It was about the length of a year the three sons of the King of Iruath stopped with Finn.  And at the end of that time Donn and Dubhan, two sons of the King of Ulster, came out of the north to Munster.  And one night they kept watch for the Fianna, and three times they made a round of the camp.  And it is the way the young men from Iruath used to be, in a place by themselves apart from the Fianna, and their hound in the middle between them; and at the fall of night there used a wall of fire to be around them, the way no one could look at them.

And the third time the sons of the King of Ulster made the round of the camp, they saw the fiery wall, and Donn said:  “It is a wonder the way those three young men are through the length of a year now, and their hound along with them, and no one getting leave to look at them.”

With that he himself and his brother took their arms in their hands, and went inside the wall of fire, and they began looking at the three men and at the hound.  And the great hound they used to see every day at the hunting was at this time no bigger than a lap-dog that would be with a queen or a high person.  And one of the young men was watching over the dog, and his sword in his hand, and another of them was holding a vessel of white silver to the mouth of the dog; and any drink any one of the three would ask for, the dog would put it out of his mouth into the vessel.

Then one of the young men said to the hound:  “Well, noble one and brave one and just one, take notice of the treachery that is done to you by Finn.”  When the dog heard that he turned to the King of Ulster’s sons, and there rose a dark Druid wind that blew away the shields from their shoulders and the swords from their sides into the wall of fire.  And then the three men came out and made an end of them; and when that was done the dog came and breathed on them, and they turned to ashes on the moment, and there was never blood or flesh or bone of them found after.

And the three battalions of the Fianna divided themselves into companies of nine, and went searching through every part of Ireland for the King of Ulster’s two sons.

And as to Finn, he went to Teamhair Luachra, and no one with him but the serving-lads and the followers of the army.  And the companies of nine that were looking for the King of Ulster’s sons came back to him there in the one night; but they brought no word of them, if they were dead or living.

But as to the three sons of the King of Iruath and the hound that was with them, they were seen no more by Finn and the Fianna.

CHAPTER IV.  RED RIDGE