In the mean time the crusade continued to be preached with great success in Europe. William, archbishop of Tyre, had proceeded to the courts of France and England, and had represented in glowing colours the miserable condition of Palestine, and the horrors and abominations which had been committed by the infidels in the holy city of Jerusalem. The English and French monarchs laid aside their private animosities, and agreed to fight under the same banner against the infidels, and towards the close of the month of May, in the second year of the siege of Acre, the royal fleets of Philip Augustus and Richard Cœur de Lion floated in triumph in the bay of Acre. The Templars had again lost their Grand Master, and Brother Robert de Sablè, or Sabloil, a valiant knight of the order, who had commanded a division of the English fleet on the voyage out, was placed (A. D. 1191) at the head of the fraternity.[87] The Templars performed prodigies of valour; “Their name and reputation, and the fame of their sanctity,” says James of Vitry, bishop of Acre, “like a chamber of perfume sending forth a sweet odour, were diffused throughout the entire world, and all the congregation of the saints will recount their battles and glorious triumphs over the enemies of Christ; knights, indeed, from all parts of the earth, dukes, and princes, after their example, casting off the shackles of the world, and renouncing the pomps and vanities of this life, for Christ’s sake, hastened to join them, and to participate in their holy profession and religion.” They carried before them, at this time, to battle, “a bipartite banner of black and white, which they call _beauseant_, that is to say, in the Gallic tongue, _bienseant_, because they are fair and favourable to the friends of Christ, but black and terrible to his enemies.”[88] Saladin had passed the winter on the heights of Schaferan and Keruba. His vast army had been thinned and weakened by incessant watching, by disease, and continual battles, and he himself was gradually sinking under the effects of a dreadful disease, which baffled all the skill of his medical attendants, and was gradually drawing him towards the grave. But the proud soul of the great chieftain never quailed; nor were his fire and energy at any time deadened. As soon as he heard of the arrival of the two powerful christian monarchs, he sent envoys and messengers throughout all Mussulman countries, earnestly demanding succour, and on the Mussulman sabbath, after prayers had been offered up to God for the triumph of his arms, and the deliverance of Islam, he caused to be read, in all the mosques letters to the following effect;--