of the covenant, who
in his pure heart, as in a golden urn, bore the manna of heavenly
contemplation, the tables of the heavenly law, and the rod of the
heavenly discipline. And the king brought him, with great reverence
and honor, unto his palace in the city of Cassel, because his mind and
his eye had long time longed for him, by reason of the manifold
miracles which he knew had been worked by the saint. And at his
preaching the king believed in the Holy Trinity, in the name of which
he is regenerated in the healing water of baptism. And after he had
blessed the king by touching his head, at his earnest and devout
entreaty the saint pierced his foot with the point of the staff of
Jesus. But the king, receiving his blessing with ardent desire, felt
in his body no pain of the wound, so much did he rejoice in the
salvation of his soul. Then did the saint behold the wounded foot of
the king, and imprinted on it the sign of the cross, and blessed it,
and healed the wound; and, full of the prophetic spirit, thus
prophesied he unto the king: "The blood of any king of thy race who
shall sit on thy throne shall never be shed, save of one alone." And
the inhabitants of this region, assert the prophecy to have been proved
by undeniable truth, inasmuch as history recordeth not one king of all
his posterity, even to the tenth generation, to have been slain, but
only one. And there remained in that place a tablet of stone, whereon
the saint is said to have celebrated the holy mysteries; and it is
called by the Irish Leac Phadruig--that is, the Stone of Saint Patrick;
and on this stone, for reverence of him, the kings of Cassel are wont
to be crowned and to be advanced unto the throne of their kingdom.

CHAPTER LXXV.

_How Dercardius and his Companions were destroyed._

And thence the saint speeded unto Urmonia, that out of that place he
might pluck the thorns and the branches of error which, being planted
by the craft of the old enemy, had flourished there, and sow in their
stead the spiritual harvest. And a certain man of Comdothan, named
Lonanus, freely received him, and made unto him and the companions of
his journey a great supper. And the saint deemed right to impart the
spiritual and eternal food unto those who had prepared for him the food
which was perishing and earthly. And during supper, while the saint
labored to fill their minds with the word of life, a certain wicked man
named Dercardius approached,