the event, whether the king of France or he were most
zealous for the conquest of the Holy Land, and were most likely to
sacrifice private passions and animosities to that great object: that
if the whole tenor of his life had not shown him incapable of a base
assassination, and justified him from that imputation in the eyes
of his very enemies, it was in vain for him, at present, to make his
apology, or plead the many irrefragable arguments which he could produce
in his own favor: and that, however he might regret the necessity, he
was so far from being ashamed of his truce with Saladin, that he rather
gloried in that event; and thought it extremely honorable that, though
abandoned by all the world, supported only by his own courage, and
by the small remains of his national troops, he could yet obtain such
conditions from the most powerful and most warlike emperor that the East
had ever yet produced. Richard, after thus deigning to apologize for his
conduct, burst out into indignation at the cruel treatment which he
had met with; that he, the champion of the cross, still wearing that
honorable badge, should, after expending the blood and treasure of his
subjects in the common cause of Christendom, be intercepted by Christian
princes in his return to his own country, be thrown into a dungeon, be
loaded with irons, be obliged to plead his cause as if he were a
subject and a malefactor, and, what he still more regretted, be thereby
prevented from making preparations for a new crusade, which he had
projected, after the expiration of the truce, and from redeeming the
sepulchre of Christ, which had so long been profaned by the dominion of
infidels. The spirit and eloquence of Richard made such impression on
the German princes, that they exclaimed loudly against the conduct of
the emperor; the pope threatened him with excommunication; and Henry,
who had hearkened to the proposals of the king of France and Prince
John, found that it would be impracticable for him to execute his and
their base purposes, or to detain the king of England any longer in
captivity. He therefore concluded with him a treaty for his ransom, and
agreed to restore him to his freedom for the sum of one hundred and
fifty thousand marks about three hundred thousand pounds of our present
money of which one hundred thousand marks were to be paid before
he received his liberty, and sixty-seven hostages delivered for the
remainder.[*] The emperor, as if to gloss