Page:Aelfric's Lives of Saints Vol 2.djvu/195

 and a  company  of  angels  also  there  winsomely  sung

until the  body  came  to  where  it  desired  to  lie

with the  head  and  all,  and  the  holy  angels

continually sung,  as  books  tell  us.

Then the  heathen,  those  that  heard  the  song

and saw  the  wonder,  cast  away  their  error

and believed  in  Christ,  and  likewise  some  of  the  executioners;

and none  was  left  there  who  would  not  believe,

but turned  them  away,  terrified  at  the  wonder.

That was  such  a  strange  wonder,  that  the  righteous  martyr

could walk  headless,  praising  God  Almighty,

and moreover  run  with  troops  of  angels;

but God  desired  to  declare  through  that  strange  sign

that his  soul  lived,  though  the  body  might  be  slain,

and would  manifest  to  men  how  great  faith

the holy  man  had  in  the  Saviour  in  life.

Sisinnius, notwithstanding,  the  unhappy  judge,

would not  believe  in  Christ,  but  bade  men  kill  all

who, through  Dionysius'  lore,  believed  in  God,

with divers  tortures  very  savagely;

and their  souls  departed  to  the  true  life.

The holy  priest's  body  and  that  of  the  faithful  deacon,

Rusticus and  Eleutherius,  lay  upon  the  hill,

where they  were  beheaded  with  the  holy  bishop,

when his  body  went  away,  even  as  we  wrote  before.

Then the  heathen  executioners  bare  the  Saints'  bodies

presently to  ship,  desiring  to  sink  them  in  the  flood,

but   the     Almighty     Creator    brought    to     naught     that     evil counsel.

There was  a  certain  noble  lady  who  knew  their  evil  counsel,

and invited  the  executioners  to  her,  as  if  for  friendship,

and made  them  drunk  with  wine,  and  bade  men  go  secretly

meanwhile to  the  ship  and  steal  away  the  bodies;

and she  kept  them  reverently  till  the  persecution  ceased,