for him, though. As he was arraying his troops, they attacked him first. His horse was slain in the skirmish and he was thrown head over heels into a mud hole.” A reminiscent smile tugged at the corners of his mouth. “The Pisans then retreated back into the city and slammed the gates shut. But the next morning Conrad’s fleet sailed into the outer harbor. We’ve held out for three days so far, and the Pisans entreated us to send word to you that we need help. So . . . I set out to find you,” he concluded. “The Caesarea harbor is so dangerous that I almost continued on, for I was not sure that you’d gotten this far yet. Thank God I did not pass on by!”
By now no one was paying any attention to him. Richard was already on his feet. At first incredulous, he was now so outraged that some of the men had begun to give him space, almost as if he were radiating heat. “Saladin will laugh himself sick when he hears this,” he said, practically spitting the words. His eyes raking the hall, he beckoned to Robert de Sablé, the Templar grand master, and to Henri, then glanced back at Longchamp. “I want you to return to Acre tonight, tell them that I will be there on the morrow.”
Longchamp’s face fell at the prospect of more hours onboard ship, but he dutifully agreed. After a moment to reflect, though, he frowned in perplexity and said to the closest man, who happened to be Henri, “How can he get there so quickly? It is nigh on forty miles between Caesarea and Acre.”
Henri looked wistfully at the tables holding the first course of their meal. “We’ll be riding all night,” he said with a sigh, and then hurried to catch up with his uncle.
AS HE PROMISED, Richard reached Acre the next day. But by then word had spread that he was on the way, and he discovered that the siege was over. Conrad and Hugh had decided discretion was the better part of valor and hastily retreated to Tyre. Richard set about patching up a peace between the Pisans and Genoese, and managed it by a combination of eloquence, logic, and threats. He then insisted that Conrad meet him at Casal Imbert as originally planned. Conrad had never lacked for temerity and agreed.
Richard’s success with the Pisans and Genoese was not repeated at Casal Imbert. Conrad again refused to join the army at Ascalon, and in Richard’s view, he added insult to injury by citing the defection of the French as one reason for his lack of cooperation. Richard returned to Acre in a rage and called a council, which deprived Conrad of his half of the kingdom’s revenues. This was an empty gesture, though, for it could not be enforced as long as Conrad retained the support of the French and most of the poulain lords. In fact, it would later backfire upon Richard, for Conrad would retaliate in a way that was far more effective.
Richard ended up remaining at Acre through March, wanting to make sure that the port city would not be vulnerable to another surprise attack. He also renewed negotiations with Salah al-Dīn, requesting that al-’��dil be sent to engage in peace talks, offering terms based upon a partition of the kingdom and the Holy City which were very similar to those he’d posed back in November; no mention was made this time of a marriage between Joanna and al-’Ādil. The talks were so amicable that just before Palm Sunday Richard knighted one of al-’Ādil’s sons, and Salah al-Dīn and his council were inclined to accept these terms.
But the talks were abruptly broken off when Richard left Acre unexpectedly in late March. His spies had alerted him that he was not the only one struggling with internal dissension. Salah al-Dīn’s troops were even more war-weary and disgruntled than Richard’s soldiers, for they’d been fighting much longer. More significantly, Richard had learned that Salah al-Dīn’s great-nephew was threatening rebellion, apparently on the verge of joining forces with one of the sultan’s enemies, the Lord of Khilāt.
Richard decided, therefore, to bide his time and see what developed, hoping that Salah al-Dīn’s increasing vulnerability would compel him to accept peace terms more favorable to the Franks, for he knew Ascalon was a huge boulder on the road to peace, with neither man willing to surrender claims to it. Stopping off at Jaffa, Richard collected