Page:The reign of William Rufus and the accession of Henry the First.djvu/163

 *





King may rightly arrest him. At this hint the lay members of the Assembly joined in with one voice, the foremost among them being that Randolf Peverel of whose possessions and supposed kindred we have had elsewhere to speak. "Take him," was the cry, "take him; for that old gaoler speaks well." But at this stage the Bishop finds friends in the Counts whose faith had been pledged to his safe-conduct. Count Alan formally states the terms of the agreement, and prays the King—Odo and Roger joining with him in the prayer—that he may not be forced to belie his faith, as otherwise the King should have no further service from him. But in Lanfranc's view the second of the two cases which were contemplated in the agreement had taken place. The King was not bound to let the Bishop go back to Durham; all that he was now bound to do was to give him ships and a safe-conduct out of the realm. The dispute goes on in the usual style. The Bishop continues his appeal to Rome; he again invokes what he calls specially the Christian law, pointing, it would seem, to a volume in his own hand; while