when it was told him that they numbered one hundred and fifty, he said no
more, for there were but thirty that sailed with the chief, and what could
one man do against five?

It was not until the strangers had gone that Nathos asked Deirdre
wherefore she delayed to visit so great a lord as Angus.

'Thou shalt hear wherefore I went not this day, nor shall go on any day to
come to the castle of him who calleth himself Angus. So he calleth
himself, but in truth he is none other than the King of Alba. In a dream
was it so revealed unto me, when I saw him stand victorious over your dead
body. Nathos, that man would fain steal me from you, and deliver you into
the hands of Concobar.'

'Deirdre hath wisdom,' said Ardan. 'By the morn after to-morrow we must be
far hence, for ere the sun shall rise may not yonder chief be upon us with
thrice the number of our men?'

And Nathos, though he was sore grieved for the weariness of Deirdre, bowed
his head. So they set sail, and through the thick mist of a starless night
their galley silently breasted the unseen waves. But when they came north
of the long island, they bent to their oars, and as they rowed yet
northward Deirdre laughed again for joy, as she listened to the music of
the rowers' strokes.

When dawn glimmered they came to a sea-loch, its waters o'ershadowed by
the sleeping hills. And there they were told that the King of Alba, who
had called himself Angus, had no castle in the west, and had already left
for Dunedin. They heard, too, that the chief who sailed with him to Mull
was no longer a great lord, and that they had nought to fear.