because in my youth I adorned my neck
with manifold neck-chains, and now me thinketh
that God's justice may cleanse my guilt,
since now I have this swelling, which shineth instead of gold,
and this scorching heat instead of sparkling gems.'
Amongst that faithful band there was a certain leech
named Cynefrith, and some of them said
that the leech ought to lance the tumour;
he did so forthwith, and there came out matter.
They thought then that she might recover,
but she gloriously departed out of this world to God
on the third day after the tumour was opened,
and was buried, as she herself had asked and bidden,
amongst her sisters, in a wooden coffin.
Then, after her death, her sister Sexburh
was consecrated as the abbess,
who had been aforetime queen in Canterbury.
After sixteen years Sexburh desired
to take up her sister's bones from their burial-place
and translate them into the church. Then she sent the brethren
to seek a stone suited to that purpose,
because in the fen-country there are few hewn stones.
They rowed to Grantchester, and God forthwith prospered them
so that they found there a great coffin,
standing against the wall, wrought of marble
all of white hue, above ground,
with a lid fitted excellently unto it,
also of white marble, even as if God had made it.
Then the brethren joyfully took the coffin
