They carried it to what they supposed a sufficient distance, and then threw it off into a wood by the way-side, where they supposed it could not easily be found.
As soon, however, as the Danes had left the place, the affrighted friends and followers of Edmund came out, by degrees, from their retreats and hiding places.

They readily found the dead body of their sovereign, as it lay, of course, where the cruel deed of his murder had been performed.

They sought with mournful and anxious steps, here and there, all around, for the head, until at length, when they came into the wood where it was lying, they heard, as the historian who records these events gravely testifies, a voice issuing from it, calling them, and directing their steps by the sound.

They followed the voice, and, having recovered the head by means of this miraculous guidance, they buried it with the body.[1] It seems surprising to us that reasonable men should so readily believe such tales as these; but there are, in all ages of the world, certain habits of belief, in conformity to which the whole community go together.

We all believe whatever is in harmony with, or analogous to, the general type of faith prevailing in our own generation.