an, 'and keep away from the wiles of Fionn.'

'Is that the counsel of you all to me?' asked Diarmid.

'It is the counsel of us all,' said they.

Then Diarmid bade them farewell, and went to the top of the Fort, and
put the shafts of his two javelins under him, and rose like a bird
into the air, and found himself on the plain where Grania met him. 'I
trow, O Grania,' said he, 'this is an evil course upon which you are
come, for I know not to which corner of Erin I can take you. Return to
the town, and Fionn will never harm you.'

'I will never go back,' answered Grania, 'and nothing save death shall
part us.'

'Then go forward,' said Diarmid.

The town was a mile behind them when Grania stopped. 'I am weary, son
of O'Dowd.'

'It is a good time to weary, Grania, for your father's house is still
nigh at hand, and I give you my word as a warrior that I will never
carry you or any woman.'

'You need not do that,' answered Grania, 'for my father's horses are
in a fenced meadow by themselves, and have chariots behind them. Go
and bring two horses and a chariot, and I will wait for you here.'

And Diarmid did what Grania bade him, and he brought two of the
horses, and they journeyed together as far as Athlone.

'It is the easier for Fionn to follow our track,' said Diarmid at
last, 'now we have the horses.'

'Then leave them,' cried Grania, 'one on each side of the stream, and
we will travel on foot.' So they went on till they reached Galway, and
there Diarmid cut down a grove, and made a palisade with seven doors
of wattles, and gathered together the tops of the birch trees and soft
rushes for a bed for Grania.

* * * * *

When Fionn and all that were in Tara awoke and found that Diarmid and
Grania were not among them, a burning rage seized upon Fionn. At once
he sent out trackers before him, and he followed them himself with
his men, till they reached the land of Connaught. 'Ah, well I know
where Grania and Diarmid shall be sought,' cried Fionn. And Ossian and
Dearing heard him, and said to each other, 'We must send Diarmid a
warning, lest he should be taken. Look where Bran is, the hound of
Fionn, and he shall take it, for he does not love Fionn better than he
loves Diarmid, so, Oscar, tell him to go to Diarmid who is in Derry.'
And Oscar told that to Bran, and Bran understood, and stole round to
the back part of the army where Fionn might not see him; then he
bounded away to D