184 



A. D. 432, on the shore of DubUn, (" consummato igitur navigio ac 

 labore, S. Patricius in optatum portum regionis Evolenorum, utique 

 apud nos clarissimum, delatus est,")* which harbour sounds hke the 

 "portum Eblanorum, of Ptolemy, (i.e.of Dubhn;) and the word "cla- 

 rissimum " seems to fortify the description given by Tacitus of the 

 ports of Ireland. After various repulses and persecutions, and being not 

 unfrequently driven out to sea by the pagan Irish, he at length arrived 

 in view of Tara, at the very time whfen King Leogaire was celebrating 

 a heathen festival, and his Magi were about displaying that sacred 

 fire, until the lighting of which no other flame was permitted to be 

 kindled. -f Saint Patrick, however, had the confidence to raise such 

 a beacon blaze at Slane, as was plainly distinguished from the heights 

 of Tara ; the king, no less alarmed than astonished, appealed to his 

 Magi, and earnestly inquired by whom or for what purpose it was 

 displayed, and it was then that these priests are recorded to have 

 made the memoi'able reply : — " This fire, which has to-night been 

 kindled in our presence, before the flame was lit up in your palace, 

 unless extinguished this very night, shall never be extinguished more. 

 Yea, it will triumph over all the fires of our ancient rites, and he who 

 lights it shall scatter your kingdom. ".|. The prediction was happily 

 fulfilled; Leogaire, after some opposition, renounced the religion of his 

 ancestors, and his royal example was soon followed by many of his 

 court. § Even the chief poet of the king believed, and with the zeal 



• Probus, Vita S. Patricii, lib. 1. c. 27. See also Annal. Ulton: ad ann. 



t ^nle, pp. 87-8. f 



X "Hie ignis, quem videmus, qui in hac nocte succensus est, antequam succenderetur 

 ignis in domo tua, * * * * nisi extinctus fuerit hac nocte, non extinguetur in aeternum : 

 insuper et omnes ignes nostras consuetudinis superexcellet, et ille qui incendit eum regnum 

 tuum dissipabit." — Probus. lib, 1. c. 35. 



§ " Filii Scotorum et filise regulorum monachi et virgines Christi esse videntur." — 

 Confessio. 



