the which how
acceptable is it to the Lord, vouchsafed he to show by the token of an
evident miracle. Therefore on a certain day, when Saint Patrick and a
venerable man named Vinnocus sate together, they conferred of God and
of things pertaining unto God; and they spake of garments which by
their works of mercy had been distributed among the poor; when behold,
a cloak sent from Heaven fell among them, even as the present eulogy of
the Divine gift and the promise of future reward. And the saint
rejoiced in the Lord, and what had happened each ascribed to the merit
of the other. And Patrick averred that it was sent unto Vinnocus, who
had for the Lord renounced all the things of this world: and Vinnocus
insisted it to have been sent unto Patrick, who though possessing all
things retained nothing, but clothing many which were poor and naked,
left himself naked for the sake of the Lord. Then from these holy men
thus friendlily disputing, suddenly the cloak disappeared; and in the
stead thereof the Lord sent down by an angel two cloaks, one truly unto
each, that even in charity they might no longer contend.

CHAPTER CL.

_A wicked Tyrant is transformed into a Fox._

In that part of Britain which is now called Vallia, lived a certain
tyrant named Cereticus; and he was a deceiver, an oppressor, a
blasphemer of the name of the Lord, a persecutor and a cruel destroyer
of Christians. And Patrick hearing of his brutal tyranny, labored to
recall him into the path of salvation, writing unto him a monitory
epistle, for his conversion from so great vices. But he, that more
wicked he might become from day to day, laughed to scorn the monition
of the saint, and waxed stronger in his sins, in his crimes, in his
falsehoods and in his cruelties. The which when Patrick heard, taught
by the Divine Spirit, he knew that the vessel of evil was hardened in
reprobation, prepared in no wise for correction, but rather for
perdition; and thus he prayed unto the Lord: "O Lord God, as thou
knowest this vulpine man to be monstrous in vice, do thou in a
monstrous mode cast him forth from the face of the earth, and appoint
an end unto his offences!" Then the Lord, inclining his ear unto the
voice of his servant, while on a certain time the tyrant stood in the
middle of his court surrounded by many of his people, suddenly
transformed him into a fox; and he, flying from their sight, never more
appeared on the earth. And this no one can rea