Page:The reign of William Rufus and the accession of Henry the First.djvu/170

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leave to sail. While he waited for a favourable wind, a new charge was brought against him, founded on the alleged doings of one of his monks, Geoffrey by name, of whom we shall afterwards hear as being in his special confidence. By the sentence of forfeiture pronounced by the Court, all the Bishop's goods had become the property of the Crown. It was therefore deemed an invasion of the King's rights when, after the Bishop had gone to the King's court, Geoffrey took a large number of beasts from the Bishop's demesne. He had also taken away part of the garrison of the castle, who had killed a man of the King's. On this charge Bishop William was summoned to appear in the King's court at the Christmas Gemót to be held in London. One of the bearers of the summons was no less famous a man than Bishop Osmund of Salisbury, a man of a local reputation almost saintly. Bishop William again appeals to the old agreement; he protests his innocence of any share in the acts of Geoffrey, though he adds that he might lawfully have done what he would with his own up to the moment when he was formally disseized. These words might seem to imply that the act of Geoffrey, though done after the Bishop had left Durham, was done before the sentence was finally pronounced. But he cannot go to the King's court; he has nothing left; he has eaten his horses; that is seemingly their price. He is