The Funeral, II

That day from Preston’s holy fane, Three friars came the priest to claim; For there, in Modred’s gloomy reign, Before the Saxons were subdued, His foster-mother was a dame Supposed the heir of high-born blood. Three friars came from Aldham’s shrine In quest of the revered man; For there, among the Pictish line, His pastoral charge at first began. Three friars came from Tyningham To claim the Saint’s much-hallow’d clay; For there, enshrined in folds of balm, His saintly predecessors lay, The church-light of an earlier day.