" After which Ingulf--who
had never seen Waltheof in life, discovered that it was none other than he
whom he had seen in a vision at Fontenelle, as an earl most gorgeously
arrayed, with a torc of gold about his neck, and with him an abbot, two
bishops, and two saints, the two former being Usfran and Ausbert, the
abbots, St. Wandresigil of Fontenelle, and the two saints, of course St.
Guthlac and St. Neot.
Whereon, crawling on his hands and knees, he kissed the face of the holy
martyr, and "perceived such a sweet odor proceeding from the holy body, as
he never remembered to have smelt, either in the palace of the king, or in
Syria with all its aromatic herbs."
_Quid plura?_ What more was needed for a convent of burnt-out monks?
St. Waltheof was translated in state to the side of St. Guthlac; and the
news of this translation of the holy martyr being spread throughout the
country, multitudes of the faithful flocked daily to the tomb, and
offering up their vows there, tended in a great degree "to resuscitate our
monastery."
But more. The virtues of St. Waltheof were too great not to turn
themselves, or be turned, to some practical use. So if not in the days of
Ingulf, at least in those of Abbot Joffrid who came after him, St.
Waltheof began, says Peter of Blois, to work wonderful deeds.
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