e city of Tours in France.

Calpornius and his wife were so ardent in religion that they spent day
and night in teaching their son the story of the gospel and the psalms.
They desired first of all that he should be a good Christian and a
bearer of the faith--but they wearied the growing boy with long hours
of study and monotonous recitals of religious hymns and proverbs when
he was eager to be ranging the hills or playing with his fellows. At
that time he had no particular desire to be a priest, and, like most
boys, was far more interested in the stories of heroes than the stories
of saints, preferring to hear of the wild Scottish chiefs and the Roman
Generals with whom they had engaged in bitter warfare.

He thirsted for adventure, and adventure was to come to him. Those were
wild days, and law only reached as far as it could be upheld by the
sword and the arrow. Pirates harried the seas and from the north the
galleys of the sea robbers were soon to range southward in search of
lands where plunder was to be found and men and women to be carried
into slavery.

One night, when a gale was blowing from the northeast, St. Patrick, we
are told, sat with some friends in the glowing light of a great peat
fire, where they warmed themselves at the same time that they told
stories of adventure and sang Scottish songs as wild and melancholy as
the wind that was scouring the hills. Saint Patrick was now a lad of
sixteen, with well knit limbs and a powerful body that made him appear
older than he really was, and at the same time gave promise of greater
strength to come. He listened keenly to the singing, but at the same
time gave ear to sounds that he heard without the hut, for the rough
voices of men speaking an unknown tongue seemed to be mingling with the
noise of the storm. At last he sprang up with a shout of warning, a
shout that was answered by a battle cry from without. A pirate galley
had made its way to the shore and the crew were engaged on a raid to
capture slaves. Some of Saint Patrick's companions were clubbed or cut
down where they sat, but he was thrown and strongly bound, dragged
roughly to the shore and tossed on board the robber craft that quickly
made its way to sea in spite of the tremendous surf that broke over the
backs of the oarsmen.

For several days they fought the sea and at last came to the coast of
northern Ireland, where Saint Patrick was sold as a slave to an Irish
chief named Miliuc. It is probab