and Philip Augustus, King of France--were the most powerful
monarchs of Europe. A halo of false romance and glory,
however, surrounds this crusade, mainly by reason of the
associations connecting it with the self-seeker Richard. In
the real conduct of the crusaders appears a sordid greed
glutting itself with atrocities as savage as those
perpetrated under Godfrey of Bouillon a century before. In
Richard the world now sees a destroying "hero," one of the
scourges of mankind. The son of Henry II, Richard became
King of England in 1189. His chief ambition appears to have
been the spread of his own renown, and this aim he sought to
achieve in Palestine. He raised moneys by the sale of
titles, lands, etc., and then started for the Holy Land.
Modern history presents him, as well as his colleagues and
followers, divested of the glamour which for centuries hung
about the Third Crusade, of which the only heroic figure on
the Christian side is the likewise pitiable Barbarossa.

The whole East, from the Danube to the Indus, from the Caspian Sea to
the sources of the Nile, prepared with one intent to withstand the
great invasion of Europe. Amid cares and preparations which had
reference to three-quarters of the globe, Saladin neglected his
nearest enemy, the feeble remnant of the Christian States in Syria,
which, although unimportant in themselves, were of great consequence
as landing-places for the invading western nations during the
approaching war. The small principalities of Antioch and Tripoli still
existed, and in the midst of the Turkish forces the marquis Conrad of
Montferrat still displayed the banner of the cross upon the ramparts
of Tyre.

It seems as if in this instance Saladin had abandoned himself too much
to the superb and easy carelessness of his nature. Hitherto he had not
shrunk from the most strenuous exertions; but he was so certain of his
victory that he neglected to strike the final blow. Not until the
autumn of 1187 did he begin the siege of Tyre; and for the first time
in his life he found a dangerous adversary in Conrad of Montferrat, a
man of cool courage and keen determination, whose soul was unmoved by
religious enthusiasm, and equally free from weakness or indecision; so
that under his command the inhabitants of the city repulsed every
attack with increasing assurance and resolution.

Saladin hereupon determined to try