h with
his own dagger, at the same time calling loudly for assistance. [The
reader will recognise the incident which Sir Walter Scott has
introduced into his beautiful romance, "The Talisman," and which, with
the licence claimed by poets and romancers, he represents as having
befallen King Richard I.] His attendants came at his call, and found
him bleeding profusely, and ascertained on inspection that the dagger
was poisoned. Means were instantly taken to purify the wound; and an
antidote was sent by the Grand Master of the Templars which removed all
danger from the effects of the poison. Camden, in his history, has
adopted the more popular, and certainly more beautiful, version of this
story, which says that the Princess Eleonora, in her love for her
gallant husband, sucked the poison from his wound at the risk of her
own life: to use the words of old Fuller, "It is a pity so pretty a
story should not be true; and that so sovereign a remedy as a woman's
tongue, anointed with the virtue of loving affection," should not have
performed the good deed.

Edward suspected, and doubtless not without reason, that the assassin
was employed by the Sultan of Egypt. But it amounted to suspicion only;
and by the sudden death of the assassin, the principal clue to the
discovery of the truth was lost for ever. Edward, on his recovery,
prepared to resume the offensive; but the Sultan, embarrassed by the
defence of interests which, for the time being, he considered of more
importance, made offers of peace to the crusaders. This proof of
weakness on the part of the enemy was calculated to render a man of
Edward's temperament more anxious to prosecute the war; but he had also
other interests to defend. News arrived in Palestine of the death of
his father, King Henry III; and his presence being necessary in
England, he agreed to the terms of the Sultan. These were, that the
Christians should be allowed to retain their possessions in the Holy
Land, and that a truce of ten years should be proclaimed. Edward then
set sail for England; and thus ended the last Crusade.

The after-fate of the Holy Land may be told in a few words. The
Christians, unmindful of their past sufferings and of the jealous
neighbours they had to deal with, first broke the truce by plundering
some Egyptian traders near Margat. The Sultan immediately revenged the
outrage by taking possession of Margat, and war once more raged between
the nations. Margat made a gallan