Page:Aelfric's Lives of Saints Vol 2.djvu/51

the brethren went abroad after the customary prayers and psalm-singings; and he himself was left in the minster, and there remained kept in by a bodily infirmity. Zosimus very readily called to mind the holy command, when she said to him that he would not be able to go out of his minster though he wished it. Nevertheless, not many days after, he recovered of the sickness, and served in the minster. Truly, when the monks returned home and assembled themselves together on the holy eve of the sacred day, then he did as was bidden him before, and put into a little cup some portion of the pure Body and of the precious Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, and took in his hand a little basket filled with dried figs, and with the fruits of the palm-tree that we call finger- apples [dates], and a few lentils steeped in water, and arrived in the evening on the banks of the river Jordan, and there sorrowfully awaited the arrival of the holy woman, when she should come thither. Zosimus in no wise slumbered, and earnestly looked towards the wilderness; and, considering with himself, thus thought and spake: ' Ah, what if she come here, and heed me not, and has turned from me, and gone back! ' Thus speaking he wept bitterly, lifting up his eyes to heaven, and humbly prayed to God, thus saying: ' O Lord, do not banish the vision that Thou didst before shew me, that I may not at any rate return hence in vain, bearing the reproach of my sins.' As he was praying thus with tears, again another thought came into his mind: ' And how now if she cometh? How shall she cross over the river, now that there is no ship wherein she may come to me, who am unworthy? Ah! me miserable! me, who am banished from a vision so righteous!' Whilst he thought thus, he saw where she stood on the other side of the stream. Zosimus seeing her, rose up with great and happy joy, and praising God. Nevertheless