authority of Bede, Paulinus was a man of striking appearance, being tall, though slightly stooping, with black hair, but of worn and wasted visage; his nose thin, but curved like an eagle's beak, and altogether a presence to command respect and veneration. The tale as told by Bede, of the dramatic events which led up to the conversion of Edwin, must be received with caution, mixed up as it is with such incidents as a spiritual visitor with whom the narrator held familiar converse; nevertheless, the main facts of the story are probably correct, allowing for the fact that the account was written nearly 100 years after the events took place, and by one who was prone to mix with history incidents which would only at the present time be classed with legends and superstitions. The story, briefly told (omitting the apparition), is that Edwin for a long time refused to abandon his old faith, but after an attempt had been made to assassinate him, the birth of a daughter and a victory over his enemy, the King of the West Saxons--all of which events were turned to account by the wily Bishop (who was trying to convert him)--he consented to call a council of leading men and to lay the matter before them, and if they agreed with him they would together be baptized and admitted into the Church. At this meeting, a chief priest of one of the pagan temples, Coifi by name, declared himself against his old faith on the simple grounds that after all his long devotion to his gods he was still without that worldly success for which his soul thirsted; and, therefore, as he had nothing to lose and everything to gain, he should vote for giving the new religion a trial.