_The Miracle which is worked for Certain Hewers of Wood._
And Saint Patrick in his journeying passed with his people through a
forest in Midernia, and he met therein certain slaves that were hewing
wood; and these men were under the yoke of a hard and cruel master,
named Tremeus; and they hewed the wood with blunt axes, nor had they
whetstones nor had they any other means whereon to sharpen them.
Wherefore their strength failed, their arms stiffened, and the flesh
fell from their hands, and the naked sinews were seen, and the
miserable men wished rather for death than for life. But when the man
of God beheld their misery, he compassionated them, and he touched
them, and he blessed their hands and their instruments. Then at the
touch and the word of his blessing, all their strength is restored,
their hands are healed, their instruments become sharpened, the hardest
oaks are hewed down without toil, even as the tenderest twigs; and in
these men did the miracle continue until the saint had wondrously
obtained for them their freedom.