were the two first that appeared, and the
young men followed in pairs, and every one
of them, in addition to his fine new clothes,
had a sword by his side, a bow in his hand,
and a bundle of arrows at his back.

It took them a good half-hour to walk
down the steep hill on which was the
king's castle, and to climb the hill on which
was the castle of the giants.

The clock was chiming the half-hour as
they reached the front gate to the giants'
fortress where the travellers' trumpet was
lying.

Columbanus took up the trumpet, and, to
show those inside that neither himself nor
any one with him, was a bit daunted, he
played, with elegant variations, the tune We
won't go home till morning.

The minute he finished the tune, the gate
was unbolted, and in marched King MacLaw
and his company; and the moment they did
so the gate was slammed-to again behind
them. And then the six giants, who were
standing inside,opened their great big
mouths as if they would swallow the king,
the bishop, and the six young men. The six
giants gave a roar of laughter so loud that it
might be easily heard from the Hill of Howth
to the Hill of Tara.

"They may laugh that win," said the
bishop, giving the king a nudge with his
elbow.

"Caught at last," said Canao with the red
beard. "These fellows will soon find it was
easier to come in than to get out."

"God save all here that's good!" said
Columbanus, as he walked arm-in-arm with
the king into the court-yard.

"Have you no more manners than that?"
said the red-bearded Count Canao, stepping
up to his lordship, and knocking the mitre
off his head; " to keep on your hat before
your betters?"

"You are not the first blackguard that
insulted a bishop, and was made to sup sorrow
for it afterwards," mildly replied Columbanus,
as he stooped down, picked up his
mitre, and wiped it with a silk handkerchief.

"Is this the way you treat my friends, you
murdering thief?" said King MacLaw.

"To be sure it is, if they don't know how to
behave themselves," replied Canao. "And
so," he added, sneering at the king, "you
have come to your daughters' wedding?"

"Yes; and brought a Christian bishop
with me to marry them," answered MacLaw.

"We will have no Christian bishops
here," said Canao. " The six giants are six
Pagans, and they won't be married by any
one but an idolatrous priest."

"Then they never shall be married to
King MacLaw's daughters," exclaimed
Columbanus.

"And who else shall they marry?" asked
Count Canao, making a face at the bishop.

"To these six, fine, strapping young gentlemen
that have come along with their father,"
answered the bishop.

"You are as drunk as a fiddler, or you
would never say that," observed Canao,
getting in a passion.

"Wait awhile, my bonchal! " remarked
the bishop, as meek as a lamb.

"I won't wait another minute," said Canao.
"Here, bring out my six spanking nieces and
the idolatrous priest till they are married
offhand to these six giants. The moment the
wedding is over, I will leave the six giants
to cut off the heads of these six young men,
whilst I have the satisfaction of chopping
these two old fellows—MacLaw and the
bishop—into mince-meat."

"And was it with that intention you invited
your brother and these young men to
the wedding?" asked the bishop, as he
grasped tightly his crook in his right hand.

"To be sure it was," answered Canao.

"Your time is up then, my chap! " said
the bishop, putting the mitre on his head,
and making a circle in the air with his crook.
"Count Canao with the red beard, my malediction
upon you and the six giants of Lehon!
From this until the day of judgment I doom
you and the six giants to remain on this
castle; not as you are now, but in the form
you deserve to retain. I asked you, this
morning, for charity, and you refused it;
you showed that your heart was of stone,
and be now, and until time is no more, a
heap of stones. There! take THAT!" said
Columbanus, striking Canao a mighty blow
with his crook.

"O! you atrocious, negro-romancing, old
—-!"

Those were the last words that Canao with
the red beard ever spoke; for, before he
could finish the sentence, be was changed
into a great round pillar of rough-hewn
stones.

The six giants saw the punishment the
bishop had inflicted upon Canao. They saw
that Columbanus could, if he liked, make
men into mile-stones; and at once they fell
on their knees before his lordship.

"There is no time for repentance in this
world for unbaptised Pagans," said the
bishop. "You have run the full length of
your tether, my fine fellows—so be off with
you! Get up out of that, and walk away
with yourselves—there, and there, and there,
and there, and there, and there!" added
Columbanus, as he laid the end of his crook
on each giant's head, and then pointed to a
different side of the fortification. " Just be
off, as I tell you, in a jiffey, and stand there
until these six young gentlemen make a
cockshot of every man of you."

The giants did as they were ordered, because
they had not the power to refuse. In
a moment they stood as stiff as pokers in the
various places pointed out to them; and each
of them, all the time, trembling like a dog in
a wet sack.