THE SHRINE OF ST. PATRICK'S BELL. 273
looks
very different from the days when Saint Patrick paddled up in his
wicker and bull's-hide canoe. Probably the holy man himself would not
recognize it; nothing is the same except the salmon, the flies, the
limpid, clear water.
At
Slane, a hill on the riverside about eight miles from its mouth, Saint
Patrick built a beacon-fire. He was in consequence of this
immediately summoned to appear before King Laoghaire who held his
court on the neighboring height of Tara to answer how he dared light a
fire, when according to ancient custom as well as by royal mandate all
fires were to be extinguished. The interview between the Saint and the
King ended if not in the latter's conversion at least in his tolerating
the new comer, and eventually this occasioned the change in the
religion of the whole tribe.
Thus
began the apostleship of Saint Patrick, who in the course of his long
ministry traversed most parts of Ireland undeterred by the dread of
starvation or the fear of murder. He bap-
