flat of his hand. And when the whelp saw the
hound rushing towards him, and its jaws open, he rose up and made a leap
from Muadhan's hand into the throat of the hound, and came out of its
side, bringing the heart with it, and he leaped back again to Muadhan's
hand, and left the hound dead after him.

Muadhan went on then after Diarmuid and Grania, and he took up Grania
again and carried her a bit of the way into the mountain. Then another
hound was loosened after them, and Diarmuid said to Muadhan: "I often
heard there is nothing can stand against weapons of Druid wounding, and
the throat of no beast can be made safe from them. And will you stand
now," he said, "till I put the Gae Dearg, the Red Spear, through that
hound."

Then Muadhan and Grania stopped to see the cast. And Diarmuid made a
cast at the hound, and the spear went through its body and brought out
its bowels; and he took up the spear again, and they went forward.

It was not long after that the third hound was loosed. And Grania said
then: "This is the one is fiercest of them, and there is great fear on
me, and mind yourself now, Diarmuid."

It was not long till the hound overtook them, and the place he overtook
them was Lic Dhubhain, the flag-stone of Dubhan, on Slieve Luachra. He
rose with a light leap over Diarmuid, as if he had a mind to seize on
Grania, but Diarmuid took him by the two hind legs, and struck a blow of
his carcase against the side of the rock was nearest, till he had let
out his brains through the openings of his head and of his ears. And
then Diarmuid took up his arms and his battle clothes, and put his
narrow-topped finger into the silken string of the Gae Dearg, and he
made a good cast at the young man of the green cloak that was at the
head of the troop that killed him. Then he made another cast at the
second man and killed him, and the third man in the same way. And as it
is not the custom to stand after leaders are fallen, the strangers when
they saw what had happened took to flight.

And Diarmuid followed after them, killing and scattering, so that unless
any man of them got away over the forests, or into the green earth, or
under the waters, there was not a man or messenger of them left to tell
the news, but only the Woman-messenger of the Black Mountain, that kept
moving around about when Diarmuid was putting down the strangers.

And it was not long till Finn saw her coming towards him where he was,
her legs failing, and