he turned to Abu Bekr and spoke seriously: “Greet the Sultan from me, and beg him to let us have peace. My country needs me, and the state of things in this land is bad alike for you and for us.” Saladin was still close at hand, and twice in that night proposals and counter-proposals of terms passed between the two sovereigns. Ascalon was still the stumbling-block; neither of them would renounce his claim to it. To a daring suggestion of Richard’s, that Saladin should enfeoff him after the manner of the Franks with the counties of Ascalon and Joppa, to hold by military service including, if required, the personal service of the king himself—“of which,” he added, “you know the value”[987]—Saladin returned an answer in which Ascalon was not named at all. The Sultan [Sidenote: _Aug. 2_] then followed his army to Yazour, and thence, early next morning, went to Ramlah.[988] Thither a messenger from Richard followed him, and pressed for a definite cession of Ascalon. Saladin’s reply was given instantly and finally: “It is impossible.”[989] [Sidenote: _Aug. 2-4_] That Sunday and the two following days were spent by Richard and his men in repairing the walls of Joppa as well as they could by piling up the stones without mortar or cement.[990] On one of these three days they were joined by Count Henry, who came from Caesarea in a galley; the rest of the troops being still detained there by “the ambushes of the Turks” on land and the lack of ships to convey them by sea.[991] It was seemingly to ascertain what chance there was of intercepting these troops, of whose departure from Acre he had only just been made aware, that Saladin on the [Sidenote: _Aug. 4_] Monday (August 4) moved northward as far as the banks of the Aoudjeh (the River of Arsuf). There, however, he further learned that they were safe in Caesarea, and also that a not less important and probably easier prey lay within his reach—King Richard and his little band, in their unprotected tents in the fields outside Joppa. At nightfall he turned back, hoping to surround Richard’s camp in the darkness and surprise it at break of day.[992] The first body of Moslem troops which approached the camp, however, was discovered by a watchful Crusader who at once aroused the king. Richard slipped his mail-coat over his night-gear, sprang bare-legged on horseback, and with the few knights in his company—most of them dressed and armed in a like hasty fashion—began to array his men.[993] The Saracens, finding they could not take him by surprise, sent a party to force an entrance through the still uncompleted walls into the town, in order to deprive him of a refuge there.[994] The scared townsfolk sent word to the king that they were all lost, for “a countless host of heathen” were taking possession of the city. Richard sternly silenced the messenger, swore to cut off his head if he let anyone else hear the message, and went on with his preparations for defence. Behind a