patriarch Heraclius, the Grand Master of the Temple, and the Grand Master of the Hospitallers, were sent on an urgent embassy to ask for help. They went first to Eome. The pope had been driven out of Eome and was now at Verona, trying to re-establish peace throughout the whole of Christendom. With him was Frederic, Emperor of Germany. They next went to France. Philip Augustus received them with every kind of distinction, but would promise no help. He had only recently mounted the throne, and his own affairs required care. Next, and as a last resource, they went to England. Henry II. was full of domestic trouble at the time. He had taken, ho acknowledged, an oath to defend the kingdom of Jerusalem, but he could not go now, it was impossible ; he would, however, help them with treasure. The patriarch lost his temper at this, the last of the repeated refusals. " You were sworn," he cried, " to take your army to the Holy Land. Ten years have passed without your doing anything to redeem your promise. You have deceived God : know you not what God reserves for those who refuse to serve him ? I see," he went on, " that I am exciting your wrath ; but you may treat me as you treated my brother, Thomas of Canterbury ; it is all the same to me whether I die in Syria by the hand of infidels, or whether I am murdered by you, more cruel than any Saracen." Henry took no notice of these angry words, and declared his resolution not to abandon the kingdom, and allowed those of his subjects who wished to take the Cross. But the zeal for crusading had died out, and very few \vent to defend the Church of the Sepulchre. As for the kingdom of Jerusalem, it was fast tottering to its fall. The country* was dotted over with castles and strongholds, the owners of which had learned, since the death of Amaury, to despise the authority of the king. Moreover, the pride and power of the Templars set up a sort of rival * See Micliaud, Vol. ii., p. 306.