From out the woods the Fians hastened fast--
Lo! when they stared towards the western sky,
They saw their winter dwelling blazing high.

Then fear possessed them for their own, and grief
Unutterable. And thus spake their wise chief,
To whom came knowledge and the swift, sure thought--
"Alas! alas! an enemy hath wrought
Black vengeance on our kind. In yonder gleam
Of fearsome flame, the horrors of my dream
Are now accomplished--all we loved and cherished,
And sought, and fought for, in that pyre have perished!"

White-lipped they heard.... Then, wailing loud, they ran,
Following the nimble Caoilte, man by man,
Towards Knockfarrel; leaping on their spears
O'er marsh and stream. MacReithin, blind with tears,
Tumbled or leapt into a swollen flood
That swept him to the sea. But no man stood
To help or mourn him, for the eve grew dim--
And some there were, indeed, who envied him.




V.

As snarls the wolf at bay within the wood
On huntsmen and their hounds, so Garry stood
Raging before the women who had made