So, favourably for us, our first fight with the English came to a close.
CHAPTER XIV.
THE GATE OF FEARS.
During what of the night remained we continued under arms, expecting that the attack might be renewed, but the morning—another sunny splendour—came, and we were undisturbed. We were now in a better position to estimate what had occurred, and the peril from which we had so narrowly escaped.
The number of our dead and wounded was not great, but among the latter was Fitzgerald, who had been by the side of Grace O’Malley in the fight for the gate. Eva O’Malley, along with Teige O’Toole, the Wise Man, who was also a mediciner, and skilled in the use of herbs and simples, ministered to the wants and relieved the pangs of the sufferers, as far as lay within her power.
And as she passed in and out among them, her passing seemed to me, and to others I doubt not, as the passing of an angel. My mistress and de Vilela were unhurt, and I had nothing more than some bruises to show for my share in the battle.
Neither among the killed nor the wounded could the two traitorous kernes be seen, and I feared that they had contrived to make good their flight, a thing which did not appear improbable considering the darkness and confusion of an assault by night. However, I had every portion of the castle searched and scrutinised with the utmost care, and finally the knaves were found hiding in a storeroom, which held a large quantity of loose corn, and there, amongst the grain, they were discovered nearly suffocated.
They had deserved no mercy and they were shown none. Desirous of knowing who they in reality were, and of obtaining any information they possessed of the purposes of the Governor, I ordered that they should be taken into one of the underground dungeons, and put to the question.
But they were stout of heart, being, as I think, no common men, so that torture even failed to worry their secrets from them. When Grace O’Malley heard that they could be forced to disclose nothing, she directed that they should be taken and hanged from a great gallows-beam, that sprang out from the summit of the tower, and which could be plainly descried by the English from Burrishoole.