The rhymed life of St Patrick Written by Katharine Tynan: With pictures by L. D. Symington: And a foreword by Lieut.-General Sir William Butler |
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The Test of the Druids |
 | The rhymed life of St Patrick |  |
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The Test of the Druids
They poisoned Patrick's Cup. With the SignHe changed the poison to life-giving wine.
They offered a test—that Benignus lie
In the Druid's mantle on faggots dry;
And the Druid wrapped in St Patrick's cloak
Lie on green faggots of beech and oak,
And the pyres be lighted. “We shall see, then,”
The Druids said, “if these Christian men
Have help of their God.” The fires were lit,
And the green wood smoked of the fire of the Pit.
Roars the fire over and under,
Consumes the Druid, but (part of the wonder)
Spares the cloak that the Saint encloses.
Benignus lies as on bed of roses:
Amid the flames smiling he lay,
While the fierce tongues licked him like beasts at play.
There was not a scorch from his hair to his sole,
But the mantle shrank like a withered scroll.
| The rhymed life of St Patrick | |