A.D. 1192. THE XING OF ENGLAND LANDS A l GAZERA. would fight him in a pitched battle ; which message greatly pleased the king. But, just as everything had been ready prepared for the pitched battle, five galleys arrived from Acre with soldiers, by way of succour for the king ; upon which, Saladin declined to engage with him. In the meantime, Hugh, duke of Burgundy, Ralph de Courcy, and the viscount de Pinkenny, died at Acre, on the eighth day after their arrival there. Shortly after, Saladin sent word to the king of England that he would repay him all his expenses which he had been put to in fortifying Ascalon, and would make with him and the other Christians who should remain in the land of Jerusalem a truce to last for three years, from Easter then next ensuing, and would keep the peace with them until the said time, if he would reinstate Ascalon in the same condition in which he himself had left it. Ac ^ cordingly, the king of England, seeing that both men and money and health were failing him, by the advice of the Templars and of the whole army, closed with the said offer which Saladin had made him : on which, upon oath, they agreed that peace should be observed for that period. After this, the king of England, placing everything in the hands of Henry, count of Champagne, hastened to return to his kingdom, by reason of the sinister reports which he had heard both as to the king of Prance and the expulsion of his chancellor, as also the earl of Mortaigne, his brother, who had seized the castles of the kingdom, and would have taken possession of the whole thereof if he could have found the opportunity. Accordingly, the king of England came to Caiaphas, where he fell sick, and proceeded thence-to Acre. Here, after the feast of Saint Michael, being the eighth day before the ides of October, and the fifth day of the week, he embarked on board of a large buss, and, within a month from that day, arrived at the island of Cuuerfu, where he went on board a boat, and sailed towards three galleys which he saw on the opposite side off the coast of Bomania, and hired them to take him as far as Ragusa, for two hundred marks of silver ; after which, he returned to his buss, and the said galleys with him; and, having made terms with them, he took with him Baldwin, the advocate of Bethune, and twenty other companions, and embarked on board one of the said galleys ; and on landing at Gazera, near Ragusa, declined to tell them that he was king of England, but said that they were pilgrims. However, although he had a