Page:Biographia Hibernica volume 1.djvu/131

 120 BRIEN BOIRUMHE. expired on the spot, but Morrogh lived till next morning, employing the intermediate time in acts of piety and de votion; in making, says my manuscript, a general con- fession, receiving the eucharist, and dying as a hero and a christian should die. The confusion became general through the Danish army and they fled on every side. Corcoran, one of the mo- narch's aides-de-camp, seeing the standard of Morrogh struck, for this notified the fall of the chief, and in the general déroute unable to distinguish friend from foe, con- cluded that the imperial army was defeated. He hastily entered the tent of Brien, who was on his knees before a crucifix, and requested he would immediately mount his horse and escape, for all was lost. Do you," said the hero, " and my other attendants fly. It was to conquer or die I came here, and my enemies shall not boast the killing of me by inglorious wounds." So saying, he seized his sword and battle-axe, his constant companions in war, and resolutely waited the event. In the general confusion, Brodar and a few of his followers entered the royal tent. He was armed from head to foot, and yet the gallant old chief pierced his body through his coat of mail! two more of his attendants met the same fate, and Brien received his death by a fourth. The intrepid Sitric, Prince of Ulster, the faithful com- panion of Brien in all his wars, was witness to the death of Morrogh, and revenged it by that of Plait, a Danish knight of great intrepidity, and by others of less note. Eagerly pursuing Brodar and his party, he saw them enter the tent of Brien, and cut to pieces the remains of them. But when he beheld the aged monarch extended on the ground his grief was extreme, He threw himself on the dead body, the many wounds he had received in the battle burst forth afresh-he refused every assistance, and ex- pired in the arms of his friend and faithful ally Thus fell the immortal Brien, one of the most uniformly perfect characters that history can produce. In twenty-