Cormac dashed forward with Ethne by his side. Where he was going he did not know. He only knew that he was fighting for the liberty of his bards, and that Columba was on his side. Once the strange cry against the Christians came to his ear; that it concerned his own undertaking he did not, for one moment, realise—but it angered and puzzled him.
Then it seemed to him they were charging full upon the long procession that had passed through the village a few minutes before: But there was no time for thought or conjecture then; for, on a sudden, they were in the midst of their enemies and his men began to fall around him.
He was conscious that the attack he was leading was weak; that his followers fought badly; that Ethne, wildly and angrily, was calling upon them to do better—to be men, not cowards!
Then he knew that disaster had befallen them, because his men were fleeing.
Afterwards, in trying to recall the swift attack and defeat, he could remember nothing clearly, except the strange shock and tumult of the moment when he saw his bards put to flight by warriors in monkish dress!
Long afterwards, in his life, he was haunted by vague memories of that disastrous flight—that proof of his bards’ cowardice—that end of his hopes and dreams. For long it would suddenly come on him at times as a nightmare of shame.
The greater number of his Druid followers were taken prisoners; some were killed, a few escaped to the sea-shore.
Cormac fought on bravely, determined to die rather than yield.
A sword-gash across his temples filled his eyes with blood; he dashed his hand across them; and saw, before him, a tall figure mounted on one of the half-tamed Hibernian horses, so numerous everywhere. The animal had met its master now, for it tried in vain to unseat the man who rode without saddle and with only a rough bridle of hemp about the creature’s head; he urged it forward to meet Cormac; it advanced, rearing on its hindquarters.
Cormac saw the face of the rider towering above him—a beautiful face, pale as marble with large, flashing brown eyes.