Part 48

Then Lavarcam sped back to Deirdre and begged her to come with her to enjoy the beauty of the woods. In a little, Lavarcam strayed away from her charge, and soon the cry of a jay and the bark of a fox were heard, and while Deirdre still marvelled at the sounds that came so close together, Lavarcam returned. Nor had she been back a minute before three men came through the trees and slowly walked past, close to where Lavarcam and Deirdre were hidden.

"I have never seen men so near before," said Deirdre. "Only from the outskirts of the forest have I seen them very far away. Who are these men, who bring no joy to my eyes?"

And Lavarcam made answer: "These are Naoise, Ardan, and Ainle--the three sons of Usna."

But Deirdre looked hard at Lavarcam, and scorn and laughter were in her merry eyes.

"Then shall I have speech with Naoise, Ardan, and Ainle," she said, and ere Lavarcam could stop her, she had flitted through the trees by a path amongst the fern, and stood suddenly before the three men.

And the rough hinds, seeing such perfect loveliness, made very sure that Deirdre was one of the sidhe and stared at her with the round eyes and gaping mouths of wondering terror.

For a moment Deirdre gazed at them. Then: "Are ye the Sons of Usna?" she asked.

And when they stood like stocks, frightened and stupid, she lashed them with her mockery, until the swineherd could no more, and blurted out the whole truth to this most beautiful of all the world. Then, very gently, like pearls from a silver string, the words fell from the rowan-red lips of Deirdre: "I blame thee not, poor swineherd," she said, "and that thou mayst know that I deem thee a true man, I would fain ask thee to do one thing for me."

And when the eyes of the herd met the eyes of Deirdre, a soul was born in him, and he knew things of which he never before had dreamed.

"If I can do one thing to please thee, that will I do," he said. "Aye, and gladly pay for it with my life. Thenceforth my life is thine."

And Deirdre said: "I would fain see Naoise, one of the Sons of Usna."

And once more the swineherd said: "My life is thine."

Then Deirdre, seeing in his eyes a very beautiful thing, stooped and kissed the swineherd on his weather-beaten, tanned forehead.

"Go, then," she said, "to Naoise. Tell him that I, Deirdre, dream of him all the night and think of him all the day, and that I bid him meet me here to-morrow an hour before the setting of the sun."

The swineherd watched her flit into the shadows of the trees, and then went on his way, through the snowy woods, that he might pay with his life for the kiss that Deirdre had given him.

Sorely puzzled was Lavarcam over the doings of Deirdre that day, for Deirdre told her not a word of what had passed between her and the swineherd. On the morrow, when she left her to go back to the court of King Conor, she saw, as she drew near Emain Macha, where he stayed, black wings that flapped over something that lay on the snow. At her approach there rose three ravens, three kites, and three hoodie-crows, and she saw that their prey was the body of the swineherd with gaping spear-wounds all over him. Yet even then he looked happy. He had died laughing, and there was still a smile on his lips. Faithfully had he delivered his message, and when he had spoken of the beauty of Deirdre, rumour of his speech had reached the king, and the spears of Conor's men had enabled him to make true the words he had said to Deirdre: "I will pay for it with my life." In this way was shed the first blood of that great sea of blood that was spilt for the love of Deirdre, the Beauty of the World.

From where the swineherd lay, Lavarcam went to the camp of the Sons of Usna, and to Naoise she told the story of the love that Deirdre bore him, and counselled him to come to the place where she was hidden, and behold her beauty. And Naoise, who had seen how even a rough clod of a hind could achieve the noble chivalry of a race of kings for her dear sake, felt his heart throb within him. "I will come," he said to Lavarcam.

Days passed, and Deirdre waited, very sure that Naoise must come to her at last. And one day she heard a song of magical sweetness coming through the trees. Three voices sung the song, and it was as though one of the sidhe played a harp to cast a spell upon men. The voice of Ainle, youngest of the Sons of Usna, was like the sweet upper strings of the harp, that of Ardan the strings in the middle, and the voice of Naoise was like the strings whose deep resonance can play upon the hearts of warriors and move them to tears. Then Deirdre knew that she heard the voice of her beloved, and she sped to him as a bird speeds to her mate. Even as Lavarcam had told her was Naoise, eldest of the Sons of Usna, but no words had been able to tell Naoise of the beauty of Deirdre.

"It was as though a sudden flood of sunshine burst forth in that place. For a woman came from the thicket more beautiful than any dream he had ever dreamed. She was clad in a saffron robe over white that was like the shining of the sun on foam of the sea, and this was claspt with great bands of yellow gold, and over her shoulders was the rippling flood of her hair, the sprays of which lightened into delicate fire, and made a mist before him, in the which he could see her eyes like two blue pools wherein purple shadows dreamed."

Fiona Macleod.

From that moment Naoise "gave his love to Deirdre above every other creature," and their souls rushed together and were one for evermore. It was for them the beginning of a perfect love, and so sure were they of that love from the very first moment that it seemed as though they must have been born loving one another.

Of that love they talked, of the anger of Conor when he knew that his destined bride was the love of Naoise, and together they planned how it was best for Deirdre to escape from the furious wrath of the king who desired her for his own.

Of a sudden, the hands of Naoise gripped the iron-pointed javelin that hung by his side, and drove it into a place where the snow weighed down the bracken.

"Is it a wolf?" cried Deirdre.

And Naoise made answer: "Either a dead man, or the mark of where a man has lain hidden thou wilt find under the bracken."

And when they went to look they found, like the clap of a hare, the mark of where a man had lain hidden, and close beside the javelin that was driven in the ground there lay a wooden-hilted knife.

Then said Naoise: "Well I knew that Conor would set a spy on my tracks. Come with me now, Deirdre, else may I lose thee forever."

And with a glad heart Deirdre went with him who was to be her lord, and Naoise took her to where his brothers awaited his coming. To Deirdre, both Ainle and Ardan swiftly gave their lifelong allegiance and their love, but they were full of forebodings for her and for Naoise because of the certain wrath of Conor, the king.