the terrible battle of Almain, between Leinster and the
Monarch, in which 30,000 men were stated to have engaged,
and 7,000 to have fallen. The Monarch who had double
the number of the Leinster Prince, was routed and slain,
_apropos_ of which we have a Bardic tale told, which
almost transports one to the far East, the simple lives
and awful privileges of the Hindoo Brahmins. It seems
that some of King FEARGAL's army, in foraging for their
fellows, drove off the only cow of a hermit, who lived
in seclusion near a solitary little chapel called Killin.
The enraged recluse, at the very moment the armies were
about to engage, appeared between them, regardless of
personal danger, denouncing ruin and death to the monarch's
forces. And in this case, as in others, to be found in
every history, the prophecy, no doubt, helped to produce
its own fulfilment. The malediction of men dedicated to
the service of God, has often routed hosts as gallant as
were marshalled on the field of Almain.

FEARGAL'S two immediate successors met a similar fate
--death in the field of battle--after very brief reigns,
of which we have no great events to record.

FLAHERTY, the next who succeeded, after a vigorous reign
of seven years, withdrew from the splendid cares of a
crown, and passed the long remainder of his life--thirty
years--in the habit of a monk at Armagh. The heavy burthen
which he had cheerfully laid down, was taken up by a
Prince, who combined the twofold character of poet and
hero. HUGH V. (surnamed Allan), the son of FEARGAL, of