Miss Gràine Mac Cormac, or rather Princess Gràine, might well make this remarkable admission regarding the character of those heroes. She was emphatically a woman. The above series of questions is thoroughly in harmony with the inquisitorial character of ladies of fashion in general, as well as with ordinary feminine curiosity. This curiosity was awakened by the vision of and contact with a band of conquering heroes whose names have mysteriously touched the heart of the Celtic world for centuries. Let handsome young Diarmads be careful. Gràinne “called her attendant handmaid to her, and told her to bring to her the jewelled-golden-chased goblet which was in the _grianan_ after her. The handmaid brought the goblet, and Grainne filled the goblet forthwith, and there used to go into it the drink of nine times nine men. Grainne said, ‘Take the goblet to Fionn first, and bid him take a draught out of it, and disclose to him that it is I that sent it to him.’” This was done by the obsequious handmaid; the same dose was sent to Cormac, his wife, and son, by the orders of Princess Gràine, with the result that “one after another they fell into a stupor of sleep and of deep slumber.” The scheming Gràine might well be satisfied with the immediate fruits of the potations which she administered to her father, Fionn and the rest. She is now to administer a dose of a different sort to Finn’s nephew, Diarmad. And while we cannot refuse our sympathies to the brave and betrothed Finn, severe as our ethics in the marital sphere may be, yet we cannot also help remembering that it was hard for a young princess to be wedded to even a sovereign person whose son and grandson were present. She must have intuitively felt it would be the union of June and December. Diarmad, “the white-toothed, of the lightsome countenance;” and “the best lover of women and of maidens in the whole world,” and Finn’s nephew, would naturally be esteemed a more desirable admirer by this highly passionate and royal girl.