The causes of the comparative failure of the third Crusade have been much discussed; yet after following in detail the story of that expedition one is led to marvel not at its so-called failure, but at the extent of its success. The truce restored to the Christians, for the period of its duration, the whole coast of Palestine from Haïfa to Joppa, left the southern remainder deprived of its chief stronghold, Ascalon, and secured to the pilgrims the right of free and safe access to the holy places of Jerusalem. If at its expiration Richard had been able to return—as he hoped and intended—to take up again his task in Holy Land, he would have done so with far other prospects of success than those with which he and his followers had set out from Acre in 1190. Saladin himself regarded the position of the Moslem power in Holy Land with grave misgiving. His own health was failing, and he confessed to Bohadin his fears that in case of his death the Franks would come forth from the strongholds which the truce had placed in their hands, and once more become masters of the country.[1043] It was to Richard that the measure of success gained by the Crusade was mainly due; and this fact was fully recognized by the Moslems. A writer of the next generation reports that “the fear of him was so constantly in the hearts and on the lips of the Saracens that when their children cried they said to them, ‘Be quiet! England is coming!’ and when their horses started with affright, they mocked at them saying, ‘What is the matter? Is England in front of us?’”[1044] “England,” in the sense in which they used the word—as representing England’s king—was destined never to confront them again. But seven centuries later the attainment of the goal was to be granted to “England” in another form, that of an army which, having set out from what Richard had once proposed to secure as the fittest starting-point for the purpose—Egypt—finally closed round the Holy City by ways in every one of which it was almost literally treading in the footsteps of the Lion-Heart. BOOK III RICHARD AND EUROPE 1192-1199 —Thy harvest, fame; Thy study, conquest; war, thy game. CHAPTER I RICHARD AND THE EMPIRE 1192-1194 There was I beaten down by little men, Mean knights, to whom the moving of my sword And shadow of my spear had been enow To scare them from me once.