The Vagabond

One night in the year 1170. Outside there is no moon and the wind screams along the walls of the castle. Inside there is a feeling of tenseness, a knowledge by all the company that something is going to happen. The banqueting tables have been relieved of their fare and pushed aside. Up and down the gloomy room the lords and ladies walk and talk in guarded voices.

At one end of the hall a great fire is blazing and spitting. Around it are seated a group of knights, with their swords still at their sides in a manner improper for a banquet. In their center, holding a silver goblet of wine in his hand is His Majesty, King Henry II of England. He is a rough, squarely-built man, with a red face attached to the rest of his body by a neck that resembles that of a bull. His eyes are large, and tonight a veritable fire seems to come from them. As he begins to speak, in a loud, rough voice, the lords and ladies in the hall stop their walking and face him.

"It is good of you my friends to come this night to my fireside. Like a very father to his family I want to hold with you a fireside chat." The company looks at him anxiously. It is clear he is the most popular of men. "You have heard much of late of the sad plight of my country, of my struggles against that grasping man, the Archbishop of Canterbury, who aims to set himself up as the ruler of this land, yea, against the very government itself.

"You have seen how the country has prospered under my reign these past years. You have seen the way the jurisdiction of England has passed into my hands until all that is left outside are the courts of the Church. If we are to be happy, these too, must be given up to me. But it can not be while Thomas a Becket maintains the last word in this kingdom. Jealous of the power he has usurped, he will not step aside.

"My friends, I must have this power instead of that priest. In your trust of me you know that I will use it wisely. There are things I want to do for our realm and I want to do them NOW!!!"

Four knights move away from the circle. They feel at their sides for their swords and while the King is still talking vanish from the hall.

And tonight at 9 o'clock the Vagabond will go to the courtyard of the Fogg Museum to see presented T. S. Eliot's play, "Murder in the Cathedral".