Wessex, in the year 985. He has two children--Bertric, a fine lad of
twelve, and as good as he is manly; and Ethelgiva, a merry girl of
ten. His household is well-ordered and happy--nurtured in the
admonition of the Lord.

For myself I have had many offers of promotion in the brotherhood of
St. Benedict, but have refused them. I was once offered the high
office of abbot in one of our great Benedictine houses, but I wished
to be near my own people and my father's house, and here I trust I
shall stay till I seek a continuing city, whose builder and maker is
God.

And now a little about the state of the country round us. In this
neighbourhood we have as yet been preserved from the evils of war, but
for many years past the Danes, those evil men, have renewed their
inroads, as they used to make them before the great King Alfred
pacified the country. They began again in the year 980, and, with but
slight intermission, have continued year by year.

The awful prophecy which God forced from the lips of Dunstan {ii},
at the coronation of our most unhappy king, has been too sadly
fulfilled. Ah me! I fear the curse of the saints is upon him. When the
holy bishop departed this life, I was one of the few who stood round
his bed, and as he foretold of the evil to come, he bade us all bear
our portion manfully, for the time, he said, would be short in which
to endure, and the eternal crown secure.

Many of those to whom he spoke have since died the martyr's or the
patriot's death, but as yet no evil has reached us at Aescendune,
although many parts of Wessex, nay, all the sea coast and the banks of