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51 ST. AMELTRUDE 51 marrying her to Charlemagne. At first Charles carried on the negotiation by messengers, bat, as she always refused, be went to her house to try to persuade her. She fled from him and took refuge in a chapel ; the king, or rather mayor of the palace, got angry, tried to drag her away by the hand, and unintentionally broke her arm. After this, by the advice of St Willibrord, she went to Bilsen, or Belise, and took up her abode with St. Landbada, who was abbess there. While her marriage was still under dis- cussion, Charlemagne paid his court to the Abbess Landrada for her sake, by pre- senting her with a bear which he killed in the forest while hunting near the convent. Amelberga became a nun under Landrada, and seems to have succeeded her as abbess, or else to have governed a community of nuns on her own lands, as she is represented with a pastoral sta£El One day she wanted to cross the Escaut, but found no boat. An immense sturgeon offered to take her across on his back, and landed her safely on the other side, in memory of which the fishermen of the place yearly offer a sturgeon at the chapel of St. Amelberga on her day, July 10. It is even said that no sturgeon is ever seen in those waters except on that day, when one always presents itself. She died in a good old age at Bilsen, and was taken to Temsohe to be buried. A number of sturgeons escorted the boat up the river. Twice in her life she fed the people during fiEunine on the flesh of large fish which appeared opportunely in the river. The sieve that she holds in her hand is perhaps a pun on the name of her estate, and denotes that she was the pos- sessor of the lands of Temsche, in French Tamise (tamis^ a sieve). But a legend has been found to account for it otherwise. The people of Temsche complained to her that they had only one well, and that was in a field, the owner of which gave them a great deal of trouble. She went to the well with a sieve, which she filled with water and carried to another field, where she set it down. Thenceforth there was an abundant supply of water in that place, but the old well dried up. A little chapel stands near her well, and pilgrims resort to both for miraculous cures. Long after her death, a woman of wicked life prayed for conversion at the sacred .well. She became unable to leave the spot, retaining all her faculties while she kept within a certain short distance of St. Amelberga's Well, but becoming paralyzed directly she attempted to pass that boundary. As to the geese in the pictures, the same story is told of her as of St. Werebubo. All the saints re- presented with geese have their feasts in winter. A goose is the Scandinavian sign for snow. The reason geese are given to St. Amelberga is that she is confounded with another saint of the same name, whose /^<e is Dec. 12. Amel- berga (2) was translated to St. Peter's, in Mont Blandin, near Ghent, in 870, in the reign of Baldwin of the Iron Arm, first count of Flanders. B.M. Pinius, in Boll., AA,8S. Peter Natalis. Cahier. Baldwin of Ninove tells of Charlemagne's love for her, and places her death in 795 ; but calls her niece of SS. Gertrude. and Begga, who lived a century earlier. Chron, Beiges, ii. 659. St. Amelberga (3), Dec 12, is per- haps the daughter of Amelberga (1), and perhaps also the lady who ought to carry the goose. See Amelbebga (2). St. Amelia (l). May 31, M. at Gerunda, now Gerona, in Spaiu. St. Amelia (2), June 2, M. at Lyons, not with Blandina. AA.SS, B. Ameltrude (l), or Amaltrude, Nov. 13, 18. Mentioned in the history of S. Maxellenda, a martyr of chastity. When Maxellenda was murdered, her parents, with great lamentation and much ceremony, proceeded to bury her * in the church of SS. Peter and Paul, at Pomeriolas, near Cambrai. After three years, a religious widow, named Amel* trude, who had built that church and spent her time in prayer there, heard a voice in the night, commanding her to go to Vindician, bishop of Cambrai, and urge him to take up the body of Maxel- lenda and translate it to the scene of her martyrdom, which was done. Snrius. Gynccseum, St. Ameltrude (2), Aug. 30 (Amal- trude, Emendrenilla, Gertrude), V. 7 th or 8th century. The Normans, imder