and prevented his entrance, and with rage said to him,
'Thou earnest hither, Maurus, to a strange land,
and thoughtest that thou couldest drive us away
out of our dwellings, but thou shalt know now,
that I will, with divers deaths, kill thy monks,
so that hardly shall any one of them remain
of so great a company as now dwell with thee.'
Then said the holy man to the hateful devil,
'Christ, who hath power over all, rebuke thee,
thou lying fiend, and author of wickedness.'
So then the devil straightway vanished
out of his sight with a mighty outcry,
so that the monks, much affrighted,
were aroused by his furious voice,
and went to nocturns, but before the right time.
Maurus then went into Saint Martin's church,
and with great sorrow besought the faithful God,
that He would reveal to him concerning the devil's boasting,
and disclose to him more certainly the accursed one's saying,
Maurus then saw a shining angel
standing beside him, and saying these words to him,
'Thou, God's darling, why art thou so sorrowful
Verily the devil knoweth future things
sometimes, but not alway, through some token
of what he has oft seen, though he himself be false;
and that which he said to thee is true in part,
so that the most part of thy monks shall
depart from life within a little while,
and they all shall come to the eternal life,
and thou thyself afterward shall blessedly follow them
to God's kingdom through good deserts.'
After these words the angel departed from him,
and Maurus then, in the morning, spoke to the monks,
and told them openly all his vision,
and earnestly exhorted them to be ready,
