Therefore Jacob went out only at night; during the day he hid himself away. Thus several years passed, and his life became intolerable to him. So his mother said, “Thy uncle Laban, the son of Bethuel, has great possessions, and is very old. Go, and ask him to give thee his daughter; and if he consents, then tarry with him till thy brother’s anger turn away.” Jacob listened to the advice of his mother, and he fled away without letting Esau know. Five miracles were wrought for the patriarch Jacob, at the time when he went forth from Beer-sheba. First, the hours of the day were shortened, and the sun went down before its time, because the Word desired to speak with him; secondly, the four stones, which Jacob had set for his pillow, he found in the morning had coagulated into one stone; thirdly, the stone which, when all the flocks were assembled, the shepherds rolled from the mouth of the well, he rolled away with one of his arms; fourthly, the well overflowed, and the water continued to flow all the days he was in Haran. The fifth sign--the country was shortened before him, so that in one day he went forth and came to Haran.[380] And he prayed in the place where he rested, and took four stones of that place, and set them for a pillow, and went asleep. Of these stones this is the history. They were twelve in number, and Adam had set them up as an altar. On them Abel had offered his sacrifice. The Deluge had thrown them down, but Noah reared them once more. They had been again overthrown, but Abraham set them in their places, and of them built the altar on which to sacrifice Isaac. These twelve stones Jacob now found, and he placed them under his head as a pillow. But a great wonder was wrought, and in the morning the twelve stones had melted together into one stone.[381] Finally, this stone, so ancient and with such a history, was carried to Scotland, by whom I do not know, where it was placed at Scone, and was used for the consecration of the Scottish kings. Edward I. of England brought it to London, and it was set beneath the chair of the Confessor, as the following lines, inscribed on a tablet, announced:-- “Si quid habent veri, vel chronica cana, fidesve, Clauditur hac cathedra nobilis, ecce, lapis. Ad caput eximius Jacob quondam patriarcha Quem posuit cernens numina mira poli. Quem tulit ex Scottis, spolians quasi victor honoris, Edwardus primus, Mars velut omnipotens. Scottorum domitor, noster validissimus Hector, Anglorum decus, et gloria militiæ.”[382] The stone may now be seen in Westminster Abbey.