The divine Providence bestoweth on this transitory world the desire of letters, to the end that the human race, which when death arrives cannot long continue in the memory, may through distant ages preserve the record of great events, and recall them as if passing before their eyes. Therefore do those things appear to me very worthy of remembrance which were done by Patrick, the illustrious preacher unto the Irish nation, the holy prelate, who, by the grace of God, in his evidences, his miracles, and his virtues, became the conqueror of the old enemy, even to the gathering together the people of Ireland and her kings, that they might serve the Lord; and at length he came unto the noble city which is now called Dublinia. And it was inhabited by the Norwegians and by the people of the Isles, having been conceded by the King of Ireland unto the dominion of the queen, who was the daughter of the King of Norwegia; and in course of time was it one while allied to, and other while warring against, the kings of Ireland. Hither Saint Patrick coming, found the city defiled with the abominations of idols, and unknowing of the true Creator. And He who burst asunder the gates of death and of hell smoothed the path for his servant; for the king and the people, who erewhile had said unto the Lord, Depart Thou from us, we will not the knowledge of Thy ways, so cast down were they, so saddened with weeping and with lamentation, that all memory of their wonted fierceness, all their barbarous rudeness, and all the pride of their idolatry, were utterly subdued. Wretched was the spectacle on that day! The twin hope of the kingdom, the delight of the city, the solace of the old, the companion of the young, the son of the King of Dublinia, lay in his chamber dead; and his sister, who had gone to bathe in the neighboring river, had that day perished in the mid-stream. And a tumult arose through the whole city; and the funeral rites of the king's son being wholly neglected, all ran confusedly to the shore; some, not even casting off their garments, plunge into the river, some dive into its lowest depths, and others sail down the course of the tide, lest haply the body of the royal damsel might thitherward be hurried down. But they who had gone out to seek beheld in the water the damsel lying down, even as one sleeping. They delay not; they raise the royal maiden from the stream; they bear her unto the chamber of her brother for her obsequies; and, according to the superstition of the pagans, the tombs are prepared. And a rumor gathers in the palace that he, Patrick of Ardmachia, who in the name of the unknown God had already raised many that were even dead, had on that day arrived in the city. This the king hearing rejoiced mightily; and he caused him to come where his two children lay, and, being already full of faith, he promised that if God at the prayers of the saint would restore the children of his age, he and all his people would worship him.