Free Celtic Fairy Tales by Joseph Jacobs

reward of your message," said
the king.
    "Well, I will direct you, O king, although it is likely that this
will not be what they want," said the hunter.
    Connachar, King of Ulster, sent for his nearest kinsmen, and he told
them of his intent. Though early rose the song of the birds mid the
rocky caves and the music of the birds in the grove, earlier than
that did Connachar, King of Ulster, arise, with his little troop of
dear friends, in the delightful twilight of the fresh and gentle
May; the dew was heavy on each bush and flower and stem, as they
went to bring Deirdre forth from the green knoll where she stayed.
Many a youth was there who had a lithe leaping and lissom step when
they started whose step was faint, failing, and faltering when they
reached the bothy on account of the length of the way and roughness
of the road.
    "Yonder, now, down in the bottom of the glen is the bothy where the
woman dwells, but I will not go nearer than this to the old woman,"
said the hunter.
    Connachar with his band of kinsfolk went down to the green knoll
where Deirdre dwelt and he knocked at the door of the bothy. The
nurse replied, "No less than a king's command and a king's army
could put me out of my bothy to-night. And I should be obliged to
you, were you to tell who it is that wants me to open my bothy
door."
    "It is I, Connachar, King of Ulster." When the poor woman heard who
was at the door, she rose with haste and let in the king and all
that could get in of his retinue.
    When the king saw the woman that was before him that he had been in
quest of, he thought he never saw in the course of the day nor in
the dream of night a creature so fair as Deirdre and he gave his
full heart's weight of love to her. Deirdre was raised on the
topmost of the heroes' shoulders and she and her foster-mother were
brought to the Court of King Connachar of Ulster.
    With the love that Connachar had for her, he wanted to marry Deirdre
right off there and then, will she nill she marry him. But she said
to him, "I would be obliged to you if you will give me the respite
of a year and a day." He said "I will grant you that, hard though it
is, if you will give me your unfailing promise that you will marry
me at the year's end." And she gave the promise. Connachar got for
her a woman-teacher and merry modest maidens fair that would lie
down and rise with her, that would play and speak with her. Deirdre
was clever in maidenly duties and wifely understanding, and
Connachar thought he never saw with bodily eye a creature that
pleased him more.
    Deirdre and her women companions were one day out on the hillock
behind the house enjoying the scene, and drinking in the sun's heat.
What did they see coming but three men a-journeying. Deirdre was
looking at the men that were coming, and wondering at them. When the
men neared them, Deirdre remembered the language of the huntsman,
and she said to herself that these were the three sons of Uisnech,
and that this was Naois, he having what was above the bend of the
two shoulders above the men of Erin all. The three brothers went
past without taking any notice of them, without even glancing at the
young girls on the hillock. What happened but that love for Naois
struck the heart of Deirdre, so that she could not but follow after
him. She girded up her raiment and went after the men that went past
the base of the knoll, leaving her women attendants there. Allen and
Arden had heard of the woman that Connachar, King of Ulster, had
with him, and they thought that, if Naois, their brother, saw her,
he would have her himself, more especially as she was not married to
the King. They perceived the woman coming, and called on one another
to hasten their step as they had a long distance to travel, and the
dusk of night was coming on. They did so. She cried: "Naois, son of
Uisnech, will you leave me?" "What piercing, shrill cry is that—the
most melodious my ear ever heard, and the shrillest that ever struck
my heart of all the cries I