coming, swifter
than the wind was his going, that he might recover the protection of his
enchanted palace before the "fair-faced youth clad in skins" should
overtake him. Finn let fall the mantle as he had been instructed, and
pursued him, but in vain. Soon he perceived that he could not possibly
overtake the swift enchanter. Then he was aware that the magic spear
struggled in his hand like a hound in a leash. "Go, then, if thou wilt,"
he said, and, poising, cast the spear from him. It shot through the dark
night hissing and screaming. There was a track of fire behind it. Finn
followed, and on the threshold of the enchanted palace he found the body
of Midna. He was quite dead, with the blood pouring through a wound in
the middle of his back; but the spear was gone. Finn drew his sword and
cut off the enchanter's head, and returned with it to Tara. When he came
to the spot where he had dropped the mantle it was not seen, but smoke
and flame issued there from a hole in the ground. That hole was twenty
feet deep in the earth, and at the bottom of it there was a fire always
from that night, and it was never extinguished. It was called the fire
of the son of Midna. It was in a depression on the north side of the
hill of Tara, called the Glen of the Mantle, Glen-a-Brat.

Finn, bearing the head, passed through the sleepers into the palace and
spiked the head on his own spear, and drove the spear-end into the
ground at Conn's end of the great hall. Then the sickness and faintness
of death came upon Finn, also a great horror and despair overshadowed
him, so that he was about to give himself up for utterly lost. Yet he
recalled one of his marvellous attributes, and approaching a silver
vessel, into which pure water ever flowed and which was always full, he
made a cup with his two hands and, lifting it to his mouth, drank, and
the blood began to circulate in his veins, and strength returned to his
limbs, and the cheerful hue of rosy health to his cheeks.

Having rested himself sufficiently he went forth and shouted to the
sleeping host, and called the captains by their names, beginning with
Conn. They awoke and rose up, though dazed and stupid, for it was
difficult for any man, no matter how he had stopped his ears, to avoid
hearing Finn when he sent forth his voice of power. They were
astonished to find that Tara was still standing, for though the night
was dark, the palaces and temples, all of hewn timber, were brilliantly
col