“We were ordered to tell you as follows,” said the grim cleric, and he buried the fingers of his right hand in his left fist, so that one could not hope to see them resurrected again. “It was the duty of one of the Brothers of Devenish,” he continued, “to turn out the cattle this morning before the dawn of day, and that Brother, while in his duty, saw eight comely young men who fought together.”
“On the morning of Sunday,” Dermod exploded.
The cleric nodded with savage emphasis.
“On the morning of this self-same and instant sacred day.”
“Tell on,” said the king wrathfully.
But terror gripped with sudden fingers at Becfola’s heart.
“Do not tell horrid stories on the Sunday,” she pleaded. “No good can come to any one from such a tale.”
“Nay, this must be told, sweet lady,” said the king. But the cleric stared at her glumly, forbiddingly, and resumed his story at a gesture.
“Of these eight men, seven were killed.”
“They are in hell,” the king said gloomily.