repelling a Mameluke attack in force by a most skilful tactical arrangement of his meagre army, directing the battle on the beach while he also kept the town clear, "slaying innumerable Turks with his gleaming sword, here cleaving a man from the crown of his head to his teeth," there cutting off with one blow the head, shoulder, and right arm of a Saracen emir, his coat of mail and his horse bristling with javelins and arrows like a hedgehog, yet "remaining unconquerable and unwounded in accordance with the divine decree."[1]
What most concerned the Norman empire was the king's absence since the summer of 1190, prolonged by his captivity in Germany until the spring of 1194. Although Philip had taken an oath before leaving Palestine to respect Richard's men and possessions during his absence, and even to protect them like his own city of Paris, he sought release from this engagement as soon as he reached Rome on his homeward journey, and once back in France he soon began active preparations for an attack on the Plantagenet territories. With Richard safe in a German dungeon, he seized a large part of the Norman border and made a secret treaty with John which secured the surrender of all the lands east of the Seine and important fortresses in Anjou and Touraine. He offered huge sums of money to secure Richard's custody
- ↑ See the extracts from the chroniclers translated in T. A. Archer, The Crusade of Richard I (London, 1888), pp. 285 ff.
