Page:The religious life of King Henry VI.djvu/142

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116
THE BOOK OF

filled with the smell of the burning, which even attracted to the place a number of the neighbours. They went in search of the mother and she hastened back in company of one named John Sherman. The infant was apparently dead, or on the point of death when they took it from the fire. The whole of its scalp was burnt off, a great blister covered its face, and there were other terrible injuries besides. John Hargrave, the father, the godparents of the child, who had come to the house, and all the crowd of neighbours at once fell on their knees to pray Almighty God to save the life of the child, invoking also the intercession of the holy King Henry before the throne of God, and vowing to go to his tomb in thanksgiving if their prayers were heard. In less than an hour's time the child began to show signs of life, and in a brief time, "about the feast of St. Gregory the Pope," a new scalp was formed and it had entirely recovered. The parents and friends thereupon, on 6th May, came to Windsor to fulfil their vow to the saint. They first had a Mass of thanksgiving said in the chapel, and then displayed to all the head of the infant