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And I found that these six kindred spirits had managed to get themselves told off to amuse me while I waited that day, so that they might hear of the fighting. So we laughed and rode out, and I thought no more of Guthlac and his brethren till the time came when I remembered them gladly. All day long during that week came pouring in the Dorset levies in answer to the bishop's summons.
They were sworn, the leaders of them, to die or conquer, fighting the accursed Frenchman. They were bound to St. Peter, and to St. Guthlac, and to St. Felix of Ramsey, and St.
Guthlac, written possibly as early as the eighth century, and literally translated by Mr. Goodwin, of Cambridge. Guthlac's throat, and install himself in his cell, that he might have the honour and glory of sainthood? But St. There we may read, too, a detailed account of a Fauna now happily extinct in the fens: of the creatures who used to hale St.
Then I asked Guthlac whence he got his skill in arms, and why he was shut up thus inside four walls. "Laziness, Thane," he answered, telling me nothing of the first matter at all. Nor would he. But I found afterwards that he had been lamed once, and tended by the monks, and so had bided in the abbey, liking the life, though he had been a stout housecarle to some thane or other.
The Danes, furious at being able to find none of the treasures of the monastery, broke open all the shrines and levelled the marble tombs, including those of St. Guthlac, the holy virgin Ethelbritha, and many others, but found in these none of the treasure searched for.
They watched the sun as he sank lower and lower in the western sky, and thought of the woods and forests they must traverse, frequented by wolves, and sometimes by outlaws whom they dreaded far more. Still Dunstan did not appear. Alfred and Guthlac, on a watchtower above, gazed on the plain stretched before them.
So I took closer notice of him, and lo! it was Guthlac, the reader of Beowulf, and the other five were his brethren. Small wonder that I had not recognized the holy men in their war gear, so little looked they like the peaceful brethren who had walked in the abbey cloisters.
"It is the war chime, not the matin bell, you shall hear this morning," said one of his brethren. "That is better mea culpa," said Guthlac, clapping his hand on his mouth to stop his own warlike ejaculation. Then came Wulfhere back, swiftly. Barely a mile were they from the hill, he said, and coming on quickly in loose order.
Well, blood is thicker than water; so I hardly blame the blessed Apostle." "Do not talk so, Hereward." "Much the saints have done for us, mother, that we are to be so very respectful to their high mightinesses. I fear, if this Frenchman goes on with his plan of thrusting his monks into our abbeys, I shall have to do more even for St. Guthlac than ever he did for me. Do not say more, mother.
Yet there are six lay brethren here who have been warriors, of whom brother Guthlac is one, and if they may march against heathen men, I pray you let me have them." Now that the Bishop seemed to find pleasant, as though he knew something of those lovers of war songs, and answered that he wot not if Tatwine would let them go.
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