Page:Celtic Stories by Edward Thomas.djvu/63

 and none would give way. Then Naisi spoke, offering his own magical sword to the executioner in order that all might die at the same time. The three brothers knelt down side by side, and at one flash of the sword their heads fell together. Deirdre kissed the dead lips of Naisi and like some faithful-hearted hound she stood over the bodies so that no one dared to approach her. One by one they left her, and lastly Conachoor. At nightfall she was alone; all night no one came near her excepting the blind grave-digger. Three graves were dug and in one of them two bodies were laid. For Deirdre could not long outlive Naisi. She bent over the grave in mourning:

'The days would be long', she cried, 'without the sons of Usna. They were the hawks, the lions, the heroes, the sons of a king that was kingly.

'If they were with me, I should not miss house and fire, I should not be gloomy. But let no one think that I can live long after Naisi has died. The three hounds and the three horses of the brothers will be without masters and I could not endure to see them so. Since I first met Naisi I have not been alone until this day, though often we two were in a solitude. Him and his brothers only I loved, and for their sake I left the sweetness of Ulster and its people. Pity that I was not in the earth before they perished. My life will be short after the three brothers. Grave-digger that puttest away my darling, make not the grave too narrow—I shall be beside the noble ones.'

She was buried beside Naisi. Even in death some say that Conachoor tried to divide them. He buried them apart, but the next day they were together in the one grave. He ordered stakes of yew to be driven down through them in their separate graves, but out of these