Page:The courtship of Ferb (Leahy).djvu/66

 For little he deserved such fame, The servant Brod, his spear passed through, And with one cast it overcame Your henchman Airidech and you.

Brod's feat of arms was great, although An impious deed that slave hath wrought; Before his time a king's laid low, And I with him to death am brought.

Now after these things had been done the two sons of Gerg, namely Cobhtach of the fair skin and Conn the victorious, strove to hold the castle, and deadly was the fight that was fought before they gave way. Nor did the might of Mani permit him to bide still in his place, or to hold back from avenging his father-in-law against the men of Ulster. He arose, and he took his great battle-shield upon him, and his two smooth sharp spears into his hand, and his heavy hard-striking sword at his belt; and three times fifty of his comrades rose together with him. It were no easy thing to restrain him; the mind and the nature of each of these heroes was swollen with pride, the hearts of them all overflowed with their arrogance, greatly they longed and desired to do some doughty deed.

Stately, love-worthy, and of gallant bearing was the