ert; hold off and leave us alone!" But when, after many vain efforts,
he had failed to overthrow the stout French warrior, Richard flew into a
terrific rage, and cried, "Get thee hence, and appear no more before me,
for I shall be thine enemy hereafter!" Whereupon William des Barres
withdrew in much distress of mind, and asked the intercession of the
King of France. Not until Philip, all the bishops, and the chiefs of the
army had repeatedly besought Richard for grace, would the mortified king
consent to the peaceable return of the knight. So unwise is it to
successfully combat a king!

Soon after this episode fresh trouble arose between Richard and Philip.
The King of France was brother to Alice, the betrothed bride of Richard.
When he heard that Queen Eleanor was on her way to Sicily, bringing
Berengaria, daughter of the King of Navarre, as a bride for the English
king, Philip was enraged. He insisted that Richard was legally bound to
Alice and could not marry any one else. Richard, who had been much
charmed with Berengaria some years before while visiting her father's
court at Pampeluna, now flatly refused to marry Alice. He accused her of
most wicked conduct, such as rendered her unworthy to be his wife.
Probably these charges were well founded, for Philip finally agreed, on
certain conditions, to release Richard from the engagement with Alice.
The French princess, then held prisoner in England by Eleanor, was to be
returned to France, and Philip was to receive a large sum of money. An
ecclesiastical court was then held, and it adjudged that Richard was no
longer bound to Alice, but was free to marry as he pleased.

These matters settled, Philip set sail for Palestine on the very day
that Eleanor arrived with Berengaria. The two royal ladies received a
joyful welcome from the king, who went to meet them in his gayly
decorated galley, _Trenc-le-Mer_.

He found Berengaria even lovelier than the young girl he had admired so
long ago in Navarre. His heart yielded at once to the charms of the
dark-eyed Spanish beauty, and the princess could not help loving such a
handsome, brave, and eloquent prince; for Richard was no less ready with
his tongue than with his sword, and won hearts as easily as battles. He
had long before won the devotion and friendship of Berengaria's brother
Sancho, a renowned warrior and poet; and this friendship doubtless
commended him to Berengaria. At any rate, the betrothed pair were soon a
pair