dge of the worst and bitterest kind. He had
injured him by carrying off his wife, Dervorgil, and men generally hate
most bitterly those whom they have injured most cruelly.

Meanwhile MacCarthy of Desmond had attacked and defeated the English
garrison at Waterford, but without any advantageous results. Roderic's
weakness now led him to perpetrate an act of cruelty, although it could
scarcely be called unjust according to the ideas of the times. It will
be remembered that he had received hostages from Dermod for the treaty
of Ferns. That treaty had been openly violated, and the King sent
ambassadors to him to demand its fulfilment, by the withdrawal of the
English troops, threatening, in case of refusal, to put the hostages to
death. Dermod laughed at the threat. Under any circumstances, he was not
a man who would hesitate to sacrifice his own flesh and blood to his
ambition. Roderic was as good as his word; and the three royal hostages
were put to death at Athlone.

An important synod was held at the close of this year (A.D. 1170), at
Armagh. We have already mentioned one of its principal enactments, which
deplored and condemned the practice of buying English slaves from the
Bristol merchants. Other subjects shall be more fully entertained when
we come to the Synod of Cashel, which was held two years later.

In 1171 Dermod MacMurrough, the author of so many miseries, and the
object of so much just reprobation, died at Ferns, on the 4th of May.
His miserable end was naturally considered a judgment for his evil life.
His obituary is thus recorded: "Diarmaid Mac Murchadha, King of
Leinster, by whom a trembling soil was made of all Ireland, after having
brought over the Saxons, after having done extensive injuries to the
Irish, after plundering and burning many churches, as Ceanannus,
Cluain-Iraired, &c., died before the end of a year [after this
plundering], of an insufferable and unknown disease; for he became
putrid while living, through the miracle of God, Colum-cille, and
Finnen, and the other saints of Ireland, whose churches he had profaned
and burned some time before; and he died at Fearnamor, without [making]
a will, without penance, without the body of Christ, without unction, as
his evil deeds deserved."[282]

But the death of the traitor could not undo the traitor's work. Men's
evil deeds live after them, however they may repent them on their
deathbeds. Strongbow had himself at once proclaimed King of
Leinst