Page:The most ancient lives of Saint Patrick - O'Leary.djvu/63

 is commotion through Patrick's malediction. The Gentiles fled in all directions, so that only three remained&mdash;viz., Laeghaire, and his queen, and a man of his people; et timuerunt valde, veniensque regina ad Patricium (i.e., Angass, daughter of Tassagh, son of Liathan), dixit: "Ei homo juste et potens ne perdas regem. The king will go to thee, and will submit to thee, and will kneel, and will believe in God." Laeghaire went then, and knelt before Patrick, and gave him a "false peace." Not long after this, the king beckoned Patrick aside, and what he meditated was to kill him; but this happened not, because God had manifested this intention to Patrick. Laeghaire said to Patrick, "Come after me, O cleric! to Tara, that I may believe in thee before the men of Erinn"; and he then placed men in ambush before Patrick in every pass from Ferta-fer-féc to Tara, that they might kill him. But God did not permit it. Patrick went, accompanied by eight young clerics (maccleirech), and Benen as a gilla, along with them; and Patrick blessed them before going, and a dicheltair (garment of invisibility) went over them, so that not one of them was seen. The Gentiles who were in the ambuscades, however, saw eight wild deer going past them along the mountain, and a young fawn after them, and a pouch on his shoulder&mdash;viz., Patrick, and his eight [clerics], and Benen after them, and his (Patrick's) polaire (satchel, or epistolary) on his back.

Laeghaire went afterwards, about twilight, to Tara, in sorrow and shame, with the few persons who escaped in his company. On the day succeeding Easter Sunday the men of Erinn went to Tara to drink the feast; for the Fes of Tara was a principal day with them. When they were banqueting, and thinking of the conflict they waged the day before, they saw Patrick, who arrived in the middle of Tara, januis