[Sonnet XV.] The person of Paulinus is thus described by Bede, from the memory of an eye-witness: 'Longae staturae, paululum incurvus, nigro capillo, facie macilenta, naso adunco, pertenui, venerabilis simul et terribilis aspectu.' 341.

_King Edwin and the Sparrow_.
'Man's life is like a sparrow.' [Sonnet XVI.l.

1.] See the original of this speech in Bede .-- The Conversion of Edwin, as related by him, is highly interesting--and the breaking up of this Council accompanied with an event so striking and characteristic, that I am tempted to give it at length in a translation.

'Who, exclaimed the King, when the Council was ended, shall first desecrate the altars and the temples?
I, answered the Chief Priest; for who more fit than myself, through the wisdom which the true God hath given me, to destroy, for the good example of others, what in foolishness is worshipped?
Immediately, casting away vain superstition, he besought the King to grant him what the laws did not allow to a priest, arms and a courser (equum emissarium); which mounting, and furnished with a sword and lance, he proceeded to destroy the Idols.

The crowd, seeing this, thought him mad--he however halted not, but, approaching the profaned temple, casting against it the lance which he had held in his hand, and, exulting in acknowledgment of the worship of the true God, he ordered his companions to pull down the temple, with all its enclosures.