e
crusade with their prayers alone; and it was with some difficulty they
were constrained to desist from an opposition, which in them who had
been the chief promoters of those pious enterprises, appeared with the
worst grace imaginable. This backwardness of the clergy is perhaps a
symptom that the enthusiastic ardor which had at first seized the people
for crusades, was now by time and ill success considerably abated; and
that the frenzy was chiefly supported by the military genius and love of
glory in the monarchs.

But before this great machine could be put in motion, there were still
many obstacles to surmount. Philip, jealous of Henry's power, entered
into a private confederacy with young Richard; and working on his
ambitious and impatient temper, persuaded him, instead of supporting
and aggrandizing that monarchy which he was one day to inherit, to seek
present power and independence by disturbing and dismembering it. {1189.}
In order to give a pretence for hostilities between the two kings,
Richard broke into the territories of Raymond, count of Toulouse, who
immediately carried complaints of this violence before the king of
France, as his superior lord. Philip remonstrated with Henry; but
received for answer, that Richard had confessed to the archbishop of
Dublin, that his enterprise against Raymond had been undertaken by the
approbation of Philip himself, and was conducted by his authority. The
king of France, who might have been covered with shame and confusion by
this detection, still prosecuted his design, and invaded the provinces
of Berri and Auvergne, under color of revenging the quarrel of the count
of Toulouse. Henry retaliated by making inroads upon the frontiers of
France and burning Dreux. As this war, which destroyed all hopes of
success in the projected crusade, gave great scandal, the two kings held
a conference at the accustomed place between Gisors and Trie, in order
to find means of accommodating their differences; they separated on
worse terms than before; and Philip, to show his disgust, ordered a
great elm, under which the conferences had been usually held, to be
cut down; as if he had renounced all desire of accommodation, and was
determined to carry the war to extremities against the king of England.
But his own vassals refused to serve under him in so invidious a cause;
and he was obliged to come anew to a conference with Henry, and to offer
terms of peace. These terms were such as entirel