ed away,
and never recovered consciousness again. The majority were buried where
they stood; a few of the more noble were carried to their ancestral
resting-places. "And thus far the wars of the Gall with the Gaedhil, and
the battle of Clontarf."

The Annals state that both Brian and his son, Murrough, lived to receive
the rites of the Church, and that their remains were conveyed by the
monks to Swords, and from thence, through Duleek and Louth, to Armagh,
by Archbishop Maelmuire, the "successor of St. Patrick." Their obsequies
were celebrated with great splendour, for twelve days and nights, by the
clergy; after which the body of Brian was deposited in a stone coffin,
on the north side of the high altar, in the cathedral. Murrough was
buried on the south side. Turlough was interred in the old churchyard of
Kilmainham, where the shaft of an ancient cross still marks the site.

Malachy once more assumed the reins of government by common consent, and
proved himself fully equal to the task. A month before his death he
gained an important victory over the Danes at Athboy, A.D. 1022. An
interregnum of twenty years followed his death, during which the country
was governed by two wise men, Cuan O'Lochlann, a poet, and Corcran
Cleireach, an anchoret. The circumstances attending Malachy's death are
thus related by the Four Masters:--"The age of Christ 1022.
Maelseachlainn Mor, pillar of the dignity and nobility of the west of
the world, died in Croinis Locha-Aininn, in the seventy-third year of
his age, on the 4th of the nones of September, on Sunday precisely,
after intense penance for his sins and transgressions, after receiving
the body of Christ and His blood, after being anointed by the hands of
Amhalgaidh, successor of Patrick, for he and the successor of
Colum-Cille, and the successors of Ciaran, and most of the seniors of
Ireland were present [at his death], and they sung masses, hymns,
psalms, and canticles for the welfare of his soul."

[Illustration: COVER OF ST. PATRICK'S BELL.]

[Illustration: DESMOND CASTLE AND RATH, LIMERICK.]

FOOTNOTES:

[208] _Dagger_.--The king visited the shrine on his way to battle, and
hanging up his dagger, the then symbol of knightly valour, vowed to
release it with a kingly ransom if God gave him the victory. He obtained
his desire, and nobly fulfilled his vow.

[209] _Tyrants_.--J. Roderick O'Flanagan, Esq., M.R.I.A., has permitted
me to extract the account of the battle of Dund