Now change the scene — and let the trumpets¹ sound,

For we must rouse the lion from his lair².

OLD PLAY.

The scene must change, as our programme has announced, from the mountain wilderness³ of Jordan to the camp of King Richard of England, then stationed betwixt Jean d’Acre and Ascalon, and containing that army with which he of the lion heart had promised himself a triumphant⁴ march to Jerusalem, and in which he would probably have succeeded, if not hindered by the jealousies⁵ of the Christian⁶ princes engaged in the same enterprise, and the offence taken by them at the uncurbed haughtiness⁷ of the English monarch⁸, and Richard’s unveiled contempt for his brother sovereigns, who, his equals in rank, were yet far his inferiors in courage, hardihood, and military talents. Such discords¹⁰, and particularly those betwixt Richard and Philip of France, created disputes and obstacles which impeded¹¹ every active measure proposed by the heroic though impetuous Richard, while the ranks of the Crusaders were daily thinned, not only by the desertion of individuals, but of entire bands, headed by their respective feudal¹² leaders, who withdrew from a contest in which they had ceased to hope for success.

The effects of the climate became, as usual, fatal to soldiers from the north, and the more so that the dissolute

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