he was so weak that there was hardly a feeble palpitation and
respiration found in him. About midnight he called to his wife, and
told her to send quickly for his confessor.

The priest was as yet only in the court before the house, when
Bertholdus said, "Place a seat here, for the priest is coming." He
entered the room and said some prayers, to which Bertholdus uttered
the responses, and then related to him the vision he had had. "On
leaving this world," said he, "I saw forty-one bishops, amongst whom
were Ebonius, Leopardellus, Eneas, who were clothed in coarse black
garments, dirty, and singed by the flames. As for themselves, they
were sometimes burned by the flames, and at others frozen with
insupportable cold." Ebonius said to him, "Go to my clergy and my
friends, and tell them to offer for us the holy sacrifice." Bertholdus
obeyed, and returning to the place where he had seen the bishops, he
found them well clothed, shaved, bathed, and rejoicing.

A little farther on, he met King Charles,[633] who was as if eaten by
worms. This prince begged him to go and tell Hincmar to relieve his
misery. Hincmar said mass for him, and King Charles found relief.
After that he saw Bishop Jesse, of Orleans, who was over a well, and
four demons plunged him into boiling pitch, and then threw him into
icy water. They prayed for him, and he was relieved. He then saw the
Count Othaire, who was likewise in torment. Bertholdus begged the wife
of Othaire, with his vassals and friends, to pray for him, and give
alms, and he was delivered from his torments. Bertholdus after that
received the holy communion, and began to find himself better, with
the hope of living fourteen years longer, as he had been promised by
his guide, who had shown him all that we have just related.

Footnotes:

[632] Hincmar, lib. ii. p. 805.

[633] Apparently Charles the Bald, who died in 875.

CHAPTER LVII.

THE VISION OF SAINT FURSIUS.

The Life of St. Fursius,[634] written a short time after his death,
which happened about the year 653, reports several visions seen by
this holy man. Being grievously ill, and unable to stir, he saw
himself in the midst of the darkness raised up, as it were, by the
hands of three angels, who carried him out of the world, then brought
him back to it, and made his soul re-enter his body, to complete the
destination assigned him by God. Then he found himself in the midst of
several people, who wept for him as if