ally appeared at the
beginning of the second installment.]

The scene is laid in Ireland during Cromwell's time, when the whole
country was in arms for or against the various parties. Brian Buidh, or
Brian of the Yellow Hair, himself The O'Neill, comes home from Spain,
where he had been brought up to fight for his country. After a
mysterious warning from the Black Woman, an old hag, he wins forty men
from O'Donnell More, the Black Master, by a trick, and wins the
friendship of Turlough Wolf and Cathbarr of the Ax. His intention is to
gather a storm of men and hold an independent place near Galway. He
forms an alliance with Nuala O'Malley, known as the Bird Daughter
because of her carrier pigeons, for the purpose of recovering her
castle, Bertragh, which O'Donnell had won years before from her parents
by black treachery.

[Transcriber's Note: The following synopsis originally appeared at the
beginning of the third installment.]

The scene is laid in Ireland during Cromwell's time, when the whole
country was in arms for or against the various parties. Brian Buidh, or
Brian of the Yellow Hair, himself The O'Neill, comes home from Spain,
where he had been brought up to fight for his country. After a
mysterious warning from the Black Woman, an old hag, he wins forty men
from O'Donnell More, the Black Master, by a trick, and wins the
friendship of Turlough Wolf and Cathbarr of the Ax. His intention is to
gather a storm of men and hold an independent place near Galway. He
forms an alliance with Nuala O'Malley, known as the Bird Daughter
because of her carrier pigeons, for the purpose of recovering her
castle, Bertragh, which O'Donnell had won years before from her parents
by black treachery.

By warlock arts O'Donnell More brings Brian and a handful of men through
a snowstorm to Bertragh and makes him prisoner. He proceeds to torture
him fiendishly, ending by nailing him to the castle door by one hand.
Just then Colonel James Vere, British officer, arrives, and demands
Brian in order to hang him comfortably in Galway. Red Murrough,
O'Donnell's lieutenant, agrees, for the promise of ten English pounds,
to pretend that Brian is worse off than he is so that he may take longer
to recover. Cathbarr comes in, and offers to take Brian's place if
O'Donnell will release Brian; and when the Black Master makes fun of
him, he goes berserk and cleans out the hall, escaping with Brian to
Nuala. Then they besiege and best O'Donn