ar and Diarmuid, they went on, and no cut or wound on them,
to where Angus and Grania were at Brugh na Boinne; and there was a good
welcome before them, and Diarmuid told them the whole story from
beginning to end, and it is much that Grania did not die then and there,
hearing all he had gone through.

And then she and Diarmuid set out again, and they went and stopped for
a while in a cave that was near the sea.

And one night while they were there a great storm came on, so that they
went into the far part of the cave. But bad as the night was, a man of
the Fomor, Ciach, the Fierce One, his name was, came over the western
ocean in a currach, with two oars, and he drew it into the cave for
shelter. And Diarmuid bade him welcome, and they sat down to play chess
together. And he got the best of the game, and what he asked as his
winnings was Grania to be his wife, and he put his arms about her as if
to bring her away. And Grania said: "I am this long time going with the
third best man of the Fianna, and he never came as near as that to me."

And Diarmuid took his sword to kill Ciach, and there was anger on Grania
when she saw that, and she had a knife in her hand and she struck it
into Diarmuid's thigh. And Diarmuid made an end of the Fomor, and he
said no word to Grania, but ran out and away through the storm.

And Grania went following after him, and calling to him, but there was
great anger on him and he would not answer her. And at last at the break
of day she overtook him, and after a while they heard the cry of a
heron, and she asked him what was it made the heron cry out.

"Tell me that," she said, "Grandson of Duibhne, to whom I gave my love."
And Diarmuid said: "O Grania, daughter of the High King, woman who never
took a step aright, it is because she was frozen to the rocks she gave
that cry." And Grania was asking forgiveness of him, and he was
reproaching her, and it is what he said: "O Grania of the beautiful
hair, though you are more beautiful than the green tree under blossom,
your love passes away as quickly as the cold cloud at break of day. And
you are asking a hard thing of me now," he said, "and it is a pity what
you said to me, Grania, for it was you brought me away from the house of
my lord, that I am banished from it to this day; and now I am troubled
through the night, fretting after its delight in every place.

"I am like a wild deer, or a beast that is astray, going ever and always
through th