dict, but have refused them. I was once offered the high
office of abbot in one of our great Benedictine houses, but I wished
to be near my own people and my father's house, and here I trust I
shall stay till I seek a continuing city, whose builder and maker is
God.

And now a little about the state of the country round us. In this
neighbourhood we have as yet been preserved from the evils of war, but
for many years past the Danes, those evil men, have renewed their
inroads, as they used to make them before the great King Alfred
pacified the country. They began again in the year 980, and, with but
slight intermission, have continued year by year.

The awful prophecy which God forced from the lips of Dunstan {ii},
at the coronation of our most unhappy king, has been too sadly
fulfilled. Ah me! I fear the curse of the saints is upon him. When the
holy bishop departed this life, I was one of the few who stood round
his bed, and as he foretold of the evil to come, he bade us all bear
our portion manfully, for the time, he said, would be short in which
to endure, and the eternal crown secure.

Many of those to whom he spoke have since died the martyr's or the
patriot's death, but as yet no evil has reached us at Aescendune,
although many parts of Wessex, nay, all the sea coast and the banks of
the great rivers have been wasted with fire and sword, and the money
which has been given the barbarians has been worse than wasted, for
they only come for more.

Our armies seem led by traitors; our councils, sad to say, by fools.
Nothing prospers, and thoughtless people say the saints are asleep.
Every day we say the petition in our Litany, "That it would please
Thee to abate the cruelty of our pagan enemies, and to turn their
hearts; we beseech Thee to hear us, good Lord," and we must wait His
time, and pray for strength to submit to His will.

Around the priory live the serfs, the theows, and ceorls of the
estate, each in his own little cottage, save the domestics, who live
at the Hall, which is only half-a-mile distant.

On Sundays and Saints' days they all assemble in our minster church.
It was full this day at the high mass, and I preached them a homily
upon the Saints, great part of which I took from a sermon I once heard
the holy Dunstan preach. And he showed us how saints did not live idle
lives on this earth, but always went about, like their Lord and
Master, doing good, and that through much tribulation they entered