Among the people who dwelt in Tara at this time was a boy, a handsome, noble-looking young fellow, whom the people all knew by the name of Cormac. But no one in the least suspected that he was in reality a prince, the son of the last monarch, Art the Solitary, who had been slain in battle by the usurper, Mac Con. He was wise and silent, and carefully concealed from all who he was; for he well knew that if he was discovered the king would be sure to kill him. While the trial was going on he stood behind the crowd listening quietly; and being by nature noble and just-minded, even from his youth up, he could not contain himself when he heard the king’s unfair and oppressive sentence; and he cried out amid the dead silence:--“That is an unjust judgment! Let the fleeces be given up for the glasheen--the sheep-crop for the land-crop--for both will grow again!” The king was astonished and enraged, and became still more so when the people exclaimed with one voice:--“That is a true judgment, and he who has pronounced it is surely the son of a king!” In this manner the people, to their great joy, discovered who Cormac was. How he managed to escape the vengeance of the king we are not told; but escape he did; and after a time the usurper was expelled from Tara, and Cormac was put in his place. To this day Cormac Mac Art is celebrated in Irish records as a skilful lawyer and writer on law, and as the wisest and most illustrious of all the ancient Irish kings.[1] CHAPTER IV. HOW THE ANCIENT IRISH LIVED AS PAGANS.