After that they left the cave, and they went on till they came to the bog of Finnliath.  Grania began to fall behind them, and Muadhan put her on his back and carried her till they came to the great Slieve Luachra.  Then Diarmuid sat down on the brink of the stream that was flowing through the heart of the mountain, and Grania was washing her hands, and she asked his knife from him to cut her nails with.

As to the strangers, as many of them as were alive yet, they came to the hill where their three leaders were bound, and they thought to loose them; but it is the way those bonds were, all they did by meddling with them was to draw them tighter.

And they were not long there till they saw a woman coming towards them with the quickness of a swallow or a weasel or a blast of wind over bare mountain-tops.  And she asked them who was it had done that great slaughter on them.  “Who are you that is asking that?” said they.  “I am the Woman of the Black Mountain, the woman-messenger of Finn, son of Cumhal,” she said; “and it is looking for you Finn sent me.”  “Indeed we do not know who it was did this slaughter,” they said, “but we will tell you his appearance.  A young man he was, having dark curling hair and ruddy cheeks.  And it is worse again to us,” they said, “our three leaders to be bound this way, and we not able to loose them.”  “What way did that young man go from you?” said the woman.  “It was late last night he left us,” they said, “and we do not know where is he gone.”  “I give you my word,” she said, “it was Diarmuid himself that was in it; and take your hounds now and lay them on his track, and I will send Finn and the Fianna of Ireland to you.”

They left a woman-Druid then attending on the three champions that were bound, and they brought their three hounds out of the ship and laid them on Diarmuid’s track, and followed them till they came to the opening of the cave, and they went into the far part of it and found the beds where Diarmuid and Crania had slept.  Then they went on westward till they came to the Carrthach river, and to the bog of Finnliath, and so on to the great Slieve Luachra.

But Diarmuid did not know they were after him till he got sight of them with their banners of soft silk and their three wicked hounds in the front of the troop and three strong champions holding them in chains.  And when he saw them coming like that he was filled with great hatred of them.

There was one of them had a well-coloured green cloak on him, and he came out far beyond the others, and Grania gave the knife back to Diarmuid.  “I think you have not much love for that young man of the green cloak, Grania,” said Diarmuid.  “I have not indeed,” said Grania; “and it would be better if I had never given love to any man at all to this day.”  Diarmuid put the knife in the sheath then, and went on; and Muadhan put Grania on his back and carried her on into the mountain.