The meeting between the two kings at which this extraordinary arrangement took place was held in the open air. So far as we can gather, Richard was either a silent spectator or was not actually present, though he was certainly close at hand. After its conclusion he went to his father’s lodging in the house of the Knights Templars at Ballan, hard by Colombières,[350] to receive, according to agreement, the kiss of peace. He did receive it, but as he turned to depart he heard his father mutter: “The Lord grant that I may not die till I have had my revenge of thee!”[351] The words were the half delirious utterance of a sick man whose brain was on fire with fever and, still more, with shame at the public degradation he had just gone through, and with disappointment at the failure of his most cherished scheme; although the worst detail connected with that failure did not become known to him till some hours later, when he received the list of the followers who had deserted him. Then he learned that John had anticipated the issue of the struggle and secured for himself the protection of the party whose success he saw to be a foregone conclusion, by pledging his allegiance to Richard.[352] The triumph of Philip Augustus was for the moment complete. He had successfully asserted and exercised his sovereign authority over the greatest of his vassals, the vassal who was, no less than himself, a crowned and anointed king, and whose lands comprised, besides the island realm, more than two-thirds of the realm of France. The succession to all those lands, including England, had been, or seemed to have been, determined at Philip’s bidding. He was, or seemed to be, master of both Henry and Richard. But his triumph was only momentary. Within three days the convention of Colombières was a mere piece of waste parchment, for Henry of England was dead. BOOK II RICHARD’S CRUSADE 1189-1192 Ma fu di pensier nostri ultimo segno Espugnar de Sion le nobil mura. CHAPTER I THE YEAR OF PREPARATION 1189-1190 Surgite, et ascendamus in Sion.