Page:History of the Franks.djvu/182

I50 HISTORY OF THE FRANKS her with a sacred touch and made the cross in holy oil on her forehead and the demons were driven out and she departed cleansed. Moreover he cured by his blessing a girl who was vexed with an unclean spirit. And when the day of his death was draw- ing nigh he summoned the prior of the monastery and said : "Bring iron tools to open the wall and send messengers to the bishop of the city to come and bury me. For on the third day I shall depart from this world and go to the appointed rest which the Lord has promised me." Upon this the prior sent messengers to the bishop of Nice to carry this word. After this one Crescens went to his window and seeing him bound with chains and full of worms he said : "O my master, how can you bear such tortures so bravely ? " And he replied: "He comforts me in whose name I suffer this. For I tell you that I am now freed from these bonds and am going to my rest." When the third day came he laid aside the chains by which he was bound and prostrated himself in prayer, and after he had prayed and wept a long time he lay down on a bench and stretched out his feet and raised his hands to heaven and thanked God and died. And immediately all the worms that were boring through his holy limbs disappeared. And bishop Austadius came and most carefully placed the blessed body in the grave. All these things I learned from the lips of the very deaf and dumb man who as I related above was healed by him. He told me many other miracles of his but I have been kept from describing them by the fact that I have been told that his life has been written by many persons. [7. The bishops of Uzes.] 8. Ebarchius died also, a recluse of Angouleme, a man of great holiness through whom God did many miracles, and leaving out most of them I will tell briefly of a few. He was a native of Peri- gueux, but after his conversion he entered the clergy and went to Angouleme and built a cell for himself. There he gathered a few monks and prayed continually, and if any gold or silver was offered to him he would pay it out for the necessities of the poor or to ransom captives. No bread was baked in that cell while he lived but was brought in by the devout when it was needed. He ran- somed a great number of people from the offerings of the devout. He often cured the poison of malignant pimples by the sign of the