night without the Abbey of S. Augustine; crouch to the ground before Odo's feet when he cometh forth on the morrow; give up those lands; and if he asketh for Saltwood, give up that fair manor too; kneel, and beg, and weep, and lament before him; and perchance, in due season, when thou art abased low enough to satiate his pride, he will condescend to shrive thee! After this thou mayest be my sister's husband, but never more be brother of mine!"

"What then, in S. George's name," asked Ranulph somewhat angrily, "wouldst thou have me to do ?"

"This would I have thee to do," said De Tracy gravely, and quitting entirely his previously sarcastic tone. "Tarry a space till our lord cometh over from Normandy. Thither will I, to tell him of this new insolence of Becket's. He will not ever bear to be insulted and trampled on; good sparkles of his Plantagenet courage he hath already made manifest; and there needeth but this to blow it into a blaze. Rest assured he will not overlook the sufferings of his friends here, among whom thou holdest a chief place; but will revenge them with what speed he may."

"Of a surety," reasoned De Broc, "there were no harm in tarrying for a while. Peradventure, the censure may be taken off me without my yielding, if I have but the patience to wait for a time sufficient."

"And consider," pursued Sir William, "that thou wilt be betraying me, and thy other friends in France, if while we be pleading thy cause thou art deserting it. Ill will it stand with thine honour, if, when a mandate hath been wrested from the Archbishop for the removal of this censure, thou still retaining thine own, the messenger that beareth it hither shall find it no longer thine. Thus wouldst thou make thy friends fools, and thyself something worse."

"Of a surety I will take no further steps herein," said De Broc, " till I hear further from thee."

"As doubt not thou shalt, and that very presently," answered the other. "But where wilt thou the meanwhile bestow thyself?"

"An I hold this night for Saltwood," replied Ranulph: “wilt thou bear me company?"

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Marry, and very willingly," he answered. "Only I will first say a word to my sister; and will meet thee at the postern presently."

Thus they parted: Sir Ranulph to make preparations for his journey; and Sir William to acquaint his sister with her lover's determination of still defying the utmost censures of the Church.

CHAPTER IV.

THE weary six years of the Archbishop's exile were now over. The sun rose in unclouded splendour on the Feast of S. Andrew; the wind set fair for England; and the waves, as the Archbishop and Warel looked at them from the window of the little convent in which they had passed the last night of their banishment, rippled gaily on the beach, as if promising a gentle escort across the channel. The bark was at anchor in the bay; and her mariners eagerly awaited their summons. The simple morning meal was over, when the Primate addressed Warel.

"Men think us happy this day, my son, in that we have made, by the blessing of GOD, all opposition bow before us, and are about, after all our wanderings, to return unto the land that we love. Well do we know, on the contrary part, what toils and tribulations await us there. Every day hear we

that our messengers be injured and insulted, our messages disobeyed, our censures slighted, and we ourselves set at nought and threatened. Nevertheless, having been so often delivered aforetime, we will not doubt that even in these perils we shall also be upheld."

"Nevertheless, holy Father, they be not of that nature that we can shut our eyes unto them; and none can lay it unto your Holiness's charge that you have not taken all measures of forethought whereby they may be averted."

"True, my son: it were a tempting of GOD to pray unto Him for preservation without using the means necessary thereunto. It were like unto the captain who should put forth with a leak in his vessel, and then cry out and pray for preservation."

"I trust me," said Warel, "that He will so hear your Fatherliness's prayers, that, by the intercession of those glorious defenders of the same Church, S. Alphege and Blessed Anselm, the evil that we fear may be averted, and the good furthered and promoted."

"Amen!" replied Becket. "To which end, descend we to the chapel, where the brethren even now wait for us, to offer up our supplications as the Church hath in this case taught us."

The twelve brethren of the foundation and its Prior having taken their places with Warel, and the Archbishop seating himself by the Altar, Benedictus

was sung; and then, Kyrie Eleison and Pater Noster having been said, he continued-"Give, O LORD, Thy Salvation unto Thy servants." "Who do put," chanted the Choir, "their trust in Thee." "Send them help from the Sanctuary." "And strengthen them out of Sion." "Be unto them," prayed the Bishop, "a Tower of Strength." "From the face," replied the Brethren, "of their enemy." "Let the enemy," he proceeded, “have no advantage over them, nor the son of violence approach to hurt them." "Praised be the LORD daily." "Even the GOD That helpeth us," they responded, "and That poureth His benefits upon us." "Shew us Thy ways, O LORD!" "And teach us Thy paths!" "Oh, that our ways were made so direct." "That they might," replied the Chorus, "keep Thy commandments." "The crooked shall

be made straight." "The rough places plain." "O LORD," concluded the Archbishop, "hear our prayer!" "And let our cry," answered the others, come unto Thee !"

"The LORD be with you." “And with thy spirit."

"Let us pray. GOD, Which leddest Thy people Israel dryshod through the midst of the Red Sea, and by the guiding of a star didst conduct the wise men unto Bethlehem, grant us, we pray Thee, a prosperous journey and a quiet season, that, Thy holy Angel being our companion, we may attain unto that place whither we journey, and finally may