§ 8. Meanwhile the people, compelled by want and hunger, after a long toil of many years, left attendance on the holy corpse, and dispersed themselves through the parts that were inhabited, to support their lives in the best manner they were able. For, except the bishop and the abbot, with a few of their men, all departed, save those seven who, as has been said, were accustomed to attend on the saint’s body. These were they who had been brought up and educated by the monks, and when these were found wanting, had undertaken to follow the holy body of the venerable saint from Lindisfarne, and never whilst they lived to leave it. Four of these who seemed to be older than the others, were Hunred, Stithard, Edmund, and Franco, from whose race many of the province of Northumberland, both priests and laymen, are the more proud of being descended, because these their ancestors are said to have attended with such fidelity on the body of the holy Cuthbert. When, therefore, the others were gone, and these were left alone with their treasure, they suffered the greatest anguish from the difficulties of their position, and were unable to determine how to get out of them, or how to console themselves under them. “What shall we do?” said they. “Whither shall we carry the holy father’s reliques? We have been travelling seven years through the land, fleeing from the barbarians; and we have now no place of refuge in our own country; and God has deterred us from seeking rest elsewhere, by laying his scourge visibly upon us. Add to this, that hunger is driving us to seek sustenance wherever we are able; but the swords of the Danes will not permit us to pass with this treasure in our possession. Lastly, if we abandon it, and provide for ourselves, the people will hereafter ask us for their father and patron — and what shall we answer them? Shall we say that he was taken from us by theft, or violence? That he was carried into exile, or abandoned in the deserts? Without a doubt we shall die, and with justice, too, by their hands, and shall leave our infamy to future ages, attended with the maledictions of all mankind.”