alliance contracted by him with Tancred,
king of Sicily, despatched messengers to the duke of Austria, required
the royal captive to be delivered to him, and stipulated a large sum of
money as a reward for this service. Thus the king of England, who had
filled the whole world with his renown, found himself, during the most
critical state of his affairs, confined in a dungeon, and loaded with
irons, in the heart of Germany,[*] and entirely at the mercy of his
enemies, the basest and most sordid of mankind.

The English council was astonished on receiving this fatal intelligence,
and foresaw all the dangerous consequences which might naturally arise
from that event. The queen dowager wrote reiterated letters to Pope
Celestine; exclaiming against the injury which her son had sustained,
representing the impiety of detaining in prison the most illustrious
prince that had yet carried the banners of Christ into the Holy Land;
claiming the protection of the apostolic see, which was due even to the
meanest of those adventurers; and upbraiding the pope, that, in a cause
where justice, religion, and the dignity of the church, were so much
concerned, a cause which it might well befit his holiness himself to
support by taking in person a journey to Germany, the spiritual thunders
should so long be suspended over those sacrilegious offenders.[**]
The zeal of Celestine corresponded not to the impatience of the queen
mother; and the regency of England were, for a long time, left to
struggle alone with all their domestic and foreign enemies.

The king of France, quickly informed of Richard's confinement by a
message from the emperor,[***] prepared himself to take advantage of the
incident; and he employed every means of force and intrigue, of war and
negotiation, against the dominions and the person of his unfortunate
rival. He revived the calumny of Richard's assassinating the marquis of
Montferrat; and by that absurd pretence he induced his barons to violate
their oaths, by which they had engaged that, during the crusade,
they never would, on any account, attack the dominions of the king of
England. He made the emperor the largest offers, if he would deliver
into his hands the royal prisoner, or at least detain him in perpetual
captivity he even formed an alliance by marriage with the king of
Denmark, desired that the ancient Danish claim to the crown of England
should be transferred to him, and solicited a supply of shipping to
mai