Then the Druid bade Finn to call all his battalions together and to
divide them into two halves, that they could be watching for the coming
of the enemy.
So Finn sounded the Dord Fiann, and they answered with a shout, every
one hurrying to be the first. And Finn bade Osgar and Goll and Faolan to
keep watch through the night, and he bade Conan the Bald to stop in the
darkness of the cave of Liath Ard. "For it is you can shout loudest," he
said, "to warn us if you see the enemy coming." "That I may be pierced
through the middle of my body," said Conan, "if I will go watching for
troubles or for armies alone, without some more of the Fianna being with
me." "It is not fitting for you to refuse Finn," said Lugaidh's Son;
"and it is you can shout the loudest," he said, "if the enemies come
near the height." "Do not be speaking to me any more," said Conan, "for
I will not go there alone, through the length of my days, for Finn and
the whole of the Fianna." "Go then, Conan," said Osgar, "and Aodh Beag
will go with you, and you can bring dogs with you, Bran and Sceolan and
Fuaim and Fearagan; and let you go now without begrudging it," he said.
So Conan went then to Liath Ard, and Aodh Beag and Finn's hounds along
with him. And as to Finn, he lay down to sleep, and it was not long till
he saw through his sleep Aodh Beag his son, and he without his head. And
after that he saw Goll fighting with a very strong man. And he awoke
from his sleep, and called the Druid of the Fianna to him, and asked him
the meaning of what he saw.
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