Baring-Gould’s sources: Belgian Marty rologies. Authority A life by Drogo, monk and priesl of Ghistelles, and afterwards bishop of Terouanne, d. 1078. Consequently the life must have been written between 1070 and 1078. Another life written in the 14th century is made up of worthless additions to the story as told by Drogo.] In the eleventh century there lived at Lonfort, 1 near Boulogne, a nobleman named Humfried and his wife Ogeva, who were blessed with a young and beautiful daughter. The reputation of her charms attracted Bertulf, lord of Ghistelles, a little town between Bruges and Ostend, and he offered his hand. He was accepted, and married to the young Godelieva. Directly after the religious ceremony, he conducted her to his castle at. Ghistelles, where the wedding festivities were to be kept for seven days. Bertulf was a rude Fleming of violent passions and greedy ambition. His mother was by no means pleased at this marriage, and when he introduced July*.] S. Godelieva.

This girlish bride to her, “What has induced you to bring a black crow into our castle? Have we not fair-haired girls in Flanders more beautiful and more wealthy ? v was her rude greeting. She called Godelieva a crow, because, says Drogo, she had black hair and dark eye-lashes, but her complexion was white and clear. Whether it was that Godelieva had in some way disappointed his fancy, or that his mother succeeded in entirely warping his mind by showing him how much better matches he might have made, is not very clear, suffice it that a complete estrangement was effected, and Bertulf rode off, leaving his deserted wife to entertain the guests through the wedding festivities without him. Her mother-in-law did all that lay in her power to make the poor girlish bride miserable. No conceivable insult was spared; she was not allowed enough food to eat; bread was thrown to the dogs, and then plucked from them and presented to her, and she was forced to eat it; and when it was found that she gave half her miserable pittance to the poor, the amount of food allowed her was again reduced. Bertulf did not dare to murder her, on account of the nobility of her family; he therefore endeavoured to ruin her health by subjecting her to hunger and hardships. He never came near her, but committed her to a ruthless castellan and his own vindictive mother.

At length, when Godelieva could endure no more, she escaped with a female servant, and made her way to Lonfort, where she was received with tears and indignation by her parents. An appeal was at once made to Baldwin VI., count of Flanders. He, however, remitted the case to the ecclesiastical court of Therouanne, and it was heard by Radbcd H., bishop of Noyon and Tournai. Bertulf was ordered to receive his wife again with full restoration of conjugal rights, and to treat her thenceforth with respect and kindness. Accordingly Godelieva returned to Ghistelles, but her husband received her with cold disdain, which afterwards deepened into cruel persecution. He locked her up in a donjeon of his castle, and only suffered his own creatures to minister to her. At last, impatient to be married again, and wearied at her strength of constitution, he resolved to make away with her by violent means. One day he re-visited her, and assuming a kinder air, said that the estrangement which existed between them had become intolerable, and that he had learned a mode by which it might be converted into passionate love. There was a wise-woman famed for the making of love-potions, who had reconciled several pairs who had been at variance. Would Godelieva see her? The poor young wife was glad to embrace any means of recovering her husband’s affections that presented itself. Then the wise- woman would be brought to see her secretly, by night, by two trusty servants, Lambert and Hecco. None were to know of this. Not a word was to be breathed to living man. Godelieva readily fell into the trap.

At midnight a postern door communicating with her bed-room was opened, and at a tap at her door she opened and saw the two men. The wise-woman was without; she could not see her in the house; their conversation might be overheard. Godelieva extinguished her light and followed the ruffians. No sooner was she outside the castle than a thong was slipped adroitly round her neck, and she was plunged head foremost in a pond hard by.

When it was certain that she was dead, the murderers brought the body back into the room, and placed it in July*.] S. Godelieva.

the bed, drew the clothes over it, and retired. Next morning the female servant, surprised that Godelieva made no stir in her room as usual, opened the door, and found her dead. The red line round her throat proved that she had met with a violent death. The parents of Godelieva do not seem to have been sufficiently powerful to obtain justice on Bertulf, who immediately after the commission of the crime married again; but in after years, moved with conpunction, he resigned his lands at Ghistelles, and made them over to the Church. He took the cross and fought in the Holy Land for three years, and ended his days in a monastery.

But the people revenged the memory of the injured Godelieva by relating marvels concerning the water in which her head had been plunged, and the spot where she had been strangled. One of the murderers, on the point of death, confessed the circumstances of the crime.

Fourteen years after the murder, Radbod, bishop of Tournai, dug up the body of Godelieva, and placed it in the church, where it is still to be seen, and where it is visited, especially on this day, by crowds of pilgrims, who drink of the water of the pool 1 and invoke the saint against sore throats.

At Ghent on this day a great concourse of people visit the Little Beggin-hof, where are preserved some relics [the bodily remains of a saint, or objects they used, kept with honor] of the saint, and some of the water from her well The pilgrims kiss the relic and drink the water to preserve them from sore throats and sore eyes, and buy little rings which have touched the relics. From the year 1493, the name of S. Godelieva appears in Belgian 1 The little pool has been surrounded by a low stone wall, and made into a sort of welL The church occupies the site of the murder and the castle of.Bertulf. gl Ifl Litanies and Kalendars, and the following hymn was sung at Ghistelles during the octave of her festival: " Laeti corde et animo Jubilemus altissimo, Qui te, martyr, rairaculis Glorificat in saeculis.

Ergo, sub fasce criminum Gementes ora Dominum, Ht de valle miseriae Nos coeli reddat patriae, Vir, socrus cum familia Te lacerant invidia, Gaudes et contubernio, Dei florens martyrio.

Applaudamus in organo, In cymbalis, in tympano. In tanti festi gloria. Sit laus Deo per omnia. Amen. m iTwkRLfr' yymFi AN EARLY FLEMISH