And Rius, being renewed outwardly in his body and inwardly in his spirit, brought with him his three brothers, and came with very many to be purified at the healing font. And after these things, Saint Patrick, observing him to be thoroughly freed from sin, and knowing how sin besets the slippery path of human life, inspired of the Holy Spirit, said unto him: "Choose, now, whether in this valley of tears, this world of tribulation and sorrow, shall thy years be prolonged, or whether, the misery of this life being instantly ended, thou wilt be carried up by the angels of light, and enter into the joy of the Lord thy God." But he, trusting that he should behold the mercies of the Lord in the land of eternal life, answered: "I choose, and I desire to be dissolved, and to be with Christ for ever, rather than to continue in the habitations of sinners." And he received the sacrament from the hands of the holy bishop, and, commending his spirit unto the Lord, he was brought unto eternal rest. CHAPTER XXXVI. _Of the Death of Milcho._ But Saint Patrick, confiding his affairs to his beloved Dichu, set forward to visit Milcho, his former master, even his tormentor; for so had he long intended in his mind, that by his preaching he might truly convert unto the infancy of the Christian faith him now grown old in his evil days. And Milcho, this man of envious heart, this minister of death feared lest the preaching of Patrick should penetrate a breast of stone, and that by his clear and fiery eloquence, or by some irresistible miracle, he should be compelled to believe. Therefore held he it as base and shameful to submit unto the doctrine of one who had formerly been his servant, and to be bound unto the unused worship of the Creator rather than his accustomed idolatry. So when he heard that the priest of the Most High was approaching, this child of perdition gathered together all his substance, and cast it into the fire; and then, throwing himself on the flames, made himself an holocaust for the infernal demons. And the holy prelate, beholding from a neighboring mountain the deadly end of this wicked prince, saw his soul, in the form of a fiery serpent, plunged into hell; when, contemplating the infinite depths of the judgments of God, with heavy tears and sighs uttered he these words: "Of this king, who, lest he should believe in the Creator of heaven and earth, hath thus doubly damned himself, the posterity shall not inherit his kingdom, but shall be bound in servitude that never may be loosed." And all this came to pass even according to the word of the man of God, for none of his race ascended after him to the throne of his kingdom; but in a short time all his generation quickly perished; from the face of the earth by the sword or by famine, or by captivity and the lowest servitude. Thus visiteth the Lord the sins of the fathers on their children; and thus is put the axe unto the tree of death, lest it should bring forth