g at Coeur de Lion's
affectionate earnestness for the combat, "even this I may not lawfully
do. The Master places the shepherd over the flock, not for the
shepherd's own sake, but for the sake of the sheep. Had I a son to hold
the sceptre when I fell, I might have had the liberty, as I have the
will, to brave this bold encounter; but your own Scripture sayeth, that
when the herdsman is smitten, the sheep are scattered."

"Thou hast had all the fortune," said Richard, turning to the Earl of
Huntingdon with a sigh. "I would have given the best year of my life for
that one half-hour beside the Diamond of the Desert!"

The chivalrous extravagance of Richard awakened the spirits of the
assembly, and when at length they arose to depart, Saladin advanced and
took Coeur de Lion by the hand.

"Noble King of England," he said, "we now part, never to meet again.
That your league is dissolved, no more to be reunited, and that your
native forces are far too few to enable you to prosecute your
enterprise, is as well known to me as to yourself. I may not yield you
up that Jerusalem which you so much desire to hold. It is to us, as to
you, a Holy City. But whatever other terms Richard demands of Saladin,
shall be as willingly yielded as yonder fountain yields its waters. Ay,
and the same should be as frankly afforded by Saladin, if Richard stood
in the desert with but two archers in his train!"

FOOTNOTES:

[I] While the army of the crusaders was inactive near Ascalon, a
truce having been agreed to between the Saracens and their
assailants, the Grand Master of the Templars, Conrade Marquis of
Montserrat, and others of the Christian Princes, were plotting to
effect its dismemberment. Richard of England was the leading spirit
of the crusade, and the plotters wished either to get rid of him or
to inspire his colleagues with jealousy of his leadership. The Grand
Master sought to have the King assassinated. Conrade tried to break
up the league by milder means: he first provoked the Duke of Austria
to insult the English banner; and then thinking rightly that the
suspicion and wrath of Richard would fall upon Austria, he secretly
stole the banner from its place. Its safe-keeping, after Austria's
insult, had been entrusted by the King to Sir Kenneth, known as the
Knight of the Leopard, in reality David Prince of Scotland, who in
the disguise of an obscure gentleman had joined the crusade as a
follower of the English King. Sir Kenneth was