A straight broadsword, with a handle of box-wood and a sheath
covered with snakeskin, was suspended from his waist. In his
right hand he held a short javelin, with a broad, bright steel
head, of a span in length, and in his left he led by a leash of
twisted silk and gold a large and noble staghound.
The messenger prostrated himself, at the same time partially
uncovering his shoulders, in sign of humiliation, and having
touched the earth with his forehead, arose so far as to rest on
one knee, while he delivered to the King a silken napkin,
enclosing another of cloth of gold, within which was a letter
from Saladin in the original Arabic, with a translation into
Norman-English, which may be modernized thus:--
"Saladin, King of Kings, to Melech Ric, the Lion of England.
Whereas, we are informed by thy last message that thou hast
chosen war rather than peace, and our enmity rather than our
friendship, we account thee as one blinded in this matter, and
trust shortly to convince thee of thine error, by the help of our
invincible forces of the thousand tribes, when Mohammed, the
Prophet of God, and Allah, the God of the Prophet, shall judge
the controversy betwixt us.
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