e cage to the great hall. Here he wrote what had happened,
with his plan, in small space, fastened it under the wing of a bird, and
let loose the pigeon from the courtyard.

Stunned though he was by the sudden and terrible blow, Brian had seized
on the only course left him. If he could make shift to hold the castle
at all, he would do so; if not, he must make terms and get off to
Gorumna that he might take vengeance for this dastardly stroke that had
been dealt him.

Nuala had nigh three hundred men in her castle, and he felt that all was
not yet lost, even should he have to yield Bertragh. The Dark Master
would hardly have a large force with him, and he would know nothing of
those hundred men Brian had loaned Nuala; so Brian reckoned that if he
could get away, O'Donnell would think him a broken man who could do no
further against him.

"Well, that's looking too far ahead," thought Brian very wearily.
"Perchance I am broken, indeed, since I have lost two hundred and a half
of men without gain."

An hour later rode in a score of men with wagons, and fell to work
getting the dead out of the castle, though for burying there was no
time. This score, and two more who came in later, were all the men left
to Brian; they reported that the Dark Master would be on them by
daybreak, with two hundred Scots troopers and one horse cannon.

"His friends proved niggardly, then," laughed Brian drearily. "We have
but to hold the place till to-morrow night, friends, and the O'Malleys
will relieve us. Now, one man to watch and the rest of us to rest, for
there is work ahead."

Brian, indeed, got some sleep that night, but it was shot through with
visions of those poisoned men of his, and their twisted faces gibbered
at him, and he thought they shrieked and howled for revenge. When he was
roused at dawn, he found the meaning of those noises, since a great
storm was sweeping down out of the west, and the farther wore the day,
the worse grew the storm.

"Is Heaven itself fighting against us?" he thought bitterly, watching
the sea from the battlements. "Against this blast Nuala cannot reach me,
if she will."

He got little time to brood, however. Before he had broken his fast the
Dark Master's horsemen came in sight--two hundred braw Scots, with
wagons and a cannon following after. It was no large force, but Brian
found afterward that it was the best the Dark Master could get, since
the Galway Irish cared nothing whether the Scots li