“If I killed them, I can raise them;” and going to the two brothers, he struck each a blow, and they rose up as well and strong as ever.
“Well,” said the brother to Conal, “Saudan Og arrived in Spain the day before we did, and he had one-third of the kingdom taken before us. We went against him the following day, and kept him inside that third, and we have neither gained nor lost since. The King of Spain had a castle here; my father and the King of Leinster built a second castle near that; Saudan Og built the third near the two, for himself and his men, and that is why the three castles are here. We are ever since in battle; Saudan has the one-third, and we the rest of Spain.”
Conal arrayed himself as a champion next morning, and went to Saudan’s castle. He struck a blow on the pole of combat that shook the whole kingdom, and that day he killed Saudan and every man of his forces.
Conal’s eldest brother married the daughter of the King of Spain. He took the second brother with him, married him to the sister of the two island brothers, and gave him the three islands. He went home then, gave the kingdom of the Yellow King to the Short Dun Champion, and had the two island brothers well married to king’s daughters in Erin. All lived happily and well; if they did not, may we!
THE BLACK THIEF AND KING CONAL’S THREE HORSES.
There was a king once in Erin who had a beautiful queen, and the queen’s heart was as good as her looks. Every one loved her, but, above all, the poor people. There wasn’t a needy man or woman within a day’s journey of the castle who was not blessing the beautiful queen. On a time this queen fell ill suddenly, and said to the king, “If I die and you marry a second wife, leave not my three sons to a strange woman’s rule. Send them away to be reared till they come to age and maturity.”
The queen died soon after. The king mourned for her one year and a second; then his chief men and counsellors urged him to seek out a new queen.