So, after venting for a time a great many loud but fruitless complaints, the aggrieved parties allowed their resentment to subside, and all acquiesced in acknowledging Henry as King of Jerusalem. Besides these difficulties, a great deal of uneasiness and discontent arose from rumors that Richard was intending to abandon Palestine, and return to Normandy and England, thus leaving the army without any responsible head. The troops knew very well that whatever semblance of authority and subordination then existed was due to the presence of Richard, whose high rank and personal qualities as a warrior gave him great power over his followers, notwithstanding their many causes of complaint against him. They knew, too, that his departure would be the signal of universal disorder, and would lead to the total dissolution of the army. The complaints and the clamor which arose from this cause became so great in all the different towns and fortresses along the coast, that, to appease them, Richard issued a proclamation stating that he had no intention of leaving the army, but that it was his fixed purpose to remain in Palestine at least another year. CHAPTER XVIII. THE BATTLE OF JAFFA. 1192 The battle of Jaffa.--Richard gives the army employment.--Uncomfortable news from England.--Richard's resolution.--Account of the country through which the army marched.--The approach to Jerusalem.--Hebron.--The prize in sight.--Saladin strongly established in Jerusalem.--Richard's self-reproaches.--A new expedient.--The proposed march upon Cairo.--The hopeless condition of the army.--Saladin at Jaffa.--Richard's measures to succor Jaffa.--His fleet arrives there.--Landing.--The onset upon the Saracens.--Jaffa retaken.--Both sides awaiting assistance.--The Saracens defeated.--The story of Saladin's present of horses to his enemy.--The romantic story of the treacherous gift. When, at last, the state of Richard's affairs had been reduced, by the causes mentioned in the last chapter, to a very low ebb, he suddenly succeeded in greatly improving them by a battle. This battle is known in history as the battle of Jaffa. It was fought in the early part of the summer of 1192. As soon as he had issued his proclamation declaring to his soldiers that he would positively remain in Palestine for a year, he began to make preparations for another campaign. The best way, he thought, to prevent the army from wasting away its energies in internal conflicts between the different divisions of it was to give those energies employment against the common enemy; so he put every thing in motion for a new march into the interior. He left garrisons in the cities of the coast, sufficient, as he judged, to protect them from any force which the Saracens were likely to send against them in his absence, and forming the remainder in order of march, he set out from his head-quarters at Jaffa, and began to advance once more toward Jerusalem.