n a sunny summer's day. Wonder and
terror seized on Murtough at her beauty, and he knew not if he loved
her or if he hated her the most; for at one moment all his nature was
filled with longing and with love of her, so that it seemed to him that
he would give the whole of Ireland for the loan of one hour's space of
dalliance with her; but after that he felt a dread of her, because he
knew his fate was in her hands, and that she had come to work him ill.
But he welcomed her as if she were known to him and he asked her
wherefore she was come. "I am come," she said, "because I am beloved of
Murtough, son of Erc, King of Erin, and I come to seek him here." Then
Murtough was glad, and he said, "Dost thou not know me, maiden?" "I do,"
she answered, "for all secret and mysterious things are known to me and
thou and all the men of Erin are well known."

After he had conversed with her awhile, she appeared to him so fair that
the King was ready to promise her anything in life she wished, so long
as she would go with him to Cletty of the Boyne. "My wish," she said,
"is that you take me to your house, and that you put out from it your
wife and your children because they are of the new faith, and all the
clerics that are in your house, and that neither your wife nor any
cleric be permitted to enter the house while I am there."

"I will give you," said the King, "a hundred head of every herd of
cattle that is within my kingdom, and a hundred drinking horns, and a
hundred cups, and a hundred rings of gold, and a feast every other night
in the summer palace of Cletty. But I pledge thee my word, oh, maiden,
it were easier for me to give thee half of Ireland than to do this
thing that thou hast asked." For Murtough feared that when those that
were of the Christian faith were put out of his house, she would work
her spells upon him, and no power would be left with him to resist those
spells.

"I will not take thy gifts," said the damsel, "but only those things
that I have asked; moreover, it is thus, that my name must never be
uttered by thee, nor must any man or woman learn it."

"What is thy name," said Murtough, "that it may not come upon my lips to
utter it?"

And she said, "Sigh, Sough, Storm, Rough Wind, Winter Night, Cry, Wail,
Groan, this is my name, but men call me Sheen, for 'Storm' or Sheen is
my chief name, and storms are with me where I come."

Nevertheless, Murtough was so fascinated by her that he brought her to
his