monarch of the kingdom for seven-and-twenty years, and brought away
spoils out of England, Britain, and France."

"By this expression it is supposed," continues Keating, "that Niall of
the Nine Hostages waged war against Britain or Wales, and perhaps made
a conquest of the country; _and it is more than probable_ that, when
the Irish Prince had finished his design upon the kingdom of Wales, he
carried his arms in a fleet to France and invaded the country at the
time called Armorica, but now Little Brittany, and from thence he led
St. Patrick and his two sisters into captivity.

"And this I am rather induced to believe, because the mother of St.
Patrick was sister of St. Martin, the Bishop of Tours in France; and _I
have read in an ancient Irish manuscript, whose authority I cannot
dispute, that St. Patrick and his two sisters were brought captive into
Ireland from Armorica, or Brittany_, in the kingdom of France. It is
evident likewise that when Niall, the King of Ireland, had succeeded
with the Britons, he despatched a formidable fleet to plunder the coast
of France, and succeeded; and that he carried away numbers of captives
with him into captivity, one of which, it is reasonable to suppose, was
the young Patrick, who was afterwards distinguished by the name of the
Irish Saint.

"Niall, encouraged by the number of his captives and the success of his
arms in France, _resolved upon another expedition_, and accordingly
raised a grand army of his Irish subjects for that purpose, and sent a
commission to the General of the Dalraida in Scotland to follow him
with his choicest troops and assist him in the invasion. Niall having
prepared a sufficient number of transports and a full supply of
provisions, weighed anchor with his victorious Irish, and _steering his