offended at the fiege of Acre. This fordid prince fold him to the Emperor, Henry the VIth, who had taken offence at Richard's alliance with the King of Sicily. The place of his captivity was carefully concealed by his enemies, but it was difcovered by Blondel, a provençal bard and minstrel, who had fbared his friendship and his bounty. Having travelled over many parts of Europe to learn the fate of his beloved master, the active Blondel at length gained intelligence, that in a certain caftle in Germany a noble prifoner was confined, and clofely guarded. The gates of the caftle were barred against him, but he was determined to try an expedient for making the defired difcovery. He chaunted with a loud voice fome verfes of a fong, which had been compofed partly by Richard and partly by himself; and to his unspeakable joy, when he paused, the second part was continued by the royal captive. This difcovery is faid to have led to his releafe. Vain were the remonftrances of the Bishops of Normandy to the Pope in his behalf, exhorting him to draw the fword of St. Peter against the Emperor, for doing violence to one of the braveft foldiers of the church. And as ineffectual for fome time were the fpirited letters of Eleanora, the mother of Richard, to the Pope. The mercenary Emperor at laft, not influenced by the Pope's threat of excommunication, but by the offer of a large ranfom, restored Richard to liberty, A. D. 1194, after the captivity of a year. Pierced by an arrow at the fiege of the caftle of Chalies, his death happened about five years after, A. D. 1199.

6

1199. His formidable name is faid to have been continued in proverbial fayings in the east. It was used for fixty years after by the Syrian mother to filence her child; and the rider was wont to exclaim to his ftarting horfe, doft thou think King Richard is in that bufh? The Arabian historians have added to his fame, and mention him as one of the braveft champions of the cross,

The exploits of the crufaders, and especially of Richard Cœur de Lion, may be thought to refemble the marvellous ftories of romantic times: Yet what has happened in our own days, and even upon the spot where Richard displayed his valour as a warrior of the crofs, may be adduced as a ftrong proof of their truth. Before the walls of Acre, the Turks have again witneffed the perfeverance and intrepidity of Britons; for there "the dauntless feaman," with his few brave affociates in danger and glory, ftopped the progrefs of a French army, and compelled their leader, baffled and astonished at courage, not furpaffed even by the crufaders of Britain, to defift from his darling enterprife, and abandon the conqueft of Syria'.

a

"Ye fainted fpirits of the warrior dead,
Whofe giant force Britannia's armies led,
Whofe bick'ring falchions, foremost in the fight,
Still pour'd confufion on the Soldan's might;
Lords of the biting axe, and beamy fpear,
Wide conqu'ring Edward, Lion Richard, hear!
At Albion's call your crefted pride refume,
And burft the lumbers of the marble tomb:

The

Your

The Fourth Crufade, 1202.

The French commanded by Baldwin, Count of Flanders, in alliance with the Venetians, embarked in the fourth crufade. They efpoufed the caufe of the young Alexius, the fon of the depofed Emperor Ifaac. Conftantinople was taken by the inferior army of the crufaders, and the timid ufurper, bafely deferting his fair daughter Irene, and his fubjects, carrying away much treafure, privately retreated through the Bofphorus. The old Emperor was reftored to his throne only to be again loaded with chains by Alexius Ducas, a relation, who put him and his fon to death, and

Your fons, behold! in arm, in heart the fame,
Still prefs the footsteps of parental fame, 1.
To Salem ftill their gen'rous aid supply,
And pluck the palm of Syrian chivalry.
When he from tow'ry Malta's yielding ifle,
And the green waters of reluctant Nile,
Th' Apoftate Chief, from Mifraim's subject shore
To Acre's walls, his trophied banners bore:
When the pale defart mark'd his proud array,
And defolation hop'd an ampler fway,

What hero then triumphant Gaul dismay'd?
What arm repell'd the victor renegade?

Britannia's champion

Bath'd in hoftile blood,

High on the breach the dauntlefs Seaman ftood:

Admiring Alia faw th' unequal fight,

E'en the pale Crefcent blefs'd the Chriftian's might.".

Palestine, an Oxford Prize Poem, by Mr. Reginald Heber, 1803.

affumed

affumed the imperial purple. With the confent of the tumultuous populace, the Latins, to revenge these atrocities, again attacked the city; and fuch was the terror of the Greeks on their approach, that Nicetas, one of their hiftorians, relates that the thousands of troops, who guarded the Emperor's perfon, fled at the approach of a single French hero. The conquerors, unmoved by the folemn proceffion and abject fupplications of the Greek priefts, indulged in the licence allowed to those who take a city by storm, except the effufion of blood. They divided from a common stock the gold, filver, filks, velvets, furs, gems, and fpices, and other treasures of the moft fplendid city in the world, 1204. They profaned the facred veffels and ornaments of the churches by common ufe, melted down the beautiful antique ftatues of brafs into money for the payment of their troops, and in the true fpirit of the age referved the heads, bones, croffes, and images of faints as the moft precious trophies of their conqueft. The Greek provinces were divided among the victorious crufaders of Venice, France, and Lombardy. Dandolo, the Doge of Venice, who had taken a moft active part in the enterprife, was proclaimed governor of Romania, and ended at Conftantinople his glorious life. Five Latin Emperors of the haufes of Flanders and Courtenay, fucceeded to the imperial throne, and Conftantinople was for fixty years in poffeffion of the Latins. Few of the conquerors recollected their original folemn engagement to fuccour Jerufalem, and only those repaired

repaired thither, who could gain none of the spoils of the Greeks. Some of the Imperial family of the Comneni preferved the wreck of the empire, and founded two finall kingdoms, one at Nice in Bithynia, the other at Trebifond, between the fea and mount Caucafus. They took Villehardouin, prince of Achaia, prifoner, and thus deprived the Latins. of their moft powerful vaffal. The Genoefe took part with the Greeks, and fome Greek peafants engaged in a ftratagem to admit a party of foldiers by a fecret way into the city. They fucceeded, fet it on fire in four places, and caufed Baldwin, the affrighted Emperor, precipitately to fly with Juftinian the patriarch, and fome of his friends, 1261. Michael Palæologus, with the Emprefs his wife, and his little fon Andronicus, entered the city in solemn proceffion on foot by the golden gate, and regained the throne. He caufed Alexius Cæfar his general, by whofe addrefs and bravery he had recovered it, to be carried in triumph. He wore a crown fcarcely inferior to the imperial diadem, and his ftatue was placed upon a lofty pillar.

The Fifth Crufade, 1207.

This furnished, at its commencement, another inftance of the Chriftians affuming the badge of the crofs, not against infidels, but against those who profeffed the fame faith with themfelves. Innocent the Third, who established the inquifition, and to whofe Legate John King of England re