the church by an opposite door, and advancing rapidly and with fierce shouts towards the Archbishop. A loud cry of terror from the helpless monks caused Becket to turn his head.

66

They are coming! they are coming! Shut the gates. They will not dare to break them open," were the only words heard above the universal din.

"I forbid it," interposed Becket, rising majestically and standing unmoved upon the steps of the altar. "Let the gates stand open."

He raised his hand as he spoke, and the monks retreated before the gesture, half overcome with the terror of the coming scene, and half awed by the grand calmness of their master, whose face-pale, but resolute-seemed to acquire a solemn elevation, as though it had been touched visibly by the great mystery of death. With a growing fatuity of manner, as of men oppressed with a sense of unavoidable doom, they gathered around the altar, and stared with moveless eyes upon the violence now rapidly approaching.

Alone, of all that crowd, Edward Grimm ventured to speak again.

"To the crypt, my lord, to the crypt!" he cried; "it is almost dark-you may yet be saved."

Becket answered his faithful follower by a smile, but only pointed to the cross above his head.

At that instant the crowd upon the steps rocked violently to and fro, and bright armour gleamed in the fading light.

"Where is the Archbishop?" cried Ranulph, rushing into the chapel with his followers.

"I am here," calmly replied Becket, without moving; "why come you with drawn weapons to the peaceful house of God? -what do you seek?"

"We seek thy life, traitor and slave," exclaimed Fitzurse, making a furious blow at Becket, but it only reached the faithful Edward Grimm, who, interposing the cross to save his master, had his arm cut off by the stroke. The other conspirators now mounting the steps, rushed upon the Archbishop, and sought to tear him from the altar.

"Drag him out into the air," shouted

Hugh de Moreville, "it would be horrible to kill him in the church-his blood would rest upon our souls!"

"Yes," cried De Tracy, "we will not slay him here, villain as he is. Haul the traitor out into the air.'

"You shall not take me from this sacred ground, unless you tear me limb from limb!" exclaimed Becket, clinging to the pillar next him, and struggling wildly with his assailants. "If you come to spill my blood, you shall do it here, before the face of God himself, who shall be a witness against you when you come to judgment! Away with you! you slay yourselves, not me.”

"Then die," exclaimed Fitzurse, aiming a second blow at Becket, which brought him to his knees, and the other murderers, who had fallen back for a moment under the fierce energy of the Archbishop, now closed together again, and savagely smote with their swords the body of their victim. A sudden redness started upon the blades, and then there was a sound as if of a heavy fall. In another minute the tangled knot of armed men were scattered as by something terrible

that had grown up amidst them.

amidst them. They fled

towards the door of the church.

"Shout that it is done! laugh! cry out, that the world may hear us!" exclaimed Ranulph, as with ghastly face and staggering gait he reeled forward, waving his scarlet weapon above his head. "Rosamond! thou art avenged! I have fulfilled my

VOW!"

THE END.

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