When Richard's soldiers found that the time for the captured ship to sink was drawing nigh, they abandoned her, leaving on board every thing that they had not been able to save, and, withdrawing to a safe distance, they saw her go down. The sea all around her was covered with the bodies of the dead and dying, and also with bales of merchandise, broken weapons, fragments of the wreck, and with the flickering and exhausted remnants of the Greek fire. The fleet then got under way again, and pursued its course to Acre. CHAPTER XII. THE ARRIVAL AT ACRE. 1190 The besieging army at Acre.--Motives of the Saracens.--Motives of the Christians.--Envyings and jealousy among the besiegers.--King of Jerusalem.--A common danger makes a common cause.--The terrible loss of life in the siege of Acre.--The unwieldy armor of the knights.--King Richard received by the besieging army.--Berengaria a bride.--Philip's conciliation. While Richard was thus, with his fleet, drawing near to Acre, the armies of the Crusaders that were besieging the town had been for some time gradually getting into a very critical situation. This army was made up of a great many different bodies of troops, that had come in the course of years from all parts of Europe to recover the Holy Land from the possession of the unbelievers. There were Germans, and French, and Normans, and Italians, and people from the different kingdoms of Spain, with knights, and barons, and earls, and bishops, and archbishops, and princes, and other dignitaries of all kinds without number. With such a heterogeneous mass there could be no common bond, nor any general and central authority. They spoke a great variety of languages, and were accustomed to very different modes of warfare; and the several orders of knights, and the different bodies of troops, were continually getting involved in dissensions arising from the jealousies and rivalries which they bore to each other. The enemy, on the other hand, were united under the command of one great and powerful Saracen leader named Saladin.