home, and drove out the clerics that were there, with his wife and
children along with them, and drove out also the nobles of his own clan,
the children of Niall, two great and gallant battalions. And Duivsech,
his wife, went crying along the road with her children around her to
seek Bishop Cairnech, the half-brother of her husband, and her own
soul-friend, that she might obtain help and shelter from him.

But Sheen went gladly and light-heartedly into the House of Cletty, and
when she saw the lovely lightsome house and the goodly nobles of the
clan of Niall, and the feasting and banqueting and the playing of the
minstrels and all the joyous noise of that kingly dwelling, her heart
was lifted within her, and "Fair as a fairy palace is this house of
Cletty," said she.

"Fair, indeed, it is," replied the King; "for neither the Kings of
Leinster nor the Kings of mighty Ulster, nor the lords of the clans of
Owen or of Niall, have such a house as this; nay, in Tara of the Kings
itself, no house to equal this house of mine is found." And that night
the King robed himself in all the splendour of his royal dignity, and on
his right hand he seated Sheen, and a great banquet was made before
them, and men said that never on earth was to be seen a woman more
goodly of appearance than she. And the King was astonished at her, and
he began to ask her questions, for it seemed to him that the power of a
great goddess of the ancient time was in her; and he asked her whence
she came, and what manner was the power that he saw in her. He asked
her, too, did she believe in the God of the clerics, or was she herself
some goddess of the older world? For he feared her, feeling that his
fate was in her hands.

She laughed a careless and a cruel laugh, for she knew that the King was
in their power, now that she was there alone with him, and the clerics
and the Christian teachers gone. "Fear me not, O Murtough," she cried;
"I am, like thee, a daughter of the race of men of the ancient family of
Adam and of Eve; fit and meet my comradeship with thee; therefore, fear
not nor regret. And as to that true God of thine, worker of miracles and
helper of His people, no miracle in all the world is there that I, by
mine own unaided power, cannot work the like. I can create a sun and
moon; the heavens I can sprinkle with radiant stars of night. I can call
up to life men fiercely fighting in conflict, slaughtering one another.
Wine I could make of the cold