Tlie Evidence of Alan us. 103 



deuces point but one way. All tend to show, as plainly as 

 possible, that Rufus fell by no chance, but by a conspiracy of 

 his prelates, who held the crozier in one, and the battle-axe 



tliough lie gives no other reason; and which by itself, resting on nothing ■ 

 further, would carry no weight. His account, though, of the general 

 detestation of the Red King immediately before his death, as also the 

 conversation of Hugh, Abbot of Cluny, with Anselm (p. 68), is very sug- 

 gestive, especially by the way in which it is introduced, Alanus must 

 have posses-ed fur too shrewd an intellect to have believed in ]\Ierlin; 

 though it miglit have suited his purpose to have appeared to have so done, 

 as a veil and a blin.l, so that he might better say what his high jjosition 

 and authority would not in any other form have well permitted, but which 

 still give to many points, as here, enormous significance and weight. 



Besides Gaimar and Alanus, XicanJer Nucius also hints at treachery 

 {Second Book of Travels^ published by the Camden Society, pp. 34, 35), 

 but his account is too vague to be of any service. We should, however, 

 constantly bear in mind, with Lappenberg, that the best authority, The 

 Chronicle^ simply relates that the King was shot at the chase by one 

 of his friends, without any allusion to an accident. Xot one word or 

 fact else is given, except the appearance of a pool of blood in L'erkshire 

 (at rinchhamstead, according to William ot Malmestjux-y), which we 

 know, from other •sources, was supposed to foretell some calamity, and 

 which phenomenon science now resolves into merely some species of 

 aigd, probably either ralmelJa cruenta or Hcemntococcns sanguineus. 

 Eadmer, with some others, in his Ili.sturin Nuconan, lib. ii. (Migne : 

 Putrologia Cursus Complclus, torn. clix. p. 42-2 B) mentions a report, 

 prevalent at the time, that the King accidentally stumbled on an arrow. 

 Then follows, in the very next book (Migne, as before, p. 423 B), a 

 singular passage, to be found also in his Life of Anselm, book ii. ch. vi. 

 (Migiie, as before, tom clviii p. 108 D), where, on the news of the Red 

 King's death, Anselm bursts into tears, and, with sobs, cries, " (^und si 

 hoc eflficere posset, nmlto magis eligeret se ipsum corpore, quam illud, sicut 

 erat, mortuuni esse" Whether this wish sprang from the effects of some 

 pangs of conscience as to William's death, or from an honourable feeling of 

 natural emotion under the circum-tance«, as suggested by Sharon Turner, 

 it is hard to determine. From John of Salisbury (Vita Anselmi, pars ii., 

 cap. xi., in Wharton's AngUa Sacra, ton), ii. p. 16!)), it would seem tliat 

 Anselm thought that he was the direct cause, through God, of his death. 



103 



