Page:The golden days of the early English church from the arrival of Theodore to the death of Bede, volume 3.djvu/22

8 increase, that he was often allowed to see and converse with angels, and when hungry was refreshed with food specially prepared for him by the Lord.

In 661 Eata and the brethren he had with him at Ripon, having refused to follow King Alchfrid when he adhered to the Roman use, returned once more to Melrose, and were replaced at Ripon by St. Wilfrid. A year later an epidemic broke out in the north, the precursor of the plague of 664. A year later still, the epidemic was ravaging England, and among those who were attacked and succumbed was Boisil, the prior of the abbeys at Lindisfarne and Melrose. Cuthberht was also attacked, and the brethren spent all the night in watching and praying for his life and recovery. When he heard of what they had done, he is reported to have said: "What am I doing in bed? It is impossible that God should shut His ears to the prayers of so many of His devout servants!" He thereupon asked for his staff and hosen, and, rising up, tried to walk, leaning on his crutch. His strength increased daily, and the glandular swelling in his thigh (which was one of the usual signs of the plague) was absorbed, but he never quite got rid of its effects, and he continued to be troubled with pain from it for the rest of his life. Boisil, who survived Cuthberht's recovery for seven days, is said by Bede to have foretold his own death, and that the pestilence would last for three years before it would overtake Abbot Eata, when he