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 352 THE DECLINE AND FALL the sudden or, as they deemed, the miraculous retreat of the Christians ; ^^ and the laurels of Richard were blasted by the prudence or envy of his companions. The hero, ascending an hill, and veiling his face, exclaimed with an indignant voice, " Those who are unwilling to rescue, are unworthy to view, the sepulchre of Christ ! " After his return to Acre, on the news that Jaffa was surprised by the sultan, he sailed with some merchant vessels, and leaped foremost on the beach ; the castle was relieved by his presence ; and sixty thousand Turks and Saracens fled before his arms. The discovery of his weakness provoked them to return in the morning ; ^^^ and they found him carelessly encamped before the gates with only seventeen knights and three hundred archers. Without counting their numbers, he sustained their charge ; and we learn from the evidence of his enemies, that the king of England, grasping his lance, rode furiously along their front, from the right to the left wing, without meeting an adversary Avho dared to encounter his career.**' Am I writing the history of Orlando or Amadis ? His treaty During thcsc hostilities a languid and tedious negotiation ^^ &jid d.6- ^ parture. AD. betwccn the Franks and the Moslems was started, and continued, tember and broken, and again resumed, and again broken. Some acts of royal courtesy, the gift of snow and fruit, the exchange of Norway hawks and Arabian horses, softened the asperity of re- ligious war : from the vicissitude of success the monarchs might learn to suspect that Heaven was neutral in the quarrel ; nor, after the trial of each other, could either hope for a decisive victory. ^^ The health both of Richard and Saladin appeared to "* Bohadin (p. 237), and even Jeffrey de Vinisauf (1. vi. c. 1-8, p. 403-409), ascribe the retreat to Richard himself; and Jacobus a Vitriaco observes that, in his impatience to depart, in alterum virum mutatus est (p. 1123). Yet Joinville, a French knight, accuses the envy of Hugh, duke of Burgundy (p. 116), without supposing, like Matthew Paris, that he was bribed by Saladin. ^''a. [Not exactly : four days later.] "■ The expeditions to Ascalon, Jerusalem, and Jaffa are related by Bohadin (p. 184-249) and Abulfeda (p. 51, 52). The author of the Itinerary, or the monk of St. Albans, cannot exaggerate the Cadhi's account of the prowess of Richard (Vinisauf, 1. vi. c. 14-24, p. 412-421 ; [Matthew Paris], Hist. Major, p. 137-143) ; and on the whole of this war there is a marvellous agreement be- tween the Christian and Mahometan writers, who mutually praise the virtues of their enemies. [For Jaffa cp. the Chron. Anglicanum of Ralph of Coggeshall (Rolls Series), who was informed by Hugh Neville, an eye-witness.] ssSee the progress of negotiation and hostility, in Bohadin (p. 207-260), who was himself an actor in the treaty. Richard declared his intention of returning with new armies to the conquest of the Holy Land ; and Saladin answered the menace with a civil compliment (Vinisauf, 1. vi. c. 28, p. 423). 89 The most copious and original account of this holy war is Galfridi a Vinisauf Itinerarium Regis Anglorum Richardi et aliorum in Terram Hierosolymoruni, in six books, published in the iid volume of Gale's Scriptores Hist. Anglicanaj (p.