A.D. 685.] LEGEND OF THE CAPTIVE SOLDIER. Ill gotten in .awful wedlock, was nevertheless most learned in the Scriptures, and who commendably repaired the tottering state of the kingdom. Now Egfrid was the son of Oswy and Eanfleda, daughter of king Eadwin ; and Oswy was the son of Athelfrid, who was the son of Athelric, who was the son of Ida, the first English king of the Northumbrians. It happened in the course of a certain war between Egfrid and Athelred, king of the Mercians, as has been said above, that a wonderful miracle was wrought, the relation of which may, I think, conduce to the profit of many. There fell in that battle, among others of Egfrid's soldiers, a certain young man named Imma, who lay to all appearance dead, among the corpses of the slain, all that day and the following night. A t length his spirit returning, he revived, and sitting upright he bound up his wounds in the best manner he could ; then after resting awhile, he rose up to go away ; but while so doing, he was taken by one of Athelred's officers and thrown into fetters. Now the soldier that was bound had a very religious brother named Tunna, who on hearing that his brother was slain in the aforesaid battle, came to seek his dead body, and finding one very like it, believing it to be his brother, he took it to his monastery, where he interred it with all honour, and had frequent masses celebrated for the absolution of his soul. Now at the time when he had masses celebrated for his brother, the fetters of the latter were loosed and could not be kept on him. The officer thereupon, on seeing that he could not be held with fetters, brought him to London and sold him to a certain Frisian. The latter too, finding the same thing, received of the soldier the sum he had given for him, and suffered him to depart ; and on his coming home and relating to his brother and his countrymen what had happened, numbers were stirred up to offer the host oftener unto God, and to almsgiving and prayers for the delivery of those who were departed out of the world. I have thought good to insert this miracle in my history, because I have found it to be unquestionably true.