Lady Virginia convinces Prince Philippe to liberate Jerusalem and capture the riches of the East. He agrees to it. Christians of Europe are determined to take revenge and conspire with Governor of Acre, a traitor, to send message to Prince Conrad for help and money and he will surrender his city to the Christians in exchange for the rule of Acre and Jafa. Meanwhile, Saladin, true to his reputation, visits the captured Christians prisoners and orders his staff to provide them water and also, announces the victory edict that male prisoners be freed on payment of ten Dinars and female prisoners for five Dinars. Prince Renaud tells his captors that he should be treated according to his status and not ridiculed because he was a prisoner and without a sword. Saladin in fairness to the prisoner gives orders to his commander to give sword to Prince Renaud. After getting the sword, Prince Renaud tells Saladin that it is only befitting that a king should have a sword duel with another king and expects Saladin to accept his challenge for a sword duel. This challenge is accepted by Saladin and makes a modest and humble statement that “Renaud shall be killed by a lowly servant of Allah.” This statement is a reflection of his strong belief in Allah and his conviction that the defender of Faith of Allah will prevail. Although Prince Renaud was a prisoner, still, he was given full rights to make his choice on how to be treated. After a hard and bitter sword duel, it ended with the death of Prince Renaud. Victorious Saladin feels justice has been done on the death of Prince Renaud because he had done great injustice by violating the treatise and killing of unarmed pilgrims and looting their goods. “If I could punish him for his crime I would kill him a thousand times,” Saladin sums up his feelings with this statement.
In England, Prince John is envious of the popularity of King Richard, the lion-hearted, who is known as the lion-hearted for his bravery and chivalry. A multi-purpose conspiracy is hatched by Prince John to get King Richard out of his way by sending him to free Jerusalem from the Arabs. He holds a War Council meeting in which emotional speeches are made to egg-on King Richard to lead the English and European armies to get Jerusalem back from the Arabs. With emotions on high pitch, King Richard, declares that “I, Richard, the lion-hearted, will liberate Jerusalem from the Arabs.” Prince John was positive in his mind that King Richard would not return alive.
Issa, the Christian Arab commander approaches Louise and asks to become his lawful and legal wife. She hated the Arabs and turned down his offer and says that “she would have committed suicide if it was not a mortal sin, than marry an Arab.”
Richard, the lion-hearted, leads his armies which were composed of English, French, Irish, Germans, other European countries and paid professionals known as the mercenaries. The fleet sails through the English and Mediterranean seas to free Jerusalem. King Richard decides to first capture Acre before sunset in his quest to capture Jerusalem. As per conspiracy, the crusaders attack Acre and easily capture it without much resistance because the traitor, Governor of Acre, did not order his forces to attack the Crusaders, until it was too late and Acre capitulated, giving the Crusaders their first morale-boosting victory. Kingdoms of France, Antioch and England rejoice their victory. Loss of Acre was a severe blow to the Arab spirit. The Crusaders had launched “The Holy War.”
To be continued…
