t day, and then came on the great contest.
Richard's troops, on their arrival, attacked the Saracens from
without, while he himself, issuing from the gates, assaulted them from
the side next the town. The Crusaders fought with the utmost
desperation. They knew very well that it was the crisis of their fate.
To lose that battle was to lose all. The Saracens, on the other hand,
were not under any such urgent pressure. If overpowered, they could
retire again to the mountains, and be as secure as before.

They _were_ overpowered. The battle was fought long and obstinately,
but at length Richard was victorious, and the Saracens were driven off
the ground.

[Illustration: SALADIN'S PRESENT.]

Various accounts are given by the different writers who have
narrated the history of this crusade, of a present of a horse made by
Saladin to Richard in the course of the war, and the incident has been
often commented upon as an evidence of the high and generous
sentiments which animated the combatants in this terrible crusade in
their personal feelings toward each other. One of the stories makes
the case an incident of this battle. The Saracens, flying from the
field, came to Saladin, who was watching the contest, and, in
conversation with him, they pointed out Richard, who was standing
among his knights on a small rising ground.

"Why, he is on foot!" exclaimed Saladin. Richard _was_ on foot. His
favorite charger, Favelle, was killed under him that morning, and as
he had come from Acre in haste and by sea, there was no other horse at
hand to supply his place.

Saladin immediately said that that was not as it should be. "The King
of England," said he, "should not fight on foot like a common
soldier." He immediately sent over to Richard, with a flag of truce,
two splendid horses. King Richard accepted the present, and during the
remainder of the day he fought on one of the horses which his enemy
had thus sent him.

One account adds a romantic embellishment to this story by saying that
Saladin sent only one horse at first--the one that he supposed most
worthy of being sent as a gift from one sovereign to another; but that
Richard, before mounting him himself, directed one of his knights to
mount him and give him trial. The knight found the horse wholly
unmanageable. The animal took the bits between his teeth and galloped
furiously back to the camp of Saladin, carrying his rider with him, a
helpless prisoner. Saladin was exceedingl