Page:Aelfric's Lives of Saints Vol 1.djvu/227

 and help  orphan  children  in  their  affliction.

I have  not  for  three  years  been  employed  about  any  other  deeds,

but have  offered  these  offerings  to  the  living  Lord.

Now I  desire  verily  to  offer  to  Him  myself,

because for  some  time  I  have  had  nothing  to  spend  in  His  service.'

Then was  Paschasius  wroth,  and  they  spake  much,

until he  promised  her  a  beating  if  she  would  not  be  silent.

Lucy said  to  him,  'the  words  of  the  living  God,

cannot be  suppressed,  nor  put  to  silence.'

Then he  asked  her  slanderously,  'What,  art  thou  God?'

Lucy answered  him,  '  I  am  the  Almighty's  handmaid,

and therefore  I  speak  God's  words,  since  He  says  in  His  gospel,

'It is  not  ye  who  speak  there,   but  the  Holy  Ghost  speaks  in you.'

After that  Paschasius  arrogantly  enquired,

'Dwelleth the  Holy  Ghost  in  thee,  in  good  earnest?'

Lucy answered  the  impious  one,  and  said,

'The apostle  promised  those  who  preserve  chastity,

that they  are  God's  temple,  and  the  Holy  Ghost's  habitation.'

Then the   impious   one   said,  'I  shall    straightway  bid  men  lead thee

to the  house  of  harlots,  that  thou  mayst  lose  thy  maidenhood,

that the  Holy  Ghost  may  flee  from  thee,  when   thou   art  foully dishonoured.'

Lucy thus  answered,  '  no  one's  body  is  dangerously

polluted, if  it  pleases  not  the  (possessor's)  mind.

Though thou  shouldst  lift  up  my  hand  to  thine  idol,

and so,  by  my  means,  offer  against  my  will,

I shall  still  be  guiltless  in  the  sight  of  the  true  God,

who judges  according  to  the  will,  and  knoweth  all  things.

If now,  against  my  will,  thou  causest  me  to  be  polluted,

a twofold  purity  shall  be  gloriously  imputed  to  me.

Thou canst  not  bend  my  will  to  thy  purpose;

whatever thou  may  est  do  to  my  body,  that  cannot  happen  to  me.'

Then the  cruel  one  desired  to  fulfil  his  word,

that she  might  be  led  to  loathsome  pollution,