Page:A literal translation of the Saxon Chronicle.djvu/222

210 after on All Saints' night. May God glorify his soul! In his days was all bliss and all prosperity at Peterborough, and he was beloved of all men, so that the King granted to St. Peter and to him the Abbey of Burton, and that of Coventry which his uncle Earl Leofric had founded, and also those of Croyland and Thorney. And he enriched the monastery of Burh with gold, with silver, with vestments, and with lands, more than any other before or after him. And the Golden Borough now became the borough of wretchedness. Then the monks chose the Provost Brand for their Abbot because he was a very good man, and very wise; and they sent him to Edgar Ætheling, for the people of those parts supposed that he should be the King; and the Ætheling willingly confirmed him in his office. When King William heard this he was very wroth, and said that the Abbot had treated him with contempt; but good men interfered and reconciled them, because of the excellence of the Abbot. He gave the King forty marks of gold for his favour, and he lived but a short time after, only three years. After this all tribulation and evil came upon the monastery. May God have pity on it. And this year Christ Church was burned, and a comet appeared on the 14th of the calends of May.