of the camp:  and without a moment’s delay, by his warlike ardor, he roused the whole army out of the state of apathy into which it had lately fallen.  Day after day the walls of the city were energetically assailed on every side.  On July 8th Saladin made his last attempt to raise the siege, by an attack on the Christian intrenchments; he was driven back with great loss, whereupon he permitted the besieged to capitulate.  The town surrendered, with all its stores, after a siege of nearly three years’ duration; the heroic defenders still remaining, about three thousand in number, were to be exchanged within the space of forty days, for two thousand captive Christians, and a ransom of two hundred thousand pieces of gold.  The war, according to all reports, had by this time cost the crusaders above thirty thousand men.

Those among the pilgrims who were enthusiastic and devout now hoped their way would lead straight to the Holy Sepulchre.  But it soon became manifest that the feeling which had prompted the crusades was dead forever.  The news of the fall of Jerusalem had awakened a momentary excitement in the western nations, but had failed to stir up the old enthusiasm.  On Syrian ground, the ideal faith rapidly gave way before substantial worldly considerations.  Richard, Guy, and the Pisans, on the one hand; Philip, Conrad, and the Genoese, on the other, were already in open discord, which was so embittered by Richard’s blustering fury that Philip Augustus embarked at the end of July for France, declaring upon his oath that he had no evil intentions toward England, but determined in his heart to let Richard feel his resentment on the first opportunity.

Meanwhile negotiations had begun between Saladin and Richard, which at first seemed to promise favorable results for the Christians, but unfortunately the day fixed for the exchange of the prisoners arrived before Saladin was able to procure the whole of the promised ransom.  Richard, with the most brutal cruelty, slaughtered two thousand seven hundred prisoners in one day.  Saladin magnanimously refused the demands of his exasperated followers for reprisals, but of course there could be no further question of a treaty, and the war recommenced with renewed fury.  Richard led the army on an expedition against Ascalon, defeated Saladin on his march thither at Arsuf, and advanced amid incessant skirmishes and single combats, into which he recklessly plunged as though he had been a simple knight-errant.  Accordingly his progress was so slow that Saladin had destroyed the town before his arrival and rendered its capture worthless to the Christians.  Again negotiations were begun, but in January, 1192, Richard suddenly advanced upon Jerusalem, and by forced marches quickly reached Baitnuba, a village only a few miles distant from the Holy City.  But there the Sultan had thrown up strong and extensive fortifications, and after long and anxious deliberations, the Franks returned toward Ascalon.