citadel of Ancient Error, like soldiers about to assault
an enemy's stronghold. The aspect of the royal hill must
have been highly imposing. The building towards the north
was the Banquet Hall, then thronged with the celebrants
of the King's birth-day, measuring from north to south
360 feet in length by 40 feet wide. South of this hall
was the King's Rath, or residence, enclosing an area of
280 yards in diameter, and including several detached
buildings, such as the house of Cormac, and the house of
the hostages. Southward still stood the new rath of the
reigning king, and yet farther south, the rath of Queen
Mab, probably uninhabited even then. The intervals between
the buildings were at some points planted, for we know
that magnificent trees shaded the well of Finn, and the
well of Newnaw, from which all the raths were supplied
with water. Imposing at any time, Tara must have looked
its best at the moment Patrick first beheld it, being in
the pleasant season of spring, and decorated in honour
of the anniversary of the reigning sovereign.

One of the religious ceremonies employed by the Druids
to heighten the solemnity of the occasion, was to order
all the fires of Tara and Meath to be quenched, in order
to rekindle them instantaneously from a sacred fire
dedicated to the honour of their god. But Patrick, either
designedly or innocently, anticipated this striking
ceremony, and lit his own fire, where he had encamped,
in view of the royal residence. A flight of fiery arrows,
shot into the Banqueting Hall, would not have excited
more horror and tumult among the company there assembled,