Free Celtic Fairy Tales by Joseph Jacobs Page B

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kindness to you, show ye kindness to him; and if he will display
wrath towards you display ye wrath towards him, and I and my three
sons will be with you."
    "We will," said Daring Drop. "We will," said Hardy Holly. "We will,"
said Fiallan the Fair.
    "I have three sons, and they are three heroes, and in any harm or
danger that may befall you, they will be with you, and I myself will
be along with them." And Ferchar Mac Ro gave his vow and his word in
presence of his arms that, in any harm or danger that came in the
way of the sons of Uisnech, he and his three sons would not leave
head on live body in Erin, despite sword or helmet, spear or shield,
blade or mail, be they ever so good.
    Deirdre was unwilling to leave Alba, but she went with Naois.
Deirdre wept tears in showers and she sang:
    Dear is the land, the land over there,
Alba full of woods and lakes;
Bitter to my heart is leaving thee,
But I go away with Naois.
    Ferchar Mac Ro did not stop till he got the sons of Uisnech away
with him, despite the suspicion of Deirdre.
    The coracle was put to sea,
The sail was hoisted to it;
And the second morrow they arrived
On the white shores of Erin.
    As soon as the sons of Uisnech landed in Erin, Ferchar Mac Ro sent
word to Connachar, king of Ulster, that the men whom he wanted were
come, and let him now show kindness to them. "Well," said Connachar,
"I did not expect that the sons of Uisnech would come, though I sent
for them, and I am not quite ready to receive them. But there is a
house down yonder where I keep strangers, and let them go down to it
today, and my house will be ready before them tomorrow."
    But he that was up in the palace felt it long that he was not
getting word as to how matters were going on for those down in the
house of the strangers. "Go you, Gelban Grednach, son of Lochlin's
King, go you down and bring me information as to whether her former
hue and complexion are on Deirdre. If they be, I will take her out
with edge of blade and point of sword, and if not, let Naois, son of
Uisnech, have her for himself," said Connachar.
    Gelban, the cheering and charming son of Lochlin's King, went down
to the place of the strangers, where the sons of Uisnech and Deirdre
were staying. He looked in through the bicker-hole on the door-leaf.
Now she that he gazed upon used to go into a crimson blaze of
blushes when any one looked at her. Naois looked at Deirdre and knew
that some one was looking at her from the back of the door-leaf. He
seized one of the dice on the table before him and fired it through
the bicker-hole, and knocked the eye out of Gelban Grednach the
Cheerful and Charming, right through the back of his head. Gelban
returned back to the palace of King Connachar.
    "You were cheerful, charming, going away, but you are cheerless,
charmless, returning. What has happened to you, Gelban? But have you
seen her, and are Deirdre's hue and complexion as before?" said
Connachar.
    "Well, I have seen Deirdre, and I saw her also truly, and while I
was looking at her through the bicker-hole on the door, Naois, son
of Uisnech, knocked out my eye with one of the dice in his hand. But
of a truth and verity, although he put out even my eye, it were my
desire still to remain looking at her with the other eye, were it
not for the hurry you told me to be in," said Gelban.
    "That is true," said Connachar; "let three hundred bravo heroes go
down to the abode of the strangers, and let them bring hither to me
Deirdre, and kill the rest."
    Connachar ordered three hundred active heroes to go down to the
abode of the strangers and to take Deirdre up with them and kill the
rest. "The pursuit is coming," said Deirdre.
    "Yes, but I will myself go out and stop the pursuit," said Naois.
    "It is not you, but we that will go," said Daring Drop, and Hardy
Holly, and Fiallan the Fair; "it is to us that our father entrusted
your defence from harm and danger when he himself left for home."
And the gallant youths, full noble, full manly, full