still lingered in the West. Patrick, in good season,
had done his work. And as sometimes, God seems to bring
round His ends, contrary to the natural order of things,
so the spiritual sun of Europe was now destined to rise
in the West, and return on its light-bearing errand
towards the East, dispelling La its path, Saxon, Frankish,
and German darkness, until at length it reflected back
on Rome herself, the light derived from Rome.

On the 17th of March, in the year of our Lord 493, Patrick
breathed his last in the monastery of Saul, erected on
the site of that barn where he had first said Mass. He
was buried with national honours in the Church of Armagh,
to which he had given the Primacy over all the churches
of Ireland; and such was the concourse of mourners, and
the number of Masses offered for his eternal repose, that
from the day of his death till the close of the year,
the sun is poetically said never to have set--so brilliant
and so continual was the glare of tapers and torches.




CHAPTER IV.

THE CONSTITUTION, AND HOW THE KINGS KEPT IT.

We have fortunately still existing the main provisions
of that constitution which was prepared under the auspices
of Saint Patrick, and which, though not immediately, nor