the heroes. For the palace, it was of timber staunched with clay
and was roofed with rushes. Without it was white with lime,
conspicuous afar to mariners sailing in the Muirnict. [Footnote:
The Irish Sea or St. George's Channel. Muirnict means the Ictian
Sea.] There was a rampart round the dun and a moat spanned by a
drawbridge. Before it there was a spacious lawn. Down that lawn
there ever ran a stream of sparkling water. Setanta sailed his
boats in the stream and taught it here to be silent, and there to
hum in rapids, or to apparel itself in silver and sing liquid
notes, or to blow its little trumpet from small cataracts.




CHAPTER IV

SETANTA RUNS AWAY


"For a boy's way is the wind's way."

--LONGFELLOW


And now the daily life of that remote dun no longer pleased the
boy, for the war-spirit within drave him on. Moreover he longed
for comrades and playfellows, for his fearful mother permitted him
no longer to associate with children of that rude realm whose
conversation and behaviour she misliked for her child. She loved
him greatly and perceived not how he changed, or how the new years