hed in resistless torrent upon
the fold. Israel was led captive. Hosea was in chains. Samaria and the
kingdom of Israel were added to the conquests of Sennacherib; and the
kingdom of Judah, harassed but not destroyed, waited the accomplishment
of prophecy, and the measure of her crimes, ere the most ancient of
peoples should for ever cease to be a nation.

Ugaine Mor is the next monarch who demands notice. His obituary record
is thus given by the Four Masters:--"At the end of this year, A.M. 4606,
Ugaine Mor, after he had been full forty years King of Ireland, and of
the whole of the west of Europe, as far as Muir-Toirrian, was slain by
Badhbhchad at Tealach-an-Choisgair, in Bregia. This Ugaine was he who
exacted oaths by all the elements, visible and invisible, from the men
of Ireland in general, that they would never contend for the sovereignty
of Ireland with his children or his race."

Ugaine was succeeded by his son, Laeghaire Lorc, who was cruelly and
treacherously killed by his brother, Cobhthach Cael. Indeed, few
monarchs lived out their time in peace during this and the succeeding
centuries. The day is darkest before the dawn, in the social and
political as well as in the physical world. The Eternal Light was
already at hand; the powers of darkness were aroused for the coming
conflict; and deeds of evil were being accomplished, which make men
shudder as they read. The assassination of Laeghaire was another
manifestation of the old-world story of envy. The treacherous Cobhthach
feigned sickness, which he knew would obtain a visit from his brother.
When the monarch stooped to embrace him, he plunged a dagger into his
heart. His next act was to kill his nephew, Ailill Aine; and his
ill-treatment of Aine's son, Maen, was the consummation of his cruelty.
The fratricide was at last slain by this very youth, who had now
obtained the appellation of Labhraidh-Loingseach, or Lowry of the Ships.
We have special evidence here of the importance of our Historic Tales,
and also that the blending of fiction and fact by no means deteriorates
from their value.

Love affairs form a staple ground for fiction, with a very substantial
under-strata of facts, even in the nineteenth century; and the annals of
pre-Christian Erinn are by no means deficient in the same fertile source
of human interest. The History of the Exile is still preserved in the
Leabhar Buidhe Lecain, now in the Library of Trinity College, Dublin. It
is a highly