Page:The History of Armenia - Avdall - Volume 1.djvu/212

Rh in that event, to amend their lives. But he, knowing their ill dispositions, refused to resume his crown, for which they in revenge poisoned him.

Thus perished, as the Armenian records express it, "the brilliant mirror of piety," after a reign of fifty-six years, being then in his eighty-fifth year. His remains were interred in the fortress of Ani in Kamakh. They attempted also to kill St. Vertannes, but on their surrounding him to complete their bloody designs, their hands were withheld by an invisible power, and the blessed Bishop passed through them unhurt. He retired to the village of Thil, accompanied by the holy consort of St. Tiridates, and his sister Khosrovedught. Here they lived a life of peace and happiness in the exercise of devotion, and in due time were translated to God.

The reign of Khosrove the Second. the death of Tiridates the Aluans rebelled. A chief of this tribe, named Sanatruk, of a branch of the Arsacidæ, assumed the kingly power and usurped the government. He also sought to obtain the crown of Armenia. Ano-