But when Illann the Fair heard of this he was wroth. He saw the bitter smile on the lips of Darthool, and he swore that he would not desert those upon whom lay the protection of his father’s guaranty.
Meanwhile Ardan lay, dreaming with a proud smile against the fire; and, upon the deerskins near the couch of Darthool, Ailne and Nathos played at chess, for little did they care to heed the treacherous valour of the Ultonians. They knew, too, that their hour was come; and being kingly, gave no thought to that little thing.
But Illann called the troops together and fared forth, and made so deadly an onslaught that he slew three hundred of Concobar’s men. Then he quenched the fires, and went back to the fort and to where Ailne and Ardan were playing together.
“Is that rain that is making a noise without?” said Ailne to Nathos.
“No; it is a humming of gnats,” answered Nathos. “Let us play on.”
“My fate is heavy upon me, Nathos and Ailne,” said Illann the Fair. “I have done well by thee, but I feel the heavy hand of fate is against me, and who can withstand fate?”
“No one,” Nathos answered later, when he had thought upon his play. At that Illann the Fair drank a drink,[25] and went out again. The fires had been quenched, and there was a deep darkness. So he bade each man take a torch, and then all set furiously again upon the Ultonians.
It was then that Concobar bethought him of his son Fiacha the Fair, who was born on the same night as Illann the Fair. There was life to the life, or death to the death, in that.
So he called Fiacha, and bade him strive with Illann, and gave him the three famous weapons of the royalty of Uladh—the moaning Orchaoin, and the terrible Corrthach, and the Notched-Bow.
But for all his enchanted weapons Fiacha did not prevail, and after a great and wonderful fight, which was girt about by a strange sighing, the sighing being the breath of the pulses of the watching host, Illann drove him to the ground where he crouched behind the shelter of his shield. Easily then he might have slain him but for this:—