The ill news travelled fast. It fell like a thunderbolt upon the Norman court still gathered round the king at Argentan,[351] whither the assembly had adjourned after the Christmas feast at Bures. Henry stood for a moment speechless with horror, then burst into a frenzy of despair, and shut himself up in his own rooms, refusing to eat or drink or to see any one.[352] In a few days more, as he anticipated, all Christendom was ringing with execration of the murder and clamouring for vengeance upon the king who was universally regarded as its instigator. The Pope ordered an interdict upon Henry’s continental dominions, excommunicated the murderers and all who had given or should henceforth give them aid, shelter or support, and was only restrained from pronouncing a like sentence upon the king himself by a promise that he would make compurgation and submit to penance.[353] Two cardinal-legates charged with the enforcement of these decrees were at once despatched to Normandy;[354] but when they arrived there, Henry was out of their reach. The death of Duke Conan in February had thrown Britanny completely into his hands; he only stayed to secure Geoffrey’s final establishment there as duke[355] before he called a council at Argentan and announced that he was going to Ireland.[356] He quitted Normandy just as the legates reached it,[357] leaving strict orders that the ports should be closed to all clerks and papal envoys, and that no one should dare to follow him without special permission.[358] Landing at Portsmouth in the first days of August,[359] he hurried to Winchester for a last interview with the dying Bishop Henry,[360] closed the English ports as he had closed those of Normandy,[361] then plunged once more into the depths of South Wales, and on October 16 sailed from Milford Haven for Waterford.[362] [351] R. Diceto (as above), p. 345. _Gesta Hen._ (Stubbs), vol. i. p. 14. [352] Ep. dccxxxviii. (Robertson, _Becket_, vol. vii.), p. 438. Cf. MS. Lansdown. (_ib._ vol. iv.), pp. 159, 160, and _Gesta Hen._ as above. [353] Epp. dccl., dccli. (Robertson, _Becket_, vol. vii. pp. 471–478). [354] Gerv. Cant. (Stubbs), vol. i. p. 233. R. Diceto (Stubbs), vol. i. p. 346. _Gesta Hen._ (Stubbs), vol. i. p. 24. [355] Rob. Torigni, a. 1171. Conan died February 20; Chron. Kemperleg. _ad ann._ (_Rer. Gall. Scriptt._, vol. xii. p. 563). The Chron. S. Serg. a. 1169 (Marchegay, _Eglises_, p. 150), places the event two years too early. Cf. Chron. Britann. a. 1170, 1171 (_Rer. Gall. Scriptt._, vol. xii. p. 560; Morice, _Hist. Bretagne, preuves_, vol. i. col. 104). [356] Rob. Torigni, a. 1171.