Page:Celtic Stories by Edward Thomas.djvu/54

 hear the old nurse Levarcham saying that Conachoor was a pattern of kings: patient, self-controlled, affable, strict but merciful, enforcing peace but without too much terror; one in whose palace there were lighted lamps and clapping of hands for the guests, comfortable seats, cupbearers decent and busy in serving, music not in excess, stories not over long, and pleasant talk for all. Nor did she care to hear of the breadth of the king's provinces and the nobility and multitude of his princes.

One winter morning she looked out of the window and saw her fosterer killing a calf, and a raven alighting beside the crimson blood that crept through the snow.

'Red as the blood, white as the snow, black as the raven,' said Deirdre. 'I could love a man who had skin white as the snow, cheeks red as the blood, hair black as the raven.'

Levarcham heard these words and said:

'Naisi, the son of Usna is such a one.'

So Deirdre desired to see Naisi.

At first Levarcham tried to thwart her. She pointed to a poor swineherd and said that he was Naisi. Deirdre was not to be deceived; she gave the man a message for Naisi at the House of the Red Branch. In a few days came Naisi with the sound of a horn, and rode up to her whom he had not seen since she was a day old in the arms of the druid. She knew him at once as Naisi the son of Usna, with skin white as snow, cheeks red as blood, hair black as a raven, wearing a tunic with many pearls and a crimson mantle. But he did not know her, though her glance made him look at her and see that she was more beautiful than any other woman, and also different. He thought that she was not a mortal, and only stopped because the horse refused to pass her. She loved him with all her