The victory at Joppa was Richard’s crowning exploit in Holy Land; and he himself very soon realized that it was to be his last. Both in him and his men the tremendous physical and mental strain of those five August days was followed by a sudden breakdown which was aggravated by the unhealthiness of their surroundings. The Turks when they evacuated Joppa had not only left in its streets the bodies of those who had been slain in the siege, but also slaughtered all the pigs in the town and interspersed the carcases with the human corpses, as an insult to the Christians.[1016] No sanitary measures had been possible during the stress of the succeeding days; the consequence of this state of things had therefore spread beyond the walls on every side, and the king and his men, too much exhausted to move far enough to escape from it, lay helpless and sick almost unto death.[1017] Nevertheless, Richard’s next message to the Sultan was practically a defiance. The envoy whom he had despatched on August 2 to Saladin at Ramlah had proceeded thence on a further mission to Safadin, who was then lying sick at Gibeon, near Neby Samwîl.[1018] This envoy returned to Joppa on the 7th or 8th[1019] with a message from Safadin proposing a colloquy. He was accompanied by the chamberlain Abu Bekr. Richard gave an audience to Abu Bekr outside the town and said to him: “How far am I to put myself in the Sultan’s hand before he will deign to receive me? Truly, I was very desirous of returning home; but now I have decided to stay through the winter, and want no further conferences with you.”[1020] For nearly three weeks after this, Saladin made no move of any kind; he was [Sidenote: _Aug. 20_] waiting for reinforcements. On the 20th the long-desired contingent from Egypt at last arrived; and two days later the forces of the lands beyond the Euphrates were brought up by the Sultan’s once rebel great-nephew, El Mansour. Messengers still passed between the two camps; Richard, exhausted by fever, asked Saladin for fruit and snow, which the Sultan readily sent him; the friendly intercourse enabling each party to learn how matters went with the other.[1021] Meanwhile Richard’s sickness was increasing, and so were his anxieties. In vain he sent Count Henry back to Caesarea to insist that the laggards there should come and help to hold the land; they would not stir. Then he called Henry, the Templars, and the Hospitaliers around his bed, and begged that some of them would take charge of Ascalon and others of Joppa, and thus set him free to seek pure air and medical treatment at Acre, as the only chance of restoring his health. “But they all declared they would not undertake the custody of the fortresses without him; and they went out [of his tent] without another word.”[1022] A [Sidenote: _Aug. 9-26_] proclamation published throughout the coast-towns, calling upon all fit men to come and serve under the king at his expense, brought a crowd of