of St. Bennet; and his body fell upon the pavement,
which was dirtied with his blood and brains.

It is an awful thing to think of the murdered mortal, who had so showered
his curses about, lying, all disfigured, in the church, where a few lamps
here and there were but red specks on a pall of darkness; and to think of
the guilty knights riding away on horseback, looking over their shoulders
at the dim Cathedral, and remembering what they had left inside.

PART THE SECOND

When the King heard how Thomas a Becket had lost his life in Canterbury
Cathedral, through the ferocity of the four Knights, he was filled with
dismay. Some have supposed that when the King spoke those hasty words,
'Have I no one here who will deliver me from this man?' he wished, and
meant a Becket to be slain. But few things are more unlikely; for,
besides that the King was not naturally cruel (though very passionate),
he was wise, and must have known full well what any stupid man in his
dominions must have known, namely, that such a murder would rouse the
Pope and the whole Church against him.

He sent respectful messengers to the Pope, to represent his innocence
(except in having uttered the hasty words); and he swore solemnly and
publicly to his innocence, and contrived in time to make his peace. As
to the four guilty Knights, who fled into Yorkshire, and never again
dared to show themselves at Court, the Pope excommunicated them; and they
lived miserably for some time, shunned by all their countrymen. At last,
they went humbly to Jerusalem as a penance, and there died and were
buried.

It happened, fortunately for the pacifying of the Pope, that an
opportunity arose very soon after the murder of a Becket, for the King to
declare his power in Ireland--which was an acceptable undertaking to the
Pope, as the Irish, who had been converted to Christianity by one
Patricius (otherwise Saint Patrick) long ago, before any Pope existed,
considered that the Pope had nothing at all to do with them, or they with
the Pope, and accordingly refused to pay him Peter's Pence, or that tax
of a penny a house which I have elsewhere mentioned. The King's
opportunity arose in this way.

The Irish were, at that time, as barbarous a people as you can well
imagine. They were continually quarrelling and fighting, cutting one
another's throats, slicing one another's noses, burning one another's
houses, carrying away one another's wives, and committing all