When he arrives in England
Many await him on the bank
Poor people who his blessing
Ask for by devotion;
But the king's men demand why
He suspends the prelates of the king.
“Of two evils a man should the lesser
Elect, it’s better to wait
Than to be hasty and stubborn
And repent of it afterward.”
The archbishop answers them:
“May it not please God who made the world
That such a thing could
Turn me away from my purpose!
I see England from here:
I’ll be buried there. If I know with certainty
Killing awaits me:
Of death there will I suffer passion.”
Then, the year of
the incarnation
As we read in scripture
One thousand one hundred seventy,
Of his exile the seventh [year], it seems to me,
The second or third day of Advent,
He set out by sea privately.
By night arrived at Sandwich
Having avoided the port of Dover
Because of the ambush of armed men
Who stayed at Dover.
When the great army heard about it
They left quickly.
When the ship had
arrived
It was soon known by the cross. *
The peasants are so joyful
They all ran there;
Some with their skirts tucked up and some in a boat;
Into the sea to their prelate
They go to receive him with joy.
They say loudly so he’ll hear:
“Blessed is he who is come,
In the name of God be received!”
Then is seen coming
noisily
Armed knights and sergeants.
They scorn to greet them;
Loudly they said:
“Why have you by pride
Put the land in such trouble?
When you arrived there
You put the bishops and king
Under sentence of excommunication,
Which is the source of the contention.”
They said threateningly:
“If our lord the king knows,
He’ll be greatly angered and moved,
And won’t be silent about it.
No one robs him that he doesn’t avenge it
And take great vengeance for it,
That has so soon upset
All the kingdom and clergy.”
The archbishop their
ire and rage
By sense and simplicity assuages,
And says to them, “Lords, know
The king won’t be angered:
I’m not in this affair
Contrary to the king nor to his reign
To his good will and grace,
It’s right that he do justice
About those who made a foolish enterprise
Toward me and my church,
Namely, my bishops
Who were at the coronation...”