ABEY. 1.]

ST. JOHN OF JERUSALEM.

51

that they ought previously go and take Cairo. How-ever strange this seems—though one of those citiesseems to have nothing to do with the other—yet itassuredly exculpates Richard, and is in strict con-formity with great military authority, both then andnow. lie who was the most celebrated for warlikequalifications at that time, and who had longerexperience of each city, was of their opinion; andaffirmed that Cairo was the only real key to Jerusa-lem. The first crusaders found the Egyptian in pos-session of the Holy City; and it seems Ibrahimthought the same in our own day; and that Egyptis the only military road to Palestine. 1

So, full of the most perplexing meditations, KingRichard and army marched back to the coast, andspent the rest of the winter in raising the walls ofAscalon and Jaffa that Saladin had pulled down. 2Early in the spring of 1192, King Richard ^ :

advanced into the mountains of Judea,near Jerusalem, and had several battles. In whichof them precisely the subsequent facts occurred, isnot specified. But the chronicler Ricobaldus givesa sure date when he says it was between Ramlahand Jerusalem, and on St. George’s day; for onlyin 1192 did Richard advance thither, and St. George

e 2

1 Bib. Crois., ii. 712.—Yinisauf: 3.

2 Arab. Chron., 340.