If
sorrow come upon thee, let it be upon us also. Are we not the children of
one mother, and if death come, let us face it together like men. Are we
not under a bond that we will stand each by each, even unto death?'
Then said Ailne, 'As Ardan hath spoken, so let it be, for although the
words of the Wise Man come to pass, and sorrow be upon us, yet will we not
henceforth leave thee.'
But when Deirdre heard how the sons of Usna would thus face death for her
sake, she sighed aloud. 'Alas! it is not for me to bring sorrow upon the
land. Let me even now return to the cottage in the forest, and there with
Lavarcam will I live and die, unless it be that Concobar take me thence.'
But Ardan answered: 'For fear of what may befall us, the sons of Usna,
shalt thou never leave us, nor shalt thou go forth from us, but of thine
own free will.'
Early next morning one hundred and fifty men rode with the three sons of
Usna and Deirdre, the wife of Nathos, toward the bay where their black
galley was harboured. It was not till night, when on the high ridge of a
hill, that they looked backward, and there in the far valley below, where
stood the castle of the sons of Usna, they beheld a column of flame.
And Nathos' brow grew dark. 'The fire that ye see in the valley below
devours the castle of the sons of Usna. The hand that lit the fire is none
other than the hand of Concobar the King.
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