Chapter VII.
The Embarkation.
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The plan of embarking the troops.
The plan which Richard had formed for conveying his expedition to the Holy Land was to embark it on board a fleet of ships which he was sending round to Marseilles for this purpose, with orders to await him there. Marseilles is in the south of France, not far from the Mediterranean Sea. Richard might have embarked his troops in the English Channel; but that, as the reader will see from looking on the map of Europe, would require them to take a long sea voyage around the coasts of France and Spain, and through the Straits of Gibraltar. Richard thought it best to avoid this long circuit for his troops, and so he sent the ships round, with no more men on board than necessary to manœuvre them, while he marched his army across France by land.
The English fleet.
As for Philip, he had no ships of his own. England was a maritime country, and had long possessed a fleet. This fleet had been very much increased by the exertions of Henry the Second, Richard's father, who had built several new ships, some of them of very large size, expressly for the purpose of transporting troops to Palestine. Henry himself did not live to execute his plans, and so he left his ships for Richard.
The French forces.
France, on the other hand, was not then a maritime country. Most of the harbors on the northern coast belonged to Normandy, and even at the south the ports did not belong to the King of France. Philip, therefore, had no fleet of his own, but he had made arrangements with the republic of Genoa to furnish him with ships, and so his plan was to march over the mountains to that city and embark there, while Richard should go south to Marseilles.
Richard's rules.