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that Eichard Cœur de Lion made a transitory conquest of Cyprus, and that this led somehow to its possession by the Lusignans afterwards ; but few people know the particulars of this dramatic transaction—fresh to-day as they ever were—which I must indulge my-self by telling the reader as I had them told to me. As every schoolboy knows, and indeed as all men and women know who are fresh, as very few of them are, from reading a schoolboy's books, in the year 1191 Eichard Cœur de Lion was on his way, by sea, to the Holy Land. He had with him a considerable number of ships, and on one of them was his betrothed, Beren-garia, whom it was arranged that he should marry at Jerusalem. Some way south of the island of Ehodes he encountered a violent storm, which scattered his fleet to the four quarters of heaven. Certain of the ships were wrecked on the coast of Cyprus, not far from Limasol ; and another, freighted with the precious burden of Berengaria, at last found itself rocking on the swell in Limasol roads. The sailors of the former, though the shore on which they had been cast was Christian, instead of receiving any help from the natives were attacked and robbed by them ; they only reached Limasol with difficulty, and on their arrival they were seized and detained as prisoners. As for Berengaria, she fared very little better. She was, it would seem, extremely sea-sick, only, instead of being, like the others, ill-treated on landing, she was told insultingly that she must not land at all. 180 IN AN ENCHANTED ISLAND

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