Page:The courtship of Ferb (Leahy).djvu/71

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The Courtship of Ferb

The Bade.


Rise! the hosts of Connaught calling,
Vengeance full for Mani take;
Troops shall at your hand be falling,
Royal Maev, when you awake.

Thereupon Maev awoke, and she waked Alill, and she told him of the vision which she had seen; and afterwards she recounted it to her people.

"I know well that there is no truth in that story," said Briccriu. But when Fiannamail, the son of Fergus Forderg, even the son of him that was the steward of Croghan, heard the news, he waited not for any other, but departed before Maev was ready, for Mani was his foster-brother; now the eighth place among the youths of Connaught belonged to Fiannamail. Maev selected seven hundred armed men, the best that could at the time be found in Croghan. Then came Donnell the Red, surnamed Donnell of the broad countenance, the son of Duban, who was the son of Ingamain; he was the best warrior under shield and sword and spear to be found in the province of Connaught, and he also was foster-brother to Mani. And he followed on the track of Fiannamail in front of all the others; thirty warriors had he with him, and the name of each one of them was

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