Page:The most ancient lives of Saint Patrick - O'Leary.djvu/305

 Then the saint rejoicing at his devotion said unto him, "For the sign of power and protection, and for the proof of thy spiritual worth, shall thou bear thy shield and thy sceptre; the name of a laic shalt thou show; but the mind and the merit of a monk shall thou possess, inasmuch as many saints shall proceed from thee, and many nations shall in thy seed be blessed." And he signed his shield with the sign of the staff of Jesus, declaring that no one of his progeny who should carry this shield in battle should ever by any one be vanquished. And the chronicles of Hibernia declare, and her bards record, that this the saint's prophecy unto Conallus and his seed duly came to pass.

And Saint Patrick coming into the territory of Mogharnd, went toward the town of Domnhach Maghin, over which a man named Victor ruled. And he hearing of the saint's arrival, yet loving darkness rather than light, concealed himself in the shades of a thick grove, for much he feared, lest being driven from the darkness of his unbelief, he should though unwilling be compelled to believe in the true light. But the shadows of the night season came on, nor yet did Patrick the son of light therefore delay his journey. And when the curtain of deep night had covered all things with surrounding darkness, it darkened not the course of Patrick, who was the precursor of light; for unto him the night was as day, and the deep shadows were