of Champagne, and Baldwin, archbishop of Canterbury, and Hubert, bishop of Salisbury, and Ralph de Glenville, with a strong army; of whom Archbishop Baldwin and Ralph de Glanville d1ed at the siege of the city, which the Latins call Acre and the Jews Accaron, while the kings still remained in Sicil .
Sect. 22. The Griffones, before King Richard's arrival in Sicily, were more powerful than all the mighty of that region, and having moreover always hated the people beyond the Alps, and now irritated by recent occurrences more inveterate than ever, kept the peace with all who claimed the king of France for their master, but sought to wreak the entire vengeance of their wrongs on the king of the English and his tailed[1] followers, for the Greeks and Sicilians followed that king about and called them tailed English. Thereupon all intercourse with the country is denied the English by proclamation; they are murdered both day and night by forties and fifties, wherever they are found unarmed. The slaughter was daily multiplied, and it was madly purposed to go on until they should either destroy or put them all to flight. The king of England, excited by these disorders, raged like the fiercest lion, and vented his anger in a manner worthy that noble beast. His fury astounded his nearest friends, and his whole court, the famous princes of his army sat around his throne, each according to his rank, and if any one might dare to raise his eyes to look him in the face, it would be very easy to read in the ruler's countenance what he silently considered in his mind. After a long and deep silence, the king disburdened his indignant lips as follows.
Sect. 23. "O, my soldiers! my kingdom's strength and crown! who have endured with me a thousand perils, you, who by might have subdued before me so many tyrants and cities, do you now see how a cowardly rabble insults us? Shall we vanquish Turks and Arabs? shall we be a terror to nations the most invincible? shall our right hand make us a way even to the ends of the world for the cross cf Christ? shall we restore the kingdom to Israel, when we have turned our backs before vile and effeminate Griffones? Shall we, subdued here in the confines of our own country, proceed
- ↑ The origin of this joke is unknown.
