Page:Aelfric's Lives of Saints Vol 1.djvu/221

 Then the  angel  went  away  with  the  youths,

and there  was  no  man  in  the  province  who  had  seen  them  before.

Lo then! Quintianus, Christ's  adversary,

went in  a  ship  over  Semithetus  (the  river  Symsethus)

about Agatha's  possessions,  desiring  also  to  apprehend

all her  kindred,  but  he  could  not  for    Christ.

A horse  seized  him,  as  he  lay  in  the  ship,

savagely with  its  teeth,  and  lifted  him  up;

then another  horse  spurned  at  him  and  flung  him  overboard,

and his  foul  body  was  never  found  afterward.

Then durst  no  man  vex  her  kindred,

but honoured  them  all,  being  awed  by  God.

In the  same  province  of  the  land  of  Sicily

is a  burning  mountain,  which  men  call  Etna,

kindled with  suqiliur,  that  is  brimstone  in  English.

The mountain  burneth  ever,  as  many  others  do.

Then befell  it,  about  twelve  months

after Agatha's  passion,  that  Etna  exploded  (lit.  blew  up)

with a  very  fearful  burning,  which  ran  down  the  mountain

even like  a  flood,  and  the  stones  melted,

and the  earth  was  burnt  up,  until  it  came  to  the  city.

Then ran  the  heathen  to  the  saint's  tomb,

and took  up  the  veil  from  the  saint's  tomb,

against the  fire  which  frightened  them  exceedingly.

Then the  fire  was  quenched,  and  immediately  stood  still

for the  merits  of  Agatha,  the  noble  woman;

Six days  it  burned,  and  stood  still  on  the  day

whereon the  blessed  Agatha  departed  to  eternal  life,

that it  might  be  manifest  that  the  city  was  delivered

from the  peril  of  fire  by  Agatha's  intercession,

to the  praise  of  the  Saviour,  who  thus  honoureth  His  Saints.

"Wherefore to  Him  ever  be  glory  to  all  eternity.     AMEN.