and the citizens of both towns kept close by the saint;
and the Poitevins purposed in the morning
to take the saint violently away from the others by force.
Then at midnight, as Martin willed,
the Poitevins were so wondrously asleep
that of all the multitude not one man watched.
Then the men of Tours saw how the others slept,
and took the body which lay there on the floor,
and bare it to the ship with exceeding joy,
and hastened by rowing on the river Vienne,
and thence into the Loire, very loudly singing,
until they came to the city of Tours.
Then the others were aroused by the song,
and were possessing naught of their treasure
which they should have guarded, but they returned home
with great confusion that it had so befallen them.
Then the holy body was laid in a sepulchre
in the same city where he had been bishop,
with great solemnity, and there afterward
many miracles were performed for the sake of his merits.
Six and twenty winters he was bishop there,
and the city was long without a bishop
before Martin was consecrated as bishop,
on account of the heathenism which the people then practised.
Be glory and praise to the benign Creator
Who so adorned His holy priest with miracles;
Who reigneth in eternity. Almighty Ruler. Amen.
