"Who is that man?" said
Caoilte. "That is the man we came looking for," said Aedh. "And mind him
well now," he said, "that he will not make his escape from us back to
his own people."
They ran at him together then, and Caoilte took him by the shoulders
and they brought him away with them to the ford of the Slaine in the
great plain of Leinster, where the most of the Fianna were at that time;
and a Druid mist rose up about them that they could not be seen.
And they went up on a little hill over the ford, and they saw before
them four young men having crimson fringed cloaks and swords with gold
hilts, and four good hunting hounds along with them. And the young man
could not see them because of the mist, but Caoilte saw they were his
own two sons, Colla and Faolan, and two other young men of the Fianna,
and he could hear them talking together, and saying it was a year now
that Finn, son of Cumhal, was gone from them. "And what will the Fianna
of Ireland do from this out," said one of them, "without their lord and
their leader?" "There is nothing for them to do," said another, "but to
go to Teamhair and to break up there, or to find another leader for
themselves." And there was heavy sorrow on them for the loss of their
lord; and it was grief to Caoilte to be looking at them.
And he and the two sons of Midhir went back then by the Lake of the Two
Birds to Slieve-nam Ban, and they went into the hill.
And Finn and Donn gave a great welcome to Luibra, the physician, and
they showed him their two comrades that were lying in their wounds.
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