f Ireland unto the dominion of the queen, who was the daughter of
the King of Norwegia; and in course of time was it one while allied to,
and other while warring against, the kings of Ireland. Hither Saint
Patrick coming, found the city defiled with the abominations of idols,
and unknowing of the true Creator. And He who burst asunder the gates
of death and of hell smoothed the path for his servant; for the king
and the people, who erewhile had said unto the Lord, Depart Thou from
us, we will not the knowledge of Thy ways, so cast down were they, so
saddened with weeping and with lamentation, that all memory of their
wonted fierceness, all their barbarous rudeness, and all the pride of
their idolatry, were utterly subdued. Wretched was the spectacle on
that day! The twin hope of the kingdom, the delight of the city, the
solace of the old, the companion of the young, the son of the King of
Dublinia, lay in his chamber dead; and his sister, who had gone to
bathe in the neighboring river, had that day perished in the
mid-stream. And a tumult arose through the whole city; and the funeral
rites of the king's son being wholly neglected, all ran confusedly to
the shore; some, not even casting off their garments, plunge into the
river, some dive into its lowest depths, and others sail down the
course of the tide, lest haply the body of the royal damsel might
thitherward be hurried down. But they who had gone out to seek beheld
in the water the damsel lying down, even as one sleeping. They delay
not; they raise the royal maiden from the stream; they bear her unto
the chamber of her brother for her obsequies; and, according to the
superstition of the pagans, the tombs are prepared. And a rumor
gathers in the palace that he, Patrick of Ardmachia, who in the name of
the unknown God had already raised many that were even dead, had on
that day arrived in the city. This the king hearing rejoiced mightily;
and he caused him to come where his two children lay, and, being
already full of faith, he promised that if God at the prayers of the
saint would restore the children of his age, he and all his people
would worship him. And all the nobles confirm the promise of the king,
and the whole city yearneth toward the faith, so that the children may
but be revived. Then the saint, beholding the gain of souls which was
there prepared for him, poured forth his prayers, and in the sight of
the king and of the people restored to life the