but which were now behind the Veil. At length she came to a high
wall wherein was a wicket gate, and through it she saw a garden full
of sweet herbs and flowers, which surrounded a steep-roofed building
of stone. In the garden she saw a man in a long brown robe tied about
his waist with a cord. He smiled at her and beckoned her to come in
without fear. He was a monk of the holy Patrick, and the house was a
convent church.

When the monk had heard her tale, he marvelled greatly and brought her
to St Patrick himself, who instructed her in the Faith, and she
believed and was baptized.

[Illustration: "She heard her own name called again and again"]

But not long thereafter, as she was praying in the church by the
Boyne, the sky darkened and she heard a sound without like the rushing
of a great wind, and mingled in it were cries and lamentations, and
her own name called again and again in a multitude of voices, thin and
faint as the crying of curlews upon the moor. She sprang up and gazed
around, calling in return, but nothing could she see, and at last the
storm of cries died away, and everything was still again around the
church except the singing voice of Boyne and the humming of the garden
bees.

Then Ethne sank down swooning, and the monks bore her out into the
air, and it was long until her heart beat and her eyes unclosed again.
In that hour she fell into a sickness from which she never recovered.
In no long time she died with her head upon the breast of the holy
Patrick, and she was buried in the church where she had first been
received by the monk; and the church was called Killethne, or the
Church of Ethne, from that day forward until now.

THE HIGH DEEDS OF FINN

CHAPTER IX

The Boyhood of Finn mac Cumhal

In Ireland long ago, centuries before the English appeared in that
country, there were kings and chiefs, lawyers and merchants, men of
the sword and men of the book, men who tilled their own ground and men
who tilled the ground of others, just as there are now. But there was
also, as ancient poets and historians tell us, a great company or
brotherhood of men who were bound to no fixed calling, unless it was
to fight for the High King of Ireland whenever foes threatened him
from within the kingdom or without it. This company was called the
Fianna of Erinn. They were mighty hunters and warriors, and though
they had great possessions in land, and rich robes, and gold
ornaments, and weapons wro