details given by contemporary chroniclers about the effects of his
illness scarcely permit it to be regarded as a sham. "Violent sweats,"
they say, "committed such havoc with his bones and all his members, that
the nails fell from his fingers and the hair from his head, insomuch that
it was believed--and, indeed, the rumor is not yet dispelled--that he had
taken a deadly poison." There was nothing strange in Philip's illness,
after all his fatigues, in such a country and such a season; Saladin,
too, was ill at the same time, and more than once unable to take part
with his troops in their engagements. But, however that may be, a
contemporary English chronicler, Benedict, Abbot of Peterborough, relates
that, on the 22d of July, 1191, whilst King Richard was playing chess
with the Earl of Gloucester, the Bishop of Beauvais, the Duke of
Burgundy, and two knights of consideration, presented themselves before
him on behalf of the King of France. "They were dissolved in tears,"
says he, "in such sort they could not utter a single word; and, seeing
them so moved, those present wept in their turn for pity's sake. 'Weep
not,' said King Richard to them; 'I know what ye be come to ask; your
lord, the King of France, desireth to go home again, and ye be come in
his name to ask on his behalf my counsel and leave to get him gone.'
'It is true, sir; you know all,' answered the messengers; 'our king
sayeth, that if he depart not speedily from this land, he will surely
die.' 'It will be for him and for the kingdom of France,' replied King
Richard, 'eternal shame, if he go home without fulfilling the work for
the which he came, and he shall not go hence by my advice; but if he must
die or return home, let him do what he will, and what may appear to him
expedient for him, for him and his.'" The source from which this story
comes, and the tone of it, are enough to take from it all authority; for
it is the custom of monastic chroniclers to attribute to political or
military characters emotions and demonstrations alien to their position
and their times. Philip Augustus, moreover, was one of the most decided,