Page:Aelfric's Lives of Saints Vol 2.djvu/335

 awaiting the  resurrection  and  the  eternal  glory.

His body  showeth  us,  which  lieth  undecayed,

that he  lived  without  fornication  here  in this  world,

and by a  pure  life  passed  to  Christ.

A certain  widow  who  was  called  Oswyn

dwelt near  the  saint's  burial-place  in  prayers

and fastings  for  many  years  after.

She would  every  year  cut  the  hair  of  the  saint,

and cut  his  nails  soberly  and  lovingly,

and keep  them  in  a  shrine  as  relics  on  the  altar.

So the  people  of  the  land  faithfully  venerated  the  saint;

and bishop  Theodred  exceedingly  [enriched  the  church]

with gifts  in  gold  and  silver,  in  the  saint's  honour.

Then once  upon  a  time  came  some  unblessed  thieves,

eight in  one  night,  to  the  venerable  saint,

desiring to  steal  the  treasures  which  people  had  brought  thither,

and tried  how  they  might  get  in  by  craft.

One struck  at  the  hasp  violently  with  a  hammer;

one of  them  filed  about  it  with  a  file;

one dug  under  the  door  with  a  spade;

one of  them  by  a  ladder  wished  to  unlock  the  window:

but they  toiled  in  vain,  and  fared  miserably,

because the  holy  man  wondrously  bound  them,

each as  he  stood,  toiling  with  his  implement,

so that  none  of  them  could  do  that  evil  deed,

nor stir  thence;    but  they  stood  there  till  morning.

Then men  wondered  to  see  how  the  wretches  hung  there,