"
Nevertheless, in spite of the total annihilation of the Danish power in
the Emerald isle, Ranald seemed to the eyes of men to be still a hale old
warrior, ruling constitutionally--that is, with a wholesome fear of being
outlawed or murdered if he misbehaved--over the Danes in Waterford; with
five hundred fair-haired warriors at his back, two-edged axe on shoulder
and two-edged sword on thigh. His ships drove a thriving trade with France
and Spain in Irish fish, butter, honey, and furs. His workmen coined money
in the old round tower of Dundory, built by his predecessor and namesake
about the year 1003, which stands as Reginald's tower to this day. He had
fought many a bloody battle since his death at Clontarf, by the side of
his old leader Sigtryg Silkbeard. He had been many a time to Dublin to
visit his even more prosperous and formidable friend; and was so delighted
with the new church of the Holy Trinity, which Sigtryg and his bishop
Donatus had just built, not in the Danish or Ostman town, but in the heart
of ancient Celtic Dublin, (plain proof of the utter overthrow of the
Danish power,) that he had determined to build a like church in honor of
the Holy Trinity, in Waterford itself. A thriving, valiant old king he
seemed, as he sat in his great house of pine logs under Reginald's Tower
upon the quay, drinking French and Spanish wines out of horns of ivory and
cups of gold; and over his head hanging, upon the wall, the huge
doubled-edged axe with which, so his flatterers had whispered, Brian Boru
had not slain him, but he Brian Boru.
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