The Saint is flying from his enemies after the order of banishment from Erin had been issued against him: he subsequently exclaims—
“Though even in a church, the reprobates are slain;
Though in an island, in the middle of a lake,
The fortunate of this life are protected,
While in the very front of battle
No one can slay me.”
A well-known Irish scholar, the Rev. Canon Bourke, gives the following translation of the same passage:—
“If by six thousand I was guarded,
Or placed in islet in a lake,
Or in a fortress strong protected,