the head bard; and for sure, oh king, I had no reward for them; and
I said to them, 'I have no reward for you.' And surely, oh king,
there was catterwauling between them. So I leapt out at a turf
window that was at the back of the house. I took myself off as hard
as I might into the wood. I was swift enough and strong at that
time; and when I felt the rustling toirm of the cats after me I
climbed into as high a tree as I saw in the place, and one that was
close in the top; and I hid myself as well as I might. The cats
began to search for me through the wood, and they could not find me;
and when they were tired, each one said to the other that they would
turn back. 'But,' said the one-eyed fox-coloured cat that was
commander-in-chief over them, 'you saw him not with your two eyes,
and though I have but one eye, there's the rascal up in the tree.'
When he had said that, one of them went up in the tree, and as he
was coming where I was, I drew a weapon that I had and I killed him.
'Be this from me!' said the one-eyed one--'I must not be losing my
company thus; gather round the root of the tree and dig about it,
and let down that villain to earth.' On this they gathered about the
tree, and they dug about the root, and the first branching root that
they cut, she gave a shiver to fall, and I myself gave a shout, and
it was not to be wondered at.

"There was in the neighbourhood of the wood a priest, and he had ten
men with him delving, and he said, 'There is a shout of a man in
extremity and I must not be without replying to it.' And the wisest
of the men said, 'Let it alone till we hear it again.' The cats
began again digging wildly, and they broke the next root; and I
myself gave the next shout, and in very deed it was not a weak one.
'Certainly,' said the priest, 'it is a man in extremity--let us
move.' They set themselves in order for moving. And the cats arose