The immediate spoils of the victory were 12,000 gold pieces, thirty-four standards, all the musical instruments and cannon, and an immense booty in wagons, loaded with clothing and provisions. The Irish army lost 200 in killed and three times that number wounded. By O’Neill’s orders, the dead of both sides were piously buried. (Irish annals cited by Curry and Mitchel.) Sir Walter Scott, in his graphic poem of “Rokeby,” which should be read by all students, as it deals with a stirring period of English history, thus refers to the battle of the Yellow Ford: “Who has not heard, while Erin yet Strove ’gainst the Saxon’s iron bit, Who has not heard how brave O’Neill In English blood imbrued his steel; Against St. George’s cross blazed high The banners of his tanistry— To fiery Essex gave the foil And reigned a prince on Ulster soil? But chief arose his victor pride When that brave marshal fought and died, And Avonduff[2] to ocean bore His billows red with Saxon gore.” Footnote 2: Blackwater. The survivors of Bagnal’s heroic, if defeated, army, fled to Armagh, which had again fallen into the possession of the English, and there took shelter. O’Neill invested the place and, being now provided with artillery, captured from the enemy, speedily compelled its surrender. The gallant Williams, starved out at Portmore, also capitulated. O’Neill, with his customary magnanimity, after depriving the prisoners of both places of their arms, took their parole and sent them in safety to the Pale, and, for a time, all English power whatever vanished from the soil of Ulster. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ CHAPTER IX How O’Neill Baffled Essex—O’Donnell’s Victory of the Curlew Mountains