to be his friend, and had taken his part against his
father, that was really only to hurt King Henry;
he hated Richard quite as much, or more, and only
wanted to get home first in order to do him as much
harm as he could while he was away. So Philip
said it was too hot for him in the Holy Land, and
made him ill. He sailed back to France, while
Richard remained, though the climate really did hurt
his health, and he often had fevers there. When
he was ill, Saladin used to send him grapes, and do
all he could to show how highly he thought of so brave
a man. Once Saladin sent him a beautiful horse;
Richard told the Earl of Salisbury to try it, and no
sooner was the earl mounted, than the horse ran away
with him to the Saracen army. Saladin was very
much vexed, and was afraid it would be taken for a
trick to take the English king prisoner, and he gave
the earl a quieter horse to ride back with.
Richard fought one terrible battle at Joppa with the
Saracens, and then he tried to go on to take Jerusalem;
but he wanted to leave a good strong castle behind
him at Ascalon, and set all his men to work to build
it up. When they grumbled, he worked with them,
and asked the duke to do the same; but Leopold said
gruffly that he was not a carpenter or a mason.
Richard was so provoked that he struck him a blow,
and the duke went home in a rage.
So many men had gone home, that Richard found his
army was not strong enough to try to take Jerusalem.
He was greatly grieved, for he knew it was his own
fault for not having shown the temper of a Crusader;
and when he came to the top of a hill whence the Holy
City could be seen, he would not look at it, but turned
away, saying, “They who are not worthy to win
it are not worthy to behold it.” It was
of no use for him to stay with so few men; besides,
tidings came from home that King Philip and his own
brother, John, were doing all the mischief they could.
So he made a peace for three years between the Saracens
and Christians, hoping to come back again after that
to rescue Jerusalem. But on his way home there
were terrible storms; his ships were scattered, and
his own ship was driven up into the Adriatic Sea,
where he was robbed by pirates, or sea robbers, and
then was shipwrecked. There was no way for him
to get home but through the lands of Leopold of Austria;
so he pretended to be a merchant, and set out attended
only by a boy. He fell ill at a little inn, and
while he was in bed the boy went into the kitchen with
the king’s glove in his belt. It was an
embroidered glove, such as merchants never used, and
people asked questions, and guessed that the boy’s
master must be some great man. The Duke of Austria
heard of it, sent soldiers to take him, and shut him
up as a prisoner in one of his castles. Afterwards,
the duke gave him up for a large sum of money to the
Emperor of Germany. All this time Richard’s
wife and mother had been in great sorrow and fear,
trying to find out what had become of him. It
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