Voices, such as he had never heard before, sang chants and hymns:— "Yonder swelled that strain, And still the Bride of God, that Church late dark, Glad of her saintly sponsors laughed and shone, The radiance ever freshening.... The fisher knew that hour That with vast concourse of the sons of God That Church was thronged."—AUBREY DE VERE. Then the lights faded, the music died away, and once more the stranger stood at Edric’s side. "Give me to eat," he asked of him. But Edric had as yet caught nothing. "Cast forth thy nets, for the Fisherman of Galilee hath blessed thee," said the stranger, and then he added, "Tell Mellitus on the morrow what you have seen, and show him the token that I, Peter, have consecrated mine own church at Westminster. For yourself, go out into the river; of fish you shall catch plenty, and many salmon. But the tenth of all you take, you shall pay to my church, and never again shall you seek to catch fish on any Sunday." With these words the stranger vanished, leaving Edric to ponder on the wonderful things he had seen and heard. On the morrow, when Bishop Mellitus, accompanied by his priests and singing-boys, arrived to dedicate with all such honour as he could the Minster of Thorney, he was met by Edric, who held in his hand a salmon, and gave the message which had been delivered to him. Furthermore, he pointed out to him the marks of the twelve crosses of consecration, in memory of the twelve Apostles, on the church within and without. And the Bishop believed his words, for he saw everywhere the signs; so he went from the church saying: "The dedication had been performed sufficiently, better and in a more saintly fashion than he could have done." So he held a service of thanksgiving for this token of heavenly favour, and then made his way back to London, to enjoy with a good conscience the fish which Edric had presented to him. Quaint and picturesque as is the legend, it is clearly nothing but a legend, told by the monks of St. Peter’s for various reasons, the most probable being that they were anxious to prove their superiority over the monks of St. Paul’s. It is not even a certainty that King Sebert played any part at all in the history of Thorney Island, for in several of the oldest chronicles we are told about "a dweller or citizen of London by name Sebert who was excyted to make a church in the worship of St. Peter in the West End of London, which that time was foregrowen with bushes and bryeres exceedynglye." But, on the whole, I think we may allow the monks to keep King Sebert as their founder, and accept the story that he and his queen were buried in leaden coffins in this early church, that their bodies were removed to the restored church more than four hundred years later, and once again, in the reign of Henry III., were taken from their resting-place to be laid with great ceremony in the tomb which now you can see just inside the south ambulatory of the Abbey.