seemed to hear in a dream all the unborn children of the
nation crying to him for help and holy baptism. When,
therefore, Pope Celestine commissioned him for this
enterprise, "to the ends of the earth," he found him not
only ready but anxious to undertake it.

When the new Preacher arrived in the Irish Sea, in 432,
he and his companions were driven off the coast of Wicklow
by a mob, who assailed them with showers of stones.
Running down the coast to Antrim, with which he was
personally familiar, he made some stay at Saul, in Down,
where he made few converts, and celebrated Mass in a
barn; proceeding northward he found himself rejected with
scorn by his old master, Milcho, of Slemish. No doubt it
appeared an unpardonable audacity in the eyes of the
proud Pagan, that his former slave should attempt to
teach him how to reform his life and order his affairs.
Returning again southward, led on, as we must believe,
by the Spirit of God, he determined to strike a blow
against Paganism at its most vital point. Having learned
that the monarch, Leary (_Laeghaire_), was to celebrate
his birthday with suitable rejoicings at Tara, on a day
which happened to fall on the eve of Easter, he resolved
to proceed to Tara on that occasion, and to confront the
Druids in the midst of all the princes and magnates of
the Island. With this view he returned on his former
course, and landed from his frail barque at the mouth of
the Boyne. Taking leave of the boatmen, he desired them
to wait for him a certain number of days, when, if they
did not hear from him, they might conclude him dead, and