Page:Royalnavyhistory01clow.djvu/201

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1190.]
CRUSADE OF RICHARD I.
167

were found inside, pending the making of an arrangement with the commanders, Robert de Sabloil and Richard de Camville,[1] for securing peace.[2] These detachments sailed again on July 24th, and found at the mouth of the Tagus the remainder of the fleet under William de Fortz. A further voyage of twenty-eight days brought the fleet safely to Marseilles on August 22nd.

But King Richard, who had reached Marseilles about the end of July, expecting to find the fleet already there, had waited for only eight days. He had then hired ten large busses and twenty galleys to convey his immediate followers and himself to Messina, and had sailed on August 7th in a galley called the Pumbo.[3] He was at Genoa on August 13th, and had an interview with Philip, who lay ill there. His next place of call was Portofino, where he remained for five days, and where he received a request from Philip for the loan of five galleys. Richard offered three, and Philip thereupon preferred to accept none. From Portofino Richard reached the mouth of the Arno on August 20th, and Porto Baratto on the 23rd. At Piombino he went on board another galley, belonging to Fulk Postranti,[4] with the intention of proceeding in her, but as she split her sail on the 25th, he returned to the Pumbo, and that day anchored in the Tiber. The Cardinal Bishop of Ostia came from Rome to receive him, but by asserting a claim to some money on the part of the Holy See, his Eminence so angered the hot-tempered king that Richard accused the Papal court of simony, declined to go to Rome and sailed again on the 26th. On the 28th he landed at Naples, and, after a brief stay, continued his journey down the coast on horseback until he reached Scylla. On the way, when but a single knight happened to be with him, he was attacked by peasants, from the house of one of whom he had attempted to take a hawk, and the King of England compelled to cover his retreat by throwing stones at his assailants. From Scylla, Richard crossed to Messina, and entered the port on September 23rd.

"As soon," says Vinesauf, "as the people heard of his arrival, they rushed in crowds to the shore to behold the glorious King of England, and at a distance saw the sea covered with innumerable

  1. He founded Combe Abbey, Warwickshire. Having been made Governor of Cyprus, he quitted that island without Richard's permission, and died at the siege of Acon.
  2. Bened. of Peterboro, ii. 603; Bromton, 1177.
  3. "In galea Pumbone."—Bened. of Peterboro, ii. 590.
  4. Hoveden says Fulk Rustac.