sound like just another day’s work, Uncle. I wonder if Caesar or Roland or Alexander the Great were equally casual about their conquests.”
Richard laughed, always pleased to have his military skills lauded. “I will gladly take full credit for our victory at Jaffa, especially if there are any French within earshot. But we benefited greatly from the low morale of Saladin’s army. His men have been campaigning for years, are tired, homesick, and frustrated, for they’ve had few opportunities for booty since my arrival at Acre, and even soldiers fighting a holy war still expect to profit from it.”
Leaning over, Richard helped himself to a handful of pine nuts. “The men we faced had no interest in fighting, Henri, were so busy ransacking the town that they did not even realize we’d gotten ashore. We were lucky in so many ways yesterday, but I do not know how long it will hold. Jaffa’s defenses could now be overrun by a band of determined monks!”
“Not if Malik Ric stands astride the battlements,” André joked. Getting a skeptical look from Richard, he insisted, “No false modesty, Cousin. You’ve earned such a reputation for lunatic courage and battlefield mayhem that no sensible man wants to take you on. Even I would not!”
“I’d rather not wager our survival on that, André. The truth is that we’re in a deep hole and we can only pray Saladin’s own woes will keep him busy as we try to dig ourselves out.” Richard shifted uncomfortably; like all of his men, he was stiff and sore, his body bruised and battered from yesterday’s struggles. Catching the troubled expression on his nephew’s face, he acted quickly to reassure him. “I’m nothing if not stubborn, Henri. I’ll find a way to make this right—for you, for me, for my men. I have no intention of failing or of dying in the Holy Land. I’d never give those French malcontents that satisfaction!”
ABŪ-BAKR BROUGHT Richard’s message back to Salah al-Dīn and the bargaining began. The sultan argued that since Jaffa was now laid waste, Richard should have the lands only from Caesarea to Tyre. Richard countered with an imaginative proposal, explaining that the Frankish custom was for a lord to give land to a vassal, who then agreed to serve him in time of need; if he held Ascalon and Jaffa from the sultan, he would promise to return if requested and offer his military services, “of which you know the value.” Salah al-Dīn then offered to share the two towns, Jaffa for Richard and Ascalon for himself. Richard thanked him for agreeing to cede Jaffa, but insisted he must hold Ascalon, too, for he’d spent a king’s ransom to rebuild it. Moreover, if the sultan would agree to this, he promised that peace could be made in just six days and he would leave then for his own lands. But if not, he would have to remain through the winter and the war would go on. Salah al-Dīn responded that he could not agree to yield Ascalon. And if Richard was willing to be far from his family and homeland when he was a young man in the flower of his youth, at a time when he sought his pleasures, “how much easier is it for me to spend a winter, a summer, then another winter in the midst of my own lands, surrounded by my sons and my family.” He was an old man, he said, and he’d had his fill of worldly pleasures. He could outwait the English king, for he was serving God and what could be more important than that?
With Ascalon still blocking the road to peace, the talks sputtered to a halt. By now the sultan had learned that the Frank reinforcements were at Caesarea, with no plans to advance farther. When he was told that Richard was camped outside Jaffa with a small force of knights, he realized that he was being presented with a rare opportunity. If the English king were to be captured or killed, their war would be won.
CHAPTER 36
AUGUST 1192
Jaffa, Outremer
Henri was normally a light sleeper. But for the past two days, they’d been trying to repair the town walls. Every physically fit man from Richard on down had taken part in the labor, and Henri had gone to his bed Tuesday night feeling as if every muscle in his weary body ached. So when the shouting began, he at first merged it into his dream and did not come fully