And then at Finn's bidding he played the
music of sweet strings for the Fianna.
They were kept, now, a long time in that prison, and they got very hard
treatment; and sometimes Ailne's brother would come in and strike the
heads off some of them, for none of them could rise up from the seats
they were sitting on through his enchantments. But one time he was going
to strike the bald head off Conan, and Conan made a great leap from the
seat; but if he did, he left strips of his skin hanging to it, that his
back was left bare. And then he came round the Grey Man with his pitiful
words: "Stop your hand now," he said, "for that is enough for this time;
and do not send me to my death yet awhile, and heal me of my wounds
first," he said, "before you make an end of me." And the reason he said
that was because he knew Ailne to have an enchanted cup in the dun, that
had cured Glanluadh.
And the Grey Man took pity on his case, and he brought him out and bade
Ailne to bring the cup to him and to cure his wounds. "I will not bring
it," said Ailne, "for it would be best give no time at all to him or to
the Fianna, but to make an end of them." "It is not to be saved from
death I am asking, bright-faced Ailne," said Conan, "but only not to go
to my death stripped bare the way I am." When Ailne heard that, she
brought a sheepskin and she put it on Conan's back, and it fitted and
grew to him, and covered his wounds. "I will not put you to death,
Conan," said the Grey Man then, "but you can stop with myself to the end
of your life.
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