him:--"My child, why have you stayed away in this manner?" Mochuda
replied, "Sire, this is why I have stayed away--through attraction of
the holy chant of the bishop and clergy; I have never heard anything so
beautiful as this; the clerics sang as they went along the whole way
before me; they sang until they arrived at their house, and thenceforth
they sang till they went to sleep. The bishop however remained by
himself far into the night praying by himself when the others had
retired. And I wish, O king, that I might learn [their psalms and
ritual]." Hearing this the king at once sent a message to the bishop
requesting the latter to come to him.

About this time Mochuda's father gave a feast in the king's honour and
as the company were at supper the king calling Mochuda before him
offered him a shield, sword, javelin, and princely robe, saying: "Take
these and be henceforth a knight to me as your father has been." But
Mochuda declined the offer. "What is it," asked the king, "that you
will accept, so that [whatever it be] I may give it to you?" Mochuda
answered:--"I do not long for anything of earth--only that I be allowed
to learn the psalms of the clerics which I heard them sing." In this
answer the king discerned the working of divine grace, whereupon he
promised the youth the favour he asked for. Shortly afterwards the
bishop, Carthach, whom we have mentioned as sent for by the king,
arrived, and to him the latter entrusted Mochuda to be instructed in
reading and writing. With great joy the bishop undertook his charge for
he saw that his pupil was marked by grace, and under the bishop's
guidance and tutelage Mochuda remained till his promotion to the
priesthood.

Mochuda was very handsome of features with the result that at different
times during his youth maidens to the number of thirty were so enamoured