excitement which swept over Europe at the disastrous news from the Holy
Land.

After the death of the young king a precarious peace was established in
Aquitaine, and Henry returned to England. In March 1185 he received at
Reading the patriarch of Jerusalem and the master of the Hospital,
bearing the standard of the kings of the Holy Land, with the keys of the
Holy Sepulchre, of the tower of David, and of the city of Jerusalem.
"Behold the keys of the kingdom," said the patriarch Heracles with a
burst of tears, "which the king and princes of the land have ordered me
to give to thee, because it is in thee alone, after God, that they have
hope and confidence of salvation." The king reverently received them
before the weeping assembly, but handed them back to the safekeeping of
the patriarch till he could consult with his barons. He had long been
pledged to join the holy war; he had renewed his vow in 1177 and 1181.
But it was a heavy burden to be now charged with the crown of Jerusalem.
Since the days of his grandfather, Fulk of Anjou, the last strong king
of Jerusalem, there had been swift decay. Three of his successors were
minors; Antone was a leper; the fifth was repudiated by every one of his
vassals. The last forty years had been marked by continual disaster. The
armies of the Moslem were closing in fast on every side. A passion of
sympathy was everywhere roused by the sorrows of the Holy City. All
England, it was said, desired the crusade, and Henry's prudent counting
of the cost struck coldly on the excited temper of the time. Gerald of
Wales officiously took on himself, in the middle of a hunting party, to
congratulate the king on the honour done to him and his kingdom, since
the patriarch had passed by the lands of emperors and kings to seek out
the English sovereign. Talk of this kind before all the court at such a
critical moment much displeased the prudent king, and he answered in his
biting way, "If the patriarch, or any other men come to me, they seek
rather their own than my gain." The unabashed Gerald still went on,
"Thou shouldst think it thy highest gain and honour, king, that thou
alone art chosen before all the sovereigns of the earth for so great a
service to Christ." "Thus bravely," retorted Henry, "the clergy provoke
us to arms and dangers, since they themselves receive no blow in the
battle, nor bear any burden which they may avoid!"

Henry's council, however, held firm against the general tide of