Chapter 18 - Page 2

taken up his temporary residence.

The train of riders and of led-horses, of sumpter mules, and of
menials and attendants, both lay and ecclesiastical, which
thronged around the gate of the Episcopal mansion, together with
the gaping crowd of inhabitants who had gathered around, some to
gaze upon the splendid show, some to have the chance of receiving
the benediction of the Holy Prelate, was so great as to impede the
Constable's approach to the palace-door; and when this obstacle
was surmounted, he found another in the obstinacy of the
Archbishop's attendants, who permitted him not, though announced
by name and title, to cross the threshold of the mansion, until
they should receive the express command of their master to that
effect.

The Constable felt the full effect of this slighting reception. He
had dismounted from his horse in full confidence of being
instantly admitted into the palace at least, if not into the
Prelate's presence; and as he now stood on foot among the squires,
grooms, and horseboys of the spiritual lord, he was so much
disgusted, that his first impulse was to remount his horse, and
return to his pavilion, pitched for the time before the city
walls, leaving it to the Bishop to seek him there, if he really
desired an interview. But the necessity of conciliation almost
immediately rushed on his mind, and subdued the first haughty
impulse of his offended pride. "If our wise King," he said to
himself, "hath held the stirrup of one Prelate of Canterbury when
living, and submitted to the most degrading observances before his
shrine when dead, surely I need not be more scrupulous towards his
priestly successor in the same overgrown authority." Another
thought, which he dared hardly to acknowledge, recommended the
same humble and submissive course. He could not but feel that, in
endeavouring to evade his vows as a crusader, he was incurring
some just censure from the Church; and he was not unwilling to
hope, that his present cold and scornful reception on Baldwin's
part, might be meant as a part of the penance which his conscience
informed him his conduct was about to receive.

After a short interval, De Lacy was at length invited to enter the
palace of the Bishop of Gloucester, in which he was to meet the
Primate of England; but there was more than one brief pause, in
hall and anteroom, ere he at length was admitted to Baldwin's
presence.

The successor of the celebrated Becket had neither the extensive
views, nor the aspiring spirit, of that redoubted personage; but,
on the other hand, saint as the latter had become, it may be
questioned, whether, in his professions for the weal of
Christendom, he was half so sincere as was the