8. Of the glorious crown prepared for her, because of the in sults and wounds inflicted on her by the men of picardy2

Another time also, rapt in the spirit, she saw a crown exceeding glorious pre- 1 Florigernm.

2 Stipendariitquosvnlgus Hollandiae Picardosvocat, writes John Brugman, an expression which points to the conclusion that the general term for the mercenaries of the Duke of Burgundy was Picordi, here translated literally.

ST. LYDWINE of SCHIEDAM pared for her, which she was to receive from the Lord after the toils and sorrows of the present life, wherein nevertheless there still seemed to be many things wanting-. Coming back to herself there fore, mindful of the crown foreshown her, she begged the Lord with much urgency that in His compassion He would deign so to work with her that that crown might be perfectly completed. At the same time also she asked of the Lord, that in order to follow in His foot steps He would bring her to Himself, and after this union cast her forth with kicks. While she was constantly and most earnestly making this prayer, it happened in the year of the Lord 1425 that Philip, Duke of Burgundy, entered Holland with a large army of men from Picardy and other soldiers, to force the states to accept him as the master and ruler of the country. When therefore the most mighty duke had been received with honour in many cities, he came at length, about the feast of the holy martyrs Gereon and Victor,1 to the town of Schiedam, where he was received in like fashion by the citizens. After the ST. LYDWINE of SCHIEDAM refreshment of dinner, therefore, some, as it said, doctors and surgeons of the household of the aforesaid duke, ap proached Master John Angels the Curd of the Church and asked him to take them to the house of this virgin. Who, suspecting no ill of them, consented to their request. When then he had entered with them to the virgin, there followed a large body of their retainers, who behaved riotously ; and as he strove to quell their uproar lest they should disturb the servant of God, they, throw ing him aside angrily, bade him take himself off, uttering disgraceful words concerning his relations with her. The Curd therefore remained in her chamber standing near the altar, very sad and ashamed. Those perverse men, however, when they saw that she was lying in darkness, took away the curtain, lit a candle, and taking off the coverlet wherewith the dropsical virgin was covered, entirely stripped the holy maid, alas! revering neither God, nor the angels, nor the presence of men. This when the daughter of her brother, Petronilla, a young girl devoted to the service of the virgin, beheld, she bore it most ill; and on fire with the zeal of ST. LYDWINE of SCHIEDAM God, bravely threw herself upon them, striving to protect the virgin's modesty. For she deemed it unbeseeming that the eyes of carnal men should behold naked the hidden gem of Christ. Then those wicked retainers, forgetful of decency, roughly seize upon this child, and casting her from them, violently dash her against the foot of the altar : so much so that most cruelly wounded on the thigh she was lame until death. Yea, and not satisfied with these evil deeds of violence, they hasten to others more grievous and criminal. For the holy and inviolate maid they dared to call a prostitute, they gabbled that she who lived abstemious and without food in dulged in banquets by night, and one of them who held the light called her a beast, whom beyond doubt her angel guardian often carried off and led to Paradise. Amid these so many and outrageous words uttered by these impious men, they add disgraceful deeds, which the eyes of men would shudder to behold. For, casting off all shame, with their foul hands plucking and pinching the maiden feeble and greatly swollen in the skin on account of her dropsy, they wounded her in three places, from ST. LYDWINE of SCHIEDAM which the blood flowed so freely that it was necessary to drain off the fresh blood from the bed with a bowl. And after they had shamelessly committed this crime, going out they washed their hands of the blood which they had shed ; and coming back, instead of the words for forgiveness which they should have implored, they again loosed their ac cursed tongues unto words of outrage. And thus was accomplished in this virgin what the Lord said to the disciples : " If they have persecuted Me they will also persecute you, and if they have called the good man of the house Beelzebub, how much more them of his Then the virgin, lying as an innocent sheep upon her bed, bathed in her own blood, ready for the slaughter, patiently accepted all this for Christ's sake, and to them that insulted and wounded her she meekly answered with these words : "Why have you not fear to interpret the works of the Godhead in me so evilly; ye who know not what kind of judgment shall be yours from God?" The duke departing the same hour, those invaders also follow. But the magistrates of the city, hearing that such ST. LYDWINE of SCHIEDAM enormous injuries had been done to the virgin, as if for comfort of the ill done, threatened that they would lodge a complaint with the duke, that he might exercise just vengeance against the authors of so great a crime. Then the virgin, mild and patient in adversity, mindful of the word of the Lord, " Re venge to Me, I will repay" (Rom. xii 19), absolutely forbade them to wreak human vengeance, for God will speedily avenge this wrong. Which by the divine will quickly came to pass, for they all died in different parts the same winter. For one of them, who had held the light l and had uttered insults against the virgin, going on board in the harbour by Rotter dam, driven as by a violent wind from one part of the ship to another, was drowned by the prince of darkness and drawn out dead with a broken neck : he was buried in the cemetery. The second going mad near Zerix, lest he should 1 Thrice the author refers to this matter of holding a lighted candle over Lydwine's bed, because of the peculiar cruelty of this action, since the virgin's sight was so weakened that her one remaining eye could endure no material light, Part I, Chap. VII, and that it even bled in the presence of such light, according to John Brugman.

ST. LYDWINE of SCHIEDAM injure those who were with him was thrown from the ship into a skiff, and, taken out dead, was buried in the city. The third, a soldier, perished wounded in battle. The fourth, who called him self a doctor, attacked by apoplexy at Slusa, became dumb. Whereupon, re minded by his servant of what he had done with others against the virgin, and asked whether he was sorry for the same, showing some sign of repentance to his questioner by touch of the hand and movements of the mouth, he died. And his servant coming afterwards to the virgin, with tears besought and obtained forgiveness for his master. The holy virgin therefore wept long over these injuries, not grieving for her wounds, but for their perdition and the crimes committed. And while the magis trates of the city stood near her, the virgin foretelling the future said to them, "I indeed have now suffered these things, but a judgment threatens you of which you are unaware." And not long after when some of them, charged as betrayers of the city, feared to be punished by the duke with death, they said : " Lo this is the judgment which Lydia foretold would befall us." After ST. LYDWINE of SCHIEDAM this the holy angel of the Lord, appear ing to her and calling her sister, made known, that by the shameless violence done her by the men of Picardy she had been set in the footsteps of the Saviour as she had before besought, and by the outrageous words which she had heard from them, the jewels which remained were now completely finished in her crown.