J8 23.] 



lanclioly in tlicir consequence as Ihose 

 which delivered over the Saxon hei- 

 resses <o be united to the Norman in- 

 truders, 



Earlj' in the morning, while yet the 

 people of Winchester slept,* the Nor- 

 mans conducted Waltiieot' to an emi- 

 nence beyonil the walls of the town. 

 He was clad in his richest garments, 

 the insignia of his former authority,! 

 and, when arrived at the place of exe- 

 cution, he distributed tiicm among 

 the few spectators who had followed 

 him. He bent himself down to the 

 ground, and prayed fervently for some 

 time; but, as the soldiers dreaded lest 

 the awakened citizens should disturb 

 the awful ceremony, and save their 

 fellow countrymen,! " Stand up, (they 

 cried to the prostrated Saxon,) we 

 must obey our orders. "§ He then 

 asked, as a last favour, that he might 

 be allowed to recite, for himself and 

 for them, the Dominical Hymn. They 

 granted his request; and, raising him- 

 self from the ground, but still kneel- 

 ing, he cried with a loud voice, " Our 

 Father, who art in iieaven," but, ere 

 he had utlered the words, " lead us 

 not into temptation," the executioner,|| 

 who probably perceived the first break 

 of day in the east, suddenly drew his 

 sword, and tlie head of the Saxon 

 rolled on tiie ground. His body was 

 thrown into a ditch, dug between two 

 roads, and covered haslily with turf. 

 The English, who could not rescue 

 Waltheof, consecrated his memory ; 

 and he was wept by men and wo- 

 men."^ They made him a saint and 

 a martyr, as they had canonized their 

 former chiefs who had been killed by 

 the Danes in the struggle for earlier 

 liberty ; as they had since invoked as 

 a saint Bishop Elgeni, who had perish- 

 ed of hunger in a Norman dungeon. 

 " They would fain (says a contempo- 

 rary,) efface his memory from this land, 

 — which they cannot do. We firmly 

 believe he is an inhabitant of heaven, 

 among the hosts of the blessed."** 

 Over the remains of Waltheof num- 

 berless miracles were wrought, — mira- 

 cles most satisfactory to the imagina- 



Oppressions following the Conquest. 



203 



lions of those who hated and execrated 

 his murderers. Fifteen days after his 

 execution, the Abbot of Croyland, a 

 monk of Saxon race, obtained per- 

 mission to remove the body. He found 

 it unchanged, and as fresh as if the 

 living blood still flowed in its veins." 

 In the monastery of Croyland, to 

 which the corpse was conveyed, many 

 miracles hallowed the tomb of the 

 Saxon; and Judith his widow, hearing 

 of them by public report,t hastened 

 thither to appease the soul of him she 

 had so vilely betrayed. She knelt up- 

 on the stone of his sepulchre, and 

 offered a silk veil, which was repelled 

 as by an invisible hand. J Walkebutc, 

 a Saxon abbot, published an account 

 of all these wonderful facts ; not with 

 impunity, for he was summoned before 

 the Norman tribunals, and accused of 

 idolatry.§ His judges declared him 

 unworthy to govern his convent; they 

 banished him from Crowland, and im- 

 prisoned him in Glastonbury Abbey, 

 — far from his country, — far from his 

 friends; and in the custody of the 

 NormanToustain,a hard and feroci- 

 ous man.j| All the wealth of the mo- 

 nastery was pillaged by the Norman 

 king.1[ 



These were measures against the 

 Saxon priesthood which, indeed, served 

 only to elevate the sufferers to saint- 

 hood, — served rather to encourage 

 than to damp that patriotic resistance, 

 honoured by so memorable an apo- 

 theosis. Popular superstition could 

 not be subdued : it was built upon ge- 

 nerous regrets and sympathies, and 

 was extinguished only with those re- 

 grets and sympathies. The time would 

 come, indeed, when the sons of the 

 Saxons might forget the venerable 

 cause for which their forefathers suf- 

 fered or died ; but that time was not 

 so near as the conquerors anticipated. 

 Forty years after the death of Wal- 

 theof, when the monastery of Crow- 

 land had been directed by a succes- 

 sion of foreign abbots, miracles were 

 again wrought around the tomb of the 

 Saxon martyr.** The English crowd- 

 ed to the shrine from every corner of 



