hand was restored.[208] The old Irish Life of Columba, in narrating the same occurrence, says simply that ‘the gate of the castle was shut against him, but the iron locks of the town (_Baile_) opened instantly through the prayers of Columcille;’ and we may well suppose that the bolts may have been withdrawn and the anger of the king disarmed through no greater miracle than the impression created by the imposing presence of the three ecclesiastics with their attendants. Adamnan implies this when he says that, ‘when the king learned what had occurred, he and his councillors were filled with alarm, and immediately setting out from the palace, advanced to meet, with due respect, the holy man, whom he addressed in the most conciliatory and respectful language. And ever after from that day, as long as he lived, the king held this holy and reverend man in very great honour, as was due.’[209] Although Adamnan does not specifically say that the king was then converted, we may infer that it was so, on the authority both of the Life of St. Comgall and of the Pictish Chronicle, which places the event in the eighth year of King Brude, and expressly says that he was in that year baptized by St. Columba.[210] The Irish Life adds an incident which is nowhere else recorded, that ‘Mailcu, the son of the king, came with his _Drui_ to contend against Columcille, through paganism; but they perished through the words of Columcille, both the king’s son and his _Drui_ with him; and the name of God and Columcille was magnified through it.’[211] [Sidenote: Character of the paganism of the Scots and Picts.] The indications which we receive from Adamnan and from other sources, as to what the character of the paganism of these northern Picts really was, are extremely slight; but such as they are, we may infer that the pagan system which Columba had to encounter among the heathen Picts in no respect differed from that which characterised the pagan tribes of Ireland, and which St. Patrick found opposed to him when executing his own Christian mission. The popular belief undoubtedly is that the so-called Druidical religion preceded Christianity both in Scotland and in Ireland; but, before examining the grounds of the traditionary belief as to the leading features of this system, it may be well to ascertain what we can really learn from the oldest sources as to its real character. The ancient metrical Life of St. Patrick, ascribed to Fiacc of Sleibhte, says of him— He preached threescore years The Cross of Christ to the _Tuatha_ of Feni. On the _Tuatha_ of Erin there was darkness. The _Tuatha_ adored the _Side_. They believed not the true Godhead Of the true Trinity.[212]