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LEINSTER 45
Wilton, Elizabeth's deputy, tried to drive them out
in 1580, but his force was cut to pieces by the
mountaineers, and a few years later they had a sure
asylum to offer to Red Hugh O'Donnell, when he
escaped from Dublin Castle and the captivity into
which he had been foully kidnapped.
But the spot in all this region which offers most
attraction to travellers is Glendalough, site of the Seven
Churches, a place of most venerable memories. Kevin,
to whom it owes its fame, was born A.D. 498, sixty-
six years after Patrick first preached in Ireland. His
name, Caomh-ghen, means the Gentle-born, and he
was son of the King of Leinster. The whole of
this princely family became passionately religious,
for two brothers and two sisters of Kevin were
canonized, and their names are in the Calendar.
Kevin was sent for nurture to a Cornish holy
man, St. Petroc, who had come to spread the light
in Wicklow, but the young Prince finished his
studies under the guidance of his own uncle, Eoghan
or Eugenius, who had a monastic school somewhere
in the beautiful parish of Glenealy on the sunny
south-eastern slope of these hills.
He was a handsome lad, and his looks so dis-
tracted a beautiful girl that she tried to seduce him
from his vocation. Modern tradition tells that she
followed him into his cave in the cliff above the