most impious infidels sailed upwards along the coast, laying waste everything they met with, with fire and sword. And in this diabolical persecution, many most noble monasteries, which were situated on the sea-coast, are said to have been destroyed, namely, the monastery of monks at Lindisfame, where at that time there was a cathedral see, which the blessed bishop Cuthbert adorned with the sacred presence of his body. Also the monastery at Tynemouth, for nuns, and the Gyrwian monastery for monks, and that of Wearmouth, in which it is related that the venerable priest, Bede, was educated. There was also the nunnery at Streneshele, which the most blessed abbess, Hilda, founded, and in which she assembled many virgins. And thus those wicked leaders, passing through the county of York, burnt churches, and cities, and towns, and destroyed the inhabitants of every sex and age, with all their property and their cattle. Then sailing up the river Humber, they raged there with similar fury ; and advancing from thence, they destroyed all the monasteries and nunneries situated in the fens, and slew all the inhabitants. And the names of these monasteries and nunneries were' that of Croyland, of Thorney, of Ramsey, of Hampstead, which is now called Saint Peter's Borough. They also ravaged the Isle of Ely, and destroyed a nunnery which was formerly of the highest celebrity, in which the holy virgin and queen, Elthelreda, gloriouslyfilled the onice of abbess for many years. Now, therefore, since in that persecution the glorious king and martyr, Edmund, was slain, and perished by the swords of the wicked brothers, Hinguar and Hubba, it is fitting in this place to relate the cause of this important martyrdom, and to explain how the before-mentioned leaders got the opportunity of condemning that most pious king to a most barbarous death. There was then in the days which were not long past, in the kingdom of the Danes, a certain man, descended from the royal family of that nation, by name Lothbroc. He by his wife became the father of two sons, namely, of Hinguar and Hubba. And when one day he had embarked in a Utile boat, alone with his hawk, in order to hunt the ducks and other small birds in the islands of the sea which were near the land, a sudden tempest arose, by which he was carried out into the wide sea, and for many days and nights tossed about in every direction, and grievously afflicted. At last, after having encountered many dangers, he was