the walls
upon the populace, and then setting fire to the houses perished in the
flames. The gentry of the neighbourhood, who were all indebted to the
Jews, ran to the cathedral, where their bonds were kept, and made a
solemn bonfire of the papers before the altar. The compiler of the
Annals of Waverley, in relating these events, blesses the Almighty for
thus delivering over this impious race to destruction [b].
[FN [b] Gale's Collect. vol. iii. p. 165.]

The ancient situation of England, when the people possessed little
riches and the public no credit, made it impossible for sovereigns to
bear the expense of a steady or durable war, even on their frontiers;
much less could they find regular means for the support of distant
expeditions like those into Palestine, which were more the result of
popular frenzy than of sober reason or deliberate policy. Richard,
therefore, knew that he must carry with him all the treasure necessary
for his enterprise, and that both the remoteness of his own country
and its poverty made it unable to furnish him with those continued
supplies, which the exigencies of so perilous a war must necessarily
require. His father had left him a treasure of above a hundred
thousand marks; and the king, negligent of every consideration but his
present object, endeavoured to augment this sum by all expedients, how
pernicious soever to the public, or dangerous to royal authority. He
put to sale the revenues and manors of the crown; the offices of
greatest trust and power, even those of forester and sheriff, which
anciently were so important [c], became venal; the dignity of chief
justiciary, in whose hands was lodged the whole execution of the laws,
was sold to Hugh de Puzas, Bishop of Durham, for a thousand marks; the
same prelate bought the earldom of Northumberland for life [d]; many
of the champions of the cross, who had repented of the vow, purchased
the liberty of violating it; and Richard, who stood less in need of
men than of money, dispensed, on these conditions, with their
attendance. Elated with the hopes of fame, which, in that age,
attended no wars but those against the infidels, he was blind to every
other consideration; and when some of his wiser ministers objected to
this dissipation of the revenue and power of the crown, he replied
that he would sell London itself, could he find a purchaser [e].
Nothing, indeed, could be a stronger proof how negligent he was of all
future interests