146 On the Shores of Longing

Now in one of these holy houses lived the
monk Bresal of the Songs, who had followed
Sedulius the Bishop into Spain.

Bresal had been sent thither to teach the
brethren the music of the choirs of the Isle
of the Gael and to train the novices in chant
and psalmody, for of all singers the sweetest
was he, and he could play on every instru-
ment of wind or string, and was skilled in all
the modes of minstrelsy. hereto he knew
by heart numberless hymns and songs and
poems, and God had given him the gift to
make songs and hymns, and beautiful airs for
the singing of them. And for these things, so
sweet and gentle was the nature of the man,
he was greatly beloved whithersoever he
fared.

A happy and holy life had he lived, but
now he was growing old; and as he looked
from the convent on the cliffs far over the
western waters, he thought daily more and
more of Erinn, and a great longing grew
upon him to see once more that green isle
in which he had been born. And when he
saw, far below, the ships of the sea-farers
dragging slowly away into the north in the
breezy sun-shine or in the blue twilight, his