and soldier, a very active and stormy existence. Richard Cceur de Lion
was thirty-one, and had but just ascended the throne where he was to
shine as the most valiant and adventurous of knights rather than as a
king. Philip Augustus, though only twenty-three, had already shown
signs, beneath the vivacious sallies of youth, of the reflective and
steady ability characteristic of riper age. Of these three sovereigns,
the eldest, Frederick Barbarossa, was first ready to plunge amongst the
perils of the crusade. Starting from Ratisbonne about Christmas, 1189,
with an army of one hundred and fifty thousand men, he traversed the
Greek empire and Asia Minor, defeated the Sultan of Iconium, passed the
first defiles of Taurus, and seemed to be approaching the object of his
voyage, when, on the 10th of June, 1190, having arrived at the borders of
the Selef, a small river which throws itself into the Mediterranean close
to Seleucia, he determined to cross it by fording, was seized with a
chill, and, according to some, drowned before his people's eyes, but,
according to others, carried dying to Seleucia, where he expired. His
young son Conrad, Duke of Suabia, was not equal to taking the command of
such an army; and it broke up.

The majority of the German princes returned to Europe: and "there
remained beneath the banner of Christ only a weak band of warriors
faithful to their vow, a boy-chief, and a bier. When the crusaders of
the other nations, assembled before St. Jean d'Acre, saw the remnant of
that grand German army arrive, not a soul could restrain his tears.
Three thousand men, all but stark naked, and harassed to death, marched
sorrowfully along, with the dried bones of their emperor carried in a
coffin. For, in the twelfth century, the art of embalming the dead was
unknown. Barbarossa, before leaving Europe, had asked that, if he should
die in the crusade, he might be buried in the church of the Resurrection
at Jerusalem; but this wish could not be accomplished, as the Christians