Was there some thought of his daughter Grania in Cormac’s mind, behind these keen-edged; words?—­of Grania, beloved of Diarmuid?  When the winters of the years were already white on Find, son of Cumal, when Ossin his son had a son of his own, Oscur the valiant, the two old men, Cormac the king and Find leader of the warriors, bethought them to make a match between Find and Grania, one of the famous beauties of the olden time.  A banquet was set in the great House of Mead, and Find and his men were there, Diarmuid son of Duibne being also there, best beloved among Find’s warriors.  There was a custom, much in honor among the chieftains, that a princess should send her goblet to the guests, offering it to each with gentle courtesy.  This grace fell to the lady Grania, whose whole heart rose up against her grey-bearded lover, and was indeed set on Diarmuid the son of Duibne.  Grania compounded a dreamy draught to mix with the mead, so that all the chieftains and warriors, with Cormac and Find himself, even while praising the drink, fell straightway a-nodding, and were soon in silent sleep, all except Ossin and Diarmuid, whom Grania had bidden not to drink.

Then Grania, her voice all tremulous with tears, told to Ossin the fate that awaited her, looking at him, but speaking for Diarmuid; bewailing bitterly the misery of fair youth in the arms of withered eld, and at last turning and openly begging Diarmuid to save her from her fate.  To carry away a king’s daughter, betrothed to the leader of the warriors, was a perilous thing, and Diarmuid’s heart stood still at the thought of it; yet Grania’s tears prevailed, and they two fled forth that night to the hills and forests.  Dire and ruinous was the wrath of Cormac and of Find when they awoke and found that these two were fled; and whatever might was in the king’s hand, whatever power in the hosts of Find, was straightway turned against them in pursuit.  Yet the two fled as the deer might fly, visiting with their loves every wood and valley in Erin, till the memory of them lingers throughout all the hills.  Finally, after a year’s joyful and fearsome fleeing, the Fian warriors everywhere aiding them for love of Diarmuid, swift death came upon Diarmuid, and Grania was left desolate.

But Angus the Ever-Young, guardian Genius of the pyramid-shrine of Brugh by the Boyne, De Danaan dweller in the secret house, Angus of the Immortals received the spirit of Diarmuid, opening for him the ways of the hidden world.

But enmity grew between Find with his warriors and Cormac the king, till at last a battle was fought where Find’s men fell, and Cairbre, the well-instructed son of Cormac also fell.  Thus passed away the ruling spirits of that age, the flowering time of the genius of Erin.

VIII.

The messenger of the new way.

A.D. 410-493.