n.

The big man pulled off the iron halter then from his horse, and it made
off as hard as it could go, till it came where the horses of the Fianna
were; and it began to tear and to kick and to bite at them, killing and
maiming. "Take your horse out of that, big man," said Conan; "and by the
earth and the sky," he said, "only it was on the guarantee of Finn and
the Fianna you took the halter off him, I would let out his brains
through the windows of his head; and many as is the bad prize Finn has
found in Ireland," he said, "he never got one as bad as yourself." "And
I swear by earth and sky as well as yourself," said the big man, "I will
never bring him out of that; for I have no serving-boy to do it for me,
and it is not work for me to be leading my horse by the hand."

Conan, son of Morna, rose up then and took the halter and put it on the
horse, and led it back to where Finn was, and held it with his hand.
"You would never have done a horse-boy's service, Conan," said Finn, "to
any one of the Fianna, however far he might be beyond this Fomor. And if
you will do what I advise," he said, "you will get up on the horse now,
and search out with him all the hills and hollows and flowery plains of
Ireland, till his heart is broken in his body in payment for the way he
destroyed the horses of the Fianna."

Conan made a leap then on to the horse, and struck his heels hard into
him, but with all that the horse would not stir. "I know what ails him,"
said Finn, "he will not stir till he has the same weight of horsemen on
him as the weight of the big man."

On that thirteen men of the Fianna went up behind Conan, and the horse
lay down with them and rose up again. "I think that you are mocking at
my horse and at myself," said the big man; "and it is a pity for me to
be spending the rest of the year with you, after all the humbugging I
saw in you to-day, Finn. And I know well," he said, "that all I heard
about you was nothing but lies, and there was no cause for the great
name you have through the world. And I will quit you now, Finn," he
said.

With that he went from them, slow and weak, dragging himself along till
he had put a little hill between himself and the Fianna. And as soon as
he was on the other side of it, he tucked up his cloak to his waist, and
away with him, as if with the quickness of a swallow or a deer, and the
rush of his going was like a blast of loud wind going over plains and
mountains in spring-time.