Nuala O'Malley

  CHAPTER XIV.

  HOW THE STORM FARED NORTH.

  Now, it was no easy matter for a band of horsemen to ride from Galway toSligo in that day, unless they were known men and rode for the king orthe Confederacy. Scattered bands of men had come into the west fromUlster and Leinster, and these had driven out what Parliament men hadlanded; through the early years of the war Owen Ruadh's men had sweptall the west country, and now the land was resting, waiting for thestorm that was fated to come upon it when the rest of Ireland had beencrushed under the heel of Ireton. Enniskillen alone, in Fermanagh, heldout for Parliament.

  So, while the larger towns were all under Irish authority, thehill-country was full of seething parties from all armies, most of thembeing ravagers and outlaws who would fear to lay hand on so large aparty as Brian's. But little Brian cared for them, and without let orpause he drove north to Ashford and so into the lowlands.

  Knowing that he must return again by the same way, he avoided the largertowns and pushed hard for Swineford, where he would find word fromTurlough. More than once he met parties of men on the road, but thesewere not anxious to question him, and it was not until he was ridingaround Claremorris that men began to feel his heavy hand.

  With Lough Garra falling behind on the left, and Claremorris at safedistance on the right, Brian was clattering along on the third morning.His men carried muskets slung at their saddles, with bandoliers ofcartridges at their waists ready for quick action; and well it was thatthey were so prepared. Searching ahead with narrowed eyes, Brian caughta quick glint of steel on the road, and in no long time he made out aparty of a hundred men riding toward him. Brian got ready both his axand his safe-conduct, and rode forward without pause.

  Now, he had brought with him most of those Scots troopers he had takeninto service, and as the other party drew near he heard a swift yell of"Albanach!" that boded no good. But Brian shouted to them and asked whothey were.

  "None of your affair!" answered their leader, a huge, dark man. "Who areyou?"

  "Stephen Burke from Galway," answered Brian; but before the words lefthim he saw a musket flash, and one of his men fell.

  Upon that, no more words were wasted. Brian threw up his ax and dug inhis spurs, with his men behind; and when they loosed their muskets theyrode on the hundred with butts swinging. This was a new kind of warfarein Connaught, and before Brian's ax had struck twice the field was won.From two prisoners he found that the band was composed of a levy of theO'Connors out of the Storm Mountains.

  "That is not well for our return," said one of his lieutenants. "We willhave the whole country up after this battle, and we have lost ten men."

  "Then we shall have the more need of recruits," quoth Brian, and let hisprisoners go free, since they would take no service, but only cursedhim.

  However, Brian was not ill pleased, since he found that he was nearlysped of his wounds, though his left hand gave him some trouble at times.His pleasure was speedily cured, for when they camped that night on thehither side of Kiltarnagh there came a rush of men toward dawn, andbefore they were beaten off twenty of Brian's men were dead. Fiveprisoners were taken, and when two of these had been hung, the otherthree confessed that the attack had been made by certain O'Connors fromthe southern end of Lough Conn, to whose villages fugitives had comefrom the affray of the previous morning.

  With that, Brian took counsel with some of his men who knew the country,and it was their advice that he give up the ride and return home.

  "I will not," said Brian shortly. "This war was not of my seeking, butthirty of my men have been slain. Guide me to these villages, and I willtake blood-fine."

  This he did because he needs must. His men did no ravaging, and were inneed of provisions, while he was minded to fill up his ranks. Also, bytaking sharp vengeance, he knew that on his return he was not like to bemolested.

  So he turned aside and rode fast for Lough Conn, which he reached thenext evening, and there came a storm of men on all that country. Twicethrough the days that followed Brian had to fight hard--once against amuster of the O'Connors, and once against a large force of ravaginghillsmen under one Fitzgerald. Him Brian slew with a blow of his ax thatwent from shoulder to saddle.

  From his men he gained fifty recruits and no small booty, both of moneyand horses; and from the O'Connors he took bitter blood-fine for hisslain men in spare horses and provisions.

  These doings are set down briefly in the chronicle; but when Brianturned east again, with Swineford a hard day's ride away, he once morehad a hundred and fifty men at his back, with a good store of allthings, while his name was one that spread fear. He left his men campedtwo miles out of Swineford, on the Moy, and rode next morning into thetown with a dozen horsemen only.

  In the town was quartered a small force of Maguires from Fermanagh, andas he rode in Brian was halted by their leader, who gave him the sele ofthe day and asked his name. Brian held out his passport, and afterMaguire had fumbled over it and pretended that he could read, he gave itback with a grin and Brian passed on with another.

  The seal of the Confederacy on the safe-conduct was quite enough for anyman in these parts, however.

  Brian had not ridden a hundred paces farther before he saw one ofTurlough's men beckoning to him from the door of an inn, so he left histroopers to drink outside and passed within. Turlough's man joined himat a table, and there Brian gained news of the most cheering.

  Six days before this the Dark Master had arrived at Swineford, withTurlough an hour behind him. The old Wolf, whose cunning made up for hislack of courage, had made shift to get two of O'Donnell's dozen menembroiled with the Maguires. The upshot of that had been a fight,followed by a delay of two days for investigation; finally the DarkMaster had slipped away, his two men had promptly been hung, andTurlough had meantime gone ahead to prepare fresh delays at Bellahy andTobercurry. He had four men left with him, though he had left Bertraghwith ten.

  "Then O'Donnell has four days' start of me," reflected Brian. "IfTurlough can hold him, we will catch him at Sligo at latest."

  He left the inn and rode back to his camp, where he had the men on theroad in ten minutes. Tobercurry was only fifteen miles north, andputting his horses to a gallop, Brian rode hard and fast until thatafternoon he came into the place. He found no garrison, but, instead,was met by old Turlough himself, with a bandaged head and two woundedmen.

  "_Mile failte!_" cried Turlough joyously, running forward to kissBrian's hand in wild delight. "You are well come, master! Is all welldown below?"

  "All well, old friend," laughed Brian, swinging down to clasp the oldman in his arms. "Where is the Dark Master?"

  "Where we shall catch him in a forked stick presently," chuckledTurlough, wagging his beard. "Get these wild men of yours out of thetown, and come into the inn with me to talk. I have all the DarkMaster's plans, master, and we have only to strike."

  Brian ordered his men to camp a mile outside town and to do noplundering, so they clattered off, to the great relief of the townfolk.

  "Now," said Brian, when they two were sitting across a table, "what haspassed that you are bound up? Have you been fighting?"

  "Well, after a fashion," grimaced Turlough disgustedly. "I was hereahead of the Dark Master, and raised the townpeople against him for aplunderer. When he came up the road was full of men; but the devil slewtwo and wounded two of my own men, cut his way through the rest, and asI fled north my horse flung me and bruised my head. Has the castlefallen?"

  "Yes," laughed Brian, and related what had happed at Bertragh. "Have Itime to bide here and eat?"

  Turlough yeasaid this and sent the inn-master bustling for food andwine. When this was set before them, Turlough Wolf told his tale,beginning with the statement that two of O'Donnell's men had beencaptured when he cut through the townfolk and rode off.

  "Where are they?" asked Brian quickly, his eyes narrowing.

  "Hanged," chuckled the old man succinctly. "At Galway I could make outnothing more than the word I sent you by
messenger, so I came northafter O'Donnell Dubh, taking very good care that he saw nothing of me."

  "I'll warrant that," laughed Brian. "We met your man at Swineford."

  "Then no need to tell what passed there. Well, I said that we caught twoof his men here, and I got back into the town just in time to keep thefolk from hanging them to the church steeple."

  "Eh?" Brian stared, with his mouth full. "Why, I thought you said--"

  "_Dhar mo lamh_, give me time to finish, master!" Turlough hesitated alittle, evidently in some fear. "We took them into the churchyard andburned them a little, and so got out of them all the Dark Master'splans. Then the priest shrived them, and I let the townfolk hang them."

  Brian looked across the table, his blue eyes like ice and his nostrilsquivering with anger; the old man slanted up his gray eyes and turneduneasily in his seat, for well he knew what Brian would say to this.

  "That was ill done, Turlough Wolf. If you had not served me so well, youwould repent that work. By my faith, I am minded to hang you at theirside!"

  Brian meant it, for the torture of men made him furious.

  "I am no fool to spare mad dogs," muttered Turlough sullenly. "It wasthe Dark Master who lopped these ears of mine eight years gone."

  "Tell your tale," said Brian curtly and fell to eating again.

  "I found tidings both good and bad, master. From Galway the Dark Masterhad sent messengers to his kin in Donegal, bidding them send aid south;also, he sent to certain pirates north of Sligo Bay. From Sligo to theErne all that land is desolate, and has been so these six years, and theO'Donnells from Lough Swilly have set up a pirate hold near Millhaven.It was to these that the Dark Master sent also.

  "He has appointed a meeting-place in the hills beyond Drumcliff, at acertain mountain named Clochaun, or the Stone. Now, whether you thinkmy craft evil or good, master, it is yet gainful to us."

  This much Brian was forced to acknowledge, though for many daysafterward he was still angry at Turlough for torturing and hanging thosemen. He had no scruples about a downright hanging, but torturing was avery different matter, and one of which he had tasted himself.

  "Well, what is your advice in this?"

  "We can do one of two things, master. The one is to ride on to Sligo andfall on him when he comes south again with his men; the other is to ridehard after him and catch him, then fall on the Millhaven men, then meetthe O'Donnells who are coming south to join him at the Stone Mountainwith the rest."

  "The first plan is more cautious," said Brian thoughtfully; "but tostrike him when he has his men around him would be to repeat what wehave done. I like the other way the better."

  "It is both safer and yet more dangerous, master. Safer in that we smitehim and his men separately, and more dangerous because we shall be inthe heart of a wild country, without supplies, and with no aid in casewe are defeated."

  "It is more to my mind to talk of winning than losing," grunted Brian."I have spare horses and money with which to buy provisions. Also, Ithink that I shall stamp flat that pirate nest at Millhaven, and set upmy own banner there."

  "Then you have a banner of your own, master?" Turlough squinted upslyly, for it was the first hint Brian had given him of what lay behindhis nickname.

  "Aye!" laughed Brian as the wine warmed him. "And it shall bear the RedHand of Tyr-owen, old Wolf; but first to catch the Dark Master. Now letus go, for we shall ride to the Stone Mountain and see what haps there."

  Upon that they rode forth from the town, and all the townfolk bade thecrafty Turlough farewell, and gave him gifts for warning them againstthe "plunderers." Turlough looked up at the two bodies swinging in thewind as they passed the church-tower, and put his tongue in his cheek,but Brian said no more on the subject.

  That night they camped outside the town, and Brian bought all theprovision that the people would sell. This he loaded on the sparehorses, and the next morning they set off for the north.

  * * * * *

  Now, in that fighting by Lough Conn, Brian had taken a shrewd clip whichhad reopened the bullet-tear over his scalp. Added to this, he was notyet in all of his former strength, and the hard ride to Tobercurry hadset his blood to heating; wherefore it was that before coming to SligoBrian was heavy with fever and was shaken with chill. A hard snow wasdriving through the night, and Turlough sent most of the men around thecity to wait for them on the other side the Garravogue to avoid danger.

  There was no garrison in Sligo, however. The old castle which Red HughO'Donnell had fought over in the old days was ruined; the grandmonastery, built by Brian of Tyr-erril, had been burned by Hamilton'smen, together with the town itself, and Sligo was well-nigh desolate.Turlough got shelter in a hovel, however; managed to put Brian into amiserable bed, and gave him a brew to drink. With the morning Brianfound his fever gone, but weakness was on him.

  They stayed in Sligo town all that day and the next night, and upondawn, Brian insisted on riding north once more, against Turlough'sprotests. However, no ill came of it, for Brian was well used to riding,and the exercise gave him strength, though they made but a short marchthat day past the round tower of Drumcliff, halting in the hills.

  As Turlough Wolf knew where the Stone Mountain was they had no use forguides. It lay only another day's march ahead of them, and there wassome danger that their quarry would descry their coming and flee away toMillhaven.

  "This is my rede, master;" said Turlough, "that you and I ride aheadwith a few men to see how things go, and leave our men to follow. Thehills are empty of rovers, for there is naught to plunder; but it werewell to know if the Dark Master has joined with those friends of his."

  "That seems good advice," said Brian, and, taking a dozen men, they rodeforward warily, sending out other parties to scout also.

  Over them towered the whiteness of the Stone Mountain, for snow laythickly on all things. Brian gazed up at the gray-jutted crags, but histhoughts were not all with the Dark Master. Him he already accountedslain, and he was thinking of that Millhaven stronghold.

  One day his own banner should fly there, he told himself. There must bea good harbor, else the northern pirates had never settled down to holdthe place; and since all the country roundabout lay bleak and unsettledof men, the vision came to him of first taking the place, and thenfetching O'Neills from the east and north to settle the lands around.They would flock to him when his condition was made known, and thatCromwell's men would shatter the royalists and confederacy Brian sawclearly, as Owen Ruadh had foretold him.

  Already the house of Tyr-owen was scattered and fallen, as the greaterhouse of Tyr-connall had been before it, for when the last earl had fledfrom the land, there had been only the younger branch to hold the septtogether. Owen Ruadh was the final glory of that branch, and now Brianentertained the vision of transplanting the Red Hand and of making hisrule strong in the west.

  But other men had entertained the same vision before him, and it hadremained a vision, and no more; and the high hopes of Brian himself werefated to be driven upon the rocks of destiny before many days had passedover.

  With the afternoon the little party stood on the lower slopes of theStone Mountain itself, and Turlough drew the shape of the place in thesnow with his pike-haft.

  "Here are we," he explained, "on the southern slopes. A half-mile aheadof us is a valley with a small and fast-rushing water, where we shallmake camp this night if the Dark Master be not before us. And if he isnot, then he will be on the northern side, where there are twowell-sheltered valleys with water running, fit for the meeting-place andcamp of men. Here is the easternmost, but, as I remember it, the snowfills the valley somewhat in winter. The other holds a small lake calledthe Dubh Linn, or Black Tarn, and in one of these we shall find the DarkMaster, unless he is here before us."

  "Well, let us ride on and see to that," said Brian, and they did so.

  However, they found the valley deserted and empty, and picked a placefor camp, sending back a horseman to bring up the force.
They could makeout no smoke rising from the mountain, nor dared they light fires untilafter dark for fear of alarming O'Donnell; but when the force came up,Brian sent out scouts to bring in what word might be had.

  "Where got you such knowledge of this wilderness?" he asked Turloughthat night when the fires were blazing and the men were warmed and fed.The old man narrowed his gray eyes and chuckled a little.

  "I have been in many armies, master, though I have fought not; and Ihave been outlawed twice by the English, in the old days. This wasalways a good place to flee to."

  Brian laughed and said no more. That night the men rested well, andBrian himself got sleep which sent strength into him and served him wellin the days to come, for it was long before he was to sleep again, saveas he rode, nodding in the saddle.

  Not until nearly dawn did the last of the scouts straggle in. None ofthese bore any news, and all agreed that no signs could they find of anylarge band of men, nor of any men at all. Turlough heard their reports,letting Brian sleep, and only when the last man came in were any tidingsbrought. This man bore a strip of sheepskin, which, he said, an oldwoman had given him to bear to his master.

  "A woman!" exclaimed Turlough, scanning the written words on thesheepskin, but unable to read them. "What is she like? It is a strangething if women bide on Slieve Clochaun! Was there any stead near by?"

  "None," replied the man, who trembled with something more than cold."_M'anam go'n Dhia!_ She was a witch woman, or worse, Turlough Wolf. Sheleaped out of the snow in my path, told me to bear that skin to YellowBrian, and vanished in a burst of fire. How could she not have been adevil?"

  "Nonsense!" grunted Turlough, though he suddenly laid the strip of skindown. "You are overwarm with _uisquebagh_, man. What was this womanlike? Was she clad all in black?"

  "Faith, I did not stop to see," grinned the man sheepishly.

  Turlough stroked his beard, while the men went off to eat and sleep. Hegazed at the strip of skin, and twice stretched out his hand toward it,with his eye on the fire, but each time drew back. Then he glancedaround craftily, found he was alone, and took from under his cloak asmall, brass crucifix. With this he touched the skin, found that nothinghappened, and rose with a nod. The dawn was just breaking in the east.

  "There is no sorcery in it, at least," he muttered; "but I think itbodes no great good to us. Ho, Brian!"

  Brian woke and sprang up. Turlough handed him the strip of skin, sayingno word, and when Brian had held it to the light of the embers, helooked up suddenly.

  "Whence came this?"

  "What does it say first?" returned Turlough uneasily.

  "News!" cried Brian, his blue eyes aflame with eagerness. "It says thatO'Donnell bides alone by the Black Tarn, and that his horsemen from thenorth are camped two miles beyond the mountain, waiting for him, andthat he has made pact with the Millhaven pirates and they have left fortheir stronghold. Answer me--whence came this? It is written in goodEnglish writing, man!"

  Then Turlough told of what had chanced, and when he had done, Brianstared into his gray eyes with a great wonder. Twice he tried to speak,but his lips were dry.

  "The Black Woman!" he muttered thickly. "Can it be, Turlough? Who isshe?"

  "That was my thought, master," said Turlough. "Who she is none know saveherself; but she deals with no good. This may be a trap; let us ridesouth again, and at once, lest evil come upon us."

  "South? Not I," laughed Brian, though his face was pale. "To horse,men!"

  And at his ringing shout the camp awoke, and Brian saw his vengeancedrawing near.