LIFE AND TIMES OF THOMAS BECKET 
Becket, however, was not the man to leave the 
feld while life was in him. "There was still hope, 
for war had broken out at last, and Henry and Lewis 
were killing and burning cach other’s territories, 
If not the instigator, Becket was the occasion, and 
Lewis, for his own interests, would still be forced 
to stand by him. "The archbishop had what is called 
‘a real belief” in his cause; he was convinced that 
it was God’s cause. Hitherto God had allowed him 
to fail on account of his own deficiencies, and the 
deficiencies required to be amended. Like certain 
persons who cut themselves with knives and lancets, he 
determined now to mortify his flesh in earnest. When 
settled in his new life at Sens, he rose at daybreak, 
prayed in his oratory, said mass, and prayed and wept 
again. Five times each day and night his chaplain 
flogged him. His food was bread and water, his bed 
the floor. A hair shirt was not enough without hair 
drawers which reached his knees, and both were Worn 
till they swarmed with vermin.! "The cardinals 
‘ Myths gathorod about the! 
state of these garments, One 
lay, wo are told, he was dining 
with the Queen of France. She 
observed that his sleeves were 
fastened unnsually tightly at £ho 
wrist, and that something moved 
inside them. He tried to evade 
her euriosity, for the moving 
Xhings wore maggots, But she 
pressed her questions till he was 
sbliged to ‚loosen the strings. 
Pearls of choicest sizo and. colour 
rolled upon the table. The queon 
wished to keep one, but it conu 
not be. "The pearls were restared