against Saladin.

Besides all this, Richard was very uneasy in respect to the state of
affairs in his own dominions, in England and in Normandy. He
distrusted the promises that Philip had made, and was very anxious
lest he might, when he arrived in France, take advantage of Richard's
absence, and, under some pretext or other, invade some of his
provinces. From England he was continually receiving very unfavorable
tidings. His mother Eleanora, to whom he had committed some general
oversight of his interests during his absence, was beginning to write
him alarming letters in respect to certain intrigues which were going
on in England, and which threatened to deprive him of his English
kingdom altogether. She urged him to return as soon as possible.
Richard was exceedingly anxious to comply with this recommendation,
but he could not abandon his army in the condition in which it then
was, nor could he honorably withdraw it without having previously come
to some agreement with Saladin by which the Holy Sepulchre could be
secured to the possession of the Christians.

This being the state of the case, he had every motive for pressing the
negotiations, and for cultivating, while they were in progress, the
most friendly relations possible with Saladin, and for persevering in
pressing them as long as the least possible hope remained.
Accordingly, during all this time Richard treated Saladin with the
greatest courtesy. He sent him many presents, and paid him many polite
attentions. All this display of urbanity toward each other, on the
part of these ferocious and bloodthirsty men, has been actually
attributed by mankind to the instinctive nobleness and generosity of
the spirit of chivalry; but, in reality, as is indeed too often the
case with the pretended nobleness and generosity of rude and violent
men, a cunning and far-seeing selfishness lay at the bottom of it.

In the course of these negotiations, Richard declared to Saladin that
all which the Christians desired was the possession of Jerusalem and
the restoration of the true cross, and he said that surely some terms
could be devised on which Saladin could concede those two points. But
Saladin replied that Jerusalem was as sacred a place in the eyes of
Mussulmans, and as dear to them, as it was to the Christians, and
that they could on no account give it up. In respect to the true
cross, the Christians, he said, if they could obtain it, would worship
it in an idolatrous man