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Updated: May 23, 2025
The axmen had gathered most of their loot and buried what was of value, for Brian had determined to return here from Bertragh and make use of the tower until he had heard from Turlough's errand. So now, at the head of thirty men, he rode across the narrow causeway with Cathbarr of the Ax at his side for friend and guide.
With the morning Brian found his fever gone, but weakness was on him. They stayed in Sligo town all that day and the next night, and upon dawn, Brian insisted on riding north once more, against Turlough's protests.
They were still cut off from the wagons, but there came a wild drumming of hoofs, and wilder yells from the men on the hillside. Like a thunder-burst, Turlough and his hundred broke on the battle. The O'Donnells were swallowed up, stamped flat; the unmounted men fled among the rocks, Turlough's men after them, and a dozen horsemen went streaming down the road.
It was hard to make the maddened Scots take prisoners, but Brian did it, and when Turlough's men came back he found that they had in all thirty captives. Some forty of the attackers had fallen and the rest had fled. Since all his captives expected no less than a quick death, Brian ordered ten of them bound on spare horses, of which there were plenty.
As he afterward found, it was done by Turlough's cunning word; but up over the din of battle rose the great shout that struck dismay to the pirates and heartened Brian himself to new efforts. "Tyr-owen! Tyr-owen!" With a bellow of "Tyr-owen!" Cathbarr went at the foe, and Brian joined him with his own battle-cry on his lips for the first time in his life.
Turlough's sharp eyes swept to Brian's half-questioningly. "Say a hundred and a half," laughed out Brian, "and trust your silver tongue for the rest, old Wolf! Never fear, I will have the men. But mind this, Turlough. I will make no other pact with her than this, against the Dark Master. It may be that when I have driven him forth I may fly after other game."
Was it possible that Cathbarr had led down his men and placed them in readiness to attack? Yet such a thing would have been madness to set a scant two hundred against Vere's pikemen and the Dark Master's force combined! But Brian knew that Turlough Wolf was at large, and Turlough's brain was more cunning than most. If he could only get free, he thought, he might still be able to do something.
He realized well that his men must be drawn together by fighting, that they must learn a perfect confidence in him, and that they must earn their sustenance for the time being. Cathbarr already knew of old Turlough's mission, and of course approved, since in his eyes Brian could do no wrong. What was more, reflected Brian, he could not make this alliance empty-handed.
Now go, and tell a hundred of the men how to ride around this mountain; then be ready to guide me over it to the Black Tarn." "You are a hard man, Yellow Brian," said Turlough, and turned him about and did as Brian had ordered. None the less, Brian gave some thought to that second rede of Turlough's.
Said Turlough sourly, "Every horse down is a man gone, master," but to that Brian only laughed and set in his spurs. So now they let gallop through the darkness, trusting more to Turlough's wits than to their horses' feet; for Brian knew that if his own beasts were spent, those of the Dark Master were no better unless he were to get mounts at Tuam.
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