** Does this mean, "Rome forever; Canterbury _not"_ (which
claims an unjust Supremacy _over_ us)! Mr. Rokewood is silent.
Dryasdust would perhaps explain it,--in the course of a week or
two of talking; did one dare to question him!
----------

'Having at last obtained a Letter from our Lord the Pope
according to my wishes, I turned homewards again. I had to pass
through a certain strong town on my road; and lo, the soldiers
thereof surrounded me, seizing me, and saying: "This vagabond
(_iste solivagus_), who pretends to be Scotch, is either a spy,
or has Letters from the false Pope Alexander." And whilst they
examined every stitch and rag of me, my leggings (_caligas_),
breeches, and even the old shoes that I carried over my shoulder
in the way of the Scotch,--I put my hand into the leather scrip I
wore, wherein our Lord the Pope's Letter lay, close by a little
jug (_ciffus_) I had for drinking out of; and the Lord God so
pleasing, and St. Edmund, I got out both the Letter and the jug
together; in such a way that, extending my arm aloft, I held the
Letter hidden between jug and hand: they saw the jug, but the
Letter they saw not. And thus I escaped out of their hands in
the name of the Lord. Whatever money I had they took from me;
wherefore I had to beg from door to door, without any payment
(_sine omni expensa_) till I came to England again. But hearing
that the Woolpit Church was already given to Geoffry Ridell, my
soul was struck with sorrow because I had laboured in vain.

'Coming home, therefore, I sat me down secretly under the Shrine
of St. Edmund, fearing lest our Lord Abbot should seize and
imprison me, though I had done no mischief; nor was there a monk