ct the revenge of battle and prowess upon Ailill and
Medb. Ailill arose [W.5129.] with his thirty hundred to meet him. Medb
arose with her thirty hundred. The Mane arose with their thirty hundred.
The sons of Maga arose with their thirty hundred. The Leinstermen and the
Munstermen and the people of Temair arose and made interposition between
them, so that on both sides each warrior sat down near to the other and
near by his arms.

Meanwhile a hollow array of men was made by Medb to face Conchobar and a
[1]warlike[1] band of thirty hundred ready to close in from behind.
Conchobar proceeded to attack the circle of men, [2]to force an opening.[2]
And he was far from seeking any particular breach, but he worked a small
gap, broad enough for a man-at-arms, right in front over against him in the
circle of combatants, and effected a breach of an hundred on his right
side, and a breach of an hundred on his left, and he turned in on them, and
mingled [3]among them[3] on their ground, and there fell of them eight
hundred fully brave warriors at his hands. And thereafter he left them
without blood or bleeding from himself and took his station in Slane of
Meath at the head of the men of Ulster.

[1-1] Stowe and H. 1. 13.

[2-2] Reading with Stowe.

[3-3] Stowe and H. 1. 13.

"Come, ye men of Erin!" cried Ailill. "Let some one go hence to scan the
wide-stretching plain of Meath, to know in what guise the men of Ulster
come to the height in Slane of Meath, to bring us an account of their arms
and their gear [4]and their trappings, their kings and their royal
leaders,[4] their champions and battle-warriors and gap-breakers of
hundreds and their yeomen, [5]to which to listen will shorten the time for
us."[5] [LL.fo.97a.] "Who should go thither?" asked all. "Who but macRoth
the chief runner," Aililla[a] made answer.

[4-4] Stowe and H. 1. 13.

[5-5] Following Stowe.

[a] 'Fergus,' H. 1. 13 and Stowe.

MacRoth went his way till he took his station in Slane [W.5151.] of Meath,
awaiting the men of Ulster. The Ulstermen were busied in marching to that
hill from gloaming of early morn till sunset hour in the evening. In such
manner the earth was never left naked under them during all that time,
every division of them under its king, and every band under its leader, and
every king and every leader and every lord with the number of his force and
his muster, his gathering and his levy apart. Howbeit, by sunset