45. (25). There was a woman in the city of Coleraine[627] who had a demon. Malachy was called; he prayed for the possessed; he commanded the invader and he went out. But his iniquity was not yet fully satisfied, and he entered into an unhappy woman who happened to be standing by. And Malachy said, "I did not release that woman from your grasp in order that you might enter this one; go out of her also." He obeyed, but went back to the former woman; and driven forth from her once more, he again went into the second. So for some time he vexed them alternately, fleeing to and fro. Then the saint, indignant that he was mocked by a demon, summoned up his spirit, and shouted; and when he had made an attack on the adversary with all the forces of faith, he drove the demon away from both, no less vexed than those whom he had vexed. But do not suppose, reader, that the delay which he caused the saint was due to his own strength: it was permitted by the divine dispensation, evidently in order that by this as well the power of the evil one as the victory of Malachy might be made more manifest. Hear now what he did elsewhere, but not by reason of his presence. Assuredly what he had power to accomplish when absent, he could do also when present. 46. In a district of the northern part of Ireland a sick man lay in his house. His sickness was beyond doubt due to the evil influence of demons. For one night he heard them talking; and one said to another, "See that this wretched man does not touch the bed or bedding of that hypocrite, and so escape from our hands." The man perceived that they were speaking of Malachy, who, as he remembered, had not long before passed a night in that house. And the bedding was still in its place; and taking courage, with his utmost effort he began to crawl, weak in body but strong in faith. And lo, in the air there was clamour and shouting: "Stop him, stop him, hold him, hold him; we are losing our prey." But, carried on by faith and the desire to escape, the more they shouted the more he hastened to the remedy, straining with knees and hands. And when he reached the couch, and went up on it, he rolled himself in the bed-clothes, and heard the wailing of them that lamented, "Alas, alas, we have betrayed ourselves, we have been deceived, he has escaped."[628] And quicker than a word, there left him the terror of the demons and the horror which he suffered, and with them all his sickness. In the city of Lismore a man vexed by a demon was delivered by Malachy. Also once, when he was passing through Leinster, an infant was brought to him who had a demon, and he was brought back whole. In the same region he ordered a mad woman,[629] bound with cords, to be loosed and to be bathed in water which he blessed. She washed and was healed. Another woman also in Saul,[630] a region of Ulaid,[631] who was tearing her own limbs with her teeth, he cured by praying and touching her.