In consequence of this discourse, the earl sent a knight, the bishop a clerk, and the abbot a monk, as ambassadors to Maniches the emperor of Constantinople, carrying letters and presents from the king.  The emperor received them very graciously; and after a friendly entertainment, sent them to the bishop of Ephesus with letters, which they name sacred, commanding him to admit the English ambassadors to see the seven sleepers.  And it came to pass, that the prophetic vision of King Edward was approved by all the Greeks, who protested that they were assured by their fathers, that the seven sleepers had always before that time reposed on their right sides; but, upon the entry of the Englishmen into the cave where they lay, their bodies confirmed the truth of the foreign vision and prophecy to their countrymen.  Neither were the calamities long delayed, which had been foretold by the king.  For the Agareni, Arabians, and Turks, enemies of the people of Christ, invading the country of the Christians, spoiled and destroyed many cities of Syria, Lycia, and the lesser and greater Asias, and, among the rest, depopulated Ephesus, and even the holy city of Jerusalem.

[1] Hakluyt, II. 39.  Malmsb.  Lib.  II. ch. xiii.

[2] Hakluyt, II, 40.  Malmsb II. xiii.

SECTION X.

Pilgrimage of Alured, Bishop of Worcester, to Jerusalem, in 1058[1].

In the year of our Lord 1058, Alured, bishop of Worcester, dedicated, with much solemnity, to the honour of St Peter, the prince of the apostles, a church which he had built and endowed in the city of Gloucester; and afterwards having received the royal licence, he ordained Wolstan, a monk of Worcester, to be abbot of this new church.  He then left the bishoprick which had been committed to his government, resigning the same to Herman, and, crossing the seas, travelled in pilgrimage through Hungary and other countries, to Jerusalem.

[1] Hakluyt, II. 41.  R. Hoveden, fo, 255. line l5.

SECTION XI.

Pilgrimage of Ingulphus Abbot of Croyland, to Jerusalem, in 1064[1].

I, Ingulphus, an humble minister of St Guthlae, in his monastery of Croyland, born of English parents, in the most beautiful city of London, was, in, my early youth, placed for my education first at Westminster, and afterwards prosecuted my studies at Oxford.  Having excelled many of my fellow students in learning Aristotle, I entered upon the study of the first and second rhetoric of Tully.  As I grew up towards manhood, I disdained the low estate of my parents, and quitting the dwelling of my father, I much affected to visit the courts of kings, delighting in fine garments and costly attire, And behold William, now our renewed sovereign, then only Earl of Normandy, came, with a splendid retinue to London, to confer with King Edward his kinsman.  Intruding myself into his