crowded round her like children round their mother.
When she had distributed everything she had of her own she took garments
and other things from her courtiers and attendants to give away, a
spoliation to which they consented willingly, knowing that the value of
everything thus appropriated would be returned to them--an excellent
reason for acquiescence. This "rapine of piety" was so strong in her
that she sometimes even appropriated to her poor certain of the gold
pieces which it was the King's custom to offer at Easter to the
Church--a pious robbery which Malcolm pretended not to perceive until he
caught her in the act, when he accused her with a laugh of tender
amusement for her rapacity. In all the touches by which the sympathetic
priest delineates the union of this pair there is something at once
humorous and pathetic in the figure of the King, the rough old warrior,
always following with his eyes the angelic saintly figure by his side,
all believing, half adoring, and yet not without that gleam of amusement
at the woman's absolute unhesitating enthusiasm--an amusement mingled
with admiration and respect, but still a smile--a delighted surprise at
all her amazing ways, and wonder what she will do next, though
everything in his eyes was perfect that she did--such as may still be
seen in the eyes of many a world-worn husband looking on at the
movements of that directer, more simple, yet more subtle being, and the
quick absolutism and certainty of the bright spirit at his side. The
grey-bearded old soldier, leader of many a raid and victor in many a
struggle, with this new revelation of beauty and purity bursting upon
his later life, becomes to us a recognisable and friendly human soul in
these glimpses we have of him, unintentional and by the way. Theodoric
himself must have liked Malcolm, half-barbarian as he was, and even
admired the look of ardent supplication which would come into the King's
face, "a great intentness and emotion," such as seemed to him
extraordinary in a secular person, and which his wife's beautiful
example and the contagion of her piety alone could have developed.

Among Margaret's many duties there was one which throws a very strange
light upon the time. Just before her arrival in Scotland, King Malcolm
had been carrying fire and sword through Northumberland in one of the
many raids over the Border which were the commonplace of the time--if
indeed we may speak of the Border at such an unsettl