At last he bade Socht to a drinking-bout, and plied him so with wine and mead that Socht became drunken, and knew not where he was, and finally fell asleep.
Then the steward takes the sword and goes to the King's brazier, by name Connu.
"Art thou able," says Dubdrenn, "to open the hilt of this sword ?" "I am that," says the brazier.
Then the brazier took apart the hilt, and within, upon the tang of the blade, he wrote the steward's name, even Dubdrenn, and the steward laid the sword again by the side of Socht.
So it was for three months after that, and the steward continued to ask Socht to sell him the sword, but he could not get it from him.
Then the steward brought a suit for the sword before the High King, and he claimed that it was his own and that it had been taken from him.

But Socht declared that the sword was his by long possession and by equity, and he would not give it up.
Then Socht went to his father, Fithel the brehon, and begged him to take part in the action and to defend his claim.

But Fithel said, "Nay, thou art too apt to blame the pleadings of other men; plead for thyself." So the court was set, and Socht was called upon to prove that the sword was his.

He swore that it was a family treasure, and thus it had come down to him.
The steward said, "Well, O Cormac, the oath that Socht has uttered is a lie." "What proof hast thou of that ?" asked Cormac.
"Not hard to declare," replied the steward.

"If the sword be mine, my name stands graved therein, concealed within the hilt of the sword." "That will soon be known," says Cormac, and therewith he had the brazier summoned.