Page:The book of romance.djvu/271

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
THE PURSUIT OF DIARMID
241

what terms he wanted. Diarmid demanded several of the best baronies in Ireland, and he got them, and they blotted out all Diarmid had done during the sixteen years of his outlawry, and Cormac gave his other daughter to Fionn that he might let Diarmid be, and there was peace for many years, and Diarmid prospered mightily, and had four sons and one daughter.


THE GREEN BOAR

But one day a restless spirit seized on Grania, and she told Diarmid that it was a shame to them that the two greatest men in Erin, Cormac and Fionn, had never visited their house, and she wished to give a splendid feast and to bid them to it. And this was done: for a year Grania and her daughter were preparing the feast, and when it was ready the guests came, and stayed feasting for a year.

It was on the last day of the year that in his sleep Diarmid heard the voice of a dog that caused him to start and to wake Grania. ‘What is the matter?’ said she, and Diarmid told her. ‘May you be kept safely,’ answered Grania; ‘lie down again.’ So Diarmid lay down, but no sleep would come to him, and by-and-by he heard the hound’s voice again, but again Grania kept him from seeking it. This time he fell into a deep slumber, and a third time the hound bayed, and he woke and said to Grania, ‘Now it is day, and I will go.’ ‘Well, then,’ said she, ‘take your large sword and the red javelin.’ But Diarmid answered, ‘No, I will take the little sword that bites, and the small javelin, and my favourite hound on a chain.’

So he went without stopping to the top of a mountain, where Fionn stood alone. Diarmid asked if he was hunting, and Fionn said no, but that after midnight a company of Fenians had come out, and one of the hounds