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Updated: June 29, 2025
To the Christian ladies, Saladin's conduct was courteous in the extreme, so that it became a remark among the Latins of Palestine that Saladin was a barbarian only in name. Thus, after ninety years, was the Holy City again inhabited by the infidel, and all the fruits of the first crusade lost, as it seemed to the world.
Yet every one remembers that story of Saladin and Richard trying their respective blades; how gallant Richard clove an anvil in twain, or something quite as ponderous, and Saladin elegantly severed a cushion; so that the two monarchs were even each excelling in his way though, unfortunately for my simile, in a patriotic point of view, Richard whipped Saladin's armies in the end.
'Of the pagans that day, writes Milo by hearsay, 'we made hecatombs two score five: yet the King my master took no pleasure of that, as I gather, deeming that he should have had Saladin's head in a bag. Also we gained a clear road to Joppa. So they did; but Joppa was a heap of stones. They held a great council there. Richard put out his views.
Then Philip, whose heart was always in his plans at home, pleaded ill health and returned to France. After this began the slow advance on Jerusalem, Saladin's troops hanging on the line of march and constantly attacking in small bodies, while the crusaders suffered greatly from the climate and from lack of supplies.
Saladin's kinsmen, known as the Ayyubid dynasty, ruled Egypt for over half a century after the death of their great leader. The futile efforts of the discredited Crusaders disturbed their peace. John of Brienne's seizure of Damietta was a serious menace, and it took all Kamil's energy to defeat the "Franks" at Mansura and drive them out of the country.
Richard leaving Acre. Modern warfare. Contrast between modern and ancient weapons. Purifying the places of pagan worship. Revelings of the soldiery. The object of the Crusades was the recovery of the Holy Sepulchre. Order of the march from Acre. Jaffa. Trumpeters. The evening proclamation in camp. The slow march. Saladin's harassing movements. The plain of Azotus. The order of battle.
I read of battles and of saints, and I learned how the Great Soldan made his pact with Satan, and then I came to the Sieur de Trevec, and read how he seized the Black Priest in the midst of Saladin's tents and carried him away and cut off his head first branding him on the forehead.
Use thy speed, therefore, and fly from the vengeance of Richard to the shadow of Saladin's victorious banner." "I might indeed hide my dishonour," said Sir Kenneth ironically, "in a camp of infidel heathens, where the very phrase is unknown. But had I not better partake more fully in their reproach? Does not thy advice stretch so far as to recommend me to take the turban?
Saladin's death might seem to offer a peculiarly favourable chance of recovering for Christendom what had been so recently lost. But the Empire was divided; England and France neutralised each other, the Eastern Empire was weakened by the success of an usurper, the knightly orders were quarrelling with each other. And this state of disunion was not the most dangerous feature of the moment.
Saphadin, being provided with a safe-conduct for this purpose, passed back and forth between Jaffa and Saladin's camp, carrying the propositions and counter-propositions to and fro. Saphadin was a very courteous and gentlemanly man, and also a very brave soldier, and Richard formed quite a strong friendship for him.
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