Now about this same time there came a messenger to King Richard bearing a letter from one that he had set to rule in England in his stead while he should be absent from his kingdom.  In this letter there were written many things about the doings of Prince John the King’s brother:  how he had commerce with the French to the King’s damage, and was troubling all loyal men, and had taken all the money that was in the treasury.  When the King heard these things he was sore distraught.  And indeed he was in a great strait.  On the one hand there was the purpose for which he had come on his present journey, the taking again of the Holy City; and, on the other, there was the loss of his own kingdom at home.  For in the letter it was plainly written that if he was not speedy in returning, all the realm of England would be lost to him.

At the first he made no doubt of departing with but as little delay as might be.  “I must be gone,” he said, “or my kingdom will not be worth a silver penny.”  But before many days his purpose was changed.  ’Twas said that a holy man, a priest of the land of France, took courage to speak to him and set before him his duty in this matter.  He said that the hearts of all were sorely troubled by the King’s purpose to depart—­and this was most certainly true, seeing that they who were most jealous of the King and chafed most at his command were not less dismayed by the news of his departure than were his best friends.  “Think too,” he is reported to have spoken, “how that you will greatly dim your kingly renown.  You have done well, O King, and God has manifestly bestowed His blessings on you.  Will you then be ungrateful, and, if your royal grace will suffer me to say so much, unfaithful to Him?  Verily there is a great reward laid up for him that recovers the Holy City out of the hands of the heathen, and will you give this up on the bare rumour of mischief that may befall your estate in this world?” So the holy man is reported to have spoken.  Such words may have had weight with the King, who was ever greatly moved by eloquent words.  But I also believe that when he came to himself he judged that there was no great need of haste in the matter; that the Prince John his brother was not greatly loved, nor was ever like to be; that when the people of England had had a year’s trial of his rule, if such should come to pass, they would be the less likely to stand by him; and, moreover, that if Richard should go back to his country in high esteem among all men, as having set up yet again a Christian Kingdom in the Holy City, his enemies would be brought nought by the mere rumour of his coming.  Certain it is that, let the cause be what it might, he caused it to be made known throughout the army that they would set out for the Holy City in three days’ time.