Prince, leaving his native shores, in company with a daring band of his countrymen, ravaged successively the coasts of Britain and of Gaul.

In France, the vicinity of Boulogne was the theatre, which he selected for the execution of his lawless enterprise. Two hundred of the natives, among whom was St. Patrick, fell into the hands of Niell, and were detained by him in captivity. The captives, indeed, were brought in triumph to Ireland, but the chieftain never again revisited his native country. Eochaid, a prince of the royal house of Leinster, had long entertained a hostile and revengeful feeling against Niell. An opportunity to gratify his vengeance was not long wanting. It chanced, on a certain day, that while Eochaid walked along the banks of the river Liana, he perceived his adversary standing on the opposite side. Impatient of delay, he discharged a poisoned arrow at the unfortunate Niell. The arrow reached its destined victim, and consigned him speedily to the tomb.†

The followers of Niell prepared now to return home. On their arrival in Ireland, St. Patrick was sold as a slave. The fidelity of the youthful captive, in discharging the humble offices assigned to him, attracted the notice of Milcho, one of the four brothers in whose service the saint was engaged. At the request of Milcho, Patrick was transferred to his dominion exclusively.

Dalradia, situated in County of Antrim, was the place where the saint's master resided.§ To his young bondsman, Milcho consigned here the care of tending his sheep.¶ At

*Keating's History of Ireland, b. 1, pp. 149 and 156.

+A. D. 406. Colgan Tr. Th. p. 442. By Doctor Lanigan, Niell's death is referred to the year 404.

Second Life, cap. 12.

§ Fiech's Scholiast. Schol. 8. Second Life, cap. 12.

Confess. P. 6.

Patrick's tender age, the labour and humiliation of such an occupation must have been peculiarly distressing. But amidst the hardships of servitude, one resource remained, from which the holy youth drew abundant consolation. His duties were, it is true, at once humble and painful, but they allowed him ample leisure for prayer and meditation. In the solitude to which his employment confined him, he called to mind and wept over the thoughtlessness and tepidity of his early youth. The benedictions which the Almighty had heretofore poured upon him, he now began to appreciate as they deserved. "And there," says the saint, speaking of his captivity,* "the Lord made me sensible of my incredulity, that I might, though late, call my transgressions to remembrance, and be converted to the Lord my God, who hath regarded my humility, and hath commiserated my youth and my ignorance. I daily tended the flocks, and during the day I prayed frequently; the love and fear of God advanced in me more and more, and His faith and spirit increased within me, so that I prayed a hundred times in the day, and almost as often in the night; I remained in the woods and on the mountains, and I arose before the dawning of the light to prayer, amidst the snow, the frost, and the rain, and I suffered not any injury in consequence; neither did sloth at all retard me, because the Holy Spirit was fervent within me."+

Having passed about six years‡ in these holy exercises, the period destined for his liberation was now at hand. The time he had spent in servitude sufficed to prove the sincerity of his repentance, and to confirm him in the * Confess. pp. 1, 2.

+ Confess. P. 6.

Fiech's hym, the Tripartite, and other accounts agree, that the saint's capti vity continued for six full years.

virtues necessary for the exalted station, which he was soon to occupy in the sacred ministry. We have from the saint's own pen the narrative of his deliverance. He tells us, that while he lay asleep in the night, he was addressed in the following words :-" Thou fastest well, and art soon to return to thine own country.*" After a short interval, the same voice, a second time, thus accosted him. "Behold the ship is ready for you." This ship, the saint informs us, lay then in a harbour, distant two hundred miles from his place of abode, and in a part of the island which he had never seen, and where there was no person with whom he was acquainted. Trusting, however, in that Providence, which, after having called him to repentance, now so mercifully interposed in his behalf, Patrick left his master's house, and began his journey to the port, from which he was to embark for his native land. "And I came,"+ says the saint, "in the power of the Lord, who directed my course to a good end, and I entertained no fear, until I arrived at the place where the ship lay. The ship was then clearing out, and I asked for a passage in her. The master of the vessel became angry, and said to me-Do not pretend to come with us.' On hearing this, I retired, for the purpose of going to the cabin, where I had been received as a guest, and while going thither, I began to pray. But before I had finished my prayer, I heard one of the men crying out with a loud voice after me—' Come quickly, for they are calling you;' and immediately I returned. And they said to me- Come, we receive thee on faith; be our friend, just as it may be agreeable to you.' We then set sail, and after three days reached land."

* Confess. P. 8.

+ For this account of the saint's liberation, see his Confession, and Probus L. 1, c. 4.

Treguier, in Britanny, is stated to be the harbour to which the ship directed her course; and there, after a favourable voyage, St. Patrick disembarked.* Treguier lay at a considerable distance from the saint's native residence, and the country through which he was to pass on his journey homewards, being, in many places, uncultivated and destitute of inhabitants, supplied only a scanty and precarious subsistence to the traveller. This desolation was occasioned by the war, of which Gaul had been then the theatre for two centuries. So far back as the close of the third century, the northern coasts of Gaul were repeatedly ravaged by successive hordes of Franks and Saxons. In the commencement of the fifth century, the Vandals, the Alans and the Suevi traversed, in countless multitudes, the provinces of Gaul and spread devastation wheresoever they passed. This calamity was followed by the yet more desolating evil of civil war; and at the period, when St. Patrick returned home, his country was still suffering from these multiplied afflictions. That part of the country, where his family resided, particularly experienced the injurious effects of the warfare, by which the fairest provinces of the kingdom were laid waste. Thousands of his countrymen, the saint informs us,‡ were carried into captivity, and dispersed among the various nations of the universe. In consequence of the misery which was thus brought on his native land, St. Patrick, besides the other privations, which he suffered, had, in journeying homewards, to endure much from hunger also.

* Fiech, and the Scholiast are the writers on whose authority it is shown, that St. Patrick landed in Gaul. Two breviaries of Rheims point out Treguier as the place where the saint disembarked.

+ Tillemont. Mem. tom 10, p. 555. Ruinart, Annal. Franc.

Confess. pp. 1, 2.

From the narrative which the saint has left us of this journey, it appears, that some of those, who had sailed with him from Ireland, accompanied him from Treguier to his native home. These men had heard of the Christian religion, but they still adhered to the Pagan superstition. They had also heard of the power of the God whom the Christians worshipped; and, when suffering from extreme hunger, they were induced by what they had heard, to solicit St. Patrick, to pray for relief to the God whom he adored. "Christian”—thus the chief of the party addressed the saint "what dost thou say? Thy God is great and allpowerful. Why then, cans't thou not pray for us, as we are in such danger of famine?" In reply, St. Patrick exhorted the chief and his associates to faith and sincere repentance, and enlarged on the greatness of the true God, whose almighty power could, in an instant, supply them with food, in abundance. The saint then offered up a fervent prayer, in favour of his companions. His prayer was accepted, and immediate relief granted to them. A drove of swine having appeared in sight soon after Patrick had poured forth his supplication to heaven, many of them were killed, and a plentiful supply of food was thus obtained. The fatigue and hunger which Patrick and his companions had hitherto endured, made them now long for the enjoyment of some repose. To gratify this desire, they remained during two nights in the place, where their wants had been so opportunely relieved. Neither were they unmindful of their obligations to the Divine goodness. With becoming gratitude they returned thanks for His mercy, and continued afterwards to evince their sense of the favour conferred on them, by an assiduous attention to the saint, through whose prayers God had been moved to compassionate their misery.