While Richard was building, Saladin was pulling down. Having razed Ascalon, he on September 23 rejoined his main force at Jafna, thence returned with it next day to Ramlah, and set his men to raze the citadel of this latter place and the great fortified church of S. George at the neighbouring town of Lydda. On the 25th he left his army at Ramlah under Safadin to complete this work and watch the enemy, while he went to see with his own eyes the state of the defences of Jerusalem and take measures for securing their efficiency. On the 30th he returned to Ramlah.[797] To Richard this abandonment of all attempt to hold the country seemed like the conduct of “a man bereft of all counsel, and of all hope of succour”;[798] but Richard himself was not without secret misgivings as to the ultimate success of the Crusade. On the same day on which he wrote—probably to one of his ministers, for communication to his subjects in general[799]—the letter declaring his hope that Jerusalem would be won by the middle of January, he wrote also a letter to the abbot of Clairvaux which reveals more clearly the actual condition of affairs and the king’s real expectations as to their future course. He thought there was good hope that the whole “heritage of the Lord” would be speedily recovered; indeed, part of it was recovered already. But in the recovering of that part he had, as he truly said, borne the burden and heat of the day and exhausted not only his money but also his health and strength, so that he felt he could not stay in Syria beyond Easter; and the other western leaders, having spent all they had, would return to their homes unless fresh supplies of men, money, and other necessaries were sent out from Europe to enable them to remain. He therefore besought the abbot to stir up princes and peoples by his preaching, and induce them to make provision for the safety and defence, after Easter, of the Lord’s heritage, “which,” he said, “by God’s grace we shall have fully won by that time.”[800]