as they could, consigned them to slavery. In one of these expeditions
the house of Calphurnius was attacked, and Succat, with two of his
sisters and many of his countrymen, was carried away and conveyed to the
north of Ireland.

Here he was purchased as a slave by Michul or Milchu, a chief of North
Dalaradia, who dwelt in the valley of the Braid, near Mount Slemish, in
the country of Antrim. The work assigned him was that of attending his
master's flocks and herds, and in his "Confession," which he wrote
toward the close of his life, he describes how he wandered over the
bleak mountains, often drenched with the rains, and numbed with the
frosts. His period of servitude lasted six years; and during this time
he would seem to have made himself acquainted with the language of the
native tribes, and to have learned their habits and modes of life. At
length he succeeded in effecting his escape to the seaside, where he
took ship, and, after a tempestuous passage, regained his father's
house. His stay, however, was destined to be very short. In a predatory
excursion he was a second time taken captive, and again, after a brief
interval, succeeded in making his escape.

Had he listened to his parents, he would now have remained with them,
but he was bent on a very different occupation. "The Divine Voice," he
says, "frequently admonished me to consider whence I derived the wisdom
which was in me, who once knew neither the number of my days nor was
acquainted with God; and whence I obtained afterward so great and
salutary a gift as to know and to love God." During the weary hours,
moreover, of his captivity, he had often reflected how blessed a thing
it would be if he, to whom it had been given to know the true God and
his Son Jesus Christ, could carry the glad tidings to his master's
people and the land of his exile.

One night, he tells us, he had a dream, in which he thought he saw a man
coming from Ireland with a number of letters. One of these he gave him
to read, and in the beginning occurred the words, "The voice of the
Irish." While he was reading it, he thought he heard a voice calling to
him across the Western Sea, "We entreat thee, holy youth, to come and
walk among us."

Obedient, therefore, to what he deemed to be a plain leading from
heaven, and resisting the arguments and entreaties of relatives and
friends, who mocked at his enthusiastic resolve, he set out for the
monasteries in Southern France, there to pre