er the water--tell us whether you will
hear it in private, or in the hearing of all." "As you wish,"
said the Archbishop. "Nay, as _you_ wish," said Fitzurse.
"Nay, as _you_ wish," said Becket. The monks, at the
Archbishop's intimation, withdrew into an adjoining room; but
the doorkeeper ran up and kept the door ajar, that they might
see from the outside what was going on.

Before the knights began the recital of their complaints, however,
Becket appears to have become alarmed at the demeanour of the four
men, who afterwards admitted that they thought of killing him then and
there with the only weapon that was handy--a cross-staff that lay at
his feet.

The monks hurried back, and Fitzurse, apparently calmed by
their presence, resumed his statement of the complaints of the
King. The complaints--which are given by the various
chroniclers in very different words--were three in number.
"The King over the water commands you to perform your duty to
the King on this side of the water, instead of taking away his
crown." "Rather than take away his crown," replied Becket, "I
would give him three or four crowns." "You have excited
disturbances in the kingdom, and the King requires you to
answer for them at his court." "Never," said the Archbishop,
"shall the sea again come between me and my Church, unless I
am dragged thence by the feet." "You have excommunicated the
bishops, and you must absolve them." "It was not I," replied
Becket, "but the Pope, and you must go to him for absolution."

[Illustration: THE CHAPEL OF "OUR LADY" IN THE UNDERCROFT OF THE
CATHEDRAL.
Being entirely above the ground this is not a crypt as it is so often
miscalled. The morning light in winter fills the spaces between the
massive Norman piers.]

After some more stormy words the knights became irritated by Becket's
contradictions, and swore "by God's wounds" that they had endured
enough, but Becket, putting aside John of Salisbury's suggestion that
he should speak privately to the angry knights, began to complain of
the grievances and insults he had himself received during the preceding
week: "They have attacked my servants," he said; "they have cut off my
sumpter-mule's tail; they have carried off the casks of wine that were
the King's own gift." To this Hugh de Moreville, who was the least
aggressive of the four, replied: "Why did you not complain to