ted to
do me violence."

When he heard these complaints and saw the blood, the king, transported
with fury, ordered his guards to seize the young monk and burn him alive
before the palace under the queen's eyes.

Being told of the affair, the Abbot of Yvern went to the king and said
to him:

"King Brian, know by this example the difference between a Christian
woman and a pagan. Roman Lucretia was the most virtuous of idolatrous
princesses, yet she had not the strength to defend herself against the
attacks of an effeminate youth, and, ashamed of her weakness, she gave
way to despair, whilst Glamorgan has successfully withstood the assaults
of a criminal filled with rage, and possessed by the most terrible of
demons." Meanwhile Oddoul, in the prison of the palace, was waiting for
the moment when he should be burned alive. But God did not suffer an
innocent to perish. He sent to him an angel, who, taking the form of one
of the queen's servants called Gudrune, took him out of his prison and
led him into the very room where the woman whose appearance he had taken
dwelt.

And the angel said to young Oddoul:

"I love thee because thou art daring."

And young Oddoul, believing that it was Gudrune herself, answered with
downcast looks:

"It is by the grace of the Lord that I have resisted the violence of the
queen and braved the anger of that powerful woman."

And the angel asked:

"What? Hast thou not done what the queen accuses thee of?"

"In truth no, I have not done it," answered Oddoul, his hand on his
heart.

"Thou hast not done it?"

"No, I have not done it. The very thought of such an action fills me
with horror."

"Then," cried the angel, "what art thou doing here, thou impotent
creature?" *

* The Penguin chronicler who relates the fact employs the
expression, Species inductilis. I have endeavoured to
translate it literally.

And she opened the door to facilitate the young man's escape. Oddoul
felt himself pushed violently out. Scarcely had he gone down into the
street than a chamber-pot was poured over his head; and he thought:

"Mysterious are thy designs, O Lord, and thy ways past finding out."

II. DRACO THE GREAT (Translation of the Relics of St. Orberosia)

The direct posterity of Brian the Good was extinguished about the year
900 in the person of Collic of the Short Nose. A cousin of that prince,
Bosco the Magnanimous, succeeded him, and took care, in order to assu