A.D. 1172. LETTETI 0Γ HIS EJTVOYS TO THE KING. 349 disgraceful to your highness; and we learned from their relation and that of brother Francis, a trustworthy man, interrupted as it was by sobs, that, by the common advice of his brethren, our lord the pope had immutably determined on that day to pronounce sentence of interdict upon you by name, and upon all your dominions on both sides of the sea, and to confirm the sentence that had been pronounced against the bishops. Being, consequently, placed in a position of the greatest difficulty, we made the most stringent efforts, both through the cardinals and through those of our companions who had access to him, and through the people of his household, to induce him to pause in this design, or at least defer it until the arrival of your bishops. "When this could not by any means be effected, we, as became us, and as we are bound in duty to you, being neither able nor bound to put up with disgrace to your own person and calamity to the whole of your dominions, having convened all our companions before certain of the cardinals, at length discovered a way for the preservation of your safety and honor, safe, and becoming, and advantageous to the whole of your dominions, as well as necessary for the bishops.7 Hereby we averted from you, and from yotir dominions, and from your bishops, the disgrace and peril that were impending, and exposed ourselves for obtaining this liberation to the whole of the danger, believing and having an assured hope that the whole matter will proceed according to what we believe to be your wishes, and according to what we feel assured ought to be your wishes. The lords bishop of Worcester and of Evreux, together with Bobert, dean of Evreux, and master Henry, were shortly about to follow, and, indeed, we left them behind, anxious and vexed beyond measure because they had not been able to come on according to fneir wishes, for the purpose of carrying out the business you had entrusted them with."* However, it was their suggestion, as much as our own, that we should by some means or other precede them, in order to be enabled to prevent the disgrace and mischiefs which our adversaries were preparing ' Bribery is probably the method thus covertly alluded to. ' * There must be some mistake in this, as master Henry is one of the five by whom the letter is addressed. It appears, however, from the commencement, probable that master Henry was left behind at Sienna, and that he really did not take part in the letter.