till I know if the report I heard of you is true,” said the Grey Man.  “Indeed, I have no mind for music,” said Daire, “being weak and downhearted the way I am, through your spells that put down my courage.”  “I will take my spells off you for so long as you play for me,” said the Grey Man.  “I could never make music seeing Finn in bonds the way he is,” said Daire; “for it is worse to me, he to be under trouble than myself.”  “I will take the power of my spells off Finn till you play for me,” said the Grey Man.

He weakened the spells then, and gave them food and drink, and it pleased him greatly the way Daire played the music, and he called to Glanluadh and to Ailne to come and to listen to the sweetness of it.  And they were well pleased with it, and it is glad Glanluadh was, seeing them not so discouraged as they were.

Now as to the Fianna, they were searching for Finn and for Daire in every place they had ever stopped in.  And when they came to this place they could hear Daire’s sweet music; and at first they were glad when they heard it, and then when they knew the way he himself and Finn were, they made an attack on Ailne’s dun to release them.

But the Grey Man heard their shouts, and he put the full power of his spells again on Finn and on Daire.  And the Fianna heard the music as if stammering, and then they heard a great noise like the loud roaring of waves, and when they heard that, there was not one of them but fell into a sleep and clouds of death, under those sorrowful spells.

And then the Grey Man and Ailne came out quietly from where they were, and they brought the whole of the men of the Fianna that were there into the dun.  And they put hard bonds on them, and put them where Finn and Daire were.  And there was great grief on Finn and Daire when they saw them, and they were all left there together for a while.

Then Glanluadh said to the Grey Man:  “If Daire’s music is pleasing to you, let him play it to us now.”  “If you have a mind for music,” said the Grey Man, “Daire must play it for us, and for Finn and his army as well.”

They went then to where they were, and bade Daire to play.  “I could never play sweet music,” said Daire, “the time the Fianna are in any trouble; for when they are in trouble, I myself am in trouble, and I could not sound any sweet string,” he said, “while there is trouble on any man of them.”  The Grey Man weakened the spells then on them all, and Daire played first the strings of sweetness, and of the noise of shouting, and then he sang his own grief and the grief of all the Fianna.  And at that the Grey Man said it would not be long before he would put the whole of the Fianna to death; and then Daire played a tune of heavy shouts of lamentation.  And then at Finn’s bidding he played the music of sweet strings for the Fianna.