cember 19. It was of her that Aed Allan gave this testimony:

"Samtain for enlightening various sinners,
A servant who observed stern chastity,
In the wide plain of fertile Meath
Great suffering did Samtain endure;
She undertook a thing not easy,--
Fasting for the kingdom above.
She lived on scanty food;
Hard were her girdles;
She struggled in venomous conflicts;
Pure was her heart amid the wicked.
To the bosom of the Lord, with a pure death,
Samtain passed from her trials."

X.

THE RAIDS OF THE NORTHMEN.

A.D. 750-1050.

Aed Allan, the king who so feelingly wrote the epitaph of the saintly
virgin Samtain, needed an epitaph himself four years later, for he fell
in battle with Domnall son of Murcad son of Diarmaid, who succeeded him
on the throne. It is recorded that, in the following year, the sea cast
ashore a whale under the mountains of Mourne, to the great wonder of
those who dwelt by the hill of Rudraige. Thus do the Chronicles
establish their good faith, by putting on record things trifling or
grave, with equal impartiality.

They were presently to have something more memorable to record than the
loss of a battle or the stranding of a whale. But before we come to this
new chapter in the life of Ireland, let us show the continuity of the
forces we have already depicted. The old tribal turmoil went on
unabated. In 771, the first year of Doncad son of Domnall in the
sovereignty over Ireland, that ruler made a full muster of the Ui-Neill
and marched into Leinster. The Leinstermen moved before the monarch and
his forces, until they arrived at the fort called Nectain's Shield in
Kildare. Domcad with his forces was entrenched at Aillin, whence his
people continued to fire, burn, plunder and devastate the province for
the space of a week, when the Leinstermen at last submitted to his will.
Seventeen years later it is recorded that the church and abbey of
Ardmaca, or, as we may now begin to call it, Armagh, were struck by
lightning, and the night was terrible with thunder, lightning and wind.

We see, therefore, that the double life of the people, the life of valor
and the life of wisdom, were following their steady course in camp and
school. We may call up a very interesting witness to the whole condition
of Ireland during this epoch: Alfred king of the Northumbrian Saxons,
who spent several years traveling through the lan