no person ever escaped alive who once saw the sharp weapon. Thou wilt
get everything I promised thee, and delights, also, which I may not
mention; thou wilt get beauty, strength, and power, and I myself will be
thy wife."

"No refusal will I give from me," said I, "O charming queen of the
golden curls! Thou art my choice above the women of the world, and I
will go with willingness to the 'Land of Youth.'"

On the back of the steed we went together. Before me sat the virgin; she
said, "Oisin, let us remain quiet till we reach the mouth of the great
sea."

Then arose the steed swiftly; when we arrived on the borders of the
strand he shook himself then to pace forward, and neighed three times
aloud.

When Fionn and the Fianna saw the steed travelling swiftly, facing the
great tide, they raised three shouts of mourning and grief.

"O Oisin!" said Fionn slowly and sorrowfully, "woe it is to me that thou
art going from me; I have not a hope that thou wilt ever again come back
to me victorious."

His form and beauty changed, and showers of tears flowed down, till they
wet his breast and his bright visage, and he said, "My woe art thou, O
Oisin, in going from me!"

O Patrick, 'twas a melancholy story our parting from each other in that
place, the parting of the father from his own son--'tis mournful, weak,
and faint to be relating it! I kissed my father sweetly and gently, and
the same affection I got from him. I bade adieu to all the Fianna, and
the tears flowed down my cheeks. We turned our backs to the land and our
faces directly due west; the smooth sea ebbed before us and filled in
billows after us. We saw wonders in our travels, cities, courts, and
castles, lime-white mansions and fortresses, brilliant summer-houses and
palaces. We also saw, by our sides, a hornless fawn leaping nimbly, and
a red-eared white dog, urging it boldly in the chase. We beheld also,
without fiction, a young maid on a brown steed, a golden apple in her
right hand, and she going on the top of the waves. We saw after her a
young rider on a white steed, under a purple, crimson mantle of satin,
and a gold-headed sword in his right hand.

"Who are yon two whom I see, O gentle princess? Tell me the meaning, of
that woman of most beautiful countenance and the comely rider of the
white steed."

"Heed not what thou wilt see, O gentle Oisin, nor what thou hast yet
seen; there is in them but nothing, till we reach the land of the 'King
of Youth