d corn; or took all the cattle that they could
come at; which amounted to many thousands. Many hundred men also
they took, and led northward with them; so that not only that
shire, but others near it were the worse for many winters. Then
Earl Tosty and his wife, and all they who acted with him, went
south over sea with him to Earl Baldwin; who received them all:
and they were there all the winter. About midwinter King Edward
came to Westminster, and had the minster there consecrated, which
he had himself built to the honour of God, and St. Peter, and all
God's saints. This church-hallowing was on Childermas-day. He
died on the eve of twelfth-day; and he was buried on twelfth-day
in the same minster; as it is hereafter said.
Here Edward king, (86)
of Angles lord,
sent his stedfast
soul to Christ.
In the kingdom of God
a holy spirit!
He in the world here
abode awhile,
in the kingly throng
of council sage.
Four and twenty
winters wielding
the sceptre freely,
wealth he dispensed.
In the tide of health,
the youthful monarch,
offspring of Ethelred!
ruled well his subjects;
the Welsh and the Scots,
and the Britons also,
Angles and Saxons
relations of old.
So apprehend
the first in rank,
that to Edward all
the noble king
were firmly held
high-seated men.
Blithe-minded aye
was the harmless king;
though he long ere,
of land bereft,
abode in exile
wide on the earth;
when Knute o'ercame
the kin of Ethelred,
and the Danes wielded
the dear kingdom
of Engle-land.
Eight and twenty
winters' rounds
they wealth dispensed.
Then came forth
free in his chambers,
in royal array,
good, pure, and mild,
Edward the noble;
by his country defended--
by land and people.
Until suddenly came
the bitter Death
and this king so dear
snatched from the earth.
Angels carried
his soul sincere
into the light of heaven.
But the prudent king
had settled th