great quantities, and raised by every expedient, good or bad.  When someone remonstrated with the King concerning these extortions, he exclaimed, “I would sell London itself, if I could but find a purchaser.”  He legislated with the same inconsiderate vehemence as to the discipline and order of his army:  murderers were to be buried alive on land, and at sea to be tied to the corpses of their victims and thrown into the water; thieves were to be tarred and feathered; and whoever gambled for money, be he king or baron, was to be dipped three times in the sea, or flogged naked before the whole army.

Richard led his army through France, and went on board his splendid fleet at Marseilles, while Philip sailed from Genoa in hired vessels.  Half way to Sicily, however, Richard got tired of the sea voyage, landed near Rome, and journeyed with a small retinue through the Abruzzi and Calabria, already on the lookout for adventures, and often engaged in bloody quarrels with the peasants of the mountain villages.  When he at last arrived in Sicily his unstable mind suddenly underwent a total change; a quarrel with the Sicilian King, Tancred, drove the Holy Sepulchre entirely out of his head.  Now fighting, now negotiating, he stayed nine months at Messina—­hated and feared by the inhabitants, who called him the Lion, the Savage Lion—­deaf to the entreaties of his followers, who were eager to get to Syria, and heedless and defiant to all Philip Augustus’ representations and demands.

At last the French King, losing patience, sailed without him, and arrived at Ptolemais in April, 1191.  He was received with eager joy, but did not succeed in at all advancing the siege operations; for so many of the French pilgrims had preceded him that the army he brought was but small, and, though an adroit and cunning diplomatist, a tried and unscrupulous statesman, he lacked the rough soldierly vigor and bravery on which everything at that moment depended.  At length Richard was again on his road, and again he allowed himself to be turned aside from his purpose.  One of his ships, which bore his betrothed bride, had stranded on the Cyprian coast, and, in consequence of the hostility of the king of that island, had been very inhospitably received.  Richard was instantly up in arms, declared war against the Comnene,[32] and conquered the whole island in a fortnight—­an impromptu conquest, which was of the highest importance to the Christian party in the East for centuries after.

Still occupied in establishing a military colony of his knights, he was surprised by a visit from King Guy, of Jerusalem, who wished to secure the support of the dreaded monarch in his party contests at home.  Guy complained to King Richard of the matrimonial offences of his rival, informed him that Philip Augustus had declared in favor of Conrad’s claims, and on the spot secured the jealous adherence of the English monarch.  He landed on June 8th at Ptolemais; the Christians celebrated his arrival by an illumination