Page:Celtic Stories by Edward Thomas.djvu/56

 Deirdre and the sons of Usna set sail for Alba. They came at nightfall within sight of the promontories of Alba, and because the wind fell they stayed that night in a bay under a cliff. There a ship came up to them, and a strange man on board of it stared hard out of a black hood at Deirdre. He begged Naisi to come to his castle, but first Naisi bade him tell his name and show his face. His name, he said, was Angus. At sight of his face Deirdre's lips whitened, and she said she would not go to his castle. When the ship had departed, Deirdre told Naisi that Angus was really the king of Alba. In a dream she had seen him standing over the dead body of Naisi, whom he had slain that he might deliver her to Conachoor.

They sailed on, and even though Deirdre was weary she could still laugh for joy of the rowing music. She grew more beautiful with the beauty of the sea, and after several days she wished that she had been a man, to think it but a little glory thus to sail in tempest along a stern coast.

They came at last under the cliffs where the castle of Usna once stood, the birthplace and playground of Naisi and Ainley and Ardan. They turned some of the jackdaws out of the ruins, and took possession. The chiefs of the country came in, and obeyed Naisi as they had obeyed his father. Angus of Alba was now dead, and they formed an alliance with the new king. Some of their time they spent with him in the north, some in their fatherland in the south. They fought in the king's battles, and second only to the beauty of Deirdre were the courage and might of the sons of Usna in the tales that were told and the songs that were sung to the harps of the mountains. Deirdre and Naisi and Ainley and Ardan hunted together, and enjoyed together the free-