Page:The reign of William Rufus and the accession of Henry the First.djvu/144

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for that year. The message was sent by a prelate of high rank, that Abbot Guy who had just before been forced by Lanfranc upon the unwilling monks of Saint Augustine's. The Bishop was to accompany the Abbot to the King's presence. But, instead of going with Guy, Bishop William, fearing the King's wrath and the snares of his enemies, sent another letter, the bearer of which went under the Abbot's protection. The letter curiously illustrates some of the features of the case. We learn more details of the Sheriff's doings. He had divided certain of the Bishop's lands between two very great personages, Count Alan of the Breton and of the Yorkshire Richmond, and Count Odo, husband of the King's aunt, and seemingly already lord of Holderness. The Sheriff had not only refused the King's peace to the Bishop; he had formally defied him on the part of the King. Some of the Bishop's men he had allowed to redeem themselves; but others he had actually sold. Were they the Bishop's slaves, dealt with as forfeited chattels, or did the Sheriff take on himself to degrade freemen into slavery? The Bishop protests that he is