wherewithal to pay, delivered to the king Carakois, the Saracen, in full satisfaction of the debt.

After this, the king returned to Ascalon; and, while he was staying there, two of the servants of the king of the Accini, or Assassins, who had for a long time served at the court of the marquis Conrad, and had been members of his household, slew the said Conrad, in his city of Tyre; on which, they were immediately arrested by the bystanders. This took place on the fifth day before the calends of May. On being interrogated, they said that they had done this by command of the king of the Accini, their master; upon which, one of them was immediately put to death, while the other was flayed alive. The Franks, however, averred that this was entirely done by the suggestion of the king of England. After the assassination of Conrad, his wife married Henry, count of Champagne, the nephew of the king of England and the king of France; immediately on which, by the choice of the whole army, the said Henry was elected king of the land of Jerusalem. The king of England also gave to king Guido the island of Tyre, in exchange, to hold the same for life. After the capture of Darun, that is to say, on the same Friday on which the king of England had taken it, the Franks returned to Ascalon, and placed themselves at the mercy of the king of England: on which, the king came there to meet them, and afterwards, with the consent of the whole army, marched forward to lay siege to Jerusalem.

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When they had come as far as Bethonople, the king rode on with some of them to view Jerusalem; and then proceeded to the chapel of Saint Elias, which is three leagues distant from Jerusalem. Here he found a certain cross of wood, said to be made of the wood of that of our Lord, sealed up within the walls of a chapel, which was called the Cross of the Syrians; upon which, he carried it away, and returned to his army. the meantime, his spies returned to the king of England, and informed him that a caravan of Saladin was coming from Babylon to Jerusalem, for the purpose of supplying it with provisions and arms the king, accordingly, believed them, and, taking with him five thousand picked men, went to meet the caravan, which was escorted by eleven thousand pagans. The king met them on the vigil of the Nativity of Saint John the Baptist, at about the first hour of the day, and, engaging with them, gained a victory, and slew nearly the whole of them, taking possession

of their spoils, with three thousand camels, and four thousand horses and mules and she-mules, besides those that were killed. After having gained this victory, the king returned to Bethonople, whence he had set out, and gave to the knights of the army a portion of the spoils of the slain. After this, holding a conference with the duke of Burgundy and the Franks, he offered to make oath that he would proceed to Jerusalem and lay siege to it, and not depart therefrom as long as he had a single horse left to eat, until he had taken the city, and requested that the Franks and the whole of the army would take the same oath. On this, the duke of Burgundy and the Franks made answer that they would not take the oath, or remain any longer in the land, but would depart from it as soon as they could, in obedience to the commands given to them by the king of France, their master. Accordingly, they left the king upon bad terms, and returned to Acre, the king following them. On this, Saladin immediately came down from the mountains, and laid siege to Joppa, which the king of England had delivered into the charge of Alberic de Rains; and, as he found himself unable to defend it, he surrendered it to Saladin, upon condition that he might depart with safety to life and limb. However, after having received from Saladin the selected arrow as a sign of the treaty with him, on hearing of the approach of the king of England, he returned to Saladin, and gave back to him his arrow, and renounced the treaty. Upon this, Saladin immediately took him prisoner, and captured the whole of the city, with the exception of the fortress of the castle; to which a few retired and sent word to the king of England to inform him of these recent events: immediately upon which, he gave his troops, consisting of horse, to Henry, count of Champagne, for the purpose of being led thither by land, while he himself, with only seven galleys, proceeded by sea. On the third day, being Saturday, he arrived at Joppa, on the morning after the feast of Saint Peter ad Vincula; on which, he entered the castle, and had an interview with his people there, instructing them to follow him. After this, he went forth and a few with him, and suddenly made an attack upon the army of Saladin, and, shouting his war-cry, he valiantly charged them, and drove them out of the city, and slew many of them with the edge of the sword, and so liberated the city from their hands.

Three days after this, Saladin sent word to the king that he

would fight him in a pitched battle; which message greatly pleased the king. But, just as everything had been ready prepared for the pitched battle, five galleys arrived from Acre with soldiers, by way of succour for the king: upon which, Saladin declined to engage with him.

In the meantime, Hugh, duke of Burgundy, Ralph de Courcy, and the viscount de Pinkenny, died at Acre, on the eighth day after their arrival there. Shortly after, Saladin sent word to the king of England that he would repay him all his expenses which he had been put to in fortifying Ascalon, and would make with him and the other Christians who should remain in the land of Jerusalem a truce to last for three years, from Easter then next ensuing, and would keep the peace with them until the said time, if he would reinstate Ascalon in the same condition in which he himself had left it. Accordingly, the king of England, seeing that both men and money and health were failing him, by the advice of the Templars and of the whole army, closed with the said offer which Saladin had made him: on which, upon oath, they agreed that peace should be observed for that period.

After this, the king of England placing everything in the hands of Henry, count of Champagne, hastened to return to his kingdom, by reason of the sinister reports which he had heard both as to the king of France and the expulsion of his chancellor, as also the earl of Mortaigne, his brother, who had seized the castles of the kingdom, and would have taken possession of the whole thereof if he could have found the opportunity. Accordingly, the king of England came to Caiaphas, where he fell sick, and proceeded thence to Acre. Here, after the feast of Saint Michael, being the eighth day before the ides of October, and the fifth day of the week, he embarked on board of a large buss, and, within a month from that day, arrived at the island of Cuuerfu, where he went on board a boat, and sailed towards three galleys which he saw on the opposite side off the coast of Romania, and hired them to take him as far as Ragusa, for two hundred marks of silver; after which, he returned to his buss, and the said galleys with him; and, having made terms with them, he took with him Baldwin, the advocate of Bethune, and twenty other companions, and embarked on board one of the said galleys; and on landing at Gazera, near Ragusa, declined to tell them that he was king of England, but said that they were pilgrims. However, although he had a

long beard and long hair and garments, and everything else to resemble the people of that country, he was unable to remain unknown, in consequence of his great expenditure, which was quite foreign to the usage of the people of that country.

Immediately, the people of the province guessing that he was the king of England, prepared to capture him and deliver him to the emperor of the Romans, who hated him, on account of the aid he had given to king Tancred, and for the death of his kinsman, the marquis Conrad. Upon the king of England being informed of this by one of his followers, he placed his retinue in charge of Baldwin, the Advocate of Bethune, and ordered him to remain the next four days at that place, making a more lavish expenditure than he himself had done; after which, he himself, with a single attendant, having mounted a swift horse, his attendant doing the same, set out late at night, and, hastening day and night, arrived in the neighbourhood of Vienna; at a little village, not far from which place he and his attendant took up their abode. While the king's attendant was gone to buy food, the king, being fatigued by the labour of his journey, immediately threw himself upon a bed and fell asleep. In the meantime, his attendant, while endeavouring to exchange some money, was recognized by a servant of the duke of Austria, and taken prisoner, and brought before the duke; and, when he could conceal it no longer, disclosed to him the lodging of the king; on which, they came, and, finding him asleep, took him prisoner. As for the Advocate of Bethune, and those who were with him, on attempting to leave the town, they were taken prisoners, and not allowed to depart.

In the meantime, the king of France, holding a conference with the seneschal and nobles of Normandy, demanded of them his sister, Alice, whom they had in their charge in the castle of Rouen: he also demanded the castle of Gisors, the county of Auch, and the county of Aumarle, and showed him the written agreement made between him and the king of England, at Messina. To this, the nobles of Normandy made answer that they had received no commands upon the subject from their master, and were, therefore, unwilling to comply with

his demands.

Upon this, the king of France, levying a large army, was desirous to invade Normandy in a hostile manner, but the nobles of his kingdom would not agree thereto, saying that our

lord the pope had excommunicated all those who should make war on the territory of the king of England before his return, and that they had sworn to keep the peace towards him and his territory until his return.

During Lent, in the same year, the archbishop of York came to London by command of the king's justices; but when he came to Westminster with his cross, he was forbidden by the bishop of London and the other bishops of England thenceforth to presume to carry his cross in the province of Canterbury. On this, he contumaciously made answer that he would not lay it aside for them; but, listening to the advice of his own people, he hid it from before the face of the people, lest a tumult might arise among the clergy. The bishop of London, however, holding him as an excommunicated person, in consequence of this transgression, suspended the New Temple, at which place the said archbishop of York had taken up his abode, from the performance of Divine service and from the ringing of bells, and in consequence, he was obliged to leave the city; but before he left, queen Eleanor, the archbishop or Rouen, himself, and all the nobles of the kingdom, met together and swore fealty and faithful service to Richard, king of England, and his heir, against all men.

During the same Lent, the bishop of Ely, the chancellor, returned to England, by command of the earl of Mortaigne, and remained some days in the castle at Dover, not daring to proceed any further. The earl of Mortaigne, however, in consideration of five hundred pounds of silver which the chancellor had promised him for the restoration of his office, tried in every way to induce the chief men of the kingdom to receive the chancellor in his former position; but they refused, and sent word to the chancellor, that if he did not make haste and leave the kingdom with all speed, they would take him prisoner. On hearing this, the chancellor, not daring to stay in England against the will of the chief men, crossed over at the Supper of our Lord. In the same year, Geoffrey, archbishop of York, gave, and by his charter confirmed, the priory of Saint Clement's, at York, to the abbey of Godstow. But the nuns of Saint Clement's, who had always been free from the very foundation of that church, refused to pay obedience to the abbey of Godstow, and appealed to our lord the pope in behalf of the liberties of their church. In the meantime, the clerks of the archbishop of Rouen,