sea were swimming and running and that it was with difficulty they
escaped with the sea. However, many fishes were left behind on the dry
strand owing to the suddenness of the ebb. Declan, his crosier in his
hand, pursued the receding tide and his disciples followed after him.
Moreover the sea and the departing monsters made much din and commotion
and when Declan arrived at the place where is now the margin of the sea a
stripling whose name was Mainchin, frightened at the thunder of the waves
and the cry of the unknown monsters with gaping mouths following the
(receding) water, exclaimed:--"Father, you have driven out the sea far
enough; for I am afraid of those horrid monsters." When Declan heard
this and (saw) the sea standing still at the word of the youth it
displeased him and turning round he struck him a slight blow on the nose.
Three drops of blood flowed from the wound on to the ground in three
separate places at the feet of Declan. Thereupon Declan blessed the nose
and the blood ceased immediately (to flow). Then Declan declared:--"It
was not I who drove out the sea but God in His own great power who
expelled it and He would have done still more had you not spoken the
words you have said." Three little wells of clear sweet water burst
forth in the place where fell the three drops of blood at the feet of
Declan, and these wells are there still and the colour of blood is seen
in them occasionally as a memorial of this miracle. The shore, rescued
from the sea, is a mile in width and is of great length around (the
island) and it is good and fertile land for tillage and pasture--lying
beneath the monastery of Declan. As to the crosier which was in Declan's
hand while he wrought this miracle, this is its name--the Feartach
Declain, from the miracles and marvels [fertaib] wrought through it. I
shall in another, subsequent, place relate some of these miracles
(narrated).

21. After the expulsion of the sea by this famous Saint, scil.: Declan,