Page:Aelfric's Lives of Saints Vol 2.djvu/329

 to fight  with  weapons  against  the  bloodthirsty  Jews.

Then those  wicked  men  bound  Edmund,

and shamefully  insulted  him,  and  beat  him  with  clubs,

and afterward  they  led  the  faithful  king

to an  earth-fast  tree,  and  tied  him  thereto

With hard  bonds,  and  afterwards  scourged  him

a long  while  with  whips,  and  ever  he  called,

between the  blows,  with  true  faith,

on Jesus  Christ;    and  then  the  heathen

because of  his  faith  were  madly  angry,

because he  called  upon  Christ  to  help  him.

They shot  at  him  with  javelins  as  if  for  their  amusement,

until he  was  all  beset  with  their  shots,

as with  a  porcupine's  bristles,  even  as  Sebastian  was.

"When Hingwar,  the  wicked  seaman,

saw that  the  noble  king  would  not  deny  Christ,

but with  steadfast  faith  ever  called  upon  Him,

then he  commanded  men  to  behead  him,  and  the  heathen  did  so.

For while  he  was  yet  calling  upon  Christ,

the heathen  drew  away  the  saint,  to  slay  him,

and with  one  blow  struck  off  his  head;

and his  soul  departed  joyfully  to  Christ.

There was  a  certain  man  at  hand,  kept  by  God

hidden from  the  heathen,  who  heard  all  this,

and told  it  afterward  even  as  we  tell  it  here.

So then  the  seamen  went  again  to  ship,

and hid  the  head  of  the  holy  Edmund