down upon a couch, and he sighed grievously and bade them give him to drink. And Conor came up with his people, so that they were on the outside of the stockade. They held their shields in their left hands over their heads, and with their right hands they tore down the stockade; and they strode across it, so that they were on the soil of that burg; thus they had a good door made for them after that they had broken the rampart.
Thereupon Brod—the servant aforementioned of Conor—hurled one of the two spears that he had in his hand; and the spear flew into the house, and it went through the shield that was on the breast of king Gerg, and into his tender flesh, so that a cross was made by the spear as it passed through his body after piercing his heart, also it passed through Airidech the servant of Gerg, so that both fell lifeless. Conor then turned him to attack the followers of Gerg throughout the castle, so that thirty fighting men of Gerg's people fell at his single hand, besides what fell by the hands of his followers. And many of the people also fell at their hands.
Then Nuagel arose, the daughter of Erg, she who was the wife of Gerg, and she raised her three bitter cries of grief, and she took the head of her man into her lap.
"Truly," said she, "a great deed do I reckon that deed
19
