poured out in the hearing of the knights who were riding on either side of the king.  “He fares well with the king since he is a priest,” commented a Gascon; “had he been a knight he would leave behind him two hides of land!” Some one else, thinking to please the king, abused the bishop roundly.  Henry, however, turned on him with an outburst of rage.  “Do you think, scoundrel, if I say what I choose to my kinsman and my bishop, that you or anyone else are at liberty to dishonour him with words and persecute him with threats?  Scarce can I keep my hands from thy eyes!”

The king well understood, indeed, in what a critical position matters stood.  He swiftly agreed to every conceivable concession on every hand.  He met the papal messengers and bent to their terms of reconciliation.  On the 20th of July he had a conference with Louis near Freteval in Touraine, and next day the kings parted amicably.  On the 22d an interview between the king and the archbishop followed.  The royal customs were not mentioned; no oath was exacted from the Primate; he was promised safe return and full possession of his see, and the “kiss of peace”; he was to crown once more the young king and his wife.  At the close of the conference Thomas lighted from his horse to kiss the king’s foot, but Henry, rivalling him in courtesy, dismounted to hold the Primate’s stirrup, with the words, “It is fit the less should serve the greater!” But if there was a show of peace “the whole substance of it consisted only in hope,” as Thomas wrote.  Each side was full of distrust.  Thomas demanded immediate restitution of his see, and liberty to excommunicate the bishops who had shared in the coronation.  Henry wanted first to see “how Thomas would behave in the affairs of the kingdom.”  The king and Primate met for the last time in October 1170 at Chaumont with seeming friendliness, but any real peace was as far off as ever.  “My lord,” said Thomas, as he bade farewell, “my heart tells me that I part from you as one whom you shall see no more in this life.”  “Do you hold me as a traitor?” asked the king.  “That be far from thee, my lord!” answered Thomas.  But to the Primate the king’s fair promises were but the tempting words of the devil—­“all these things will I give thee if thou wilt fall down and worship me.”  He begged from the Pope unlimited powers of excommunication.  “The more potent and fierce the prince is,” he said, “the stronger stick and harder chain is needed to bind him and keep him in order.”  He had warning visions.  He spoke of returning to his church “perhaps to perish for her.”  “I go to England,” he said; “whether to peace or to destruction I know not; but God has decreed what fate awaits me.”