Page:Aelfric's Lives of Saints Vol 1.djvu/505

 might rue  the  time ;  and  the  other  Christians  who  were  hidden there, when  they  heard  of  such  miseries,  lamented  bitterly  with weeping, and  sorely  bemoaned  the  souls  of  those  who  should  have gone to  the  kingdom  of  heaven,  in  that  they  had  fallen  away  from God so  miserably. But those  who  steadfastly  believed,  when  they were led  thither,  and  had  their  faith  firm  in  God,  and  would  not deny their  Lord  for  any  man's  threats,  these  the  heathen  respected not a  whit,  but  punished  them  by  every  affliction,  and  sundered  all their limbs  one  from  the  other,  even  as  the  blowing  of  the  wind  sweepeth  dust  from  the  earth,  and  they  cut  them  up  and  mocked  (?) them all,  and,  like  a  second  deluge,  so  flowed  their  blood ;  and they hung  the  headless  on  the  town-walls,  and  set  their  heads,  like those of  others  who  were  thieves,  outside   the  town-walls   upon head-stakes; and  there  immediately  flew  thither  rooks  and  ravens and birds  of  many  kinds,  and  hacked  out  the  eyes  of  the  holy martyrs, and  flew  again  into  the  city  over  the  town-walls,  and  rent in pieces  the  holy  beloved  ones  of  God,  and  in  their  bloody  bills  80 bare the  flesh  of  the  martyrs,  the  entrails  and  inward  parts,  and devoured them  all.

It was  hard  to  find  the  man  there  who  could  not  lament  such [a sight],  neither  was  there  any  man  upon  whom,  in  passing  by, horror and  awe  did  not  come,  for  the  great  miseries  which  each  one  84 there saw;  wonderful  was  that  martyr-army,  and  strong  the  strife with the  devil;  there  was  the  fear  of  God  manifest  and  evident  in that  foul  deed.

Such a  warfare  would  take  place  that  men  might  there  see,  that they loved  God  from  their  inmost  heart,  since  they  endured  affliction for the  love  of  His  name,  and  suffered  death  itself  so  severely ; and not  only  would  they  lament  and  compassionate  their  sufferings, but if  we  had  been  there  we  might  have  heard,  (even  as  all  those heard  who  were  there  present,  that  is,  among  the  great  crowd  and  in  the  awful  throng,  when  they  were  torturing  the  martyrs),  that it would  seem  on  a  sudden  as  if  all  the  images  that  were  set  up  as gods  all  about  the  town,  all  spoke  together  and  cried  with  one voice, that  they  desired  [to  go]  quite  away  thence,  because  of  the