for slaves, some he blinded by putting out their eyes some he maimed by cutting off their hands and feet and some he tortured by tearing the skin off their heads.*

Thus much I have thought necessary to say, as a proof that the ancient English writers corroborate the statements of our Irish historians, with respect to the habitual barbarity of the Danes and Ostmen.

It might be supposed that the havock committed by the Danes, in almost every part of Ireland, must have united the oppressed people against the common enemy. Far from it. The energies of the nation were wasted in petty broils. Hugh Dorndighe, king of Ireland, instead of forming a general league amongst the subordinate princes of the kingdom, for their mutual protection, carried on a predatory system of hostilities against the people of Leinster, thus exciting the flames of civil war, instead of repressing the inroads of the common enemy.

His successor, Concobar or Connor, the son of Donough, acted a more manly part and in the plain of Tailtean, gained a complete victory over a large Danish force. Shortly after this event, a sanguinary battle was fought at Druimconla, in which the people of Leinster were routed by the Danes with immense slaughter.

During these transactions in the south of the kingdom, Danish troops still kept possession of Ulster, where the provincial king was utterly unable to resist their arms. Armagh was again plundered as well as Finne-Ceanachta, and Lismore.

Mental anguish and bodily fatigue sank the gallant Concobar prematurely to the grave, in the twelfth year of his reign. He was succeeded by Nial III. who from subsequent events is known to posterity by the name of Nial Caille.

During the reign of this monarch, many battles were fought betwixt the people of Meath, Leinster, Munster, &c. and the Danes, with various success. To narrate

*Hist. Elien, apud Gale, 1. 2, e, 32, p. 508, 509.

the particulars of these conflicts is foreign to my present subject. I must rest satisfied with briefly stating, that Nial, king of Ireland, found himself sufficiently powerful to invade the territories conquered by the Danes in Ulster. Having overthrown the Ostmen in a pitched battle in Tirconnel, he marched against Armagh, the head-quarters of his savage enemies. The Danes confident of victory, met his troops in their advance, and the adverse hosts closed spear to spear, man to man. The troops of Niall, thirsting for vengeance, and contending pro aris et focis, fought with a desperate valour which rendered them irresistible. The Danes were completely overthrown, and in the universal rout were slaughtered without mercy, by the victorious Irish. Those who survived the battle fled precipitately and in total confusion, towards the river Callan, probably to gain a temporary refuge in the Navan fort, and in the long series of raths which in that quarter crossed the country. The conqueror eager to annihilate the miserable remnant of the Danes, pursued the fugitive enemy, and the work of havock was continued till the darkness of night screened them from his vengeance.

Meanwhile a torrent of rain had fallen, and a sudden flood having descended from the mountain-lakes near Keady, which are the sources of the Callan, the swollen river burst its usual bounds,† and interrupted the march of the victorious army in their progress to Armagh. Af the foot of Tullachmore hill which the river divides from Umgola, Nial halted the troops, who immediately accompanied his person. At his command, one of his warriors endeavoured to pass the ford on horseback, but was instantly hurried from his steed, by the impetuosity of the waters. Nial who with strong emotions of pity, saw him struggling for life, commanded his guard to make every effort for his preservation. In vain was the command. Terror fixed them to the spot immoveable.

• O Connor's Dissert, p. 226. † Appendix No. XI.

*

The magnanimous king then dashed forward with a generous resolution to save his friend, or perish in the attempt. As he approached the brink of the river, the ground, undermined by the torrent, sank beneath his horse's feet-the monarch was precipitated into the flood, where death closed at once his career of victory and his life. He died A. D. 846, aged 55.+

His body was deposited with all due respect, in a grave dug in Tullachmore, on the banks of the Callan, where he had prematurely perished. A simple mound of earth, which tradition has from generation to generation denominated "Nial's Mound," lately marked the spot where the sovereign of Ireland lies in the silence of death. I have seen it-it is fresh in the memory of all my contemporary fellow-citizens, but the tumulus itself is now no more.

• Keating, vol. 9, p. 163, 169, 1735.

Ware's Ant. p. 14, Edit. Dublin,

CHAPTER II.

From the death of Nial Caille till the death of Thorgils.

IN 849, measures were adopted to stop the further progress of the northern invaders. Public comitia were held at Armagh, by Malachy (the son of Malrone or Malruan) king of Ireland, attended by the peers of Lethcuin; and Madagan, king of Ultonia, accompanied by the nobles of that territory. Dermod and Feithgna with the clergy of Saint Patrick, i. e. of Armagh, and Suarlech Indedhin, with those of Meath, were also present at the meeting. After due deliberation on the state of the country, it was determined that the most vigorous offensive measures should be adopted against the Danes. Accordingly the monarch, in person, assailed the enemy in Meath, defeated them in a pitched battle, and slew seven hundred of their choicest troops. At Ardbreacan, a multitude of them were hewn to pieces by the Dalgais; and near Esmadh the people of Tirconnell gave them a signal overthrow. Soon after this event, Malachy, in conjunction with the Lagenians, routed the Danes at Glas-Glean, where the enemy lost one thousand seven hundred men, amongst whom fell Saxolb, a commander of considerable reputation.t

The success thus gained by the Irish monarch, was but of a temporary nature. The Danes concentrated their troops, and having been reinforced from their native country, were again enabled to take the field, and act vigorously on the offensive. In 850, the Normans of Linduachuel, marched against Armagh, which they stormed and despoiled on the Sunday after Easter. The annals of Ulster state this event to have taken place in 851. Those of Innisfallen, in 852. Ussher also coincides in the latter opinion, and says that in this yer

• Tria Thaum. p. 295. † O'Halloran, vol. 2, p 162. ‡ Tria Thav

P

, p. 295.

both the rival bishops FARANAN and DERMOD died.

Primate DERMOD O TIGERNAC is denominated by our historians, "the wisest of the doctors of Europe." He had returned to Armagh, when Christianity had begun to revive after the defeat of the Normans by Nial Caille. But he had scarcely revisited his see, when he was compelled to behold the ruin of his metropolis. Mourning over the miseries of his country, he fell the victim of mental anguish, before the termination of the year, in which the city had been stormed.

The fate of the Danish chieftain Turgesius, who had so often wasted Armagh with fire and sword, merits a distinct recital in this history.

That tyrant had castellated the conquered country,t and thus secured his troops from any sudden attack which might have been meditated by his discontented Irish subjects. He had erected a habitation for himself near the residence of Maolseachluin, (Melachlin or Malachy,) king of Meath, and condescended to honour that sovereign though his tributary and vassal, with frequent visits.

Heaven had blessed the Irish prince, with a daughter whose features and whose form are said to have been as lovely as her mind was pure, her judgment correct and her taste elegant. The amorous Dane saw this princess, whose personal charms and mental accomplishments were capable of exciting the most refined admiration and love, in bosoms susceptible of the tender passion. In his breast they awoke only the impure flame of sensual desire. With an insulting brutality characteristic of his nature, he demanded her from her father, as a concubine. Nay, it appears probable, that he wished to contaminate the princess in his very residence, regardless of the infamy to which he would thus have subjected the intended victim of his insatiate passions and her royal parent.

Melachlin dissembled the indignation which fired his soul, and submissively entreated the despot, whose power he could not resist, that he would not make the intrigue

Usser Ind. Chron. A. D. 852, p. 543. + Polychron, Ranulph Higdeni libt 1, apud Gale, p. 181.