A.D. 1178.] JIIItACI.F.S A T THE MARTYRS' TOJin. reality: for lie feared lest lie should offend Clod if he concealed it, and incur the ridicule of mankind if he told it. In tin's state of doubt the fear of God prevailed ; and, although he did not proclaim it publicly, yet he communicated it to his domestics and private friends. They, however, at once published in open day what had been told them in the darkness, and what they had heard in the ear they proclaimed upon the house-tops. Thus the story was spread throughout the whole province, So that the inhabitants thronged the cloister of St. Alban's monastery. At last the happy report reached Simon, the abbat, by whose inlluence, next to God, it acquired great importance. lie immediately gave praise and thanks to God, and having held a council of the brethren, chose some of them to proceed to the spot, to which the man above mentioned should guide them. Meantime, the whole convent at home prayed devoutly to God; while the brethren, appointed for the purpose, proceeded to the spot where they hoped to find the relies of the martyr. When they reached the spot, they found there a large multitude, wdio had met together from divers parts of the country, led by the Holy Spirit, to witness the discovery of the martyr's relics. Whilst they all waited for the event, the man aforesaid led the brethren to the plain where the bodies of the saints lay. It was the Friday before the feast of St. Alban's when this was done. From that day, until the bodies of the saints were removed, there was always a watch kept over that spot, the brethren of the abbey assisting the laity in this duty. Meanwhile, the convent entered upon a stricter rule of life, and proclaimed to the people a solemn occasion for prayer and fasting. This place, in which the relics were hereafter to be found, now bore the appearance of a market, and when one party, who from devotion visited the spot, left it, another party arrived. Of two women who were cured by visiting the saint. Signs of well-attested miracles began now to be exhibited, whilst the martyrs were still beneath the ground, giving hopes of the greater works which they would do hereafter. For a woman of Gatesden, who had been bound ten years with a weakness of the shoulders and loins, and had been on