THE PENANCE OF HENRY (1174).
Source.—Roger de Hoveden, Part 2, Vol. I., p. 383. Bohn's Libraries. G. Bell & Sons.
On the day after this, he[5] set out on a pilgrimage to the tomb of Saint Thomas the Martyr, Archbishop of Canterbury. On his approach, as soon as he was in sight of the church, in which the body of the blessed martyr lay buried, he dismounted from the horse on which he rode, took off his shoes, and, barefoot, clad in woollen garments, walked three miles to the tomb of the martyr, with such humility and compunction of heart, that it may be believed beyond a doubt to have been the work of Him who looketh down on the earth, and maketh it to tremble. To those who beheld them, his footsteps along the road on which he walked, seemed to be covered with blood, and really were so; for his tender feet being cut by the hard stones, a great quantity of blood flowed from them on to the ground. When he had arrived at the tomb, it was a holy thing to see the affliction which he suffered, with sobs and tears, and the discipline to which he submitted at the hands of the bishops and a great number of priests and monks. Here, also, aided by the prayers of many holy men, he passed the night, before the sepulchre of the blessed martyr, in prayer, fasting, and lamentations. As for the gifts and revenues, which, for the remission of his sins, he bestowed on this church, they can never under any circumstance be obliterated from the remembrance thereof. In the morning of the following day, after hearing mass, he departed thence, on the third day before the ides of July, being Saturday, with the intention of proceeding to London. And inasmuch as he was mindful of the Lord in his entire heart, the Lord granted unto him the victory over his enemies, and delivered them captive into his hands. For on the very same Saturday on which the King left Canterbury, William, King of the Scots, was taken prisoner at Alnwick by the above-named knights of Yorkshire, who pursued him after his retreat from Prudhoe. On the following day, namely on the seventh day before the calends of August, the King departed from Seleham, and proceeded to Northampton; on his arrival at which place, William, King of the Scots, was brought to him, with his feet fastened beneath a horse's belly.
[5] The King of England, the father.