Page:Aelfric's Lives of Saints Vol 1.djvu/517

 in the  town;  as  they  went  all  round  about  the  town-wall,  they searched in  every  place  wherever  they  could  enquire ;  nor  could any man  anywhere  find  them.

Then the    emperor,    sad    in    mind,   spake    to   his    thanes  with words  such  as   these,   "  The  missing  of   my  favorites  is  a  great unhappiness    to    me,  that    they   have    so    suddenly  and    entirely  escaped    us.       Being    men    of   so    great   kindred    as    they    were, therefore    they    have    feared,    and    altogether    dreaded    that    we should    be    angry  with    them,   because  they   would    not    obey   us before." Then said  the  emperor  to  the  bystanders,  "  Nay,  behold,   So one  knoweth,  and  I  also  know  it  myself,  if  we  see  any  man  who will  submit  himself  zealously  to  our  gods,  all  that  he  hath  before been  guilty  of,  less  or  more,  we  let  it  [pass  out]  of  mind  as  if  it had  never  been." After such  words  and   manifold  others,  then stepped in  to  the  emperor  the  chiefest  who  were  in  his  household, and accused  the  Saints  to  him,  and  thus  spake  concerning  them : " Lord  of  all  men  throughout  this  wide  world,  we  pray  thy  kingship til  at  thou  be  not  at  all  dreary  or  sorry  for  the  young  boys, enemies   of  all  gods,  because   they  have   continued  in  evil   under thee,  lord,  until  this  present  day;  according  to  that  which  we  have heard,  after  that  thou  didst  allow  them  that  respite  wherein  they might  bethink  themselves,  they  have  ever  sought  how  they  might misplease  thee  utterly.     All  the  evil  that  they  had  begun  before, they  have  afterward  fully  performed ;  they  have  taken  from  their kinsmen  countless  treasures,  and  cast  them   all   about  the  open city-ways,  and  are  now  concealed  and  hidden  in  secret  so  that  no man  can  anywhere  find  them.     If  thy  kingship  so  sayeth,  it  shall instantly  happen  that  their  kinsmen  be  summoned,  and  be  sternly threatened, that  they,  by  means  of  torture,  may  betray  them,  and bring them,  lord,  to  thee."     When  the  emperor  heard  these  words he  immediately  comforted  his  mind;  then  bade  he  fetch  the  kinsmen,  and  began  to   say  these  words  to  them,   "  Where  are  the apostates, your  wicked  kinsmen,  who  have  slighted  my  command, so that  they  have  not  offered  any  sacrifice  to  the  worthy  gods? Unless ye  now  here  betray  them,  ye  shall  endure  their  punishment."

Then answered  the  kinsmen  and  took  great  oaths,  and  implored