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26 SCOTTISH ANNALS
he had brought with him was sent home again, and the place
of the monastery which he had founded l was given to other
monks to dwell in. But the said soldier of Christ [Cuthbert]
changed not his mind with the change of place from his once
adopted purpose of divine warfare ; but, as he had been
accustomed to do formerly also, he gave most diligent heed
to the words as well as to the actions of St. Boisil.
And at this time, as his friend Herefrid, a priest, and
formerly abbot of the monastery of Lindisfarne, testifies that
[Cuthbert] was wont to relate, he was seized by the sickness
of a pestilence by which very many were carried away at
that time far and wide through Britain. But the brethren of
that monastery passed a whole night waking in prayer for
his life and health. For they all regarded as still necessary
to them the presence in the flesh of [Cuthbert], as of a holy
man. And when one of them told this to him in the morning,
for they had done it without his knowledge, he said,
"
And why do I lie still ? For it is not to be thought that God
has despised the prayers of so many
and so excellent men.
Give me my staff and my shoes." And immediately he rose,
and began to try to walk, leaning upon his staff ; and day
by day the virtue increased, and he recovered health : but
because the tumour which had appeared in his thigh, while
subsiding gradually from the surface of his body sank into
the interior of his entrails, he ceased not for almost the whole
period of his life to feel some slight pain internally, to wit
that, according to the word of the Apostles, " strength should
be perfected in weakness."
And when the servant of the Lord, Boisil, saw that he
was healed of his infirmity, he said, " Thou seest, brother,
that thou art freed from the affliction in which thou didst
labour and I ; say to thee that thou shalt not again be touched
by it, nor shalt die at this time. And at the same time I
counsel thee not to omit to learn from me somewhat so long
as I am able to teach, because death approaching threatens
me. For there are not more than seven days in which health
of body and strength of tongue remain for me to teach."
Cuthbert replied, doubting nothing of the truth of his
words, " And what, I ask, is best for me to read, that I may
"
it in one week ?
yet be able to complete
1 So Fl. of W., i, 25 : " Eata, a most reverend man, who by king Aldfrid's
choice was formerly founder of the monastery of Ripon." Cf. Bede, H.E.,
III, 25 ; infra, s.a. 664. See Bede, V.S.C., VII, E.H.S. ed., ii, 61 ; Anon.
Life of St. C., 12, ibid., 265.