Page:Aelfric's Lives of Saints Vol 1.djvu/551

of all men is now made known to us through open signs, and God's holy martyrs are arisen, and have speech with mankind concerning it." When the good emperor Theodosius had read the letter, he arose from the floor and from the mean sacking upon which he had long been sitting sadly, and he thanked God Almighty and cried aloud, " We thank Thee, great Creator, Thou Who art King and Ruler in heaven and earth; we confess Thee, dear Saviour, Thou Who only art the Son of the living God; we glorify Thee with inward heart that Thou hast willed to show us on earth the sun of Thy righteousness, and to enlighten us in our exile with the light of Thy great mercy. Thou wouldest not. Lord, permit that the lantern of my confession should be quenched, which began to shine from the lantern of my fathers; [viz.] of Constantinus, the noble one, and Thy chosen one. Lord, [as] we believe." And he immediately went swiftly with great haste in his chariot from the city Constantinople to Ephesus, and all the citizens went down together towards the emperor's coming, and the bishop very humbly went to meet him, and, with the chiefest men, led him to the cave. And then they ascended the Celian Hill with the emperor, and approached the Saints who were in the cave : and they, the holy martyrs, went then to meet the emperor ; and as soon as they looked upon him, all their countenances began to shine like the thoroughly bright sun; and he, the emperor, then went in, and there prostrated himself before the Saints. And they raised him from the floor, and he then embraced them all, and for the great bliss he wept over each one severally, and his heart was rejoiced, and with the greatest gladness he said to the Saints, " It quite seemeth to me, since I see you here thus before me, as if I were very nigh at hand to the Saviour Our Lord, and beheld Him with my eyesight when He awaked Lazarus from the tomb: and now it seemeth to me just as if I stand visibly before