s nearer to the dominions of the King of France, and so better known
to him.

This treaty was signed in February, and the preparations were now
nearly complete for setting forth on the expedition in March, at the
appointed time.

CHAPTER VII.

THE EMBARKATION.

1190

The plan of embarking the troops.--The English fleet.--The
French forces.--Richard's rules.--The origin of tarring and
feathering.--Command of the fleet.--The fleet dispersed
by a storm.--A delay in Lisbon.--The rendezvous at
Vezelai.--Devastation by the armies.--Richard goes to
the East in advance of his fleet.--The rendezvous at
Messina.--Joanna.--Richard's visit.--King Richard's
excursions.--Ostia.--A quarrel.--Why Richard quarreled with
the bishop.--Naples and Vesuvius.--The crypt.--Salerno.--Richard's
visit there.--The fleet.--Richard pursuing his journey along
the coast of the Mediterranean.--Richard's tyrannical
disposition.--Stealing the falcon.--Richard flees to a priory
to escape the peasants.

The plan which Richard had formed for conveying his expedition to the
Holy Land was to embark it on board a fleet of ships which he was
sending round to Marseilles for this purpose, with orders to await him
there. Marseilles is in the south of France, not far from the
Mediterranean Sea. Richard might have embarked his troops in the
English Channel; but that, as the reader will see from looking on the
map of Europe, would require them to take a long sea voyage around the
coasts of France and Spain, and through the Straits of Gibraltar.
Richard thought it best to avoid this long circuit for his troops, and
so he sent the ships round, with no more men on board than necessary
to manoeuvre them, while he marched his army across France by land.

As for Philip, he had no ships of his own. England was a maritime
country, and had long possessed a fleet. This fleet had been very much
increased by the exertions of Henry the Second, Richard's father, who
had built several new ships, some of them of very large size,
expressly for the purpose of transporting troops to Palestine. Henry
himself did not live to execute his plans, and so he left his ships
for Richard.

France, on the other hand, was not then a maritime country. Most of
the harbors on the northern coast belonged to Normandy, and even at
the south the ports did not belong to the King of France. Philip,
therefore, had no fleet of his own, but he had made arrangements with
the republic of G