and of all the faithful, that the inheritance of Christ was occupied
by the heathen: some were affected to tears by the news, and some were
stimulated to vengeance. First of all, Richard the brave earl of Poitou,
assumed the cross to revenge its wrongs, and took the lead of all, inviting
others by his example. His father Henry, king of England, was now
declining in years; yet the young man was not deterred by either his
fatherÕs advanced age, or his own right to the throne, or the difficulties of
so long a voyage: no arguments could deter him from his purpose. The
Almighty, to reward the valour of this brave man, whom he had chosen to
be the first inciter of the others, reserved him, after the other princes were
dead or returned to their own country, to achieve his great work. Some
time after, Philip, king of France, and Henry, king of England, take the
cross at Gisors, followed by the nobles of both kingdoms, with numbers of
the clergy and laity, Ñ all, with equal aspirations, bent upon the same
design. So great was the ardour of this new pilgrimage, that it was no
longer a question who would take the cross, but who had not yet taken it.
Several persons sent a present of a distaff and wool to one another, as a
significant hint that whosoever declined the campaign would degrade
himself as much as if he did the duties of a woman: wives urged their
husbands, mothers their sons, to devote themselves to this noble contest;
and they only regretted that the weakness of their sex prevented
themselves from going also. The renown of this expedition spread so
extraordinarily, that many migrated from the cloister to the camp, and
exchanging the cowl for the cuirass, shewed themselves truly ChristÕs
soldiers, and quitting their libraries for the study of arms. The prelates of
the churches publicly preached to one another the virtue of abstinence,
admonishing all men that, laying aside all extravagance in eating and

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dress, they should refrain from their accustomed luxuries. It was agreed
also both among nobles and bishops, by common consent, that to maintain
the pilgrims who were poor, those who remained at home should pay
tithes of their property; but the flagitious cupidity of many took advantage
of this to lay heavy and undue exactions upon their subjects. In those days
William, king of Sicily, yielded to the lot of mortality; and his death was the
cause of so much the greater sorrow to all the faithful, because he had
always been prompt and ready to lend assistance to the Holy Land.
Chapter XVIII. Ñ The emperor of the Romans (Frederic Barbarossa) takes the
cross.
In process of time, Frederic, the Roman emperor, assumed the
insignia of the holy pilgrimage, and displayed, both outwardly in his dress,
and inwardly in his heart, the form of a true pilgrim. So great a king, whose
empire was bounded on the south by the Mediterranean Sea, on the north
by the Northern Ocean, whose glory was augmented by continual
victories, whose fortune had experienced no check, resigns every pleasure
and blandishment of the world, and humbly girds on his sword to fight for
Christ. His bravery, especially in his declining years, is no less to be
wondered at than praised; for though he was an old man and had sons,
whose age and valour seemed better adapted to military service, yet
esteeming them insufficient, he took upon himself the charge of defending
Christianity; but when his sons urged him to let them. discharge the task
which he had undertaken, either in his stead or in his company, he left his
eldest son to govern his empire, and the younger, whom he had created
duke of Suabia, he took with him on the expedition; and because the
imperial majesty never assails any one without sending a defiance, but
always gives notice of war to his enemies, a herald is dispatched from the
emperor to Saladin, calling upon him to give full satisfaction to
Christendom, which he has injured, or, failing to do so, to prepare himself
for war.
The Epistle of Frederic to Saladin.

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Frederic, by the grace of God emperor of the Romans, ever august, the
magnificent triumpher over the enemies of the empire, and the fortunate governor
of the whole monarchy, to the illustrious Saladin, formerly govern or of the
Saracens. May he take warning from Pharaoh, and touch not Jerusalem!
The letters which your devotion sent to us a long time ago, on
weighty and important matters, and which would have benefited you if
reliance could have been placed on your words, we received, as became the
magnificence of our majesty, and deemed it meet to communicate by letter
with your greatness. But now that you have profaned the Holy Land, over
which we, by the authority of the Eternal King, bear rule, as guardian of
Judea, Samaria, and Palestine, solicitude for our imperial office admonishes
us to proceed with due rigour against such presumptuous and criminal
audacity. Wherefore, unless, before all things, you restore the land which
you have seized, and give due satisfaction, to be adjudged according to the
holy constitutions, for such nefarious excesses, that we way not appear to
wage unlawful war against you, we give you, from the first of November, a
period of twelve months, after which you shall experience the fortune of
war, in the field of Zoan,
9
 by the virtue of the vivifying cross, and in the
name of the true Joseph. For we can scarcely believe that you are ignorant
of that which all antiquity and the writings of the ancients testify. Do you
pretend not to know that both the ®thiopias, Mauritania, Persia, Scythia,