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whole kingdom? Will none of all these lazy cowardly knights whom I maintain, deliver me from this turbulent priest? This passionate exclamation made too deep an impression on some of those who heard it, particularly on the four following barons, Reginald Fitz-Urse, William de Tracey, Hugh de Morville, and Richard Breto, who formed a resolution either to terrify the archbishop into submission, or to put him to death.

Having laid their plan, they left the court at different times, and took different routes, to prevent suspicion; but being conducted by the devil, as some monkish historians tell us, they all arrived at the castle of Ranulph de Broc, about six miles from Canterbury, on the same day, Dec. 28, 1170, and almost at the same hour. Here they settled the whole scheme of their proceedings, and next morning early set out for Canterbury, accompanied by a body of resolute men, with arms concealed under their clothes. These men they placed in different parts of the city, to prevent any interruption from the citizens. The four barons above-named then went unarmed, with twelve of their company, to the archiepiscopal palace, about eleven o'clock in the forenoon, and were admitted into the apartment where the archbishop sat conversing with some of his clergy. After their admission a long silence ensued, which was at length broken by Reginald Fitz-Urse, who told the archbishop that they were sent by the king to command him to absolve the prelates and others, whom he had excommunicated; and then to go to Winchester, and make satisfaction to the young king, whom he had endeavoured to dethrone. On this a very long and violent altercation followed, in the course of which they gave several hints, that his life was in danger if he did not comply. But he remained undaunted in his refusal. At their departure they charged his servants not to allow him to flee; on which he cried out, with great vehemence,

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• Flee! I will never flee from any man living; I am not come to flee, but to defy the rage of impious assassins.' When they were gone, his friends blamed him for the roughness of his answers, which had inflamed the fury of his enemies, and earnestly pressed him to make his escape; but he only answered, 'I have no need of your advice: I know what I ought to do.'

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The barons finding their threats ineffectual, put on their coats of mail, and, taking each a sword in his right hand, and an axe in his left, returned to the palace, but found the gate shut. When they were preparing to break it open, Robert de Broc conducted them up a back staircase, and let them in at a window. A cry then arose, They are armed, they are armed!' on which the clergy hurried the archbishop almost by force into the church, hoping that the sacredness of the place would protect him from violence. They would also have shut the door, but he cried out, Begone, ye cowards! I charge you, on your obedience, do not shut the door. What! will you make a castle of a church? The conspirators having searched the palace, came to the church, and one of them crying, Where is the traitor? Where is the archbishop? Becket advanced boldly, and said, Here I am, an archbishop, but no traitor.' Flee,' cried the conspirator, or you are a dead man!' I will never flee,' replied Becket. William de Tracey then took hold of his robes, and said, You are my prisoner; come along with me. But Becket, seizing him by the collar, shook him with so much force, that he almost threw him down. De Tracey, enraged at this resistance, aimed a blow with his sword, which almost cut off the arm of one Edward Grim, a priest, and slightly wounded the archbishop on the head. By three other blows given by the other conspirators, his skull was cloven almost in two, and his brains scattered about the pavement of the church.

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The assassins, conscious of their crime, and dreading its consequences, durst not return to the king's court at Normandy, but retired to Knaresborough in Yorkshire, where every body avoided their company, hardly any person even choosing to eat or drink with them. They at length took a voyage to Rome, and, being admitted to penance by Pope Alexander III, they went to Jerusalem; where, according to the pope's order, they spent their lives in penitential austerities, and died in the Black Mountain. They were buried at Jerusalem, without the church door belonging to the Templars, and this inscription was put over them :—

HIC JACENT MISERI,

QUI MARTYRIZAVERUNT

BEATUM ARCHIEPISCOPUM CANTUARIENSEM.

King Henry was much disturbed at the news of Becket's death, and immediately dispatched an embassy to Rome to clear himself from the imputation of being the cause of it. Immediately all divine offices ceased in the church of Canterbury; and this for a year, excepting nine days, at the end of which, by order of the pope, it was re-consecrated. Two years after, Becket was canonized; and the following year, Henry, returning to England, went to Canterbury, where he did penance as a testimony of his regret for the murder of Becket. When he

came within sight of the church where the archbishop was buried, he alighted off his horse, and walked barefoot, in the habit of a pilgrim, till he came to Becket's tomb; where, after he had prostrated himself, and prayed for a considerable time, he submitted to be scourged by the monks, and passed all that day and night without any refresh= inent, and kneeling upon the bare stone. In 1221 Becket's body was taken up, in the presence of King Henry III, and several nobility, and deposited in a rich shrine on the east side of the church. The

miracles said to be wrought at his tomb were so numerous, that we are told two large volumes of them were kept in that church. His shrine was visited from all parts, and enriched with the most costly gifts and offerings.' (Chalmers' Biog. Dict., vol. iv, Art. BECKET.)

15. SAINT SWITHIN.

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Swithin, in the Saxon Swithum, received his clerical tonsure, and put on the monastic habit, in the old monastery at Winchester. He was of noble parentage, and passed his youth in the study of grammar, philosophy, and the Scriptures. Swithin was promoted to holy orders by Helmstan, Bishop of Winchester, at whose death, in 852, King Ethelwolf granted him the see. In this he continued eleven years, and died in 868. Swithin desired that he might be buried in the open churchyard, and not in the chancel of the minster, as was usual with other bishops; and his request was complied with: but the monks on his being canonized, considering it disgraceful for the saint to lie in a public cemetery, resolved to remove his body into the choir, which was to have been done, with solemn procession, on the 15th of July. It rained, however, so violently for forty days succeeding, that the design was abandoned as heretical and blasphemous, and they honoured his memory by erecting a chapel over his grave, at which many miraculous cures of all kinds are said to have been wrought. To the above circumstance may be traced the origin of the old saying, that, if it rains on St. Swithin's, it will rain forty days following!'

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In Poor Robin's Almanack for 1697, are the following lines:

In this month is St. Swithin's Day;
On which, if that it rain, they say
Full forty days after it will,
Or more or less, some rain distil.

This Swithin was a Saint, I trow,
And Winchester's Bishop also,
Who in his time did many a feat,
As Popish legends do repeat:
A woman having broke her eggs
By stumbling at another's legs,
For which she made a woful cry,
Saint Swithin chanced for to come by,
Who made them all as sound, or more
Than ever that they were before.
But whether this were so or no,
'Tis more than you or I do know.
Better it is to rise betime,

And to make hay while Sun doth shine,
Than to believe in tales and lies

Which evil monks and friars devise.

20.-SAINT MARGARET.

She was born at Antioch, and was the daughter of a Pagan priest. Olybius, president of the East, under the Romans, wished to marry her; but finding that Margaret was a Christian, he postponed his intended nuptials until he could prevail on her to renounce her religion. Our saint, however, was inflexible, and was first tortured, and then beheaded, in the year 278.

22.-MARY MAGDALEN.

This day was first dedicated to the memory of St. Mary Magdalen, by King Edward VI; and in his Common Prayer, the Gospel for the day is from St. Luke, chap. vii, verse 36. Our reformers, however, upon a more strict inquiry, finding it doubtful whether this woman, mentioned in the Gospel, was really Mary Magdalen, thought it prudent to discontinue the festival.

25.-SAINT JAMES.

James was surnamed the Great, either on account of his age, being esteemed older than the other James, or for some peculiar honour conferred upon him by our Lord. He was by birth a Galilean, and partner with Peter in fishing, from which our Lord called him to be one of his disciples. Mark i, 19, 20.

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