The bane of loot was many times the cause of their undoing. Finally the town surrendered — a fact which the Sultan learned only after the event. A diver, who had swum from the city, brought him the letter telling of the terms arranged by the chief emir, Almechtoub. Besides the surrender of the city with all it contained, its engines of war, stores and ships, the Franks were to receive two hundred thousand gold dinars, one hundred prisoners of rank and five hundred ordinary, and the Holy Cross. This is the statement of Beha ed-din. Other authorities assert that the garrison was to be held as hostages for the payments and that the Sultan was called upon to surrender two hundred knights and fifteen hundred other Christian prisoners. He was dismayed and did not want to agree. He did not get any help from the emirs he consulted, and had fully resolved to send a letter expressing his formal disapproval when the banners of the Franks were hoisted on the walls. The two years' siege of Acre ended on July 12, 1191 against the protests of the commander-in-chief of the defending army. And.now Richard was guilty of an atrocity which all the troubadors and poets who have made him their hero could not wipe out. There were difficulties in the way of carrying out all the provisions of the capitulation, and Saladin asked for an extension of time, particularly as to the surrender of certain of the Christian prisoners. It had been agreed that the stipulations of the treaty should be carried out in three monthly