“No, Elfric, thou must not leave me in my last agony, and there is no time for sending and seeking. But, Elfric, undo my collar, and unbutton this hard mail-jacket, and bring out the silver crucifix, which I received from my mother, and which hath never been from my neck—no, not for a second of time—during these last forty years. Elfric, I have kissed that silver crucifix openly, and in despite of the accursed ravings of Jews and Saracens, upon the very spot where our Lord was crucified! Elfric, that little cross was round my neck, held by the same silver chain to which my mother hung it, when, sailing between Cyprus and Palestine with turbaned infidels, the bark went down in deep water, and every soul perished, save only I! Kind Saxon, it was my faith in that cross that saved my health and life in Alexandria, when pestilence raged throughout the land of Egypt, and depopulated Alexandria, and all the cities of Egypt! Let my dying lips close upon that cross:—and, good Elfric, as thou hopest thyself to die in peace, and to be admitted into the dominions of the saints, see that chain and cross buried with me,—round my neck and upon my breast, as they now are! And take and keep for thyself whatever else I possess, except this sword, which thou wilt give in my name to the Lord of Brunn. Dear boy! the Normans have not left me much to give thee ... but I had broad and rich lands once, and horses of high breed and price, and rich furniture, and sparkling jewels brought from the Orient by the Amalfitans!”[231] While the dying Salernitan was thus speaking—his voice ever growing fainter and fainter—the sword-bearer gently and piously did all that he had been required to do, undoing the collar, and unbuttoning the coat of mail which the Salernitan wore under his loose mantle of woollen cloth, and bringing out from beneath the under-vest the silver crucifix, and placing it in the feeble right hand of the Salernitan, who then kissed it and said, “Mother dear, I shall soon be with thee! Oh, heavenly Mother, let my soul pass easily from this hapless body!” Here Elfric, who had been well indoctrinated in the days of his youth by the best of the monks of Spalding, crossed himself and said, that it was God himself who had enjoined the forgiveness of our enemies, and that holy men had ever declared that the moribund died easiest when he forgave all the wrongs that had been done him, and died in peace with all mankind.