romantic
enthusiasm. In the weighty question of the eastern crown the king had
formally and openly pledged himself to act by the advice of his wise
men, as no king before him since the Conquest had ever done. An assembly
was summoned at Clerkenwell on the 18th of March. No councillors were
called from Anjou or Normandy or Aquitaine; the decision was made solely
by the advice of the prelates and barons of England. "It seemed to all,"
declared the council, "to be more fitting, and more for the safety of
his soul, that he should govern his kingdom with moderation and preserve
it from the irruptions of barbarians and from foreign nations, than that
he should in his own person provide for the safety of the eastern
nations." The verdict showed the new ideal of kingship which had grown
up during Henry's reign, and which made itself deeply felt over the
whole land when in the days of his successor the duties of righteous
government were thrown aside for the vainglories of religious chivalry.
But the patriarch heard the answer with bitter disappointment, and was
not appeased by promises of money and forces for the war. "Not thus will
you save your soul nor the heritage of Christ," he declared. "We come to
seek a king, not money; for every corner of the world sends us money,
but not one a prince." And in open court he flung his fierce prophecy at
the king, that as till now he had been greatest among the kings of the
earth, so henceforth, forsaken by God and destitute of His grace, until
his latest breath his glory should be turned into disaster and his
honour into shame. Henry, as he rode with the patriarch back to Dover,
listened with his strange habitual forbearance while Heraclius poured
forth angry reproaches for the iniquities of his whole life, and
declared at last that he had almost with his own hands slain St. Thomas.
At this the king fiercely turned, with his eyes rolling in a mad storm
of passion, and the patriarch bent his head. "Do with me," he cried,
"what you did to Thomas. I would rather have my head cut off by you in
England than by the Saracens in Palestine, for in truth you are worse
than any Saracen!" The king answered with an oath, "If all the men of my
kingdom were gathered in one body and spoke with one mouth they would
not dare to say this to me." Heraclius pointed scornfully to the train
of followers. "Do you indeed think that these men love you--these who
care only for your wealth? It is the plunder, and no