joyfully. "Cathbarr, have a hundred and fifty men
saddled at dawn--what is this?"

Turlough's messenger handed him a paper. It was a safe-conduct issued by
the Confederacy and Royalist leaders in the name of one Stephen Burke,
and where the wily Wolf had gotten it the messenger did not know. But it
might come in useful, since there were few parliament men in Sligo and
Mayo, and Brian tucked it away with a laugh.

"Then to the north at dawn--and O'Donnell shall not escape me this
time!"

CHAPTER XIV.

HOW THE STORM FARED NORTH.

Now, it was no easy matter for a band of horsemen to ride from Galway to
Sligo in that day, unless they were known men and rode for the king or
the Confederacy. Scattered bands of men had come into the west from
Ulster and Leinster, and these had driven out what Parliament men had
landed; through the early years of the war Owen Ruadh's men had swept
all the west country, and now the land was resting, waiting for the
storm that was fated to come upon it when the rest of Ireland had been
crushed under the heel of Ireton. Enniskillen alone, in Fermanagh, held
out for Parliament.

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

Knowing that he must return again by the same way, he avoided the larger
towns and pushed hard for Swineford, where he would find word from
Turlough. More than once he met parties of men on the road, but these
were not anxious to question him, and it was not until he was riding
around Claremorris that men began to feel his heavy hand.

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

Now, he had brought with him most of those Scots troopers he had taken
into service, and as the other party d