rived snare, and she hastened to show it unto the man of God, that he might avoid the mischief. Then he, trusting in the Lord, commanded his people to drive forward the horses, and, having blessed them, he passed over with unfailing foot. For the soft and tender herbage supported them like the solid earth, inasmuch as the holy troop bore in their hearts and on their bodies Him who bore all things. And the priest of God sent the damsel unto her father, that she might bring him into his presence to receive the salvation of his soul. And the damsel did even as he commanded, and brought before him her father; and at the preaching of the saint the man believed, and with his ten sons and his three daughters was baptized. Then did Patrick consecrate the virgins unto God, and gave to them the sacred veil; and he prophesied that of the sons five should be happy and prosperous in a secular life, and that the other five should first enter the clerical order, and at length holily live and die in the monastic habit; but unto them who had treacherously prepared the pit for him and for his people he foretold that they and their seed should pass their life in providing their sustenance and continually digging in the ground, and that, according to the Scripture, poverty should come on them like water. And all these things which the saint prophesied did the event prove.
CHAPTER CXXI.
The Prophecy of the Saint on a Certain Village.
And Saint Patrick went unto a certain village, near the island of Inchenn, and he found therein a place fitting for
