is called Sett, and defeated them, and inflicted an unheard-of slaughter upon them. A.D. 852. Bertulf, king of Mercia, passed from this life, and was succeeded by Berthred, who reigned twenty-two years. He, in the first year of his reign, took for his wife the daughter of Ethelwolf, and by so doing established himself firmly in his kingdom. And his nuptials were celebrated in the royal town which is called Cf)tppenf)am, where the damsel, Ethelswitha, received the title of queen. About this time, a certain wicked woman, living in the town which is called Berkeley,1 devoted to gluttony and wantonness, and even in her old age putting no limit to her crimes and witchcraft, continued immodest to the day of her death. One day, when she was sitting at dinner, a jackdaw, which she kept as a pet, began to chatter something or other. And when the woman heard it, her knife fell from her hand, and her face began to grow pale ; and uttering a groan, she said, " This day I shall meet with a great disaster, for my plough has this day come to its last furrow." And when she had said this, a messenger of woe came in ; and when the woman had asked him why he came, " I bring you news," said he, " of the death of your son, and of the decease of his whole family, by a sudden destruction." And the woman, being greatly affected by this misfortune, immediately took to her bed, and became afflicted with a sore disease. And when she found that it was creeping down to her vitals, she wrote a letter to summon her surviving children to her, and they consisted of two, a monk and a nun. And when they came, she addressed them thus, with a voice broken by sobs: " My children," said she, " I, to my great sorrow, have always been a slave to the practice of demomacai arts. I have been a sink of all vices, a teacher of all unholy allurements. And yet, amid all this wickedness, I have always had a hope founded on your religion, which has steadied my despairing soul, and I have looked forward to finding you my defenders against devils, and my protectors against my most cruel enemies. Now, therefore, since I have come to the end of my life, I entreat you, by the breast on which I bare you, that you wiU endeavour to relieve my torments. When I am dead sew me up in the hide of a stag, and then place me in a stone sarcophagus, and fasten the lid upon it with iron and lead; and then 1 Called Okeley by Hume.