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SHORT STUDIES, 
opened the new campaign, and the mark had been 
successfully hit. Sir Ranulf de Broc searched the 
town with a drawn sword for the audacious messenger, 
but the messenger had vanished. 
It would have gone ill with Becket had he landed 
in the midst of the storm which the delivery of the 
letters instantly kindled. The ground of the censures 
was the coronation of the young king. To excom- 
municate the bishops who had officiated was to deny 
the young Henry’s title to the crown. The arch- 
bishop had come back then, it seemed, to defy the 
government and light a civil war, The next 
morning, when he and his friends were. examining 
the vessel in which they were about to embark, 
An English boat ran into the harbour. Some one 
leaped on shore, and, coming straight to Herbert, 
told him that if the archbishop went to Dover he 
was a dead man; the excommunications had set 
the country on fire. A rapid council was held. 
Several of the priests were frightened. The certain 
Jispleasure of the king was admitted with a frank- 
ness which showed how little Becket really supposed 
that Henry would approve what he had done. Becket 
asked Herbert for advice. Herbert, always the 
worst adviser that he could have consulted, said 
that they must advance or be disgraced. Let the