means to intimidate or to gain over a part of the many who were arrayed against him; for although it was at first believed by every one, that his sickness was feigned, yet upon its being proved to be real, by the visit of two noblemen, the investigation was once more put off till the following day, when he promised to appear.

We are told that his resolution now wavered, and that at first, he proposed to proceed barefoot to the palace, to cast himself at the feet of the King, and to beseech him, in memory of their old friendship, to consent to a reconciliation. There can scarcely be a doubt that this plan would have proved successful. Henry, though passionate to a degree of insanity, was by no means tenacious of his anger: having humbled the Archbishop so far as to prevent him from becoming dangerous for the future, he might have been contented with his submission, and moreover the King might then perhaps have recollected, what he should have recollected long before; that Becket had expended enormous sums in his service; that he had obtained for him peace, and great extension of territories; that he had captured towns and fortresses, judged impregnable, for his benefit and for his interest; that he had marched to his assistance in Normandy with twelve hundred knights and four thousand men at-arms, all of whom were paid by himself, and maintained at his expense. On the other hand, however, it is not impossible,

that the very consciousness of such services rendered, acting upon a proud and self-confident spirit, might tend, in combination with ambitious feelings, to make Becket resolve upon resistance to one whom he considered an ungrateful master. Certain it is that after brief reflection he laid out his plan with that mixture of hypocritical cunning and ambitious daring, which had distinguished his opposition to the constitutions of Clarendon. He determined to affect a belief that his life was in danger, to baffle Henry's artifices by bringing forward boldly the real cause of the King's indignation against him, rather than the matter immediately under discussion, to overwhelm all considerations of the account required of his stewardship in the question of his opposition to the constitutions of Clarendon, and to resume the high ground of a defender of the clergy's privileges, rather than to remain in the low position in which the King had placed him, as an insolvent, nay, a fraudulent debtor. In accordance with this view, when a number of the bishops visited his sick chamber, he reproached them bitterly for having abandoned his cause. He told them that he appealed from them to the Pope, he commanded them on their duty to him and to the Church to abstain from taking any part in the proceedings against him, he threatened them with all the papal thunders if they did not obey, and he directed them to launch an Anathema at the head of any one who should dare to employ the secular power in his case.

The Bishops were legally bound to take part in the proceedings of the parliament; and Becket now openly refusing to submit to the highest tribunal of the land, in reality committed a breach of his oath of fealty, and brought himself under the law of high treason, as it then stood. Still his menaces and exhortations were not without their effect upon the bishops, the more perhaps from the very aggravated nature of his offence, which rendered him obnoxious to very severe punishment.

Becket, having now chosen his part, proceeded to enact it, in a manner the most offensive and the most criminal. Affecting to believe that in presenting himself before a high court of parliament, where all the lay peers and a great body of the clergy were assembled, he was absolutely going to martyrdom, he prepared himself for it in an ostentatious manner, celebrating the mass appointed for Saint Stephen's day at an altar dedicated to the first martyr, and carrying a consecrated wafer upon his person. He proceeded with such demonstrations of alarm to the great council chamber, at the door of which he took the archiepiscopal cross from the hands of the cross-bearer, and carrying it himself, entered alone into the hall.

The King having notice of his coming, and of the extraordinary and indecent manner in which he came, and probably having heard also that he had that morning caused to be sung "The princes sat and spoke against me, and the wicked perse

cuted me," together with the psalm, "The rulers take counsel together against the Lord and against his anointed," retired from the hall on the approach of the man who had thus insulted him, and gave way, it would seem, in an inner chamber, to one of the wild and extravagant fits of fury which so frequently disgraced him.

In the meanwhile, the bishops arose at the approach of Becket; but, astonished at his appearance in parliament waving his silver cross in his hand, the Bishop of Hereford, as his chaplain, advanced and offered to relieve him of the crosier. But this Becket would by no means permit, asserting boldly, that he required it for his defence, and to show under the banner of what prince he fought. The Archbishop of York, however, reproved him severely for presenting himself in a manner so insulting to every one there, and more especially to the King; and the Bishops of London and Hereford still strove, somewhat violently, to take the cross from him. The commotion lasted some time; and it would seem that the Archbishop of York was neither very temperate nor considerate in his words, telling the primate that the sword of the king would be found sharper than the staff with which he came armed. Becket replied with great readiness, "If the weapon of the king carnally can slay the body, my sword can spiritually cut through the soul, and cast it into hell;" and still refusing to give up the cross, he sat down and

waited the result, taking care, however, to announce to all the prelates present, that he appealed his cause to the Pope, and strictly forbade them to take part in any proceedings against him.*

In the meanwhile, Henry, after giving way to the first burst of his fury, sent a herald to require the presence of all the peers, both lay and spiritual, who had remained in the first hall, and complaining with much indignation of the insult that had been offered to him and them, demanded their opinion as to the further proceedings against Becket. It would appear, that the reply generally made by the assembly was, that on account of his present conduct and breach of his oath of fealty, the Primate should be impeached for high

treason.

The King, however, did not suffer them to pursue this course; but sent out in the first place, to demand of Becket, whether he would give a full account of the revenues received during his chancellorship. To this message Becket replied that he had often given to the King an account of all these things before he was archbishop, and that at his election, Henry, the King's son, then custos of the realm, with all the barons of the exchequer,

* Hoveden says, that before he thus publicly notified to the bishops his appeal, information had been secretly given to him that his death was resolved upon; and the same writer declares, moreover, that it was at this time that the bishops eagerly pressed him to resign his archbishopric into the hands of the King.