ence
of the kingdom, that John was obliged, after some fruitless efforts,
to conclude a truce with them; and before its expiration, he thought it
prudent to return into France, where he openly avowed his alliance with
Philip.[**]

Meanwhile the high spirit of Richard suffered in Germany every kind of
insult and indignity. The French ambassadors, in their master's name,
renounced him as a vassal to the crown of France, and declared all his
fiefs to be forfeited to his liege lord. The emperor, that he might
render him more impatient for the recovery of his liberty, and make him
submit to the payment of a larger ransom, treated him with the greatest
severity, and reduced him to a condition worse than that of the meanest
malefactor. He was even produced before the diet of the empire at Worms,
and accused by Henry of many crimes and misdemeanors; of making an
alliance with Tancred, the usurper of Sicily; of turning the arms of the
crusade against a Christian prince, and subduing Cyprus; of affronting
the duke of Austria before Acre; of obstructing the progress of the
Christian arms by his quarrels with the king of France; of assassinating
Conrade, marquis of Montferrat; and of concluding a truce with Saladin,
and leaving Jerusalem in the hands of the Saracen emperor.[***]

[* Hoveden, p. 724.]

[** W Heming. p. 556.]

[*** M. Paris, p. 121. W. Heming. p. 536.]

Richard, whose spirit was not broken by his misfortunes, and whose
genius was rather roused by these frivolous or scandalous imputations,
after premising that his dignity exempted him from answering before any
jurisdiction, except that of Heaven, yet condescended, for the sake of
his reputation, to justify his conduct before that great assembly. He
observed, that he had no hand in Tancred's elevation, and only concluded
a treaty with a prince whom he found in possession of the throne: that
the king, or rather tyrant, of Cyprus had provoked his indignation by
the most ungenerous and unjust proceedings; and though he chastised
this aggressor, he had not retarded a moment the progress of his chief
enterprise: that if he had at any time been wanting in civility to the
duke of Austria, he had already been sufficiently punished for that
sally of passion; and it better became men, embarked together in so holy
a cause, to forgive each other's infirmities, than to pursue a slight
offence with such unrelenting vengeance: that it had sufficiently
appeared by