Sir Walter Scott was a master of diverse talents. He was a man of letters, a dedicated historian and historiographer, a well-read translator of foreign texts, and a talented poet. Deriving most of his material from his native Scotland, its history and its legends, Scott invented and mastered what we know today as the historical novel. This adventure, set in the Holy Land of Crusader fame, is a tale of Richard the Lionheart, of his noble knight Sir Kenneth of the Leopard (the prince royal of Scotland in disguise) and of the great Saracen ruler Saladin who fought the historical Richard to a standstill in Palestine.