In three days they came to the castle of Borrach, and there had Fergus to
keep his bond to feast with Borrach. 'For,' he said, turning to those with
him, 'my feast-bond I must keep, yet send I with you my two sons.'
'Of a surety, Fergus, must thou keep thy feast-bond,' answered Nathos,
'but as for thy sons, I need not their protection, yet in the company each
of the other will we fare southward together.'
But as they went, Deirdre urged that they should tarry, and when they had
gone further, Nathos found that his wife had vanished from his side. Going
back he found her in deep sleep by the wayside.
Gently waking her, Nathos read terror in her starry eyes.
'What aileth thee, my Queen?'
'Again have I dreamed, O Nathos, and in my dream I saw our little company,
but as I looked, on the younger son of Fergus alone, was the head left
upon his body. Turn aside, and let us go not to Concobar, or that thing
which I saw in my dream, it shall come to pass.'
But Nathos feared not, for had not Fergus come to them with the bond of
peace from the King?
And on the morrow they came to the great palace.
When it was told Concobar that the three sons of Usna and Deirdre the
Star-eyed, and the two sons of Fergus were without, he ordered that they
should be taken into the House of the Red Branch. And he ordered, too,
that there should be given unto them of pleasant foods, and that all that
dwelt in the castle should do them honour.
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