power over his followers, notwithstanding their many causes of
complaint against him. They knew, too, that his departure would be the
signal of universal disorder, and would lead to the total dissolution
of the army. The complaints and the clamor which arose from this cause
became so great in all the different towns and fortresses along the
coast, that, to appease them, Richard issued a proclamation stating
that he had no intention of leaving the army, but that it was his
fixed purpose to remain in Palestine at least another year.

CHAPTER XVIII.

THE BATTLE OF JAFFA.

1192

The battle of Jaffa.--Richard gives the army
employment.--Uncomfortable news from England.--Richard's
resolution.--Account of the country through which the army
marched.--The approach to Jerusalem.--Hebron.--The prize in
sight.--Saladin strongly established in Jerusalem.--Richard's
self-reproaches.--A new expedient.--The proposed march upon
Cairo.--The hopeless condition of the army.--Saladin at
Jaffa.--Richard's measures to succor Jaffa.--His fleet arrives
there.--Landing.--The onset upon the Saracens.--Jaffa
retaken.--Both sides awaiting assistance.--The Saracens
defeated.--The story of Saladin's present of horses to his
enemy.--The romantic story of the treacherous gift.

When, at last, the state of Richard's affairs had been reduced, by the
causes mentioned in the last chapter, to a very low ebb, he suddenly
succeeded in greatly improving them by a battle. This battle is known
in history as the battle of Jaffa. It was fought in the early part of
the summer of 1192.

As soon as he had issued his proclamation declaring to his soldiers
that he would positively remain in Palestine for a year, he began to
make preparations for another campaign. The best way, he thought, to
prevent the army from wasting away its energies in internal conflicts
between the different divisions of it was to give those energies
employment against the common enemy; so he put every thing in motion
for a new march into the interior. He left garrisons in the cities of
the coast, sufficient, as he judged, to protect them from any force
which the Saracens were likely to send against them in his absence,
and forming the remainder in order of march, he set out from his
head-quarters at Jaffa, and began to advance once more toward
Jerusalem.

Of course, this movement revived, in some degree, the spirit of his
army, and awakened in them new hopes. Still, Richard h