And the air was
rent with cries of lamentation.
Then did a great champion ride across the plain, and to him did Deirdre
tell of the fate of the sons of Usna. And under his care the star-eyed
maiden came where the heroes lay dead.
And Deirdre kneeled, and she bent low over the head of Nathos, and kissed
his dead lips.
Then, at the bidding of the champion, three graves were digged, and in
them, standing upright, were buried Nathos and Ailne and Ardan, and upon
the shoulders of each was his head placed.
And as Deirdre gazed into the grave of Nathos, she moaned a lay which told
of the brave deeds of the sons of Usna. It told, too, of her love for
Nathos, and as she ended the mournful strain, her heartstrings broke, and
she fell at the feet of her husband, and there did she die, and by his
side was she buried.
In that same hour died the Wise Man; and as he died, he cried aloud, 'That
which shall come, shall come.'
And so it was, for on the morrow Concobar's host was scattered as autumn
leaves, and the House of the Red Branch perished, and ere long Concobar
died in a madness of despair, and throughout the Green Isle was mourning
and desolation.
But through the ages has the tale of the wondrous beauty of Deirdre been
sung, and yet shall it be told again, for when shall the world tire of the
sorrowfullest of 'The Three Sorrows of Story-telling,'--the Fate of the
Sons of Usna and of Deirdre the Star-eyed?
THE FOUR WHITE SWANS
In the days of long ago there lived in the Green Isle of Erin a race of
brave men and fair women--the race of the Dedannans.
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