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62 SCOTTISH ANNALS
spectacle of herself to all beholders. And since the whole congregation
saw and admired this memorable deed, each one
performed a similar act upon herself, and followed the example
of her mother.
And after this had so taken place, when next morning
dawned, the most wicked brigands came upon them, to give
as
up to wantonness the holy women, and devoted to God ;
also to plunder the monastery itself and burn it down in flames.
But when they saw the abbess and each of the sisters so hor-
ribly mutilated, and saturated with their blood from the soles
of their feet to their crowns, they retired from the place with
haste, for it seemed to them too long to stay even for a short
space there. But as they retired thence the aforesaid leaders
commanded their evil satellites to set fire to and burn down
the monastery with all its offices and with the nuns themselves .
And so the execution was fulfilled by the servants of
iniquity, and the holy abbess and all the virgins with her
attained most holily to the glory of martyrdom.
875
ANGLO-SAXON CHRONICLE, MSS. A, B, D, E, S.A. 875, C S.A. 876.
In this year the army [of Danes] went from Repton. And
Halfdane went with part of the army into Northumbria, and
took winter-quarters by the river Tyne ;
1 and the army
conquered the land, and often harried upon Picts and upon
2
Strathclyde Welsh. . . .
883 x 896 ^ ,
HISTORIA DE SANCTO CUTHBERTO, IN S. OP D., VOL. I,
pp. 213-214. 3
This is a miracle of God and St. Cuthbert, much to be ob-
1
They settled in Northumbria next year ; A.S.C., MSS. A, B, D, E,
s.a. 876, C s.a. 877. Asser, Ann. of Alf., s.a. 876.
2
Cf. s.a. 875, Asser, Ann. of Alf., in M.H.B. 478 ; Fl. of W., i, 92.
"
Ethelw., Chr., in M.H.B., 515 : And very often they carried war
against the Picts and the Cumbrians." H. of H., 146: "And often they
raided upon the Picts."
Ann. of Ulster, s.a. 874 (for 875) : "A conflict of Picts wifti Danes;
and great slaughter was made of the Picts."
3
Cf. De Mir. et Transl. S.C., IV, in S. of D., i, 241-242. S. of D., H.D.E.,
i, 70-71.
This nocturnal retreat regarded as a miracle is placed byDe ]Viir. et Tr.