United States or India ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
It was not hard to see that Turlough and Cathbarr had done their work well, for in passing the castle they had made out that the royalist pikemen had been driven inside, and there was some musketry to be heard at times. No sooner had the anchor-cables roared out, indeed, than a band of men came riding toward the shore, and Nuala sent off a boat for them.
Brian thought his senses were slipping away when he found Nuala O'Malley herself holding his head as he lay in the stern, while men flung cloaks around him; but warm tears dripped on his face, and she patted his arm soothingly. "Lie quiet," she said, but Brian would not, for already his brain was leaping ahead, and he knew that there was work to be done.
She turned to Brian, speaking still in Gaelic: "Welcome, Brian Buidh. You have come to bring me tribute?" "Yes, Lady Nuala, and the tribute is these ten men of the Dark Master's." She looked at Cathbarr; her eyes swept over his ax. Then she looked again at Brian, and spoke to Muiertach in English. "Truly, I have seldom seen such a man as this "
"Perhaps, Lady Nuala, there shall be greater confidence between us in time, and so I truly desire. But know this much I am better born than any man in Ireland aye, than Clanrickard himself; and I am here in the west to seek a new name and a new power. It is in my mind to take O'Donnell's castle from him, lady.
Then, having obtained his ten English pounds and a horse, he waved farewell to his men and rode away; and what became of him after that is not set forth in the chronicle, so he comes no more into this tale. Nuala loaded her fifty men into her carack, and sent them home that night to Gorumna in case of need, proposing to follow later with Lame Art, Shaun the Little, and her Kerry recruits.
Then the leader of the seamen came and stood beside them, for during the two-hours' trip he had talked somewhat with Cathbarr and had come to look with more respect on Brian himself. That was only natural, for seamen ever like those men who talk least. "Strangers," he said with rough courtesy, "a word in your ear. If you would gain speech with the Lady Nuala, deal not with her as with me.
I will send on my men at once, then; since we have only two horses, Cathbarr and I will ride after them later and catch them up. Will you take the men, Turlough, or bide here out of danger?" "I think it will be safest with the Lady Nuala," hesitated the old man craftily. "Little you know her, then," roared Lame Art, his cousin joining in the laugh.
Before another day has passed I shall have slain him; and now I tell you and your kinsmen that I renounce all fealty to you." At this the Bird Daughter started, staring in amazement, while an abrupt oath burst from Lame Art. Brian went on calmly. "This I do because it is not meet that The O'Neill should give fealty to any, Lady Nuala.
Brian guessed straightway that pigeons had come from her men in Galway telling of those ridings about the city, and that she had come over to Bertragh in anxiety; and this was the truth indeed. Turlough Wolf hied him away and slept, but Brian sat about a table in the hall with Cathbarr and Nuala.
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.
Word Of The Day