at question. As has already been explained,
Richard took up the cause of Guy, who claimed through the deceased
Sibylla. He had been induced to do so, not by any convictions which he
had formed in respect to the merits of the case, but because Guy had
come to him while he was in Cyprus, and had made such proposals there
in respect to a conjunction with him that Richard deemed it for his
interest to accept them. In a similar way, Conrad had waited upon
Philip as soon as he arrived before Acre, and had induced him to
espouse his, Conrad's, side. If there were two orders of knights in
the army, or two bodies of soldiery, that were at ill-will with each
other through rivalry, or jealousy, or former quarrels, they would
always separate on this question of the King of Jerusalem; and just as
certainly as one of them showed a disposition to take the side of Guy,
the other would immediately go over to that of Conrad, and then these
old and half-smothered contentions would break out anew.

Thus this difficulty was not only a serious quarrel itself, but it was
the means of reviving and giving new force and intensity to a vast
number of other quarrels.

It may seem strange that a question like this, which related, as it
would appear, to only an empty title, should have been deemed so
important; but, in reality, there was something more than the mere
title at issue. Although, for the time being, the Christians were
excluded from Jerusalem, they were all continually hoping to be very
soon restored to the possession of it, and then the king of the city
would become a very important personage, not only in his own
estimation and in that of the army of Crusaders, but in that of all
Christendom. No one knew but that in a few months Jerusalem might come
into their hands, either by being retaken through force of arms, or by
being ceded in some way through Richard's negotiations with Saladin;
and, of course, the greater the probability was that this event would
happen, the more important the issue of the quarrel became, and the
more angry with each other, and excited, were the parties to it. Thus
Richard found that all his plans for getting possession of Jerusalem
were grievously impeded by these dissensions; for the nearer he came,
at any time, to the realization of his hopes, the more completely were
his efforts to secure the end paralyzed by the increased violence and
bitterness of the quarrel that reigned among his followers.

The prin