racted
to her monastery many visitors of note. Among those who esteemed it
an honor to have her friendship was the chronicler Gildas. The
Ey-Bridges, i.e., the Isles of Bridget, or the Hebrides, according to
the modern form of their name, claim the honor of holding in loving
embrace her mortal remains. In this claim, however, they have a
vigorous disputant in the town of Kildare, which claims the renown of
her burial.

Passing from the vague borderland between legend and history, we come
down to the twelfth century, when mediaeval conditions were in full
force and the manners and customs already described in connection
with the women of the times had full hold upon their lives. As
representative of the spirit of the period, the life of the renowned
Eva, Princess of Leinster and Countess of Pembroke, may be briefly
considered.

The history of the sad princess centres about the struggles of Dermot
to regain the throne of Leinster, from which he had been deposed by
the federated kings. First he equipped a body of mercenaries from
Wales, only to be met with defeat in his endeavor to take Dublin from
the enemy. He appealed for aid to the English king, Henry II., who was
then engaged in a campaign in France. He did not receive direct help
from that monarch, who himself was looking with covetous eyes upon
Ireland, but he did receive permission to make recruits from among his
Anglo-Norman subjects. His real aid came from the Earl of Pembroke,
called Richard Strongbow. With a large fleet, Dermot now set sail
for Ireland, bent not only upon the recovery of his possession of
Leinster, but the conquest of the whole island.

The consideration offered by Dermot to Pembroke for his services
was the hand of his daughter Eva, with the kingdom of Leinster for
a dowry. Waterford, a town then of equal importance with Dublin, was
successively besieged and sacked; the Danes, who held it, were driven
out with great slaughter. Amid all the horror of the sacked city
was consummated the union of Eva and Richard, Earl Strongbow. Dublin
became the place of their residence. A few years thereafter, the
husband's checkered career was closed by a wound in the foot. In
Christ Church, Dublin, lies the body of the warrior, and the monument
displays the figure of a recumbent knight in armor, with that of his
bride at his side.

The national struggles of Scotland are as replete with examples of
illustrious women as those of Ireland; the tragedy of th