When Malcolm, king of the Scots, devastated Northumbria with cruel slaughter, he maintained at the same time peace with the monastery of Hexham, for the sake of the glory of the saints, which
rested in it. But when, on one occasion, his envoys fell near the lands of this monastery to robbers and returned to the king robbed and wounded, they blamed this cruelty on innocent people. And the king was enraged and furious at this accusation and swore that for such ingratitude he would completely destroy the place and the people. So, by order of the king, a cruel army came there, eager for robbery, agile in slaughter, hungry for villainy, merciless in prayer and insatiable in greed.
And the king's anger was not hidden from the people of Hexam. But what were they supposed to do? They had neither the strength to resist, nor the fortress to hide, nor the support of an alliance with any vassals; Everyone had one and only hope in the repeatedly tested valor of the saints. Therefore, young men and women, old men and children, women and babies gathered at the monastery in order to either be delivered by divine power, or to be sure to be killed in front of the relics of the saints.
The king has already arrived there with a strong army; He had already occupied the area adjacent to the River Tyne and would have satisfied his cruelty, but night came and prevented him from crossing.
But the priest, who was at the monastery, sent some of the clergy with the relics of the saints to the king - to clear himself of the accusations brought against them and to pray for peace for the innocent people.
The king was angry; He called his Galloway vassals, more cruel than the others, and said that the messengers could hear: “As soon as it is dawn, cross the river and attack them; let your eye not spare or spare neither rank, nor gender, nor age. What the sword cannot do, let fire destroy; nothing remains of them.”
Having said this, he angrily ordered the messengers to return. And when they returned and reported what they had heard, a pitiful commotion arose: a great cry, crying and lamentation.
So, the dawn had already put an end to the shadows of the night, coming earlier than usual, and taking away the last hope of salvation that they had nurtured; and suddenly - look! — fog rose from the west and filled the entire bed of the river, from its source to its mouth. And, gradually accumulating, in a short time it became so dense and thick that if anyone were to stretch out his right hand, it would be swallowed up by the darkness, and it would become invisible.
The Galloways, therefore, entered into the fog and, passing through some wastelands, crossed the river in the west; They took the road that leads to Cumbria, and in the evening they found themselves on the border of their own region. The king waited for the Galloways whom he had sent, and for the departure of the fog which he hated; and he was in doubt what to do. When the fog rose and revealed what it had hidden, the river overflowed with a sudden flood and hindered the king’s enterprise for three days.
Then the king gathered his nobles and said: “What should we do? Let us leave here, for these saints are at home.”
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru