enraged and alarmed Druids, after his abdication and
retirement from the world (A.D. 266). He had reigned full
forty years, rivalling in wisdom, and excelling in justice
the best of his ancestors. Some of his maxims remain to
us, and challenge comparison for truthfulness and foresight
with most uninspired writings.

Cormac's successors during the same century are of little
mark, but in the next the expeditions against the Roman
outposts were renewed with greater energy and on an
increasing scale. Another Crimthan eclipsed the fame of
his ancestor and namesake; Nial, called "of the Hostages,"
was slain on a second or third expedition into Gaul (A.D.
405), while Dathy, nephew and successor to Nial, was
struck dead by lightning in the passage of the Alps (A.D.
428). It was in one of Nial's Gallic expeditions that
the illustrious captive was brought into Erin, for whom
Providence had reserved the glory of its conversion to
the Christian faith--an event which gives a unity and a
purpose to the history of that Nation, which must always
constitute its chief attraction to the Christian reader.




CHAPTER III.

CHRISTIANITY PREACHED AT TARA--THE RESULT.

The conversion of a Pagan people to Christianity must