considering, before his departure, what good or ill he has
done, and how his soul is to be judged after death. "He also sang
antiphons," says Cuthbert, "according to our custom and use." Cuthbert
gives one of them, which is the lovely antiphon to the "Magnificat" at
second Vespers on Ascension Day.

His work went on during his illness. He was making a translation of part
of St John's Gospel into English, "for the benefit of the Church," and
was working at "Some collections out of the 'Book of Notes' of Bishop
Isodorus, saying, 'I will not have my pupils read a falsehood, nor
labour therein without profit after my death.'" As the time went on his
difficulty of breathing increased, and last symptoms began to appear;
but he dictated cheerfully, anxious to do all that he could. On the
Wednesday he ordered them to write with all speed what he had begun; and
then "we walked till the third hour with the relics of saints, according
to the custom of that day."

Then one of them said, "Most dear Master, there is still one chapter
wanting: do you think it troublesome to be asked any more questions?" He
answered, "It is no trouble. Take your pen, and make ready, and write
fast."

After this he distributed little gifts to the priests, and spoke to
all, asking that Masses and prayers might be said for him. His desire
was, like St Paul's, to die and be with Christ: Christ Whom he had so
loved, and at Whose feet he had laid all his gifts and all his learning.

"One sentence more," said the boy, was yet to be written. The Master bad
him write quickly. "The sentence is now written," said the boy. And the
dear Saint knew that the end was come, and asked them to receive his
head into their hands. And there sitting, facing the holy place where he
had been used to pray, he sang his last song of praise, "Glory be to the
Father and to the Son and to the Holy Ghost," and "when he named the
Holy Ghost he breathed his last and so departed to the Heavenly
Kingdom."

St Bede was buried at Jarrow, but his relics were afterwards taken to
Durham by a priest named Elfrid, and laid by St Cuthbert's side. In the
twelfth century a glorious shrine was built over these relics by the
Bishop of Durham, Hugh Pudsey: a shrine that, like many another, was
destroyed in the sixteenth century uprising of the king of the country
against the Church of Our Lord Jesus Christ.

CHAPTER V

King Alfred, first layman to be a great power in literature; man of