West; let us, by endeavouring to defer the battle for our profit, make

and bars. The strange device brought great glory upon its inventor. After dealing
destruction everywhere, and gaining famous victories far and wide, he resolved to bestow quiet on all men,
that the cheer of peace should follow the horrors of war, and the end of slaughter might be the
beginning of safety. He further thought that for the same reason all men's property should be secured to them by a protective decree, so that what had been saved from a foreign enemy might not find a plunderer at home. About the same time, the Author of our general salvation, coming t o the earth in order to save

mortals, bore

to put on the garb of mortality;
at which time the fires of
war were quenched, and all the lands
were enjoying the calmest

and most
tranquil peace. It has been thought that the peace then shed abroad so widely, so even and uninterrupted over the whole world, attended not so much an earthly rule as that divine birth; and that it was a heavenly

provision that this extraordinary gift of time should be a witness to the presence
of Him who created all times. Meantime a certain matron, skilled in
sorcery, who trusted in her art more than she feared the severity
of the king,
tempted the covetousness of her

son to make a secret effort for the prize; promising him impunity, since Frode was almost at death's door, his body failing, and the remnant of his doting spirit feeble. To his mother's