"I think that you are mocking at
my horse and at myself," said the big man; "and it is a pity for me to
be spending the rest of the year with you, after all the humbugging I
saw in you to-day, Finn. And I know well," he said, "that all I heard
about you was nothing but lies, and there was no cause for the great
name you have through the world. And I will quit you now, Finn," he
said.
With that he went from them, slow and weak, dragging himself along till
he had put a little hill between himself and the Fianna. And as soon as
he was on the other side of it, he tucked up his cloak to his waist, and
away with him, as if with the quickness of a swallow or a deer, and the
rush of his going was like a blast of loud wind going over plains and
mountains in spring-time.
When the horse saw his master going from him, he could not bear with it,
but great as his load was he set out at full gallop following after him.
And when Finn and the Fianna saw the thirteen men behind Conan, son of
Morna, on the horse, and he starting off, they shouted with mocking
laughter.
And when Conan found that he was not able to come down off the horse, he
screeched and shouted to them not to let him be brought away with the
big man they knew nothing of, and he began abusing and reproaching them.
"A cloud of death over water on you, Finn," he said, "and that some son
of a slave or a robber of the bad blood, one that is a worse son of a
father and mother even than yourself, may take all that might protect
your life, and your head along with that, unless you follow us to
whatever place or island the big man will carry us to, and unless you
bring us back to Ireland again.
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