having once taken Déirdre he will not touch or harm the sons of Usnach. Conor plights his word and troth, and the spell is set at work. The sons of Usnach had left the half-burnt house and were escaping in the morning light with Déirdre between them when they met, as they thought, a sea of thick viscid waves, and they cast down their weapons and spread abroad their arms and tried to swim, and Conor's soldiers came and took them without a blow. They were brought to Conor and he caused them to be at once beheaded. It was then the druid cursed Emania, for Conor had broken his plighted word, and that curse was fulfilled in the misery that fell upon the province during the wars with Mève. He cursed also the house of Conor, and prophesied that none of his descendants should possess Emania for ever, "and that," adds the saga, "has been verified, for neither Conor nor any of his race possessed Emania from that time to this."[6] As for Déirdre, she was as one distracted; she fell upon the ground and drank their blood, she tore her hair and rent her dishevelled tresses, and the lament she broke forth into has long been a favourite of Irish scribes. She calls aloud upon the dead, "the three falcons of the mount of Culan, the three lions of wood of the cave, the three sons of the breast of the Ultonians, the three props of the battalion of Chuailgne, the three dragons of the fort of Monadh." "The High King of Ulster, my first husband, I forsook him for the love of Naoise. * * * * * That I shall live after Naoise Let no man on earth imagine. * * * * * Their three shields and their three spears Have often been my bed. * * * * * I never was one day alone Until the day of the making of the grave, Although both I and ye Were often in solitude. My sight has gone from me At seeing the grave of Naoise." She remembers now in her own agony another woman who would lament with her could she but know that Naoise had died. "On a day that the nobles of Alba [Scotland] were feasting, And the sons of Usnach, deserving of love, To the daughter of the lord of Duntrone Naoise gave a secret kiss. He sent to her a frisking doe, A deer of the forest with a fawn at its foot, And he went aside to her on a visit While returning from the host of Inverness. But when I heard that My head filled full of jealousy, I launched my little skiff upon the waves, I did not care whether I died or lived. They followed me, swimming, Ainnlé and Ardan, who never uttered falsehood, And they turned me in to land again, Two who would subdue a hundred. Naoise pledged me his word of truth, And he swore in presence of his weapons three times, That he would never cloud my countenance again Till he should go from me to the army of the dead. Alas! if she were to hear this night That Naoise was under cover in the clay, She would weep most certainly, And I, I would weep with her sevenfold."[7]