cause, and one day when they were in the house together, Etain asked of
Ailill what was the cause of his sickness. "My sickness," said Ailill,
"comes from my love for thee." "'Tis pity," said she, "that thou hast
so long kept silence, for thou couldest have been healed long since,
had we but known of its cause." "And even now could I be healed," said
Ailill, "did I but find favour in thy sight." "Thou shalt find
favour," she said. Each day after they had spoken thus with each
other, she came to him for the fomenting of his head, and for the
giving of the portion of food that was required by him, and for the
pouring of water over his hands; and three weeks after that, Ailill was
whole. Then he said to Etain: "Yet is the completion of my cure at thy
hands lacking to me; when may it be that I shall have it?" "'Tis
to-morrow it shall be," she answered him, "but it shall not be in the
abode of the lawful monarch of the land that this felony shall be done.
Thou shalt come," she said, "on the morrow to yonder hill that riseth
beyond the fort: there shall be the tryst that thou desirest."

Now Ailill lay awake all that night, and he fell into a sleep at the
hour when he should have kept his tryst, and he woke not from his sleep
until the third hour of the day. And Etain went to her tryst, and she
saw a man before her; like was his form to the form of Ailill, he
lamented the weakness that his sickness had caused him, and he gave to
her such answers as it was fitting that Ailill should give. But at the
third hour of the day, Ailill himself awoke: and he had for a long time
remained in sorrow when Etain came into the house where he was; and as
she approached him, "What maketh thee so sorrowful?" said Etain. "'Tis
because thou wert sent to tryst with me," said Ailill, "and I came not
to thy presence, and sleep fell upon me, so that I have but now
awakened from it; and surely my chance of being healed hath now gone
from me." "Not so, indeed," answered Etain, "for there is a morrow to