she had conceived, was what, according to her solemn and constant asseveration, she knew not. That it must have been by a man, John of Tynmouth, whom Capgrave quotes, has not scrupled to affirm; but he says it is folly to inquire who ploughed and sowed the land, seeing that through God's blessing on the increase such excellent fruit was brought forth. Scandal, however, (for scandal there was even in the days of the Saints,) fixed upon Eugenius III., King of the Scots, for the father. But even scandal did not impeach* the sincerity of her declarations, which was proved beyond all doubt by the miracles that ensued.

There was a severe law among the Picts, that

any damsel who was convicted of committing folly in her father's house, should be thrown from the summit of Dunpelder, one of the highest mountains in that country, and that the seducer should lose his head. To that summit Thametes was carried, protesting her inno

* It is however impeached by the polemical and Jesuitical historian F. Alford, alias Griffith, who, when he says of Eugenius, that pater passim creditur, adds, Notus etiam fœminarum genius, quæ magnis nominibus sua crimina solent dealbare. Quicquid sit, Kentigerni sanctitatem Deus multo miraculo illustravit, et rosas inter spinas nasci posse ostendit. Nec de parente altero multum curandum."-Annales Ecclesiæ AngloSaxoniæ, t. ii. p. 20.

cence, and with prayers and tears, lifting up her hands to heaven for deliverance. Her protestations were in vain; not so her prayers for by miraculous interposition, when she was thrown over the precipice, she descended upon the wings of the wind, like the Tuscan Virgin Clusia, or Pysche, in the most beautiful of classic fables, and alighted unhurt, having neither experienced fear nor danger in the descent. Your true Pagan in ecclesiastical Romance cares as little for miracles as Pantaloon in a Pantomime. King Lot and his people agreed that she had been saved from death by Christian enchantments; and at the command of this relentless father she was taken out several miles to sea, put into a leathern coracle, and set adrift. But the winds and waves were more merciful than man: He who rules them was her protector; in shorter time than the passage could have been performed by any art of navigation, she came to land at a place called Collenros or Culros,* and there, without human help, she brought forth a son.

*F. Alford (T. ii. p. 20) places this upon the Firth of Forth: "hic habes Kentigerni natalem locum, ad Bodotric æstuarium, quod Laudoniam a Fifá dividit. Ibi Colenros olim, ubi fortè nunc Coldingham: quem locum Beda Coludi urbem, Ptolomæus Colaneam, vocavit in Laudoniæ regione."

A remarkable personage was at that time dwelling in a monastery at Collenros, Servan was his name: his mother Alpia was daughter to a king of Arabia, and Obeth his father was king of the land of Canaan. This holy Philistine was a Saint of approved prowess and great good nature; had slain a dragon in single combat, turned water into wine, and once, when a hospitable poor man killed his only pig to entertain him and his religious companions, he supt upon the pork, and restored the pig to life next morning; a palingenesia this which the eternal and unfortunate boar Serimner undergoes every day in Valhalla, and which the Saints of St. Servan's age, particularly the Scotch, British and Irish Saints, frequently exhibited to the great profit and edification of their hosts. At the hour when Thametes was driven on shore, and safely delivered on the beach, this holy personage heard the song of angels rejoicing in the air, and thereby understood what had happened. So he hastened to the sea-side, and finding there the mother and the new-born babe, saluted the infant with these words; "blessed art thou, my beloved, who comest in the name of the Lord!" Without delay he took them home to his convent, and baptized them both, naming the boy Kien

tiern, which is, being interpreted, Chief Lord, and which, by a slight alteration, has become Kentigern. But because the child as he grew up excelled his fellow-scholars in learning, docility, and all good qualities, St. Servan used to call him Mungo, being a term of endearment in what was then the language of that country; and by this name he was afterwards more frequently invoked than by that which he received in baptism.

In the age to which this legend relates, and in that also in which it was written, monasteries were the only schools. The other boys, seeing that Kentigern was a favourite, hated him for that reason, and endeavoured by many malicious tricks to bring him into disgrace. St. Servan had a tame robin, who used to feed from his hand, perch upon his head or shoulder while he was reading or praying, and flutter its wings and sing as if bearing part in his devotions. The young villains one day twisted its head off, and accused Kentigern of having killed it. To prove his innocence, he made a cross upon the head and put it on again, and the bird was nothing the worse for what it had undergone. It was a rule in the monastery that every boy should take his turn for a week to attend the fires at night before they retired to

rest, lest the nocturnal service should at any time be left unperformed for want of light. One night in Kentigern's week, after he had as usual duly performed this duty, the envious boys put out all the fires. At the proper hour he awoke, and perceiving what had been done, gathered a hazel bough, breathed upon it, set it on fire, and then lit the candles. One more attempt was made to bring shame upon him. The cook of the convent died and was buried; and the day after the burial the malicious scholars so far prevailed upon St. Servan that he ordered Kentigern upon his obedience to raise him from the dead; which, as so discrete a person consented to require it, seems to have been thought not an unreasonable exercise for one who was preparing to graduate as a Saint. The obedient cook came out of his grave at the call, and edified all the convent by an account of what he had seen in the other world.

Kentigern, however, who was now grown up, thought it time to depart from a place where his presence excited so many evil feelings; and knowing by revelation that this intention was conformable to the will of Providence, he stole away. The way which he took brought him to the river Mallena; a high tide had caused the stream to overflow, so that it would have