In a moment she divined the truth, and had the additional anguish of seeing her sister, who was struck with horror and shame, fall dead before her face.
The death of the unhappy princess, and the treachery of her husband, was too much for the young queen; she returned to her solitary chamber, and in a very short time died of a broken heart.
The insult offered to his daughters, and their untimely death, roused the indignation of the pagan monarch, and was soon bitterly avenged.

At the head of a powerful force, he burned and ravaged Leinster to its utmost boundary, and then compelled its humbled and terror-stricken people to bind themselves and their descendants for ever to the payment of a triennial tribute to the monarch of Erinn, which, from the great number of cows exacted by it, obtained the name of the "Boromean Tribute"-- _bo_ being the Gaedhilic for a cow.
The tribute is thus described in the old annals: "The men of Leinster were obliged to pay To Tuathal, and all the monarchs after him, Three-score hundred of the fairest cows, And three-score hundred ounces of pure silver, And three-score hundred mantles richly woven, And three-score hundred of the fattest hogs, And three-score hundred of the largest sheep, And three-score hundred cauldrons strong and polished[100]." It is elsewhere described as consisting of five thousand ounces of silver, five thousand mantles, five thousand fat cows, five thousand fat hogs, five thousand wethers, and five thousand vessels of brass or bronze for the king's laving, with men and maidens for his service.
The levying of the tribute was the cause of periodical and sanguinary wars, from the time of Tuathal until the reign of Finnachta the Festive.
About the year 680 it was abolished by him, at the entreaty of St.
Moling, of Tigh Moling (now St.Mullen's, in the county Carlow).

It is said by Keating, that he a ailed himself of a pious ruse for this purpose,--asking the king to pledge himself not to exact the tribute until after Monday, and then, when his request was complied with, declaring that the Monday he intended was the Monday after Doomsday.

The tribute was again revived and levied by Brian, the son of Cinneidigh, at the beginning of the eleventh century, as a punishment on the Leinster men for their adherence to the Danish cause.

It was from this circumstance that Brian obtained the surname of _Boroimhe_.
[Illustration: LOUGH HYNE.] FOOTNOTES: [81] _Samhain_ .-- Now All Hallows Eve.