hibited singular sympathy towards the poor and oppressed, whilst to the proud he was hostile and unbending. He was of a lively and witty disposition, cautious alike of being deceived or of deceiving others."

"He was humble," we are told again, "to the humble, but to the proud he was stern and haughty"; and Virgil's line is applied to him, —

"Parcere subjectis et debellare superbos."

He was very popular among all classes, except, perhaps, the nobles, who were nevertheless fain to play the parasite to their master's master, and were eager to procure places for their sons in his household. He lived in a style of magnificence which threw the pomp of royalty into the shade; and the king is said to have sometimes complained to him that he had emptied his court.

"The house and table of the chancellor were common to all of every rank who came to the king's court and needed hospitality; whether they were honorable men in reality, or at least appeared to be such. He never dined without the company of earls and barons, whom he had invited.

"He ordered his hall to be strewed every day with fresh straw and hay in winter, and with fresh rushes or green branches in summer, that the numerous knights, for whom the benches were insufficient, might find the area clean and neat for their reception, and that their valuable clothes and beautiful shirts might not contract injury from its being dirty. His board shone with vessels of gold and silver, and abounded with rich dishes and precious liquors, so that whatever objects of consumption, either for eating or drinking, were recommended by their rarity, no price was great enough to deter his agents from purchasing them."

The monarch seems, however, to have so thoroughly identified himself with his favorite, that he looked upon his princely ostentation and brilliant retinue as an offshoot of his own splendor.

An intimacy had indeed sprung up between the king and his chancellor, almost without parallel in the frigid experience of courts. Becket was not only Henry's prime-minister, but his companion and confidant. "Never were two

men more friendly, and of one mind, since Christian times began." They played together, hunted together, joked together, and dined together. Becket was an old adept at hawking, and knew something about hounds. At chess, too,

he was no mean hand. Their jokes were sometimes of a practical kind. On one of their rides, the king insisted on stripping the shoulders of his chancellor of a new cape of scarlet and gray, to give it to a ragged pauper whom they had met in the road. After a stout struggle, the courtier, as in duty bound, gave up the cape, for which, we learn," the poor man thanked God, and was much pleased.” The servant whom the mighty sovereign of so many realms delighted to honor became famous abroad. The scions of foreign nobility graced his house; and once, when he lay sick at Rouen, the king of France accompanied his cousin of England on a visit to him. He became the mediator through whom unfortunate persons, who had incurred the wrath of their fiery young master, sought for pardon and restoration. His friends basked with him in the sunshine; his old teacher, Prior Robert, became his confessor, and Merton had solid reason to boast of the gratitude of her distinguished son. He aspired to the fame of a Mæcenas; and at his suggestion the king recalled from France many English monks and scholars, and honored them with lucrative appointments. We have already alluded to Becket's success in one or more diplomatic missions to the Papal court. A brilliant occasion now arose for an exercise of his talents in this way. A match had been projected between Prince Henry of England and the Princess Margaret of France. The little puppets who were to make believe matrimony had, of course, the least part in the business. It was all kindly arranged between their disinterested parents. Overtures having been made to the French king, the two sovereigns had an interview on the borders of Normandy. But a question of dowry was involved in the case; and it became necessary, in the course of the negotiation, to despatch an envoy to Paris. Becket's high place in Henry's favor, as well as his eminent diplomatic qualifications, pointed bim out as the most fitting person for this charge. He accordingly received the appointment, and executed the embassy in a style of magnificence to which we can hardly find a parallel in the annals of the most splendid courts. His more than royal progress through the intermediate towns and villages struck the beholders with amazement.

"In his entry into the French villages and castles, first went the footmen (garciones pedites), about two hundred and fifty in

number, going six or ten together, and sometimes more, singing some song or other, after the fashion of their country. At some interval followed the dogs in couples, and harriers fastened by thongs, with their keepers and attendants. At a little distance followed the sumpter-horses, with their grooms riding on them, with their knees placed on the haunches of the horses. Some of the French came out of their houses at the noise, as they passed, and asked who it was, whose family was it that was passing. They received for reply, that it was the chancellor of the king of England, going on an embassy to their lord, the king of France. The French said,- What a remarkable man the king of England must be, if such a great man as this is his chancellor!' After these came the squires, carrying the shields of the knights, and leading their chargers; then came other squires, then young men, then the falconers, with the birds on their wrists, and after them the butlers, the masters, and attendants of the chancellor's house, then the knights and clerks, all riding two and two together; lastly came the chancellor, and about him some of his particular friends."

6

On his arrival at the French capital, he was received with all the elegance of Parisian hospitality; but he was not to be outdone in Gallic arts even on Gallic ground. He eluded a royal proclamation, forbidding the sale of any article of provisions to the English legation, by sending agents in disguise to forestall the neighbouring markets, and thus collecting a three days' supply for a thousand men. A hundred shillings, the price paid for a single dish of eels, was commemorated by a proverb in England. With politic profusion, just before his departure, he distributed among the principal men of Paris, not even forgetting the doctors of the schools, the vast store of plate, costly clothing, and other valuables, which he had brought with him.

This dazzling display, and the still more dazzling munificence of his gifts, produced their due effect; and when united with the fascination of the ambassador's manners and his persuasive tongue, they enabled him to complete successfully the difficult and delicate territorial arrangements, growing out of the new connection between the royal families.

But the tie so recently formed was not strong enough to bear the strain of clashing interests and rival claims.* In

* Dr. Giles seems to place the embassy to Paris after the war in Aquitaine. But the true chronology, we believe, is against him. 12

VOL. LXIV. — - No. 134.

1159, Henry, in right of his wife, laid claim to the earldom of Toulouse, and besieged its capital. This war opened a new career to the versatile and accomplished Becket. He was already illustrious in all the arts of peace, and was not unwilling to show the haughty barons of England and France that he could equal them at their own weapons. He therefore made his appearance at the siege, with a train of seven hundred knights of his own household. It happened that the French king, who had espoused the cause of his brother-inlaw, the Earl of Aquitaine, in whose territory Toulouse was situated, imprudently threw himself, with a small body of men, into the city. Henry was strongly urged by the chancellor to press the siege vigorously, and secure the person of Louis. But the monarch seems to have been either more chivalrous or more prudent than his counsellor. He refused to do such violence to his liege lord, fearing, perhaps, the effect of so pernicious an example on his own numerous feudatories. The sequel of the chancellor's history affords a strange commentary on this affair; for the favor of the French king, in Becket's hour of need, was his only shelter from the vengeance of his offended master. Henry, returning to England, left the prosecution of the war to the Earl of Essex and the chancellor. This new-fledged warrior, besides other successes, took three castles before deemed impregnable. At a subsequent period of the war, he maintained, in addition to his household knights, twelve hundred others, and four thousand men besides, at an enormous expense. His troops, with their lord at their head, gained high honor; and the chancellor himself, "though a clerk," in a personal encounter, charged and unhorsed a valiant French knight.

With all this brilliant success, the young leader, we may suppose, was not so much engrossed with his new profession, as to be indifferent to a compliment which was paid him about this time by the greatest scholar of his day. John of Salisbury dedicated to him, in a poetical inscription which yet remains, his elaborate work, entitled, " Polycraticus, sive de Nugis Curialium." We shall hear more of this personage anon.

Becket's reputation did not come out of these wars unscathed. The somewhat unseemly union of the archdeacon and the soldier was not overlooked. But his chief offence consisted in advising, or not opposing, the imposition of a

The

scutage on the nobles and clergy, to defray the expenses of the war. This impost was a commutation of the old military service, and on the whole, perhaps, a wise measure. clergy, however, murmured at it, as an encroachment upon their rights; and Foliot, Bishop of London, no friendly censor to be sure, accuses the minister of having plunged the sword of state into the bosom of the church. The charge would be hardly worthy of notice, if Becket had not soon after shown himself so high-toned an asserter of church prerogatives.

The reader of history is naturally led to ask, What were the private life and character of this ostentatious minister? He must have been exposed to temptations of various kinds. His royal companion was a true branch of the Conqueror's stock, whose violent passions, whether of love or hatred, were not always content with lawful means of gratification. We are told that the king was continually laying snares for his favorite's virtue; but that the chastity of the latter was above impeachment. He is said, also, to have been temperate in the midst of luxurious hospitality. We may believe all this, especially as the multiplicity of his occupations and cares must have left him little time for the vices of a court. That he connived at many of the king's acts, or at least passed them over in silence, is likely enough. The ministers of kings are seldom expected to be their monitors. He is said, indeed, to have received many presents from a lady who held a more flattering than honorable place in the affections of her sovereign. This, too, proves only the desire of a frail woman to obviate the possible opposition of a man powerful enough to loosen her frail tenure of her lover's preference. He seems to have practised those mortifications on which the ancient church laid such emphasis. He used to bare his back to the scourge, and he kept the last days of Lent with an exemplary degree of austerity.

But whence did he derive the means to support his gigantic splendor? The answer is, that the archdeaconry and the various livings which he held, together with the emoluments of the chancellorship, and the government of the Tower of London, besides his manors and other possessions, must have yielded him a large income. It is impossible to measure the extent of the royal bounty to so honored a servant. If the king's treasury did contribute its share to keep up the princely pomp of the chancellor, there is no proof of embezzle