saac, the king, or emperor, of which had ill used the crews of some of
the English ships that had been driven upon his coasts in a storm.
Richard took Limasol, the capital, by assault; and that blow was soon
followed by the complete submission of Isaac and the surrender of the
whole island. Isaac was put into confinement, and remained a captive
till his death in 1195. Meanwhile the island of Cyprus was made over by
Richard, in 1192, to Guy of Lusignan, upon his resignation of the now
merely titular royalty of Jerusalem to his rival Henry of Champagne and
Guy's posterity reigned in that island till the year 1458.

Having married Berengaria at Limasol, Richard set sail from Cyprus, on
June 4th (1191), with a fleet now described as consisting of thirteen
large ships called busses, fifty galleys, and a hundred transports; and
on the 10th he reached the camp of the crusaders assembled before the
fortress of Acre, the siege of which had already occupied them not much
less than two years, and had cost the lives, it is said of nearly two
hundred thousand of the assailants. But the presence of the English
king, although he was suffering from severe illness, and had to be
carried to the trenches on a litter, immediately inspired so much new
vigor into the operations of the Christian army that, on July 12th, the
place surrendered, and Saladin, who had been harassing the besiegers
from the neighboring mountains, withdrew, in conformity with the terms
of capitulation. This great event, however, was immediately followed by
an open rupture between Richard and King Philip, whose rivalry had
already exhibited itself in a variety of ways, and more particularly in
the support given by Richard to the claim of Guy of Lusignan, and by
Philip to that of Conrad of Montferrat to the vacant crown of Jerusalem.
Philip, in fact, took his departure from Palestine on the last day of
July, leaving only ten thousand men, under the command of the Duke of
Burgundy.

[Illustration: Richard at the Battle of Arsur.]

Richard performed prodigies of valor in the Holy Land, but, although a
signal defeat of Saladin on September 7th at Arsur was followed by the
capture of Jaffa and some other places of less importance, Jerusalem,
which was the main object of the crusade, so far from being taken was
not even attacked. Jaffa, however, after it had again fallen into the
hands of Saladin, was recovered by the impetuous valor of the English
king. At last, on Octob