"Becket," he added, aloud, "there is little about me to betray the king. I will be to-night, the simple Duke of Maine. Be thou my squire. Our men in attendance may proceed to Oxford." So saying, the impatient monarch put spurs to his horse, and galloped forward followed by his reluctant courtier, and alighted at the nunnery just after Rosamond had been received within its walls. The sound of the bell brought to the great gate of the convent the portress, summoned from her evening meal, and still holding in her hand the bunch of leeks and slice of brown bread, which formed the repast. "And what wouldst thou, sir knight?" she inquired, gruffly. "Rest and refreshment," said Henry, in French. "We are weary travellers, and seek shelter for the night." "Ye are from beyond the sea," replied the portress, "and we will none of your outlandish tongue. Yonder lies the way to Oxford." "Becket," whispered the king, "let thy ready wit serve us in this time of need, and thou shalt not find thy lord ungrateful." The wily chancellor, who never lost the opportunity of laying the monarch under obligation to himself, instantly rejoined in Saxon to the nun, "Open to us, good mother. The Duke of Maine is a zealous patron of the church, and perchance thine own convent will be none the poorer for granting him entertainment." The mollified portress immediately admitted them, muttering apologetically, "The wayfarer and benighted are ever received with Christian charity, by the sisters of the blessed St. Bernard." * * * * * The infant Richard was a child of great promise, and his ambitious mother began, at once, to plan for his future advancement. She besought her husband to bestow upon the prince the dukedom of Aquitaine, and to permit her to convey him thither, to receive the homage of the barons, and to arrange a betrothment between him and Philippa, the infant daughter of her sister Petronilla and Raymond of Arragon. To her great joy and surprise Henry acceded at once to the proposal, and co-operated in her scheme for remaining some time as regent in her southern dominions.