sufficiently proclaims the presence of the Deity. I refer you to the poetry of Charles Nodier for a description of this sublime structure: yet I must detain you for a moment at the tomb of the Black Prince. His statue lies on the tomb, arrayed in full armour, and with the hands folded in the attitude of prayer. Over the monument are suspended his coat of arms, gauntlets and sword: vain trophies of human glory! The solemn grandeur of the place is encreased by the image of the warrior thus supplicating like a penitent sinner. The knees of pious pilgrims have worn the surface of the stones, round the spot where a magnificent altar once rose above the shrine containing the relicks of a martyr, by whose name a part of the cathedral is still distinguished: for the name of Becket survives the faith for which he died. If, like the protestants, we divest him of the saintly glory with which he has been encircled, he will be found to be one of the most extraordinary characters which history presents. Henry II. had restored order in his dominions, and had succeeded in restraining the petty tyrants who oppressed his people. The ecclesiastical authority alone annoyed him; and that he might govern the priesthood as he governed his barons, he resolved to confer the primacy on his chancellor Thomas à Becket, his most able and confidential adviser, a devoted courtier and warrior, a statesman, everything in short, but a churchman. The clergy loudly condemned this ludicrous choice. Becket, however, was ordained a priest one day, and conse

crated a bishop the next, in spite of the advice of the queen mother, the general opinion of the nation, the opposition of the clergy, and the wishes of Becket himself, who warned the monarch that he must henceforth prefer God to his king. Accordingly the primate of Canterbury immediately put off the old man, and put on the new one. In resigning his civil functions, he renounced the character he had maintained in exercising them. On being created chief of the ecclesiastical power, he became the rival of the chief of the secular authority. As if with the view of sanctifying his ambition, he wore a garment of hair-cloth beneath the purple robe of the archbishop. He exhibited the munificence and splendour of a sovereign, when he proudly represented the pontiff of the Lord before the powers of the earth, and he scourged himself like a penitent in his palace, eating bitter herbs and quenching his thirst with nauseous drinks. He rigorously exacted the payment of his revenues, and jealously contended for those which the king wished to withhold from him; while he distributed all his treasures in charity, visiting the sick and washing the feet of the poor. He enforced his rights almost with seditious fury, and was inflexible in his most unimportant determinations. In his last moments he evinced the restrained violence of the conspirator, the resignation of the holy martyr, and the dignity of Cæsar, falling enveloped in his toga. The catastrophe of Thomas á Becket's death would form a subject for the pen of Sir Walter Scott.

Henry II. irritated by the continual resistance of Becket, imprudently expressed a desire for his death; and four barons, Reginald Fitzurse, William de Tracy, Richard Brito, and Hugħ de Noneville, swore to accomplish the monarch's wish, or to quell the refractory spirit of the prelate. They conveyed to him an order of banishment; but this Becket defied: and when he was informed that they were arming themselves in the court-yard of the palace, he calmly retired to the cathedral, where seeing the monks engaged in closing the doors, he said: "You must not make a citadel of the church; I came hither not to resist, but to suffer." He ascended the steps of the grand altar, when the barons and their followers rushed into the choir sword in hand, exclaiming : "Where is Thomas á Becket? where is the traitor to the king and the kingdom ?" No answer was returned to this enquiry, and they then exclaimed still more loudly-" Where is the archbishop ?" Becket descended the steps saying-" Here I am,--not a traitor, but a priest, ready to suffer for the sake of him who redeemed my soul. God forbid that I should fly for the fear of your swords."

"Annul," said the barons, "the censures you have pronounced."-"No satisfaction has been obtained," replied the Archbishop: "I cannot absolve." "Thou shalt die then!" exclaimed one of the assassins." Reginald," said Becket, addressing Fitzurse," I have loaded thee with benefits, and yet thou art armed against me!"-" Come from this

place," exclaimed the baron, who was determined on the fulfilment of his oath; and he seized the archbishop by the robe. Becket declared that he would not stir. "Come hence, I say," continued Fitzurse, stung by a last feeling of remorse." I will not quit this place," replied Becket firmly. "If you seek my blood, I freely give it you for the peace and freedom of the church; but, in Heaven's name, I entreat that you will not harm my servants."-The murderers would have wished to perpetrate their crime in a less holy place: but the primate held by one of the pillars and struggled with his assailants. For a moment he recovered the strength which had distinguished him in his warlike days. He almost levelled Tracy with the ground, and repulsed Fitzurse, to whom in his indignation he addressed an opprobrious term. Fitzurse then aimed a blow at him. A monk, who interposed to ward it off, had his arm nearly severed in two, and Becket was wounded. Resigned to his martyrdom, he kneeled down to pray, and in his last words, he recommended himself and the cause of the church to God, the Virgin, and the saints. A second blow laid him prostrate before the altar of St. Benedict. He had sufficient presence of mind to wrap himself in his robe, and devoutly joining his hands, he expired amidst repeated strokes of battle axes and swords.

Of the primates who have occupied the see of Canterbury since the time of Thomas á Becket, the two most celebrated in history suffered a tragical death. The first, Cranmer, one of the favourers

of protestantism, in the reign of Henry VIII. was dragged to the burning pile in the religious reaction which ensued in the reign of Mary. The second, Archbishop Laud, forfeited his head on the scaffold, in the puritanical tumults which prevailed at the latter end of the reign of Charles I.

LETTER V.

TO M

I ALMOST promised that my last letter should be picturesque ;-and perhaps it may more properly be termed historical. The strongest impression exclusively engrosses the mind, and when the recollection of a great event suddenly carries us from the present time, it is not in our power to confine ourselves within the limits of the plan which we traced out on first taking up the pen. I know not whither I may be led in endeavouring to sketch the various remarkable spots in the counties of Middlesex and Surrey; but when I visited these charming scenes, I thought I should find it difficult to refrain from celebrating them in the trite form of a pastoral. As to the climate of Great Britain, which has been so much abused, I can only say that I find it very agreeable. I not only admire the delightful serenity of the nights; but in the day time, the sun, which is