The Martyrdom of St Edmund the King
THEN those wicked men bound Edmund, and shamefully insulted him, and beat him with clubs, and afterwards they led the faithful king to an earth-fast tree, and tied him thereto with hard bonds, and afterwards scourged him a long while with whips, and ever he called, between the blows, with true faith, on Jesus Christ; and then the heathen were madly angry, because he called upon Christ to help him. They shot at him with javelins as if for their amusement, until he was all beset with their shots as with a porcupine’s bristles, even as Sebastian was.*
When Hingwar, the wicked seaman, saw that the noble king would not deny Christ, but with steadfast faith ever called upon Him, then he commanded men to behead him. While he was yet calling upon Christ, the heathen with one blow struck off his head; and his soul departed joyfully to Christ. There was a certain man at hand, kept by God hidden from the heathen, who heard all this, and told it afterward even as we tell it here.
abridged
St Sebastian (?256-?288), a Roman soldier, was martyred during the persecutions passed into law under Emperor Diocletian (r. 284-305). According to the tradition, he was tied to a tree, shot many times over with arrows and left for dead. With the help of St Irene he recovered from his wounds, but after accosting the Emperor and denouncing his policy to his face Sebastian was rearrested and beaten to death.