"Beneath, the vale its bosom doth display, With meadows green, with flowers profusely gay, Where Scota lies, unfortunately slain, And with her royal tomb gives honour to the plain. Mixed with the first the fair virago fought, Sustained the toil of arms and danger sought: From her the fruitful valley hath the name O Glean Scoith, and we may trust to fame." ST. PATRICK'S FLIGHT TO MARMOUTIER, DESCRIBED BY PROBUS. IN the XIVth section of the "Vita Quinta" Probus narrates St. Patrick's arrival in Brotgalum, then his journey to Trajectus, from whence he hastened to Marmoutier to join St. Martin, Bishop of Tours, with whom he remained for four years. Colgan, in his annotations (14), identifies Brotgalum as Burdigalum, or Bordeaux. So, too, does Professor Bury, who tells us that Brodgal was the Irish for Bordeaux, and that "Bordeaux was a regular port for travellers from Ireland to South Gaul" ("Life of St. Patrick," Appendix, p. 341). Trajectus, according to the old maps, was situated on the river Dordogne, about sixty miles from Tours. From Trajectus St. Patrick had to walk a distance of about two hundred miles through a desert before reaching Tours. "A glance at the map of ancient Gaul," writes Father Bullen Morris, "will show that in St. Patrick's time a great part of the country between Trajectus and Tours well deserved the name of a desert. The network of rivers, tributaries of the Loire, and now known as La Vienne, La Claire, La Gartempe, &c., must have exposed the country to periodical inundations in those days. So from Tours in the north to Limonum, Alerea, and Legora in the south, east and west, we find some 5,000 square miles, which, as far as the ancient map is concerned, give no signs of possession by man. Travellers entangled amidst these rivers and morasses must have advanced very slowly, and thus it appears that both places and time fit in with St. Patrick's narrative. Nature has changed her face along the line of St. Patrick's journey, and there is little now to remind us of its primeval desolation, save that the rivers still preserve some of their old habits, and now and then combine with the inundations of the giant Loire in setting man at defiance. "Time, however, with its alternative gifts and ravages, has left untouched the traditions regarding St. Patrick's journey. There is something more than antiquarian interest in the feelings of the Christian traveller who visits the spot on the banks of the Loire, where immemorial tradition and an ancient monument mark the place at which the Saint crossed the river on his way to Marmoutier. At about twenty miles from Tours the railway between that city and Angers stops at the station of St. Patrice; the commune is also named after the Saint, and, as we shall see, there is historical evidence that it has been thus designated for at least nine hundred years."