tirring. Without delay, Brian donned a
mail-shirt, bound his useless left arm to his side, and mounted. The
Bird Daughter insisted on accompanying him, and stilled his dismayed
protests by asserting her feudal superiority; in the end she had her
way.

Leaving her kinsmen and a hundred more men to dispute O'Donnell's
passage and give back slowly before him with Cathbarr, she and Brian
rode to their men among the trees on the hillsides over the hollow in
the road. Here they had a hundred and fifty men, composed of the Scots
troopers and the pick of the others, and Nuala took one side of the road
while Brian took the other. Then, being well hidden, they waited.

Brian was savagely determined to slay the Dark Master that day, and came
near to doing it. Presently a man galloped up to say that O'Donnell and
six hundred men were on the road, having left the rest to hold the
castle. A little later Cathbarr's retreating force came in sight, and
after them marched O'Donnell. He had deployed his muskets in front and
rear, and rode in the midst of his pikemen, whose banner of England blew
out bravely in the morning wind.

At the edge of the dip in the road Cathbarr led his men in full flight
down the hollow and up the farther rise, where he halted as if to
dispute the Dark Master further. There were barely a dozen mounted men
with O'Donnell, and he made no pursuit, but marched steadily along with
his muskets pecking at Cathbarr's men. When he had come between the
wooded hillsides, however, Cathbarr came charging down the road; the
pikemen settled their pikes three deep to receive him, and with that
Brian led out his men among the trees and swooped down with an ax
swinging in his right hand.

Alive to his danger, the Dark Master tried to receive his charge, but
at that instant Nuala's men burst down on the other flank. Brian headed
his men, and at sight of him a yell of dismay went up from the
O'Donnells. A moment later the pikemen's array was broken and the fight
disintegrated into a wild affray wherein the horsemen had much the
better of it.

Brian tried to cut his way to the Dark Master, but when O'Donnell saw
the pikemen shattered he knew that the day was lost. He gathered his
dozen horsemen and went at Cathbarr viciously; Brian saw the two meet,
saw O'Donnell's blade slip under the ax and Cathbarr go from the saddle,
then the Dark Master had broken through the ring and was riding hard for
the North.

Brian wheeled his h