THE STORM BURSTS.
"Now, the first thing is to see what force of men we have," said Brian,
after the midday meal. They were all gathered in Cathbarr's tower before
a log fire, and were preparing the plan of campaign.
"I have my hundred and eighty men," said Nuala. "When that last pigeon
came from you I set out at once. With the hundred men under Cathbarr, we
have close to three hundred. You can take them all, for my kinsmen here
have enough and to spare to handle my two ships as well as theirs."
"Good!" exclaimed Brian, as the two O'Malleys nodded. "I think that by
striking at dawn we shall find most of the O'Donnells ashore or in the
castle, and if you time your sailing to strike on their four ships at
the same time we may easily take castle, camp, and ships at one blow."
"If all went as men planned we would not need to pray Heaven for aid,"
quoth Shaun the Little sententiously. Brian glanced at him.
"Eh? What do you mean by that?"
"Nothing," returned the wide-shouldered seaman with a shrug. "Except
that there may be more to it than we think, Brian."
"The Dark Master will not suspect your return so suddenly," spoke up
Nuala. "Pay no heed to Shaun, Brian--he was ever a croaker. When think
you we had best start?"
"I am no seaman," laughed Brian. "Get there at dawn, that is all. I will
send on my men at once, then; since we have only two horses, Cathbarr
and I will ride after them later and catch them up. Will you take the
men, Turlough, or bide here out of danger?"
"I think it will be safest with the Lady Nuala," hesitated the old man
craftily.
"Little you know her, then," roared Lame Art, his cousin joining in the
laugh.
So Turlough had decided, however, and he stuck to it. Brian then
described closely how the four pirate ships lay in the bay under
Bertragh, while Shaun went out to arrange the distribution of his men on
Nuala's ships.
The arrangements having been perfected, Brian saw his three hundred men
troop off on their march over the hills, after which he told Nuala at
greater length all that had taken place in the castle since his parting
with her at sea. Bitter and unrestrained were the curses of the
O'Malleys as they heard of how his men had been poisoned, while Nuala's
eyes flamed forth anger.
"There shall be no quarter to these O'Donnells," she cried hotly. "Those
whom we take shall hang, and the Scots with them--"
"Not the Scots," exclaimed Brian quickly. "They are honest men enough,
Nuala, and may serve us well as recruits. If we find them in the castle,
as I think we shall, we may leave them there until we have finished the
Millhaven men; however, it is possible that my men will find the castle
almost unguarded, and so take it at the first blow. However that turns
out, the Dark Master shall not escape us this time."
During the afternoon, when the two O'Malleys were busily getting their
ships in order for the coming fray, Brian sat in the tower with Nuala.
He told her freely of himself, and although neither of them referred to
that reward of which he had spoken at their meeting, Brian knew well
that he would claim it.
He did not conceal from himself that the Black Woman had guided him to
more than conquest by sword. The Bird Daughter was such a woman as he
had dreamed of, but had never found at the Spanish court, and he knew
that whether there was love in her heart or not, his own soul was in her
keeping.
Perhaps he was not the only one who knew this, for as Lame Art rowed out
with his cousin, the latter nodded back at the tower.
"What think you of this ally, Art Bocagh? Could he be truly the Earl's
grandson?"
"I know not," grunted the other. "But I do not care whether he be Brian
Buidh or Brian O'Neill or Brian the devil--he is such a man as I would
fain see sitting in Gorumna Castle, Shaun!"
And Shaun the Little nodded with a grin.
When the sun began its westering, Brian and Cathbarr rode back from the
tower with food and weapons at their saddle-bows, and they paused at the
hill-crest to watch the four ships weigh anchor and up sail, then went
on into the hills. They were to meet their men at that valley where the
Dark Master had been defeated and broken in the first siege, and jogged
along slowly, resting as they rode.
"Brother," said Cathbarr suddenly, fingering the haft of his ax and
looking at Brian, "do you remember my telling you, that night after we
had bearded the Dark Master and got the loan of those two-score men, how
an old witch-woman had predicted my fate?"
"Yes," returned Brian, with a sharp glance. In the giant's face there
was only a simple good-humor, however, mingled with a childlike
confidence in all things. "And I told you that you were not bound to my
service."
"No, but I am bound to your friendship," laughed Cathbarr rumblingly. "I
can well understand how I might die in a cause not mine own, since I am
fighting for you; but I cannot see how death is to come upon me through
water and fire, brother!"
"Nonsense," smiled Brian. "Death is far from your heels, brother, unless
you are seeking it."
"Not I, Brian. I neither seek nor avoid if the time comes. Only I wish
that witch-woman had told me a little more--"
"Keep your mind off it, Cathbarr," said Brian. "In Spain the Moriscoes
say that the fate of man is written on his forehead, and God is just."
"What the devil do I care about that?" bellowed Cathbarr. "I care not
when I die, brother--but I want to strike a blow or two first, and how
can that be done if death comes by water and fire?"
"Well, take heart," laughed Brian, seeing the cause of the other's
anxiety. "You are not like to die from that cause to-night, and I
promise you blows enough and to spare."
Cathbarr grunted and said no more. The last of the storm had fled away,
and the two men rode through a glittering sunset and a clear, cold
evening that promised well for the morrow.
They traveled easily, and it was hard on midnight when a sentry stopped
them half a mile from the hollow where the men were resting. Brian noted
with approval that no fires had been lighted, and he and Cathbarr at
once lay down to get an hour's sleep among the men.
Two hours before daybreak the camp was astir, and Brian gathered his
lieutenants to arrange the attack. Thinking that the Dark Master would
be in the castle, he and Cathbarr took a hundred men for that attack,
ordering the rest to get as close to the camp as might be, but not to
attack until he had struck on the castle, and to cut off the O'Donnells
from their ships. Then, assured that the plan was understood, he and
Cathbarr loaded their pistols and set out with the hundred.
Brian ordered his men to give quarter to all the Scots who would accept
it, if they got inside the castle, and as they marched forward through
the darkness he found to his delight that O'Donnell seemed to have no
sentries out.
"We have caught the black fox this time," muttered Cathbarr, after they
had passed the camp-fires without discovery and the black mass of the
castle loomed up ahead. "They will hardly have repaired those gates by
now, brother."
Brian nodded, and ordered his men to rest, barely a hundred paces from
the castle. Since there was no need of attacking before dawn, in order
to let Nuala come up the bay, he went forward with Cathbarr to look at
the gates.
These, as nearly as he could tell, were still shattered in; there were
fires in the courtyard, and sentries were on the wall, but their watch
was lax and the two below were not discovered. They rejoined the
hundred, and Brian bade Cathbarr follow him through the hall to that
chamber he himself had occupied in the tower, where O'Donnell was most
likely to be found.
"Well, no use of delaying further," he said, when at length the grayness
of dawn began to dull the starlight. Since to light matches would have
meant discovery, he had brought with him those hundred Kerry pikemen
Nuala had recruited after the dark Master's defeat, and he passed on the
word to follow.
The mass of men gained the moat before a challenge rang out from above,
and with that Brian leaped forward at the gates. A musket roared out,
and another, but Brian and Cathbarr were in the courtyard before the
Scots awakened. A startled group barred their way to the hall, then
Brian thrust once, the huge ax crashed down, and they were through.
Other men were sleeping in the hall, but Brian did not stop to battle
here, running through before the half-awakened figures sensed what was
forward. A great din of clashing steel and yells was rising from the
court; then he and Cathbarr gained the seaward battlements and rushed at
the Dark Master's chamber. The door was open--it was empty.
For a moment the two stared at each other in blank dismay. With a yell,
a half-dozen Scots swirled down on them, but Brian threw up his hand.
"The castle is mine," he shouted. "You shall have quarter!"
The Scots halted, and when two or three of the Kerry pikemen dashed up
with news that the rest of the garrison had been cut down or given
quarter, they surrendered.
Brian's first question was as to O'Donnell.
"Either at the camp or aboard one of his kinsmen's ships," returned one
of the prisoners. "They were carousing all last evening."
At the same instant Cathbarr caught Brian's arm and whirled him about.
"Listen, brother!"
So swift had been Brian's attack that the castle had been won in a scant
three minutes. Now, as he listened, there came a ragged roar of
musketry, pierced by yells, and he knew that the camp was attacked.
With that, a sudden fear came on him that he would again be outwitted.
There was a thin mist driving in from the sea which would be dissipated
with the daybreak, and if the Dark Master was on one of the ships he
might get away before Nuala's caracks could arrive. Brian had been so
certain that he would find O'Donnell in the castle that the
disappointment was a bitter one, but he knew that there was no time to
lose.
"Come," he ordered Cathbarr quickly, "get a score of the men and to the
camp. Leave the others here to hold the castle if need be."
As he strode through the courtyard and the sullen groups of Scots
prisoners, he directed the Kerry men to load the bastards on the walls
and give what help might be in destroying the pirate ships. Then, with
Cathbarr and twenty eager men at his back, he set off for the camp at a
run, fearful that he might yet be too late.
The day was brightening fast, and from the camp rose a mighty din of
shouts and steel and musketry. Brian's men had charged after one hasty
volley, but their leader gave a groan of dismay as he saw that instead
of attacking from the seaward side as he had ordered, they were pouring
into the camp from the land side.
O'Donnell must have landed the greater part of his men, for Brian's
force was being held in check, though they had swept in among the brush
huts. Over the tumult Brian heard the piercing voice of the Dark Master,
and with a flame of rage hot in his mind he sped forward and found
himself confronted by a yelling mass of O'Donnells.
Then fell a sterner battle than any Brian had waged. In the lessening
obscurity it was hard to tell friend from foe, since the mist was
swirling in off the water and holding down the powder-smoke. Brian saved
his pistols, and, with Cathbarr at his side, struck into the wild,
shaggy-haired northern men; they were armed with ax and sword and skean,
and Brian soon found himself hard beset despite the pikemen behind.
The Spanish blade licked in and out like a tongue of steel, and Brian's
skill stood him in good stead that morn. Ax and broadsword crashed at
him, and as he wore no armor save a steel cap, he more than once gave
himself up for lost. But ever his thin, five-foot steel drove home to
the mark, and ever Cathbarr's great ax hammered and clove at his side,
so that the fight surged back and forth among the huts, as it was
surging on the other side where was the Dark Master, holding off the
main attack.
Little by little the mist eddied away, however, and the day began to
break. A fresh surge of the wild O'Donnells bore down on Brian's party,
and as they did so a man rose up from among the wounded and stabbed at
Brian with his skean. Brian kicked the arm aside, but slipped in blood
and snow and went down; as a yell shrilled up from the pirates, Cathbarr
leaped forward over him, swinging his ax mightily. With the blunt end he
caught one man full in the face, then drove down his sharp edge and
clove another head to waist. For an instant he was unable to get out his
ax, but Brian thrust up and drove death to a third, then stood on his
feet again.
At the same instant there came a roar from across the camp where his
main body of men were engaged, and Brian thrilled to the sound. As he
afterward found, it was done by Turlough's cunning word; but up over the
din of battle rose the great shout that struck dismay to the pirates and
heartened Brian himself to new efforts.
"Tyr-owen! Tyr-owen!"
With a bellow of "Tyr-owen!" Cathbarr went at the foe, and Brian joined
him with his own battle-cry on his lips for the first time in his life.
The shout swelled louder and louder, and among the huts Brian got a
glimpse of the Dark Master. In vain he tried to break through the
Millhaven men, however; they stood like a wall, dying as they fought,
but giving no ground until the ax and the sword had cloven a way,
although the remnant of the twenty pikemen were fighting like fiends.
Suddenly a yell of dismay went up from the O'Donnell ranks, and they
broke in wild confusion. Leaning on his sword and panting for breath,
Brian looked around and saw what had shattered them so swiftly.
While the stubborn fight had raged, the eastern sky had been streaming
and bursting into flame. Now, sharply outlined against the crimson
water, appeared Nuala's four ships close on those of the pirates. Even
as he looked, Brian saw their cannon spit out white smoke, while from
behind came a deeper thunder as the castle's guns sent their heavy balls
over the pirate ships.
These were anchored a hundred yards from shore, and Brian saw the danger
that betided as the stream of fugitives swept down toward the boats.
Nuala's ships were undermanned, for he had counted on cutting off most
of the pirates in the camp; should the Dark Master get to the ships with
his men, things were like to go hard.
"To the boats!" cried Brian to Cathbarr, and leaping over the dead, the
two joined their men and poured down on the shore.
The Dark Master himself stood by one of the boats, and others were
filling fast with men as they were shoved down. Brian tried to cut his
way to O'Donnell, but before he could do so the Dark Master had leaped
aboard and oars were out. Fully aware of their danger, those of the
pirates who could do so got into their boats and lay off the shore,
while others splashed aboard; Brian led his men down with a rush,
cutting down man after man, splashing out into the swirling water and
hacking at those in the boats, but all in vain. Some half-dozen of the
boats got off, crowded with men, while the remnant of the pirates held
off Brian's force that their master might escape.
Drawing out of the fight, Brian pulled forth his pistols and emptied
them both at the figure of O'Donnell. He saw the Dark Master reel, and
the rower next him plunged forward over the bows, but the next moment
O'Donnell had taken up the oar himself and was at work in mad haste.
Brian groaned and flung away his pistols.
Those aboard the pirate ships had already cut the cables and were
striving to make sail, for there was a light off-shore breeze in their
favor, with an ebbing tide. The O'Malley ships were close on them,
however, and as the cannon crashed out anew the masts of one O'Donnell
ship crashed over. But the Dark Master's boat was alongside another of
the ships, whose sails were streaming up, and now his cannon began to
answer those of Nuala.
But Brian stood in bitterness, unmindful of the wild yells of his men,
for once more the Dark Master had escaped his hand at the last moment.
Shaun the Little had been correct in his "croakings."