The English envoy was received by the emperor surrounded by his nobles.

The prelate advanced with great dignity.
"I come," he said, "in the name of the people of England to demand the restoration of King Richard, most unjustly and unknightly detained a prisoner in his passage through your dominions." "King Richard was my foe," the emperor said, "open and secret, and I was justified in detaining one who is alike my enemy and a scourge to Europe as a prisoner, when fortune threw him in my hands.

I am, however, willing to put him to a ransom, and will upon the payment of one hundred and fifty thousand marks allow him to go free." "I deny your right to detain him or to put him to ransom," the bishop said.

"But as you have the power, so my denial is useless.

England is poor, impoverished with war and by the efforts which she made in the service of our holy religion.