IN THE GLOAMING. 191 



Then, with the trusting look of a little child, 

 the Poor Brother went on to tell of the virtues 

 and good deeds of this holy life ; — how even the 

 King of the Mercians, struck with remorse for 

 the crimes he had committed, visited the saint 

 in person, yielded to his eloquent persuasion, be- 

 came a convert to the true faith, and banished 

 all idolatry from his realm; how he became the 

 head of the church of Lichfield and laid its 

 strong foundations of piety and faith ; and how 

 his virtues so outlived him that his very tomb 

 swallowed the ill-humors of diseased minds re- 

 sorting to its serene presence, that the dust 

 from his grave healed all ills of man and beast, 

 and that the shrine built in his honor after 

 his canonization was so sought by numberless 

 devotees that Lichfield itself began thereupon 

 to increase and flourish. 



To our left, as he ceased, the evening's lin- 

 gering glow gilded the silent pool, where lay 

 the unrippled reflection of the three* spires of 

 the cathedral, hardly more unsubstantial than 

 the fairy silhouette that stood clean-cut against 



