Then the Sons of Turenn went down to the harbour on the Boyne river where the Boat of Mananan was, and Ethne their sister with them.  And when they reached the place, Ethne broke into lamentations and weeping; but Brian said, “Weep not, dear sister, but let us go forth gaily to great deeds.  Better a hundred deaths in the quest of honour than to live and die as cowards and sluggards.”  But Ethne said, “ye are banished from Erinn—­never was there a sadder deed.”  Then they put forth from the river-mouth of the Boyne and soon the fair coasts of Erinn faded out of sight.  “And now,” said they among themselves, “what course shall we steer?”

[Illustration:  “’Bear us swiftly, Boat of Mananan, to the Garden of the Hesperides’”]

“No need to steer the Boat of Mananan,” said Brian; and he whispered to the Boat, “Bear us swiftly, Boat of Mananan, to the Garden of the Hesperides”; and the spirit of the Boat heard him and it leaped eagerly forward, lifting and dipping over the rollers and throwing up an arch of spray each side of its bows wherein sat a rainbow when the sun shone upon it; and so in no long time they drew nigh to the coast where was the far-famed garden of the Golden Apples.

“And now, how shall we set about the capture of the apples?” said Brian.

“Draw sword and fight for them,” said Iuchar and Iucharba, “and if we are the stronger, we shall win them, and if not, we shall fall, as fall we surely must ere the eric for Kian be paid.”

“Nay,” said Brian, “but whether we live or die, let not men say of us that we went blind and headlong to our tasks, but rather that we made the head help the hand, and that we deserved to win even though we lost.  Now my counsel is that we approach the garden in the shape of three hawks, strong of wing, and that we hover about until the Wardens of the Tree have spent all their darts and javelins in casting at us, and then let us swoop down suddenly and bear off each of us an apple if we may.”

So it was agreed; and Brian struck himself and each of the brothers with a druid wand, and they became three beautiful, fierce, and strong-winged hawks.  When the Wardens perceived them, they shouted and threw showers of arrows and darts at them, but the hawks evaded all of these until the missiles were spent, and then seized each an apple in his talons.  But Brian seized two, for he took one in his beak as well.  Then they flew as swiftly as they might to the shore where they had left their boat.  Now the King of that garden had three fair daughters, to whom the apples and the garden were very dear, and he transformed the maidens into three griffins, who pursued the hawks.  And the griffins threw darts of fire, as it were lightning, at the hawks.

“Brian!” then cried Iuchar and his brother, “we are being burnt by these darts—­we are lost unless we can escape them.”

On this, Brian changed himself and his brethren into three swans, and they plunged into the sea, and the burning darts were quenched.  Then the griffins gave over the chase, and the Sons of Turenn made for their boat, and they embarked with the four apples.  Thus their first quest was ended.