spectators exclaimed, "What must the king of England be, when his servant travels with such pomp?" It was in this way that Thomas Becket presented himself at the French court to negotiate on the affair of Brittany and the alliance of Prince Henry with Margaret of France. With similar grand display, although of a different nature, he accompanied the king in his campaign through the countship of Toulouse, of which he directed in person the greater part of the operations. He was at the head of seven hundred knights and men of arms, supported at his expense, when he attacked the town of Cahors and the castles which surrounded it. His sagacity, his good humor, his caustic and fertile wit were to the king a continual source of amusement. He lived with his favorite in almost brotherly intimacy, and the administrative talents which the chancellor displayed in domestic affairs added to his popularity. "I will make thee Archbishop of Canterbury," Henry often said. Becket smiled and shook his head. When the prior of Leicester, a rigid ecclesiastic, reproached him with the worldliness and outward show of his mode of living, reminding him that he was destined to become primate of England, the chancellor exclaimed, "I know three poor priests more fitted than I for that dignity. If ever I attained it, I should either lose the king's favor, or forget my duty towards God." {153} The Archbishop Theobald was dead (1161). For thirteen months the king left the see vacant, in order to appropriate its revenues: but he did not lose sight of the choice on which he had resolved. Becket was devoted to him: he had always displayed great respect for the royal prerogative, exacting so rigorously what was due to the crown, even from the clergy, that the Bishop of London, Gilbert Folliot, accused him angrily of plunging a dagger into the maternal bosom of his Church. Henry believed himself sure of thus raising to the ecclesiastical supremacy a friend who would support him in the reforms which he was meditating. He sent for Thomas Becket at Toulouse, where he happened to be, and ordered him to set out immediately for England, where he would be elected archbishop of Canterbury. Becket smiled as he pointed to the magnificent dress in which he was clothed. "You choose fine dresses to figure at the head of your monks at Canterbury," he said. "If you do as you say, sire, you will hate me very soon as much as you now love me; for you will meddle in the affairs of the Church more than I can consent to, and people will not be wanting to embroil us."