volume one

4i90 iiisTortY or the ceusades.
out in tlie Arabic tongue, '^ I am the Icing ; spare my lifer*
At these words, this generous warrior was surrounded by
the Mussidmaus, who made him prisoner and conducted him
to Saladin. The king of'Eugland, thus saved by the heroism
of a French knight, escaped the pursuit of the enemy, and
returned to Jaffa, where his army learnt with terror the
danger they had been in of losing their leader.
Eichard formed the project of besieging Ascalon ; and
Saladin being doubtful of his power to defend that city,
resolved to destroy it. In vain the inhabitants came to
implore his pity ; in the space of a few days the strongest
and most flourishing city of Syria was consumed by fire, and
remained nothing but a heap of ruins.
The demolition of Ascalon excited gi'eat sorrow among
the Mussulmans ;
and the king of England, who had enter-
tained hopes of rendering himself master of the place, was as
much afflicted as if he had lost one of liis conquests. This
city, which had cost the Cln-istians and Mussulmans so
much blood, opened at once to the Crusaders the gates
of Palestine and Egypt. Eichard undertook to rebuild the
ramparts that the Mussulmans had destroyed, and led his
army into the plain, covered by the ruins of Ascalon.
It was a curious spectacle to behold thirty thousand
warriors from the ^V^est employed in rebuilding the walls of
a city of Syria. The Crusaders, as the Hebrews have been
described to us whilst erecting the temple of Jerusalem, were
obliged to work with the sword in one hand and the tools of
masonrv in the other. Saladin migrht have distui'bed their
labours : but he preferred giving his army a little repose, and
recruiting its numbers ; persuaded that the divisions that
existed among his enemies would soon work to his advantage.
The Christian army obeyed Eichard very unwillingly.
Leopold of Austria, accused by the king of England of
remaining idle with his Grermans, contented himself with
repUing tliat lie was neither a carpenter nor a mason. The
greater part of the knights who were thus employed in
moving stones and digging ditches, were exceedingly indignant,
and said aloud that they did not come into Asia to
rebuild Ascalon, but to conquer Jerusalem.
* This gallant act of devotedness of William de Pourcelet, a Proven^a)
gentleman, is related by both the Latin and Oriental historians.