first green shoots, and again when Autumn gleaned her harvest of gold.

And when another seven years had sped, then came not the King thither,
either when the earth was green or golden, nor in the blue summer nor the
hoary winter, but from Lavarcam he heard that it was well with the maid.

One white winter's morning Deirdre looked from her window, and saw lying
in the snow a calf. It had been killed by her nurse to provide food for
the little household, and its bright red blood dyed the thick-lying snow.
As Deirdre watched the flow of the scarlet stream, a raven, black as
night, flew down and drank of the warm blood. Then Deirdre smiled.

'Where are thy thoughts, fair child?' asked Lavarcam, entering the room.

'Only did I think,' said Deirdre, 'that if a youth could be found whose
skin was white as snow, his cheek crimson as that pool of blood, and his
hair black as the raven's wing, him could I love right gladly.'

Then Lavarcam spake: 'Such a man have I seen, and one only.'

'His name, Lavarcam, his name?' cried Deirdre. 'Whence comes he, and
wherefrom he be found?'

'The fairest of three fair brothers is this Nathos, the son of Usna, and
now is he with Concobar the King.'

And Deirdre would thereafter think of none but Nathos, and Lavarcam was
much troubled because of the words that she had spoken. And when Deirdre
longed grievously by day and night to see this Nathos of whom she had
heard, Lavarcam thought of a plan whereby she might end the maiden's