Pending the recovery of Jerusalem, Acre served as temporary capital of the kingdom, and there accordingly King Guy seems to have remained since his return thither in September. His authority was upheld by the Pisans, who from the outset of the Crusade had attached themselves to Richard; the Genoese, having done homage to Philip Augustus, favoured the marquis, and were intriguing to put him in possession of the city. A skirmish between these two parties seems to have been going on when the French arrived; they took to their arms, whereupon the Pisans set themselves to bar their way; the duke’s horse was killed under him; then the Pisans rushed back into the city and shut the gates against him and his men. At this juncture Conrad, in response to the invitation of the Genoese, arrived by sea with his forces. The Pisans “took to the mangonels and stone-casters” and thus kept him off for three days while they sent to call Richard to the rescue. Their messenger found the king at Caesarea, on his way to the projected meeting with Conrad. A hasty ride brought him to Acre at dead of night, and “when the marquis knew that the king had come, nothing could hold him there, but he went with all speed back to Tyre,” whither Burgundy and the French were gone already.[860] On the morrow Richard called together the people of [Sidenote: _Feb. 20_] the city and made peace among them.[861] Soon afterwards the meeting with Conrad at Casal Imbert took place, but without any practical result.[862] Next, Richard demanded repayment of the loan which he had made to the duke of Burgundy six months before. Hugh acquitted himself of the debt by assigning to the king the most valuable of Philip’s Saracen prisoners, who were still in Conrad’s custody at Tyre; but he made no sign of rejoining the Crusade. Such a state of affairs threatened ruin to the whole enterprise, and after long and anxious deliberation in his own mind Richard took private counsel with the “elders and wise men of the land” as to what had best be done. They gave their judgement that the marquis had forfeited his rights under the settlement of July 1191, and should be deprived of the revenues then assigned to him in the kingdom.[863]