st place of my heart, and sighs there
hidden in my love for thee.

NAISI--Dear one, the songs of Ainle and the pleasant tales of Ardan will
drive away thy sorrow.

DEIRDRE--Ainle and Ardan! Where are they? They linger long.

NAISI--They are watching a sail that set hitherward from the south.

DEIRDRE--A sail!

NAISI--A sail! What is there to startle thee in that? Have not a
thousand galleys lain in Loch Etive since I built this dun by the sea.

DEIRDRE--I do not know, but my spirit died down in my heart as you
spake. I think the wind that brings it blows from Eri, and it is it has
brought sorrow to me.

NAISI--My beautiful one, it is but a fancy. It is some merchant comes
hither to barter Tyrian cloths for the cunning work of our smiths. But
glad would I be if he came from Eri, and I would feast him here for a
night, and sit round a fire of turves and hear of the deeds of the Red
Branch.

DEIRDRE--Your heart for ever goes out to the Red Branch, Naisi. Were
there any like unto thee, or Ainle, or Ardan?

NAISI--We were accounted most skilful, but no one was held to be braver
than another. If there were one it was great Fergus who laid aside the
silver rod which he held as Ardrie of Ulla, but he is in himself greater
than any king.

DEIRDRE--And does one hero draw your heart back to Eri?

NAISI--A river of love, indeed, flows from my heart unto Fergus, for
there is no one more noble. But there were many others, Conal, and the
boy we called Cuculain, a dark, sad child, who was the darling of the
Red Branch, and truly he seemed like one who would be a world-famous
warrior. There were many held him to be a god in exile.

DEIRDRE--I think we, too, are in exile in this world. But tell me who
else among the Red Branch do you think of with love?

NAISI--There was the Ardrie, Concobar, whom no man knows, indeed, for he
is unfathomable. But he is a wise king, though moody and passionate
at times, for he was cursed in his youth for a sin against one of the
Sidhe.

DEIRDRE--Oh, do not speak of him! My heart falls at the thought of him
as into a grave, and I know I will die when we meet.

NAISI--I know one who will die before that, my fawn.

DEIRDRE--Naisi! You remember when we fled that night; as I lay by thy
side--thou wert yet strange to me--I heard voices speaking out of the
air. The great ones were invisible, yet their voices sounded solemnly.
"Our brother and our sister do not remember," one said; and another