They comply with this advice; and though greatly inferior in numbers, they gain the victory, "on account of the tutelage of St.Patrick." [202] _Carlow_ .-- The site of the battle is still shown there, and even the stone on which the soldier decapitated Cormac.

Cormac's death is thus described in a MS.

in the Burgundian Library: "The hind feet of his horse slipped on the slippery road in the track of that blood; the horse fell backwards, and broke his [Cormac's] back and his neck in twain; and he said, when falling, _In manus tuas commendo spiritum meum_, and he gives up his spirit; and the impious sons of malediction come and thrust spears into his body, and sever his head from his body." Keating gives a curious account of this battle, from an ancient tract not known at present.
[203] _Amlaff_ .-- Dr.Todd identifies Amlaff with Olaf Huita (the white), of Scandinavian history, who was usually styled King of Dublin, and was the leader of the Northmen in Ireland for many years.

See "Introduction" to the _Wars of the Gaedhil_, p.

69.
[204] _Cenn-Fuait_ .-- Fuat Head.