A.D. 644.] ST. OSWALD. 85 to Heraclius ; and, after the tongue of Martina and the nose of Heraclonas had been cut off, they were sent to Constane son of the younger Heraclius. Death of Kinegih, king of the West-Saxons, and succession of Kinewalc. In the year of grace 643, Kinegils king of the West-Saxons, after a reign of thirty-two years, left this world, and was succeeded by his son Kinewalc, who reigned thirtyone years.* Of the sanctity of king Oswald. In the year of grace 644, St. Oswald, having reduced under his sway all the nations of Britain, to wit, the English, Scot3, Picts, and Britons, nevertheless always continued humble, showing himself gracious to strangers, a father to the poor, a terror to the rich, and an observer of justice in all his actions. On the holy day of Easter, as he was sitting at dinner with bishop Aidan, with a silver dish of royal dainties set before him, just as they were about to bless the bread, there suddenly entered the servant who had the charge of relieving the needy, and signified to the king that a multitude of poor persons from all parts were sitting in the streets, begging some alms of the king. He immediately ordered the food which was set before him to be carried to them, and the dish to be broken in pieces and distributed among them. Delighted at this act of piety on the king's part, Aidan laid hold of his right hand and said, " May this hand never rot ;" which came to pass accordingly, for his hand and arm being cut off in the battle in which he was slain, remain uncorrupted to this day, and both are preserved in a coffer of gold and silver in the church of the blessed Peter, in the royal city called Burgum [Bamborough], where they are venerated by the devout. He was nephew of king Eadwin by Accha Ids sister, a worthy heir both of the religion and kingdom of so great a predecessor. But the enemy, envying his goodness, stirred up the heart of Cadwallo to slay him. For in the thirty-eighth year of his age, on the fifth day of the month of August, in the ninth year of his reign, he was slain in a severe engagement with Penda, king of the Mer * Wendover and the Saxon Chronicle state that he died in 672 : but that, as Florence of Worcester gives it, was the 30th not the 31st year of his reign.