_How the Saint Escaped the Deadly Snares._
And the king, bidding farewell to the bishop, returned to his palace,
and in the several places through which the saint was to pass he laid
an ambush; and divers rivers crossed the road, which might in many
parts be forded, nigh unto the shallows whereof he placed nine chariots
with some of his murderous servants, that if the saint should escape
the one he might meet with the other, and so that in no wise could he
pass unharmed. But on the morrow Patrick, with eight persons only and
the boy Benignus, going in a straight road to Teomaria, where the king
then resided, passed through them who had laid snares for his life; and
their eyes were bound, that they could not behold him; but to their
sight appeared eight stags with one hind passing over the mountains;
and thus, the Lord being his protector, did the saint and his
companions escape the contrivers of his destruction. Therefore he came
unto the royal city, and found the king at supper with his companions.
And at his entrance no one arose excepting a certain bard of the king
named Dubhtach, who devoutly saluted the saint, and besought and
obtained of him that he should be made a Christian. And Dubhtach the
first among them all believed in the Lord, and it was remembered to his
justification; for, being baptized and confirmed in the faith of
Christ, the strains that erewhile he had poured forth in the praise of
his false gods, now converting to a better use, he composed more
excellent poems unto the praise of the All-powerful and the honor of
His saints.