"He who knows not fear of foe, Fears the ford of Killaloe; Fears the voice that chants his dree, From the rock of Carrick-lee."
Young Brian was full of the superst.i.tion of his day--superst.i.tion that even yet lives amid the simple peasantry of Ireland, and peoples rocks, and woods, and streams with good and evil spirits, fairies, sprites, and banshees; and no real, native Irish lad could fail to tremble before the mysterious song. Sorely troubled, he turned to Cogoran inquiringly, and that faithful retainer said in a rather shaky voice:
""T is your warning-song, O n.o.ble young chief! "t is the voice of the banshee of our clan--_A-oib-hinn_, the wraith of Carrick-lee."
Just then from behind the haunted gray-rock a fair young girl appeared, tripping lightly across the large stepping-stones that furnished the only means of crossing the ford of Killaloe.
"See--see!" said Cogoran, grasping his young lord"s arm; "she comes for thee. "T is thy doom, O Master--the fiend of Carrick-lee!"
"So fair a fiend should bring me naught of grief," said young Brian, stoutly enough, though it must be confessed his heart beat fast and loud.
"O Spirit of the Waters!" he exclaimed; "O banshee of Clan Cas! why thus early in his life dost thou come to summon the son of Kennedy the King?"
The young girl turned startled eyes upon the group of armed and warlike men, and grasping the skirt of her white and purple _lenn_, turned as if to flee,--when Cogoran, with a loud laugh, cried out:
"Now, fool and double fool am I,--fit brother to Sitric the blind, the black King of Dublin! Why, "t is no banshee, O n.o.ble young chief, "t is but thy foster-sister, Eimer, the daughter of Conor, Eimer the golden-haired!"
"Nay, is it so? St. Sena.n.u.s be praised!" said Brian, greatly relieved.
"Cross to us, maiden; cross to us," he said. "Fear nothing; "t is but Brian, thy foster-brother, returning to his father"s home."
The girl swiftly crossed the ford and bowed her golden head in a va.s.sal"s welcome to the young lord.
"Welcome home, O brother," she said. "Even now, my lord, thy father awaits the sound of thy horn as he sits in the great seat beneath his kingly shield. And I----"
"And thou, maiden," sad Brian, gayly, "thou must needs lurk behind the haunted rock of Carrick-lee, to freeze the heart of young Brian at his home-coming, with thy banshee song."
Eimer of the golden hair laughed a ringing laugh. "Say"st thou so, brother?" she said. "Does the "Scourge of the Danes" shrink thus at a maiden"s voice?"
"Who calls me the "Scourge of the Danes"?" asked Brian.
"So across the border do they say that the maidens of King Callaghan"s court call the boy Brian, the son of Kennedy," the girl made answer.
"Who faces the Danes, my sister, faces no tender foe," said Brian, "and the court of the King of Cashel is no ladies" hall in these hard-striking times. But wind thy horn, Cogoran, and cross we the ford to greet the king, my father."
Loud and clear the herald"s call rose above the rush of the rapids, and as the boy and his followers crossed the ford, the gates of the palace, or _dun_, of King Kennedy of Th.o.m.ond were flung open, and the band of welcomers, headed by Mahon, Brian"s eldest brother, rode out to greet the lad.
Nine hundred years ago the tribe of Cas was one of the most powerful of the many Irish clans. The whole of Th.o.m.ond, or North Munster, was under their sway, and from them, say the old records, "it was never lawful to levy rent, or tribute, or pledge, or hostage, or fostership fees," so strong and free were they. When the clans of Munster gathered for battle, it was the right of the Clan of Cas to lead in the attack, and to guard the rear when returning from any invasion. It gave kings to the throne of Munster, and valiant leaders in warfare with the Danes, who, in the tenth century, poured their hosts into Ireland, conquering and destroying. In the year 948, in which our sketch opens, the head of this powerful clan was Cennedigh, or Kennedy, King of Th.o.m.ond. His son Brian had, in accordance with an old Irish custom, pa.s.sed his boyhood in "fosterage" at the court of Callaghan, King of Cashel, in East Munster. Brought up amid warlike scenes, where battles with the Danish invaders were of frequent occurrence, young Brian had now, at fifteen, completed the years of his fostership, and was a lad of strong and dauntless courage, cool and clear-headed, and a firm foe of Ireland"s scourge--the fierce "Dub-Gaile,"
or "Black Gentiles," as the Danes were called.
The feast of welcome was over. The bards had sung their heroic songs to the accompaniment of the _cruot_, or harp; the fool had played his pranks, and the juggler his tricks, and the chief bard, who was expected to be familiar with "more than seven times fifty stories, great and small," had given the best from his list; and as they sat thus in the _cuirmtech_, or great hall, of the long, low-roofed house of hewn oak that scarcely rose above the stout earthen ramparts that defended it, swift messengers came bearing news of a great gathering of Danes for the ravaging of Munster, and the especial plundering of the Clan of Cas.
"Thou hast come in right fitting time, O son!" said Kennedy the King.
"Here is need of strong arms and stout hearts. How say ye, n.o.ble lords and worthy chieftains? Dare we face in fight this, so great a host?"
But as chiefs and counsellors were discussing the king"s question, advising fight or flight as they deemed wisest, young Brian sprung into the a.s.sembly, war-ax in hand.
"What, fathers of Clan Cas," he cried, all aflame with excitement, "will ye stoop to parley with hard-hearted pirates--ye, who never brooked injustice or tyranny from any king of all the kings of Erin--ye, who never yielded even the leveret of a hare in tribute to Leinsterman or Dane? "T is for the Clan of Cas to demand tribute,--not to pay it! Summon our va.s.sals to war. Place me, O King, my father, here at the Ford of the Tribute and bid me make test of the lessons of my fostership. Know ye not how the boy champion, Cuchullin of Ulster, held the ford for five long days against all the hosts of Connaught? What boy hath done, boy may do.
Death can come but once!"
The lad"s impetuous words fired the whole a.s.sembly, the gillies and retainers caught up the cry, and, with the wild enthusiasm that has marked the quick-hearted Irishman from Brian"s day to this, "they all," so says the record, "kissed the ground and gave a terrible shout." Beacon fires blazed from cairn and hill-top, and from "the four points"--from north and south and east and west, came the men of Th.o.m.ond rallying around their chieftains on the banks of Shannon.
With terrible ferocity the Danish hosts fell upon Ireland. From Dublin to Cork the coast swarmed with their war-ships and the land echoed the tramp of their swordmen. Across the fair fields of Meath and Tipperary, "the smooth-plained gra.s.sy land of Erinn," from Shannon to the sea, the kings and chieftains of Ireland gathered to withstand the shock of the invaders.
Their chief blow was struck at "Broccan"s Brake" in the County Meath, and "on that field," says the old Irish record, "fell the kings and chieftains, the heirs to the crown, and the royal princes of Erinn." There fell Kennedy the King and two of his stalwart sons. But at the Ford of the Tribute, Brian, the boy chieftain, kept his post and hurled back again and again the Danes of Limerick as they swarmed up the valley of the Shannon to support their countrymen on the plains of Meath.
The haunted gray-stone of Carrick-lee, from which Brian had heard the song of the supposed banshee, rose sharp and bold above the rushing waters; and against it and around it Brian and his followers stood at bay, battling against the Danish hosts. "Ill-luck was it for the foreigner," says the record, "when that youth was born--Brian, the son of Kennedy." In the very midst of the stubborn fight at the ford, and around from a jutting point of the rock of Carrick-lee, a light shallop came speeding down the rapids.
In the prow stood a female figure, all in white, from the gleaming golden _lann_, or crescent, that held her flowing veil, to the hem of her gracefully falling _lenn_, or robe. And above the din of the strife a clear voice sang:
"First to face the foreign foe, First to strike the battle blow; Last to turn from triumph back, Last to leave the battle"s wrack; Clan of Cas shall victors be When they fight at Carrick-lee."
It was, of course, only the brave young Eimer of the golden hair bringing fresh arms in her shallop to Brian and his fighting-men; but as the sun, bursting through the clouds, flashed full upon the shining war-ax which she held aloft, the superst.i.tious Danes saw in the floating figure the "White Lady of the Rapids," the banshee, _A-oib-hinn_, the fairy guardian of the Clan of Cas. Believing, therefore, that they could not prevail against her powerful aid, they turned and fled in dismay from the flowing river and the haunted rock.
But fast upon young Brian"s victory came the tearful news of the battle of Broccan"s Brake and the defeat of the Irish kings. Of all the brave lad"s family only his eldest brother Mahon escaped from that fatal field; and now he reigned in place of Kennedy, his father, as King of Th.o.m.ond. But the victorious Danes overran all Southern Ireland, and the brothers Mahon and Brian found that they could not successfully face in open field the hosts of their invaders. So these two "stout, able, valiant pillars,"
these two "fierce, lacerating, magnificent heroes," as the brothers are called in the curious and wordy old Irish record, left their mud-walled fortress-palace by the Shannon, and with "all their people and all their chattels" went deep into the forests of Cratloe and the rocky fastnesses of the County Clare; and there they lived the life of robber chieftains, hara.s.sing and plundering the Danes of Limerick and their recreant Irish allies, and guarding against frequent surprise and attack. But so hazardous and unsettled a life was terribly exhausting, and "at length each party of them became tired of the other," and finally King Mahon made peace with the Danes of Limerick.
But "Brian the brave" would make no truce with a hated foe. "Tell my brother," he said, when messengers brought him word of Mahon"s treaty, "that Brian, the son of Kennedy, knows no peace with foreign invaders.
Though all others yield and are silent, yet will I never!"
And with this defiance the boy chieftain and "the young champions of the tribe of Cas" went deeper into the woods and fastnesses of the County Clare, and for months kept up a fierce guerilla warfare. The Danish tyrants knew neither peace nor rest from his swift and sudden attacks.
Much booty of "satins and silken cloths, both scarlet and green, pleasing jewels and saddles beautiful and foreign" did they lose to this active young chieftain, and much tribute of cows and hogs and other possessions did he force from them. So dauntless an outlaw did he become that his name struck terror from Galway Bay to the banks of Shannon, and from Lough Derg to the Burren of Clare. "When he inflicted not evil on the foreigners in the day," the quaint old record a.s.serts, "he was sure to do it in the next night, and when he did it not in the night he was sure to do it in the following day."
To many an adventurous boy the free outlaw life of this daring lad of nine centuries ago may seem alluring. But "life in the greenwood" had little romance for such old-time outlaws as Brian Boru and Robin Hood and their imitators. To them it was stern reality, and meant constant struggle and vigilance. They were outcasts and Ishmaels--"their hands against every man and every man"s hand against them,"--and though the pleasant summer weather brought many sunshiny days and starlit nights, the cold, damp, and dismal days took all the poetry out of this roving life, and sodden forests and relentless foes brought dreary and disheartening hours. Trust me, boys, this so-called "free and jolly life of the bold outlaw," which so many story-papers picture, whether it be with Brian Boru in distant Ireland, nine hundred years ago, or in Sherwood Forest with Robin Hood, or with some "Buckeye Jim" on our own Montana hill-sides to-day, is not "what it is cracked up to be." Its attractiveness is found solely in those untruthful tales that give you only the little that seems to be sweet, but say nothing of the much that is so very, very harsh and bitter. Month by month the boy chieftain strove against fearful odds, day by day he saw his brave band grow less and less, dying under the unpitying swords of the Danes and the hardships of this wandering life, until of all the high-spirited and valiant comrades that had followed him into the hills of Clare only fifteen remained.
One chill April day, as Brian sat alone before the gloomy cave that had given him a winter shelter in the depths of the forests of Clare, his quick ear, well trained in wood-craft, caught the sound of a light step in the thicket. s.n.a.t.c.hing his ever-ready spear, he stood on guard and demanded:
"Who is there?"
No answer followed his summons. But as he waited and listened, he heard the notes of a song, low and gentle, as if for his ear alone:
"Chieftain of the stainless shield, Prince who brooks no tribute fee; Ne"er shall he to pagan yield Who prevailed at Carrick-lee.
Rouse thee, arm thee, hark and heed, Erin"s strength in Erin"s need."
""T is the banshee," was the youth"s first thought. "The guardian of our clan urgeth me to speedier action." And then he called aloud: "Who sings of triumph to Brian the heavy-hearted?"
"Be no longer Brian the heavy-hearted; be, as thou ever art, Brian the brave!" came the reply, and through the parting thicket appeared, not the dreaded vision of _A-oib-hinn_, the banshee, but the fair young face of his foster-sister, Eimer of the golden hair.
"Better days await thee, Brian, my brother," she said; "Mahon the King bids thee meet him at Holy Isle. None dared bring his message for fear of the death-dealing Danes who have circled thee with their earth-lines. But what dare not I do for so gallant a foster-brother?"
With the courtesy that marked the men of even those savage times, the boy chieftain knelt and kissed the hem of the daring little maiden"s purple robe.
"And what wishes my brother, the king, O Eimer of the golden hair?" he said. "Knows he not that Brian has sworn never to bend his neck to the foreigner?"
"That does he know right well," replied the girl. "But his only words to me were: "Bid Brian my brother take heart and keep this tryst with me, and the sons of Kennedy may still stand, unfettered, kings of Erin.""
[Ill.u.s.tration: "THE BOY CHIEFTAIN KNELT AND KISSED THE HEM OF THE DARLING LITTLE MAIDEN"S PURPLE ROBE."]
So Brian kept the tryst; and where, near the southern sh.o.r.es of Lough Derg, the Holy Isle still lies all strewn with the ruins of the seven churches that gave it this name, the outlawed young chieftain met the king. Braving the dangers of Danish capture and death, he had come unattended to meet his brother.
"Where, O Brian, are thy followers?" King Mahon inquired.
"Save the fifteen faithful men that remain to me in the caves of Uim-Bloit," said the lad, "the bones of my followers rest on many a field from the mountains of Connaught to the gates of Limerick; for their chieftain, O my brother, maketh no truce with the foe."