ceeded by Ethelgar. These bishops govern the whole province of Devonshire. John was elected pope, and ruled that see four years. A.D. 932. Frithstan, a man of singular piety, bishop of j Winchester, having ordained Birstan, a man of great piety, to his bishopric in his stead, abdicated it himself, and lived the life of a poor man in the city of Winchester. This most holy bishop celebrated mass every day for the repose of the dead, and was continually singing psalms for the salvation of their souls. At last, one night, when, according to his custom, he was walking round the cemeteries chaunting, and was reciting psalms, and, after he had finished everything else, was adding ! the words, " May they rest in peace ; " on a sudden he heard ; voices as of an innumerable army, answering out of the sepal-I chres, " Amen." A.D. 933. Athelstan, king of England, because the king of the Scots had violated the treaty that he had made with him, marched against Scotland with a very powerful fleet, and no small army of cavalry, and ravaged the greater part of Scotland. On which account, Constantine, king of the Scots, being compelled by force, gave him his son as a hostage} and gave him worthy presents likewise ; and so peace was renewed, and the king returned to his own land. The same year, the holy man, Frithstan, died. A.D. 934. King Athelstan ordered his brother Edwin to be drowned in the sea ; and the following is said to have been the cause of this deed :—There was in a certain town of Wessex the daughter of a shepherd, a damsel of beautiful appearance, and she, when she was asleep, thought that she saw the moon shining out of her belly, and also, that all England was lighted up by this light. And when she had related her vision to a certain matron who had been used to nurse the king's sons, the matron received the damsel into her own house, and taking care of her as her own daughter, nourished her on dainty food, and arrayed her in delicate apparel, and educated her in all good habits and manners. And not long afterwards, Edward, the son of king Alfred, by chance passing through the town, turned aside to her house, thinking that it would be injurious to his reputation if he neglected to visit the nurse who had brought him up. And there he saw the maiden, and being seized with love for her, he slept that night with her, and by one single embrace he made her preg