and posted himself
within the walls, while Saladin established his camp at a safe
distance in the interior of the country. Of course, the first thing
which he found was to be done, as has already been remarked, was to
repair and strengthen the walls, and it was evident that no time was
to be lost in accomplishing this work.

But, unfortunately, the character of the materials of which Richard's
army was composed was not such as to favor any special efficiency in
conducting an engineering operation. All the knights, and a large
proportion of the common soldiers, deemed themselves gentlemen. They
had volunteered to join the crusade from high and romantic notions of
chivalry and religion. They were perfectly ready, at any time, to
fight the Saracens, and to kill or be killed, whichever fate the
fortune of war might assign them; but to bear burdens, to mix mortar,
and to build walls, were occupations far beneath them; and the only
way to induce them to take hold of this work seems to have been for
the knights and officers to set them the example.

Thus, in repairing the walls of Acre, all the highest officers of the
army, with Richard himself at the head of them, took hold of the work
with their own hands, and built away on the walls and towers like so
many masons. Of course, the body of the soldiery had no excuse for
declining the work, when even the king did not consider himself
demeaned by it, and the whole army joined in making the reparations
with great zeal.

But such kind of zeal as this is not often very enduring. The men had
accomplished this work very well at Acre, but now, in undertaking a
second operation of the kind, their ardor was found to be somewhat
subsided. Besides, they were discouraged and disheartened in some
degree by the results of the fruitless campaign they had made into the
interior, and worn down by the fatigues they had endured on their
march. Still, the knights and nobles generally followed Richard's
example, and worked upon the walls to encourage the soldiery. One,
however, absolutely refused; this was Leopold, the Archduke of
Austria, whose flag Richard had pulled down from one of the towers in
Acre, and trampled upon as it lay on the ground. The archduke had
never forgiven this insult.

Indeed, this rudeness on the part of Richard was not a solitary
instance of his enmity. It was only a new step taken in an old
quarrel. Richard and the duke had been on very ill terms before. The
reader