A.D. 1066.] DEATH OP KING EDWABD. 323 days speechless and apparently lifeless, he on the third day revived, and fetching a heavy and deep sigh, exclaimed, " Almighty God, if it be not an illusion, but a true vision, which I have beheld, grant me strength to tell it to those who are by ; but if, on the other hand, it be false, I pray thee withhold from me the power of telling it." After this prayer, he narrated with sufficient ease and clearness as follows : " I just now saw standing by me two monks whom I had seen before in Normandy in my youth, and knew to have lived most religiously, and died most Christianly. These men assured me that they were sent to me with a message from God, and proceeded as follows,—' Forasmuch as the princes, dukes, bishops, and abbats of England are not the servants of God, but of the. devil, therefore God will, within a year and a day, deliver this kingdom into the hand of the enemy ; and this land shall be wholly overrun with demons.' On my saying that I would declare this to the people, that they might repent of their sins and make confession and satisfaction, and, like the Ninevites, obtain mercy ; ' It will be to no purpose,' they replied, ' for they will not repent, nor will God have mercy upon them.' Then said I, 'But when may we hope for a remission of such dire calamities ?' ' Ή,' they replied, ' a green tree be cut down, and the head carried far away from the root, and after this they of their own accord unite, and blossom, and bear fruit, then may a remission of these evils be hoped for.' " The English afterwards proved the truth of this prophecy ; for England truly became the dwelling of foreigners, and felt the yoke of strangers, none of her dukes, or prelates, or abbats being English, nor was there any hope of ending this misery. Death of king Eadward the Third, and his virtues. The pacific king Eadward, the glory of England, the son of king Ethelrcd, exchanged a temporal for an eternal kingdom, in the fourth indiction, on the vigil of our Lord's epiphany, being the fifth day of the week, [Thursday, Jan. 5, 1066]. The day after his death, the most blessed king was buried at London, in the church which he himself had built in a new and costly style of architecture, which was afterwards adopted by numbers. With him ended the line of the English kings, which τ 2