This friendly alliance between St. Patrick and the Bardic Order is personified in the story of Ossian's relations with the Saint. According to the legend the venerable old man had long survived the fall of his house, and the destruction of the Fenian chivalry on the fatal field of Gabhra, yet lived on to find himself friendless and helpless under a new and strange order of things in Christian Erin. But Patrick in the true spirit of the Gospel took the homeless old man under his own protection, and, treating him with the greatest generosity and forbearance, sought to console him for the vanished glories of the heroic past, and fill his mind with brighter visions of a more glorious and immortal future beyond the grave:-- "Patrick, this other boon I crave,[69] That I to thee in heaven may sing Full loud the glories of the brave, And Fionn, my sire and king." "Oisin, in heaven the praises swell To God alone from soul and saint;" "Then Patrick, I their deeds will tell In little whisper faint." "Prince of thy country's tuneful choir, Thou wert her golden tongue. Sing thou the new strain, 'I believe,' Give thou to God her song." It was in this spirit Patrick dealt with the Bards of Erin. They might keep their harps, and sing the songs of Erin's heroic youth, as in the days of old. But the great Saint taught them how to tune their harps to loftier strains than those of the banquet-hall or the battle-march. He sought to drive out from their songs the evil spirit of undying hate and rancorous vengeance, to impress the poet's mind with something of the divine spirit of Christian charity, and to soften the fierce melody of his war-songs with cadences of pity for a fallen foe. He taught the sons of the Bards how to chant the psalms of David, and sing together the sweet music of the Church's hymns. Thus by slow degrees their wild ways were tamed, their fierce hearts were softened, and the evil spirit of Discord gave place to the heavenly spirit of brotherly Love. The Irish people[70] have been always passionately fond of music, and this was especially so in those early times when other strong attractions were entirely wanting. There can be no doubt that the Church music exercised a great influence in attracting the new converts to the services of the clergy both in the monastic and secular Churches--a fact of which St. Patrick was fully sensible. Hence we find that from the very beginning he made provision to have his new converts trained in psalmody. St. Benignus, of whom we have already spoken, the sweet and gentle boy, who strewed the flowers in Patrick's bosom, and would not be taken from his side, is called "Patrick's Psalm-Singer" in the _Lives of the Saint_, as well as in the _Annals of the Four Masters_.