Page:Aelfric's Lives of Saints Vol 2.djvu/449

 As I  persecute  him  more  with  greater  persecution,

so I  make  him  always  the  more  glorious.

But if  the  earth  may  not  destroy  the  man,

let him  be  sunk  in  the  waves  of  the  sea,

that I  may  not  so  oft  be  ashamed  at  the  victory  of  him  alone

in the  sight  of  men,  who  behold  it  all;

let him  at  least  be  hidden  in  the  deep  sea.

Let him  be  sewn  in  a  sack,  with  heavy  stones,

and cast  him  away  into  the  spacious  sea,

as meat  for  the  fishes,  though  the  fowls  would  not  have  him.'

The fierce  persecutors  then  quickly  did  so.

They cast  the  saint's  body  into  the  spacious  sea,

with heavy  stones,  as  the  judge  commanded  them,

that at  least  he  should  not  escape  from  the  sea,

though he  formerly  escaped  from  the  earth;

and they  rowed  homeward  in  high  glee.

But the  holy  man's  body,  by  the  Saviours  might,

arrived at  the  strand  before  they  stepped  ashore,

and lay  on  the  shingle,  till  a  believing  widow

received a  clear  indication  concerning  it,

where the  holy  body  lay  on  the  strand,

cast amid  the  shingle  by  the  sea-waves,

as if  he  should  be  buried  by  God's  command.

His body  was  then  borne  to  a  holy  church

with much  veneration,  and  therein  buried;

and his  holy  bones  were  widely  distributed,

and with  much  love  men  revere  them  everywhere,

as the  books  tell  us,  for  his  true  faith,

to the  praise  of  the  Saviour,  who  liveth  aye  in  eternity. Amen.