The dismantling of Ascalon was a precaution on which Richard had insisted when he found himself compelled to cede the place; if the Moslems must have it, they should at any rate be unable to make any military use of it till they had had the expense and trouble of rebuilding it again. The work of demolition was entrusted to the joint superintendence of a party of Moslems and one of Franks, who all set out for Ascalon on September 5, and who were also to bring back its Frankish garrison.[1031] As under the terms of the truce Christian pilgrims were to have free access to the Holy Sepulchre, the rest of the Franks at Joppa and many from Acre and elsewhere now began crowding to Jerusalem to fulfil their vow of pilgrimage.[1032] An English writer tells us that some of them urged the king to do likewise; “but his lofty spirit would not suffer him to accept from the grace of a heathen ruler a privilege which he had been unable to obtain as a gift of God.”[1033] On the night of Tuesday, September 9, he set out on his northward journey.[1034] Haïfa, in its quiet, sheltered corner between the foot of Carmel and the mouth of the Kishon, and with its outlook northward across the sea to Acre at the opposite end of the bay, offered probably a better resting-place for an invalid than Acre itself, to which it was near enough for medical aid to be easily available. At Haïfa the king stayed a while to recover his strength.[1035] Then he went on to Acre and completed his preparations for departure. He ransomed William des Préaux, who had been made a voluntary prisoner in his stead in September 1191, by exchanging for him ten valuable Saracen captives.[1036] He called, by public proclamation, all his creditors to come and claim whatever he owed them, that they might all be paid in full, “and even overpaid, lest there should be any complaints or disputes after he was gone about anything that they had lost through him.”[1037] He had some months before made provision for the future of Cyprus, and also for that of his earliest friend among the Franks in Holy Land, Guy of Lusignan, who had so greatly helped him to conquer that island. He had conquered it not for his own benefit, but for the benefit of the Christian kingdom of Jerusalem, to which its preservation in friendly hands was a matter of great importance. He at first agreed to make it over to the Order of the Temple for twenty-five thousand marks;[1038] but this agreement came to nothing; and when Henry of Champagne was chosen King of Jerusalem in April 1192, Richard made substantial compensation to the displaced King Guy by giving him the island realm of Cyprus.[1039] The grant was perhaps put into legal form during Richard’s last days at Acre.[1040] The two queens sailed on Michaelmas day,[1041] the king on October 9.[1042] * * * * *