hich carried him gently to the island of Hoedic.

This island is perpetually buffeted by the winds. In it some poor
men fished among the clefts of the rocks and labouriously cultivated
vegetables in gardens full of sand and pebbles that were sheltered from
the wind by walls of barren stone and hedges of tamarisk. A beautiful
fig-tree raised itself in a hollow of the island and thrust forth its
branches far and wide. The inhabitants of the island used to worship it.

And the holy Mael said to them: "You worship this tree because it is
beautiful. Therefore you are capable of feeling beauty. Now I come to
reveal to you the hidden beauty." And he taught them the Gospel. And
after having instructed them, he baptized them with salt and water.

The islands of Morbihan were more numerous in those times than they are
to-day. For since then many have been swallowed up by the sea. St. Mael
evangelized sixty of them. Then in his granite trough he ascended the
river Auray. And after sailing for three hours he landed before a
Roman house. A thin column of smoke went up from the roof. The holy man
crossed the threshold on which there was a mosaic representing a dog
with its hind legs outstretched and its lips drawn back. He was welcomed
by an old couple, Marcus Combabus and Valeria Moerens, who lived there
on the products of their lands. There was a portico round the interior
court the columns of which were painted red, half their height upwards
from the base. A fountain made of shells stood against the wall and
under the portico there rose an altar with a niche in which the master
of the house had placed some little idols made of baked earth and
whitened with whitewash. Some represented winged children, others Apollo
or Mercury, and several were in the form of a naked woman twisting her
hair. But the holy Mael, observing those figures, discovered among them
the image of a young mother holding a child upon her knees.

Immediately pointing to that image he said:

"That is the Virgin, the mother of God. The poet Virgil foretold her in
Sibylline verses before she was born and, in angelical tones he sang Jam
redit et virgo. Throughout heathendom prophetic figures of her have been
made, like that which you, O Marcus, have placed upon this altar. And
without doubt it is she who has protected your modest household. Thus it
is that those who faithfully observe the natural law prepare themselves
for the knowledge of revealed truths."

Mar