o his triumph and their overthrow. Therefore stood
he fixed in faith as Mount Sion, because mountains of angels were
around him, and the Lord encompassed His servant great and mighty unto
the battle. And the holy prelate, knowing that all those enemies were
to be quelled by him through the virtue of the cross of Christ, raised
his sacred right hand, and made the sign of the cross, and, telling
unto his people what he beheld, and confirming them in the faith,
unhurt and unterrified passed he over. Thus clothed with strength from
on high, mightily did he exercise the armor of the power of God to the
overturning of the powers of the air, who raised themselves against all
height and against the wisdom of the Lord, being always ready to punish
their disobedience and their rebellion, as will more plainly in the
following chapters appear.

CHAPTER XXIX.

_Of the River sentenced to perpetual Sterility._

The man of God landed with the companions of his voyage within the
borders of Leinster, in the port of Innbherde, where a river flowing
into the sea then abounded with many fishes. And the fishermen were
quitting the water, and drawing after them to the bank their loaded
nets, when the servants of the holy prelate, being wearied with their
travel and with hunger, earnestly besought that they would bestow on
them some of their fishes; but they, barbarous, brutal, and inhuman,
answered the entreaty, not only with refusal, but with insult. Whereat
the saint, being displeased, pronounced on them this sentence, even his
malediction: that the river should no longer produce fishes, from the
abundance of which idolaters might send empty away the worshippers of
the true God. From that day, therefore, is the river condemned to
unfruitfulness, so that the sentence uttered by the mouth of Patrick
might be known to proceed from the face of the Lord.

CHAPTER XXX.

_How the Dry Land was turned into a Marsh._

And going forward, he arrived at a place which was called Aonach
Tailltion, and there he made ready to refresh himself and his people,
and to announce the office of his ministry. But the idolatrous
inhabitants, not enduring the presence of the man of God, gathered
together and violently drove him thence, as the light of the sun is
intolerable to the weak-eyed. Yet the God whom Patrick bore about him,
and glorified in his body, permitted not that an affront offered unto
His servant for the sake of His name shou