the folk-leaders, the doomed spear-bearers. Their foes are doomed to
death, and they shall have glory and honour in battle. Then follows a
great battle, with full victory to Israel.

The poet has varied from the Biblical story, in representing the
officers of Holofernes' army as drunk; and also in telling of a battle
after the return of Judith to Bethulia. It also may seem strange that
Judith should address the Holy Trinity and each separate Person thereof.
The old Christian poet carried his belief along with him, and the
handmaid of God, the brave Judith, was to him a follower of Our Lord.
The brave Judith, yes! St Dominic's Third Order was at first, as we
know, called "The militia of Jesus Christ." How Judith would have loved
the name! And we may think, may we not? how, looking from her place
among the glorified, she smiled on the great warrior Maiden Saint who
went in the might of the Lord, to deliver her country from the rule of
the stranger.

The story of Judith would especially appeal to people living at a time
when incursions of foreigners were well known, and later on, still
unforgotten. Abbot Ælfric, about whose work I have to tell you something
presently, in writing a short account of the Old Testament with its
various books, says that the Book of Judith "is put into English in our
manner as an example to you men, that you should defend your country
with weapons against an invading army"--the word which he uses, "here,"
always meaning in old English the army of the Danes. Ælfric also wrote
"a homily on Judith to teach the English the virtues of resistance to
the Danes."

It is interesting likewise to think that the poet of "Judith" may have
had in his mind some great Englishwoman concerning whom he wished in a