Then Finn and the King of Sorcha called a great gathering of the people and a great meeting.  And when it was going on they saw a woman-messenger coming to them through the crowd, and the king asked news of her.  “I have news indeed,” she said; “the whole of the bay and the harbour is full of ships and of boats, and there are armies all through the country robbing all before them.”  “I know well,” said the king, “it is the High King of Greece is in it, for he has a mind to put the entire world under him, and to get hold of this country like every other.”  The King of Sorcha looked at Finn then, and Finn understood it was help from him he was asking, and it is what he said:  “I take the protection of this country on myself so long as I am in it.”  He and his people rose up then, and the King of Sorcha along with them, and they went looking for the strange army.  And when they came up with it they made great slaughter of its champions, and those they did not kill ran before them, and made no better stand than a flock of frightened birds, till there were hardly enough of them left to tell the story.

The High King spoke then, and it is what he said:  “Who is it has done this great slaughter of my people?  And I never heard before,” he said, “any talk of the courage or of the doings of the men of Ireland either at this time or in the old times.  But from this out,” he said, “I will banish the Sons of the Gael for ever to the very ends of the earth.”

But Finn and the King of Sorcha raised a green tent in view of the ships of the Greeks.

The King of the Greeks called then for help against Finn and the King of Sorcha, to get satisfaction for the shame that was put on his people.  And the sons of kings of the eastern and southern world came to his help, but they could make no stand against Finn and Osgar and Oisin and Goll, son of Morna.  And at the last the King of Greece brought all his people back home, the way no more of them would be put an end to.

And then Finn and the King of Sorcha called another great gathering.  And while it was going on, they saw coming towards them a great troop of champions, bearing flags of many-coloured silk, and grey swords at their sides and high spears reared up over their heads.  And in the front of them was Diarmuid, grandson of Duibhne.

When Finn saw him, he sent Fergus of the True Lips to ask news of him, and they told one another all that had happened.

And it would take too long to tell, and it would tire the hearers, how Finn made the Hard Servant bring home his fifteen men that he had brought away.  And when he had brought them back to Ireland, the whole of the Fianna were watching to see him ride away again, himself and his long-legged horse.  But while they were watching him, he vanished from them, and all they could see was a mist, and it stretching out towards the sea.

And that is the story of the Hard Servant, and of Diarmuid’s adventures on the island Under-Wave.