'No, sir,' replied the merchant; 'the Angles are heathens, and have a very cruel religion.'
'What a pity, what a pity!' said the good monk. 'What is the name of their country?'
'They come from a place called Deira,' said the trader.
'Ira' is the Latin word for wrath; and Gregory seemed to find a meaning in all the names connected with these angel-faced children.
'De ira,' he said; 'ay, from the wrath of God they shall be called to Christ's mercy.—And what is the name of their King?' he inquired.
'Ella,' replied the merchant.
'Ella!' cried the monk; 'Alleluia shall be sung in Ella's land'; and he passed on his way with a silent vow that one day he would find a means of teaching the English people to become Christians.
Here the history of these children ends, so far as we know it. The old writer who tells us of the meeting of the monk Gregory with the captive children does not say what became of them after this. Surely they found good masters and happy homes; for it was through them that the Good News was brought to their native land, and that the people learned to live peaceably in a united country.
After he left the slave-market the thought of these fair-faced boys followed Gregory wherever he went. He thought of many plans, and at last he resolved, old as he was, to undertake the long journey to the savage country of England and to teach the true religion to its inhabitants. But when the Roman people found that he was going to leave them, they begged Gregory so hard to stay that he made up his mind that he could not go away into a heathen country while he was so badly needed by his own people at home.
Still he had no rest when he thought that the English were living and dying as heathens. About four years after the meeting with the boys, he was made Pope, and then he saw that his opportunity was come.