for the erection of monasteries. And then, accompanied by a small army, he gave battle to the pagans, who are reported to have had thirty times as numerous an army as himself, for he had thirty generals fully appointed for war ; but Oswy alone, with his son Elfrid, under the leadership of Christ, met them, put them to flight, pursued them, and slew them. Among others, the wicked king, Penda, fell, who had deprived so many noble men of their temporal life. And king Ethelher, brother of king Annas, whom we have already mentioned, and who was the instigator of the war, fell too, as he would not survive the loss of all his army ; and because the battle took place near the river, which is called the Winwed, and which, at that time, in consequence of the excessive rains, had broken all its bounds, it happened that the water killed more in their flight than the sword had slain in battle. From which, the proverb went abroad : " The slaughter of Annas, the slaughter of the kings, Sigebert and Egric, the slaughter of Oswald and Edwin, have been all washed out in the river Winwed Then king Oswy, showing his gratitude to God for the victory which had been granted him, in accordance with the vows which he had.made to the Lord, gave his daughter, who was scarcely one year old, to be devoted to God in perpetual virginity, in a monastery which is called Hertsee, that is to say, the island of the Hart, over which, Hilda was at that time presiding as abbess. And she, having acquired the possessions of ten famuies in the place, which is called $trene*f)alf)ft built a monastery there. But king Oswy managed this war so as to be of the greatest advantage to both the nations, as he delivered his own people from the hostile incursion of the pagans, and converted to the beauty of the Christian faith the nation of the Mercians, now that their perfidious head, who had crushed every one, was thrown down. Ethelher was succeeded in the kingdom of the East Angles by his brother Ethelwald, and by a continued series of succession, the kingdom at last came to Eadwolf and Eadwald, the sons of this same Ethelher. A.D. 656. King Oswy gave to Peada, the son of Penda, because he was his kinsman, the kingdom of the South Mercians (who are divided from the Northern Mercians by the river Trent), to be held of himself ; and he had the first bishop in the province of Mercia, who was also bishop of the people of Lindsey and the Middle Angles, and whose name was Dinam. He died in the country of the Middle Angles, and was buried