roduce an entire and
complete invention. This was not the case with the older authors.
Thucydides tells us frankly that the speeches which he interweaves
with his narrative were his own composition. They were intended as
dramatic representations of the opinions of the factions and parties
with which Greece was divided, and they were assigned to this person
or to that, as he supposed them to be internally suitable. Herodotus
had set Thucydides the example, and it was universally followed. No
speech given by any old historian can be accepted as literally true
unless there is a specific intimation to that effect. Deception was
neither practiced nor pretended. It was a convenient method of
exhibiting characters and situations, and it was therefore adopted
without hesitation or reserve.

THE DEATH OF THOMAS BECKET

From 'Short Studies on Great Subjects'

The knights were introduced. They advanced. The archbishop neither
spoke nor looked at them, but continued talking to a monk who was next
him. He himself was sitting on a bed. The rest of the party present
were on the floor. The knights seated themselves in the same manner,
and for a few moments there was silence. Then Becket's black, restless
eye glanced from one to the other. He slightly noticed Tracy; and
Fitzurse said a few unrecorded sentences to him, which ended with "God
help you!" To Becket's friends the words sounded like insolence. They
may have meant no more than pity for the deliberate fool who was
forcing destruction upon himself.

Becket's face flushed. Fitzurse went on, "We bring you the commands of
the King beyond the sea; will you hear us in public or in private?"
Becket said he cared not. "In private, then," said Fitzurse. The monks
thought afterwards that Fitzurse had meant to kill the archbishop
where he sat. If the knights had entered the palace, thronged as it
was with men, with any such intention, they would scarcely have left
their swords behind them. The room was cleared, and a short
altercation followed, of which nothing is known save that it ended
speedily in high words on both sides. Becket called in his clergy
again, his lay servants being excluded, and bade Fitzurse go on. "Be
it so," Sir Reginald said. "Listen, then, to what the King says. When
the peace was made, he put aside all his complaints against you. He
allowed you to return, as you desired, free to your see. You have now
added contempt to your other offenses. You have brok