Note 987 — Chapter VII · (continued 2)

William of Malmesbury gives many details of her piety, with the curious remark that she was “in clericos bene melodos inconsiderate prodiga” [that is surely the right reading, and not “provida”]. He tells how she kissed the wounds of the lepers. The half-profane saying of David comes from Æthelred of Rievaux (X Scriptt. 367; Fordun, v. 20; Surtees Simeon, 267), who had the story from David himself. Matilda wished her brother to follow her example, which he refused; “Necdum enim sciebam Dominum, nec revelatus fuerat mihi Spiritus ejus.” One is reminded of the story of Saint Lewis and John of Joinville, when the seneschal refuses to wash the feet of the poor. It is twice told in his Memoirs, pp. 8, 218, ed. Michel, 1858.