splendid recollection. We feel and own the genius of the place; and contrast the present solemn tranquillity and mournful silence of the tomb with the horrid din of Paynim war. We trace with fancy's eye the fortunes of the soldier of Christ, from the joyful moment of his investment with the sacred badge to the hour of his triumph or death. His contempt of a perilous march, and his heroic ardour in the Syrian fields, awe and command our imagination; while his sacrifice of country and kindred throws an air of sublime devotedness round his exploits, and forbids us from censuring with severity the madness of the enterprise. As in his life, at the call of religion, he unsheathed his sword, and vowed the destruction of the faithless, so in death his marble hand grasps the hilt, and his countenance looks defiance and disdain.
The lion-hearted Plantagenet
Beyond thoughts' compass; that former fabulous story,
Being now seen possible enough, got credit;
That Bevis was believ'd."
It might, therefore, have been expected, that no labour of research would have been spared in treating of the Crusade of king Richard I.; besides, national associations give it a high degree of interest, and it was a war more brilliant in its military events and more diversified in its politics than most of the others. Mr. Sharon Turner is the only author who appears to have justly appreciated the subject.
Few circumstances in the heroic ages of Christendom were more singular than the diversion of the fifth expedition from its Asiatic objects to the conquest of Constantinople. As the fortunes of the Greek empire were involved in the common struggles between the Turks and the Latins, the Crusades occupy a space in the History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. Of many of the holy wars Mr. Gibbon has made only hasty and imperfect sketches, principally taken from Vertot, L'Histoire des Chevaliers Hospitaliers de S. Jean de Jerusalem, and from Mailly, L'Esprit des Croisades: the former an amusing but superficial performance, the latter the result of considerable original inquiry; but where fancy often supplies the want of facts, and historical accuracy is bent and accommodated to dramatic effect. The fourth, sixth, and seventh Crusades are altogether unnoticed by Mr. Gibbon. But of the expedition, in which the Byzantine empires was principally interested, he has treated with such fidelity and splendour, the historic tissue is so closely drawn and so finely wrought, that every one who writes upon the Crusades must regret that the fifth armament is a part of his subject.
Whether the holy wars are considered, then, as belonging to the public affairs of Europe, or as a portion of the early history of England, a history of them in the English language appears to be a desideratum; and as hitherto the subject has been only partially or generally written upon, the present attempt is submitted to the public.