Page:The courtship of Ferb (Leahy).djvu/85

 To the house you came proudly, No vassal your sire; As chieftains it was not For you to retire.

Pale Badb have you feasted The weapons among; Of the fair youths of Connaught The sad fate is sung.

Then came Donnell the Red, the son of Duban—he that was called Donnell of the broad countenance—and he arrived at the foot of the hill upon which the castle stood.

"Donnell the Red, the son of Duban," said the maiden who had been Ferb's messenger, "is a trusty man in all matters where the spear and the sword can avail. Dauntless in the hour wherein valiant deeds are done is each of those who have come hither, and mighty would have been the aid that Donnell would have lent to his foster-brother had it been his fortune to come hither while Mani was yet in life." And when the maiden Ferb heard that, she went out that she might meet Donnell, and much she incited him to the fight, and she made a part of a song, and Donnell Derg of the broad countenance, he made answer to her:—