re to live as friends and true allies, until a period of
forty days after their return from the Holy Land. With a view of purging
their camp from the follies and vices which had proved so ruinous to
preceding expeditions, they drew up a code of laws for the government of
the army. Gambling had been carried to a great extent, and proved the
fruitful source of quarrels and bloodshed; and one of their laws
prohibited any person in the army, beneath the degree of a knight, from
playing at any game for money.[16] Knights and clergymen might play for
money, but no one was permitted to lose or gain more than twenty shillings
in a day, under a penalty of one hundred shillings. The personal
attendants of the monarchs were also allowed to play to the same extent.
The penalty in their case for infraction was that they should be whipped
naked through the army for the space of three days. Any Crusader, who
struck another and drew blood, was ordered to have his hand cut off; and
whoever slew a brother Crusader was condemned to be tied alive to the
corpse of his victim, and buried with him. No young women were allowed to
follow the army, to the great sorrow of many vicious and of many virtuous
dames, who had not courage to elude the decree by dressing in male attire.
But many high-minded and affectionate maidens and matrons, bearing the
sword or the spear, followed their husbands and lovers to the war in spite
of King Richard, and in defiance of danger. The only women allowed to
accompany the army in their own habiliments were washerwomen of fifty
years complete, and any others of the fair sex who had reached the same
age.

[16] Strutt's _Sports and Pastimes_.

These rules having been promulgated, the two monarchs marched together to
Lyons, where they separated, agreeing to meet again at Messina. Philip
proceeded across the Alps to Genoa, where he took ship, and was conveyed
in safety to the place of rendezvous. Richard turned in the direction of
Marseilles, where he also took ship for Messina. His impetuous disposition
hurried him into many squabbles by the way, and his knights and followers,
for the most part as brave and as foolish as himself, imitated him very
zealously in this particular. At Messina the Sicilians charged the most
exorbitant prices for every necessary of life. Richard's army in vain
remonstrated. From words they came to blows, and, as a last resource,
plundered the Sicilians, since they could not trade with th