of the natives, but the new rulers utterly disregarded them.
A tragic story is told of Hugh de Lacy, to whom was given the lordship of Meath. He was the founder of many monasteries, which he richly endowed with wealth that was not his own. In founding these he destroyed many of the old Irish establishments. Amongst other places, he built an abbey at Durrow, in the King's County, and before doing so dispersed one of the oldest and most important of the Columban communities. He also erected a castle at the same place. One day while he was superintending the erection of the new buildings, a young man suddenly rushed upon him, severed his head from his body with one blow of his axe, and before the bystanders had recovered from their surprise he had made his escape to the friendly Irish, by whom he was sheltered and regarded as a hero. 'This was in revenge of Columkill,' is the remark made by the Annalists. They tell us, too, that De Lacy was 'the profaner and destroyer of many churches.' The foreign monasteries thought differently. The monks of St. Thomas, Dublin, contended with the Cistertians of Bective for the honour of obtaining De Lacy's body, just as if his relics were the relics of a saint. The authority of the Pope had to be invoked for the settlement of the dispute.
In the more remote parts of the country, where English authority did not extend, the case was different. There the old Irish customs still prevailed, and the people clung to the traditions of their fathers. But the cause was a failing one. The new régime had everything in its favour. The old system had lost its vitality, and only showed the last gasps of a life the vigour of which belonged to another age.
