The king and his nobles were meanwhile feasting in the great banqueting-hall at Westminster, and for a time took no notice of the disturbance. At length officers were sent to suppress the mob, but it was too late. The enfuriated people paid no attention to the few soldiers sent to quell them, and only rested from their bloody work, from sheer exhaustion, about two o’clock the next day. A few of the men engaged in the riot were afterwards brought to trial and punished, but King Richard found that so many of his chief men were implicated, that he let the matter drop, only issuing an edict, forbidding the Jews to be injured any more. King Richard now entered upon his preparations for the crusade, with intense zeal. His great need was money, and he seemed to think that the sacred cause was an excuse for most unkingly measures. Richard was endowed with a sort of reckless lion-like courage, which led him to look upon fighting as a sport, and as he had no one to fight at home, he espoused eagerly any pretense of a sacred cause which would give him the pleasure of killing as many men as he pleased, and thereby winning not disapprobation from the world, but loud plaudits for bravery, and zealous devotion to a holy enterprise. Strange delusion! That men should go forth to murder, rob, and devastate the land in the name of the meek and lowly Christ. Only ignorance and superstition could allow the human soul to be so infatuated with not only false, but most atrociously wicked, ideas, which were in entire opposition to the teachings of the Divine Leader whom they professed to follow. In securing money for the crusade, King Richard resorted to many very questionable expedients. He proceeded to sell the royal domains which he had inherited from his father, and in this manner disposed of castles, fortresses, and towns to the highest bidder. When remonstrated with for thus diminishing the crown property, he replied, “I would sell the city of London itself, if I could find a purchaser rich enough to buy it.” Richard also sold high offices and titles of honor; and the historians state that King Richard’s presence-chamber became a regular place of trade, where castles, titles, offices, and honors were for sale, to whomsoever would give the best bargain. But the most disreputable manner of raising money was by imposing fines as a punishment for crimes, and then endeavoring to fix crimes upon the wealthy, so that they would be obliged to pay large sums to free themselves. Lastly, Richard sold the nominal regency of England to two wealthy courtiers, one a bishop, the other an earl. Or if he did not sell it to them outright, he arranged that they were to receive the power, and were to give him a large sum of money. He, however, stipulated that his brother John and his mother should have their share of influence in deciding upon measures concerning the government.