Page:The most ancient lives of Saint Patrick - O'Leary.djvu/311

 prayers he besought the saint that he would recall her to life; and promised that he and all his people would then believe in the Christ whom he preached. And the saint delayed not, but revived the dead woman, and baptized her husband, who at so wonderful a miracle thoroughly believed. And from the revived woman is it called unto this day the Ford of Ethna; and the fluid element affording a passage unto all travellers, showeth the merit of her reviver. And often the saint visited Connactia and Momonia, working miracles in each; and in each he dwelled for the space of seven years.

And even unto the evening of his days did the saint continue his wonted labor and his accustomed work; sowing the field of the Lord with the seed of the divine word, from the fruit whereof he might gather eternal life. This the devoted ones of Satan perceiving and envying, they gnashed with their teeth, and one to the other they said in their malice: "What shall we do? This man, the destroyer of our gods, the persecutor, nay the extirpator of our sect, worketh many miracles; if we let him go thus, all the people of Hibernia through him will believe in his God, and the Christians will come and they will remove our laws." Then took they counsel together, how they should destroy him with their snares, and under the pretence of justice bring him unto the death. And a certain woman was washing flax nigh unto the place where the saint was to