oill, I would sooner be looking at them than at this
troop of the crooked croziers.

"If I had Scolb Sceine with me, or Osgar, that was smart in battles, I
would not be without meat to-night at the sound of the bell of the seven
tolls."

PATRICK. "Oisin, since your wits are gone from you be glad at what I
say; it is certain to me you will leave the Fianna and that you will
receive the God of the stars."

OISIN. "There is wonder on me at your hasty talk, priest that has
travelled in every part, to say that I would part from the Fianna, a
generous people, never niggardly."

PATRICK. "If you saw the people of God, the way they are settled at
feasts, every good thing is more plentiful with them than with Finn's
people, however great their name was.

"Finn and the Fianna are lying now very sorrowful on the flag-stone of
pain; take the Son of God in their place; make your repentance and do
not lose Heaven."

OISIN. "I do not believe your talk now. O Patrick of the crooked staves,
Finn and the Fianna to be there within, unless they find pleasure being
in it."

PATRICK. "Make right repentance now, before you know when your end is
coming; God is better for one hour than the whole of the Fianna of
Ireland."

OISIN. "That is a daring answer to make to me, Patrick of the crooked
crozier; your crozier would be in little bits if I had Osgar with me
now.

"If my son Osgar and God were hand to hand on the Hill of the Fianna, if
I saw my son put down, I would say that God was a strong man.

"How could it be that God or his priests could be better men than Finn,
the King of the Fianna, a generous man without crookedness.

"If there was a place above or below better than the Heaven of God, it
is there Finn would go, and all that are with him of his people.

"You say that a generous man never goes to the hell of pain; there was
not one among the Fianna that was not generous to all.

"Ask of God, Patrick, does He remember when the Fianna were alive, or
has He seen east or west any man better than themselves in their
fighting.

"The Fianna used not to be saying treachery; we never had the name of
telling lies. By truth and the strength of our hands we came safe out of
every battle.

"There never sat a priest in a church, though you think it sweet to be
singing psalms, was better to his word than the Fianna, or more generous
than Finn himself.

"If my comrades were living to-night, I would take no pleasure in your
croon