who was envious of his works, and he was bound
when he was fifteen winters old, being sent to war
with one of his slaves who was his comrade,
whom he himself served rather than he him;
and they ate together even as equals.
Three years he marched with the common soldiers
without weapons, ere he was baptized,
being unspotted, nevertheless, by worldly defilement
wherein mankind especially sin.
Towards his fellow-soldiers he had kindly feeling,
and great love, and modest patience,
and true humility above man's measure.
He had as great temperance in his food
as if he had been a monk rather than a soldier;
and for his noble qualities all his fellow-soldiers
reverenced him with a marvellous love.
He was not as yet baptized, but he fulfilled, nevertheless,
the deeds of baptism with perfect works,
so that he succoured the oppressed, and fed the poor,
and clothed the naked, and kept nothing for himself
of his military pay in his scrip,
save what he daily had for food,
even as the gospel saith: ' Take no thought for the morrow.'
II. On a certain occasion he was travelling forward through a town
called Amiens, in a bitter winter,
in such severe cold that some men died of it.
Then he met there a poor man, naked,
beseeching the riders that they would give him some clothing;
