“Old man, not the buzzing gnat may pass, Nor sunbeam look in unbidden: The King there sceptred knows all, sees all: From him there is nothing hidden.” “It never was thus with Fionn, our king! In largess our Fionn delighted: The hosts of the earth came in, and went forth Unquestioned, and uninvited!” “Thy words are the words of madness, old man, Thy chieftains had might one day; Yet a moment of heaven is three times worth The warriors of Eire for aye!” Then Oisin uplifted his old white head: Like lightning from the hoary skies A flash went forth ‘neath the shaggy roofs Low-bent o’er his sightless eyes: “Though my life sinks down, and I sit in the dust, Blind warrior and gray-haired man, Mine were they of old, thou priest overbold, Those chiefs of Baoigne’s clan!” And he cried, while a spasm his huge frame shook, “Dim shadows like men before me, My father was Fionn, and Oscar my son, Though to-day ye stand vaunting it o’er me!” Thus raged Oisin--’mid the fold of Christ, Still roaming old deserts wide In the storm of thought, like a lion old, Though lamblike at last he died. [55] The substance of this poem will be found among the translations of the Irish Ossianic Society. ---------- LUCAS GARCIA. 189 FROM THE SPANISH OF FERNAN CABALLERO. III. Lucas, who could neither do nor remedy anything, suffered fearfully from the presence of his sister so near him. Happily, in two days the general left for Sevilla.