s," although it seems curious that it could have been
held to be other than fiction.

A Count of Goelc, in Brittany, sought in marriage Azenor, "tall as a
palm, bright as a star," but they had not been wedded a year when
Azenor's father married again, and his new wife, jealous of her
stepdaughter, hated her and determined to ruin her. Accordingly she
set to work to implant suspicion as to Azenor's purity in the minds of
her father and husband, and the Count shut his wife up in a tower and
forbade her to speak to anyone. Here all the poor Countess could do
was to pray to her patron saint, the Holy Bridget of Ireland.

Her stepmother, however, was not content with the evil she had already
wrought, and would not rest until she had brought about Azenor's
death. She continued her calumnies, and at length the Count assembled
all his barons and his court to judge his wife. The unfortunate and
innocent Countess was brought into the hall for trial, and, seated on
a little stool in the midst of the floor, the charges were read to her
and she was called upon to give her reply. With tears she protested
her innocence, but in spite of the fact that no proof could be brought
against her she was sent in disgrace to her father in Brest. He in
turn sat in judgment upon her, and condemned her to death, the
sentence being that she should be placed in a barrel and cast into the
sea, "to be carried where the winds and tides listed." We are told
that the barrel floated five months, "tossing up and down"--during
which time Azenor was supplied with food by an angel, who passed it to
her through the bung-hole.

During these five months, the legend continues, the poor Countess
became a mother, the angel and St Bridget watching over her. As soon
as the child was born his mother made the sign of the Cross upon him,
made him kiss a crucifix, and patiently waited the coming of an
opportunity to have him baptized. The child began to speak while in
the cask. At last the barrel rolled ashore at Youghal Harbour, in the
county of Cork. An Irish peasant, thinking he had found a barrel of
wine, was proceeding to tap it with a gimlet when he heard a voice
from within say: "Do not injure the cask." Greatly astonished, the man
demanded who was inside, and the voice replied: "I am a child desiring
baptism. Go at once to the abbot of the monastery to which this land
belongs, and bid him come and baptize me." The Irishman ran to the
abbot with the message, but