In the mean time, while these works and performances were going on,
the soldiers gave themselves up to indulgences of every kind. Great
stores of wine were found in the place, which were bestowed upon the
troops, and the streets, day and night, were filled with riotous
revelings. The commanders themselves--the knights and barons--and all
the other men of rank that pertained to the army, fell into the same
way, and they were very unwilling that the time should come when they
were to leave such a place of security and indulgence, and take the
field again for a march in pursuit of Saladin.

At length, however, the time arrived when the march must be commenced.
Richard had learned, by means of scouts and spies which he sent out,
that Saladin was moving to the southward and westward--retreating, in
fact, toward Jerusalem, which was, of course, the great point that he
wished to defend. That, indeed, was the great point of attack, for the
main object which the Crusaders proposed to themselves in invading
Palestine was to get possession of the sepulchre where Christ was
buried at Jerusalem. The recovery of the Holy Sepulchre was the
watchword; and among all the people who were watching the progress of
the enterprise with so much solicitude, and also among the Crusaders
themselves, the progress that was made was valued just in proportion
as it tended to the accomplishment of this end.

Richard set apart a sufficient number of troops for a garrison to hold
and defend Acre, and then, on taking a census of the remainder of his
force, found that he had thirty thousand men to march with in pursuit
of Saladin. He arranged this force in five divisions, and placed each
under the command of a competent general. There were two very
celebrated bodies of knights that occupied positions of honor in this
march. They were the Knights Templars and the Knights of St. John, or
Hospitalers, the order that has been described in a previous chapter
of this volume. The Templars led the van of the army, and the
Hospitalers brought up the rear. The march was commenced on the
twenty-second of August, which was not far from two months from the
time that Acre was surrendered.

The course which the army was to take was at first to follow the
sea-shore toward the southward to Jaffa, a port nearly opposite to
Jerusalem. It was deemed necessary to take possession of Jaffa before
going into the interior; and, besides, by moving on along the coast,
the sh