ort, which
surrendered after a week's resistance. Richard restored the castle to
Constantin, but Bertran regained possession, as is related in the second
biography.

Henceforward, Bertran remained faithful to Richard, and directed his
animosity chiefly against the King of Aragon. At the same time it
appears that he would have been equally pleased with any war, which [62]
would have brought profit to himself, and attempted to excite Richard
against his father, Henry II. This project came to nothing, but war
broke out between Richard and the French king; a truce of two years was
concluded, and again broken by Richard. The Church, however, interfered
with its efforts to organise the Third Crusade, which called from
Bertran two _sirventes_ in honour of Conrad, son of the Marquis of
Montferrat, who was defending Tyre against Saladin. Bertran remained at
home in Limousin during this Crusade; his means were obviously
insufficient to enable him to share in so distant a campaign; other, and
for him, equally cogent reasons for remaining at home may be gathered
from his poems. There followed the quarrels between Richard and the
French king, the return to France of the latter, and finally Richard's
capture on the Illyrian coast and his imprisonment by Henry VI. of
Austria, which terminated in 1194. Richard then came into Aquitaine, his
return being celebrated by two poems from Bertran.

The Provencal biography informs us that Bertran finally became a monk in
the Order of Citeaux. The convent where he spent his last years was the
abbey of Dalon, near Hautefort. The cartulary mentions his name at
various intervals from 1197 to 1202. In 1215 we have the entry "_octavo,[63]
candela in sepulcro ponitur pro Bernardo de Born: cera tres solidos
empta est_." This is the only notice of the poet's death.

Dante perhaps exaggerated the part he played in stirring up strife
between Henry II. and his sons; modern writers go to the other extreme.
Bertran is especially famous for his political _sirventes_ and for the
martial note which rings through much of his poetry. He loved war both
for itself and for the profits which it brought: "The powerful are more
generous and open-handed when they have war than when they have peace."
The troubadour's two _planhs_ upon the "young king's" death are inspired
by real feeling, and the story of his reconciliation with Henry after
the capture of his castle can hardly have been known to Dante, who would