Some of the Men Kept the Diu Going While the Rest Began to Throw Stones from the Wall

Some of the men kept the diU going while the rest began to throw stones from the wall. Nice, handy-sized boulders they were too, about the weight of a man, but no bother at all to big strong men like the Fianna, men who were accustomed to casting from the time they were in the cradle. Leathshliil was still grinding away on the wall when one of these flying monsters landed on his cranium. Lucky for him he was wearing his helmet. The back of his head escaped injury; but his teeth were not so lucky. Now instead of his toothprints on the stone, his entire set of fangs were embedded.

When his men saw him go under their courage vanished and they rushed headlong off the wall as rocks continued to sail in over it, crashing off one another and rising sparks all around them. They huddled into one corner looking helpless and stupid, but luckily for them Leathshliil pried his face free, got his voice and roared: 'Ye crowd of gamalls! Are ye going to stand there like a herd of cows and let that crowd outside flatten ye? Scatter out and start sending back some of them rocks to Fionn Mac Cumhail:

They leaped to obey, and so the battle started in earnest. Now that Leathshliil was again in command the men inside were soon giving as good as they got so that the Fianna had to move back when they had all their OWN ammunition thrown into the fort.

Fionn quickly saw that his plan was not going as he had hoped. The Fianna were supposed to let the lads in the fort do all the pelting, not match them rock for rock!

'Slow down, men! Easy! Easy!' he shouted, but he might as well have been talking to the wall - if it had still been there! The Fianna were scattering in every direction, looking for boulders of all sizes to fling in on their enemies. Worst of all was that the men were enjoying themselves highly so Fionn knew he would have to scrap this part of his plan and think of something else, and quickly.

As the men staggered back, warping under huge loads of limestone, Fionn stopped each in turn, made him pile all his ammunition in one big heap and