[21] MS. Lansdown. II. (_ib._ vol. iv.), pp. 154, 155. Cf. Anon. I. (_ib._), pp. 17, 18; Will. Cant. (_ib._ vol. i.), p. 9; E. Grim (_ib._ vol. ii.), p. 367; Herb. Bosh. (_ib._ vol. iii.), p. 185; Garnier (Hippeau), p. 19; and _Thomas Saga_ (Magnusson), vol. i. p. 81. All these place this scene in London, immediately after the consecration. The three first, however, seem to be only following Garnier; and the words of Will. Fitz-Steph. (Robertson, _Becket_, vol. iii. p. 36), though not very explicit, seem rather to agree with the MS. Lansdown. Garnier, Grim and the Anon. I. all expressly attribute the suggestion to Henry of Winchester. [22] Anon. I. (as above), p. 19. [23] Gerv. Cant. as above. “The king has wrought a miracle,” sneered the sarcastic bishop of Hereford, Gilbert Foliot; “out of a soldier and man of the world he has made an archbishop.”[24] The same royal power helped to smooth the new primate’s path a little further before him. He was not, like most of his predecessors, obliged to go in person to fetch his pallium from Rome; an embassy which he despatched immediately after his consecration obtained it for him without difficulty from Alexander III., who had just been driven by the Emperor’s hostility to seek a refuge in France, and was in no condition to venture upon any risk of thwarting King Henry’s favourite minister.[25] The next messenger whom Thomas sent over sea met with a less pleasant reception. He was charged to deliver up the great seal into the king’s hands with a request that Henry would provide himself with another chancellor, “as Thomas felt scarcely equal to the cares of one office, far less to those of two.”[26] [24] Will. Fitz-Steph. (Robertson, _Becket_, vol. iii.), p. 36. [25] Garnier (Hippeau), pp. 24, 25. Will. Cant. (Robertson, _Becket_, vol. i.) p. 9. Herb. Bosh. (_ib._ vol. iii.), p. 189. Gerv. Cant. (Stubbs), vol. i. p. 172. R. Diceto (Stubbs), vol. i. p. 307. _Thomas Saga_ (Magnusson), vol. i. pp. 91–95. [26] Will. Cant. (as above), p. 12. Cf. Garnier (Hippeau), p. 29, and R. Diceto as above.