Α.η. 1103.] ACCUSATION'S AOAIN'ST RICHARD. 127 king put under a strong guard of soldiers and attendants, who accompanied him wherever he went with drawn swords, day and night, and even kept guard by turns round his couch, not allowing any of his own followers to remain with him at night. None of these circumstances could ever cloud the calm countenance of the king, but he always seemed cheerful and agreeable in his conversation, and brave and daring in his acts, as time, place, cause, or person required. To others I leave the relation of his jokes to his guards ; how he made them drunk, and assaulted their huge persons by way of amusement. How the emperor accused king Jîïchard in many things, and how the king prudently replied to them. The emperor for a long time cherished feelings of anger and malice against the king, and did not even deign to receive him into his presence, or even to speak to him ; for he complained that the king had offended him and his friends in many things, and pretended that he had many charges against him. At length, after the interposition of friends from time to time, especially of the abbat of Cluni, and William the king's chancellor, the emperor called together his bishops, dukes, and knights, and ordered the king to be brought into his presence, and there accused him of manv offences before all of them. In the first place, to wit, that it was by Richard's advice and assistance that he, the emperor, had lost the kingdom of Sicily and Apulia, which of right belonged to him on the death of king William, and to obtain which he had collected a very large army, and spent an endless sum of money, he, the said king, faithfully promising him his assistance to obtain that kingdom from Tancred. lie next, with regard to the king of Cyprus, a relation of his own, accused Richard of having unjustly dethroned and imprisoned that monarch, and of havini; forcibly invaded his country, robbed his treasury, and sold the island to a foreigner. lie next accused him of the death of the marquis of Montferrat, his heir, asserting that it was owing to his treachery and machinations that that nobleman had been slain by the Assassins ; and that he had also sent the same people to slay his lord the king of the French, with whom he had, during their pilgrimage, kept no faith in