Then, thank God, came the coup de grâce. Another mailed arm, another downward slash to the head, so hard that the sword blade broke in two on the stones. To finish the job, a third warrior stood on the Archbishop's neck, stuck the end of his sword into the open cavity of his skull, scooped out the brains and spread them on the floor. "Let's be off," he said. "This fellow won't be getting up again." It was around 4:30 in the afternoon. The door was open, frightened people who'd come for the service gathered round the body. But it was by no means a flock who thought Becket was a saint. "He wanted to be a King." Said one. "Now let him be one." But then it all changed. Becket's chamberlain reattached the bleeding scalp to his head with a strip of material torn from his own shirt and the monks began to prepare Becket's body for burial. And then they discovered what no one, until that moment had known, the hair shirts, with a lice crawling busily in it. Thomas the immovable had been Thomas the self-mortifier, Thomas the humble.


接着，谢天谢地，暴徒给了致命一击。另一条裹着锁子甲的手臂，朝着头颅砍下去，是那么用力，至于刀锋像砍上了石头而断成两节。为了完成任务，第三个骑士踩在大主教的脖子上，将整把剑插入对方的颅腔，舀出他的脑浆，洒在地上。"走吧"，他说，"这家伙再也站不起来了"。 到了下午四点半左右，大门敞开着，前来做礼拜的人们都吓坏了。他们聚集在尸体旁，当时绝不会有人把贝克特看作圣徒。有人还说，"他想当国王 现在他如愿了"。但后来情况都变了，贝克特的内侍从自己衣服上扯下一块布条，把仍在流血的头皮重新连回贝克特的头上。修道士们开始准备贝克特的葬礼，后来他们有了一项前所未有的发现，那就是贝克特爬满虱子的刚毛衬衣，苦行者或忏悔者贴身穿的衣服，其上缝有刚毛或硬质动物毛发。不可动摇的托马斯原来一直自我节制是谦逊的托马斯。