CHAPTER CXIX.
Certain Cheeses are converted into Stones,
and many Wicked Men are drowned.
And certain wicked and envious men, who lived in the country of Ferros, contriving to destroy the life of the saint, offered unto him poisoned cheeses, as if for his benediction; the which he blessed, and immediately converted into stones, to the admiration of many, the honor of God, the veneration of himself, and the confusion of the poisoners. And unto this day remain these stones in the place where the miracle was done, and show the virtue of Patrick, though mute, because they underwent mutation. Then did these poisoners, seeing that their machinations redounded to the glory of the saint and to the shame of themselves, gather together fifty armed men to spill the blood of this just one. And they, being assembled against him, entered the ford of a certain river, journeying along the bank whereof the man of God met them; and when he beheld their countenances, he understood their thoughts, and raising against them his left hand, with a clear voice he cried out, "Ye shall not come unto us, nor shall ye return unto your own people, but in this river shall your bodies remain, even to the day of judgment." Then, according to the word of the man of God, immediately they sank as lead in the mighty waters; nor even to this day were their bodies found, though long and often sought. Thus, at the divine mandate, did the water punish them who conspired the death of Saint Patrick, as erewhile the fire from heaven punished them which were sent by King Achab to the prophet. And the place wherein they sank in the waters is called even to this day the Ford of the Drowned Men.
CHAPTER CXX.
Of the Pitfalls passed over without danger,
and the Prophecies of the Saint.
And certain other sons of darkness, dwelling in the plain called Liffy, digged deep pitfalls in many parts of the public pathway, the which they covered with branches and green sods, that the saint when journeying might fall unawares therein. But a certain damsel discovered the contrived snare, and she hastened to show it unto the man of God, that he might avoid the mischief. Then he, trusting in the Lord, commanded his people to drive forward the horses, and, having blessed them, he passed over with unfailing foot. For the soft and tender herbage supported them like the solid earth, inasmuch as the holy troop bore in their hearts and on their bodies Him who bore all things. And the priest of God sent the damsel unto her father, that she might bring him into his presence to receive the salvation of his soul. And the damsel did even as he commanded, and brought before him her father; and at the preaching of the saint the man believed, and with his ten sons and his three daughters was baptized. Then did Patrick consecrate the virgins unto God, and gave to them the sacred veil; and he prophesied that of the sons five should be happy and prosperous in a secular life, and that the other five should first enter the clerical order, and at length holily live and die in the monastic habit; but unto them who had treacherously prepared the pit for him and for his people he foretold that they and their seed should pass their life in providing their sustenance and continually digging in the ground, and that, according to the Scripture, poverty should come on them like water. And all these things which the saint prophesied did the event prove.