en the treaty. You
have allowed your pride to tempt you to defy your lord and master to
your own sorrow. You have censured the bishops by whose administration
the Prince was crowned. You have pronounced an anathema against the
King's ministers, by whose advice he is guided in the management of
the empire. You have made it plain that if you could you would take
the Prince's crown from him. Your plots and contrivances to attain
your ends are notorious to all men. Say, then, will you attend us to
the King's presence, and there answer for yourself? For this we are
sent."

The archbishop declared that he had never wished any hurt to the
Prince. The King had no occasion to be displeased if crowds came
about him in the towns and cities, after having been so long deprived
of his presence. If he had done any wrong he would make satisfaction,
but he protested against being suspected of intentions which had never
entered his mind.

Fitzurse did not enter into an altercation with him, but
continued:--"The King commands further that you and your clerks repair
without delay to the young King's presence, and swear allegiance, and
promise to amend your faults."

The archbishop's temper was fast rising. "I will do whatever may be
reasonable," he said, "but I tell you plainly, the King shall have no
oaths from me, nor from any one of my clergy. There has been too much
perjury already. I have absolved many, with God's help, who had
perjured themselves. I will absolve the rest when he permits."

"I understand you to say that you will not obey," said Fitzurse, and
went on in the same tone:--"The King commands you to absolve the
bishops whom you have excommunicated without his permission" (_absque
licentia sua_).

"The Pope sentenced the bishops," the archbishop said. "If you are not
pleased, you must go to him. The affair is none of mine."

Fitzurse said it had been done at his instigation, which he did not
deny; but he proceeded to reassert that the King had given his
permission. He had complained at the time of the peace of the injury
which he had suffered in the coronation, and the King had told him
that he might obtain from the Pope any satisfaction for which he liked
to ask.

If this was all the consent which the King had given, the pretense of
his authority was inexcusable. Fitzurse could scarce hear the
archbishop out with patience. "Ay, ay!" said he; "will you make the
King out to be a traitor, then? The King gave you leav