summer.

We have been able to learn nothing of Alfgar; but we think that Anlaf
probably yet lives, and that he has recovered his son; yet we cannot
imagine how he escaped on St. Brice's night.

Well, to return. We at once set to work, and erected a church of
timber, for the service of God; and I said mass in it the first Sunday
after our arrival there. It may be supposed it is not a very grand
church; but God looks at the living stones, and reads the heart.

We all had enough to do for the first few days; but within a week one
might suppose we had been living there an age. Log huts were erected
for the whole population; the old farm house, which is large and
strongly built, taking the place of the hall. One must dispense with
some comfort now.

My brother sent a portion of his men to rejoin the army, but feels
himself justified in entering at once on his winter quarters with the
remainder; in fact, since my arrival at Abingdon, the troops have all
been dismissed for the winter, and the Danes have, as I said, retired
to the Wight.

Then, leaving Father Adhelm in charge of the woodland settlement, I
determined to visit my brethren here, where I have been received with
all Christian love and hospitality by the abbot and his brethren.
Three days my journey lasted. I travelled with only two attendants,
serfs of our house; a poor prior burnt out from house and home.

Nov. 21st, 1006.--

This evening I heard heavy steps on the stairs, and methought their
tread seemed familiar, as well it might, for no sooner had the door
opened than my son Alfgar, for whom we had mourned as dead, or at
least dead to us, fell upon my neck and wept.

It was a long time before either of us was composed enough to say
much, but when we had a little recovered, the abbot who had brought
them to my rooms introduced a tall young man in gleeman's garb, as
Edmund the Etheling.

At length we all sat down to supper, but talked so much we could eat
little, and I soon learned all the news Alfgar had to tell. His tale
is wonderful; he has been indeed delivered from the mouth of the lion,
nay, from the jaws of the fierce lion; but I must set down all things
in order.

The one thing which delights me most is the way in which his faith has
stood the hard hard test to which it has been put.

But my dear nephew Bertric, Saint Bertric we must assuredly call him,
oh how it will lighten the grief of his parents and sister to know how
gloriously he die