her, the cunning Ysop knows her place of rest." Richard assented, and the Saracens withdrew. The letters from the queen contained intelligence of the most startling character. The Genoese and Pisans, rivals for the carrying trade of the East, had made Acre their seaport, and to give dignity to their commercial animosi-ties had espoused, the one the party of Conrad, the other that of Guy de Lusignan. Their feuds had kept the resi-dents of the city in a constant state of apprehension, and Berengaria entreated her lord to return to Acre, or to cause her immediately to be transported to Jaffa. In the same package were despatches from England, of a nature equally alarming. ]STo sooner had Philip reached Italy than he applied to Pope Celestine for a dispensation from his oath to leave Richard's domains in quiet. When that request was denied, he proceeded in a covert manner to detach Prince John from his allegiance, promised him Alice in marriage, and offered to make him lord of all Richard's possessions in France. The prompt measures of Queen Eleanor had in some degree counteracted this design. Forbidding John, under the penalty of a mother's cnrse, to invade his brother's rights, she conveyed the hapless Alice to the strong castle of Rouen,- where she subjected her to an imprisonment more rigorous than she had herself suf-fered in Winchester. The principal barons had leagued with John, or against him, and the whole realm was in a state of ferment. The political troubles of England, the treachery of the French king, the solicitude of his beautiful queen, and the dubious prospects of the crusade, raised a tumult of agita-ting thoughts in the mind of the king, and he passed the night in a state of sleepless excitement. Scarcely waiting for the dawn, he summoned Salaman and despatched him for Mestoc. Impelled by the pressing exigencies of the case, he intrusted the generous foe with a knowledge of the embarrassments of his position, and entreated his good offices in bringing about an accommodation with Saladin, stipulating only for the possession of Jerusalem and the BERENGARIA OF NAVARRE. 2Ô3