Page:Aelfric's Lives of Saints Vol 2.djvu/29

 For of  what  shall  I  be  able  to  boast,  who  was  made  a  vessel  of  election by the  devil  himself? For I  know  that,  if  I  begin  to  narrate] all the  things  concerning  me,  thou  wilt  soon  flee  from  me  in  the manner in  which  a  man  may  flee  from  an  adder,    Nevertheless,  I  will relate all  to  thee,  concealing  nothing,  and  will  first  of  ail  pray  thee, that thou  wilt  not  grow  weary  of  praying  for  me,  that  I  may  merit and meet  with  at  least  some  share  of  mercy  in  the  day  of  judgment.'

The old  man,  suffused  with  tears,  began  to  weep  bitterly. Then began the  woman   to    tell    and    relate    all    the    things    that    had happened  to  her,   thus   saying: — '  I  had   a   brother  and   a  home in   Egypt,   and    there   dwelt  with   my  relatives. Then,  in   the twelfth year  of  my  age,  I  began  to  despise  their  love  and  betook myself to  the  city  of  Alexandria. But I  am  ashamed  to  recount now how    at   the   outset  I  first  polluted   my  virginity,  and  how ceaselessly and  insatiably  I   [gave   myself  up]  to  sins,  and  continued   in    subjection    to    sinful    lusts. It   must    now    indeed be   told  briefly;    yet    I  now  the  rather  tell  of  them,  that  thou mayest   perceive    the    unlawful    burning    of    my    misdeeds    that I felt  in  my  love   of  fornication. But  pity  me,  abbot;     even for  seventeen    years    I    openly    surpassed    a    number    of   people, continuing  in    the    desire    of  fornication. Neither  did   I   lose my virginity  for  any    man's    presents,   nor   would  I   indeed  receive   anything   from  any  one    who    desired   to    give   me    somewhat;   but    I  was  greatly  excited  with  the  heat  of   sinful  lust, so that  I  desired  that  they  would  come  to  me  in  greater  numbers  without  any  price,  to  the  end  that  I  might  the  more  easily satisfy my  culpable  desires  for  wicked  living. Nor do  thou  suppose that I  would  receive  anything  for  any  world's  wealth,  but  ever lived in  poverty,  because  I  had,  as  I  said  before,  insatiable  desires, so that  I  ceaselessly  polluted  myself  in  the  puddle  of  wicked  adultery, and  this  was  my  misery;   and  this  I  accounted  as  life,  that  I might  thus  ceaselessly  fulfil  the  vexations  of  the  flesh.. Whilst