< previous page page_407 next page >

Page 407
son of Acre sent despairing messages to Saladin and, at last, he agreed to their surrender. The terms improved again. They would yield up the relics of the True Cross and two hundred Christian prisoners if they were allowed to leave in peace taking with them only the clothes they wore.
"Do you think," Richard responded, "that my power is so small that I cannot take by force what you now offer as a favor?"
He looked a little odd, for his skin was the bright pink of new-healed flesh where it had peeled away during the disease, and his hair was no more than a baby-fluff of red-gold fuzz as it grew back in. Nonetheless, the light of health was in his eyes and evidence of his returning strength in each gesture. A day or two longer, the emissaries knew, or perhaps a week, and the English King would make good his threat. Once more the terms were improved; twenty-five hundred Christian prisoners in addition to the relics of the Cross and 2000,000 dinars.
Even then Richard might have refused, but he had news that Saladin was laying waste to the whole countryside and had torn down the city of Haifa. Since his supplies were coming from Cyprus, Richard cared little for the ravaging of the land. The destruction of the cities was another matter. They would be necessary to hold as strong points after Saladin had been defeated. With the provision that the leading citizens and the officers of the garrison plus their wives and families should be held hostage for Saladin's fulfillment of the terms of the compact, Richard agreed.
On July 12, 1191, the city of Acre slipped back into Christian hands. After the tumult and fever of the years of fighting, the quiet evacuation was almost an anticlimax. Its great advantage was that the houses and palaces, except those hard by the walls, were intact and fully furnished. Richard promptly moved himself and his ladies into the Royal Palace while Philip

 
< previous page page_407 next page >