when David, King of Scotland, married Maud, daughter of Waltheof, Earl of Northumberland, and the wedding party was passing through Durham on their way to Scotland, the bride with her waiting-maids went, out of motives of curiosity, towards the church, and had reached the limit appointed to women in the churchyard when they were told that no woman ever passed it with impunity. The Queen good-naturedly turned back, but Helisend, her waiting-maid, the most skilful embroiderer and weaver of purple in the kingdom, determined to make the experiment, and relying on her chastity put on the black cowl and hood of a monk, and, without being seen, took up her place in the church. She was at once struck with trembling, and could not move, and St. Cuthberht himself, we are told, in the most offensive terms ordered Bernard the Sacrist to eject the false monk. This was done. The offender afterwards became a nun and made her peace with the Saint.
"It appears," says Mr. Raine, " that at that time the line of demarcation was in the churchyard. If it be true that the blue cross which still reaches from pillar to pillar in the pavement of the middle aisle of the nave of the Cathedral at Durham, between the north and south doors, was at a later period the ne plus ultra, the Saint must have relaxed considerably in his misogyny."
Mr. Raine tells a similar story, showing that Cuthberht was no respecter of persons, and according to which, Queen Philippa, wife of that most
