Page:The courtship of Ferb (Leahy).djvu/67

 king's son that went before them; though to the eyes of an older man he seemed but a boy, he showed himself afterward to be a warrior of great valour. Pleasant was he in the banqueting-hall, and stubborn in the strife; he was a snake full of poison; he was wary of the craft of his enemies; he was the flame of war; he was a fit match for a foe that rose up against him; he was liberal with his treasure; he could show compassion to the wounded; he could blaze up at an insult; he stood like a firm-rooted rock against violence; he could overwhelm wild might like a billow of justice; he was swift as a roebuck; he was steadfast as an oak; he was the head of the three provinces of Connaught in battle and wounding; he was their chief in assemblies, their distributor of treasure, and their good material for an accomplished king.

He held it to be dishonourable that any man at all in the world should come with numbers no greater than his own and take the house where he was; therefore he and his warriors chased the Fomorians, and they drove them from the palace. In that hour the hand of Mani was not the hand of a healer, for nine of the men of the Fomorians fell at his first attack. And then to the front of the fight came the pirate of Greater Asia—even Fabric of the venomous tooth; and upon the press of people that were before him came blows, and destruction, and confusion, and death; nor could any resist him till he