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The inner harbour of Boulogne was approached by a narrow channel dividing the north-eastern from the south-western cliffs; and the waters of the bay, flowing through it and uniting with the River Liane in covering the present site of the lower town, rushed onwards as far as the valley of Tintelleries and the vale of St. Martin.

Facing the site of the present town there was an island called Elna, and on it was built the ancient town of Gessoriac, which was connected with the mainland by a bridge. Realising the future importance of the place both for naval and military purposes, Caesar commissioned Pedius, a native of Bononia, in Italy, to lay out a town on the declivity of the Grande Rue, leading to Haute Ville, as the upper town and the hill leading to it are called at the present day. .

The walls of the present fortifications of Haute Ville, built in the thirteenth century, rest on the ancient foundations of the old Roman encampment. This fact was proved at the time when a tunnelling was made for the railway from Boulogne to Calais under Haute Ville . The circuit of the present fortifications, about 700 yards square, present to-day the appearance pf the old Roman encampment. "The camp of a Roman legion," writes Gibbon, "presented all the appearance of a fortified city. As soon as the place was marked out, the pioneers carefully levelled the ground and removed every impediment that might interrupt its perfect regularity. It forms an exact quadrangle, and we might calculate that a square of 700 yards was sufficient for the encampment of 20,000 Romans, though a similar number of our troops would expose to an enemy a front of more than treble its extent. In the midst of the camp the pretorium, or general's quarters, rose above the others; the cavalry, the infantry, and the auxiliaries occupied their respective stations; the streets were broad and straight, and a vacant of 200 feet was left on all sides between the tents and the ramparts. The rampart itself was usually twelve feet high, and defended by a ditch twelve feet in depth, as well as in breadth. This important labour was performed by the legionaries themselves, to whom the use of the spade and the pick-axe was no less familiar than the sword and the pilum" This gives a faithful description of the Roman encampment at Boulogne, which is described by St. Patrick as Bonaven Tabernise, or Bononia, where the Roman encampment was pitched. Bononia, according to Bertrand's "History of Boulogne," was regarded by the Romans as their "principal dockyard" in Northern Gaul; and Suetonius, in his "Lives of the Twelve Caesars," describes it "as the port from which the Roman legions successively departed for Britain" .

Many err in supposing that Gessoriac and Bononia were one and the same town, originally called Gessoriac, and later, that is to say during the reign of Constantine the Great, known as Bononia. It is true, however, that during that Emperor's reign Gessoriac also came to be called Bononia.

It is well to observe that the Morini, or inhabitants of the coast in the neighbourhood of Boulogne, were converted to Christianity by St. Firmin about the close of the second century; and that St. Fusian built a chapel on the banks of the River Liane, which flows through Boulogne, in the year 275.

St. Patrick, in his "Confession," represents himself and the fellow- citizens of his youth as Christians who had not observed the Commandments of God, and who had not been obedient to their priests. At that time the Northern Britons were pagans; St. Ninian, who flourished about the year 400, was the first missioner who preached the Gospel to the Dalraida and Southern Picts. They could not, therefore, have been described in the year 388, when St. Patrick was made captive, as Christians who had ceased to practise their religion. "I knew not the real God," writes St. Patrick, "and I was brought captive to Ireland with many thousand men, as we deserved, for we had forgotten God and had not kept His Commandments, and were disobedient to our priests, who admonished us for our salvation. And the Lord brought down upon us the anger of His Spirit, and scattered us amongst many nations, even to the ends of the earth, where now my humble self may be witnessed among strangers" .

ST. PATRICK MADE CAPTIVE BY NIALL OF THE NINE HOSTAGES.

GIBBON narrates that about the middle of the fourth century the "sea coast of Gaul and Britain were exposed to the depredations of the Saxons" ; and Bertrand, in his "History of Boulogne," admits that the city was plundered by the Saxons in the year 371, but that the invaders spared Caligula's tower and lighthouse on account of its usefulness for their safe navigation. The silence of local history concerning two raids made by the Irish Scots into Armorica in the years 388 and 402 is not surprising, seeing that French writers admit that there is practically no history of Armorica or more than a century after the Saxon raid in the year 371. Gibbon, however, in his history of the "Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire," narrates that "the hostile tribes of the North, who detested the pride and power of the King of the World, suspended their domestic feuds, and the barbarians of the land and sea, the Picts, the Scots, and the Saxons, spread themselves with rapid and irresistible fury from the walls of Antoninus to the shores of Kent" . Keating supplements this information by describing the two raids made by the Irish Scots into Armorica; the first of which took place in the year 388, and the second in 402, or about that time. This Irish historian is considered by Professor Stokes to be a most trustworthy authority. "Keating," writes the Professor, "had access to the Munster Documents, which are now lost. He gives a long account of the Irish invasions of England and France exactly corresponding to the statements of the Roman historian, Amianus Marcellinus, and to the 'Annals of the Four Masters'" .

Of the raids of King Niall into Armorica the first is the more interesting, for it proves, first, that St. Patrick was born in the year 373, and, next, that he was captured neither in North Britain, nor Wales, but in Armorican Britain.

To escape from these conclusions, Doctor Lanigan, who held that St. Patrick was born in the year 387, writes as follows: "I find in Keating but one expedition of Niall to the coast of Gaul, during which he says, in another place, that St. Patrick with two hundred of the noblest youth were brought away. . . . This event occurred in the latter end of Niall Naoigiallach's reign, and not as early as the ninth year of it. . . . We have no authority," continues Lanigan, "for his having visited Gaul at any time until the period already given, and which is clearly marked in Irish history. Our Saint's captivity may be assigned to 403, and to a time not long prior to King Niall's death. Thus the date of his birth and captivity, considering the circumstances now mentioned, help to confirm each other, and, combined with his age at consecration, authorizes his birth in 387" .

Contrary to what Dr. Lanigan has just stated, a close study of Keating's "History" will prove that King Niall made two raids into Armorica, the first in the ninth and the second in the twenty-seventh year of his reign, and the account of the two expeditions is clear and unmistakable. "There is an old manuscript in vellum, exceedingly curious, entitled 'The Life of St. Patrick,' which treats likewise of the lives of Muchuda Albain and other Saints, from which I," writes Keating, "shall transcribe a citation that relates to St. Patrick.

"Patrick was a Briton born and descended from religious parents," and in the same place is the following remark: "The Irish Scots, under Niall the King, wasted and destroyed many provinces in Britain in opposition to the power of the Romans. They attempted to possess themselves of the northern part of Britain, and, at length, having driven out the old inhabitants, these Irish seized upon the country and settled in it." The same author upon this occasion remarks that from henceforth Great Britain was divided into three kingdoms, that were distinguished by the names of Scotia, Anglia, and Britia.

"The commanding officer of the Dalraida in this expedition was Gabhran, the son of Dombanguirt, who brought over with him Eochaidh, the son of Ena Cinsalach, King of Leinster. This young Prince had been formerly banished into Scotland by Niall, but resolving to be revenged when opportunity offered, he desired to be admitted as a volunteer in the service, and was by that means transported into France. The King of Ireland being informed of his arrival, would on no account permit him to visit him, nor suffer him in his presence. But Eochaidh soon found an opportunity to execute his design; for one day, perceiving the King sitting on the banks of the Loire, he hid himself secretly in an opposite grove on the other side, and shot Niall through the body with an arrow; the wound was mortal, and he died instantly" . According to O'Donovan's translation of "Muir N'Icht," Niall lived long enough to reach his fleet at Boulogne, where he expired.

Notwithstanding, then, Lanigan's positive assertion, it is quite evident from Keating's history that King Niall twice invaded Armorica; first, after he had devastated the Island of Britain in the ninth year of his reign, when St. Patrick was captured, and again in the twenty- seventh year of his reign, when he sailed directly from Ireland to Gaul and expired at Boulogne.

The events may be briefly stated as follows: Niall succeeded Criomthan in the year 376. In the ninth year of his reign, or A.D. 385, he prepared an expedition against the Picts, who were harassing the Scots settlers in North Britain. Having completed his task, he overran England, and finished his raid by crossing over to Armorica, before returning triumphant to Ireland with St. Patrick amongst his captives.

Now St. Patrick, who was born in the year 373, passed his thirteenth and fourteenth years while King Niall was chastising the Picts in Scotland and ravaging Britain; but he had reached his fifteenth year in the year 388, when the Irish fleet sailed from Armorica to Ireland. The words of the Saint in his Epistle to Coroticus: "Have I not tender mercy towards the nation which formerly took me captive," place the Saint's capture by the Irish Scots beyond doubt, whilst they confirm Keating's declaration that King Niall captured St. Patrick in his first raid to Armorica.

The capture of the Saint in Armorica is confirmed by the Scholiast, by the Tripartite Life, and by Probus. St. Patrick, as we have already seen, was captured while residing at his father's "villula" in the suburban district of Bonaven Tabernise, or Bononia, where the Roman encampment stood. This account harmonises with the "Celtic Legend," which narrates that at that period, "when Bononia was invaded by the Irish pirates, a mutiny broke out among the soldiers in the encampment, which rendered the city an easy prey to the invaders. Calphurnius, the Roman officer defending Caligula's tower, was slain, and his son Patrick was carried into captivity" .

According to the "Book of Sligo," as has been seen already, the Apostle of Ireland first saw the light of day on Wednesday, April 5th; not on Wednesday, April 5th, 372, as Usher imagined, for, as Ware points out, April 5th did not fall on Wednesday, 372, but on Wednesday, 373. There is overwhelming evidence to prove that St. Patrick died in the year 493, having attained the 120th year of his age. Usher, Ware, the Tripartite Life, the "Vita Secunda," the "Vita Quarta," the "Leabhar Braec," the "Annals of the Four Masters," the "Annals of Innisfail," the "Book of Howth," the "Annals of Tigernasch," the "Chronicon Scotorum," the "Annals of Boyle," Marianus Scotus, Nennius, Geraldus Cambrensis, Florence of Worcester, and Roger of Wendover all maintain this. The year of the Saint's birth may, therefore, be accurately obtained by subtracting 120 from 493, the date of his death. This process will show that St. Patrick was born in 373, and captured in the very year of King Niall's raid into Armorica, 388, when the Saint had attained his fifteenth year.

ST. PATRICK AFTER HIS CAPTIVITY RETURNS TO HIS NATIVE COUNTRY.

"AND on a certain night I heard in sleep a voice saying to me: 'Thou fasteth well; fasting thou shalt return to thy own native country'" . "And again, after a little, I heard a response, saying to me: 'Behold thy ship is ready'" .

St. Fiacc suggests, Probus asserts, and Professor Bury admits that St. Patrick, after his captivity, fled to Gaul, and not to Great Britain. Gaul, therefore, and not the Island of Britain, was St. Patrick's native land.

If either Northern or Southern Britain were St. Patrick's native country, it seems incredible that the-Saint should be required to travel a distance of 200 Roman miles, from the North-East to the West of Ireland, in order to embark for Britain, when Lough Larne is but 30 nautical miles from Scotland,, and not more than 15 miles from Mount Slemish, and while Belfast and Strangford Loughs were within easy distance of the place of his captivity, and more suitable for embarkation than any seaport in the West of Ireland if North Britain were his destination.

A voyage from the west coast of Ireland to the Clyde would take the Saint a very unnecessary journey of 200 miles by land to the port of embarkation, and from thence an equally unnecessary voyage by sea, from the west around the northern coast of Ireland, past North Antrim--the county from which he started,--in order to reach Dumbarton, Kilpatrick, or Hamilton on the Clyde.

There are some indications which suggest that St. Patrick, when returning to his native country, sailed from Killala Bay. Although Killala is only 130 miles distant from Mount Slemish, as the crow flies, the Saint would have had to travel around Slieve Gallion, and make a circuit around the mountains of Tyrone, which stood directly across the path of a direct route. Lough Erne, in the County of Fermanagh, and Lough Gill, in the County of Sligo, and the inland flow of Killala Bay would add to the obstacles to be encountered, sufficient when all taken together to account for the 53 miles difference between 130, as the crow flies, and 183 English or 200 Roman miles which had to be travelled before he joined his ship.

Moreover, the woods of Foclut were situated within five miles of Killala, and St. Patrick in his "Confession" speaks in familiar terms of the inhabitants who dwell in the neighbourhood of the woods, whose voices sounded familiar to his ears when far away in Gaul.

This, indeed, would suggest that the Saint had made acquaintance with them during his flight, for he distinctly states when alluding to the place of his embarkation: "I had never been there, nor did I know any one that lived there" . His acquaintance with the inhabitants of Foclut must have been made after he had journeyed there, and previous to his embarkation.

Readers of the "Confession" will remember how touchingly he described the cordial manner in which he was welcomed by his relatives, who, to use the Saint's own words, "received me as a son, and besought me that then at least, after I had undergone so many tribulations, I should never depart from them again. Then in the middle of the night, a man who seemed to come from Ireland, whose name was Victoricus, the bearer of innumerable letters, one of which he handed to me; and I read the beginning of the letter, entitled 'The Voice of the Irish.' As I was reading the beginning of the letter, I thought that I heard in my mind the voices who dwelt near the woods of Foclut, which is near the Western sea, and they cried out: 'We entreat thee, O holy youth, to come and walk still with us.' My heart was deeply touched; I could read no more; and I awoke" .

Being then in his thirtieth year when he had this vision, St. Patrick could not be called a youth. He was a youth, however, at the time when he escaped from his first captivity, and became acquainted with the inhabitants of Foclut, who appealed to him in the vision as the youth they had formerly known. They, consequently, besought him to come and abide with them as he had done formerly, for this is the obvious meaning of the words "We entreat thee, O holy youth, to come and walk still with us."

It is probable, therefore, that St. Patrick sailed back from Killala Bay, the nearest port to the woods of Foclut. It may readily be surmised that if the saintly youth, so full of holy zeal, had to remain for a few weeks, or even a few days, whilst the ship was completing its cargo, he would have time to make friendly acquaintance with the inhabitants near the woods, who doubtless received the friendless stranger with kind hospitality.

This gives a simple solution of the difficulty proposed by Professor Bury, who, relying on St. Patrick's friendly acquaintance with the inhabitants of Foclut, states that Croagh Patrick, which is not far from Foclut, and not Mount Slemish, was the scene of the Saint's captivity.

If the ship's cargo consisted chiefly of Irish wolfhounds, so greatly appreciated in Gaul, as Professor Bury suggests , it would take more than "a day or two" to collect a sufficient number for exportation. There is nothing stated in the "Confession" to limit the time that St. Patrick had to wait before the ship, sailed away from port.

Moreover, in the solitude of Mount Slemish, absorbed in prayer and in guarding his flock, the saintly shepherd had no opportunity of making any acquaintance whilst in slavery. "After I had come to Ireland I was daily attending sheep, and I frequently prayed during the day, and the love of God and His faith and fear increased in me more and more, and the spirit was stirred; so that in a single day I have said as many as a hundred prayers, and in the night nearly the same, so that I remained in the woods and on the mountain. Even before the dawn I was roused to prayer in snow, in ice and rain, and I felt no injury from it, nor was there any want of energy in me, as I see now, because the spirit was then fervent in me." These certainly are not the words of a youth who was in the habit of journeying from Croagh Patrick to Foclut to make the acquaintance of the inhabitants. It is, on the contrary, easy to imagine what a powerful effect a Saint, so stirred by the Spirit of God as his words express, would have on all with whom he came in contact after he had been freed from his duties as a shepherd. St. Patrick's history of himself suggests at least that his acquaintance with others, except those of his master's household, must have been made after his escape from captivity.

Professor Bury, being a Protestant, treats the Divine admonition given to the Saint as a dream; not as the voice of God speaking to His servant, but as an ardent desire on the Saint's part which met with disappointment. Catholics, on the contrary, fully believe that God's promise was fulfilled, and that St. Patrick did actually return to his own native country, which the Professor very satisfactorily proves was Gaul and not Britain. The Armorican theory of St. Patrick's birthplace affords a very natural and easy explanation of the difficulty which the Saint's return to Gaul from captivity must present to all who try to prove that he was a native of Great Britain.

ST. FIACC'S NEMTHUR WAS SITUATED IN THE SUBURBS OF BOULOGNE.

Succat ejus notnen in Tribubus dictum, Quis ejus Pater sit notum, Filius Calpurnii, filii Otidi, Nepos deaconi Odissi.

Fuit sex annis in servitate, Excis hominum non vescebat, Fuit ei nomen adoptivum Cothriagh Quatuor Tribubus quia inserviit.

Dixit Victor servo Milchonis, Iret trans fluctus. Posuit suos pedes supra saxum, Manet exinde ejus vestigia.

Profectus est trans Alpes omnes, Trans Maria, fuit faelix expedition Et remansit apud Germanum In australi parte australis Lethaniae.

The following beautiful free translation of these verses is taken, with kind permission, from Monsignor Edward Watson, M.A.'s, translation of St. Fiacc's ode:

"At Nemthur, as our minstrels own, Heaven's radiance first on Patrick smiled, But fifteen summers scarce had thrown A halo round the holy child, When captured by an Irish band He took their Isle for fatherland. Succat by Christian birth his name, Heir to a noble father's fame. Calphurnius' son, of Potit's race, And deacon Odis' kin and grace, Six years of bondage he must bear With faithful fast from heathen fare. And Cothriagh now his name and due, Who holding high allegiance true, Yet served four little lords of earth Till Victor bade him Milchu's slave To fly across the freeman's wave. He fled, but first upon the rocky shore His footprint set a seal for evermore.

Then far away beyond the seas, In happy flight o'er many a land, O'er many a mountain on he flees To face Lethania's southern strand, Nor rested long upon the road Until he gained Germain's abode."

St. Fiacc states that the Apostle of Ireland was born at Nemthur-- Nemthur, as all commentators agree, is not the name of a town, but of a tower. "Neam-thur Hebernica vox est quse coelestem, sive altam turrim denotat." "Neamthur is an Irish word which denotes a heavenly, or a high tower" .

Assuming that St. Patrick was born in the suburbs, and close to the town of Bononia, or Banaven, as it has already been proved from his "Confession," St. Fiacc's declaration that his Patron was born at Nemthur admits of a very lucid explanation. Nemthur was situated in the suburbs and close to the town of Bonaven. St. Fiacc gives the name of the district, but St. Patrick gives the name of the town near which he was born.

Singularly enough Caligula's famous tower on the sea coast of Boulogne was called Turris Ordinis by the Romans, but Nemtor by the Gauls, as Hersart de la Villemarque clearly proves in his "Celtic Legend" , and the tower itself has given its name to the locality where it once stood, which is called even at the present time Tour d'Ordre--the French translation of "Turris Ordinis."

The history of this tower, on account of its close connection with the history of St. Patrick, cannot fail to be interesting. Caligula, or Caius Caesar, who died A.D. 41, meditated a descent upon Britain, and with that object marshalled his troops at Bononia. Fearful, however, of the dangers and fatigues of a long campaign in that inhospitable island, and full of childish vanity, he determined at length, as Suetonius humorously observes, "to make war in earnest; he drew up his army on the shore of the ocean, with his ballistse and other engines of war, and, while no one could imagine what he intended to do, on a sudden commanded them to gather up sea shells and fill their helmets and the folds of their dresses with them, calling them 'the spoils of the ocean due to the Capitol and the Palatium.' As a monument of his success, he raised a lofty tower, upon which, as at Pharos, he ordered lights to be burnt in the night time for the guidance of ships at sea" .

"It seems generally agreed," writes Forester, the translator of Suetonius' Lives, "that the point of the coast which was signalised by this ridiculous bravado of Caligula, somewhat redeemed by the erection of a high house, was Itium, afterwards called Gessoriacum and Bononia , a town belonging to the Gaulish tribe of the Morini" .

For many centuries this tower called Turris Ordens, Turris Ardens, or Turris Ordinis by the Romans, and Neamthur by the Gauls, spread its light over land and sea on the north-eastern cliffs of Boulogne.

A description of the tower is given in the "Memoirs of the Academy of Inscription," quoted by Bertrand in his "History of Boulogne," as follows: "The form of this monument, one of the most striking erected by the Romans, was octagon. It was entirely abolished about a hundred years ago, but, fortunately, a drawing of it, made when the lighthouse was still perfect, is still in existence, and has been exhibited to the Academy by the learned Father Lequien, a Dominican monk, native of Boulogne. Each of its sides, according to Bucherius, measured 24 to 25 feet, so that its circumference was about 200, and its diameter 66 feet. It contained twelve entablatures, or species of galleries, on the outside, including that on the ground floor. Each gallery projected a foot and a half further than the one above it, and consequently their size diminished with each succeeding gallery. On the top fires were lighted to serve as a beacon to vessels at sea. A solid foundation was formed, not only under the lighthouse, but for some distance beyond the external walls. It was constructed of stones and bricks in the following manner: first were seen three layers of stones, found on the coast, of iron grey colour, then two layers of yellow stone of a softer nature, and upon these two rows of hard red bricks, two inches thick, and a foot and a half long, and a little more than a foot broad" .

"Caligula's tower was built on the north-eastern cliffs, about half a mile from the sea, but within the suburbs of Boulogne. The constant encroachment of the tide had reduced that distance to 400 feet in 1544, when Boulogne was captured, and fortifications built around the tower by the English troops. Still, however, the merciless waves rushed onward to the coast, undermining the cliffs more and more, until at length, on July 29th, 1644, Caligula's tower fell headlong with a crash into the sea.

"Passengers from Folkestone to Boulogne gaze with reverence or curiosity on the Calvary on the northeastern cliffs, which fishermen salute with uncovered heads when sailing out to reap the harvest of the sea. Close to the Calvary there is a mass of ruins overhanging the cliff, which is all that remains of the fortifications built round Caligula's tower by the English conquerors. The tower itself once stood over the site occupied by the Hotel du Pavillion et des Bains de Mer, opposite the place for sea bathing" .

"A light-house, or Nemtor, as it was called in the Celtic language, kept watch during the night over the camp, village, and sea, preserving the Gaulish frontier from piratical incursions.

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