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LEINSTER 55
note to sound the reveille of the army of the dead, glorious indeed
must be the muster answering from the tombs of fourteen centuries
to the summons of the Apostle of the Gaels.
" Nor scarce less glorious can be his triumph when the edge of
sunrise, rolling around this living earth, reveals on all the ocean
isles and distant continents, the myriad scattered children of the
Apostle, whose voices answering that sunrise rollcall re-echo in
endless accents along the vaults of heaven."
That is no untrue vision. Rome went down in
blood and dust, and in the centuries that followed, if
the lamp of learning was not wholly quenched, it was
because Patrick had kindled, in this remote island
beyond the bounds of Empire, "the Light of the
West " ; if Christianity did not perish in the weltering
chaos, it was very largely due to the fruit of the seed
which Patrick sowed.
Miracles are mingled with the story of that Easter
evangelization. Laoghaire, the king (pronounce him
"Laery", which has been softened into "Leary"), set
out to meet him, but stopped short of the Boyne, and
the Christian came into the camp chanting a verse of
Scripture: " Some in chariots, some in horses, but
we in the name of the Lord our God". At his com-
ing, Ere, the king's chief judge, rose up and did him
homage; but a druid blasphemed, and Patrick wrought
a miracle of destruction. And next day he was bidden
to Tara, and ambushes were set for him on the road;
but he changed his people into deer, and so they