THE MYSTERY OF CORFE. 57 



proper. They took evil counsel amongst themselves, having so 

 accursed a mind and such devilish blindness that they feared not to 

 lay hands upon the Lord's anointed. Armed men surrounded him on 

 every side, and with them stood a butler, ready to perform his humble 

 office. The king had with him only a few soldiers, because he feared 

 no one, trusting in the Lord and in the power of His virtue. He had 

 been taught the Divine Law by Bishop Sideman, and he was strong 

 and hardy of body. 



When the conspirators ringed him round, just as the Jews once 

 surrounded Christ, he remained sitting fearlessly on his horse. Equal 

 folly and madness was in them. Then the vile wickedness and 

 truculent folly of the Beelzebutine enemy flamed up in the minds of 

 those venomous soldiers ; then the poisoned arrows of the crime of 

 Pilate rose up in cruelty against the Lord and against His anointed, 

 who, on losing his father, had been elected to guard the kingdom and 

 empire of a most pleasant people. The soldiers laid hold of him, and 

 one on his right drew the king towards himself, as though he meant to 

 kiss him ; another roughly took him by the left hand and wounded 

 him. The king cried out as loudly as he could, " What do you mean 

 by breaking my right hand ? " and quickly leapt from his horse and 

 died. The martyr was taken up by the servants and carried to the 

 house of a certain feeble person, where no Gregorian harmony was 

 heard as his funeral song, but the renowned king of the whole country 

 lay covered with a vile covering, waiting for the light of day. Behold- 

 ing the evil deeds of these miserable men, the King of Kings willed not 

 that His soldier and chosen viceregent on earth should be left alone for 

 ever, as though he were a wicked man and a criminal, but permitted 

 him to be buried, though not so suitably as He afterwards allowed to 

 be done. At the end of six months, according to the days of the Solar 

 and Lunar years, came the illustrious Duke Aelfhere with a multitude 

 of people, and ordered that his body should be taken up out of the 

 earth ; when this had been done they found him naked, and saw that 

 he was as free from any decay or pollution as he was in the beginning. 

 Seeing this, all were astonished, and rejoiced triumphantly in the Lord, 

 Who alone works wonders in the world. Then the attendants washed 

 the body of the revered king, clothed it with new garments, and placed 

 it in a chest or coffin, and noble soldiers, taking the bier upon their 

 shoulders, carried him to a place where they buried him with all 

 honour ; and there masses and holy oblations were celebrated for the 

 redemption of his soul by the direction of Aelfhere. When these 

 ceremonies were ended, the madmen who committed the crime asserted 

 that the King of the Heavenly City did not from the exalted throne of 

 His Glorious Majesty see, or saw and forgot, the blood of His soldier 

 which in its innocence had been shed, but thus it happened. 



