While in this state of mind, he was one day contemplating his "great
and wonderful treasure, more precious than all the gold in the world,"
when it struck him that the chest in which the relics were contained
was quite unworthy of its contents; and, after vespers, he gave orders
to one of the sacristans to take the measure of the chest in order
that a more fitting shrine might be constructed. The man, having
lighted a wax candle and raised the pall which covered the relics, in
order to carry out his master's orders, was astonished and terrified
to observe that the chest was covered with a blood-like exudation
(_loculum mirum in modum humore sanguineo undique distillantem_), and
at once sent a message to Eginhard.
Then I and those priests who accompanied me beheld this
stupendous miracle, worthy of all admiration. For just as
when it is going to rain, pillars and slabs and marble
images exude moisture, and, as it were, sweat, so the chest
which contained the most sacred relics was found moist with
the blood exuding on all sides. (Cap. ii. 16.)
Three days' fast was ordained in order that the meaning of the portent
might be ascertained. All that happened, however, was that, at the end
of that time, the "blood," which had been exuding in drops all the
while, dried up. Eginhard is careful to say that the liquid "had a
saline taste, something like that of tears, and was thin as water
though of the colour of true blood," and he clearly thinks this
satisfactory evidence that it was blood.
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