Now Conor, seeing none but womenfolk close to him at this point, and being willing to show them his splendour, drew near to the bank on his side of the stream.  Then Ket leaped up, whirling his sling, and the bullet hummed across the river and smote King Conor on the temple.  And his men carried him off for dead, and the men of Connacht broke the battle on the Ulstermen, slaying many, and driving the rest of them back to their own place.  This battle was thenceforth called the Battle of the Ford of the Sling-cast, or Athnurchar; and so the place is called to this day.

When Conor was brought home to Emania his chief physician, Fingen, found the ball half buried in his temple.  “If the ball be taken out,” said Fingen, “he will die; if it remain he will live, but he will bear the blemish of it.”

“Let him bear the blemish,” said the Ulster lords, “that is a small matter compared with the death of Conor.”

Then Fingen stitched the wound over with a thread of gold, for Conor had curling golden hair, and bade him keep himself from all violent movements and from all vehement passions, and not to ride on horseback, and he would do well.

After that Conor lived for seven years, and he went not to war during that time, and all cause of passion was kept far from him.  Then one day at broad noon the sky darkened, and the gloom of night seemed to spread over the world, and all the people feared, and looked for some calamity.  Conor called to him his chief druid, namely Bacarach, and inquired of him as to the cause of the gloom.

The druid then went with Conor into a sacred grove of oaks and performed the rites of divination, and in a trance he spoke to Conor, saying, “I see a hill near a great city, and three high crosses on it.  To one of them is nailed the form of a young man who is like unto one of the Immortals.  Round him stand soldiers with tall spears, and a great crowd waiting to see him die.”

“Is he, then, a malefactor?”

“Nay,” said the druid, “but holiness, innocence, and truth have come to earth in him, and for this cause have the druids of his land doomed him to die, for his teaching was not as theirs.  And the heavens are darkened for wrath and sorrow at the sight.”

Then Conor leaped up in a fury, crying, “They shall not slay him, they shall not slay him!  Would I were there with the host of Ulster, and thus would I scatter his foes”; and with that he snatched his sword and began striking at the trees that stood thickly about him in the druid grove.  Then with the heat of his passion the sling-ball burst from his head, and he fell to the ground and died.

Thus was fulfilled the vengeance of Mesgedra upon Conor mac Nessa, King of Ulster.

CHAPTER VII

The Story of Etain and Midir